Thursday, January 31, 2013

Mom's Birthday!!!

It is my mom's birthday today!! I hacked her blog (heheh!), so go on over and comment if you would like. :-) 

Unfortunately, her day didn't go quite as well as we wanted, but oh well. We've had leaking pipes, frozen pipes, etc that have kept us busy the last couple of days. Finally finished thawing out one pipe. I think the cows are happy to finally have water again! It was bitterly cold, though!!! I'll probably do a post about it because what we did to fix it was pretty funny... :-) 

Anyway, despite having to work on that, I think Mom has enjoyed her birthday so far. Dad is on his way home with Rudy's BBQ (the BEST BBQ around!) for supper. It's a rare treat (usually on birthdays or Mother's day- yeah, that place is EMPTY on Mother's day!), so we're looking forward to it. :-) 

Maybe I can actually snap a few pictures.... :-) 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Water, water, and more water!!!

It seems that lately we just can't seem to keep the water in the right place on the ranch- which is in the water pipes and water tanks! Not flooding all over the place. If you didn't guess, we are dealing with lots of leaking pipes again. It pretty much goes like this: fix one, find another that's broken, then find that the one you just fixed broke again, then you find a new one, etc, etc....

Dad and Josh were up super early yesterday morning trying to work on one. When they came in for lunch, they were still have issues with it. So, I ended up heading out with Josh to finish fixing it while Dad and Caleb continued to take down our large arena. Josh got down in the hole first to glue one pipe into another, then I ended up having to get down into the hole to fix the other side (I didn't really know what I was doing, but Josh stood by telling me what to do, so that helped. ;-) By the way, I was only getting down there because Josh was rather tired from working all morning and I wanted to give him a break. He protested a lot because he didn't want his sister getting down there for no reason if he could do it himself. Such a gentleman!!). Anyway, I was standing in 7 inches of water... or at least it felt that deep! I know it came past my ankles. Thankfully my boots and pants got all the damage. Oh, and we were just a little muddy... wish I'd had the camera to take pictures! We must have looked pretty funny... :-)

We're 'disassembling' the arena because we are going to use the fencing to build a set of corrals in one of the pastures. Unfortunately, fencing costs a LOT of money. So, when you're not using the arena and a couple other pens anyway, why not just take them down and reuse them. Now, that's what I call being 'green'. ;-)

Dad had Monday off (due to the holiday), and is taking today off as well. So, we had a nice 4-day weekend to work on stuff around the ranch. Things are always piling up that need to be done. *sigh*. I guess that's part of the fun, though. I think I'd really hate it if we didn't have anything to do! ;-) Unfortunately, we were planning on taking down the arena/building the corrals this weekend, not spend it fixing pipelines. Goes to show that we don't know the ways of the Lord and can't plan our day exactly as we would like! :-)

Anyway, I wanted to drop a little update on what we've been doing. Also, I've got some great posts coming up that I can't wait to share with you all. The new puppy is doing well, still hasn't got a name... he doesn't seem to mind too much, though. ;-)

Some exciting things coming up, so stay 'posted' (haha) so hear about those soon!! :-) 

Saturday, January 19, 2013

If You Want to Know Me a Little Better...

...then you might scroll through these pictures here. They pretty much describe me. Courtesy of my sister's Pinterest! ;-)



 (If anyone has seen me get into a 'giggle fit'- as my family calls it, then you can definitely believe this one...)


These were just cute/funny.... 
 


 (His face!!! He's all over Pinterest with different captions. My favorite: You mean to tell me your name is not mother?)

Hope that gave you a few chuckles! Have a blessed weekend!!!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Newest Member to the Ranch

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the newest member to the ranch! He is an adorable little German Shepherd cross pup. We think the other mix might be Husky, but not sure.


He is just the cutest little thing. Bandit doesn't quite know what to think of him yet, but Licorice (the cat) has already established the fact that he does NOT like this new monster thing. ;-)


Haven't come up with a name yet, but the ones floating around are Marshall and Smoky... though those might not make it to the 'final' name choosing. His little tail curls up, kind of like a pug. I'll try to get a better picture of him sometime, but for right now he's too busy exploring and playing to keep still (thus the slightly blurry pictures). :-)


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Just Your Typical Day on the Ranch ~#3

I'm back for another 'Day on the Ranch' post! This was a really funny day because, in all honesty, I was really hoping that something 'interesting' would happen... ha, um not a good idea!

The day started out just fine- except for a  funky stomach-ache that I had. The boys and Dad took the tractor and started cleaning all the grease off of it. Our tractor has basically been 'pouring grease' from some leak, but it's so dirty on the outside (grease and dirt mix really well to make an awful mess) that they couldn't get to the engine very easily. So, while they were busy power-spraying all of that nasty stuff off, Becca and I took the feed truck and headed out to pasture. Our mission, which we chose to accept, was to get all the cows brought down to the house corrals in order to sort a few of them off. We needed to get the bulls out, and some other cows, which had jumped fence, back into their rightful pastures.

The cows came easily (they do so love the yummy goodness that comes from the feed truck!), and we soon had them all in the corrals. Unfortunately, two cows that we needed jumped the 'low spot' in the fence, and went right back out to pasture. This was dealt with fairly easily because one cow was tame enough to just go back in. The other, which wasn't our cow but one that had gotten into our pasture, was extremely skittish and timid. As soon as we starting walking towards it, that cow high-tailed it out to pasture as far away from us as possible.

