It was our first cattle drive since 2001! Prior to that our family had done it every year since 1897.

In 2002, the worst drought in recorded history in our area, we chose not to drive our cattle to the summer mountain range in the Rio Grande National Forest, as our family had every year since 1897, because the 6 mile trek across the base of Greenie Mountain (some of the most arid land in North America) would be too dusty for the calves and we were concerned about dust pneumonia.

October 9, 2007-L'aquila, is not difficult to get to, unless of course you've gone through the wormhole of trans-Atlantic flight, countless airports, plane and time changes, body contortions in a 2 ft cubical space next to strangers, trains and buses and have now arrived in medieval Italy. In a stupor, my computer says it's 8:30 a.m. somewhere in the Colorado Rockies and my Italian cell phone reads 6:30 p.m.