My Buckin Bling necklace

I wish the darn picture was bigger......Jeremy got me an early Valentine's day that I told him about after the fact. He loves it when I do that. He is the kind that likes to surprise you. I came along and ruined that for him. Time and time again. It's just my noisy nature I guess. I found the gal on Facebook and turns out it is Robert Chavez's (saddle maker for those of you that don't know who he is) little sister. Small world. I am not sure if she has a website aside from Facebook but you could always search Buckin Bling to find her if you want your own. They are all custom pieces. I just told her the concho I liked and the colors and she came up with it! I love it and cannot wait to get it!

I be a bonehead sometimes......

I have been a busy girl around here lately. I have worked four days this past week away from home. I am freaking loving it but it is hard not being around for the stuff that normally I do. Christmas Eve for example. I got the call from the doc in the morning asking if I could work later that afternoon. "Yes!" I quickly say. Jeremy already had clients scheduled to come. I had planned on making cookies for Santa with the kids. I needed to dress and get the kids ready to go to a dinner at my good friends house that night. Which we go to every year and I was really looking forward to it.......and all the preparations. Not that I am complaining. Not by any means am I complaining. I am just, well we all are just making adjustments.

So there I was showing my little miss mommy girl where the clothes they were to wear are. Telling her to make sure she listens good so she can tell Daddy this stuff later.

Curling her hair, making mac and cheese (fresh from scratch, I swear!), discussing the state bird, tree, flower, ect with Sage, all while Jeremy was outside giving his lessons.

When it was time for me to leave I ran Steele outside to Jeremy, which the clients helped to watch. Locked my Prissy in the tackroom so she wouldn't stow away in the truck with me. She is having a tough time adjusting to me being gone too.

I was to drive to the docs house, stock the truck and drive it to the call and meet the doc. He was coming from another town and it just worked out better that way time wise.

It was Christmas Eve after all!

Seems a big ol sweet draft/paint horse had been run into something by the other horse and tore a huge gash in his chest. Muscle hanging out and all. It was quite impressive to watch the doc sew him up pretty as could be. Good as new some would say.

This bunch of vagrants were begging for an easy meal. Punks.
Jeremy was out riding the other day and I ran up to the top of the property to take pictures.
This is some of our cattle hanging out, soaking up the sunshine.

I didn't make it in time to get a closer picture so this is all I can share.
You can see the tracks from people driving down into our property (mostly dirtbikers), thinking they are doing no harm. Driving right by the no trespassing signs I have hung. I have a hard time with city mentality. I think everyone should have to take a course in country etiquette. I am not sure who would teach it, I am just sayin......

some things you just don't do.

On a lighter note. I thought you would all like to hear a funny story.

My wonderful, kind and understanding husband comes upstairs to tell me the doc had called this morning and needed me again. I just want to make note of him being so darn thoughtful and understanding of this new job of mine. Demanding I drop and run usually on last minutes notice. I mean let's face it, most of the calls are not scheduled ahead of time. They just happen when they happen and I must run. He took over once again and away I went.

I met the doc at his house and away we went to way East Palmdale for what turned out to be one of our clients also. The horse had a puncture wound right over a joint and possibly had affected the tendon. We took radio graphs, cleaned it up, sewed it and bandaged it.

We headed off to Lancaster to develop the x-rays and meet up with doc's family. They had other plans for the rest of their day and I was to drive their other car back to their house.

Well, doc is also on the volunteer fire department so all his vehicles are equipped with lights, CD's and best of all sirens. At the time I did not know the family car was also equipped with all of these fun things.

So away I go heading back to Rosamond. I called Jeremy to see where they were and what they were up to. The kids both got new bikes for Christmas and they were at the park riding them. Sage's bike didn't have training wheels and I thought that was going to be a problem. Turns out after about 30 minutes with Daddy's help away she went. I was kind of bummed to have missed her take off by herself for the first time. But I was on my way, and I guess I can't be there for all the "firsts". There I was on the freeway, I didn't even so much as turn on the radio. I just felt like it would be disrespectful to mess with everything when all I was supposed to do is drive the car back and unload the x-ray equipment. So there I was, peacefully driving along and I hear an alarm going off. I am looking all over the car at what could possibly be making the noise. The radio is off, the gauges look fine. I can't figure it out so I just keep driving. Finally it goes off. Ahhhh, thank goodness I was thinking. I exit the freeway and start down the main road in town. I stop at a stop light and there is the noise again. I am looking around. I realize that everyone is looking at me. SHIT! There I was, trying to stay calm and cool...........I slowly raise up my hand to roll the window down and confirm my feeling that everyone else can hear this noise too. CRAP!

