Where's Granny Clampet When There's Vittles to be Cooked?

I guess the rain has all the critters stirred up as I have seen a few things I've never seen out here before - ever!
Here, we have a Lindeimer's Rat Snake eating a lizard. I guess his name is deceiving & the lizard thought it was being invited to lunch & not for lunch. I've seen these snakes plenty of times, but have never witnessed the capture & consumption of its prey. I certainly don't mind them eating mice, but would prefer they not eat too many of the bug eating lizards!
Last night, this baby raccoon wandered up to the house & climbed the tree next to the front carport. Not sure if he was sick, most likely, or just wandered away from its Momma. It literally hung out in the tree for about 30 minutes & then disappeared. Hopefully the little guy is OK & not sick, but hope he went quickly if he was sick.
Not much to report here other than the usual. All animals fed & hayed this morning. We played with the new generators for the camper. My A/C unit is louder than those generators - so quiet! The final fix was put on one of the water troughs out back & we almost have the one in the bull pasture up & running again. We'll finish that project tonight or first thing in the morning.
Sugar got a bath today & is currently snuggled in blankets & sound asleep. Being clean just wears out an old lady. In fact, watching her sleep has giving me an idea...maybe it is nap time!!

Busier Than a One Armed Paper Hanger

As usual, I have been sitting around on my duff clipping coupons & eating bon bons. What to do, what to do to fill the hours of the day.
HA!! If only that was the case!!

Busy - busy as usual. We have had lots of company out here at the ranch lately. A friend from high school & his son came to stay for a few days while his son attended a football day camp. Their schedule didn't mess up my normal routine too much other than preparing extra food for dinner & to the likes of an eater who's almost pickier than me!
Father's Day weekend was fun too. My sister, her husband & my brother were here for the weekend. We too had a great time together, but there just never seems to be enough time for my sister & me to do all the things we want to do together while she is here. This time, we didn't fight it & just went in to town to get pedicures. Very nice & quite relaxing.
A couple of days after that, my college roommate & her family arrived for a few days. Pictured here is me with her son & one of the love bug girls #53. She was smelling his feet & he was laughing his little head off - too cute. Lots of fun with them & we were all exhausted by the time they left to go home.

In celebration of a friend's 50th birthday, I got to see some other friends from high school. Hard to tell in this picture who works outside & who works in an office?? Hmmm - just can't imagine which is which. We had a great time visiting & have already made plans to get together for dinner & some margaritas soon. It is great to be home again & re-establishing all of my friendships from so long ago. It's as if these 20 some odd years have just flown by & we were sitting in English class just yesterday.
I had to take a picture of this BBQ pit. It is the most ginormous pit I have seen, live & in person, ever!! They did not fire up this monstrosity for the party but I would love a chance to sample some of the meaty deliciousness that you know would come out of a pit such as this. Yum Yum!

The usual tasks for me around here: feed BB, feed horses, feed little girls & put out hay for all the other cows. Laundry, laundry & more laundry after 2 busy weeks of company. The housekeeper is going to faint when she sees the mountain she has to fold & that is just WBs stuff. I folded all the extra laundry & am still working on getting all of mine done. So glad I don't have to fold all of it!!
Today is going to be a little easier - everyone is fed, the end of laundry is near & now to edge the yard I mowed yesterday. I'm hoping a few beers & a yummy burger with another friend is on tap for this afternoon!
Happy Weekend my Friends!

