3 years ago...

It's been 3 years since situations came about that would change my life forever. It was called the 3 Strikes Mustang Ranch. Three years sometimes seams like yesterday. What this situation did; was open my eyes to what is going on in the real world.



As much as I love animals, I had no idea of what was happening to so many, throughout our entire country. How nice it was to have my own little world going on here at the ranch, with our content and happy dogs, cats, horses, and cows. It was easy to not know about the fate of the unfortunate ones.



I had no idea of the war going on for the horses; and it continues. I hate to admit this, but I had no idea of the slaughter issues (who slaughters a horse?) - or puppy mills, abuse to farm animals, etc etc. Why would I look that up on Google?



Now I know. It's heart-breaking to see. So many stories of rescues gone bad, for whatever reason - that doesn't help the good ones. So many stories, pictures, and videos of animal abuse - horse slaughter in a sick and demented way - calves having their skin peeled from their body while they are still alive - horses being stabbed in the neck over and over with cheers in the background - animals being dumped to fend for themselves, without food or water - BLM rounding up horses (for what reason, really?) while helicopters run them to their death?



I used to think I couldn't do anything to help. That can NEVER be ANYONE'S cop-out reasoning again. There's so much you can do; from writing letters, donating (research for the good and ligit ones), making phone calls to officials, and just pure and simply doing the right thing and standing up, in some way, for the animals that cannot speak for themselves to those who refuse to listen.



A challenge; look in their eyes and tell me they can't speak. They just can't cry out in words we understand; but they cry out. So do something for them, no matter how small a task. One letter can make a difference.



If you're not sure where to start, here's a suggestion: http://www.rtfitchauthor.com/ or http://www.animalsangels.org/ or check out your local animal shelter; I'm sure they could always use help in some way.



And God Bless the people that care for the animals.

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....

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

TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM...

I drove out of the yard, nerves ready to have a volcanic eruption. It was Wednesday morning, August 5th, 2009. Jason and Anissa Meduna were taking me to County Court (probably didn't want it to be in front of the Judge whom he would face for animal cruelty charges, so they opted for County) for Harassment Charges... against them. It is about a 20 minute drive into town, and then 40 to Bridgeport. By the time I got to town, I decided I was not going to freak out over this, I had God on my side, and I was pretty sure they didn't.





I was still rather nervous, until they were in view. Funny how the mind kicks in to 'justice mode' when it's needed. My attorney was there with me. To my surprise, Meduna was representing himself! I am sure that his lawyer, Mr. Berry didn't even know Meduna filed this charge against me. Mr. Berry seemed to me to be a little more professional than that. I would think he croaked when he found out.





Oh yes, the title. When I left that morning, the kids knowing how upset I was (after I had just received notice the Friday before and only had a few days to prepare...) they wanted to take the edge off a little. I had never been in court, and I don't watch any court TV, so what did I know? Justin and Josh said, "Come on Mom, take one for the team. Smile at him or something...and he'll attack you. A broken arm or something; you can do it. Then the Sheriff will take care of the rest." I love my sons.





The Mailbox, I've already written a little about. But imagine my surprise when Jason brought this up. HE was questioning ME... he sat about 5' from me. The County Judge was at my left side. So Meduna asked, 'why did you try to get the Post Office to not allow us to have a mailbox at our house?' (some of you have already heard all this) - Terry started to 'object', but I was already starting to answer the question. I forgot I was supposed to let Terry have time to object, but I so wanted the Judge to hear my side!!





The Judge said he didn't see the relevance, and Mudna said it was intimidation. (The judge had mentioned that word before, that's what Meduna was labeling all of his arguments from then on - 'intimidation'). I looked at Jason Meduna and said, "You must not remember, but when you first moved here, I called the Post Office, trying to help YOU get your mailbox moved to your house." Then I turned to the judge, "Your Honor, when Jason and Anissa first moved here, their mailbox was over at the main county road, which is about 2 miles from their house (it's actually further). I called the Post Office, asking why they couldn't put a mailbox at their house? What the Post Office is trying to do, is whenever someone new moves in, they are telling them they have to have their mailbox on the main Broadwater Road, ...I also visited with Jason, saying if he could make his entrance corral area big enough for the mail lady to drive over the auto gate, and turn around there, it might work." Jason then started to say, 'what about you saying I couldn't put a mailbox there?' (Well, duh... no, he couldn't put a mail box in our pasture, but he could at his entrance, but I didn't get to say that.) Terry objected, Judge agreed. Jason started to ask me again about the mailbox and the Judge said, "I sustained the motion, do you have another question?" Jason again, started to mention the mailbox... the Judge very adamantly said, "I think we've already taken care of the mailbox, next question."





