It’s been awhile:
Let me get you caught up on the Heil’s in New Mexico. We had a very busy summer, with Gary getting the hay up, cut, put away and sold ( still have some for sale any takers?), Megan was busy with her new business line, making jewelry and rust dying in silk scarves. Megan entered her sculpture in the County Fair and took best of show and a $200.00 prize.
We went to the yearly Cowboy Symposium in Ruidoso, NM not on a chuck wagon cooking team but just to look around. Our friend rode two horses in the Extreme Cowboy competition. It was fun to watch.
Mac and I left October 15th for Winner South Dakota for the opening of pheasant season on the 17th. We stopped in Fr. Morgan, Co. at Megan’s brother Cary’s farm and spent the night before driving on to Winner. It was a pretty uneventful drive as I had learned my lesson in Nebraska last year ($169.00 speeding ticket) hey what can I say it was a two lane highway with no one on it but a bunch of bird hunters heading to SD. I did not see the airplane in the sky so I got nabbed. Not this year. I arrived at the Meyer’s Harter Ranch on Friday afternoon. It is like my second home that I visit once a year. Wayne, Georgia (parents) John, Tammy (son in law and daughter) are the most hospitable people I know. Opening their home to a bunch of old hunters (me being the youngest of the old) is a true warm fuzzy feeling like know other. We enjoyed the joking, story telling like all good hunting camps, just a bunch of boasting and lying (lol). The hunting was outstanding as it is every year and this was my 11th year.
Opening day. The bucket was used as our step into the truck. (old fat guys and bad knees)
John Harter and the dogs we hunted with.
One my best friends Chuck Sigafoos with Lexy.
While here at the ranch we try to do a project that would help out the ranch. This year we were to put up two garage doors. With some modifying we got the bosses (Georgia) side up and working so her car would be out of the weather. Which had snowed and rained before we got there then got foggy, rainy, and misty while we were there. We only got the hole plugged on the second door and I hear Wayne has been trying to fix what was not done right. Does anyone want to hire some old farts for special projects? I am afraid we will have to just wash windows next time and we may not get that right. Plus know one is allowed on a ladder with more than two rungs.
Well after we all said our goodbyes and see you next year, I left for Montana to meet up with Megan who had flown from Roswell to Billings a few days before my arrival. It was a quick trip in on Thursday the 22nd. I got to visit with my youth bowling league and my men’s league on Thursday afternoon and evening. We went to dinner with my mom, dad, our neighbors Tom & Darlene (who’s house we stayed overnight at; well I guess just me as Megan had been there before I was and used their vehicles to get around) Elvira from across the street & our son John to Olive Garden as we don’t have one in Roswell and we both like the food.
The next morning Megan, John and I headed for Big Fork, Mt to see out other son Lewy; his wife Jessica and of course our grandson Eli. Eli had turned two while Papa was hunting so we did not get to celebrate with him on his day. But we made up for it once we got there. Plus Grandma had been shopping in Billings for new clothes for him.
Eli driving his big green tractor.
John talked Lewy into going hunting while there. I stayed home and played with Eli, he bring such joy to my heart. We all thank everyone and God for bringing him out of his battle with E coli. With out your prayers and God listening we may have not had him to celebrate his many more birthdays.
Lewy and John did not get anything opening day nor did John get anything while we were there. So after 5 days we had to head towards Billings, we hooked up our cargo trailer to haul home to Roswell. John was heading south with us so we put all his stuff into the trailer when we got back.
Friday night I went and saw the rest of my bowling friends as we were leaving Saturday for home. John had traded for a 1982 GMC and was going to drive it to Shrive Port La., where he is moving back to.
Now we are getting into the exciting part of the story.
John’s truck was not a very pretty truck; you know what you get for $500 bucks.
But it seemed to run well, he and a friend had been working on it so it could make the trip. All went well until we got to Cheyenne Wyo. There the truck started to run a little rough so we pulled into the rest stop to see what was going on. John thought it was out of tune or something. So we started fiddling with it. After awhile I started calling my friends in Roswell who worked on vehicles a lot for some advice. We finally got in touch with Megan’s brother Cary in Ft. Morgan. He was giving us directions on how to adjust the distributor to make the truck run smoother. It seemed to work and it was dark and getting cold standing there in the wind so we took off heading for Denver or as far as we could get. We ended up in Ft Collins, Co. for the night as the truck seemed to get worse.
Sunday morning I find a guy that does mechanical services on Sunday. He came buy re timed the truck and fixed a few other things to get us down the road. We leave and go 7 miles and the truck dies on a frontage road at a stop light. I push John through the intersection into a Van car pool parking lot. Call the mechanic and he comes to us. They work on it for an hour. Tell us that it really does not sound to good, the starter was on it’s last leg, the cam sounded worn out, you could go on & on about all the bad things. Anyway while there Megan calls her brother Cary and told him what was going on. I don’t know how the conversation went but he ended up offering John money for this truck as he was looking for parts to fix one up he has. Deal was done. We head towards Ft. Morgan, only 60 miles away. We get to Windsor, Co and the truck dies on the side of the road. I have to jump start it and we get going to a big parking lot which ended up being a Safeway grocery store. We call Cary and said we did not think the truck could get to Ft. Morgan driving it, so he said to leave it there and he would get it in a couple of days. I talked to the Manager and asked if we could do that, we were given permission to just leave the truck there.
