Mr. C.'s Day Off

Hey.
Had a good day here on the ranch, thought I'd share a bit with you even though I don't have pictures. Beautiful, sunny day. Had guests. One, Brian was new to the ranch, the two young ladies were returning. We doubled up on quads and went to the falls. First cast I hooked a 6" trout that fought valiantly, leaping out of the water! As it swam for the bottom of the pool it was attacked by a much larger fish, which then leapt out of the water with my little guy in it's hooked jaws! Since the large trout wasn't actually hooked it kept having the sensation that the little fish was a GREAT escape artist... I would pull hard enough to snatch the "bait" fish out of it's mouth, and it would return time and again to recapture it's prey! Eventually the larger fish grabbed the hook AND the fish and then the fight was really on! All of us were incredulous and laughing so hard that no one really cared when it shook the lure and dove for the bottom.

For the next few minutes every one who took a turn fishing caught and released trout...then Brian hooked a VLT (very large trout) at least as large as the first of the day, and we decided to give this fish a new name. We called it dinner.

Later in our quad-tour of the ranch, Tammie and I rounded a curve to surprise a bear cub in the road (Or, to be surprised by a bear cub in the road, both are accurate). The cub, being young and reckless, decided to race. For quite a ways. Very exciting seeing a bear of any age up close and at speed!

A few turns later, still beaming about the bear encounter, we crossed paths with a grey squirrel. Commonplace, you'd say. Yeah, but this graceful fellow made a running jump for a low branch overhanging a steep slope and undershot slightly. The squirrel hit the bottom of the branch hard, vaulted to the topside and launched for the next tree in one motion... missing huge! My last glimpse as we passed was grey squirrel imitating Rocky the flying squirrel off a rather large precipice. I hope he landed it.

Back at the main house, Tammie and I had started preparing dinner when Eric strolled casually into the kitchen with a good-sized rattlesnake hanging from his hand! Said it was being stalked by our daughter's cat in the driveway when he rode in. Pretty full day. When the rest of our gang made it back home, we shared the highlights and then Eric, Brian and I set out to fix a fence before dinner. The fence didn't get fixed... Eric managed to "bite" himself with the rattlesnake while cutting off the head to make a hatband! We found less strenuous chores to occupy our time while we waited to see how much venom he had gotten.

One of the ladies, April, took photos of some of the events of the day... perhaps she will post her version later.