So I just look ahead and pretend I don't hear anything.

Oh yeah, you heard me right! That was the best thing I could figure out to do!

What would you do?!

Finally after what seems like forever it goes off.

I decide I better call the doc and ask him about this mysterious noise.

Just as the phone rings and he answers it all comes together with the discovery of a button of the floor that my long legged foot had been resting on..........

The siren to clear the road for when he is responding to a fire.

So not only did I embarrass myself being such a bonehead blaring his siren as I leisurely drive down the road but now he knows what happened too!

I can only hope that he didn't laugh at me all day long.

Go ahead, laugh, I can take it.

Merry Christmas to all!

Every year for Christmas Eve we go to my chilhood friends Sandie's house for dinner. I start looking forward to it for weeks in advance. We get to see friends that maybe we haven't seen for awhile. It is ashame really to not get to see people you like so much more often.............busy lives account for it. Same old story. We had a great time. Great food and friends. I finally got to see Sandie's brother's new baby. She is just a doll.......Santa comes every year and always has a special present for each of the kids. They get to get together with their "cousins" and hide out in the bedrooms playing.

Cutest darn thing ever was last year when Santa had a tractor for Steele. He was so excited he could hardly stand himself. He had just asked Santa for a tractor and as I recall last year everything was tractors. This year it is pocket knives and flashlights...........

who would have known?!
My sweet little angel faced girlie is happy with a turd and a bow. Not that she got one, I am just super proud to say that if someone were to give her one she would smile and thank them. I just love that girl! She got some bracelets and a lip gloss and was happy as pie to play with her friends. She had special presents for all the Finch girls and was excited to give them to them.
Another thing I love about her is her giving nature.
It was a beautiful sunshiney day at the Broken Arrow Ranch with patches of snow all around still. We had time to reflect on the past year and it's ups and downs. We are thankful for our health and Jeremy's recovery. I am tickled beyond words to be working for a large animal vet closeby. I snuck away during the kids playing with their toys and cooking the Turkey to run down to the basement and dig out my old scrubs from when I worked for the small animal vet a couple of years ago before the kids were here. It was so cool to see them again! There was a couple of them I had even made myself. I had forgotten about that. Of course the pants aren't going to cut it. I am happy to report I could get them over my butt but if I were to drop something there would surely be a draft. Good thing is I can wear jeans and scrub tops. I can't believe how excited I am to be working for a horsie doc. I thought I would never be able to leave the kids. Thankfully Jeremy, poor dear sweet Jeremy has been pulling double duty. Have you ever seen a man try and multi task?! Pretty funny but he is hanging in there and when we have clients around they pitch in.
We here at the Broken Arrow Ranch and JB Cattle Company hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a safe and Happy New Year!!!

Bully and other bully

This is bully number uno on this joint. Some people call him Jeremy too....... this is a mare named Dancer that he is on. Bad angle I know but it's the best I got for now. We have been very busy around here with Christmas and all..........

Handsome bully number two.........and his herem. One of his kids in the background. That same meadow is covered in snow as I type this. And the wind is howling outside.
I am off to work now or I would write more. Maybe I will have a more exciting story by the time I am able to post again. Hope all your Christmas preps are coming together!

Hansel

Isn't he cute trying to be studly?!

Closeups of the braiding.

I have been trying to get better pictures of the hobbles Jeremy has been making closer up

so the detail of the braiding can be seen better.

This is about the best I could do with my old junky camera.

This is the middle ring done with spanish lacing.

Making cookies with Grandma

A couple of days ago we headed down to Grandma's house to make Christmas cookies.

I asked Sage to take some pictures, or did she ask to take pictures............

at any rate this is what I got.

She is a silly girl. I did want to get a picture of her new smile with the two new beautiful teeth coming in.

