Last of the Land Tour

This is the last of the journey around

the former 3 Strikes Mustang Ranch.

Some believe 'he just got in over his head'.

I see the fences unattended: broken wires and posts.

It is a wonder the whole herd of horses

did not escape from their approaching death.

It may be somewhat difficult to see,

but there are horses in the background

of this picture. It is sad that there is no feed.

This is an awful lot of land,

with nothing but miles of sand.

This poor girl did not make it.

Neither did her baby.

But this is what she,

as so many others,

had to eat.

They stand on the horizon.

Jason told me once,

that mustangs do not eat

the same as domestic horses.

There are 5 horses in the background.

How far did they have to go to get water?

They weren't going to find it here.

Something I'll never understand,

how can anyone see these pictures...

and still believe he cared for the horses?

My thought is, if you have a horse rescue

and you don't see anything wrong with

the pictures of this land....

You may not be worthy of having horses...

This carcass was quite close the the windmill.

Can there be any doubt

of what happened here?

Jason said his ranch was the only

one in the United States that had

the most variety of mustangs...

It still may be true,

but their bones are piled

on the ground

under hay.

These horses were all on the west

side of the place.

They died from what?

Old age?

How many said

that these are all just cow bones?

***

In the harassment case that Jason

was trying to get pinned on me....

This was the conversation

about the windmills:

Jason, "What about the windmill?"

You mentioned on the forum seeing

the windmill down."

Vicki, "Yes."

Jason (smugly), "You said on the forum

the windmill wasn't working,

then you said it was turned off.

Which is it?"

Vicki, "Well, if it is turned off, it's not working."

(It wasn't long after that,

the whole thing was on the ground.)

I had taken roughly 475 pictures

of the perimeter of the X 3x's.

We are now back to the north side

of the former 3 Strikes

and I am standing on our land.

I had put together a folder of

184 of those pictures.

(Notice again, the path of eaten

grass on our side)

During the trial, there were SO MANY

pictures entered in to evidence,

I was told I would have to cut some of mine.

I made a cut to 31.

I would have to cut more.

"Down to how many?"

'Three.'

"Three, how can I do that?"

'Find 4. We'll see.'

El Mariachi was to stay as one.

I picked 3 others.

Only 2 of those were entered,

along with El Mariachi.

(They are not shown on my blog)

That goes to show, there was enough

evidence without any of these

pictures, to prove just how much

Jason actually loved

and cared for the horses.

This is a 'gate latch' Jason put up.
He actually took ours off
when he moved in,
and replaced it with this!
Some more of his 'old school'.




The sign is down, and this land
breathes a breath of fresh air.
The new owners are wonderful,
and God has brought change.....
for the good.

Where Was The Grass?

...Continuing on with my 4-wheeler trip,

Meduna lived at the place

you can see in the back ground.

You may not be able to view it too well,

it's where the trees are.

Guess which side was 3 Strikes?

.....times up - it's on the left.

X - 3 Strikes land is on the right.

At Meduna's trial, Anissa testified

that they had someone put

the hay up, to 'show there was grass'.

My question:

To show there was grass....

when? At that time?

What about the grass

in the summer of 2009?

Was there grass on the hills?

(the foreground on the above photo is a neighbor's pasture)

The question was not

whether or not there was grass

in September and October of 2009,

the question was, how much grass was there in

February, March, and April of 2009?

When there were horses on the land,

looking for grass....

...can you see how they might have cut

the skin around their nose?

They must have learned to close their eyes

as they nuzzled in the soapweeds,

desperately trying to find something to eat.

Many of the horses had cuts

on their nose, eyes, and face.

They were trying to find nourishment

in the soapweeds.

You can see the land border.

Do YOU see any grass?

You cannot count that on the left,

it was not part of 3 Strikes.

How many times did the horses walk this corner?

Looking over the fence, they saw grass

...but it belonged to someone else.

It didn't matter where I went around the property.

It was the same thing.

The path of eaten grass on a neighbor's land,

the horse had tried to find more food.

Watch Out For That Bunk!

On July 3rd, 2009.... before I noticed the filled-back-in auto gate, I found this salt and mineral bunk in the middle of our auto gate...






In the background of the above picture is the entrance to the former 3 Strikes Ranch.
The kids had gone into town after they dug out Meduna's autogate (the 1st time) for the Alliance 4th of July Fireworks Display (on the 3rd). Don and I stayed home, as we were all now accustomed to never leaving the place unattended.





It was towards evening, and with some of our cattle in the bordering pasture to Mudna's, I decided to go check everything out again. As I rounded the corner, there to my surprise was one of our blue plastic tubs we put salt and mineral in for the cattle. We have two pieces of approximately 4'-5' long rebar criss-crossed on the bottom of the tub to prevent cattle from tipping the bunk over. The bunk was about half full, so that means there was around 80 lbs. total of salt and mineral in it. So he drug it from the spot that is about half way between the autogate and his entrance, all the while trespassing. Or should I say, someone drug it.