Broke down out side Windsor Co.
Finally around 2pm we start down the road with John all his stuff out of the truck, his dog Gage, Megan, Mac and I. We drove and drove it seemed like we would never make it to Roswell. Finally around 11 pm., we made it. Yeah!
John works for me a couple of days cleaning up my hay barn area of dead tree’s and junk. Then he got a job building fence for a friend of ours on his ranch south of Roswell. John worked for about 4 day’s fencing then finished up the hay barn. He left for Shreve Port LA., with our car. Hopefully we get it back soon
That’s all for now from New Mexico. Have a Happy and Safe Holiday.
John Harter and the dogs we hunted with.
One my best friends Chuck Sigafoos with Lexy.
While here at the ranch we try to do a project that would help out the ranch. This year we were to put up two garage doors. With some modifying we got the bosses (Georgia) side up and working so her car would be out of the weather. Which had snowed and rained before we got there then got foggy, rainy, and misty while we were there. We only got the hole plugged on the second door and I hear Wayne has been trying to fix what was not done right. Does anyone want to hire some old farts for special projects? I am afraid we will have to just wash windows next time and we may not get that right. Plus know one is allowed on a ladder with more than two rungs.
Well after we all said our goodbyes and see you next year, I left for Montana to meet up with Megan who had flown from Roswell to Billings a few days before my arrival. It was a quick trip in on Thursday the 22nd. I got to visit with my youth bowling league and my men’s league on Thursday afternoon and evening. We went to dinner with my mom, dad, our neighbors Tom & Darlene (who’s house we stayed overnight at; well I guess just me as Megan had been there before I was and used their vehicles to get around) Elvira from across the street & our son John to Olive Garden as we don’t have one in Roswell and we both like the food.
The next morning Megan, John and I headed for Big Fork, Mt to see out other son Lewy; his wife Jessica and of course our grandson Eli. Eli had turned two while Papa was hunting so we did not get to celebrate with him on his day. But we made up for it once we got there. Plus Grandma had been shopping in Billings for new clothes for him.
Eli driving his big green tractor.
John talked Lewy into going hunting while there. I stayed home and played with Eli, he bring such joy to my heart. We all thank everyone and God for bringing him out of his battle with E coli. With out your prayers and God listening we may have not had him to celebrate his many more birthdays.
Lewy and John did not get anything opening day nor did John get anything while we were there. So after 5 days we had to head towards Billings, we hooked up our cargo trailer to haul home to Roswell. John was heading south with us so we put all his stuff into the trailer when we got back.
Friday night I went and saw the rest of my bowling friends as we were leaving Saturday for home. John had traded for a 1982 GMC and was going to drive it to Shrive Port La., where he is moving back to.
Now we are getting into the exciting part of the story.
John’s truck was not a very pretty truck; you know what you get for $500 bucks.
But it seemed to run well, he and a friend had been working on it so it could make the trip. All went well until we got to Cheyenne Wyo. There the truck started to run a little rough so we pulled into the rest stop to see what was going on. John thought it was out of tune or something. So we started fiddling with it. After awhile I started calling my friends in Roswell who worked on vehicles a lot for some advice. We finally got in touch with Megan’s brother Cary in Ft. Morgan. He was giving us directions on how to adjust the distributor to make the truck run smoother. It seemed to work and it was dark and getting cold standing there in the wind so we took off heading for Denver or as far as we could get. We ended up in Ft Collins, Co. for the night as the truck seemed to get worse.
Sunday morning I find a guy that does mechanical services on Sunday. He came buy re timed the truck and fixed a few other things to get us down the road. We leave and go 7 miles and the truck dies on a frontage road at a stop light. I push John through the intersection into a Van car pool parking lot. Call the mechanic and he comes to us. They work on it for an hour. Tell us that it really does not sound to good, the starter was on it’s last leg, the cam sounded worn out, you could go on & on about all the bad things. Anyway while there Megan calls her brother Cary and told him what was going on. I don’t know how the conversation went but he ended up offering John money for this truck as he was looking for parts to fix one up he has. Deal was done. We head towards Ft. Morgan, only 60 miles away. We get to Windsor, Co and the truck dies on the side of the road. I have to jump start it and we get going to a big parking lot which ended up being a Safeway grocery store. We call Cary and said we did not think the truck could get to Ft. Morgan driving it, so he said to leave it there and he would get it in a couple of days. I talked to the Manager and asked if we could do that, we were given permission to just leave the truck there.
Broke down out side Windsor Co.
Finally around 2pm we start down the road with John all his stuff out of the truck, his dog Gage, Megan, Mac and I. We drove and drove it seemed like we would never make it to Roswell. Finally around 11 pm., we made it. Yeah!
John works for me a couple of days cleaning up my hay barn area of dead tree’s and junk. Then he got a job building fence for a friend of ours on his ranch south of Roswell. John worked for about 4 day’s fencing then finished up the hay barn. He left for Shreve Port LA., with our car. Hopefully we get it back soon
That’s all for now from New Mexico. Have a Happy and Safe Holiday.
