The Big Sunday: Part 2 - The Bridge Party

Before to our arrival in Denver, cousin-in-law Tom told us that his Aunt Judy was throwing a Bridge Party in honor of the Carter Cousins. My cousins enthusiastically looked on YouTube for info on 'how-to-play bridge'. One bought bridge scoring cards and other Bridge paraphernalia.

Me? I just laughed because I knew! HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

You see, here's the thing...

The cute little creek

Judy you see, has a cute little creek that runs through her ranch. There is an equally cute little wooden bridge that runs over the little river. And lastly, on said wooden bridge, parties are occasionally given, and they are all called... Bridge Parties! No playing cards necessary because when Aunt Judy throws a Bridge Party, she means a Party on her bridge! 


When my cousins and I arrived at Judy's Ranch for the bridge party, things were just getting set up. David and Tom hauled chairs, tables and stuff onto the bridge, and they brought some food for the feast too.

Judy added the finishing touches to jazz up the place for all of her guests.

Lighting the lanterns

Guests arrived and milled about. There were people to introduce ourselves to, and doggies to pet.

Then, Judy told us there was to be lassoing lessons! She proceeded to demo how to swing a lasso and throw it. She really is a genuine Cowgirl!

Judy, on the left, swinging a lasso

The Faux Cow

The kids were up first, swinging lassos and having a go at roping our patient, motionless Faux Cow.

The cute thing was that Judy set up the lasso lessons for the kids. Uh, yeah, I can see that. What Judy did not suspect however is her adult guests were just as excited for a roping lesson as the kiddos. So everyone got a shot at ropin'. Carol and Tom got their Yippy Ki-yays on!

The video at the end of this post is chock full of everyone having a shot at catching that wayward hay bale moo-cow. 

After the roping lessons it was time to put on the feed bags and enjoy the wonderful feast. Ummm...

When the chowing down was over, we actually lifted our heads and admired how the last sunlight of the day danced on the cliffs surrounding us. 

So purdy...

Then everyone relaxed, chatting and enjoying the twilight. I was checking the sky for bats. As the sun waned, it was time for the bridge lights were lit - thoroughly enchanting.

Carol showing off her back scratcher

I almost forgot. Judy gave us Carter girls gifts. At the end of the table below you can see Carol holding up a white crescent - it is a back scratcher, made from the rib of a range cow! There is a cute story on the rib, which was a whimsy of an idea that occured to Judy and some friends of hers. They sell the unique back scratchers as a fund raiser for the Routt County Cattle Women.

Soon it was really dark on the enchanted bridge.

My best shot of the moon, and a few planets... which? Um...

We did a little sky watching. This was a special night, not only for the Bridge Party, but up in the heavens, the planets were aligning. Using a iPhone star map app, we could clearly see what was overhead: Mars was red, Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter was the largest of all.  Only Venus was hiding from us below the horizon.

OK, you've been good so here below is a short video of the Bridge Party. It is fairly long for one of my videos, just over 9 minutes. But it shows the creek that has the pictographs above, some lively roping lessons, the dinner party was on. Listen at the end for Charlaine telling how she and the cousins prepared for the Bridge Party when all thought this gig involved playing cards.

The BIG Sunday: Part 1 - Workin' the Ranch & the ETs

Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies atop
Cone Flowers  in Cousin Tom's garden

What a fantastic day we had! It was so fun filled that I'm splitting Sunday into two posts. The day began with yet another Masterpiece meal for our breakfasts. Dave and Tom are no slouches in the kitchen I can tell you! Then, we headed out driving south on the road that runs past the house, stopping to look around when something interesting might pop up.

Gentle little hills above tree bedecked grassland

A beaver dam across a babbling brook

 Below a ridge we stopped at, were hundreds of sheep grazing peacefully. We heard lots of barking and we had to look hard at first to see who was barking.

The flocks sprawling grass pastures

Some of those sheep were doggies!

Great big ole' Great Pyrenees were guarding their flock. I always imagined there would be only one dog per flock. Come to think on it, more dogs makes more sense.

Dogs that earn every bowl of Alpo they eat.

