Bedridden

Above is a trip down memory lane when I was bedridden for two weeks with a lovely case of a collapsed lung. Can you guess how many years ago this was?

During the last 40 hours or so, I've been glued to the couch in my living room. Sometime between throwing back beers at a BBQ and swimming at my friends house, I came down with a pesky stomach bug. I'll tell ya, it's really hard to eat soup and noodles when it's 100 degrees outside!

I'll be back to posting about cows soon, as long as I don't keel over from going stir crazy first!

Yester Years

In light of moving back to California next week, I thought'd post some pictures of life on the ranch. I went through my Dad's Facebook "Yester Year" albums for these. I could look at those pictures for hours. My dad had a unique sense of humor. His captions on every single picture in his albums just makes me crack up. It makes me very thankful for the creation of Facebook and his many hours put into uploading old pictures onto the computer. Whenever I need a pick me up, I can still hear my dad - through his pictures online.

Speaking of my dad, here he is below back in 1993. We had just moved to California, and I had started the first grade. For Halloween and also for the sake of their daughter making friends, my parents threw a party for everyone in my class.

We had tractor rides...

... and scary dummies...

... along with a plethora of "carnival" games. That was a really fun day. My friends always loved coming over because I lived in the country. A lot of my friends lived in town, so coming out for a day or night at my house was exciting. Sleepovers would consist of walking down the hay alley in the dark and freaking out when he heard owls and pigeons fly out of the rafters above us. In the summers, we'd pitch a tent in the front yard and sleep out there. We were almost always "supervised" by our gray tabby cat, Gizzy, who was always excited for some extra attention and loving in the tent. That was all fine and dandy until she started to drool, then my friends would get grossed out that my cat was drooling. And how could I forget, my friends usually had the opportunity to ride my trusty steed, Rosie, whose sway back you can almost make out in the background of the above picture.

Of course, it wasn't always fun and games living at the ranch. My dad always had a lot to work to do. Feeding, irrigation, maintenance, mowing - to name a few. Always something to be done around the ranch, no matter what the weather was like. This was his typical work attire in the summers: shorts and a t-shirt. Not your typical dairy man get up, but he rocked it!!

While Dad worked away in the heat, I was busy "babysitting" my little sister.

Oh, it was terrible. Keeping my little sister entertained on the ranch was soooo demanding. Ha. Many of our summer days were spent in the kiddie pool we had. As you can tell, it was a stressful time for me.

The great part about living on a ranch was that it was always entertaining for visiting family. Here I am with my twerp cousin when she came to visit several years back. I don't think we've changed much.

Many of my childhood days were spent horseback. My butt was practically glued to a horse. I wish I could say my horses enjoyed all that time we spent together as much as I did. I might be wrong here, but I don't think my horse looks so pleased.

I am getting really excited to be back at the ranch with my family and this little guy.

Haha, ok that was cruel and unjust. Poor Chester. I am really excited to be reunited with all of my pets, oh and friends (!!!), back home. Soon, this will be my new office:

I'm thinking I might wear this as my daily uniform. It kind of camoflauges me in with the cows with the black and white scheme going on.

 I can be a cow whisperer.

Ranch Chick

I was born in Washington state, but I claim Oakdale "Cowboy Capital of the World" as my hometown where I spent the better part of my childhood. Yes, my parents willingly up and moved from the beautiful Evergreen state where we lived in the middle of the national forest to... the Central Valley of California. I am eternally grateful for their decision to take me out of the woods, however, because I was given the opportunity to grow up on a ranch.



I feel as if I was destined to be a ranch chick. However, there were times when I didn't quite "embrace" the ranch chick look.



 

"Oops, did I do that?"


With that said, I loved growing up on a ranch. There was never a dull moment. Just when you think it's OK to relax - a cow jumps into one of the troughs and we're out of water; a chain broke on a gate and now a corral of 200 cows are in our front yard eating my mom's roses; the power's out and now we have a freezer full of meat going bad; you go outside to find your neighbor's horse farm engulfed in flames.





"Rosie"

You know what the best part of growing up on a ranch was? The ability to carry out every little girl's dream - owning a horse. Many of my peers growing up were "riding horses before they could walk" or were "horseback before they were born". I, however, had two parents who were Windsurfers. Kayakers. Hikers. Two people with a very minimal interest in horses. How I ended up with horse fever is still an unsolved mystery. With that being said, I was the proud owner of my 20 year old sway-backed mare "Rosie" at the age of 6.

Growing up in Oakdale and living the ranch life is something I will always remember and cherish. Thank you Mom and Dad. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for giving our family the opportunity to live and work here.