The ride looking for cows again.

Here is Paul and Sam hunting for the cows again today. Sam is a nice colt and not bad to look at either, he just needs more trips like this one! They headed out our back gate onto Tejon land (with permission of course) to look for those darn city cows. I keep getting the question, "what is a city cow?" Well, I am just mad at them for causing so much trouble but the best way for me to describe it is that they were raised in a corral and they never know the pasture life. And now they cannot stay in any one area. Everytime we find them, the can't just stay with the herd near the water sources they have to keep traveling like since there are no fences they don't know what to do. Happens with horses too! LOL!

And this is Jeremy and Flash. Flash is turning in to quite an animal. And if I have to hear one more time how he likes this horse I might vomit........he is a nice boy. Can you see him yawning? His daddy does that to.

Jeremy came in and told me where they were going and I was working on homeschooling work with Sage. I was kind of bummed, cause I would have loved to go with them. So I told Jeremy he had to take my camera and come home with a bunch. These two are some he took and I will post some more tomorrow. I think he did good! Well, except for the bear they saw and didn't get a picture!!! Can you believe Jeremy went after him, down in a canyon just so he could get a picture for me. He never did get it..........which probably was a good thing since it could have ate him and Paul saw him heading after it and did not follow! Can you imagine what Paul was thinking? "your on your own, dude!" Can't say I blame him.

Jeremy was just on a mission and not thinking, he was just proud of his horse and didn't think twice about following him.

I believe Fall may be here.

This is the view of my pomagranite tree this morning. It was FULL!!! So now I will be very busy shucking them forever and making jam. Notice our solar panels on the hill.

Sage and the wild horses

What a lucky girl she is and she doesn't even think twice about it I am sure. Our friend Diana took this picture last week during Sage's sleepover. They loaded up the flatbed truck and drove down canyon to feed the wild ones on the meadow under the oaks. She got to pet some and of course named as many as she could. The one in the middle looks like a stud to me. I bet people would pay to get to do the things she gets to do everyday.

He will always be my baby

If you only knew how long it took me to get this picture to load.........We went on a wagon drive yesterday. We were outriders. On the way out Sage rode Chico and Steele rode on a wagon with a friend. Jeremy and I rode colts that we have raised, Flash and Poco. Of course in the rush to get over there in time with the horses, all our gear, lunch and the kids I forgot my purse. So in addition to no money we didn't have any sunscreen, chapstick or my camera. After the lunch break which was at Denzel Cameron's (who is now passed and his wife still lives there) place the kids switched and Steele rode in while Sage rode on a wagon. About halfway back I remembered that at least we had our phones to take a picture. So this is the one and only picture we have from the day. That is unless our friend Jim was able to get any. I was so proud of Sage, she rode most of the way (about 4 hours) in the hot sun. We did have water breaks but our cooler was in one of the wagons up ahead of us. The team we were behind was a bit shy of the horses coming up on them so we just stayed back so as not to cause a run away. We all had a really great time and our horses were perfectly behaved. Well, once Chico bit Flash on the butt as we were going down the trail and he jumped in the air. But that is to be expected, right?!

Checkin fence

I am sure you won't be able to find them without me telling you they are there, but if you look right in the middle of the picture you can see Paul and Jeremy. Steele and I drove the Polaris out to take pictures of them just cause we can. I had been cleaning the house and decided I needed to go out and take pictures instead.

Here they are when I finally caught up! Paul is riding a gelding we call Sam, I can't remember what his registered name even is! Jeremy is riding a Fjord Quarter cross mare that is here for training under saddle. She is a really nice quiet mare that the owner drives regularly. She's taken to this ranch horse gig pretty well.

When life gives you lemons..........

This was supposed to be a first day of 1st grade class picture. Well, we do homeschool but Sage is such a social girl I thought it would be nice to have her in a class at least once per week. Her class was supposed to be on Wednesdays in Quartz Hill, which is still about an hours drive to get her there. We finally find it after confirming with her teacher the location and day/time and they say to us "Oh, she is enrolled at the Palmdale location, there are no classes here today" WHAT???

So after our whole day gets shot out of the water (it takes quite a bit of planning to go to town living so far from town like we do) we did alittle Halloween shopping.
Then we spent the night with Gramma so that we could be helpful to her after the fire there is a million new chores that have crept up. Including running a generator to fill their water tank since the fire also burned up the pump house. So we kicked butt and got alot of the insurance paperwork knocked out but we had black feet from the ash so we headed out to get pedicures today.

