Moooooooooo

So I am sleeping, as all creatures should at 130 in the morning. The air is cooler at night finally, so I have the windows open.

"Mooooooooooo"

"Mooooooooooooo"

"Mooooooooo Mooooooo Moooooo"

and I awake finally hearing this odd moo. So I listen and she continues to moooooooo.

This is weird, I think to myself. Why aren't they all mooing? Or better yet, why aren't they chewing their cud in the quiet of night?

So I get up to pee and I look out my bathroom window into their pasture. I see one heifer... but where are her sisters?

"mooooooo"

So I put on some velour beater sweats and make the choice to go bra-less. It is 1:40 in the morning, I pray I wont run into anyone other than the animal kind. I toss on some vans, 'cause that's what all cattle rancher folk look like: blue velour sweats, black skull Vans and a white wife beater tank without a bra. never-mind the hair!

Out I go into the night, thanking God the moon is bright enough for me to see.

AHA! Two asshole heifers have toppled a post in their pen and they are now out in the just chopped corn field. Thankfully, they relate ME to FOOD and they moo at me, causing the lone good abandoned heifer to moo (hence the mooing, she had been ditched). I show them hay and they come running to the gate.

I utter some expletives, like 'you f*cking whores' and let them back in their pen. I then reward their behavior with three flakes of hay. This shuts them up so I can go repair the fence. I realize this is not something I can properly fix in the middle of the night, so I spend 20 minutes fixing the fence good enough to contain the bitches until dh can put new posts in in the morning.

Sweaty and tired I wander back into the house about 2:15 and I lay there awake. I finally put the TV on and watch two episodes of House Hunters... love that show.... and finally decide at 3:30 to get up, get a Diet Pepsi and tinker on the computer. I haven't heard anymore mysterious mooing from Rooster, Roadrunner or Robin, so I hope they are in their pasture.

Wild boars

A Sow with her piglets

Our ranch is abundant with wildlife. One thing the environmentalists and many city dwellers do not understand about ranchers, is we are one of the largest conservators of rangeland. The cattle ranchers are the caretakers of millions of acres of oak woodlands, rolling hills and grasslands that are home to all the various species of wildlife across this nation.

Sow & piglets

Any given trip to the ranch, I try to bring my camera and have it ready to shoot. I have seen mountain lions, bears (rarely thankfully), bobcats, deer, bald eagles and wild pigs to name a few.

The wild pigs are a problem because they root up the pastures and it looks like someone took a disc to the field. They also populate like crazy! They can be bred by 12 months of age and have 2-3 litters of piglets a year. Typically they can have 8-10 piglets, but due to nature, I usually see 3 or 4 piglets per sow. I am guessing there is a high piglet mortality rate. This is the one animal we have to 'thin' out on the ranch routinely.

This year is particularly bad because of the draught. There have been news articles in our local papers about them coming into rural residential areas and destroying landscape, sprinklers. They can even be mean if provoked. Lately I have seen dozens of wild pigs. They are usually night animals, but this time they just looked for a minute before heading into the brush . People in subdivisions are having to call in help to control the populations.

On our most recent trip, we came across a dozen in the middle of the day. While I have always seen some pigs on occasion or seen evidence of them, they are so overpopulated now I have seen no less than 10 on every visit to the ranch! We have been working to 'thin out' some of the pigs. Such is life on a ranch.

Cows

We love our cows. They are so funny, sweet and predictable. I drive a deisel truck to the ranch to check on them, and I always bring two bales of hay (or more) to feed them.

The reason I do this is two fold (or four fold). First, its the best way I can get them together and check on everyone. The other is so when I have to gather them, my job is easy. You see, instead of having to chase cows across the land, through brush and rocky hillsides, they are spoiled and want hay. We just honk the horn, toss out a little hay and they come following into the corrals. Usually we only need a horse or two or a quad to follow up the straglers in the rear. You see this also alows me to be lazier and not work as hard. Lastly, the cows need a little extra supplement this time of year.

Somehow this calf has eluded the brandings and castration, as well as weaning!

We are in a draught and the grass is lean this year, so I typically give them hay once or twice a week to supplement. The lake is low, so this time they decided to take a 'short cut!'

