Frontier Girl 16x12" oil/canvas panel - sold
A painting I sold recently. Thanks Scott!
This has been one LONG, HOT summer! Our region has experienced one of the worst droughts in recent history. On the ranch, it has caused our strongest wells to drop about 20 feet, burning up one pump and forcing us to lower the others. Pasture grass grew about 4 inches then stopped, so our cows are not as chubby, or content. Also our best efforts at growing crops turned into a dismal failure, as wheat kernels dried to nothing in the husk. Add to this wildfires that are ravaging our state; burning out one neighbor who lost 2000 acres of winter pasture and all this seasons hay (thankfully no one was hurt) and creating smokey skies that hang endlessly on the horizon, giving an eery pale yellow hue during daylight hours, then blood red sunrises and sunsets.
Am I complaining? Why yes, I guess I am. But no one ever said ranch life was easy in Montana. Some years are better than others, and this is just not one of them.
We have actually been fortunate. To make up the difference, my multi-talented husband has been building a few log cabins in some gorgeous country to SE - in mountains where its been cooler and received better precipitation. Not that it matters much for cabin building, they don't need water to grow, but I want to mention this because not all of our state is on fire, although it seems like it from here.
So while he's been gone, I've been running the ranch by myself. Normally we have a hired hand to help with things, but to make this work DH took him to the mountains so the jobs wouldn't take as long...3 months later they are finished...with the first one. Needless to say, I'll continue to take up the slack, at least until the snow flies and the boys come home.
So where am I going with all this? Well...obviously my plan to overhaul my daily schedule did NOT work. iPaddy can "Boing! boing! boing!" all day long, reminding my of my next scheduled event, but I've learned to ignore it. I did hear it one day, as I was driving the water truck out to fill stock tanks for the cattle. It happened to be in my pack on the passenger seat. I figured it was the springs going out on the pick-up from hitting so many gopher holes.
Until next time...