This picture shows how far the bunk was drug, and was left in the middle of our autogate. What this means is: later that evening, when it was dark...someone probably would have run into the tub on the way back from town. A normal tub, not having rebar sticking out of the sides, may have slid off the autogate, but then stopped when it hit the dirt, and went up under the vehicle. Now this particular bunk, could have very easily got stuck in the pipes of the autogate, and could have done some serious danger when the rebar went up under the vehicle. Driving home that night, in one automobile, were Josh, Josie and my little granddaughter, Cadence....and Justin and Allie (who by the way was very pregnant) - so what could have happened when an air bag went off into Allie?

That is probably why, after I moved the bunk out of the way, I went home and called Mr. Berry (Jason's lawyer) and left a message about it. I was a little upset.

Oh by the way, this is another thing that Jason tried to bring up at my 'harassment case'... was that I was calling HIS lawyer; HARASSING MR. BERRY!!!!

My tape measures, measuring to see just how far he did trespass to do this little job.

Wish I had a dime for every time he's trespassed on us. Or like, a dime a foot....

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Poisoning? Or just nothing to eat...

I had to check my calendar again. When was it that we looked across the fence and noticed the level soapweed plants? Soapweed yucca, (Yucca Glauca Nutt.) a perennial that has early spring blooms on a strong stem in the center of the long, narrow sharp leaves the reach upward 12"-24". After the blooms do their thing, the plant produces a 'pod'. The pod averages 3" in length and I suppose about 1-2" diameter, that's while it's still green. That's when it's candy. At least that is what our cows think. If we move cattle into a pasture that has all the green pods still on the stems, they will cover practically the entire pasture, just eating off the pods. Then they go back to grazing. Of course, if the cattle didn't have a chance to get into a pasture with pods that have now opened up and turned brown, they're just something I pick for decoration. When the pods are no longer green, the texture is that of wood, and the stem is now like a thick twig. Nothing eats it. This is actually leading up to something.....

May 9, 2008; a friend of mine came out from town. Our mission was to look at the land of 3 Strikes Ranch. It was during a nice day, and the snow had melted. Our curiosity was to see the condition of the land after the snowfall we'd had, and to see if there was any grass left, or hay being fed. Looking out over the hills, there wasn't an abundance of vegetation. The moisture was much needed, hopefully we were getting enough for these hills to heal up and keep producing.

One thing we noticed: when you looked out across the hills at the soapweed plants, it looked like someone had just come along with a measuring stick and evenly cut the plant to the same level, like you were trimming hedges. There were no 'sticks' coming out of the plant; the stem was gone. Our thought, "Oh my gosh, they ate whatever they could find sticking out of the snow. They had no feed." I am sure that is exactly what all of those horses did. We had never noticed hay being fed in the pastures. So those poor animals, during the snow storms, ate the stems and sharp-edged leaves of the soapweed plants as far as they could. As I'm writing this, I remember talking to someone that was there, of all the cuts and scabs by the eyes and on the face. Have you ever grabbed a soapweed plant, or yucca plant, with your bare hands? Those horses were probably trying to eat them for nourishment, and in the process they cut their face.

So that leads us to the land. Soon after I took pictures of the land, and sent them off to whoever I could think to send them; Jason Meduna claimed 'the neighbors' which would be my family, was poisoning the horses with cattle feed. So, I'll take you on a journey around the perimeter of his ranch. You decide. Does it look like the horses had enough to eat? I only wish we could have fed them.

To get to Jason's entrance, you had to drive through our land, which is where I am taking the picture. the 'Kids Pasture'. The following land pictures were taken in February and March of 2009.

This is the entrance to what was, 3 Strikes Ranch. Of course, when I refer '3 Strikes' or 'Meduna's land', happily it no longer is. The Kooper Ranch now belongs to the Greens. The picture journey will start here, and continue clockwise, covering the perimeter of the Meduna property. I saddled up my 4 wheeler, made sure I had extra batteries for my camera...and was off.

Jason's meadow ground is what you see here. There stands a few horses. I have another picture of this meadow with 1 horse carcass, and 1 live horse. That picture is being saved for that distant possibility of a book. This meadow joins ours to the north, and is east of Jason's house.

On the right side of the fence, is Meduna land. Notice that bare patch of land on the left? It is not too hard to see that posts are leaning to that side; they leaned over to eat the grass, thus causing erosion to start on our property also. The kids had just fixed this fence in January, and now, February 10, were fixing it again. Most of the posts in this line of fence were broken.

How sad for the horses. As I looked out across the hills on the 3 Strikes side, it looks bare as far as the eye can see. I visited a desert in Arizona once, this is pretty close to that memory. I imagine they do not show up on the above picture, but when I zoom in; there are horses in the background, horses that made it....or did not. The lake on the left belongs to Gilroys.

