A Tractor, a Tale and Wagging Tails

 Another gorgeous day in Colorado with my family. For starters, several of us lolled about on the ranch house's front porch. All were tickled to see a dust cloud in the distance which turned out to be Cousin Jonni, driving herself along the road in one of Tom's Aunt Judy's farm vehicles. Jonni had the company of 2 of Aunt Judy's friendly Border Collie dogs. We had fun fussing over the pups.

Tom, and Jonni-ann with her pup companions

But suddenly the dogs jumped off the porch, bulleting down the road. David said they must have heard Judy's car coming, but nope! It was Judy alright but she was driving her HUMONGOUS green tractor carrying a round bale of hay with Cousin Charlaine as her co-pilot. 

Judy, Charlaine and doggos, headed for the porch

None of us had any idea what a treat we were in for. Judy had rummaged her files back at the ranch. She chose poetry inspirationally written by Tom's grandfather. The poem told the tale of Tom's grandfather, out checking three cows, who had birthed their three calves, all in the deep snow of a winter blizzard. I wish I had the poem to post here, which contained true cowboy humor. 

It was like watching one of those CBS Sunday Morning reports which are so beautiful that I feel sad that I wasn't there to soak it up. But here I sat, live, in person, enjoying the sensations of poetry as it washed over me, setting me down in a snow coated rangeland, blinking as snow flakes landed on my eyelashes, and the moos of livestock serenading my ears. Yeah, that was heaven.

Judy, the Williamson family historian

The rings on the coasters are beautiful

As if all that wasn't gift enough, Judy had risen early that morning, and set to sawing segments of the ranch's ancient & aged fence posts into slices. Everyone got a set of the beautiful ringed tree, drink coasters. 

That was the best of the day in my opinion. After Judy's visit the whole fam got busy packing and making at least some effort to leave the ranch house in good shape. There was some disturbing news, concerning Tom's father which had us on tenterhooks on the drive back. Tom's dad had suddenly taken ill, to the degree that Tom's sister was flying in from out of state. We all worried along with Tom and hoped he and his sister would be able to handle the crisis and that their father should survive it as well. Family means having to handle such crises and we know Tom and his sister are up to the task.

Back in Denver we all had quiet - or as quiet as we manage to be - evening.  For dinner we all ordered pizza at a v. close restaurant and some of the more energetic cousins (yeah, not me) walked over and picked up the orders for all of us. We had a lovely dinner, loads of chatting and happy anticipation of tomorrow's activities. 

Bridge Party!

View of the ridge about a quarter to 'Alpine Glow'

 Morning morning coffee around the campfire

It was pure bliss waking up at the ranch house and then sniffing about for that all important cup of java. NO, I am not addicted to caffeine, and how dare you even think such a thing! 

When I was showered & dressed I noticed several of my cousins were either still in bed, or were... where? I found a 'mess o' cousins' outside sipping their coffee at Dave & Tom's new (to me) fire ring. While we chatted cousin Eric sent up his drone to explore the surrounding hills. Great way to start one's day - the coffee, that is.

The fire ring is a new addition 

None of us went hungry for breakfast today

After coffee, Dave & Tom served up another tasty & hearty breakfast with loads of bacon and sausage. Then our gratious hosts offered to show us a recently built beaver damn, just a little ways up the road. . 

The beaver dam of sticks and mud & the pond it created

Wild Hops

The beaver dam was not the morning's only natural history lesson. There was a fruit laden, wild current bush and several of us ate a berry or three. And we noticed strange looking pale green 'thingies' growing rampant along the roadside. David told us the greenish bobbles were hops, of the sort used to flavor beer - how convenient!

Garden Tiger Moth

Another discovery was back at the house - a beautiful moth, wearing what appeared to be party clothes. 

The rest of the day was spent with Aunt Arna and the cousins playing cards at the dining room table. But the majority of the time was spent - by David & Tom - preparing for the big event of the day, the Bridge Party up at Tom's Aunt Judy's Ranch. 

