A couple neat things

I just wanted to 'journal' a couple of neat things that happened recently that I really enjoyed seeing.  Back on Hallloween night, one of the Youngs (half the congregation is made up of the Young family.  They are all really good people, warm, hospitable and they are all ranchers and have been for generations) invited several families out to their ranch so that we wouldn't have to put up with trick or treaters.  We went and had pizza, but the fun part that will stick out in mind was this........

When we got there the man of the house, Weston (30), and his ranch hand, Gunner (31) (they don't sound like cowboy names, do they?? LOL) were still out working.  This just makes me laugh, I don't know why.  I think b/c it's SO REAL, really their life and livelihood and I've only seen it portrayed, like in movies.  BUT, as it turns out, they were out driving the cows home.  They take the cows out to graze in the Highwood Mountains, just East of here, for the summer.  As winter comes, they go round them up.........they have been grazing on various parts of this mountain range...and they have to track them down, trailer them and drive them back to the ranch so they can 'calve" (get preggers and have babies) into the winter and spring.  They hadn't been able to locate 4 pairs of cows yet and had been going out over and over to try to find them, on horseback over miles and miles of this mountain range.  It was so interesting to me.  Then they finally made it home that night to have pizza with us.  These are brothers that I usually see in suits at the meeting, but when they came in that night, they had on jeans of course, chaps, cowboys hats and scarves around their necks.  Nothing was for show and everything had a purpose in their 'get up' lol  They talked about climbing these mountains all day and their experience was nothing new to them but so neat to hear!  There we sat, on their ranch, in their cozy home, at a huge table made from a huge tree hauled home from the woods (beautiful!) and even their cabinets 'hardware' was antlers instead of drawer pulls.  I realized that these are real cowboys, doing real cowboy things lol.  Before tonight, they were brothers, the school overseer, ya know?  I knew what they did but seeing them in their work clothes was different.  They took us downstairs where Weston takes animal hide and various types of leather and makes prize winning saddles, purses, saddle bags and other very functional types of leather ware.  Now THAT was cool to see.  I am hoping that Charles heard me say how much I wanted a leather purse made by this brother before we leave here.  They are one of a kind and would be a REALLY nice way to remember our stay here and the brothers and sisters!

The other really cool thing that happened this week, I saw a BALD EAGLE while in service the other day.  I had BEEEEEEN looking for them and not seeing any and as we drove along the river to a call, there one was, in the tree.  When we approached, he took off to fly and spread out those huge wings ...very impressive.  I really hope I get a nice pic of one while here.  They say they are all along the river bank (runs through the town) so the kids and I are going to go out one day just to look for them since they want to see one too.  :)

c, m, c & z!