Fun Pix from Today

Picture 1 - Dog & Sugar pre-washing the dinner dishes for me. So cute that they were sharing.
Pictures 2 & 3 - WB & Tracy. That bull is just a big sweetheart. He is ginormous & just walks right up to you. He'll either stick his nose out in case you have a handful of range cubes for him or he'll just put his head down as he does enjoy having his horns, ears & sides of his face scratched. A little scary when this big dude comes John Wayne striding up to you & then is so gentle. Truly amazing.

Reap What You Sow

Super fun start to the day.  The Kubota had a flat tire!  After running around & getting the air compressor, airing up the tire, driving the Kubota to the shop & jacking it up, removing the tire & finding all the leaks in it, we finally got to start the day!  Kubota still out of commission as the tire was too riddled with holes to try to patch ourselves.  Since we were heading in to town to pick up a spreader loaded with fertilizer, rye & oat seed, we dropped off the tire for repair.

We have 2 areas fully planted with the rye & oat seed.  Praying for more rain so it will all germinate & sprout.  We are all ready for another spreader full of seed & fertilizer tomorrow, but there is still plenty of discing (tilling the soil) to be done first.  Am sure it will all get done.  Maybe at some point I'll get to drive the tractor.  I used to use our old one all the time, but am not as proficient with the new one we have.  Was standing on the back of it & there is something about the smell of a John Deere that just brings back a lot of really cool childhood memories.  Mostly memories of climbing all over the tractor, like a personal jungle gym, while Daddy worked in his workshop.  Maybe that is why the smell triggers such strong memories for me.  He loved it because we couldn't break anything & we were out from under-foot while he was working.

Once back home, which took forever since we could only drive 40mph on the back roads with a nearly 3 ton load, we were finally able to get truly started with our day.  We managed to get the last 3 mommas trapped up.  There is still 1 baby left & he/she will probably be standing at the gate bawling its little brains out to get to momma in the morning.  Maybe we'll have the neighbors 2 cuckoo cows & calf caught up too.

Drove out back to check our property line fences.  So far so good with all the net wire fencing - NO HOGS!!!  Those miserable animals tear up the fences & pasture.  They aren't even that good to eat which is why they are about as useful as mice & I'm not talking about Cinderella's mice - that is a fairy tale people!!  Real mice don't sing nor sew you a party dress for the ball.  They might poop on your dress & shred it up for their little mouse condo!!  :-)

I am just about give out for the day & am off to try to read at least one whole page of my book before I fall asleep.  Night night all. 
Oh wait though - I have some cute pictures to post of the dogs sharing a plate & Daddy feeding our most handsome bull, Tracy (he was born on June 13th which is trece in Spanish & so his name became Tracy - aren't you glad you know that???!!)

Table Centerpiece

Red Bandana - stolen from Daddy's dresser
Stemless Wineglass - $1 at Dollar General
Votive candle - $.35 at WalMart
Rusty Barbed-wire - picked out of the trash pile next to the work barn
How much fun we are going to have at WB/Daddy's 80th birthday party - PRICELESS!!!

Back to Work

So busy Friday & this weekend that I haven't been able to blog!  The withdrawals were killing me.

Friday was a busy run around day.  Finally worked on the gray water line from the wash house & was able to get it mostly working.  Charlie found another large blockage in the line on Saturday & fixed it.  We now have a fully functioning drain line for the wash water & my shower.  YEA!  I discovered a huge flaw in WBs yard fencing.  I think I walked 3 miles just getting from the line to the hose in the yard to the hose faucet.  I asked my dad what was the deal with no extra gates???  Was ready for a nap after my end of the project & it wasn't even 10am!!  Will have to tack on to the yard project a few more access gates especially if we are going to move the guinea house & make it into a chicken coop.  It will make it much easier to access that part of our 2 acre yard.

I was proud of my cattle calling skills on Friday as I managed to trap up a majority of the commercial herd all by myself.  Yee Haws for me!!  Over the weekend we were able to get a few more of the stragglers in, but still have 3 mommas, 1 calf of ours & 2 mommas & 1 calf of a neighbors to get called up.  It shouldn't be long as I'm sure they are lonely without their friends.  Not so sure about the neighbor cows as they are wild as March hares.  One of them is really ugly - has little red rabbit eyes.  Kind of freaky for a cow.

My sister & I got a bunch of WBs party stuff done.  Did a whirlwind shopping excursion on Saturday for party stuff as well as some clothes shopping.  Scored well on all fronts.  We spent most of Saturday evening curling old rusty barbed-wired around pipes for table decorations for the party.  What a mess!  Didn't realize how much rust was hitting me & the carpet until we were done & had to clean up the mess.  Oh well.  Daddy didn't care & we did get it all cleaned up.

Tomorrow is going to be fairly busy.  We'll see what all kind of trouble I can get in to & will report in tomorrow evening.

Off With Their Heads!

Today was sunny & bright but windy as downtown Chicago!  Can your eyeballs get wind burn??

Not too exciting of a day.  Took our out of town visitors around to love on the calves & my favorite bull, Val.  They had a great time & got some great pictures to take back home.  Hopefully they will come visit again & be able to enjoy a longer visit.

Ever so fortunately, my taxidermist friend Mike decided he'd come out to the ranch to get Mr. Buck's head.  Fortunate for us & self serving for him in that he had his niece with him.  We had a good time playing with the calves again & messing around with the horses.  Told her to bug her Uncle Mike to make sure she'd have time to come out here & ride horses on her next visit.  Also good news in the we saw Mrs. Buck this evening.  She's not very happy in the pasture by herself & I hope she makes it alright.  Black Buck are herding animals so she is going to be very lonely.  Makes me a little sad for her.

We wanted to work cattle tomorrow, but that plan was thwarted when Pepe stalled out on me as I was headed out to the back pasture.  Thankfully, I wasn't too far out & was able to get back to the house without much trouble.  Actually no trouble at all since I had my cell phone & called Mary (our helper's wife) to come get me.  No go on getting Pepe started again even with the help of the repair guy.  Daddy & I got it loaded up on the trailer & back to the hospital it went.  At least now I'll have full brakes & new tires for it.  Not sure why those repairs weren't done to begin with, but I was not in charge of this repair project plus we may have had too great of an expectation with the repair folks figuring out all of its problems.

Gray water line in place.  Now I just have to flush it out to make sure there aren't any little critters living in there or their homes still in there before attaching it to the drain pipe from the house.  Shouldn't be too difficult, but you never know!!

Busy weekend with sister & husband here to help with the final preparations for Daddy's party.  Will be fun & tiring, but I'll be very relieved to have all preparations done!!

Until tomorrow.  Have a wonderful evening.