Catching up.....

So Fall has fallen. We had snow on the mountain tops around these parts. We have had a fire in the wood stove the past three nights. We are back in full swing with homeschooling and having a great time with it although I miss cleaning the corrals. Does that even make sense?!
Remember my future milk cow Blossom? She is officially knocked up! All those nights shopping for semen online we nailed it....figuratively speaking. She is due May 5th Cinco de Mayo. I think I'll call it Fiesta!
We have the vet coming out tomorrow to put our brand on the horses. I finally ordered and recieved the copper brand so that we can freeze brand them. We have planned that for years and have never had the time to make it happen. It will happen finally tomorrow. How good it feels to finally be doing the things that had gotten set on the back burner for so long. With the kids getting older and being able to help out it seems as though things are happening around here faster and more efficiently.
We were blessed with a two stall barn over the summer and have gotten it put up. We also have aquired three two sided shelters and are getting them up for the horses.
A very good friend of ours staying here at the ranch has allowed us a few trips this summer. Well I take that back, we have only left once. Jeremy roped in Carmel Valley with Bruce Sandifer a couple weeks back. It was a very fun trip. I wished we had more people interested in the ranch roping around here.......
With that rambling of updates I had better head to bed. Morning will come early. With the cold weather maybe I will be updating this blog more often.....

My Redneck Romeo

Belle the leppy calf

This little doll is Belle. Jeremy named her that in memory of her momma. Her momma we called Anabelle and was our very favorite cow. She was one of our original cows and never failed to have a baby every year for us. She was old when we got her and that was at least 8 years ago. New Years day we went out to check on the cows and see what new surprises there were when we were introduced to this little one. I have started taking pics of all the new babies and mommies so that when we brand we know who belongs to who. It was a darn good thing I did.

Thursday morning we had a friend come up to deliver hay to us. He was unloading when he says "what's wrong with that #1 cow?" We gave her the number one because she was our favorite.

Well last we knew nothing was wrong with her. He says she was just laying in the middle of the road miles from where she should have been......

Of course we were still up to our eyeballs in chores around here and really didn't have the time to go on another adventure but we dropped everything and hauled the trailer down there to see what we could do. We have the good doctor meet us there and we all decided it was best to put her down. The entire time we were there we were looking for small tracks because we knew she had a calf. None were to be found. We thought for sure the coyotes had gotten her and we were left to just deal with the situation at hand. We finally got back to the ranch where Jeremy resumed trying to unfreeze our pipes and get us water. We had been without for days, thankfully Jeremy had just watered the animals so they were all good. I packed up the kids and off we went in search of this baby. You can imagine our delight in finding her! Getting her in was another adventure in itself!

Santa is a bad mistress......

So a couple days ago Jeremy, the kids and I got a rare trip to town together thanks to all the rain. We almost always start a trip to town with stopping at the post office. Jeremy came out with a package and the mail. I did'nt think anything of it since I had been doing a bit of shopping on ebay. So he says what did you expect in the package? To which I say "oh I don't remember probably a shirt I bought on ebay." and he says "well why does it have my name on it? And why is a shirt so heavy?" So then I start paying a bit more attention. I tell him well heck I don't know, who is it from? We didn't recognize the name so he decided to open it.

Good think it wasn't explosive the way we were ripping it open. Looking back I sure wish someone had planted a camera in the car and we had it videoed. As he started pulling stuff out of the box he is saying "OH MY GOSH!!!" And I am driving down the freeway yelling "What is it?!?!" He is insisiting I must have had something to do with it. He is just sure I at least know something about it.

Turns out this little mistress is a Hansen String Cutter sent by none other than someone named "Santa". Still ripping things out of the box and swerving to, as Jeremy put it "rudely rip the card out of his hand" that is who signed the card. That's all we know. Santa.

Sooooooo Santa are you ever going to reveal yourself?! Such a wonderfully generous and thoughtful gift we sure would love to be able to at least say Thank You!

Here's for Zach and Ana!

What is a trip to Knott's without an old west pic?!

How should I do this? clockwise starting at the top;

January (the other tech), Jeremy, Dr. Byerly, wait how do you do clockwise if there is another row......crap. Anyhow below Dr. B is his wife Andrea, all around her are their boys, Steele is in the middle on the bottom, I am below Jeremy, Sage is to my left and the other little girl is January's daughter. What a great group. We all had the best time!

This is what we do to our kids in our spare time! It was so funny, the next day we asked him which was his favorite ride and this was it. He keeps telling everyone he only made that face for the picture! So funny!

Knott's Berry Farm

We had talked about going to Knott's for Steele's bday and then decided not to since the stagecoach and the steam train was not running during that time.

Then the vet that I work for said we were doing a Knott's trip. Sort of a Merry Christmas to us trip. We were all over it!

The little turds, I had to threaten to leave if they did not get over there and give me a picture of them with Snoopy. I mean really, is it a trip to Knott's without one?! Snoopy was so cool, he tickled them when they tried to walk away. Take that suckers!

You know my favorite ride was the stagecoach! Steele and I rode on top while everyone else rode inside. The little girl next to him talked his ear off. It was so cute, you could tell it embarassed him but he was polite to her. I think he thought she was cute!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the stage coach. Made me miss Denzel Cameron too.

He was a horse trainer for the movies that I was lucky enough to spend a couple of years with.

Steele carries his name as his middle name.

Steele, of course loved all the trains and the Calico Mine was no exception.

Sage on the other hand rode the whole way on the floor of our train car! She was so scared. It wasn't even a thrill ride, she just did'nt like the dark. Poor girlie.

This is the same girl that rode the Pony Express ride while I chickened out and watched.

Steele and I on the bumper cars. Poor Steelie was so upset because everyone else was going on a water ride that he was not tall enough to go on. So we went and took it out on the bumper cars!

He loved the carousel, but watched it go around while we were waiting in line to carefully select the one that did not go up and down. He is so funny.

One of the things I wanted to do was see the glass blowing. There are so many things that are a dying art and I was so happy to see they were still making these things by hand and not buying them in Tiawan or somewhere like that.

We had the best time and I have a few more pics to share and stories to tell about them.

Since I haven't been to good about updating this thing I will have to give you a couple posts today. Specially since we are all grounded to the livingroom today with a sick girlie.

Stay tuned!

Pickin Apples

We had to run errands today and Jeremy came along since it was raining buckets at home. And he needed to see the chiropractor again......

I have always wanted to stop at this cute little place and pick apples but never had the time.
Today we made the time. It was so fun. My kiddos are adorable. I love how they are game for anything. Jeremy and I wanted to ones on the ground for the cows and goats!

My little rascals. They just don't come any cuter. Of course I am bias.