Pottery

Judy generously let the kids and me play with clay in her studio. Rhiannon made a luminaria, Tryfan made a bowl, and I made a butter dish.

We were all SO excited to open up the kiln on our last day and see how they turned out!

Target practice

Joe took the kids out to do some target practice with a real .22 rifle!  I wasn't there, but apparently they did real well.

Trail ride

Joe took the kids and me on a trail ride around the property. We had a good time shouting random things as we rode through bear country - making up names for the bears, Carmen and Killian, and then playing vocabulary games later on. It was gorgeous and fun.

Fishing

Rhodri took the kids fishing up in the pond on the property and came back with 3 big ones!  At the time, I was busy playing with clay in Judy's studio so let them to it. I'm not much of a pond fisherman anyway, but I'm glad they got to go. This particular day was really hot, though, and Rhiannon was especially grouchy about being dragged along.

We ended up giving them fish to Nick so that he could smoke them and serve on Saturday for the birthday party.

Montana horses

The kids can now go and catch the horses from the pastures on their own and bring them down to the stable, as well as take them back and set them free.

Riding videos

Here is Rhiannon riding:

And here is Tryfan riding:

USA Day 14: Riding lesson

Today Uncle Joe gave the kids a riding lesson which started with catching the horses from their pastures, grooming them, saddling up and then going up to the arena to do some ground work. After a few minutes of getting the horses to 'latch on', they got up in the saddles and rode around in circles.

 Both kids loved riding the horses and learning from Joe, but Rhiannon is a real cowgirl at heart.

USA Day 13: Montana cattle drive!

We arrived last night around 6pm to Arrow Mtn Ranch and received such a warm welcome from Joe and Judy. They settled us in to our living quarters, then fed us a delicious dinner. We played 'Mao' after dinner and agreed a plan for the next morning when they needed to move 40 cows + their babies to another pasture. So we all woke up at 6am this morning to be out on the horses at 7 am. In reality we ended up delaying the departure a little bit so that the sun had time to come over the mountains and warm us up.

Getting familiar with Bud

 Joe and Judy rode horses; Rhiannon, Tryfan and Gary the ranch manager drove the Kabuta; and Rhodri and I drove the truck with Lily the dog in the bed.

Saddled up and ready to go

 Rhodri and I drove around the back side of the hill and met them at the far corner of one of the pastures, while the other 5 of us gathered the cows and herded them towards the far corner where Rhodri and I were. It was pretty thrilling to hear and then see the 80 cows coming up over the brow of the hill!

 Our next task was to calmly open the pasture gate and let them out, then drive them down the dirt road to another pasture.  It definitely took all of us to make this operation go smoothly! Joe (on Twist) was on the far right side, Judy (on Pete) was on the far left, Rhiannon driving the Kabuta was on the middle right, I was walking/ running on the middle left, Tryfan was the back left and Rhodri in the truck was the back right.

We got all of them into the new pasture, Gary closed the gate and we headed back to the ranch! Job done!

We were done by 10:30 am after having been mentally prepared for an operation that was estimated to take until noon if everything was going well! We had a nice lunch back at the ranch and then spent the afternoon taking naps, reading, playing dominoes and snacking. Maura & Steve came over for dinner to join us that night and it felt like a party.

USA Day 12: Seattle to Arrow Mtn Ranch

Will advised us to leave plenty of time ahead of our 11:45 am flight, so we left the house at 8 to get to the Hertz place by 8:30 and have time to battle traffic. That was good advice, and we had an interesting Uber ride to the airport from the Hertz rental place with 'Angela'. When I first connected with her, she was very abrupt and grouchy so I quickly warned Rhodri as we were loading our 8 bags into her teeny tiny Prius! The kids and I sat in the back seat with our largest bag across our three laps while Rhodri sat shotgun and worked his charm.

Angela turned out to be a pretty interesting person who was in the process of cashing in her work and life in Seattle in order to hit the road in a kitted out camper van. Anyway, we had a good chat making our way through morning traffic.

We arrived in Billings around 2:30 pm, picked up our rental car and headed towards Bridger. On the way we realized that we still didn't have any cowboy/ riding boots for Tryfan, so we stopped a few different places and then gave up and just headed to the ranch. Boy were we glad to arrive into the welcoming arms of Aunt Judy and Uncle Joe!

USA Day 11: Manson to Seattle

We had a good sleep last night and then got up for breakfast with Christy and Rocky (although they had been up for awhile already) so that we could depart at 9 am. Our mission was to get to Cabela's north of Seattle for a 3 hr shopping trip for Rhodri. We stopped at a little place along Hwy 2 to have some ice cream and use the bathroom inside the nearby grocery store, then made it to the Everett branch of Cabela's around 1:30 pm. All good!  Fortunately, Rhodri showed good restraint and we didn't spend a huge amount of money at Cabela's. We got to Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle around 4:30 and Rhiannon & I did some quick shopping back at Fred Meyer's, then picked up dinner for everyone at Gordito's (the baby burrito place again!). We had a mellow, enjoyable evening with the NGans family, just talking and planning the further parts of our journey when we will get to Wyoming. A good transition day for us, and what a bonus to get to spend time again with Will & Rebecca & Phoebe & Ingrid. It's been so great to be with these guys.

