Happy Holidays from the Circle B Bar T

This young buck is expressing the Holiday Season as it posed for this photograph in Yellowstone National Park. We will be in Yellowstone on December 19th and hope to see wildlife posing in the snow.

Happy Holidays

Clint & Marty

Rain in Boulder or Snow in Montana

In September in read about the rain in Boulder and we received a report from our son who lives there. In spite of the 12" plus rainfall, Jeff had no problems where he lives. His property was well served by drainage and sewers, therefore, other than traveling in the problem areas, there was no problem.

Now, in early October, travel 550 miles north to Fishtail, Montana where we experienced at least 18" of snow. The results of the precipitation were different. Just look out the window of our home or on the deck and you see a pile of snow.

here's a better view of the snow on the deck of house, facing south.

So, other than a lot of snow, how were you impacted. The daytime weather has been in the 70's during the month of September and we had almost 3 inches of rain. The pastures were green and there was plenty of grass in the pastures. We had not fed the horses hay since last spring and there was enough grass in the pastures around the Grove Creek, the neighbors brought over 36 head of cattle to graze off the growth.

This is part of the cattle herd looking for the pasture. The snow was too deep for the neighbors to bring them hay. 24 hours later they arrived with a hay on a truck and a tractor to pull the truck in and pull it out of the field.

and these horses wandered all over the pasture where they had been dining for the last 2 months only to  have their dinner covered with 18" of snow.

and Doc had this look that maybe he saw Clint bringing hay to the pasture.

and a day later, there had been some melt, but it didn't get the snow on the top of the posts on the deck rails.

SO WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE AT THE CIRCLE B BAR T RANCH . . . . . . . 

          - The snow was too deep to bring in supplies from the barn where we keep them so we

                       WADED THROUGH 18" OF SNOW & CARRY HAY, STRAW, & SHAVINGS

                                 TO THE INSIDE OF THE BARN

         -The snow was too deep to spread the manure so

                      THE MANURE IS PILING UP WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW TO MELT

        -The snow was too deep to get out of the driveway and drive to town

                     THE COUNTY & A NEIGHBOR PLOWED US OUT AND WE GOT TO TOWN

WE STILL HAVE A LOT OF SNOW AND CAN'T WAIT FOR THE TEMPERATURE TO RISE

TODAY & TOMORROW WE ARE EXPECTING 70 DEGREE TEMPERATURES

It's almost fall on the Grove Creek

At the end of the summer and before the fall, the wildlife are getting ready for the change in weather. The young bluebirds that were born this spring are maturing but they will not get the vibrant color that we are used to until later as you can see by this one in a nearby tree,

One its buddies returned to the nest. You can ask how I know it returned to the nest where it was born and I say look at the color of it's feathers. If it's a male it will become vibrant. If it's a female the color around the head and eyes would be gray.

The sand hill cranes usually arrive in late March or early April. They mate for life and typically they will produce one or two off spring. This is a proud mama and papa strutting their stuff.

However, it's getting close to time to head south. This is a whole group with the one in the middle giving exercise lessons getting them ready for the long trip. The two of the left are trying hard, the one on the right is watching while the little one is probably one of this years offspring and is in the learning process.

and of course we have deer, who don't migrate but are careful at this time of the year that we don't interfere with their fawns. You can see this lady was trying to hide from me when I got near her with my camera.

As fall gets nearer and it starts to cool, there will be more.

Happy, Happy Birthday Emma

Today Emma celebrated her 3rd birthday. Although is was windy at the Circle B Bar T Ranch, Emma found a place in the lawn where the sun kept her warm and the grass held back the wind. Happy Birthday from the entire gang.

HAPPY, HAPPY

Surprises as I approached the Grove Creek

Every year I have observed female deer along the Grove Creek, which is south of our home. They have  fawns in the late spring and I watch them with my telescope as they graze in the pastures near the creek. With my telescope I have been able to determine the female is nursing based on the size of her utter. This is a photograph I took of one of the females from our deck with 400mm zoom lens.

I purposely avoid getting near them as the fawns are young to avoid scaring them and perhaps getting them injured. However, I said, now is the time to take my camera and get a close up of the fawns. I head toward the creek and all of a sudden, the first surprise. Ahead of me along the fence was a small yellow and black bird. I had not seen these before, so I had to take some photographs. This was the first one I captured.

It was a goldfinch. When I got back to the house, I learned that this little bird sheds these beautiful colors in the winter time. I had seen them in their winter colors around the barn but didn't know what they were. They left the fence and were flying around in the pasture, when I captured this image of one of them perched on this old sunflower.

