July 2024

Boathouse Row #2
Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
2024

Boathouse Row
Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
2024

Camp Cookie
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

A chuck wagon demonstration complete with a camp cookie brewing coffee over an open fire they way they did back in the day. He certainly looked the part and was very knowledgeable about the job of being a camp cookie. I imagined him to be an old Montana cowboy who may have never gone on a drive with a chuck wagon but who would likely certainly know folks who did. Alas, on query he turned out to be a retired businessman from Alabama who was there on a volunteer gig with the National Park Service for the summer.

Here’s a song about the life of the cowboy as well as a mention of the camp cookie:

The White House
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

Tools of the Trade
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

Some serious work has been done on this workbench over the years. On a good day my own workbench approaches this level of organization/disorganization. Just enough organization to be able to put your hands on the tool you need fairly quickly (most of the time anyway) but with no obvious anal-retentive tendencies on display at all.

Shoe Rack
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

They still use horse teams to do a lot of the work at the Grant-Kohrs ranch, but we saw only a couple in the corral. Even if they have a couple more, they still have more pairs (er, sets) of shoes per horse than the Fashion Queen has in her shoe closet.

The Bare Necessities
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

A small room at the end of the bunk house. It has running water, perhaps hot and cold as there are two faucets, and some dubious looking electrical wiring that is attached to a light up above. Oh, and there’s an outhouse out back.

Bunkhouse Road
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

It’s amazing how little details in a scene can sometimes trigger strong memories for your past. This ranch road curving down a hill past the back of the bunkhouse triggered a memory of my grandparent’s farm. Out the back door from the kitchen of their farmhouse you could see their farm road starting gradually down a hill and then curving more steeply out of view to the right between their old barn on the left and the chicken houses and other outbuildings on the right. Other than that similar downhill curve in the two roads and the general agrarian nature of both locations, there wasn’t that much similarity between the farm and the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, but it sure spiked that memory in my head.

Saddle in Waiting
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

Worn but waiting. The stories it could tell.

Hanging Trees
Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Montana
2024

I don’t really know horse rigging equipment at all, but I’m pretty sure there are both single trees and double trees hanging from this fence.