How Dry I Am

Nothing much to blog about these days.
  It's hot, dry & getting depressing out here.  Pretty much the same routine every morning - feed BB calf, feed horses & feed calves.  I have been rationing hay because we are getting low & it is becoming a scarce commodity around here.  We do have some bales coming from a local guy & some from north TX.  Still, it ain't cheap & I will continue to ration it out.  We need some bona fide rain dancers & we need rain, rain, rain, rain, rain.  A slow drizzle for about a month should get things started nicely!
  One of my dearest friends is coming for a visit with her family.  I haven't seen her in ages & so it will be good to see them.  We are going to work on the teenage group of girls tomorrow so they'll get to see us working them in the pens which is always fun for people who have never seen anything like that.  I have a few babies to ear tag & give them their shots.  Maybe we'll even get BB's stitches out & I'll be able to get a look at 39s baby who looks to have a similar umbilical hernia that BB had.
  We had a really nice Father's Day.  My sister, bro-in-law & brother were here.  WB took mercy on me & we all went out to dinner instead of me cooking.  I would have gladly done it anyway as I do enjoy the cooking part.  It's the cleanup that I don't ever want to do.  I'm a firm believer in the cook shouldn't have to do the dishes!  Another reason I prefer to cook!!
  Miss BB should be here any minute bawling her brains out for her breakfast.  I guess I better get a move on.  Happy Tuesday to you.

Cow Days of Summer

I know the saying is supposed to be dog days of summer, but we have way more cows than dogs!
It has been a usual busy week of keeping up after all the livestock & making sure everyone has feed, hay, mineral, water, etcetera, etcetera as the King of Siam would say. I should have put out hay yesterday, but I am rationing it out since we are getting low & I'm not sure when we'll get more. My hay guy is irrigating, but it could be a few more weeks before I get any new hay.
As you can see here, some of the girls have been reduced to eating the hay that hits the ground as there is little to no grass. Don't feel too sorry for these girls as they are the only ones who get fed real feed every day. Not a one of them is underweight, by any means!
Yesterday was busy getting the roof of the camper trailer scrubbed & sealed. We really need to get a cover over that thing. It has been hard to get any of those carport people to either come out here or really tell me exactly what I need to order & since those things aren't cheap, we haven't moved forward with the project. I guess eventually I will find the right vendor to assist me with spending a few thousand dollars since we need two carports/covers now! We also had a mouse move in to the camper so I put out a bunch of sticky traps & will have to bleach the place since my brother is staying out there this weekend. More cleaning than I had anticipated, but needs to be done & maybe the bleach smell will run off the rodent!
Miss BB is getting bigger & bigger. She was licking my leg in this picture. Feels so funny & makes me giggle. I am sneaking some feed into her milk hoping that helps fill her up a little more. She still hasn't quite figured out the whole grazing & chewing thing. Not really sure how you teach a cow how to do that! It would seem she would pick it up from other cows. Good thing she is cute because the girl ain't so smart!
Another busy day - feed animals, wash the outside of the camper, wrap Father's Day gifts, make a pie crust & start on dinner preparations since my Uncle is coming over for dinner. In fact, I better get it in gear & get going with the feeding of the animals so that it isn't crazy hot!
I hope all the fathers out there have a wonderful weekend & same for all the mothers who do double duty as fathers too.

It Ain't Even Summer Yet!

Just the usual going on out here - feed horses, yearlings & BB.  It has gotten so hot that doing anything from noon until about 6 is just unthinkable!  We need rain, rain, rain.  It won't be long until I am out of hay so I am rationing as best I can & checking water troughs every day to make sure all the livestock have plenty of access to water. 
So...that's all that is going on out on the ranch these days. 

Calves & Dogs

What a lovely day yesterday. I felt super lazy since all I did was ride Ruby with some horseback riding friends & their noble steeds, take a nap, do some laundry & make dinner. The riding was wonderful & Ruby definitely likes her new saddle pad since she doesn't protest being saddled like she used to, but the nap was the bestest part of yesterday!
Little (who isn't so little any more!) BB is trying to eat my shirt in this picture. I was headed off to work with the horses yesterday morning & BB was more interested in more food. I guess my shirt looked like it would be tasty. She is such a little pillbert, but is coming along with her manners. She doesn't totally try to knock me down before or after eating & I don't have to run an obstacle course to loose her in order to get back in the house after she eats. She's trying to figure out eating grass & hay, but hasn't quite mastered it yet. She was 1 month old this past Friday so she will, hopefully, figure it out soon!
Sugar really loved our nap yesterday. I slept from about 1 to 3 but little old lazy bones stayed in bed until about 5:30. I had to wake her up & take her outside to potty. Being super cute is just exhausting for her. Although...she wasn't super cute last night! She had me up at 2, 3 & 4 this morning. First two times was to go potty & the third time because she was thirsty. Guess it's a good thing I got a nap because I didn't get the best nights sleep.
Feed horses, big little girls, put out hay, muck horse stalls, hang fly traps in horse barn & make meatloaf (per WB's request since mashed potatoes must go with meatloaf) for dinner are on tap for today. Not sure what else the day will bring, but I'm know it will be interesting to see what heads my way.

