Danni earns her spurs...times 10

There comes a time in every 7MSN ranchsitter's life when she earns her spurs. 

In Danni's case, that happened this weekend...again and again and again and again.

The chain of events began around noon on Saturday. My friend Janice drove out to the ranch to visit,

but somebody developed a fever that wouldn't go down, and somebody's doctor told her to get herself to the ER 

for labs to be done. So while Janice drove me to Albuquerque, Danni stayed back at the ranch to wait for Shorty, 

the farrier. On one of Danni's previous visits, Shorty had come to trim everybody's hooves, so she knew the drill; 

she would halter Lucy and Hank and lead them to the back porch for their trims, 

and she would get Alan and George haltered and penned at the barn. No problem.

Until a great big snake crawled up the screen on the dining room window. Smooch was inside the house 

at the time and made sure Danni knew there was trouble. Danni assessed the situation, recognized that the snake 

had to be removed before Shorty arrived or if Smooch was to ever go outside again, 

then gathered her wits and other necessary equipment to wrangle the snake. 

Of course she had her phone with her to take pictures. 

She got the snake lassoed...

...and deposited in the can. Just about then, I called her from the ER to give her an update. She may have been panting when she answered the phone. Said Danni, "I swear to you, I saw AND heard rattling when I was trying to catch it. Must've been my teeth."
I assured her that bull snakes are infamous for mimicking the sounds of a rattler as a defense mechanism.

Anyway, with the snake out of the way, Shorty came and did his thing.

Danni reports that everyone was on their best behavior.

Now most people would have called it a day at this point and curled up in a fetal position on the couch

with a glass of wine. But not Danni. She decided it was a good time to sweep several weeks of accumulated mud 

off of the garage floor. It may have not been a good time to turn on the garage lights to do so.

She was bombarded by bugs. But ranchsitter extraordinaire that she is, she took pictures so that I could see 

what kind of bugs they were. Then she ran back into the house, only to have the door handle pull off in her hand. What else? 

Meanwhile, back in the ER, a CT scan verified that my incision site was infected and I needed to be admitted
so that copious amounts of antibiotics could be dripped into my veins. I also learned that the surgeon would visit on Sunday
to check the site and remove staples. Bummer. I was looking forward to that DIY project.

So Sunday morning rolls around and Danni decides it's as good a time as any 

to take the can of snake to snake-release point.

Smooch wished Danni good luck, then she was on her way.

A few more of these trips and I'm betting the white-knuckle death grip on the steering wheel won't be necessary.

Says Danni, "I drove to the location you described and opened the lid. He didn't want to come out at first.
I could only get a couple shots before he disappeared into the brush. I miss him already. Just kidding.
Then I went back to the ranch, feeling pretty darn happy."

 "I may have been a bit over-zealous in the cinching of the strap.
The image you gave me of the lid opening during transit was burned into my brain."

"Upon my return from the snake release, I drove the Ranger around the perimeter of your property
to check the fence line."

"Everything looked great except for this one section, where the bottom tape is stretched and hanging low."

"And then there's this interesting hole in the low hanging part of the tape."

I'll presume the pronghorn poked his prong right through it. I told Danni not to worry about it;
we'd go over fence re-stretching and repair upon my return, which should be today or tomorrow.

Danni sent me this picture of the herd so I could play
"Where's Waldo Hank, Lucy, George and Alan?" in my spare time.

By all accounts Sunday was a less eventful day at the ranch than Saturday.
Smooch helped Danni get her clean laundry dirty.