Monday, October 31, 2011

Waitin'

Every 7-10 days, "Manuel" and I bring in the pregnant ladies from pasture to check on them.

This consists of Manny driving out on his "horse" to round up the ladies, and Stoney and I get the gates ready and alleys clear for the 300 girls.

And then, when all the gates are set, and cows are heading in on the dirt road, Stoney and I wait.


Wait, wait, wait.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Makeup Break

Is there something on my face?

Umm

Ummm.

Mom?


Mom, are you coming?!

Mornin'

Mornin' greetings from the tractor.

Where Is Ramblin' Cowgirl?

An Anniversary

Today's a very special day.

It's an anniversary of mine.

Mine and Stoney's one year anniversary.

One year ago today, Stoney was delivered to Mama Texas' house in Amarillo after traveling two days in a car from his birth town - Montrose, Colorado.

All I knew of Stoney was a YouTube video of his litter. I knew I wanted him, the dark one with the spots, from the start. After dreaming of having my own puppy for years, it was a huge deal for me to trust my friends in colorado and assume this dog was all he was cracked up to be. When I laid my eyes on him, he was cuter than I had imagined! Like a true mama, I was instantly attached to my pup within seconds.

Today, he's my right hand man. He goes with me to work. He is my little love bug. My other best friend!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Don't Quit Yer Day Job

Manure Spreading training is over. I'm officially out on the tractor in the pastures solo. I had to make my puppy stay home because he decided he didn't want to get cow dung flung at him.


Gimme an Ipod and some headphones, and I could do this everyday all day.


Are You My Mommy?

Smile

Manuel and Texas with our two suprises this weekend.



Good news? At least they're both girls. :)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Baby Steps

Baby steps with my baby girl.


When I brought her home, the girl I had brought her from had started loping her through the barrels. But, when I brought Jade home and started riding her and reading up on how broke a horse should be before being trained for barrel racing... I decided I wanted to take it slow with Jade and back track a little bit. We've been working on foundation work and slow barrel work. I loped her through the barrels for the second time the other day. Not perfect, but not terrible... looking forward to what her future holds. :)

This Last Weekend

This last weekend, Texas and I did a spur of the moment weekend getaway trip to a friend's cabin.

We spent the weekend in beautiful Murphy's and Arnold in the foothills just a "few" miles from our ranch. It doesn't take long for us to get to the hills, but it takes awhile to get to some of the towns in the foothills.

Texas got to partake in his first wine tasting experience, and I do believe it was successful. We tasted at two wineries in downtown Murphy's on Saturday, got some lunch with the couple who was hosting the weekend adventure, and headed back to the cabin in the woods for some relaxtion and food.


Sunday, we got some lunch and hit one more tasting room before heading back down the hill to dairy country.

What a beautiful weekend, we couldn't ask for better weather or better company.

In Training

I'm in training.

In training for what?

For spreading manure.

Yup, I am getting all ready to help the boys spread manure on the pastures everyday until it starts to rain.


Good news? I've only run into one fence post so far. Hopefully, that means I got it outta my system. Driving a 30 foot trailer with livestock is easy compared to driving this 20 foot wagon on our very narrow road going out to the pastures.



Dos

Kitten is growing fast.

Feed Me

Friday, October 21, 2011

Ain't No Dummy

Latest evening activity around our household??


Dummy ropin'.


He ain't standing a chance with Texas swinging.

Shock

This is what shock looks like...


...after I broke the news to Goose that I discovered the tunnel hole in the wall behind the water heater where I assume her mice friends are letting themselves in.

"Til The Cows Come Home


Bringin' in the girls from pasture.


Cuteness

Jade-er-roo...


Why the long face?

Deere John

You know that song,"John Deere Green?"


Well, all the John Deere's at our place are yellow. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to write up a new song.

Beef

Last week, before we could kick our new beef girls out to pasture, we had to take them through the chute to brand em', tag em', shoot em' (with vaccines not bullets!!).


I was so excited to run them through because that was the day I was tagging my own girls too.


The 20 heifers and their man friend all live happily ever after out in pasture.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

String of Hearts - "The Office Plant" Follow Up

Some of you may have read my story on the Office Plant that Texas gave to me when I was working in Amarillo.

Some of you may remember that the Office Plant died a tragic, slow death...

...from overwatering.

I was deeply traumatized from the death of the Office Plant, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to pour my heart into another inside plant. The wound was still fresh when we moved to California...

After a month or two in Oakdale, Texas and I went to a nursery in town to look for fruit trees to plant in the yard. While on that mission, I ended up falling in love with ... another plant.

The nursery lady called it a "String of Hearts" as she glanced back and forth at Texas and I... rotten lady knew she had laid it all out on the table. It was like the plant would be a symbol of our love or something. Daring us to see if we could make our love, errr plant, grow. Dang that rotten lady.

So, we brought our new little plant home in February, gave her some love, but not too much as I learned form my previous green thumb adventures...

And this is what our little plant has grown into:


When we brought it home, the strings were no longer than the bottom of the pot. Now, they are long enough that I am afraid Goose will get bored one day and start playing with the ends of them. I'd say I have successfully conquered the world of indoor plants.


It's the simple things that matter the most sometimes.



