What a week!

What a week! Lots of ups & downs the last 5 days. We flew out to Salmon on Friday a.m., and finally had wonderful weather for the flight! We were able to fly directly to Salmon, no wandering around the clouds. Once landed, we discovered that Jeff had forgotten our car keys! The pilot was going back to the ranch right away & said he’d get them, but wouldn’t be back to Salmon until that eve. So, he volunteered his car for our use until then & we emailed Sue & Ben to let them know to have our keys at the airstrip for him to pick up. Ben emailed right back & said that Sue told us to just use her pickup, so that was one crisis avoided. And, we figured that it looked better to go to the horse sale in Sue’s pickup than our little metro anyway! (The pilot said they might have asked to see our financials if we went in our Metro!)

So, all loaded up in the pickup, we checked into the cute little B&B we were booked into, then off to the fairgrounds for the pre-events. We watched the Mule Trail class & looked over lots of mules & hung out until the sale started at 6:30pm. By the end, Jeff had purchased 3 mules that we have high hopes for. One is older than we’d planned (17) but is in great shape and seems very willing to do whatever is asked of him. And, they are all riding mules as well as packers.

The sale ended late and so we ate dinner around 9:30pm then went & danced for a short bit. It was a very strange dance floor, a triangle shape, that made it very difficult to 2-step especially with all the crazy dancers. Then, back to our room at the B&B & in bed by 11:30.

The next a.m., Sharon (the B&B lady) had our breakfast ready for us at 9am, as requested & it was very good. We had a great visit w/ she & her husband & then headed back to the fairgrounds for the horse sale. We watched the horse trail class & then headed to the sale. That day we ended up w/ 5 horses. It was somewhat frustrating as the auctioneer remembered us from the day before & every time Jeff would bed, the auctioneer would work the crowd a LONG time to get more $. Often Jeff would quit bidding because it went too high or he paid $150-$200 more than he should have for each one. But, overall we were quite happy w/ our horses & the total cost. Because we bought 5 horses, we got a $750 rebate so our average cost per horse/mule was around $1600. Most were 80-11 yrs old, but we did buy one 16 yr old.

That night we ate late again, but went right to bed – we were bushed! Then flew in early Sunday back to the ranch. Once here we went right back to work. Sue had done a great job taking care of the 2 guests, 4 crew, 4 shareholders as well as the unexpected drop in breakfast guests!

Monday was quite a day. We were busy cleaning up from everybody leaving on Sunday and much was accomplished. As we had been talking about the need to get a routine going for nightly dishes, Jeff asked the 2 wrangler to do the dinner dishes that night. He got little response & they both got up & left when they were done. We thought to give them a little time to come back but when they didn’t Sue & I did the dishes. Jeff went out to see what was going on & Conrad (one of the wranglers) came out of his cabin & asked if Jeff had told him to do dishes (well, “ask” is a polite way of putting it) and when Jeff said yes, Conrad told him that it wasn’t his job & for Jeff to do it himself. Jeff said “What did you say?” And so Conrad repeated it – all VERY belligerently. So, Jeff told him that he could pack his stuff & fly out the next morning. Which he did. And, the other wrangler isn’t in much better graces and today hasn’t helped much. So, it would appear that we’re going to be short all our wrangler staff.

Anyone need a job? We’re hiring!! Tonight Jeff is “visiting” with Tammy, our boss, as she came into for her bi-monthly over-nighter. It was a surprise to her to have one of the wranglers waiting for the plane out when she landed! We’ll see how that goes. So, lots of prayers for improvement in that particular situation would be greatly appreciated!!

And, that brings you all up to date!! The cabin is "done" for the moment. Just waiting on the floor guy (hopefully next week) and a couple appliances. I'll post pics tomorrow. No recent wolf activity and the horses are actually healing quite nicely. It’s been super nice weather in here – bordering on hot and tonight is extremely pleasant. Sue & I are enjoying the evening together while Jeff & Tammy talk. Who knows what surprises await us yet?!