Well now, I'm pumped. 'This ain't so bad'....was going thru my mind. Oh what the Judge must have thought about Meduna. I could tell in the first few minutes, he was going no where. I was glad Terry was there, along with Mom and Dad, Jean (the County Attorney) and Sheriff John.





After I received my summons, I called Terry on Friday, July 31st. I told him if he was already busy he could just tell me what to say, etc. It was then that I found out, if I had been found guilty, or the charge went through, they would have came to our house and confiscated all of our guns! (the 2 BB guns we have) - for a year!! So Don told me, "If you get this pinned on you, tell John to just bring the cuffs, I will not surrender my guns."







So, we still have our BB guns..... and two people stormed out of the room that day!

Of course, there's more....

...the Vet has determined Toxic Poisoning....

This 'blog' is a mixture of things: more of the pictures I took of 3 Strikes Ranch, and comments and thoughts of being accused of poisoning the horses. One look at the land, I think everyone knows what happened to the horses. People who later became my friends, began to tell me of the lies Jason told them. Everything from feeding our cows against the fence line in order to poison his horses; to telling them we didn't have horses, hated horses, and that's why we wanted him gone.

This is the south side of 3 Strikes Ranch. I'm zoomed in with my camera, but you can see it's still pretty close to his buildings. While I was on the 4 wheeler taking all the pictures, someone came out of the trailer, looked my way. I found myself feeling a little intimidated, nervous, and I think my heart was beating a little more rapidly. But my anger for what was happening to the land and the horses prevailed, and I continued taking pictures.



One thing to note: Time Frame. I was seen taking these pictures February 10th , and March 3rd thru March 7th. BLM authorities (other than the one in his hip pocket), State authorities and others received the picture book of 3 Strikes land, around March 17th thru the 21st. Suddenly, the Deputy Sheriff is at our door March 28th, reporting Meduna's claim that Justin stole Rayu. Jason saw me taking pictures March 6th, suddenly he's on the board, 2nd week in March, saying they had to bring the horses in because the neighbors were poisoning them.



Think I'll save my money and not hire a private investigator to figure that one out.
.....................................




THE VET HAS DETERMINED TOXIC POISONING...(AS STATED BY MEDUNA)

This is what Jason TOLD everybody on the 'horse forums'. As I've said, up until someone emailed me a link to ABR - (that was the first one I read on); I had no idea anything like this even existed. So here's what I read:

'Jason and Anissa M. of 3 Strikes need help with some mustangs that have come down with some kind of (what the vet has thus far determined to be) toxic poisoning.'

'What on earth is this about?!!' was most likely my first thought, close second would be something like, 'That big fat liar.' So I figure now is as good a time as any to continue with land pictures... I'm thinking it's NOT poisoning, just as the vet ACTUALLY thought also. The vet did not say he figured it was toxic poisoning, that is what Jason lied to everyone (one of the lies he told).

The pictures continue on, clockwise around the perimeter of Meduna's land. These are other neighbors that border him.


In the following picture, the foreground is the neighbor's land to the south of Meduna's. The dark spot and circle you notice by the fence; it was a horse that died there. One of Meduna's, on the opposite side of 3 Strikes Ranch property.




This is horse hair, and the neighbors did not lose a horse. It was one from 3 Strikes Ranch. The wires were broken, someone must have stood the post up along the fence...maybe a neighbor to get Jason's attention? I would say this horse struggled, horrendously. Either from being too weak to get up, or did he get caught in the wire, trying to get to food on the other side, and couldn't get free? Jason's land is on the right of the fence.


Besides some hair, this is the only remains I could find of the horse.


................................................................


'All of the horses affected by this are up against a fence line that boarders another ranch. No other horses are affected or ever go into that territory....no horses have access to that area right now.' (March 15, 2009)

That other ranch, being the Freibergers.... and I'm reading this from the Internet with my mouth dropped open and my eyes in permanent frown mode!

..............................


(This is southeast of Jason's buildings. The left lower corner is another neighbor's land, the meadow-if you can call it that, is Meduna's. Notice wires down, and the grass eaten on the neighbor's side. I'm pretty sure these horses were just simply looking for something to eat.)




