The Tumblin' Tumbleweed

The tumbleweeds have returned!  Not that they really left, though.  Yeah, it's messy when it comes to fences and such.  Some fence post are leaning in the weight of the weeds.  But there's really nothing we can do.  Sadly. 
Some people think, "Fire?"  And the answer to that question is a huge "No."  It would get rid of the weeds, yes, but also burn up the whole country while doing it.  The weeds burn in seconds and a huge amount of heat is let out, but if the wind happened to pick up, the burning tumbleweeds would lite everything they touched, and as dry as it is, everything would burn. 
So, I guess we will just live with them for a while and be awaiting their departure.  Whenever that might come.  

Dad said that from a distance these pesky weeds look like stone fences.  And they do.

We were out checking our cattle the other day and I took a few photos; partly for our own sake and to put on the blog, so I hope you enjoy seeing our livelihood.  

An oil rig near by had a leak in their water hose and these photos show you what happened when the water sprayed everywhere on one cold night.  The consistence of the frozen water resembled man made snow.  Fairly interesting I thought.  And it made pretty pictures.  : )

Bird Taxidermy



The finished product.  

 

I did it!  I successfully mounted my first bird ever!  I am quite proud of the outcome; plus I get to look at a bird whenever I'm in my office.    

 

The back of the finished product.

 
This pigeon was hatched last year, but for some unknown reason, it died young; the reason for no feathers.  I placed it in our freezer for such a time as this and just now got to it.  I looked up bird taxidermy quite a few times and read up a little about it, then I found an easy way (http://www.instructables.com/) to skin and stuff the bird, and I tried it.  It only took me one day, and I found it really fun!  Now there's talk in our house about me doing more critters.  We'll see what happens.  : )

Snow Days

One of our perfect views.

As the pictures show you, we have received a wonderful amount of snow.  This past week we had gotten up to 8+ inches and it came almost every day of the week.  It was so pretty!  But, yes, it was very cold too; getting down to -3 degrees once.  Thankfully, we have heat and were able to make it through the cold spell, although it is not totally through... 
 

My dog, Tonzo.

 
On Saturday night we had a freezing fog/frost come in and coated everything with a prickly layer of ice.  It was such a beautiful sight!  No harm was done, but in some places the trees were sagging with the weight of the frost.  Even thought it was Sunday morning and we had to go to church, I bundled up and took the time to take a few pictures.  
 

 

 

 

We sold our goats last week to our great pleasure!  It was past time to sell them.  So, now we are just waiting for our remaining 4 to kid.

We have been sledding lately, which has been a lot of fun.  The snow was great on the days after it came, but it was melting and our best spots were getting muddy.  But this evening, while we were coming back from checking our four nanny goats, it began snowing again.  I have mixed feeling...1) stay cold and snow a lot or 2) get warm and say good bye to the snow and hello to green grass come spring.  What to do!

Keep warm.  From the ranch...  : )

Ranch Activities

Here are the recent ranch activities...

On Sunday, last week, we went out to my grandparents' house and enjoyed getting to talk to them.  Before supper, Dad, Big J., and I went out prairie dog hunting.  Now, to those who don't know what they are, they are merely awful rodents that like to take over pastures.  And for those of you who like to get rid of the pests, you will be glad to hear that we did hit a few.  We shot lots of shells (bullets) and even though we didn't get to bring home any dogs, we had a lot of fun.  Just before coming in to eat, I had the pleasure of killing a rabbit, which we enjoyed at supper.  You know, rabbit, cooked right, tastes like turkey.  Good stuff, I must say!  Thank you, to my grandma for fixing it for us.

On Wednesday, Dad and I took a day trip to CO to pick up some new cows.  We left by 6 something AM and didn't get home until 7 something PM, so yes, it was a big day.  Oh, the fun we had!  Our drive took a few hours just alone, we were shown a little bit of the seller's land, then we were talked into eating dinner with the them, that took two or so hours, and the drive back.  But we had a great father/daughter trip.     

The weather has been doing what ever it wishes lately.  Who would have guessed that we had -1 degrees on Friday with a dusting of snow and then on Saturday 50 degrees with no wind or clouds?  It was perfect riding weather!  We did ride and move our cows/bulls/heifers/calves on that nice day.  It was such a fun ride.  The horses did well and the cattle practically moved themselves with ease.  The bulls didn't fight, which helped everything. 

