Capturing the Old West

Since I have been busting my ass for two solid weeks, when some of the required supplies were ordered but yet to be received, we chose to embark on new adventures instead of new projects. Everyone needs a little rest time and today everything is supposed to be in so we should be working hard again all weekend.

With the offering of some down time, we set off on a great gopher-shooting, pictures capturing day drive through the rolling hills that surround our new home. I have not even taken my camera out of the bag and only a few weeks before this whole hotel adventure I had purchased the Nikon 10.5mm lens but had yet to put it through a real workout and what could be better at trying out a lens with 180 degree field of view than the wide open prairie hills?

So we started to randomly drive through the back roads, and when the light caught my eye we would stop and snap a shot. I spotted an interesting group of trees and pulled into the field so I didn't have to walk as far to get to them. I had waved to a fellow walking back to an old truck as I was pulling up to the field and by the time I had stopped the car and was getting out of the vehicle, he had come up behind me. I walked on over to him and introduced myself as the new owner of the hotel and told him I was there to snap shots of the trees and maybe shoot a gopher or two. After some conversation I mentioned I was looking for some interesting, decrepit buildings he very kindly offered to take us to one of his favorites that was nearby.

First we followed Ray back to his place to drop off our car and join him in his truck. We restocked the beverages and headed out. It wasn't much more than a 15 minute drive to the old homestead which had been deserted for some time now but was once inhabited by a very wealthy rancher who had a fair number of ranch hands, or so it seemed by the number of buildings. The site itself is situated along side a gorgeous little creek and surrounded by mature trees. A delightful retirement location or a place to get away from it all. Certainly it won't be long before someone builds a mansion on the site.

Although much of the house had been destroyed by a combination of vandals and nature, you could see the evidence that it was once a luxurious home. Through the top window of the house, the bathtub still remains and the supply line which we guessed would have pumped water by way of a manual pump instead of having to manually carry water up the stairs as would have been the normal for the time (if you were lucky enough to have a 2-story)

Right along the creek line was a hobbit looking house which was likely used to store ice from the creek and possibly used as a cold storage for food as well since it was built right into the ground. Ray had told us that his daughter had her grad pictures done here and that was why he thought of it when we mentioned taking pictures. He invited us back to his place so we could see some of the pictures from the grad and compare how the place looks in the full greenery of summer. On the way back to the truck I snapped my fav shot (and Nicole's too) of a decrepit wagon. I hear the motto "Wagon's west!!! - ahh screw it, let's stay here" in my head whenever I see this picture :)

Thanks Ray, for a great afternoon. We really enjoyed the company and look forward to chatting some more in the bar real soon....