And then of course, there was the asking for donations for the Medunas....to help with their toxic poisoned horses. HA. If it weren't for the horrible outcome of the horses, and the intentional destruction this would almost be funny.



The right side was owned by Meduna. It is meadow ground. The sad thing is, it is also a salt grass, that usually gets left by animals. The brown looking grass toward the middle of the picture are bull rushes. We put up rushes during haying season for bedding roads and blow-outs! Why? Because the cattle AND horses DO NOT EAT them. They ate at much as they could reach of the neighbors' ground across the fence also.


The corker here is, Jason told certain people all this stuff to post, but they unfortunately, had no idea at the start of this, that he was lying to them.



(The middle fence is part of 3 Strikes. The trees in the far right, are where I found a dead horse. The buildings in the far left, was Meduna's.)







So most of what you read, is what Jason told them to say. I don't blame them - in fact, they are good friends now; they were just victims of the sickness of a couple people.

Then there was talk on the board about cattle feed that could kill a horse instantly. So here I am reading all this, in total shock; and keep in mind....so is Anissa and Jason. And they know what is going on. Then it's stated that they are tick infested. But why, Jason said, 'along the stretch of land the horses hang out is a cedar tree wind break on the neighbor's cattle ranch.' Now I'm reading this thinking, funny....our cows, horses or dogs don't have ticks. Why are our ticks just hi-tailing it to Meduna's and jumping on his horses? Especially when our trees are not close to Meduna's land. LIES LIES LIES. It was starting to drive me crazy, all the reading and comments about our family. My dear like-a-'little'-brother friend kept telling me to be careful and not let it get to me.

'He has brought that ranch from nothing to something ...has spent the past couple years cleaning it up' ....I, personally, have a bit of a different outlook on that.

'With wind blowing out there, it could have blown anything in.' Our land didn't blow. Jason even bragged of sandstorms on his ranch! Now I'm sorry, but how stupid is that? The last thing all of us would do is brag about how our land was blowing like in Hidago. That is exactly what he did. The difference is, all of his neighbors had ground cover, his land was the only land moving like the sand storms in the movie Hidalgo. Those poor horses. They were sand blown in the corrals also. When a horse is standing by a windbreak, in a sand storm, it just circles around and gets caught in the updrafts, believe me, they were not out of the weather.

"if neighboring ranch is using mineral....can be picked up by the wind and dispersed huge distances" NO, NO, NO. When you have a total of 25 lb. of mineral, mixed with 25 lb. of salt - (which by the way, the mineral contains NOTHING that could hurt a horse, BECAUSE OUR HORSES HAVE ACCESS TO IT ALSO!) and that 50 lb of salt and mineral is in a plastic tub, that only fills it to half full, and is located NO WHERE close to Meduna's land that the wind could pick up and carry that far - no way, no how.

It was posted on ABR, that the vet told Anissa he thought they may be able to help 'Blue' and that he wouldn't give up on the little foal. In court, Meduna testified differently. So the board is raising funds for Meduna for 3 horses that are 'sick' from poisoning, and they need tests. As of March 16, there are now $675.00 raised for this. There is little 'Blue', fighting for his life at the vets, and another horse that is sick at the ranch, 'that as the same thing the other foal has.' No one would ever dream they aren't being fed!

On March 17, it was stated that 'Jason is busy trying to get the ducks in a row for the rest of the horses (5 total) that are being affected by this.' .....Now I'm reading this, wondering what about all the dead ones I've seen while taking pictures??????

March 18, Anissa sends a message thru someone on the board (ABR) that 'Blue' is still hanging in there, fighting and struggling to stand on his own.' The board is still raising funds to figure out what's wrong.

March 19, Jason sends a message thru someone on ABR... 'there's concern with possible intentional feeding of cattle feed to some of the horses....the fence line band of horses are the ones affected - next to the cattle ranch.'

And if that's not enough, later they post on the board that little Blue died. Now they are going to ask money for necropsy tests to be done on the dead colt. BUT.......
he's not dead! I'm thinking there's a law against that..... raising money for a dead horse to be tested, that is not dead.

The last two pictures are of horses that were kept up by the house.

I hope they survived. Did they survive?

I have now covered the entire east side (perimeter), north to south. There's the west side left. No, it doesn't improve.......