Pumpkins

Texas and I picked up pumpkins to carve during our weekly visit to the fruit stand.

Texas' creation:


It says 4UR - the ranch in Colorado where he and I met last summer.

My creation:


It says "Moo!". Like "Boo!" but Moo!.... yup probably not as funny as I would like to think.

Beautiful

Loving the "commute" to work every morning.

A.K.A. walking up the alley from my house to my mom's house or the barn office.


The fog has been showing up the last week or so. You can see it in the right bottom side of the picture. The big mound in the middle of the fog is our oat silage/sorghum pit. It's probably 100 feet tall. To the left of the silage pit where there's some trees is where my house sits. The uneven dark horizon in the background is the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite National Park, Don Pedro Resorvoir, Sonora... the list goes on.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Back To School, Back To School

Lately, I've been studying.

Studying for what?

I'm trying to get my Class A License.

I gotta jump through all kinda of hoops (at least it seems), plus I got to read this big (not so big) book of laws and guidelines for Commercial Drivers.

This evening, Stoney helped me study while Texas was in class.


I think he's quite possibly more bored than me.


What do you think?

Part Of The Family

A certain adventurous Rocky Mountain kitty of mine has been confined to indoor living for the past year. I must say, she's adjusted to indoor life rather well. She's only tried to escape once, and technically, she wasn't at fault. I open the windows up for her as often as I can, so she can sit and watch the birds, bugs, and squirrels run around.

Another thing she really loves is hanging with the family when we're sitting outside on the front porch. I try to remember to open up the window when Texas and I sit outside on the porch, and the result is this:

Barrel Horse or Pleasure Horse?

Jade is still a little swollen around her cut she got a couple weeks ago, but I am back to riding her as of this weekend.

Ohhhhh, how I missed riding my baby girl. I think a break did us both good.

I'm thinking though, she is acting more like a western pleasure horse than a barrel horse prospect... see for yourself.



I love her. :)

Wet Puppy


Doesn't he look happy?

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Black Cow, White Cow

We all know a Holstein cow is black and white.

Which is why I was somewhat confused when I first started working with the cows, and Manuel would say "Ehh, what the score on dis black cow?"

Translation: "Hey, what's the due date on this black cow?"

Nevermind the whole language issue... but what the heck is he talking about - what black cow?! I thought they were all black and white!

Ahhh, what a rookie I was. There is a difference between a black Holstein and a white Holstein.

Example 1:


Black cow on the left, white cow on the right.

Pretty easy, right?

Here's a little more challenging one, Example 2:


White cow on the left, black cow on the right. Makes sense?

A different perspective, Example 3:


Black cow, white cow.

I think ya'll get it. I think I do now too, 9 months later...


Portuguese Jousting

We're thinking of starting our own ranch rodeo competition here at the ranch.

One of our newest events?

Portuguese Bull Jousting


Manuel blew the competition out of the water.


Friday, October 14, 2011

A Day In The Life Of A Sepia Cowgirl

Yesterday while trying to find the settings on my newish phone to figure out how to save my pictures to the memory card and not the phone I found some fun settings to play around with. I started taking pictures with the Sepia setting, and I loved it so much I decided to document my entire day.

The result? A billion pictures. Enjoy.


7 a.m. Stoney. Working. Is he tired? Or is he practicing his scary face for Halloween?


A familiar view for me. Me sitting behind "Manuel" on the 4-Wheeler. His name really isn't Manuel. It's an inside joke between "Manuel" and I, or as he likes to call me, "Maria".


Sorting through some pregnant ladies. Think she looks suspicious?


Stoney at work. What a ladies man.


Hola Manuel! One of the ladies at the auction yard yesterday mentioned how it must be so fun to work with him because he's always happy. Well, yes, it is quite fun!


Typical - the men just standing around doing nothing.


Pushing some pregnant cows out to pasture. I like the black and white one.


Hurry Stoney!!


Snack break - checking on my ponies. Romeo's poor eye... he can barely open it anymore. :(


Snack break (continued) - tennis ball with Stones.


Texas needs to take these horseshoes and weld me up somethin' purdy.


Taking ol' blue to the auction yard!


Some lucky girls that get to go to the sale.


She doesn't look to happy to go to the auction. I had nightmares last night about her chasing me around the corral.


Managers meeting. The guy on the far right had some good insight.



On the way to the auction in ol' blue.


"Mom, why can't we live over there in that really nice big barn?"


"Just kidding, I love our ranch."


Best friends.


Goosie. :)


Peppy's new attempt at motherhood - I call it "Dos Negro". D.N. for short. We discovered it a couple nights ago. Praying it has a better future than Peppy's last kitten, Uno.


Texas is looking sassy.


My two boys.


Lunging Jade for the last time. I'll be hopping on her today for the first time in a week which hopefully is less eventful than when I brought her home. :)


Cowboy riding off into the sunset.


Can you see me?


Doctoring Jade's leg. I'm dizzy.


The boys playing. A.K.A. Stoney chasing after Hote like a little chihuahua and biting his legs.




I'm dizzy again.


Why do I love her so much??


Why do I love him so much??

Oh wait, I know why. :)

And that folks, is a day in the life of a Sepia Cowgirl.