So on to the creek. As I get closer, I seen two fawns. It must be another deers baby. I am getting closer and no long need the zoom lens to see the fawns. Now there are three fawns and I was guessing that the female that was near, must be in charge of the babies. This is the photo I took the the group.

Mother is in the lower right of the photo and the fawns are at the top. Now for the surprise. As I got closer, mother became alarmed and must have alerted the fawns, as they all took off together. Surprise - this mother must of had triplets as the entire entourage headed over the nearby hill and were gone. If these babies belonged to someone else, they would have headed to where their mother was. As they followed this mother, I gave her the nod as being the mother of all three.

Clint Teegardin is now 75

It was only 25 years ago that Clint was joined by his mother, his three children -  Susan, Jeff, and Jennifer, Jeff's wife Nadine, and the photographer, Clint's wife Marty. It was a great celebration and surely no one at this time would have guessed that the 25th Anniversary of this event would be held at Montana Jack's in Dean, Montana.

The living participants from above were in Westport, CT, Boulder, Co, and Columbus, Oh while the crowd at Jack's sang Happy Birthday to Clint and enjoyed the food and the toasts. This is what the birthday boy looks like 25 years later as he is accompanied by his wife Marty. The photographer was Dana Teegardin from Georgia who was visiting with her daughter and enjoying the horses.

As the wine glasses were raised and a toast to the birthday, Clint invited everyone in attendance to the next 25 year celebration when he will be 100.  So as you read this blog, mark it down on your calendar for July 7, 2038 that you have been invited to Clint's century birthday.

A FUN TIME WAS HAD BY ALL.

SEE YOU IN 2038

Another trip to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range

Visitors to the Circle B Bar T over the last 15 years have seen a lot of Montana and Wyoming but it has only been recently that the wild horses in Pryor Mountains have been discovered by Clint & Marty. We  invited the Johnsons plus Dana and Kate Teegardin to joint us with the anticipation of seeing some different country and some wild horses. The drive from Fishtail is about 2 1/2 hours and the plan was to have dinner in Edgar, Montana on the trip home.

As we entered the wild horse range, everyone was on the lookout for wild horses. Before we got to the area where you can see the Big Horn Canyon, we saw another kind of bighorns.

 The Bighorn Canyon was next and still no horses. We were almost through the wild horse section of the park when what should we see but 4 wild horses, and they were all stallions. While we we taking photos and enjoying the experience, this photograph was captured, it was titled, "I've got a secret"

If you have observed the blog recently, you know that I have figured out how to get the names of the wild horses. The name of the dun was easy. It is Kemmerer. There were 3 black stallions and that took several days to find out my favorite. He was the stallion sharing the secret with Kemmerer and his name is Hawk.

After you leave the wild horse area you approach several ranches. The most popular is the Lockhart ranch. You can walk throughout the ranch, but the most interesting part is to visit the buildings that are still there. They are in good shape, considering their age. This is the background of the name and the ranch.

This makes for an interesting visit. The next photograph is one of the buildings and Kay Johnson walking through the doorway. You have to admit it looks like it's in pretty good shape to be over 60 years old.

It was now time to start our return. The real question was, will be seen any horses on the way out of the range. When we got to the area where we saw the 4 horses on our way in, we spotted them again. They had crossed the road but were very visible. Kemmerer was posing for us when I captured this photo of him.

If you haven't been to the Pryors, it's worth a trip. We'll probably be back with other friends so keep watching the blog for more wild horses.

 

Fishtail Family Fun Day, 100th Anniversary

This year represented the 100th anniversary of the city of Fishtail, Montana. There has always been a Fishtail Family Fun day but this year was special to celebrate the 100th year. As Clint chatted with Kay Johnson, Lowell and Ruth Quenemoen's granddaughter who is visiting for the next 6 weeks, he asked if she had every been to the Fishtail parade and fun day. She said, no, so Clint suggested that she and Marty ride in the parade. At the end of a long conversation and debate, the Circle B Bar T would participate with the following:
                   * our theme, "We are family"
                   * in the context of family fun day, the family would be Arabian horses
                   * Grover, the sire, Johnny, the brother, and Ruby, Grover's daughter
                   * the riders would be Kay Johnson, Marty Baxter, & Wendy Bleacher
                   * Clint would lead the group, wear his fancy jacket with Grover's picture & carry Grover's              
                      picture jumping

We departed 15 S. Grove Creek Road at 10:15 AM to be ready for the 11:00 AM parade. Clint was all decked out with his coat and the sign.

and when you observed the back of the coat, what did you see, but Grover.

