50+ thread

morning boys. weather people said freezing rain, then 3" to 6" snow for last night. i was worried i might hit the storm on the way home. nadda. and still nadda. not a spec of anything fell from the skies last night.
so i guess i'm continuing with my plans to visit the Grant Kohrs Ranch NHS for their Christmas open house. They'll have the ranch house decorated for Christmas, usually have local volunteers dressed in costume, singing carols, chuckwagon cook will have campfire coffee and smores and the blacksmith will be making candy canes to give out to folks.
oh, and they were supposed to have sleigh rides with the draft horses but I'm guessing it will be wheeled wagons instead

 

and back from the ranch. good time. ended up mostly hanging out with the blacksmith because that was the only source of heat on the whole ranch. its super windy today and so cold. they had to cancel the bonfire for fear of starting a grass fire. that left the fire in the blacksmith shop as the only warm spot to get out of the wind. di the horse wagon ride and got an iron candy cane too.


this guy was pretty funny. they had him in a pen by himself and it was right along the path that the wagon rides were driving along. every time one of the wagons went by he ran over to the fence and then along the fence, neighing and swinging his head around as if he was saying "guys! where are you going? can i come too?"

 

looking good!

 

Its a good spot - I like to stop by once or twice a year. And always something different going on depending on what volunteers they have on hand that day. I've got a bottle opener made by the blacksmith a few years back. And somewhere I have a piece of rope that I helped make. Also got to sample fresh churned butter once. Sometimes they're branding the cattle and once every summer there's a couple of fields that they harvest the hay with all horse drawn equipment so you get to see all of the draft horse teams decked out and doing their thing. Its pretty cool. And yes, the blacksmith still fixes and makes functional stuff for the ranch today whenever the need arises.