Wow we’re almost halfway through October already, leaving me wondering where did our summer go. We started the season working on a new shop site that finally came to completion last week.

We had our 3 yr old gelding to work with this summer. We purchased Sonny as a yearling, but he didn’t get to live full time on the mountain until this summer. He progressed wonderfully and was worked 3-4 days a week in an effort to prepare him for backcountry use. Unfortunately we had an accident last week resulting in a big set back in training. While out alone on a ride he spooked violently to the left and pitched me off his right side. This would have been a non-event except my left boot got hung up in the stirrup resulting in me receiving several kicks from a panicked horse. Nothing broken thank goodness, just significant bruising that will heal with time.

We again got to host ranch camp for the oldest of our grandchildren. This is such a fun time – riding horses, UTV rides to backcountry lakes, water slide outings, target practice with pellet gun, s’mores around the campfire were a few of the activities our campers enjoyed.

We didn’t get many backcountry rides in this summer. Maybe a dozen up the North Fork and just a handful up the Middle Fork. Cody was in town on a long layover so he joined us on a day trip for some trout fishing.

We also had a large fencing project to do this summer. Most of our fence is treated 1/2 rail, but this stretch lies in the backwoods so we went with high tensil smooth wire.

Yes it’s been a busy summer, and now our snow season is just a few weeks away. Hopefully we’ll get a few more rides in before the weather turns cold, but if not we’ll break out the winter gear.