2nd trimester

random stuff

For the 4th of July I made this awesome strawberry pizza! I was so proud of my finished product... which is usually sloppy and looks like a kid made it.

make one huge sugar cookie.
let it cool.
mix 12 oz cream cheese, 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 c. sugar and spread on cookie.
top cream cheese with store bought strawberry glaze.
Mix strawberries with a few tbs sugar.
top glaze with strawberries and blueberries.
Pipe on leftover cream cheese to finish!

Rattlesnake!

Yesterday at the ranch, wee were busy loading debris in the trailer. There were nails, tin, a barrel, etc and we were loading it to haul to the dump. We'd been sifting around in the pile for 20 minutes when Dylan screamed, "SNAKE, TWO OF THEM!"

I am so lucky no one got bit. Brandon grabbed the post hole diggers and gave me a shovel. Funny, my shovel was much shorter than his post hole diggers! I killed one and he killed the other. Its creepy how they still move and rattle without a head.

We dug a hole and buried the heads. The kids learned a lot about where snakes hide and why I am always telling them not to play in this post pile or rock pile. They each took one decapitated snake to school today. I'll bet their teachers love me!

How does your garden grow?

Now that we are moved in and somewhat (LOL) settled, we decided to start the garden. I always had a garden at our old house, but we didn't have one last year as we were in the throws of a remodel and move. So this year we went for it and even decided to make it a communal garden with our cousins who live next door. My husband built raised beds because I hate weeding, pretty much. I had a raised bed a few years ago in an old fiberglass Loomis trough and it worked great. Of course this year we went 4x as big in the raised beds. We started the garden about a month ago, some with seeds some from plants we bought.

You can see the little strawberries already!

We decided to put all the zucchini, squash and melons on the ground though, so we dug rounds for them, this way they can spread out. It is the only part I am questioning, but I think once their roots take hold we can water in these little ditch circles around them.

Finally, the heat has arrived. Many of the plants have been stagnate hunkering down through the wind and cold.... until... it officially got hot this weekend. It was 90+ all weekend and boy how the plants are starting to grow. So far we have only lost one tomato plant and a couple zucchinis. Those things will grow like weeds though now that it is hot.

Let me know if you want some tomatoes, we went a little crazy... Brandywine, Roma, Cherry, Beefsteak, Earlygirl, pink stripe and a few more. If they do well, we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with!

Oh and here is a shot of my front yard, just because. Apparently purples do well here. I am not even a big fan of purple, but somehow 90% of the front of my house is purple. Better than dead! Everyone should have a cow skull in their flower beds, I have two. If you need one, let me know, I have plenty.

My porch... an eclectic mix of things. The bench was a gift from my good friend on my birthday last year.

Country living is never dull

This morning as I was about to shower, I heard the dogs in the back yard barking and going nuts. I figure the horse or horses are in the back yard or something... its happened. So I go out and one lab is soaking wet from a refreshing swim in the 40 degree morning air and the other two labs are barking at the pool.

A half grown American Coot. I thought it was a duck, but apparently Coots don't have webbed feet, they have these weird feet.

She (or he) was sticking close to our Mallard pool chlorinator. Apparently they were in love.

After a quick call to the neighborhood animal rescuer and bird expert, Steph, we caught her with the pool net and she was relocated to the pond. Never a dull moment around here.

Random thoughts and pictures

Of all the days I did not bring my camera to the ranch with me, I came across the most amazing sight last week. All I had was my iPhone, which takes terrible pictures. If I had my Canon with my big lens, this would have been an awesome shot. Kicking myself now.

This is a bald eagle in flight with a large mouth bass in its tallons. He swooped by the barn and got my attention, then landed on the power pole. I saw that he was clutching and chewing on a fish! When he flew off, I clearly saw it was a bass about 1-2 pounds. If I had my good camera, this would be clear and up close. I am pissed.

Here is Ally with her steer Curly. He is such a big pet... aren't they a cute team?

Does this dress make my boobs look big?

Curly

Curly is Allys market steer for the spring fair. He has to be one of the sweetest steers, which is perfect for Ally for her first fair, especially when she weighs 80 pounds and needs to lead around an animal that weighs 1200 pounds. My first steer was an evil beast I aptly named Dragon.

Isn't his face funny? He really enjoys burping and sliming you with his sand paper tongue.

Curly is almost always in slow gear, except when he escapes. Do you know how comical it is to watch a big fat big bellied steer run and buck?

Ally was practicing showing Curly and he started snoring while she set him up.

Ally took him for a walk today and Curly taught her a lesson I had tried to explain to her, but she didn't 'get' it, so he thought it would be a good idea to show her what I meant when I said keep two hands on the rope because he will try to jerk his head away from you and yank the rope out of your hands. Thanks Curly for demonstrating this to Ally. He proceeded to run back to the corrals like a convict who just escaped prison. No need to worry though, we slowly walked back to the corrals where Curly was waiting for us so he could have his mid afternoon snack.

Spring showers

Spring is here and the grass is green. The trees are in bloom and today we had showers. As I was making dinner, this is what I see from the backyard! It was the most vivid spectacular rainbow I have seen in ages.

A day in the mountains

We had lots of snow at the ranch last month! It doesnt last long, but it sure is neat when we get it. By the next afternoon the water was flooding down the creeks and roads and off the table mountain waterfall.
Who do you think she is eyeing with that snowball?

Ahaaa!!
We are California cows! We demand sunshine and green meadows. What the heck is this white stuff?

Nothing beats the new babies, especially this one. This heifer is spectacular.

Spring is here

Well, not officially, but spring is definately in bloom. My lawn grew about four inches in less than a week and is already in desparate need of a mowing. With todays high almost 70, its time to get a garden going and plant flowers.

This morning I heard the most unusal chatter and looked up and it was a massive flock of Sandhill Crane (i think). The landed in the wheat field and are just hanging out.

The almond trees are in bloom.

The wheat fields are green and growing.

The cows have new calves.

In the next few weeks I will be photographing and documenting the spring flowers up at the ranch. The vernal pools will be in full glory come April.

Old Shannon home

Built around 1930 by George and Mae Shannon off River Road (Road 400) in Madera County below Hensley Lake.

The house was bought and moved closer to Madera to the Van Alen Ranch where Mary Van Alen lived until her death.

A day at the ranch