Ahhhhhh, much better!

Sagie's front tooth!

Steele and Gramma

So Jeremy and I have somehow started this thing we do after the day is over, usually when we are in the truck driving home from where ever we have been. One of us will say to each other "so, what was your favorite moment of the day?" This time my answer was knowing how much fun each of my two babies was having that day and how they got to spend it individually with someone special to them and have their own special time while Jeremy and I were working. Oh, and that was my second favorite moment, or maybe it just ties into the first favorite moment. I just love to get to connect with him from across the arena just because we are on the same wave length working together with the horses. Sorry about the runon sentence, it couldn't be helped. My fingers got excited and just kept typing on and on...........

I guess I should explain what Jeremy and I were doing. We had a wonderful host, Brigid and Mike, open their home to us and we had private lessons all throughout the day. We hauled a couple of our colts, Poco and Flash, and used them in some of the lessons. Since Jeremy's injury and then the resulting surgery we try and make sure someone, either Paul or I is available to step in and help if need be to protect that arm for just a bit longer. Another neat moment was Brigid also owns one of Cody's babies and was putting a ride on her that day. I will post pictures of her but this dang blogger is only letting me put one picture at a time and even at that it is taking quite awhile to download.
We also brought Jeremy first horse since the surgery home for training on Sunday. A cute little Fjord Quarter cross mare that has already been driving. Jeremy was already riding her yesterday. I guess he is jumping in with both feet!

I was so happy to see the smile on Steele's face when Gramma showed up to take him to a movie. He was so so so I mean SOOOOOO upset that sissy got to go with Diana to have a sleepover and he didn't get to. Of course while he was that upset there was no way to reason with him that he would get to have his own fun, so it was a total surprise to him when she showed up to get him. They went to the movies to see "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" I hear he loved it, the only thing I have gotten out of him is that the chickens were mean.

Sage and Diana

My sweet little girlie pie got to have a sleepover with our friend Diana on Sunday night. Jeremy and I were scheduled to give lessons (well Jeremy was) and she had been wanting to have a sleepover for a long time. After bugging me all week to email Diana for her we got it arranged. This picture is when we met at the corner market to make the exchange the next day. She was very excited to get to go and had packed three bags! I kid you not, three bags stuffed full of her toys and clothes. I tried to talk her out of some of it telling her they would probably have so much fun doing other things that she wouldn't need all that stuff but she insisted and I didn't want to burst her bubble so we packed it all in the truck. Diana just laughed when we were shuffling it from our truck to hers. I guess Sage did dress up in one of her dresses and assign every room a number so it could be magically transformed into the princess motel. She is so funny and full of imagination. They also got to feed the wild horses and she got to pet some. Diana sent me some of the pictures and I would love to share them but I am still fighting with blogger so I will keep trying.

Pistol and Leslie

Pistol is a baby we raised out of a mare we own and our stallion Cody. I had big plans for her but just no time to get it done. I decided to sell her last year because we just had too many and I didn't want her to just stand around and do nothing. She was too nice for that. So darn it if I didn't win the lottery when Leslie agreed to buy her. Here she is riding her AND I get to get regular updates with pictures! What could be better?

My men

Jeremy and Ojos Posters

Just in case anyone wants one, I have more posters from when Jeremy and Ojos was in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. Just drop us an email, I will even get him to sign it if a person wants it autographed. Don't worry if you don't, he won't be offended. He actually gets embarassed when I make him sign them! There is a small fee to cover our costs of getting extras.

I am milking our Anniversary

I guess you can say I am milking our anniversary since it doesn't really feel like we got to celebrate. I have been in a pretty good amount of pain and I didn't really think much of it at first thinking it wouldpass quickly and it hasn't so far. I have been to the chiropractor twice this week, crying most of the way there yesterday. And they want me to come again tomorrow. I think it is getting better but I am staying on the couch today to ensure this gets better! Hopefully next week we will get to do something special to celebrate nine years together.

But to keep me amused on this couch here is another picture from our wedding day. This was just after the ceremony. We rode away and down the driveway for a moment together and here we are riding back up. Our photographer was awesome!