This is what my rascal was up to. He did help with the cookies but for the most part he hung out with Grandpa and watched a movie. Sweet baby boy. Today he got to go to town with Daddy and Grandpa to buy his sister a Christmas present. Last night Sage and I went shopping for her to spend her tooth fairy money on her brother's present. Isn't that sweet? I am so proud of my kiddos and their giving nature.

Today while the boys were shopping Sage and I attended a craft party at her school. I have to be honest, at first I thought to myself how will I survive this? I felt like a duck out of water and then thankfully I warmed into it and had a great time. I am still getting to know the other mothers and teachers so I just felt funny at first. The kids are all so cute and sweet and that helped, watching them make their crafts. There were several different tables and now talking about it I will have to take pictures of all of the crafts she made for a seperate post later. They were all so cute. We had a great time.

Sweet little turds........

I took this a couple of mornings ago. Jeremy was in town and the kids and I were on our own for the day. Seems weird when he is gone somewhere, he is always here on the ranch. We hunted pine cones and checked cows. Did school work. Played with the baby goats.
Some changes may be amiss around here. I am not ready to divulge just yet.............

The kids were finally born!

Last night Jeremy and I were watching Intervention when the dogs started barking. Close to the house. So Jeremy went out to check on things. The dumb dogs must have heard the babies making noises. About 11pm and there they were finally. I was outside all day yesterday and had hoped to see them born..........I don't know why watching them be born is so much of a thrill. I just love that part. I had expected a bunch of kids cause she was so darn big. She had four one year! I couldn't believe it. I got to see the last three that time. There was only two this time.
This handsome buck, and behind her.........

A sweet little doe kidlet. This is why I keep goats. And watching them venture out into the sunshine today. Oh and then in a week or so when they will be jumping and playing. They are fun. As long as they stay in their pen and don't kill my trees.

My busy beautiful day.

I spent most of my day unloading big super sacks of cubes into other bins so that it was more organized and they can stay dry and clean. Steele and I did a bunch of the work of shoveling it into bins and raking it up. Sage and Jeremy were across the creek riding. I had to call him over to help at one point though cause I don't know how to work the come along. Please don't tell him that is just my excuse..........anyhow he came over to help. I took the opportunity for a break insisting that I thought what he was doing would be more effective if he took off his shirt. He gave me the look a couple of times and then..............
if it will make you happy..............

HA! Sorry girls, you don't get to see the rest. Besides the camera was fogged up............So you get this stud muffin instead. This little rascal stuck it out with me all day working. He would go and play nearby sometimes but for the most part he helped when he could and just kept me company. Sweet little rascal. It was so fun getting to be outside with such beautiful weather to. The cats played and were silly by us. I let Ojos out of his corral and he ran around like a nut having fun. Hansel and Gretal, the peacocks hung around hoping to get a bug underneath something. Priss ran around causing trouble bothering the cows. My nanny goat who is huge pregnant was crying for me when the billy got loose and was assaulting her again. Hello you big dummy!!!! She is already prego! I fed the horses carrots, in their feeder. Not out of my hand. Watching my girl play with her horse across the creek with her daddy.

It was a beautiful day and I am t i r e d.......

Yesterday at school with the kids.

As most of you know we homeschool, but I wanted somewhere for the kids to have some of the extra stuff that kids at a regular school would have but in a better enviroment than public school. So on Friday's the kids have enrichment classes in Tehachapi. Well, right now just Sage is enrolled but since it is such a family enviroment Steele is included in as much as he can be at his age. Yesterday they has a guest speaker from the Stallion Springs police department. How cool is that?! We also had a field trip to the Fire Station a couple of weeks ago but I am a looser sometimes and didn't take my camera..........boo. Steele got to sit in the police car and turn on the sirens. He thought that was the coolest things ever! And thankfully my car was parked close and I had my camera this time. While Sage is in class we usually run errands and just hang out. It is kind of fun to have some time with just him too.

This is what it looked like on our drive home. Our place is on the other side of thesse mountains. We have to drive all the way around the horn to get there from Tehachapi.

We went the long way in to look in on the cows. The other day our whole day got rearranged while I hauled Jeremy, his dog and a saddle horse down the road a couple of miles to drive them back up closer to home. When it snows and is real stormy they tend to travel south to get away from it. We like to keep them closer to home of course. This was the bottom pond. That is snow on the top! I can't imagine what the top pond looks like! I didn't even try to get up there. There is still alot of snow drifts and I didn't think it was worth it to tear up the road.

