Just Another Day On The Prairie

Busy Winter

Winter is a time of promise because there is so little to do — or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so. ~Stanley Crawford

Seems like I failed to report in again. It’s been a rather nice winter if you like snow. We have at least a foot on the level in most places and it’s not the fluffy stuff. The forecast will call for a half inch and we’ll get four and it usually comes with a wind or at least a wind the next day that packs it into every nook, cranny and rut. We have drifts up the sides of the northern rows in the balestacks and it takes a tractor to pry them out. We only do a few days worth at a time or the ones we take out get drifted in. Temperature wise it’s been great with most days 10 degrees below freezing with some even above freezing and a few below 0 but not many.

We bought another five year old gelding and got both him and the brown gelding home in January. We kicked them out with Cash and Grover and just kept the Bossman’s old Hasty horse in for the winter. We take feed out every three days or so and they’re looking good and at least not underfoot in the barnyard.

The new gelding. We’re calling him P2. His name is Peso something on the papers but we already had a Peso here.

This is Twister who we’ve had since he was a yearling. Rylan has been riding him for a couple of years and we’ll probably sell him. He’s got lots of go and would probably do well in the arena.

Last week we had to bring the herd bulls home from the Anderson place. It was getting g to hard to take feed over and the waterhole was one wind away from drifting completely over. It’s been 20 years since we’ve brought them into the buildings for winter but it’s SO much easier with every critter close to home. We’ve just been using one truck to feed everything and we’re usually done before 11:00 in the morning.

He plowed a trail so I could get over to the bull field with a bale so I could lead them home. I still got stuck a couple of times

The Bossman is on the hunt for a couple more bulls before breeding. I finally got him taught how to use the iPad and find his own stuff but I might have to get him one of his own. He also had to get rid of his old flip phone and got a new one (flip, of course) that he’s finally learned to use. He can even access his own flashlight 🙌🙌🙌. I can text him and he can read it but won’t reply but at least he’s becoming less of a Luddite 🙄. He’s off to the north today and left me and the dog in charge of chores.

Good Intentions

“Intentions are the roots of actions; plant them with care, for they grow into the life you live.”

“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”

— Henry David Thoreau

Lots of excuses for not being here. Thanks Connie for the reminder. It’s been a weird fall…..warm and we had lots of grass (still do…under the snow). Weaning went well and calf prices were through the roof but then so is everything else. We sold some cull cows at the auction and 8 cows brought over twenty grand. 8E went. She was nasty and I lost some sleep over how hard she was going to be to get loaded but it was actually easy. We have a foot of loose snow and it’s like walking in sugar. The cows aren’t wanting to graze so we were taking them some feed and hoping to use up some grass in the east field. Yesterday we took them to the Irwin field and hope they’ll do better there. The bred heifers are just about on full feed so they’ll be coming home next week. The only waterholes we’ll need cutting will be at the bulls.

In other news….there really isn’t much. I’m going to Mexico with the sisters (they just adopted me as one) in February. Not sure where but I’m going. I have no idea about travelling as it’s something we haven’t done in years and then very little. The Bossman has absolutely not desire to go anywhere unless it involves cattle. I wasn’t joking when I stopped for coffee at Deb’s yesterday when I said I had no idea what to bring, where the luggage was hiding and I don’t own a dress. My wardrobe comes from Costco and they aren’t big on dresses and as I haven’t worn one in years….. there’s no need. I have ratty gardening shorts and my idea of dressing up in the summer is capris and a Costco top🤣 I need help…..probably in more ways than one.

The Bossman is off to a cow sale today so I’m hauling the summer outerwear to the washing machine then the storage closet. My house needs cleaned so I’ll save whatever other thoughts I have for another day.

Fall Goals

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo

I joined a a fit rider challenge starting tomorrow. A facebook friend does this every spring and again in the fall. I thought about it a year ago but decided I had too much on my plate and the spring one was in March and I didn’t even have a horse in from the winter field until April so I couldn’t. There’s a pains one $30 or you can just do it and not get in on the prizes. I decided to put my $30 in and have that as a motivation. I hate to lose, and I won’t🤣😂🤣. You get so many points for horse time, some for a nutrition goal you set and more for a fitness goal. I’m doing no sugar and I’m lifting weights and walking. The horse thing will be the hardest. When I ride it’s usually with a purpose. I don’t trail ride, play games or whatever else horse people do that don’t have a “job” like we do here. I mean no offence if you do the other things I mentioned. I just never have……so……..I might have to plan some of those things. Any suggestions?