Gator

Meet Gator. I bottled raised him when he was a baby. We used to have a neighbor that trimmed trees and he knew I work at the vet in town. So when he found this kitten in the wood pile they were putting through the chipper he brought him to me. He figured they had put the rest of the family in the chipper by accident. Isn't that awful? Hopefully not but at any rate we got Gator. I had originally called him Possum cause I though he looked like a Possum but Jeremy played so rough with him he turned into a Gator. I was pretty worried about him when we moved here cause of all the wide open space and I thought the coyotes would get him for sure. Here we are five years later and he is still here. He is the sweetest cat that will jump up in your arms if you are ignoring him but if he is by the house where the other cats are you better just forget about touching him. He hates the other cats and he turns into an evil cat. He has taken up residence in the hay barn and he will wander over to the roundpen if people are here. If I drive in the driveway he will come out of hiding and jump on the hood of the car waiting for me to open the window and then he will climb inside the car. This picture was taken the last time we branded. He is the craziest cat and he will sit on the calves while we are branding them! He is nuts. Doesn't he just look right at home in the saddle? He thinks he owns the place!

9 years and counting!

Today, 9 years ago we were married. Horseback of course. Maybe I will have to dig out some of our wedding photos and try to scan them. I think there is one on our website anyhow, we will be spending the day running errands...........mainly the chiropractor which we are about to leave to get to since it is in Santa Clarita and I am dying. My back has been hurting for almost a week now. So darn bad I can hardly walk and nevermind sitting. I had hoped to do something more fun to celebrate our day but just being together and loving one another will will be just fine this time. I am a lucky girl to have the most wonderful, kind, loving and patient husband ever!

What Ojos has been up to

I wish I had a better picture of the fatty. This was during nap time. I put his picture up on facebook for a friend and I realized how much everyone loves him. So I thought I would put a picture of him up here. For those of you that may not know who this big hunk of a horse is, his name is Ojos and he is a 2007 Extreme Mustang Makeover finalist with my husband as his trainer. Jeremy doesn't tell anyone this but they could have done so much better. You can't tell looking at this picture but the poor horse does not have the best conformation and his hind end was not built for the types of movements he was needing to do during the competition and after a week of really intense fatique he broke down and just could not perform again during the finals. It was like watching a train leave the tracks...............but we still love him and since Jeremy hasn't been riding with his surgery and recovery time he has gotten a bit portly. I am working on getting some more posters so if anyone is interested let me know.

Trail Ride here on the ranch

I posted this on my email list and thought I would put it here too in case anyone else wants to join in.

"Hello, just a reminder there is a trail ride on the 19th of September here at the Broken Arrow Ranch/JB Cattle Company. Jeremy is available for support to some if they want it. It will not be entirely a clinic situation but he obviously will help someone if they need it. We do have a small bunch of the Oak Creek herd on our side of the mountain. There is no guarantee we will see them but usually a good chance of it. There is a brand new colt just born a couple of weeks ago. We will ride up the mountain a couple of miles into the oaks and water at the trough in the meadow. Tour the historic White Oak Lodge and then head back down to the ranch checking the cows along the way. We have several cows due to calf soon and we need to keep an eye on them. Most likely we will have lunch out on the trail, stopping under the trees. The cost is $40 if you rsvp now or $50 the day of. It is a good idea to rsvp to ensure getting out here and through the gates.
Hope to see you all soon!
Brandie and Jeremy Dunn
www.JBCattleCo.com"

My day

Today is a beautiful day, showing all the signs of fall. Sage and I are in the dining room working on her school work that we will turn in tomorrow. She has spent an hour on one page of math work that she wouldn't have trouble getting done in 5 minutes if she would just apply herself. I told her she if she has to sit here all day then that is what we will do. Only problem is it means I am chained here as well.......Jeremy and Paul are outside working horses. I just ran over there for something and Jeremy has got a perma grin on his face. He was going on about how cool Itchy, his filly, is and telling me all the things he has done with her and wanted to know why I wasn't more impressed. It seems so simple to me.........I have never ever doubted his ability with horses and what he can get accomplished with them in a short amount of time. He just has an easy way about him and the horses trust him. The darn thing is only a year and a half and he already saddled her and asked her to drag a log. From the ground of course. He isn't going to get on her for quite some time just to let her body finish growing. I have tried and tried and cannot get the picture of Teri and her colt Knight, that Jeremy had the pleasure of starting, to load on this darn thing. Sorry Teri, you two do look great together.
I must run, Steele is digging in the garabe and I need to set something off under Sagie...............

How my girl rolls to hunt cows......

