Business around the ranch has slowed down a bunch in the last few weeks.  We had two afternoon rides on Saturday afternoon but I wasn't on either and didn't exactly feel like saddling up either.  The Colorado State Fair started a day or two earlier and Blake Shelton was playing that night, so that's where I was going to go.  A bunch of people claimed that they would be going at some point or another, I was going by myself until Sarah (April's daughter, the two of them work sometimes on the ranch when they're needed) pulled up as I was replacing a headlight on my truck and I asked if she wanted to go see Blake Shelton that night.  She accepted, said she intended on already going to the fair with her friend Lindsey.  Sweet.  From solo to two chicks in thirty seconds.  

Sarah lives at the Abbey in Canon City where I went wine tasting last month.  She works with the horses there, but since the owners haven't put any money into the place nobody's boarding their horses there, so she lives for free and boards her horses for free and don't have to do much work.  We waited around a bit for Lindsey who never showed up and said she'd meet us there, so we headed to the fair.  

Very good times.  I'd never been to any state fair and thoroughly enjoyed this one.  I felt like a genius tweeting that I was checking out award winning cocks (roosters, obv) in the small animals building, and then we got kicked out for having beer because apparently people have given beer to the rabbits which kills them.  I didn't know that you could buy animals at the fair.  I really wanted to come home with a prize winning duck, or rabbit, or some silly critter, but I think fortunately that plan never reached fruition.  

We headed into the arena to see Blake Shelton after the rodeo which we didn't make it into because it was sold out.  We got close, watched an amazing show, and then were thrilled to see Miranda Lambert show up for the second verse of "Home".  She left the stage at the end of the song and came back at the encore.  It was an awesome show.  Nobody ever showed up to join us, I drove Sarah back to Canon, and then headed to the dirt road back to the ranch.

It's a bit difficult to find Oak Creek Grade out of Canon City, you basically gotta catch the bridge between third and fourth street across the river which doesn't have a light, so naturally I missed it.  I flipped a youey at  3rd street and turned South headed out of town.  Just before hitting the dirt road I was reaching behind my seat for a beer, looked in the rear view and saw a cop, and decided that I probably shouldn't crack the beer yet.  He immediately turned on his lights, I pulled over, and he asked me why I missed the turn.  I'm not from here and Oak Creek Grade is hard to find?  He left with my license and registration, came back and told me that he couldn't find my stuff in the system, said I should call somebody about that, and then he let me go.  He also, like Court, thought that my registration expired in 2006, since the sticker says "6".  It's for June, and says 2011 on the side.  I drove away, hit the dirt road, cracked that beer, and drove the twenty miles of dirt road back to the ranch.  

Sunday we had an erection party.  One of the tall posts between the main corral and holding pen that the gate was attached to broke off at the ground.  We had to pull the post and replace it with an old telephone pole we had sitting around.  That took most of the morning, and then I worked online that afternoon and evening.  I made a deep run in the UBOC Main Event, ended up finishing 72nd after I bluffed off some chips and then lost with AQ to J4 and K9.  Sigh is how I felt.  

Monday there also wasn't anything going on, and it felt like winter showed up that day.  I left the ranch around noon thirty in warm clothes and a beanie heading to Colorado Springs to pick up Karri.  Since I didn't go to Malibu with a pretty girl I talked her into coming out here before her trip to Aspen this weekend.  

She's still more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  

We had a good evening, watching the sun set over the ranch and drinking Jack and Coke, dinner in town, and we ended up having beers with an old timer here in town known as Mountain Bob.  There's a signed poster of him in the office at the ranch.  

Today was a slow day, slept in, and then went to ridin some fence.  I took Karri for a ride about the ranch, showed her some of the old mines and homesteads, and did some running of the horses.  Such a nice day on the ranch.  Came back, and now we're sittin in front of the Penthouse (my cabin) sippin cocktails out of tin mugs watchin the wind blow by.  Life is good today.  

Tomorrow we're heading up to the high country for an overnight pack trip.  I'm pretty excited.  

Peace and good luck,

Devo