speaking of horses and the shitty economy

I had the weirdest day in a long time, yesterday.

I stepped out the door to run to town for a couple of errands and see some guy coming out from behind the barn. I yell "Hey!" and he says something I can't understand. I figure he was a lost Mexican and start to walk towards him. He starts rambling on about something but I can't hear and say "Hold on I can't hear you, just a minute" but he keeps on - by now I can tell it's English but still can't really understand him. I think he was either on some kind of medication or needed to be, because he kept talking half to himself and half to me. I THINK he wanted my permission to camp on State Trust land for a month until he could pay for an apartment :-( . I already have at least one homeless person camped out at a stock pond with her 7 dogs so lets just say I wasn't too encouraging to him. I suggested some forest service land on one of the neighbor's might be better :evilgrin: (don't care for these people too much) Anyway I noticed he was all sweaty and didn't see a vehicle so I asked where his vehicle was. He had left it at the end of our road and walked the 2 miles in. :crazy:

I told him I was sorry but no I really didn't want anybody camping for a month anywhere around the ranch. Along with sanitation issues, is the fact that there are so many right of ways and people going through here all the damn time I don't want to deal with everybody and their brother calling or stopping by to tell me about some guy camping somewhere. Not very liberal is that? I seem to be much more tolerant of the Mexicans passing through than our own poor and damaged citizens. I feel bad, but I just can't.

Next, I left to go town and almost ran over some Border Patrol guy on foot walking up the road. (different road than the one the crazy guy came in on) He says he is out following two sets of fresh tracks. I said they were probably my son out getting firewood and another relative doing the same thing. I think we mutually disbelieved each other. Never did see his vehicle.

In town I saw two more Border Patrol cars and a city cop had pulled over some girl in a shiny new pick-up pulling a cruddy horse trailer. The trailer was open and I could see some tools and junk in there but no Mexicans or bales of interesting plant material so:wtf: ? They let her go by the time I had gone to the bank and back to the feed store.

Next I went to go put out some salt at a stock pond and saw this brown/bay horse standing by a water tank, drove by without much thought but on the way back realized that he wasn't mine, that our horse that color is always with a bunch of others and they had been staying up by the house the last few days. I stopped to look at him and realized he must be either a smuggler's pack horse or somebody's abandoned pet. I still don't know for sure but he is older and is losing sight in one eye so I suspect the latter, although he handles more like a good Mexican ranch horse than some dumb pet. Anyway I couldn't lead him with the truck and I hate to walk so I had my son come and lead him the 4 or 5 miles home. On the way he took a little short cut, not far off the way we usually drive but just out of sight from a vehicle and found a dead cow. She had been dead a couple days and the coyotes had been working on her so I'm not even sure why she died. Not abnormal this time of year, but not entirely normal either. She wasn't that old or in too bad of shape, maybe she had a calf that was too big, except there wasn't any sign of one. (could have been eaten, but usually you can find a few signs)

Anyway, got the horse home and fed - he was happy to see hay for sure. Called the livestock dept to report it and found out there is a rumor going around that somebody dumped 15 of them down on the river. He did have dry mud up above his knees and hocks but that is a good ten miles, so who knows?

And finally to clinch the weirdness of the day, last night Mamakitty caught her tail on fire.

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

:hi:

just certain days, I swear. Months can go by with NOTHING happening.

bet they all go together

horses being starved without enough pasture, or being abandoned in the desert cuz it's too expensive to feed em

:cry: