If there is one thing I know, it’s this:  mix one part kids, one part dogs, add water and a hot summer day, and you have yourself some good, old-fashioned fun!

We are well into our hot, dry summer so there was nothing to be done but head for the river.  While we waited for people to rendezvous at our house, I packed food and drinks.  Butterfly packed her gold-panning equipment.  Electric Horseman loaded chairs and floatation devices into Dusty.

 

Half the fun is getting there. 

 

What dust?

Ok, half the fun for the kids is getting there.  They didn't mind the dusty road one little bit.

 

I took this picture while the vehicle caravan was stopped to go through one of several locked gates on the ranch.  I knew that now was the time, while kids and dogs were stuck in Dusty.  Once we reached our destination they would scatter.

 

our destination

 

So far we have the kids, we have the dogs, and now we have the water.

 

Heaven!

 

Instantly there were kids and dogs in the water.  Look, Mayday has a stick!  What a surprise!

 

Psycho Cowboy’s better half was down-river, panning for gold.

 

Butterfly loads up for a lift downstream

 

Psycho offered to give Butterfly a ride to join her in the hunt to strike it rich.  Carly was not about to let Butterfly out of her sight.

 

He then returned to take me and Fifinella for a little tour of all the improvements that had been made for the resident bison herd (about two dozen).

 

Why are there always dogs looking at us?

 

I suggested to Fifinella that she put a beach towel under her behind because I knew Psycho would not be going slowly over the “speed bumps”. 

 

“I know it says not to do this somewhere in the manual,” she replied, as we flew up the hill.  Kids, don’t try this at home.

 

We hit a “straight and level” spot and Psycho gunned it.  I held my camera up blindly behind me and hoped it was pointing at her.

 

a "behind my head" shot

 

“She’s still smiling,” I laughingly told Psycho.

 

He went faster.

 

We have lift-off!

 

Ok.  I admit it.  She just did that for me.  She wasn’t screaming.  I WAS!!!!  And I was slapping Psycho on the back and telling him to slow down.  I told him I did not want to end up dead, or crippled, unable to continue spinning yarns. 

 

A drink with a view

 

Here we see one of the two new water troughs.  A well has been put in and Psycho comes once a week with a generator to fill the troughs.  There is a creek that meanders through the lower part of their fields, but it gets pretty low in the late summer, so it’s nice to have these as a back-up water source.  Notice the nice smoky haze we are still suffering.

 

all it needs is some hay

 

Now there’s a cute little hay barn for storage.  We wished Psycho good luck keeping the bison out of the barn.

 

it's best to stay on/in your vehicles

 

don't mess with mama's baby

 

on the move!

 

we're outnumbered - let's go!

 

guess what Mayday is still doing?

 

Back at the river, Mayday is still swimming.  And oh, look, she has a stick!  What a surprise!

 

This time Lucky has joined her.  This was his first trip to the river and he absolutely loved it.  He was delighted to have a giant body of water seemingly just for him.  He was in and out, in and out, all day long.

 

I'm happy!

 

Barney is having a ball, as you can tell from this picture.  Pardon me?  You can’t tell?  What’s wrong with you? You  remind me of Barney’s first vet in France, who told me while she was working on a very, very sick Barney one day that her goal was to put a happy face on him.  Several weeks later, when he had finally recovered from that first illness, his face still looked the same – like he had just come from a funeral.  I told her, “I’m sorry, I think we’re stuck with this face, no matter how he feels.”

 

Barney doesn’t like to swim, but he does enjoy “hunting” or at least his version of it.  He wallows around at the edge of the water, snuffling through the weeds, looking for we know not what.  He then jumps with surprise when a frog leaps out, or when he spies a fish.  He can amuse himself for hours.

 

Why is it that food always tastes so much better at a picnic?  Could it be because you’re starving?

 

Romeo begs

 

Some of us were being tormented by meat bees.  The boys were hiding under their towels to eat their lunch.  Perhaps it fooled the bees, but it did not fool Romeo for one minute.  He went right under those towels looking for food!  Bad dog!  I do not like the dogs begging for food.  I have to tell people all the time to stop feeding the dogs.

 

Bottoms up!

 

Electric Horseman poured wine for everyone else and then apparently we ran out of glasses.

 

Yum!

 

Lucky enjoyed his lunch-time carrot.

 

Tailgate Queen

 

I’m not quite sure what’s going on here, but it looks like one is saying “I am Queen of the Tailgate!” while the other is her subject. 

 

Once again after lunch we had no choice but to go swimming.

 

Launch of the SS Butterfly

 

Butterfly was disgusted with her inability to find gold nuggets, so grabbed her tube and joined us.  Carly stuck close by, but not being a water dog, she was happy to stay on shore.

 

Lucky was delighted to see everyone in the water and he came in to just swim big lazy circles around us all.

 

Romeo kept swimming up to me and looking at me with his big sad eyes.  I was floating on a noodle at one point and he swam over, grabbed the end of the noodle, and took me to the shore!  It’s nice to know that we have a rescue dog in case we ever need it.

 

Mayday FINALLY goes swimming

 

Mayday’s swimming and look, she has a stick!  What a surprise!

 

When it came time to go, kids and dogs had to be dragged out of the water. It seems there’s  never a good time to end a fun day, but it just makes the anticipation of the next one all the sweeter.