So we are still trying to locate several cows that are missing. We loaded the kids and headed out on the polaris yesterday to look for them again. My girl had been playing in my makeup and had dressed herself in a dress and heels pretending she was shopping throughout the house.
When Jeremy came in and said we were going she shrieked and said "Wait! I have to get my purse!" What a ranch girl! I thought she was so beautiful sitting on the hood while we drove with the breeze blowing through her hair! You should have seen the make up! She did a pretty good job with it, but she is not allowed to wear it to town or if we have company so hunting cows will have to do.

My Cowboy and his Kate

I don't know how he does it. He can make the ugliest horse look good. Wait........did I just call Chico ugly??? Oopsie.

And that dog with him is Kate. I bought her for him last Christmas. She was six weeks old. I don't know what got into me. I flew to Amarillo (with Mom), got a hotel room, woke up the next morning with a rented truck and drove two hours north to Texhoma, Oklahoma to pick her up. Yes, I know I could have had her shipped but she was just a baby! We took her on the plane with us as a carry on. She was perfect the whole time and never even cried. Now after surviving a rattlesnake bit when she was only six months old she is a cattle working fool. Jeremy works her with just whistles. If any of you are looking for a good working Border Collie she came from hookshorseranch.com

More pics from hunting cows.

My Prissy is going to work! I had to get off the polaris and block a hole so Jeremy could push the cows out of an area they shouldn't have been. I told Sage "hold onto her good!" She wanted to make a mess of things.

Jeremy and Chico on the way back when we were done.
I sure love that horse! He is just perfect.

Worn out.......

You probably can't see it in the picture but it was the cutest thing ever! We had finally gotten off the dozer road and were heading up to check one more place before heading home. I look over at him and he had fallen asleep, still holding on to his "handle" and leaning on daddy's shoulder (the surgery shoulder). The cutest and funniest part was the little snot dribble hanging from his nose! So funny! I don't care who you are!!!

When we realized he was asleep Jeremy put him on his lap (and wiped his nose!) so he could be more comfortable. It was so sweet!

Hunting Cows

Of all the cool pictures I took today, this is the only one I could get to load...........we spent all day either moving cows, checking them or looking for them. We were successful in the first two tasks but not so successful in the finding of the last task of locating the missing ones. Jeremy rode Chico and the kids and I took the polaris. We are normally not a motorized outfit but with Jeremy still healing it was just nice to see him horseback and since we have the kids and I am only agreeing to Jeremy riding Chico that leaves the kids without a horse. Once we got the handful of the cows moved we loaded up a lunch and the dogs and headed the other direction to look for about ten head of herefords that we are pretty sure are way up the mountain where they shouldn't be. We drove several miles on dozer roads from the White Fire two years ago. Then we hiked another couple miles down into a canyon where we found tracks and water. No cows though. I am afraid we just didn't go far enough, the kids were running low on energy and we still had to hike back. After some discussion Jeremy and I decided we would probably need to trailer to the top and then ride it down. Anyhow, we had a really fun time together and the kids hiked the whole way themselves! Sage caught a baby frog and was mad I made her put it back. Steele fell asleep halfway home, oh!!! I have got to get that picture to load! It was hilarious!

Prissy!!!

Have I said before how cool this dog is? She is the biggest, toughest, silliest dog eva eva!

Jeremy had a couple of lessons today and they wanted to work cattle. I always drive out to help block the gate coming across the creek. Priss has her special spot she rides on the Polaris Ranger. She fits just perfect on the console between the two seats. There was one night we had been gone for a few hours during the day and she had been locked in the bathroom while we were gone so when I got her out to go feed with me she was so excited she jumped on the hood while we were driving! It scared the crap out of me and I reached to grab her and all I got was her nub of a tail. She didn't even flinch! Just kept watching ahead of us! I just love her!