One thing I do plan on working on is getting Cash to side pass better. He’s 100 times better than he was last fall. We’ve had some issues opening gates and now it’s fairly easy but not as good as I’d like. He could line out better but again, he far better than when I first got him. I think a lot of it is just having a job and having to do things he never had to do before.

It’s supposed to freeze tonight so I got the last of my plants inside for the winter. I’ve never been able to keep a Mandevilla alive all summer until this year and I brought it in hoping it will stay alive. My Zinnia’s are still blooming and a few late perennials but they usually survive the first frost and if they don’t…..it’s October tomorrow and we’ve had five inches of snow in the past by now.

It’s also winter hobby time so I picked up this blanket again and bought three more patterns….so I can go yarn shopping again!

The colors look better in real life…. not so great in the photo.

Fall Chores

Spring has gone
And the growing’s past,
And the time for the harvest is here at last…
~Frances M. Frost

It’s that time of year again! Time to get the garden put to bed, the pump pulled, the spuds dug and either cover the cucumber patch up or be done with them. We dug yesterday. There wasn’t as many as last year but more than enough and probably to give some away. The red fingerings were prolific, the caribe’s and kennebec’s were a little scabby and the norland’s and white fingerlings did okay. I’m leaving the carrots for a while, they do better after a hard frost. I moved my big pots that I overwinter to the house in town. They do well there as it’s cooler and there’s lots of light.

The hay hauler will be finished this morning so I baked a square. One of the Bossman’s favourites. I started saving all my recipe’s to an app called the recipe keeper where you can either import from a website or scan one from a cookbook. You can also scan an old hand written one although sometimes you might have to correct it. Most of my old cookbooks are getting pretty decrepit and as I often bake in town I have my recipes on my iPad or phone and they’re always with me. These Nut Smacks are excellent !

A friend gave me some paste tomatoes and some beets. I didn’t grow either this year. Tomatoes are hit and miss and if I do get tomatoes on the vine they’re usual green and end up ripening in the basement…..and I have several quarts of my tomato sauce left from last year at any rate. I’m thinking to making borscht so if you have a good recipe for that hit me up with it. My aunt from Russia use to make it but I never got her recipe .

Busy

If you have a job without any aggravations, you don’t have a job. ~Malcolm S. Forbes

It’s a crazy busy time here. Most of it self made. I went to a ranch scramble Saturday to take photos for them and managed to get them edited and uploaded Sunday. We checked cows Monday and I went to the Hat to do a bunch of yard work. We’re changing out some windbreak before weaning and that was yesterday’s job. Today we came into town to pick up a new truck and I have a dental appointment. Our hay is being hauled in and it’s starting to feel more like fall….I guess it is according to the calendar 🙄

Seed Packets Lie

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity… ~John Ruskin

I took a spin around the yard yesterday with camera in hand. I was pondering on how things evolve over time. My yard was once bald headed prairie 45 years ago and I couldn’t plant a thing that was meant for shade. Now I struggle to find plants that don’t like shade as the trees have grown up. I still have a few hardy wild perennials and I plant a few annuals amongst them but have contained my flowers to pots on the cement pad below the step where they’re easily tended and we actually see them. No one but me enjoys the rest of the yard. I have a couple of friends that start plants and collect seeds and they always warn me that they probably won’t be what they came from but might revert back to the original plant. I’m good with that. This year I ordered seeds from a company. I love marigolds (because the deer leave them alone) so I ordered several different varieties. Hardly any were what they described. Some that were tall and had big blooms in the photos ended up tall but scraggly with tiny ugly flowers, the ones that were supposed to be cream coloured were orange. I did buy a variety from the greenhouse in town (called Blondies) that I loved. I also bought a slew of different zinnia seeds but didn’t get them planted in the spring. I did plant this one packet. In the garden in late June and it’s just starting to bloom now. They’re shorter than I expected but it’s also been hot and they didn’t get the moisture they needed. Next year I’m going to steal some space from the potato king (aka the Bossman) and plant them there for cut flowers.

Come ride with me. We trailed the last of the pairs east.

Rain Glorious Rain

The sound of the rain needs no translation. ~Morimoto-roshi

We had over two inches of blessed rain on Thursday and Friday morning. It is such a relief to have some much needed moisture again. It’s been hot and dry for so long here and fall moisture is always welcome. We need a deep snow winter this time to fill some stock ponds. It helps if we can freeze up with wet earth to seal it up for a better runoff.