The girls were attired in the official Fishtail Centennial t-shirts and once they mounted the horses they all had helmets, riding trousers, and black boots.

So the people on the parade route would know our theme, signage had been prepared for the reverse side of the t-shirts. Of course the theme was "we are family" but an added description necessary to identify the horses as you can see from this photograph.

and just as we were preparing to get in line for the parade, another family member arrived to participate in the parade. When Grover was still a stallion, we had donated his semen to be sold at the Fishtail Family Fun Day and one of our neighbors had purchased it. The result of that transaction was hitched to a cart and was another entry in the parade. Grovers daughter is the horse on  the right side.

The parade of course went down the main street of Fishtail. It then turned around and went back to the Grove Creek road where it started. This is a scene of the downtown area and the parade.

and of course the family was ready to participate. Clint's biggest challenge was to get 3 women and 3 horses to pose photography all at the same time. What a challenge. This is the best I found from the images that I captured.

as we were returning to the truck and trailer to load up and return home, it was announce that the winner of the horse and rider group was none other than the Circle B Bar T family. One last picture, please smile and pose for the photograph with the trophy.

Kay is holding the trophy, Grover is thanking Wendy for featuring him, Marty has that proud smile and Ruby is still tired from here journey from Ohio to be in Montana for the summer with Kay.

Horses, more than Arabians

Over the past couple of years, Marty has been visiting the Crooked Creek Ranch near Lovell, Wyoming to participate in horse activities centering around Dressage and Eventing. Clint discovered that within a few miles of the Crooked Creek Ranch is the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range. So, he drops off Marty and the horses and heads to find some "wild horses". Memorial Day weekend was no exception. Marty, Wendy, and Johanna were involved with the horse events while Clint was hoping to find new places to see the wild horses. Although Clint took several hundred photos of the girls and other participants, the first 3 are of the Circle B Bar T gang.

This is Grover with Wendy Bleacher riding and Johanna Kern observing. The last time you saw Grover he was jumping over a log in one of the Crooked Creek pastures with Marty aboard. This was taken in the enclosed arena where they were obviously jumping.

You may have seen some photographs of Quasar in the past. The big boy is now 17 hands was hopping over this pile of logs with no problems. Johanna is on board and everyone was pleased with their performance. Johanna and Quasar participated in the more advanced competition and they won. Wendy and Grover were third.

Marty has started to train with Majestic Dancer, better know around the ranch as "Doc". Since the 2 of them are just getting started, they were in the "grasshopper" class (beginners) and they did very well, winning the competition.

So the girls and their horses headed home not only proud of their rides but of their winnings as well. So what did Clint do.

He stopped at the visitors center in Lovell to get maps and an update as to where the bulk of the 100 plus wild horses were. The staff at the center gave Clint several ideas but told him he needed a high profile vehicle and 4 wheel drive if he wanted to go where the bulk of the wild horses were. Clint thought, no problem with his Dodge pick up truck.

Clint headed down a number of dirt roads with the maps he had been furnished. Each of the roads ultimately headed into the mountains along very narrow dirt roads and one by one Clint turned around before he got near the horses.

So. . . . . back to the area that he had been visiting on prior trips. After the first 2.5 hours he had seen no horses but did meet a couple from Colorado who have visited the wild horse range frequently. Clint decided to make one more tour of the range before he returned to Crooked Creek to photograph the activites there. Almost 12 miles into the range, the second time,  he spotted the couple from Colorado and it looked like they had found a horse.

A beautiful gray stallion. Clint's new friends added something special. They were frequent enough visitors that they knew the horse by his name. It was Fiero. To prove this, when Clint got home he keyed in Fiero on the internet and found a very similar picture.  Clint's new friends, then asked if he had seen the welcoming committee at the south entrance. Clint said, you mean the Big Horn sheep. They said no, there are 2 stallions, Hickok and Jesse James and their girl friends that are always hanging around near the lake and the clump of trees as you enter.

After Clint had taken enough photos of Fiero, he headed back to Crooked Creek to catch up with those activities. But, guess what, as he neared the south entrance, who was standing near the road.

It was Jesse James. Yes, Clint found Jesse James on the internet as well.

Stay tuned as we visit the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in the future and introduce you to more of the horses. Marty wants to be part of the next visit as well.

Wildlife at it's best

The wildlife you will see in this edition of our blog should be very interesting when you consider many of the following factors. We were not in Africa to capture the images of the lions and tigers. We were not in bear or wolf country to get the photographs of these wild critters. When you look at the images you will see contentment and very healthy animals. Before I answer the questions that I just posed, let's look at the photographs.

