By Patty Wilber
We had a most amazing time in La Paz, Mexico, with our good friends the Kingsburys, plus Ian. We swam with whale sharks (giant gentle plankton eaters, not razor-toothed carnivores!), then we did a five day kayak trip with beach camping, snorkling, a pod of 1000s of dolphins, breaching whales, a fever of 1000s of manta rays, swimming with sealions, blue-footed boobies, diving pelicans, frigate birds, live coral, many fish, sting rays, turtles and more. It was wondrous! Sea Kayak Adventures. Highly recommend!
I didn’t get homesick because the trip had so many highlights, but I was really happy to get here and get back to the barn!
And fix things.
I got the CowTrac fixed! I had called CowTrac for advice. As I talked on the phone, they had me text photographs of my setup, and from those, told me what to change. Jim replaced the bent bolt on one of the rollers, and I properly installed the new flag. And now it goes around the corner of my pen like a champ! Gette says it works too well because she didn’t get a break since the flag never fell off.
The orange roller had a bent bolt (you can see it is angled) and that might have been contributing to poor performance around the corner. Jim replaced the bolt for me, and it is now straight! Also, I’d attached this flag with wire, and the wire would catch on the crooked orange roller, knocking the flag off.
The new CowTrac flag is installed continuously with the line (as per the instructions…let’s not go there on why the flag has always been installed improperly…). Now the flag goes past those straight orange rollers absolutely seamlessly. It’s going to help me help Gette DRIVE the flag around the corner!
I also got my favorite cow horse saddle repaired by TaWillow Romero. I was saddling up Tuesday, when I noticed I had a tear in one of my stirrup leathers. I got the saddle to TaWillow on Wednesday, and by Thursday it was done! (Bonus: she also cleaned it .) I am happy to have it back in time to work cows at the Paint show on Saturday.
You can see the tear at the top of the holes on the left.
Happy Friday!