A face only a mother could love!

You see their faces and ear tags are blackish and dirty? The yellow flowers you see are not beautiful flowers, but rather obnoxious weed we call 'tar weed,' I dont know the exact name of it, thats my husbands department. We are looking into ways of eradicating it. Anyhow, the cows dont eat it, but it is everywhere they do eat, so the sticky tar on the plant sticks to their faces and every late summer the cows look like this. It has a pungent smell as well that stays on the truck and follows me wherever I go. I get out at the grocery store and smell tar weed.


Somehow her pretty fance has managed to stay clean, or can you just not see it?

MMMmmmmmmm hay!

Decorating

We are finally getting settled into the house. We are now into month 11 of the remodel. Most of the interior is done except for the 4th bathroom which make be years before we have the energy to rip out tile and tackle it. Its a 4th bathroom, it doesnt really matter as much. It serves its function of bathroom off the laundry room and bathroom for the pool.

Here is our dining room. I am pretty happy with it and it is finished. I used the sage color from my adjacent couches on the wall and picked a rug with some rusty oranges in it. I wish I had found a bigger rug in that pattern, but oh well.

Here is the front living room. Its cozy and serves as the tv (inside the armoire) with the Wii, all Wii games and the pool table is next to this living room area. You can see the corner of the pool table in the below photo. I wish dh had hung the picture above the couch a little lower, but again, oh well. I need something for the big blank wall next to the armoire.

Here is the entry. It is barron and I am far from being happy with it. Any thoughts? I love the art and the console table, but otherwise it is boring and drab.

Here is my messing living room. Can you tell I was doing laundry, vaccuuming and the puppy bed and toys are here? This is my reality. I love this rug and couch though. I need to add another couch in here and have been strugging to find one that 'goes' with the couch and rug. I think I found this one I think will work.

Here is the all important TV and bar area. I can see this tv from the kitchen, which I love. My old kitchen was in an old house isolated with swing doors on both ends of the kitchen to keep me in my place. I love that I can be making dinner and watching Oprah or House Hunters or something equally important! As you can see, yesterday it was the Bears beating Dallas.

This has been my biggest headache. I can not figure out how to decorate this monter without it looking cluttered. On the very top I am going to put my antique saddles (once I clean them). I am pretty happy with the top shelf. Thank you Target for your 75% off clearance items. The rest seems like a cluttered mess to me. Any thoughts?

Finally, for today, here is our kitchenette. This table is pushed against the wall with a bench underneath. I can pull it out and put 8 kids there if need be. If I were insane, that is.

Cooper

Skyfires Hall of Fame "COOPER"

We finally gave in and added a pup to our family. Cooper arrived yesterday and he is the sweetest pup. He slept in his crate all night long without a whimper except for the first minute. He just hung with us in the house all day with a dozen or more trips outside to make sure we avoid any and all accidents on the new floors!

I am a big believer in being proactive in puppy training. If you can avoid the accidents by keeping a close eye on the pup and taking them out (carrying!) as soon as you get them out of the crate in the morning, after every meal and every hour or so all day long, you can avoid the accidents all together. I also put the pup in the crate for a nap midday and whenever I can not keep a close eye. This keeps them from doing 'puppy' things and developing bad 'im bored' habits like eating a shoe. The crate is not a punishment nor does he spend much time in there besides night time, but it is the pups and my best friend.

I also believe that the rules for the dog start now. If you dont want an 80 pound big hairy black lab with muddy paws jumping on you, then dont allow a 10 pound puppy to. If they know from the get go that it isnt allowed, then it doesnt take headaches and tons of training. Teach the manners from the beginning. No snapping for food, no getting on things you dont want them to. I love positive distraction. If the pup starts after something I dont want him to chew on, I give him his chewie.

More to come with my trials in puppyhood.

August 2008

Before school began we took our annual vacation to Bass Lake. We enjoyed hours in the pool and lake and spent a whole day on the boat.

Dylan, what a ham he is!

The kids spent hours tubing.

First day of school! Ally is going into 3rd grade, Dylan into 1st.