Monday Memoir, Aug 22, 1963

Back a year from last week. My random selection habit does that. But if one really must read the whole contiuing tale, I do have e-copies of my 1943-1971 autobiography/memoir. It's not quite publication ready but I am no longer keeping it under lock and key. Heck, I opened the skeleton closet some time ago and a lot of junk fell out! It is very old news and many mentioned are not even in this world anymore. So call it declassified (LOL) No longer TS/NoForn (maybe that is not used now but was when I was with the Air Force. Meant Top Secret, No Foreign Release. (i.e.) Stuff about the Space Track program that I wrote as a historian at NORAD was in that category often. So long ago--1975-77!)

Aug 22, 1963

I rolled out about 6:30 and saw clouds in the treetops almost and heard rain. I fed and did the morning chores in a shower. Annie and I rode out and checked the fences etc. We came up to the corrals and there we saw a new addition. Jay-jay’s baby had arrived. He was an ugly-cute little pink-brown scrap of a burro! We shod Chief and I pulled off Annie’s rear shoes. Dad planned to ride Chief after lunch but it rained so we had to drop that plan, (I wasn’t terribly sorry!) I spent the remainder of the afternoon sleeping. We got on with our evening chores a little early and got them  done without event. We’ve christened Jay’s baby “Little Pete”. She seems a good mother. After supper I wrote a couple of business letters and worked on two more chapters of Cindy. I just keep polishing it. We got a letter about the Colorado place and are more interested in it than ever. I surely hope we can get it because it sounds like a fantastic bargain truly. Well it’s late and I must say adios. I may get some film tomorrow. Cheers.

Nothing too risque here anyway . Another very routine day as so many were in those four long years. Annuie was a favored mule I  have mentioned often and showed in several pix. The trip to the pasture from my Clarkdale house was about 2.5 miles--guessing--and I usually rode down a dirt road past the tailings pond, dropped into the river bottom near the end of Tuzigoot, crossed a sandy flat dotted with mequite and entered our lease thru an old style bob-wire gate. At a good trot it took maybe 12-15 minutes to  make the trip each way. Then depending on what work had to be done, I'd be there for anywhere from half an hour to a couple. In the summer, downed fences were common so a boundary check was usually needed. If repairs were too, that took a bit more time! Then always putting out hay, supplemental feed to include grain in a feedbag for one or more of the mares, making sure the ditch was flowing where they could drink from inside the main corral area and so on. Also look all the critters over for any signs of injury or sickness.

Baby burros are the cutest. JayJay was Jennyfur Jr, the scond colt of a jenny we got from Sam Steiger a few years before. She allegedly was Charlie Mike's--as if he really wanted a donkey! This was JayJay's first foal. Unfortunately too line bred since I think the baby was sired by her sire, one of the jacks we had--not a good thing. The colt had a genetic fault called Parrot Jaw, a kind of severe overbite issue. But baby burros are really adorable! They almost look like fuzzy toys.

I mention afternoon siestas often. It was almost necessary. I got up early--normally 5:30 to 6:30 and was at work pretty soon. Then the nights were often hot for sleeping and I had a habit of staying up late to read, write or do other things of my own desire. Say 6:00 to 11:00 made a pretty long day, more than half usually active and outdoors.A nap in the afternoon heat did help to keep from totally running down. I often spoke of being tired also and I was. A lot of it was physical but also partly mental since there were frequent stressful and difficult issues and situations that gnawed at me.

Of course the eternal 'ranch hunt' never really ceased. We were looking at and trying to manage a move to the SW corner of Colorado a number of times. Around Cortez and Mancos was some beautiful country and only a bit more severe winters than say Flagstaff. It was never possible, of course--but that vague carrot-on-the-stick to dream of and long for...hope is a strange thing.

And I wrote and re-wrote on Cindy, my YA novel, off and on for several years. I had gone beyond my early teenage efforts at "ranch romanes" and tried to apply my experience and knowledge to a story teen girls would find interesting, at least those of that time. Now problaby not so much. They are much more sophisticated and urbane now, worldy-wise and .into different interests. Do any girls still love horses?

So some eye candy to liven the dull narrative: sorry, no cute cowboys. I didn't know many either. Okay, first is Jennyfur with one of her babies, not sure which one but this is cute and a shot I like..Next I am with one foal, very likely Little Pete but not sure. And last, Charlie Mike with Jennyfur. I think his expression is priceless--he really was not too thrilled with his new pet.This was about 1959 or so, making him maybe 8-9 years old.

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