I took this photo outside the shop of another monument sized bronze by D Michael Thomas. Unfinished it depicts an old time cowboy who has reached down into a pool of water to fill his hat with water for a drink. Water will drip out of his hat back into the pool. It is designed to be a fountain if you will with the horse standing in the pool and water continually running. A background of rock and a falls accompany the bronze. I have seen one of these set up and it is quite impressive. As you can see I am accompanied by Mitze who considers herself extremely important. The kids have several dogs and a pot bellied pig who all run out to greet you. The pig thinks he is barking along with the others and seems quite excited about everything.

This is a small version[maquette]of the monument-not yet put together nor patinaed.

The bronze monument will have a guitar as a base that the bucking horse and rider will be set on. It is over 6 feet tall.

Back from our little trip to Frannie, Wyoming and into Montana. We took our daughter, husbsnd and son out to celebrate her 41st Birthday which involved a 120 mile round trip drive to Red Lodge, Montana for the event. Next day we were in Billings for business then back to Frannie. Vicki was set up by our daughter, Janet for a checkup at the Lovell, Wyoming hospital where she runs the emergency room as well as working as a surgical nurse. Small hospitals require a do-it-all for nurses. With that under our belts we did the return trip running into a wonderful snow storm on the way home. Snowed all day yesterday and this morning our spring temperature was +6 degrees.
Our son-in-law runs a finishing studio which is a large shop where he does welding and patina work on bronzes. I took a few pictures of his current project which is a monument of Chris Ledoux, the famous world champion Bronc rider and western-country singer who died way befor his time of cancer. The bronze is by D Michael Thomas who uses Clay to do all his bronze work. This bronze is over 15 feet tall and will be installed in Kaycee, Wyoming which is where Chris was from. It is being financed by the Ledoux family. Quite an undertaking.