A Night to Remember

Last night was a night to remember!  To start with, the 3 of us kids went to bed with part of the bath room floor torn out.  We are doing some remodeling, you could say.  We are taking up the old worn out stuff and are going to replace it with some new stuff- probably stained concrete.  Anyway, the best way to explain what I heard while I was in bed is like this... it was like the movie Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, when the dad was in the shed working on the car.  You know, the kids would sit up in bed and listen to their dad banging and hammering.  Yep- that's just what it sounded like in our house last night.  Well, though we should have been asleep, we could not get there, so we snuck to the stairs every so often.  And before long we were down stairs, almost surprised at what we saw.  Not only was part of the bath room floor out, part of the kitchen floor was missing!  I couldn't contain my excitement.  Now, why was it a night to remember?  Well, Dad and Mom, who were doing the taking-out of the flooring, told us to get down and help.  We were already up, so why not help tear up the floor?  We got down and started pulling up the flooring.  And to make it more fun, we listened to Christmas music as we worked.  There was linoleum on top and now we are at a layer of stuff that's not fun to get up.  Thankfully, Dad got a tool that will get that stuff up quicker.  Under that we have concrete.  The project was a fun one.  But that still wasn't the best part!  As we worked, time got away... it was getting close to 12 AM.  Dad let us work until ten till 12 and that's when we quit.  So, that's why it was a night to remember.  Not everyone gets to work late into the night as a family.  I really enjoy the family time we get to spend together.  I wish a lot more people would have a family that cared enough to eat as a family at a family dining table.  Thank you, Daddy and Mom, for spending family time with your 3 kids.   Even if it's work that we may dislike doing, I know that when I look back, I always have to say that it was fun.  Love you, Daddy and Mom!  : )     

Repost of : )

To those who saw a post that is not showing anymore--I took it off because it wasn't appearing how I wanted.  So, yes, there was a post that is gone now.  Here is a post kind of close to the one I took off.

Dad took us out to move some panels, Saturday.  When we were on our way home, Dad driving and us 3 kids in the back, Dad stopped to look at a snake.  Yes, it is odd to see one in the fall.  That morning we even had a freeze.  The snake was a grass snake and harmless, so Dad picked it up.  He let Big J. and me hold it!  Oh, I wanted it bad, but I couldn't keep it.  It was very interesting to let it slide through your hands.  (Not to some people, I understand.)  It was real shiny and had a green under side.  We had a good day with Dad.   

Here are our bottle calves!



#1 is Dos, #2 is Thomson.



#3 is Comson.



#4 is Prince



And #5 is Rabbadash.



Today, 10-29-12, I almost stepped on a snake.  It was just a racer snake.  Out of the 4 snakes I have seen this year, I have almost stepped on 3!  Yeah, it's not a good habit, I know.  Thankfully only one was a rattlesnake...  : ) 

Lil' Update

Well, I am here and ready to put up a new post.
The Youth Deer Hunting season was here and is now gone.  We 3 kids went out with Dad to hunt for a buck or a doe deer.  One day, we went out  and sat on a hill.  We got to watch some cranes fly over, and boy they were close, shooting range if it were that time.  It was fun to see.  There have been a lot of them come over our house lately and I enjoy listening to them.  They make my favorite sound.  While hunting, we saw a lot of coyotes and hopefully us 3 kids will some day get to shoot some.  We had a great time hunting with our daddy!  But, we didn't shoot anything.  So it goes.  There will be another deer hunt around Thanksgiving in which we will all be doing.

Our bottle calves are doing good.  Mine, Thomson and Comson, are fun to have.  Big J.'s are Rabbadash and Prince and Little J.'s is Dos, so we did come up with some cool names.  They are eating grain and hay really well compared to Rawhide and Lucille Ball, our other two weaned bottle calves.  So we have quite the posse of calves.  I lost one of my 3 chicks that my hen hatched earlier this year.  Kind of disappointing.  My little Red Bud tree has lost all of its leaves and the other trees are starting also.  It is that time.  I am really ready for Thanksgiving, to be with all of my family and have LOTS to eat. ( Not that I need that. )  Today, we got the horses up to water them and I brushed Paradise.  I also cut my finger with her hair.  It hurt.  Big J. and Little J. are out riding now.  Well, it's been a good day.  Till next post...  : )

New Comers...

