Friday on the Ranch

Yesterday, Friday, January 25th, 2013, Mom went to town for groceries and clothes; she only got one skirt in clothing.  While she was gone, Dad took us kids out to move cattle.  They were located south of our house, but within riding distance, so we rode out to them.  Along with us, came our dogs, Belvadere and Tonzo.
  Before I tell you more, Dad helped (really he did it by himself) put a bridle on Paradise for the first time.  With that came the bit.  After sliding the bit into her mouth, she played with it with her tongue.  But soon later she was fine with the bit laying on top of her tongue in her mouth.  She turned quite well, too.
  Back to moving the heifers, which are female cattle who have not had calves.  We gathered up all the heifers and headed them north to their future home.  After we had gone a long ways and Paradise was going well, but then out of the blue, she started bucking!  I had no time to even think about what was happening when I hit the ground with my left side.
  I sat up real quick and tried as hard as possible to hold back the tears of pain.  My arm was aching from landing so hard, my tall-man finger on my left hand must have been bumped really bad, because it was tingling, and my left hip bone was hurting a little.  I was fine other than those few pains.
  My horse, Paradise, stood beside me grazing as though nothing had happened.  And so I have been bucked off yet again.  That makes 3 times of coming off of my horse.  I am just glad that she doesn't act like that all the time! 
  I got on her after sitting on the ground for a little bit, and we continued to move the heifers.  We pushed them to a gate on a hill north of our house.  Big J. with his horse, Bull's-eye, rode to our middle cattle guard, as we call it, and pushed 25 heifers to the herd we had just pushed to the gate on the hill.  I hope that makes sense. 
  After the two herds blended to one, we pushed them through the gate and tuned them west.  We pushed them in that direction for a while; through another gate and a ways after that.  We then followed a road which slightly turned to the north west and then to the north.  We pushed the cattle to and past a windmill and set of pens.  Then we turned them into a gate.  When all of them were through, we pushed them another few yards to the pasture that was their new home. 
  We then headed home to our house.  By then, it was getting chilly and we were ready to walk into our house and stand by the fire in the fire place.  We walked, trotted, and loped some bit of the way home.  And after putting the horses in the pasture and putting a log on the fire, we ended the outside work. 
  Mom got home after dark and we helped put up the groceries.  Then, Mom popped pop corn over the stove and we got glasses filled with ice and pop ready.  After we were all ready, we as a family went up stairs to our TV room and had our weekly Family Movie Night.  It ended a great day!  : )

Pretty Day on the Ranch

It's been a while since I have been on, as everyone can see... The ground is now brown again; the snow is gone.  But it was fun while it lasted.  And because Mr. Snowman was leaning, Big J. ended up knocking him over.
Today was one, very pretty day.  It was in the 50's, but a little jacket was nice.  There was only a little breeze.
So, we 3 kids made the best of it--after school, we 3 kids used our time wisely.  We went riding!  At first, when I was riding-well trying to ride- my horse, Paradise, I got pretty upset.  So we took a break.  After a while later, I saddled Paradise and went out to our pasture, along with Big J. and Little J.  Paradise surprised me by going quite well and doing what I told her to.  That really made my ride fun.  When we were coming back to the house, Paradise and I took a run.  When we went down a big  hole, Paradise went so fast that my stomach stayed up in the air!  But it was really fun!
Also, we are about done tearing out a hole in one of our bedroom walls.  We are putting in a door from the bedroom to the bathroom on the other side.  So, yes our house is quite dusty from the concrete blocks getting cut up.  It will be nice to have the door in and the dust out.
If you are wondering what has become of our kitchen floor.  We have taken a "break" from it.  Now we are walking on plain concrete with splotches of stains and things.  It's not real pretty, but I for one like it.  That really doesn't count though.  It's Mom and Dad's floor.
So, there's a little update from the ranch.  : )   

Mr. Snowman

Well, we haven't gotten much more snow, except a bit yesterday.  But there was still enough to sled.  The hills are marked with sled marks and paths.  It's been a lot of fun.  The whole family has participated in sledding.  If you live in the Oklahoma Panhandle, you know that we hardly ever get the right kind of snow to make snowmen.  Well, yesterday the snow was perfect for just that!  We 3 kids started with a little snow ball, but soon were rolling a huge snow ball around in the snow.  The base of the snowman was way too heavy to carry, so we pulled it on a sled to the right spot to sit.  The middle was too heavy for two people to pick up, so we rolled it up the base and to the top of it.  The head was just right for Little J. to put on.  Then we used rocks for the eyes, a real carrot for the nose, a twig snapped in two for the mouth, yucca sticks for the arms, plus an old cowboy hat, bandana, and gloves to add a touch of ranch life.  He was around 4 foot something tall.  He was the best snowman we have ever made!  But he leans to his left, making it look like he will fall over.  We had a lot of fun building Mr. Snowman.