Sledding........kind of

Just to start of with a cute picture. Here is my beloved Priss digging in the snow. Isn't she the darn cutest? Except for yesterday when she almost bit a little girl at the park. Yes, she was on a leash and yes, I had ahold of her nose. Yeah, I saw it coming and was trying to tell the little girl that "petting my puppy" was probably not a good idea. I could see in Priss that she wasn't liking how she was being approached. It is amazingly sad to me that people can't or don't read an animal better. It would probably keep people out of more trouble.

Not to mention their parents don't teach them self control and to listen to another adult. She acted as though I wasn't even talking and just had to reach out and pet my puppy...........I am not sure why Priss wanted to bite her...........she hasn't been off the ranch much. But she isn't insecure. Maybe she felt like it was rude too, the way she was so bold. I don't know but either way she didn't get a bite and the girl's mother was too busy smoking a cigarette to notice the danger her daughter just escaped. So she is still cute to me!

This was my brilliant idea this morning..........Steele was sliding on the hill a bit lower on the patch of snow on the bottom left of the picture. He says to me "wanna try Mommy". That is where things went bad. I have had that sled since I was a kid. A key piece to this story. When I was a kid I weighed less. My butt was smaller. The sled still had a seat then. Instead of two bars where the seat should be. The same bars that wound up crammed up my arse as I careened down the hill trying desperatly to steer the damn thing on the snow patches and in between the boulders.............

Can you see the terror in my face?! Neither did Jeremy apparantley. He was behind the camera and said he was too busy taking pictures to save me. I stayed upright until the bottom when I hit dirt. Frozen dirt. I heard giggling. I have since educated my sweet husband that when the only thing I can mutter out of my mouth is cursing that I am probably NOT having fun and forseeing my certain death. I must go now and nurse the road rash on the whole left side of my body.

Snow on the rancho......

Only a fraction of the dumb cats I feed. Everytime someone threatens to take one to the pound, or worse a litter of kittens, I relent and say they can live here and if the coyotes don't eat them I will feed em. They are good hunters so I can't complain too much. I have to feed them on top of Beau Bunny's cage so the dumb dogs don't eat their food. Imagine my delight when I found Moose, Sage's dog, up there one day.

My doves did not think this white stuff was so fun either.

Ahhhh, how I love my Hansel and Gretel. Although Jeremy informed me the other day I may have two Hansels. Better than two girls I guess. I have trained them to come up to the house and I throw seed out for them. Well........I was thinking the other day how darn smart I was to get that kind of "training" on a couple of peacocks and then it occured to me when I heard them honking for me to come out and feed them seed that they probably think they have me trained.

We had alittle snow around here a few days ago. It was kinds pretty and kinda neat. At first. Not so much anymore. It was so cold and it snowed so hard we couldn't get the front screen door open the first morning. The wind blew so hard it blew on the front porch and piled up in front of the door. I worried all darn night about that dumb goat that has been bagged up for like forever now. We are expecting another storm tomorrow night from what I hear. She will probably wait til then..........when I think of things like that and when they eat my beloved apricot trees I wonder why I have them. But when the babies live and they are kinda cute I remember. Then they get out and eat my favorite flowers and I hate them again........it's a vicous cycle.

Todays storm.....

This was just the beginning of the storm that hit this afternoon. We are now covered with about four inches of snow with the winds blowing pretty hard. I have a nanny goat bagged up and hopefully not going to deliver in this crap..........never fails! She had four kids last year so I really need to keep an eye on her. Hopefully the wind will die down a bit for all the critters sake. I already have half the ranch in the house! That tree you see on the left is our Christmas tree we planned to decorate but Steele got grumpy so we will do it in the morning.
This is my beautiful bathroom I have been working on painting for the past couple of days. I am so excited about it! We will do the flooring next and then we will be done! Well, we will need to put shelves or something but that is just small details, finally my bathroom is cute! Don't you love the shower curtain?! I got it in Reno at the Wild horse and burro Expo we went to a year or so ago.

Misc pictures from my day.

Alot of time has passed since the "miscarriage". It is a general term. Easiest way to refer to it I guess. What happened in our words is at our first doctor appt. where they performed an ultrasound to determine how far along I was and check everything out we saw that there was no heartbeat. I have seen enough animal and my two previous pregnancy ultrasounds and was always facinated with the heart beating and how strong it seems when you see it on the screen.

