So, What’s up with Blackbeer? Did he get that #13 he had ordered?
Tom, what’s up with you man? Too busy to spend a few minutes around here? I, for one, am waiting to hear how you like that new flute you’ve got coming…
Mary 
He’s probably spending all his time getting that F# to sound sharper than the Fnat. 
Well I havent gotten it yet. It is ordered and as soon as my deposit comes back from this pasel of ancient flutes #13 will be on its way to me. I have been busy moving back to my humble dwelling after spending the last month taking care of a friends ranch and horses while he and his family spent a month in Austrailia. In the last couple of days my horse has gotten sick as a dog and it has been snowing like mad and it has just gotten a little heckdic around here. I have also just been offered a job cowboying down in Wyoming so I am playing the cant live without game. It would seem that I have a way of accumulating junk in relation to the length of time I spend in one place. Now, facing 6 months of living on the open range with room for only the bare essentials and getting back into the roaming cowboy lifestyle I have more dicisions to make than I realy want to face right now. It is funny though in that my priorities, the shape of my sadle and tack took priority, now I am enveloped in trying to design a safe environment for my flutes. In Wyoming I will be spending most of my time above 10000 feet in a, shall we say, variable invironment. Should be interesting. By next year I hope to have a shepards wagon put together with a good team of drafts and Molly in tow. Thats the plan anyhow.
I guess it has just finaly hit me that it is time to you know what or get off the pot. I am a wounderer by nature and cowboying suits me and my nature but I tend to get a bit lazy at times and forget that for me life is movement and adventure and salatude. Lucky for me my skills, though antiquated, allow me this type of freedom. That freedom of course is to travel in time. Back in time if you will. I realize that what there is left of the real world is fast disapearing and I have a chance to be a part of its final breath. Cant pass that up. Besides I dont fit in the new order. So I guess I have been trying to get my head screwed on right for the days ahead. I will for sure let you know when the traverso lands and give my impressions and all that.
Tom
Wow, Tom, how about that ?
I lived in Wyoming back in the day, around Rock Springs… Are you going to be in Lander country, or up around Cody or Sheridan? That is one state that time forgot, no worries there. Anyway, I loved it at the time. Too isolated for me now.
Well, be sure and keep us updated 
Remember ~ it is very very DRY there!
( Let me know if you need a place to store your flutes and whistles while you’re away, you have a lot invested in them Hope Molly gets well soon)
Mary
Hello Tom, it looks like you’ll need one of the plastic flutes next, to carry in your saddle’s rifle pouch!
Hear is the web site Mary of the place where I have been asked to work:
http://www.diamond4ranch.com
If I go in April I will be breaking horses for a coupld of months, then it will be deal with the dudes time untill around October or so. I will pm you about what Im thinking wooden flute wise. I do have a couple of plastic flutes that will fill the bill but I hate the thought of not having the rosewood Dixon with me. It is such a sweatheart of a flute. But we will see. I havent realy said yes yet to the job. I have a couple of horses I need to work with here and Ill see how my old body works when it comes to crunch time. I havent had to many horses that I have trained do much bucking and only one that realy threatened me with bodily harm but I am at the age where things don`t heal quite as fast as they used to. And those 2 year old colts can be a handful. But it sure is fun
Tom
Definitely take your wooden flutes; they’ll be ok, and if they crack they can be fixed. Beautiful pictures in the site! Keep us updated.
Looks really nice up there! Go for it and I’ll
carry the bags. Yes, take a wooden flute, I say. Best
SO, that looks like what I remember! Nice country, there.
Be waiting to hear from ya!
Mary
Wow, sure looks great! Any use for a scandinavian Computer Cowboy up there? I’m sure I can learn how to showel horsie stuff… 
BTW, whats a “Dude Rancher”…? I would be able to guess the meaning of “ranch dude”, but…
Eivind, foreigner
that brung back memories of William Gibson’s console cowboys. Jack on!
From what i surmise from movies, etc, a dude ranch is a ranch where city slickers can spend a few days getting their butts sore, pretending to be cowboys. 
You got it right glauber. I will be taking city folks out into the wilderness so they can dabble around in the garden. We also do pack trilps for fisherman and hunters. If I take the job and go in April it will be none stop horse training for 6 weeks or so before the dudes start showing up. As I understand it, from a friend who worked there for 5 years, there is no bunkhouse so my home will be a tent for the duration. I have a few days to decide and my biggest problem is the fact that I would have to leave the 20 draft horses I work with now and that will be hard to do. I have been with these guys for 6 years and they are very under my skin. There is a huge difference between saddle horses and draft horses, and I dont mean just size. It takes a long time to build the trust we have in eachother and the thought of someone else working with the boys doesnt realy sit well with me. There is this almost magical link that happens between team and driver. They know what to expect from me and I with them. When I`m at a plowing be or thrashing be or whatever I can alway tell if I want to meet someone or not by the way their horses act. There are so many different training methods and so many different phylosophies about dealing with these gentle giants and of course I figure mine is the best. Anyway we shall see.
Tom