The Car

So Friday evening before going home we met a prospective buyer for my dad's car that is for sale. Well, actuallly it was my passed aunt's car. That's another story, but not a very funny one..........Anyhow. The car has been sitting for a couple of months now since my dad had it parked on the street advertised for sale and one night he didn't bring it back in. That was the one night some dirtbag broke out the passenger window and attempted to steal it. The steering colomn is all busted up and some wires are hanging out of it. I made sure to disclose all of this information on the ad and make sure it is known we do have a police report so if a person was to buy it and then get pulled over they wouldn't go to the pokey for a stolen car! My dad was working late and would not be able to get there to show the car so we agreed to do it. He told me how to get in and get the keys to the car. Well, I was worrying about how to get the keys before the people got there without them seeing so they wouldn't know how to break into my dad's house and we were running late. So we pull in and they aren't there, so Jeremy drops me off and he heads back to the head of the driveway to meet them. I am hurrying to find the ladder and get the keys out before they come around the corner and see how I am doing it when finally in my panic to locate the key I get my damn arm stuck in the window. I felt like a monkey stuck in a trap, open your paw, open your paw! But I can't because I need that key!!! I finally get my arm unstuck and the ladder put away just as they come around the corner. The battery on the car was dead since it has been sitting so long so we had to hook up another battery and let it charge a bit before trying to start it. Jeremy had gotten in the car and was attempting to get the key in the ignition and it won't go in. Trying to look like he knows what he is doing he starts sticking wires together. Now the horn is honking and the flashers are going off. Now, mind you, my dad is usually all business and doesn't forget details. The perspective buyers are looking the car all over and I am starting to feel like I am in a frying pan cause nothing is going smoothly. I call dad up to ask about this key problem and he laughs...........laughs can you believe it?! "Oh, I forgot to tell you" he says "you don't need a key to start it anymore. Don't you have a screwdriver?!" WHAT??? I would have thought he would remembered a detail like that! And don't forget the PBs are hearing all of this. So Jeremy is his haste to find a screw driver he opens the console and there are syringes in it!! He snaps it closed like he was caught doing something he shouldn't have been, all the while laughing his butt off. Of course we knew it is because my aunt was a diabetic but the PBs, I am sure by now are starting to question the validity of anything we are saying. You should have seen the guy when I was trying to open the trunk! He looked like he was ready to run for his car with his hand on his cell phone! We never did get the darn thing to start. The battery was just too dead. The PBs agreed that we weren't asking much for the car even with all the damages and scheduled to come back Sunday when my dad was there. I should have know they were probably just trying to get out of there since they never did show up. They were probably scared at what they would encounter next!

The monster by the porch

Sorry to say this is all I have time for today. Yesterday we spent the whole day running around town collecting the things people donated to Armondo and his family (the ones that their house burned). That was the neatest feeling with all the crap going on lately and then to feel all the care and concern people expressed for a stranger that lost his home. People literally cleaned out their garages giving him stuff to keep him working. We picked up a lawn mower even. And I have over a $100 in one day. Thank you so much to the selfless people out there! I have a pretty funny story about a car my dad has for sale that we also showed last night but just no time to sit and write it. I will though. The snake in this picture, sorry Mikey we don't relocate them around here. He was in the flower bed by the front porch right next to where the kids' toys live! Yeah, yeah, somebody call CPS, whatever. It is just the nature of living in the desert. Anyhow, thankfully I caught sight of him as I walked off the porch for something and we quickly sent him to heaven. He was huge!

Ugh! I am having trouble downloading pics again!!!! Lets see who I can piss off now?!

Wordless Wednesday

Family needs our help.

This is what is left of Sid and Sallie's (Mom) back house. The family that lived here, Armondo and Amanda caretook the property and fed the animals. They have two small kids.

This is some of the corrals, smoldering poop..........the house that burned stood just behind the Eucalypus trees in the back of the picture.

The Kawasaki Mule that was parked in Armondo's driveway.

Looking back from where the fire came from.
Sam and Kathy their friends and neighbors also lost their home.

Another view of the house looking back toward the trees. Sid and Sallie's main house sits up behind the barn you can see behind the trees. It was in a big clearing and was saved.
Sallie's sister, Aunt Donna is trying to get a collection together for Armondo and Amanda, the caretakers. He is a landscaper and a damn hard worker. Honest as the day is long. He lost all his landscaping equipment that was in the garage in addition to everything that was in the house. Donna is collecting whatever we can to help get them back on their feet. Gift cards to Walmart, Target, groceries, ect. If you prefer to write them a check please make it out to Donna Phipps (we are not sure Armondo has a checking account) it can be sent to

POB 3265, Quartz Hill, Ca. 93586. I can assure you these people are honest and Armondo and Amanda will get anything sent for them. Donna gave me permission to post all her info. Her number is (661)943-3078 if you have any questions call her or me. I plan to head out to collect some checks that have already been offered and Thank you to those people!

My Angels

Finally! Pictures! And no, she is not picking her nose. Sweet little rascals.