efb said:
Glad to hear from you, was having withdrawl. Pictures are great as always. Wish I could make myself post some. What is the town with the elevator ? How far are you from it ? What kind of supplys can you get there ? Also, looks like the horse rolling isn't wearing shoes. Is that true for all your horses ?
Thanks again, hope you keep good grass and water all summer.
The little town is Merriman. The population sign reads 118 people, down from about 260 when I was a youngster. The Chicago & North Western railroad used to go through town, but it has since been abandoned and the tracks have all been picked up. Merriman is still in the Sandhills of northern Nebraska, but the South Dakota state line is just six miles north. The Sandhills extend into South Dakota for a few miles, but on to the north is good wheat producing country. Wheat is hauled down to Merriman, to the elevator, where it used to be loaded onto rail cars. Now it is loaded onto trucks, but there is not nearly the grain business that once happened.
Other businesses in Merriman are a gas station that does a large bulk delivery business with full-time mechanic and convenience store, one cafe, one bar, a ranch supply store, my son's welding shop, and another mechanic's shop, a bank, and the post office. The state highway department has several employees and a shop at Merriman, and so does the county road department. Merriman is a nice place to call home, even if it is sparsely populated. Maybe I like it so well
because it is sparsely populated. :wink:
We live quite a few miles from town, but for the past couple summers I have leased a little pasture right nearby where we run a few yearling heifers and a couple bulls. That is why the grain elevator was in such close proximatey to the cattle pictures.
Since we live in a sandy softly-sodded area, we don't need to shoe our horses. Some ranches sharp-shoe their horses when the ground gets icy, but we never do.
