10.02.10 Cowboy Camping

This past weekend we went out to Marc's family ranch out on the Utah-Nevada border.  I've heard about this 3,000 acre farm since we started dating but had yet to see it.  Marc's cousin and his wife live out there and run the farm.  Marc, me, and his three friends from high school camped out on a remote part of the ranch.  I felt like a real cowboy, camping out on "the range".  It really made me want to move out to a place like this.  Too bad Marc hates farm work, and I'm sure I'd get tired of being so far away from everything after a while.

This is a far away shot of the farm house and stables.  I wanted to get more photos of this area and the cows, but we were hardly ever over there, and it was too far to walk from where we were camping.

There was a time when I would have thought this wasn't so pretty and would rather be in a big city any day.  Yet, lately I've found country life so much more appealing.  It just seems so much less complicated.

Aside from spending hours at night hunting rabbits, the boys spent much of their time shooting things and blowing things up.  I didn't shoot any bunnies, but I did shoot one of those exploding targets which was pretty exhilarating.

This is one of the many fish Marc caught at the fishing hole.

And this is the very first fish I ever caught.  The other two I caught afterward were about the same size.

The fish pond wasn't the best water to swim in, so luckily there is a swimming hole from the natural spring flowing down the mountain.

Farther down the stream, I found some great mud.

There was brief rain storm and we had to scramble to put a tarp over our tent since we forgot the rainfly. Marc got inside and the wind was so bad most of the time the tent was nearly flat on the ground.

Moose, Jay, and Winkie crowded inside the truck during the storm while laughing and Marc's little predicament.  The rain really wasn't that heavy, so I saw no reason to find shelter.

One of the cowboys who works out on the ranch has 25 horses alone.  These foals were so scared of me.  They gathered together on the far end of the coral to get away from me.

Marc lived on the ranch for a whole month the summer after he graduated from high school.  He was out there all by himself since this was before his cousin moved out there.  I just can't believe he lived out there for a whole month and never got up in this tree house.  Unfortunately, I never got out the tree house to test it out myself.

I loved the cowboy camping.  Hopefully we'll be able to go more often next spring and summer.