Category: Ranch

Categories
Snow Trips & Activities

Sledding in Montana

We have had 3 to 4 feet of snow fall here in Montana so far this Winter. Right now there is about a foot of snow on the ground. And since I’ve never gone sledding for more than a couple of feet, we went out and hit our neighbor’s hill. Anna purchased a sweet snow tube at the beginning of last summer, and we had some 1 person tubes we used on the river. Here’s Anna and Ashton in our river tube:

Ashton Anna Sledding

We’d estimate that this slope is 300 feet long. Here’s a video of some of the crazy slopes we took:

Then we got tired of hiking that ridiculous hill, so we had Cory pull us behind his old Toyota Land Cruiser.

Cory and his Land Cruiser

Happy New Year,
Ashton Anna

Categories
Animals Ashton Anna Horses Ranch

AshtonAnna’s Baby Mustang

What a crazy morning.

(Let me first introduce the latest additions to our “ranch.” Anna purchased two wild mustang mares (females) at auction. Here they are:

Wild Mustangs
Nevada and Aspen.

After purchasing the mustangs Anna was reading through the pamphlet they gave her, and it said there was always a possibility of a wild mare being pregnant.)

Now that you have met the mustangs, here’s this morning’s story:

The first thing Anna tells me in the morning is it looks like the coyotes ran off with our chickens. She couldn’t find them anywhere. So we both went looking for them, and found them a good 70 yards from their coop on the north side of our house.

After we brought the chickens back to their almost franticly lonely duck (poor guy), we decided to take a walk down our driveway to see how our newly-planted, baby trees are doing. We’re about half-way down our driveway and Anna says. “What is that?!?!”

Remaining as calm as possible, I look over into the pen and see this:

Wild Mustangs
What is that in front of aspen? No way, it’s a baby! Enjoy the pics of mini-aspen:

Wild Mustangs
Wild Mustangs
Wild Mustangs
Wild Mustangs
Wild Mustangs

I’m sure there will be more to come from AshtonAnna’s Ranch.
-AshtonAnna

UPDATE: This just in: the new foal is a female (filly)!
We’ll be choosing her name tomorrow.

Categories
Ranch

Our Well Almost Went Dry?!?

This story starts on Thursday the 10th of July, but first a little background:

We live on a 20 acer parcel of land, and since we are so far away from the “city” of Polson, we can’t get “city water.” (Thank Goodness!) We have our own well. The well is 280 feet straight down and produces 7 gallons of delicious water a minute.

Back to the story:
On the 9th of July, Anna spent a lot of time watering the yard getting ready for Ash’s family to arrive starting on the 17th. There was probably at least one hose on all day long.

On the 10th of July, (exactly one month since the snow) we were just starting our weekly Grub Club and water stopped coming out of our faucet… What?! About 30 minutes later, it came back on but was kind of dirty, with small flecks of dirt.

No!!! We only have 7 days to get the entire property ready for family to arrive, we don’t have time to get another well dug!

To make a long story short: After talking to many pump experts, neighbors and studying as much as I could get my hands on over the next three days, I found that there was a small electrical problem with the control box! Whew! After and hour of driving and $12, I had the well pump running again smoothly!

Ash just Databased the Mainframe!
Wasup?!
-Ashanna

Categories
Animals Montana Ranch Summer

July 4th 2008

This was a great Fourth of July. This was the first time in at least three years that I was not out at Camp Cherry Valley (CCV). We also had Mike Hedge from LA visiting us. Mike is a (very good) photographer, and he took more than 900 pictures while he was here. Here is what we did on the Fourth of July through Mike Hedge’s lenses:

AshAnna

Here’s some pictures of our house:
AshAnna
AshAnna
(I brought these green urchin shells home from CCV)
AshAnna

Here are some of our Animals:
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna

Our House:
AshAnna
AshAnna

Time for Breakfast:
AshAnna
AshAnna

Time to head out…
AshAnna

To the Lake:
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna

We took a break and visited the Stanfield’s for a boat and some more photos:
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna

Then Back to the lake:
AshAnna
For some water skiing:
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna

We met up with the Grub-Clubbers at Pizza Hut…
AshAnna

And went off to do some Sparklers and Fireworks!
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna
AshAnna

Happy Fourth,
AshAnna

Categories
Animals Ranch Snow

Snow in June

So after our slightly rainy day on the 9th, we woke up to snow on the 10th. By the end of 16 hours of non-stop snowing, we had four inches of snow on the ground… and it didn’t go away for until half way through the 12th.

ashanna's snow
ashanna's snow
ashanna's snow
ashanna's snow

Here are some of our animals in the snow:
ashanna's snow
ashanna's snow

We also had a bunch of birds taking shelter on our front porch.
Here’s a sparrow that Anna caught mid-chirp:
ashanna's snow

Here’s what we’re 80% sure is a hawk:
ashanna's snow
He is so fluffed up he looks almost like an owl.

UPDATE 7/6/08:

The picture is of an American Kestrel, the smallest North American raptor. I believe it is a female because the wings are rusty and not blue grey.
~Ian

Enjoy,
Ashanna