Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 9/21-22-23/08

Sunday Monday and Tuesday were kind of a blur. Cold mornings, warm and sunny afternoons. Our tomatoes have been damamged by the frost so the ones i picked off the vine are the last. the growing season over here is a lot shorter than in the valley.
We have been having about 12-14 folks every day this week which is a good number considering the time of year and location. All have been adults except for Saturday. Many folks are here for the first time which is fun for us because we get to tell the whole story. Others have been here many times, but still like to hear all or part of the story of the ranch and Pete French.
We are still learning from every group that comes by. For example, Saturday I learned about an area up near Burns called Island Ranch Road. When the government offered land to settlers/ ranchers with programs like the Homestead Act of 1862, they offered them 160 acres. At the same time, the Swamp Act offered twice as much land, 320 acres, because a swampy area would be harder to cultivate or graze. So to prove you have a swamp, you had to take a boat across it. So the enterprizing rancher that wanted that land loaded a boat in the back of a wagon, and went across the land. He then went to the courthouse and signed a paper sayng that he had, indeed, taken a boat across the land so he recieved the 320 acres. These are the stories that make our job fun and interesting.