You know, I'm pretty sure I don't need to write anything to explain these pictures. Just imagine though, checking our own cattle and looking across the fence at this. And he accused us of poisoning his horses...

My heart sank when the kids called me on our business band radio, "Mom, you there? Grab your camera and come over by where we're fencing. There's another dead horse."



There are three different land owners in this picture. Our land is the bottom left corner, Gilroy's land is the top left corner, and Meduna's ground is the right side of the fence. The typical leaning posts, staples pushed out from horses leaning over fences, and wires down. At this corner, we leave our property, and will continue around Meduna's borders, (with permission from our good friends/neighbors).




Gilroy's land, as all of the surrounding neighbors; had to deal with staples out, wires down, posts broken. ONE of the things that made me laugh when I read the 3 Strikes web site, was Jason claiming how well/much he fenced, because 'good fences make good neighbors'. Geez. I didn't even know it existed until a friend told me about it. (His web site, not good fencing...that didn't exist for 3 Strikes Ranch)

A good example of how the horses had to lean over in search of grass. The left side of the fence is actually Gilroy's land. He is another that Meduna accused of different things. The grass should come up to the fence line, as it is-there is about a 3' wide, eaten-to-the-ground path. I guess I don't need to repeat my self about staples out, wires down, and posts broken. Just ditto that for the rest of the tour.

How can things get this far out of hand? This ground didn't just appear like this over night. My husband watched it rapidly decline for 2 years. Why didn't we say something to Meduna about it? As I said in court, we did talk to him when he first moved in. He actually waved me over when I was in the hay field, he said he noticed we were haying the meadow, and since it runs into his meadow, it must be time to put it up! (good thinking, Mudna) Then Don talked to him, and HE ASKED DON about the fencing.... Don told him a few tips on where he would fence it and how if it were his. But, Meduna never did anything with the knowledge....(and I think Don has some, since he's lived here all his life, which would be over 50 years, you would hope one sort of knows what to do by then).



Anybody see anything to eat out there??????? Oh yes, what you probably cannot see in this picture, more bones up the hill.




In the center of this picture, you cannot see it very well, but there is another carcass on the ground. I took the liberty to zoom it in for you in the next picture.



A lot of the horses found on the place, were in low ground. That would be where the most vegetation would be. At least the horses knew that, but there was nothing there.


Meadow ground.
Pretty sure the average person can figure out there's no poisoning of feed, no poisoning of water....Hey, maybe there IS NO FEED, and there IS NO WATER. In grade school, we were taught that is what is needed to survive; or maybe our human instincts just knew that.





Alright...in this close up and the next close up; here is what I think happened. (No, I do not claim to be a vet, or have a fraction of their knowledge.) When I zoomed in on this horse, I think she went down, probably began labor, and had two things against her: 1. she was too weak to push and 2. she was laying downhill, which didn't help matters at all.




Yes, this poor horse could just be bloated from death. I stick to my thoughts:
There is dirt upturned behind her; this is either from her struggle to get up, have her colt, or a coyote has already come visiting. I prefer to hope it's one of the first two. It looks to me like her tail is high and behind her, this is what cows look like when they are calving. I personally have never watched a horse have a baby, but I'm pretty sure it's likely about the same. To me, it would appear she has a 'bag' - it looks like it is developed for a baby to suck, but could also be from death. I think she was with milk, ready to nurture her baby. And I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I think the white 'spot' you see between her bag and her tail, is possibly a hoof. A baby hoof that never had a chance to be born into this world.

In our world of calving, we check our cows every couple hours. If one is calving, we check her more often until the calf is on the ground. The risk of the dying from even the sack on it's face is there, so we are there. We may not save all of them, but we are out there trying.

This horse breeder was not. And how many died that we'll never know of? How long has he been breeding?

I can only hope death was fast. But death from starvation is not...



This photo is from the south/eastern side of 3 Strikes Ranch.

Guess which side belonged to Meduna?

Obviously, the right side of the fence was Meduna's. The hills in the far, far distance were Meduna's.

Words are not needed.

The erosion on the left side of the fence, is caused by the fact there is no ground cover on Meduna's side, so when the wind blows.....so does the sand. It covers the grass on the opposite side, although most of it directly on the opposite side, had been eaten down to the ground also. Can you imagine why?

Some say, 'he just got in over his head.' I say, 'No.'

This 'tour' consists of only half our border with Meduna, and one other neighbor. There are three more that border him. This is the first set. This is the east area that he told everyone he had to get the horses in from, to be able to watch them and protect them from the neighbors, and to keep them from any more poison.

Now look at this land. What do you think? Someone (we) poisoned his horses? Or did they just not have anything to eat?