Josh came out to help us sort the cows, and we got that done fairly quickly. We pushed the bulls to a different pasture, and then loaded the other cows that needed sorting into a trailer to haul them up to pasture. They are cows of some folks who are leasing land from us, and they got into the wrong pasture.  

(To those who might have read this earlier, somehow the internet didn't save the rest of my post. So, here it is, and sorry about that!)

After sorting, Becca and Josh hauled the cows mentioned above back to the pasture they were supposed to be in, while Caleb and I worked on getting that skittish cow in. After multiple tries with no luck, I remembered that always works, or at least calms you down: Prayer. So, I began praying that the cow would go in. Sure enough, there it went. I forget that God helps us even with the smallest things. So, lesson learned! =D

Caleb and I then hauled our cows back up to their pasture. Poor things, they had walked a lot that day! On our way back, we met Josh and Becca, also coming back from their trip. They told us that we had a leak in a pipeline that needed to be fixed. So, we went home and started gathering thing to fix it. Some young men that we church with, Mitch and Wes, ended up coming by.  While Becca ran into town to pick up a few things for Dad, we went up to the tank. Mitch came with us, and Wes stayed to help Dad.

Once we got up there, we found where the pipeline was and started digging. We also found out that frozen mud is VERY cold and VERY hard to dig through. So, while Mitch chipped away at it with the ax, Josh shoveled, and I scooped water out. Kneeling in the freezing mud was no picnic, neither was dipping your hands in icy cold water. However, the task was finished and we began to fix the pipe... Oops, forgot the saw. So, Mitch and Caleb headed home to get it while Josh and I finished 'cleaning' off the pipe from all the mud.

Mitch came back and said he had a very distressed passenger in the truck. I looked over, and there was the cat, sitting calmly as you please, looking out at the new world around him. I guess he had jumped up on the back and got caught up there when Mitch came back up. In any case, he didn't seem too distressed, and rode very calmly all the way home later on. And, he still hangs out around the vehicles, so obviously he wasn't too traumatized by his experience. ;-)

After we got the pipe cut with the saw, we went to get the spare piece and realized we were missing the rubber seal (or whatever it was... once the guys start talking technical stuff, I pretty much feel like Captain America talking to Iron Man or Bruce Banner). So, we had to go home again, only this time we all went. It was way too cold to stay out there! Once we got there, I stayed home and cleaned up while the guys went back out to finish fixing the pipe.

Later that evening, the rest of the crew cleaned up and Becca, Josh, and I headed into town to meet with a friend to go and see 'The Hobbit'. It was a very neat movie and I really enjoyed it. Although, I found out that I can be very expressive during the movie... ;-) Lots gasps and sighs of relief, I guess.

Today while checking tanks and feeding, we found out that the pipe was broken again, and something else wrong with an air valve further up. So, tomorrow's work is cut out for us, I suppose! ;-) However, it makes for fun days with lots of adventures.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2012: A Year in Review

Hello! I thought it would be fun to put a few of my favorite things about last year down on 'paper', per se. It's kind of fun to look back and see what you've accomplished (also not fun to see what you DIDN'T accomplish...)

2012:

I turned 19. Kind of a big deal, and kind not....

Officially Graduated and Celebrated (hopefully I'll post pictures of it sometime this year... :-) 
 
I co-hosted a fun fashion show with a dear friend

I finally began the process of getting my books published (after much prodding from the Lord!, I finally took action... ;-)

I have made many mistakes and learned from them.

I have read 12 books... hehe, yes, that's a lot for me. 

Our family had a vacation after 6 years. It was such a wonderful time to get away from the ranch, the stress, and everything else and just relax and enjoy family time!!! 

I got to call and talk on the phone with a friend who lives really far away

I accomplished a few things off of my huge bucket list.. yeah, I'm not a big one for actually finishing things.. or perhaps I just overload myself. Hmm... 

I reached over 100 followers on my blog- you guys are awesome!! 

I worked at the State Fair as an Assistant Superintendent in the Creative Arts building

I took on a house cleaning job to help make money for my book publishing

Participated in two drama plays (I got the play the villain in the last one!!) You can go check out a video over here

I started teaching fiddle to three wonderful students

Called my first dance (that was fun, but also boring because I didn't get to dance!)

Started working on the Secret Project

Did Some posting on my Writing Blog
 
Made a scrap quilt top with some dear friends (we all have quilts-lap size- made out of scrap fabric from our own stashes)

Learned more in my walk with the Lord, though I had many failings


What I'm planning to do/what will happen in 2013:

Buy a laptop

Finish the Secret Project and reveal it to all of y'all

Do another Bible reading challenge

Memorize Scripture more

Get my books published and sell them at the New Mexico Home school Convention

Possibly go up to the Colorado Convention and sell my books there as well

Continue to grow in my walk with the Lord and learn to trust Him for absolutely everything

Hopefully visit some long distance friends

Finish the quilt top I made last year (still have to quilt and bind it)

Do some hair tutorials or post a Vlog

Possibly host another Fashion Show

Participate in Drama 

Do a Writing Series on my Writing Blog

Maybe Make Another long list of things I'd like to do! ;-) And then hopefully get them all done... 

Read at least 18 books- hey, that is a lot for me... hehe! :-)   

Maybe do some photo shoots...  


What are some things that you are looking forward to in 2013?? What are some things that you're glad you did/accomplished in 2012?