Yesterday, we welcomed 5 new critters to our home... bottle calves! Yay!  Big J. and I already have one each but now Little J. can have one too.  The 5 new calves still need to learn how to nurse from a bottle, so we will be working with them quite a bit.  And then names, my favorite part of having animals.  Hopefully we can come up with some odd ones.  Right now it is pretty noisy outside, they miss their real moms...  Today we will be moving some cattle around so I might have another post later.  : )

Moving Inch Worms & Cheetahs

On the 15th we as a family went out with the horses to gather and haul some cattle to town. (Sell them.)  The first bunch that we moved took a lot of time.  My Paradise just wouldn't go, her being a colt, I couldn't do much with her.  The cattle slowly went as though they were inch worms and finally we were at the pens.  There, Dad and Mom sorted off some old cows and some calves, including a dear cow, Reddy.  She was a cow that would eat out of your hands and let you pet her.  It was kind of hard to let her go.  It is part of ranch life, though.  So I fed her her last piece of cake and said good bye, holding back the tears.  Dad, Big J., and I then went to another set of pens to gather some cattle.  Mom and Little J. went to get dinner- hamburgers and fries.  Dad and Big J. gathered up a bull as I took the pickup to the next pens that we were going to sort.  I listened to classical music while I waited for Mom and Little J. to get there.  Dad and Big J. also got there right as we were getting our tail-gate picnic ready.  We ate the filling meal and got back to work.  As we gathered the next bunch, they got spooked at two bulls fighting and ran a ways past the gate.  With a little loping of horses and hollering, we got through the gate and from there the cattle ran a little more.  So we were kind of moving "cheetahs".  Once the cattle were penned, Dad and Mom once again started sorting off the ones to go to town.  We 3 kids found stuff to do; I sat and watched or helped in any way that I could, Big J. and Little J. found sticks and made guns out of them.  When the sorting was done, Dad made a few trips to drop cattle off at places.  On the last trip, Mom went and left us kids at the pens and we played slaves.  You might be thinking that we are rough kids... I mean playing gun fights and slaves.  I guess we are in some ways, but we really are good kids.  Anyway~ when Dad and Mom got back, we loaded up and went back to the first pens.  There, we moved what cattle we had left, back to the pasture they came from.  That went alright, but my horse, Paradise, was hungry and wouldn't do what I told her to.  Dad had to lead me some bit.  Now, the sun was setting and it was close to 7.  We had been outside all of that day.  It was also starting to cool off.  We got home and put up the horses, then ate supper and got things ready for bed.  We slept outside under the starry sky and yes, we had a few cats in our sleeping bags with us.  Dad said that we had been outside over 24 hours (counting sleeping).  Great day I would say.  We sure have fun here on the ranch! 

Riding in no Rain

Today Dad, Big J., Little J., and I -Savannah- went to help a neighbor move cattle.  I was very proud of my 2 year old filly, Paradise.  She is learning new things every time I ride her and is doing great!  Since we got up, it has been cloudy and we have a chance of rain, which we need badly.  We rode 5 miles or so not counting zig-zagging back and forth to keep the cattle out of crops.  We had to cross a road in which all the cattle but one crossed.  Dad had to chase her for quite a while before she finally crossed over.  Before too long, we had them moved from one pasture to the other, and from there, Dad went back to get the pickup.  The 3 of us kids continued to take the cattle to the neighbor's house, just up a ways.  When we were through the gate, we met 8 or so other cattle.  None of us knew if they should get mixed with the ones that we brought.  But by the time we were going to cut the 8 off and go to the house, they were already mixed together.  So slowly we took them to the house.  I was feeling bad, thinking that maybe we weren't suppose to let them mix together.  Once we got to the next gate, our neighbor and Dad were there.  We pushed the cattle through and Dad told us that we did great.  The 8 cattle were suppose to come with us.  I was glad about that!  By then we had been hearing thunder and Dad and our neighbor had even seen lightning.  So we quickly put the halters on the horses and loaded, then left.  We stopped to get gas then headed home to Mom and some good tasting chili and cornbread!  But we haven't got any rain yet.  However- it was a good day.  : )    

