Hey Dude, part 2

Random thought for the day: I was thinking about Ireland yesterday and wondered, "The land of ire! But WHY?" I am sure I could google that and find out why such a lovely land was deemed full of ire.

Other random thought for the day: I tried to go out and finish my 10,000 steps just now after I got the kids in bed, and I ran into one of my neighbors who was walking his pit bull. Our neighbors across the street just moved with their enormous Rottweiler, but we still have another Rottweiler, another pit bull, a very grumpy rescue Shar-Pei, and 2 gigantic American Bulldogs, just on our rather short street. That is A LOT of Potential Aggression. I think should the zombie apocalypse come, the zombies might give us a pass. Especially because of Sasha the Chihuahua, who would slay the zombies with her piercing YAP.

At the dude ranch there were four incredibly gentle and helpful labs named Pearl, Sancho, Bravo and I can't remember the fourth one. They would trot off with us on hikes, generally bound through meadows in an entertaining fashion, bathe in the creeks and watering troughs, and never once did they try to steal food off the table or sneak into our cabin. The kids loved them.

Every night after dinner there was some sort of entertainment. My favorite was this guy, Clayton Fifer, a retired teacher who told stories about the Buffalo Soldiers and the native American tribes who once lived in Texas. He was a fount of information and he would also break into song at regular intervals, something I generally admire in a performer. Plus he had real buffalo robes for the kids to try on.

They also loved climbing this sprawling oak tree and spent hours up there visiting with the cousins. Any time I couldn't find them, they were either in the tree or watching the horses. Twice the cowboys let them help feed the horses at the end of the day and the kids were just thrilled. Farm chores are so much more fun than unloading the dishwasher or picking up the Legos at the end of the day.