B&D Walton Ranch
My sister Dona and her husband Bobby have a small cattle ranch in Emmett, Idaho. We stopped in to visit and do some of the things to MzDazy that we were not able to get done before we had to be out of the house.
We just happened to arrive the day before my Birthday. It was great to spend the afternoon floating down a tranquil section of the Payette River with my mom, sister, and Martha. We went out for dinner at a local steak house, and then back to Dona’s for desert. At least they were kind and left the first digit of my age out in the candles!
Dona and Bobby are busy with a project of their own, building a new home and ranch operation on the back of their property to move into. MzDazy looks so small next to that barn.
Martha and my mom went to work making window screens for most of the windows. It is fantastic to be able to open the windows without inviting in the entire insect kingdom. There were times I felt like Lord of the Flys!
While they were working on that, I went to work on the engine. For the drive down from Alaska, our average driving speed was 48 MPH. I like to go slow and see the world, but that was too slow. The nice thing about the 5.9 Cummins that is MZDazy’s heart, is that adding power is relitivly simple. A new set of larger fuel injectors and a set of higher RPM governor springs was just what we needed. We now cruise at about 62MPH comfortably. As an added bonus we picked up another MPG on the fuel economy.
My next project was to add these sections of rain gutter above the windows in the kitchen and above Martha’s seat. It just popped into my head one day and I told Martha about it. I don’t think we passed a single Home Depot after that without her asking if I was going to stop for rain gutter! It is now done and road tested. They work great, not a single thing tried to dive out.
One of the big projects on my list was to add an additional storage box where the air conditioner would have been. After all the door was already there and there is no such thing as too much storage. A local fabrication shop welded it up for me. Installing it was another thing. It was definitely a two man job, but luckily for me, my long time best friend Chris Johnson lives nearby in Kuna, Idaho. While Martha flew to California to visit with 3 of our daughters for the weekend, I loaded up the new box and headed to Chris’ new shop for the installation. The box fit perfectly and with Chris’ help by the end of the day it was painted, sealed, and mounted. We do work well together.
It was not all chores while we were there. My nephew Kelly lent us his Razr UTV and Dona, Bobby, Martha and I headed out into the hills for an afternoon.
We stopped at one of Dona’s favorite spots for supper. When we came out, a storm was blowing in, so we high tailed it back to the ranch.
Ruckus had a great time playing with all his dog cousins on the ranch, but no stop is complete with out a water test. It was hot on this day and he definitely enjoyed the Payette river with his Grandma Jo and I.
MzDazy posing for a “golden hour” picture.
A late summer sunset at the B&D Walton Ranch
It is great to have a big sister that you can just hang out with. Thank you for all the hospitality! I love you Dona!