FAST MOVING EVENTS

Sometimes life piles up so quickly that a daily blog posting can't keep up. Here is the background story that is now shaping life on the ranch.

Jan and Barry Kessler are fulltiming friends of ours, from the east. Here is Barry as a pirate, blissfully unaware of the twist about to come.

They travel with two dogs, both of them getting up in years - Spike and April. In Yuma, over New Year's, Spike (who is 12 years old), contracted Valley Fever and it laid him low. He has been on a heavy daily dosage of antibiotics since then, and making slow, almost unnoticeable, progress.

The Kesslers came with us to Rancho Mi Sueno, Jeanie and Ray's ranch in Cochise County, AZ, planning to stay a couple days. On their first night here, Spike had a health crisis. He is now at the vet in Sierra Vista, much improved and coming home today.

Jan and Barry's next commitment is not until mid-May, and they have decided they feel most comfortable staying near the Sierra Vista vet for awhile. Ray and Jeanie are always itching to hitch up their 5th wheel and take off. So...


Barry Kessler, Pirate, is about to become a wrangler (see examples to the left).

Odel and I leave on Monday, Jeanie and Ray leave shortly thereafter, and Barry and Jan will become Ranch Managers for a few weeks. Everyone is happy.

Yesterday began the campaign to turn Barry into a wrangler. Here is Day One.

THE RICH HISTORY OF COCHISE COUNTY

This little trickle, Apache Spring, played a big part in Cochise County history, and yesterday we took a hike to explore it.

Water meant life to people in southern Arizona - it still does. Native Americans, settlers and the military moved from spring to spring, and Apache Spring was the source of major conflicts in the mid- to late-1800's. Fort Bowie, abandoned in 1894, was built to protect settlers and the Butterfield Stage as they traveled through Apache Pass, quenched their thirst at Apache Springs, and moved out into the open range of the Sulphur Springs Valley.






The ruins of Ft. Bowie make a great destination, a 3 mile hike that encompasses all the heroic stories of western lore: the Apache Wars, the Butterfield stage route from St. Louis to San Francisco, the isolated original Ft. Bowie, and the growth, glory, and final abandoment of the second Ft. Bowie. We six set off with lunch and water, ready to explore the historical context of Cochise County. Left to right: Barry, Odel, Oaurie, Jeanie, Jan and Ray.

HOME ON THE RANGE

Happy, tired hikers looked forward to hot dogs on the campfire for dinner. After a shower, I looked out our window and saw that cowboy Happy Hour was well underway.




Ray was chief firemaster and camp cook. He is a true cowboy, and you can see that he knows his way around the campfire.










As we relaxed and awaited our dogs, the sun dropped low, the clouds colored, and I am sure Barry reflected on the rich history of his new station in life... ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!




Happy hikers. Most of us were probably asleep about an hour after this photo was taken.