We’re I. The Hat this weekend. The Bossman is off to a horse sale. Looking, always looking. He’d like to replace his big roan Grover horse with something smaller and less lazy. We’ve got another sorrel gelding spoke for. He’s related to my old Snick horse and I’m thinking he’ll probably be the one I end up having as a main mount and Terril will take over my Cash horse. It’s nice to have horses here we both can ride though. We still have Hasty but he’s 23 this year and we don’t use him much. He keeps himself in shape running the fence when we’re gone. We have a four year old, Twister, that Rylan’s been riding. I think we’ll move him next spring. He’s one with lots of snap and would probably make a good calf or breakaway roping horse.

We sold the buckskin (Harley) this spring to a neighbor. He needed used. He’d bucked me off hard once and I never fully trusted him. The Bossman liked him for long rides as he was smooth and headed out nice….he just didn’t have riding for both. I sold my little Peso horse this spring too. The same people I bought him from 12 years ago bought him back for their grandkids. He was 19 and couldn’t take the miles here. They love him and it always makes me feel good if they go to a place like that. Most of the time when they get old and not used here they’re here to just live life out.

One Thing After Another and Another

Oh, duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does one’s self. ~Oscar Wilde

It was a long day yesterday. We still had some pairs in the south field that we had to move north to the Kelly field. There were two pairs with bull calves to cut. The Bossman was pretty sad to lose one of them to the steer side but…..that’s how it is sometimes. We got the gathered and brought home (halfway) and the bulls dealt with before lunch. We trailed the rest north after lunch. On the way there the Bossman talked to a neighbor that had some green feed to sell so when we got home we hooked on to the trailer and got the bale spears but on the tractor. I got another couple of gallons of refrigerator pickles made while he fueled up. We got one load hauled last night before dark. I’m supposed to go to the Hat today sometime but it looks like it might be later rather than sooner. There’s three more loads after the two we’ve hauled this morning 😕

I will NEVER have pretty hands…just usable ones😂

I also had a bit of time to finish a two camera harness I made earlier. I’d seen a photo of something similar and decided to build one. I used it at the Indian relay races when I needed to lenses quickly.

Walking and Pondering

The man who is too old to learn was probably always too old to learn. ~Henry Stanley Haskins

I’m trying g to upgrade my blogging skills. I’ve discovered Jetpack…..I think I must have had it all those years ago but it’s changed. I still have all my people in the reader part of it. The WordPress blogs are easy to comment on and I can still read the Blogspot blogs in their entirety without those crazy adverts popping up. So many that I’d followed have quit. What else am I missing?

I’ve been trying to get to get back in shape again now that the weather is cooler. I was pretty diligent for a couple of years with eating cleaner and even lifting weights three or four times a week…..then calving came and this year it just knocked me completely out of my routine. SO! Ten thousand steps a day and I’m going to start up the plank challenge again on FB if anyone’s interested. I’m already doing it by text with a friend who wanted accountability.

Walking with a ten pound (maybe not that much I should weigh it) across the prairie;

Some skeleton weed that still has blooms on it.

Lazy Sunday (so far)

Lists are the butterfly nets that catch my fleeting thoughts… ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

We’re having a lazy Sunday morning here and I thought I’d finally find my Feedly Reader and read some blogs. I can read them but when I go to comment it wants me to set up a pass code or touch ID on my iPad. I’m not doing that. The Bossman sometimes uses it and the Luddite that he is would never figure it out. I think that is one reason I quit blogging, it got too complicated. I know that is why I switched years ago from googles blogspot to WordPress.

I had a skirtwork day yesterday. I did housework, laundry and even washed my ruggable porch rug for the first time. I’m impressed! It looks new again🤣. I cleaned my shop and got some hobbles made for a neighbor. I’m also designing a camera harness so I can carry two cameras (or one) that is comfortable. I made one a few weeks ago and used it and the Indian Relay race but it needs tweaking so I order some more hardware and will give that one away (it’s fully adjustable) and custom make one just for me.

I bought a mirrorless camera last year and have been using my EF lenses on it but (gulp) stepped up and (gulp) spent my hard earned cash on an RF 100mm-500mm lens. So far I love it. I also am learning to tweak the way I focus. Last new moon I went with a group to Dinosaur Park (across the river from us) and took a Milky Way workshop. The Milky Way is almost straight up this time of year but I’m hoping to maybe go out again tonight to practice and then in the spring.