You've seen wolves that I have photographed since they were re-introduced in the wild. This wolf was not in Yellowstone National Park and seems very relaxed and healthy.

Was this tiger posing for me to take this photograph, was it looking for something to attack, or had it just finished eating. I was at least 1500 feet away and you get this image as a result of zoom lens and software. It seems that it had plenty of roaming room which in fact it did.

Maybe something was itching the back of it's neck. It was not concerned about me being near by or it could have been very tense. Have you ever seen a tiger as relaxed as this one and it seems to be enjoying the comfort of the scratch.

This bear seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere. But it was a very healthy bear and I can assure you that it was not being chased by another critter. You aren't seeing any trees in the photos and it doesn't look like a park or a jungle.

When was the last time you saw a lion this relaxed. It's resting in the sun and there doesn't appear to be tens of people peering at it. If you like wildlife, you might enjoy visiting them. Keep reading and we'll finish the story before you you're through.

Is this more of what you would expect with these creatures? This seems to be more like what you would expect of a lion in the wild. Or, is it mating season and this guy is calling his girl friend or telling his competitor that this is his territory.

Based on this picture, it was none of the above. He's content with his surroundings and is probably ready to take a nap.

So where was I? This visit was a lot better than any zoo that I've been to, especially if you are concerned about the life of these animals. Being penned up in cage for your life is OK if you are on the other side of the cage, but if you are the animal, it's not like it was in the wild. 

We had the opportunity to visit the Wildlife Sanctuary in Colorado a few years ago and have returned  each time we're in Boulder, Colorado visiting our family and grandchildren. The owners of the sanctuary and generous contributions have permitted them to give these animals freedoms that few captured wild life ever get. I was on a mile long elevated walkway taking these photographs. The wildlife were not in the least bit concerned about our visit as you can see from these pictures.

I have added the logo of the Wildlife Sanctuary as well as the website for those of you who are interested in learning more about these animals and their benefactors. If you are ever in the Denver area, take the time to visit this wonderful establishment.

It was fun having the opportunity to capture the images of these animals without having to spend days and dollars traveling to their natural habitat.

                                                                           ENJOY

Let's visit our favorite places, Yellowstone & Bighorn Pryors

We had visitors from Ohio during the early part of April. After a night at Chico Hot Springs we headed for Yellowstone National Park. Although the weather report was a bit iffy, it appeared we could make the trip from Mammoth Hot Springs to Cooke City and return. As we approached Gardiner, we related the story about the Gardiner football field, the buffalo who had migrated out of the park, and enjoyed grazing on the grass in the football arena. We also stated, that the last time we went past the field, it was loaded with buffalo manure. The following is a photograph I took as we went past.

If you remember the commentary from our February 22nd posting, you will recall that students who were in trouble with the staff got assigned the duty of cleaning up the mess. We don't know how many got in trouble, but someone had cleaned up the mess on the field.

Next we headed out of Mammoth and as we got closer to Tower Junction, the temperature got colder and the rain turned into snow. We decided to turnaround and avoid the bad weather.Just as we were about to turn around we spotted the remains of what a grizzly had been enjoying for several days, and instead of a grizzly, it was now a wolf.

and then we spotted the next in line. As you can see there wasn't much left, but the raven was standing watch to move in when the wolf gave up.

We had turned around, but decided to take one more look before we headed back. Something caused the wolf to leave the carcass and immediately it started to run across what may have appeared to be snow to you, but it was a small lake. The wolf had not checked out the thickness of the ice and the next thing we knew, it was swimming.

It was very cold and the wolf did make it out of the water, but you can tell from this photo, that he was not comfortable with the outcome.

We left Yellowstone and the closer we got to Fishtail, the warmer it got and the snow was gone. Next we decided to visit the Big Horn basin and the Pryor Wild Horse Range. Before we got to see the wild horses, we overlooked the Big Horn Canyon with our guests, Tom Baxter and his partner, Linda James.

as we entered the wild horse range, we did find some black stallions. This was our best shot. It was too cold there for fighting and fussing. They just wanted to pose and ultimately we saw them grazing what little they could find and licking the minerals on the side of the hills.

Marty wanted Tom and Linda to see a ranch at the end of the road we were on. This was close to 7,000 acres that was homesteaded by a lady in the 1950's and ultimately she left this area when she was 80 years old. This was her home. We walked around, observed much of the ranch and were amazed at how it could still exist over 6o years later.

Keep in touch as we will return to Yellowstone and the Wild Horse range again this year and see what exciting we can find on our next trip. Linda and Tom want to return for more.