Saying Goodbye

Its Friday morning, October 22, almost 4 am. Couldn't get back to sleep, so here I am. Its a surreal experience to close a chapter in your life
that is so different from all the rest. I don't think we could have really
guessed what this 6 months was going to be like, and I know we sure can't guess what's next.

Last night we went to Midas with all the gang from the ranch for a goodbye dinner. I'm putting in pictures here of our evening:

Jesse and Ricarda with their kids Maura and Robin. Some of the greatest bosses we've ever had, and now we're lucky to call them friends.

Next picture is Dick and Mary (Ricarda's parents). They have also been a great addition to our

lives, and have a lifetime invested in the ranching community.

Brian with Ty and Adam.....these two guys have done most of the camping with us this summer,

and are the main buckaroos left here at the ranch to finish up the season. Adam is from Riddle, Oregon (cool!), and Ty is the guy who made Brian's chaps that I mentioned in a recent post.

The last few days have been full of packing and cleaning for me (with breaks now and then to

read and "compute"). Brian has spent the last 4 days driving a tractor, disking one of the meadows. The tractor is pulling up much of the sage brush so the grasses will regrow and be better feed for cattle in the future. One of the afternoons I went out to the meadow with him and spent a few hours sitting on the arm of his seat in the tractor. It was a bit of a rough ride, but fun to spend the time together that way.

We' came back to the house to find the horses trimming our lawn. Its a great way to keep the

grass down, but the piles they leave behind may contribute to our fly population in the house. I'm also putting up a picture of a horned owl that landed on the fence outside just a few days ago. You may have seen this picture already on our facebook page, but its pretty cool so I want to include it here too. Brian had seen owls many times out riding this summer, but this was my first view.

Well, in just a few hours we'll be heading home. We were asked a few times last night what we'll miss the most, and what we liked the best. The answer is really pretty simple, and reminds us what is most important in life; people that make your life better, and being able to enjoy and appreciate a whole different variation of God's creation.