Trip: day 2 and Home

Hey,

Day two- we got up with fog outside of the hotel.  It was a nice, cold day.  We left the hotel and went on to Red River- on the way we took a lot of pictures and watched the fog move over the mountains.  LOVELY!  My eyes hurt sometimes, but there were a lot of pretty trees to look at.  At Red River, NM, we ate at a place called Texas Red.  They had great food!  Plus we got to throw peanut shells on the floor.  That was a first for Big J., Little J., and me.  We got to try buffalo hamburgers which were good.  After that, we walked a ways down Main Street to the park where the Oktober Fest was going on.  That was the funnest thing that we did on the whole trip!!  No, we don't drink beer so we were there for looks.  We did get a little stein though.  There were tons of dogs!  It was really fun to watch dogs go by and talk about them with Dad.  He is so special!!!  We stayed there for a while and then left to go to Raton, NM.  We got there late so we didn't get to see a friend.  We just got McDonald's food and then headed home.  We got home pretty late.  Got some sleep and then got up for church.  It was a great family trip! We had a fun time and here are some pictures...



This was at the log where the water runs in it.




Pretty little leaves.

 





Looking up at the changing leaves.



I really like this one.  Lovely view of the land.



The whole family. L to R: Big J., Little J., Dad, Mom, me- Savannah. 





A cloud coming in.





: )









 















Trip: day 1

Hi,
Now we as a family are in New Mexico to see the mountains and trees changing colors.  We stopped at an antique place, my favorite thing to do.  And then we drove through mountains and got to see lots of antelope and turkeys.  We also got to see a few deer.  The trees are very pretty and the weather is nice for fall.  We are in our hotel for the night and I don't know what we will do in the morning.  This is a trip where we don't know what all we will do.  Dad and Big J. are watching baseball and Little J. is lying down, she's tired, Mom is looking at a book and I am writing as you can see.  : )  Hopefully we will find somewhere to eat and then get a good night's rest.  Till later!    

Work is fun...

This is  the first post on my blog.  Today we as a family (Dad, Mom, me-Savannah, Big J., and Little J.) went to doctor some sick calves.  That was an exciting and very fun memory making thing to do!  Big J. roped along with Dad, Mom carried the shots and medication, Little J. played run-around-horseback, while I flanked any calf that was roped.  Some were roped on the ground and some were roped on horseback, either way we got them roped, flanked, shot, and then they returned to the herd.  Big J. had quite a few calves run though his loop and get away- living on a ranch and growing up going to a branding, you would know that missing a calf while roping makes a young boy mad... and it made Big J. a little upset.  Only one calf was hurt and we have no clue why.  Oh, and right after unloading the horses and tightening the cinches, I got on my 2 year old filly.  She was fine-- and all of the sudden, well, I was on the ground... yes sadly she bucked.  She bucked maybe twice before I was on the ground.  She then ran off bucking all the way.  She finally stopped.  But let's back up, my horse, Paradise, is a nice tempered horse.  I am training her so that she won't buck.  It was odd that she bucked today.  She was fine and even held still while I got on- for a change.  So I thought nothing of her bucking.  When she started, I slid back out of my saddle, which is an English/hunting saddle with no horn or much of a seat either and slick.  I came off on what I think would be the second buck.  I fell on her left side close to her front legs.  Thankfully she didn't step on me or kick at me.  I am quick to jump up from the ground after being bucked off and yes I jumped up, then held my head where I landed.  Anyway, I got back on and Dad lead me around the rest of the time.  We all had fun and I can't think of anything- that you would call "work"- funner than tackling calves with the family!  We ended the day by eating Panhandle Pizza for supper.  Great way to end the day!