All my wrong ideas corrected, as there were at least a half dozen of the giant guardians that barked to warn us, then went back to watching out for 'their' sheep.

Checking out the mountain view at Dunckley Pass

Carol at the Dunckley Pass overlook

We took time at Dunckley Pass to admire the distant mountain. Tom was chock full of info at every stop but for the life of me, what was that distant mountain called again?

Jonni(front left) is Queen of Selfies!

After spending time checking out the view and surroundings, we headed off again. We did a little drive by wildlife viewing.

At this point we out-of-towners though we were having a lot of fun. Then we drove over to Tom's Aunt Judy's spread. The REAL fun began! First off we were in a pen making friends with a big ole black angus bull.

Everybody wanted to feed the puppybull: a half ton of cuddly love on the hoof.

CHEESE! Or maybe HAAAAYYY! 

♫Green Acres is the place to be! ♪♪

Charlaine shows off half of American Gothic

Aunt Judy was great! We all went into the barn, built 1927. And there were dozens and dozens of great saddles, bits n' bridles, harness and other horsie stuff.

nearly a century's worth of horse tack

Judy was a font of equestrian & ranching knowledge. I asked her why many of the bits were made of copper. She told me the copper bits (held in the horse's mouth) make the animal salivate. And that the bit being all spitty had a more comfortable mouth feel for a horse. I'd asked that question back in college and no one ever had a answer for me! I think you may have to work on a ranch, rather than study books to know some of the ins and outs of such things!

We all clambered up the stairs in the old barn, which was a kick!

Charlaine headed up the stairs

The top of the barn - rather cathedral-like in my mind

 There was a big ole wasp nest (sans wasps), lots of cattle roping

Cool paper wasp nest

Nifty cattle ropin' accoutrements and an old harness

And old stories, such as the time a small child backed up & went down the chute (where hay stored up top could be dropped down into stalls). The kid was fine, the viewing adults near had heart attacks!





Then lots of photos were taken of everyone looking so cute in the upper barn door.

Outside again, Judy showed us how they brand 'em on her ranch.

The  metal thingmajig holds hot coals that heats the branding irons

Judy uses a branding iron on the dirt to show us....

The ranch's 'Quarter Z' brand. Cool!

And there was lots of puppy play, particularly between Cousin Jonni and Judy's two ranch dogs.

The younger pups wuz rompin'!

Who took this photo? Wasn't me!

Yeah, I'm just too flippin' cute!

We even spent some time - at my request as you can guess - checking out the seasonal hummingbirds back at Judy's house garden.

There were dozens of hummers like this little girlie Rufous Hummingbird

You would think we'd had enough by that point, but oh no! We said "Goodbye for now", to Judy and got back on the road.

Then we finally headed back out again

Not too far off from David & Tom's house there was a beautiful little creek, with fresh flowing mountain water... 

And if you looked up on the opposite ridge, on the hillside....







There you could see pictographs of two beings, that honestly, look like extraterrestrials (ETs). I will pause here so you can have a chance to gape in awe, just as we did.

Where IS Erich von Däniken when you need a word with him?

Most impressive petroglyphs I've ever seen anywhere! David said when he was a kid, he thought they were spacemen. From the mouths of babes, eh?

Our next stop was the nearby farm buildings that Tom's ancestors homesteaded. There was a barn, and an old lean-to corral.

There were several other buildings, built in the 20th or perhaps even the 19th century by the looks of them. All deserted and beautiful. I took a zillion artsy fartsy pix of them, but will spare you all but a few.

The last building we looked at before heading back to the house was where Tom's parents lived for while (I think!). These days it serves as a temp home for hunters. 

                                                                                  
 We took peeks into the windows to see the 1950s style kitchen that had a 1800s sort of old firewood stove (sooo cool!). Then we peeked at the back screened in porch.

There were umpteen sets of antlers, and such. There was a noose in there and we spent a good 15 minutes making sick n' silly jokes about it, but that's what 'cousins in the wild' are apt to do from time to time.


It was a great morning and afternoon, but our day wasn't even over yet. We were going back to the house to get read for an early evening Bridge Party put on by Aunt Judy for us, in our honor!