USA Day 10: Stehekin to Manson

Today was the sad day that we left Stehekin and said goodbye to Grandma Bucky.

We took the slow boat downlake.

The boat was pretty crowded by the time we got on so we joined a couple at the front table and then the kids ended up playing cards with them for the entire 4 hour trip! Becky and Jason were the lucky couple, and it turns out that Jason is a musician with his own Wikipedia page (we didn't find that out until later that night when we looked him up online). 

Danita, Crystal & Piper were on the boat also, as was our friend Cragg, so Rhodri and I had a good time catching up with all these good people during the long ride downlake.  When we finally got to Chelan, we found our car and made our way over to the Boat Shop where we were greeted by beautiful FAMILY, in the true Lake Chelan tradition.

After pizza, beer/ soda and a couple of hours of storytelling and catching up, we followed Christy & Rocky to their house and settled in for the night.

USA Day 9: Stehekin Square Dance

The BHHF (Buckner Homestead Heritage Foundation) sponsored another square dance this year, same as what we went to a few years ago. Again it was the 'Chelanigans' playing live music and a caller who was telling us all what to do. There was a pretty good turnout - around 100 people - and it was a windy and cool evening actually.

The kids and the Reiters went down a bit early to set up and they met their 3rd cousin called Piper, along with Danita and Crystal (Piper's grandmother and mother respectively).  We all danced enthusiastically and it was really fun, and even though it started spitting rain partway through the dance, the rain felt good and kept people moving. Grandma Bucky chose to watch from the shelter of Bruce's cab, and various people came to sit and keep her company.

Earlier in the day, Rhodri and I went for a run around the Rainbow Loop Trail, and that was a good workout.

It was also really smoky today, which detracted from the normally stunning views from the loop trail looking downlake. 

USA Day 8: Stehekin

We said goodbye to Will, Rebecca, Phoebe & Ingrid today although we will see them again in a few days.  So we had a morning of packing and cleaning up, then stop at the Bakery for lunch, then all down to the Landing to browse the shops and see them off on the Slow Boat.

 It was a beautiful day and quite windy, but great.

And then it was just the 5 of us left. Actually, Rhiannon and Tryfan spent the afternoon up at the Ranch with Lily where they played dominoes all afternoon and ended up meeting an interesting lady named Marcy.

Marcy had ridden into the valley on her own pack train of horses, and actually she and her husband were on a tour of sorts across the USA where they were riding their horses into remote places. She was a very friendly and interesting lady who was really into 'gaited' horses, and she invited us to come up and meet them and hear all about how each of them came into her life. Meeting people like this is one of the things I really appreciate about traveling.

USA Day 7: Stehekin

Today we went up the road. We parked at the end of the road and just fished up and down the river, spending most of the time up by Shady Camp where there were loads of big juicy huckleberries, sandy beach (ex-campsite) area, and plenty of shade.

 Getting up past Car Wash Falls was a bit challenging, especially with the little ones, but we all made it up and back safely.

The only sad thing is that the road doesn't go all the way up to Cottonwood anymore, and so much of the upper valley is not accessible to those of us with children or less mobile grandparents. Maybe some day it will get repaired.

Anyway, to finish off today, we all went to the Ranch for dinner and this is always a treat! 

USA Day 6: Stehekin

Today we did a few different things around the lake and it turned out to be sort of an epic day.

We did another Expotition, this time over to visit Dave Wilson at Weaver Point. It was kind of an ordeal getting over there, since it was a bit windy and there were a lot of us. We invited G-Buck to come with, but she declined and it was probably just as well. It turned out to be kind of a dodgey trip.

 We didn't take photos of the dodgy part, which was the way back after visiting Dave. The wind had really kicked up by then and we had more of us in the row boat, then the oarlocks popped out of their sockets! Poor Rhods was the only one rowing, and we were just barely moving the right direction. It took a Long Time to get back to the other shore and both he and I ended up bruised and blistered from the journey (I was holding the oarlocks in place), but we provided entertainment to anyone who was on the shore watching our struggle!

Later that afternoon I found Laura and G-Buck in Karl's garden buying vegetables for dinner. He has some crazy flowers that are the size of dinner plates.

After dinner, Bob took us all sailing on his boat. It was a gorgeous evening with incredible light and we sailed back and forth for about 45 minutes. He is an excellent teacher, especially with kids, and we felt so lucky that he invited us out this evening.

Laura took these good pictures of everyone on the boat - thanks Laura!