At day's end we were all dressed in our Colorado Carter Family Reunion tee shirts. David and Tom had spent the greater part of the afternoon preparing dishes for tonight's 'Bridge Party'. A little background here... Tom's gracious Aunt Judy throws Bridge Parties for guests. She did so for us Carters in 2018 at which time my cousins thought we were going to a card game party, so they had beefed up on the instructions for playing Bridge and bought new card decks and such, only to find out they'd been invited to a Party, taking place on a Bridge. 

Here are we are at our 2022 Bridge Party, as photographed by Cousin Eric's airborne drone. 

Meeting of the Matriarchs
Tom's Aunt Judy & the Carter's  Aunt Arna

It was quite the Carter day, as we weren't the only Carters up for an occasion. Judy had invited family friends who we met at the last Bridge Party in 2018. The kids we met them are quite a bit older now (Duh, right?) and the youngest, ironically named Carter, is today's birthday boy! We serenaded him with a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time round of "Happy Birthday" over a lovely, candle spangled cake.

Happy birthday to the Carter of the day!

It gets cold when the sun sinks behind the eastern ridges. David & Tom offered anyone under prepared warm coats and jackets. For Aunt Arna, a beautiful mink coat came out of the hall closet. It used to belong to David's Mom. It kept Arna snug, warm and fashionable for the evening. 

Arna and Charlaine

It was a lovely evening for sitting, chatting and catching up. One of the family friends (and of course being a bear of little brain I can't remember her name - sorry what's yer name - shared genealogy stories from her family. We were surprised we had roughly similar stories either of which would make a great episode for either Who Do You Think You Are or The Maury Povitch Show. Both of us have a male relative from ages ago who had not one, but two wives, who didn't know their man had 2 separate families. Shocking! That made us think maybe such things are not as rare as one would think. For the record, the bigamist in my family is not a Carter, but a Miller... fascinating stuff. 

Our Bridge Party gathering went on well into the dark of the night, when slowly we all gathered our things, said our 'Irish Fairwells' and headed back to the ranch house. Tomorrow is another busy day.

Off to the Ranch

 

Colorado scenery along the way

All were up at leisure this morning, chatting and packing enough stuff to see us through the next few days. After another great David & Tom prepared  breakfast we were nearly ready to depart. For togetherness and ease, the fam rented a large van. Like a well organized mini-army the van was packed.and we took off late morning for the 4 hour drive up to the ranch house SW of Hayden, CO. 

Looking all sharp in our matching Bajan Tees

Our cool new Carter Family tee shirts were worn for the drive. We chatted & snacked along the byways towards Hayden. 

Tom and co-pilot

Colorado scenery is spectacular, and though we didn't get any pix, we spotted several herds of Pronghorn Antelope. 

Before we knew it, we were lolling about on the ranch house porch

David and Tom outdid themselves on dinner. Tom served up marinated & freshly BBQ'd chicken which was delish & very pleasing to the carnivores amongst us (that would be me), 

Gnocchi, not Enoki 

David made 'Gnocchi', which are potato dumplings that were fried in butter with veggies. 

Enoki not Gnocchi 

I dug in to the delicious little morsels, all the while wondering 'Where are the Enoki mushrooms?' I guess I haven't previously heard Gnocchi pronounced correctly, if at all. 

David set me right, and we all wolfed down the tasty gnocchi fried all crisp and tasty. Several of us decided we have to try fixing gnocchi on our own. And there was also a tasty side of delicate asparagus spears.

Much later, we ran out of steam, but not out of conversation, it was time for bed. Eric & I planned to  camp out on the front porch. However, David & Tom brought out the air mattresses, so between the 3 bedrooms with numerous beds, the couch and air mattresses, everyone ended their day all snug & comfy - and all of us inside. But honestly, I'd have happily snoozed out on the porch, dreaming of roaming Mountain Lions, the odd rattlesnake.