What a Week!

All of my office working life, it seemed that the short weeks after a long weekend were always the longest weeks ever!  I guess it doesn't matter if you work in an office or outside, it still felt like an extra long week.  Maybe not so much the holiday weekend, but that I haven't taken a whole day of rest since I've been back from my trip.  Oh well.  With the summer heat coming on & these 100 degree afternoons, we'll pretty much be working half days anyway.  Get out & get going as soon as it's light enough to see & then shut it down around noon or a bit after.  Besides, livestock knows no weekend.  It's just another day.
After a day yesterday of feeding horses, cows, moving mineral feeders, moving a trailer, taking down a fence, watering the yard, laundry, putting out hay & lots of other stuff, I spent the evening with some friends & had delicious dinner with them.  This morning it is off to get my feeding done as I have some of my horseback riding gals coming out & we are going to go for a ride this morning.  Should be fun & I've missed seeing them.  So glad they are coming out to ride! 
Happy Sunday!!

Cows & Bruises

Since I've been home, it has been non-stop. The 3 day weekend was just another 3 days for me. I did enjoy visiting with my cousin's co-workers from Boston on Saturday & went to a backyard rodeo that benefited the Ronald McDonald House on Sunday, but it was work, work, work other than that. For most people, that would be a complaint. For me, it isn't because I'm doing something that I love.
In this picture, I'm sitting on Miss Ruby & looking at a pen full of cows. Jack & I were glad that I had Ruby in there as it made sorting off the commercial cows from the Brahmans much easier. Our commercial cows are fairly docile, but the Brahmans tend to get a bit snorty in those pens. They'll eat range cubes from your hands & ask for ear, horn & neck scratches out in the pasture, but that whole attitude changes once they are corralled.

We got all our little calves sorted off as well & gave them their shots & either ear marks or ear tags. Those little ones are so cute, but they don't like being in the pens either! In fact, one little guy kicked me not once, but TWICE!! I have an almost perfect imprint of a cloven hoof above my left knee & the beauty here is on the inside of my left thigh. Those two kicks reminded me that I want to learn to throw a rope & I have a friend coming out to teach me the basics this weekend. I guess I'll practice in my nonexistent spare time, but I'll have to squeeze some out somewhere as I really don't want any more of these kinds of bruises! Either that or I'm going to start wearing some catchers leg pads in the pens when sorting calves so those little buggers can kick all they want as they'll be making contact with a pad instead of my legs!
BB is doing well & I turned her out with my big little girl group yesterday. She was funny to watch & still comes running when she sees that bottle. Fingers crossed though, she'll learn how to eat hay & feed from her cow friends. There are also two other little calves in that group so she has a couple of playmates.
The vet comes today to pregnancy test all of my commercial cows that don't have babies yet. There are a few that will get pardons if they aren't pregnant, but the rest will go to auction on Monday. Between feed & hay costs, if you aren't providing me with replacement stock then it's time for you to move on to greener pastures or to my plate. Either way, you are off my feed payroll.
As soon as it is light, it is off to feed horses, the big little girl group, BB & get the commercial bunch back into the pens for their 10:30 OB/GYN appt. I should be able to get all that done by then. Not sure what the rest of the day will bring, but it usually presents something else that needs attention. It's going to be a hot one this afternoon so I do believe I will stay inside & get started chopping veggies & prepping for supper tonight. Maybe I'll finally clean my room too!!