Mountain Man and The One Eyed Horse

Over the weekend the kids and I drove three hours north to spend the day with my "little" brother Mountain Man. We are both 1000 miles from any other family so we spend as much time together as we can.

Mountain Man and his trusty sidekick Flash!

My brother kept us busy! He took us to the park to play and for a picnic and then we went for ice cream and then out for dinner than evening. He also took us to the local museum, all Kansas towns have em'. I won't bore you with all the photos but just share the highlights.

A different kind of windmill.

The biggest barn in Kansas which also has the biggest haymow. We baled hay as teenagers and we were glad we didn't have to fill this haymow!

The highlight of our day was meeting Mountain Man's one eyed horse, Dot. We drove out to the feedlot where my brother works and spent a couple hours riding Dot.

Yahoo didn't last five minutes on the horse but I was at least able to get a good picture!

Dot is an older horse but beautiful and patient. The only problem she caused was trying to walk back to the barn. She'd much rather been in the shade than working in the sun. I can't say I blame her. The boys though didn't want to stop; they would have rode all day and night if we'd let them.

I took a turn too but mostly I let the boys have all the fun.

Mountain Man and Yap have a special relationship, though Yap doesn't know it. I'm thirteen years older than Mountain Man and remember him well as a baby. The first time the nurses laid Yap in my arms after he was born I could have sworn I was holding Baby Mountain Man. Yap looks nothing like his daddy and exactly like his uncle! I've even confused childhood pictures of the two! Yap has looked at those pics of Mountain Man and thought he was looking at himself. Funny too that Mountain Man and Yap even share some personality traits. I particularly enjoy watching Yap grow and mature to see just how much like Mountain Man he is.

Thanks for a great day Mountain Man. We are sure looking forward to seeing you again.