A week prior was when my ultrasound was actually scheduled. I had to cancel it to attend the funeral of another baby of a dear friend. I remember calling the doctors office because I was feeling crampy and worrying it was stress............they told me to just take it easy or go to the emergency room.........I had a feeling something wasn't right but never in a million years would have imagined what we saw that afternoon..........I knew as soon as I saw the baby on the ultrasound. The poor doctor was looking and looking and even called the other doctor in to look. While I laid there on the table, tears running down my face..............I was given the option of going to the labor and delivery right then or to go home and hope my body took care of it on it's own. We had to explain to the kids, well mostly Sage as Steele was only three still. I was heartbroken for Sage........she was so excited about another baby.

A week went by and still nothing. I called the doctor to say I needed to go to the hospital, I just couldn't take it anymore. I just wanted to move on, it was just too agonizing. This is where the small town has it's disadvantages........the Labor and Delivery said they had no beds and if I wasn't bleeding they could not admit me. Finally out of desperation I told them I was bleeding just to get admitted. Of course I couldn't continue to lie to the nurse and broke down and told her the situation. I wish in a situation like that you could remember everybody's names. She said she would do whatever she had to to get me a bed. And she did. I was too far along for a D&C and had to be induced. I think back on it and I wonder what was going through Sage and Steele's minds while Mommy and Daddy that are never gone were thinking. I have a hard time leaving my kids. I have issues I guess. The last time I saw my mom was when they dropped us off at a sitter while they went out. She died in a car accident that night........I think I am afraid to leave them for fear something could happen. Probably where I get my control issues from too......yikes. Anyhow, once again I did not intend to get this into the story but the above picture is where Micheal Tucker Dunn is buried.

Another feat I fought for as they were not going to permit me to take him home. I did not know how I would feel about it but when he came I felt the same as my other kids. They never left mine or Jeremy's sight in the hospital. He was coming home with me no matter what LA County thought. And I got it done.

Jeremy built the area around the site. I think it was his grieving coming out. Afterward he said "do you think it is too much?"

How on earth could it possibly be too much.

He is under the old Almond tree that has lived all the years the ranch was vacant.

Next to the pond that runs when the rain is good.

Jeremy buried his old horse next to him.

I will have to post the poem he wrote for him while we waited in the hospital..........

On another note, below is my sweet, beautiful girl. One of the things that helped me stay strong fighting to bring Micheal home. I had a picture of Sage and Steele next to the bed to remind me of what I did have. I am still a lucky girl. I don't know why things happen but there seems to be a reason for everything. I had been home from the hospital only a week and a half when Jeremy got hurt and I had to start riding the training horses.............

Probably just as well. I was going to hide under the covers as long as I could and that wasn't doing me any good...........

Where's Waldo?

I had to run out on the ranger to find Jeremy the other day. Thank goodness for that darn ranger so that I could throw the kids on and away we go. Anyhow, I needed to let him know a client would be coming so he would stick close and this is where I found him. Down in the creekbed on Shabba, a little Arab mare. I thought it was sure a lucky picture with the colors still in the middle of changing and the color of the horse. Hope you all enjoy it too!

handmade Hobbles

Jeremy has been filling his rainy day time making these things. This is the result of years of tying knot in everything he gets his hands on. He is addicted. Cannot stop tying knots and braiding. Hobbles. Handmade Hobbles.

He happened to have some at a clinic we had a couple of weeks ago and already sold a pair!

This was the first pair he made and already sold. He just keeps getting better and better with each one he makes. Pretty cool and handy guy I have huh?!

My guys

This is a hilarious story. See their faces. Jeremy had just gotten done with some lessons in Lake Hughes and we had met at the pavement to go in together so I wouldn't have to get the gates. I hate getting the gates........Jeremy had stopped at the gas station and had a big Mountain Dew and some pork rinds.....ewwww. Steele saw Daddy and wanted in his truck and I was on the phone so Jeremy put him in the truck and they were happily munching while I finished up on the phone. I had just gotten off the phone when Steele took a big ol drink of Daddy's soda, decided he had too much in his mouth and spit some of it back into the bottle. All before I could say anything. I took the picture just as I told him what had happened.....................