Monday May 3rd

We went to dinner last night with everybody at the only retail place in Midas (about 20 minutes away). I little tiny restaurant and bar with good food, and everybody is on a first name basis. Midas has about 30 houses up a tiny valley, used to be a gold mine. Only about 16 people live there year round, but there are vacationers that come in the summer.

The ranch runs up a valley and is long and narrow. We live at upper Squaw Valley, the highest point on the ranch, it is often snowed in for weeks in the winter. Firman and Lyndsey live up here with us, and in the summer, most of the work happens out of this upper end. There are about 15 horses here, several barns, and several quads and work trucks. We have our own garbage dump, gas and diesel tanks, water and septic systems. There is also a manufactured home up here that Maura and Gareth live in. Maura and her sister Ricarda, and their Mom and Dad Mary and Dick are all from Lakeview Oregon. Maura and Gareth will be leaving in August for Gareth to get a Master's degree in Ranch Management.

Ricarda and Jesse live at Lower Clover, the lower homesight in the valley. It is called Lower Clover because there are acres and acres of wild clover that gave the valley a purple hugh when we pulled in. Ricarda and Jesse are the ones that hired us, and are about our age. Ricarda grew up in Lakeview, and Jesse grew up in Montana. He had no ranch experience until they got married, and they have been here in Nevadafor about 4 years. They have a 2 month old and a 15 month old. They are very nice. In the middle of the valley, between Lower Clover and Squaw Valley, is Upper Clover (also lots of wild clover). Dick and Mary, Ricarda's parents, live there. There is also a bunk house with a single cowboy and another one on the way at the end of May.

Dick and Mary are both 2nd generation ranchers, and also have ranch partnerships in Lakeview Oregon, and Adel Nevada. They were part of the original "Oregon Natural Beef" coalition, and provided beef to Oasis natural food stores in Eugene, and now provide beef to Capela's on Willamette street in Eugene. Dick is from Paisley Oregon. He is very "old school" as Brian puts it, but we like them well. We went to their house yesterday to fill out employment paperwork and get beef from the ranch freezer to stock up our freezer. We were planning on a quick stop, but they insisted we come in and sit down, so we had about an hour visit. I think that is what everybody does here on Sundays.

Knuckle loves it, although she cut one of her foot pads on Saturday, so I'm keeping her in today because her limping has been getting worse. Hopefully it will heal up soon. I think Firman and Lyndseys dog Ruger already misses her. He has come by the trailer a few times looking like he is lonely.

I do Laundry at Lyndseys house, and hang it out on the line outside my trailer. I also have a big area that I think I will use for the garden. Right now it is full of wild clover. Firman says there is a big pile of old manure, and they just brought a bunch over into their yard and made a raised bed mound for the garden. They haven't planted theirs yet (way too cold) but they plan to plant right in the old manure and hay mixture. I'm a little nervous about that, but I need to go look at the pile and see how much dirt is in it before I decide what we're going to do.

Brian was out the door at 6 this morning (up at 5). I'm cooking, do laundary, e-mailing, etc.....we are really enjoying it here so far.