After the moving of the cattle, we scattered grass seed and messed with our goats.  I caught a goldfish out of our tank and now it is our pet.  Big J. and I busied ourselves throwing ice onto other ice and it turned into a game.  I suppose any kids could enjoy playing with anything if they have the imagination.

Just tonight I finished a pair of reins that I had been working on for my bridle.  (A bridle is what you put on the horse's head to control it.  The headstall goes on the head and reins are connected to it.)  Now, the reins I made are not normal.  If you look at the picture, you will see that they are blue...  Well, they are made out of hay string.  I have yet to see if they really work, but I think they will.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.  Till an idea hits me, bye!  : )

 

 

New Life--New Leg

This month, around the 9th, my heifer, Penelope, had her first calf, a red bull.  But do understand that we do not calve this early normally.  No, Penelope was with a bunch of other cows and bulls and was bred early.  Thankfully, the weather played in her favor and she successfully had her baby without a problem.  We had been checking her whenever we were checking other cows and she looked like she had been nursed.  But we never saw her calf.  We just figured he didn't want to cross the river and thought nothing of it.  Until yesterday when we began moving all of our cows.
Big J. was pushing the other cows/calves/bulls westward and I was riding with Dad to go gather Penelope and her calf to also push to the next pasture.  Well, we found more cows with Penelope and while riding, I wanted to see the little calf more and more.  I had not seen him yet and was excited to be able to.  We crossed the river and looked passed a little group of cows.  There stood the little guy, right by his great mother!  Nothing looked wrong until he took a step.  Dad took a closer look while I thought about how handsome he was.  With in a few moments, Dad declared the calf's leg broke.
Broke?  Yes, and who knows how it happened.  We were very disappointed about it, though.  After making them walk a ways, we decided to leave Penelope and the calf behind while continuing to move the others.  And we finished before too late into the afternoon.
Today we three, Dad, Big J., and I, went back out to the pasture to help the calf with his leg.  It took us a while to find the bull, for his mother had left him and was eating quite a ways away from him.  But, with the help of Penelope and God, we found him resting under a tamarisk.  We had with us two short sticks and some doctor tape.  Dad put the splint on the calf's left front leg while I held and petted him.  (My job was hard...not.)
We fed Penelope some cake (horse and cow treats) and watched the calf walk around.  He got to places pretty well for only having three feet.  And now we will just pray that his leg will heal correctly and quickly.  I sure hope it does!
Till next post!  : )

Penelope with Jr. 

 

A New Year is Here

I don't have much time, but I wanted to wish you a--

Happy New Year!

 

May you be blessed this coming 2014.

Time

Time is such a weird, wonderful, surprising, fast, yet slow moving thing!  We complain that things take 'forever' to get done.  Then, with a little time, we are complaining that it (time) went too fast.  Why is that?

This year has gone by so quickly, and yet, I can think back to something that happened in January and say, "That was a long time ago!".  I am sure you feel that way sometimes.  It's amazing that our mind works in this way. 

I have been busy so haven't taken the time to put up a post. You know how some days you could be sitting around with things to do but you put them off and then other days you are looking for something to do and it's like there is nothing to do and you are bored.  Some days fly by and you can't believe it's time to sleep when other days it seems the day is taking extra long to end.  I have now taken the time to sit, even though I do a lot of that, and create a post for you readers so that you don't leave me. 
 
For Thanksgiving, we went to the hospital to have a family get together with my grandpa, the one who had health issues, and grandma.  All but two cousins, one uncle, and one aunt were there.  You know, the place or time doesn't matter one bit when you have a loving family surrounding you.  I thank God that my family is that kind of loving family, who understand and try to agree and not make fuss over everything.  It was really one of the best Thanksgivings we had, I think, anyway.  Almost everyone was there, we were relaxed, my grandpa had easy access to his room when he got tired, we had wonderful food, and great family time.  I am so thankful for all of that.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well. 
I am happy to say that my grandpa and grandma were able to return to their warm home and are enjoying it so much!  Thank you, God!

Christmas is just in two weeks and that by itself seems crazy!  We have gotten our trees, lights, and a few presents ready, but we still have shopping, planning, and baking to do.  We have such a busy month all of the sudden and don't know where to fit everything in.  I am sure everything will turn out fine even if it doesn't go just as it's planned.

Since I don't have a whole lot to say, I will end here.  I kind of doubt that I will get back to post anything before Christmas, but who knows.  So, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and New Year.  And may you take the time to remember what/who Christmas is all about!  

 

 Merry Christmas!