Wordless Wednesday

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Back at the Ranch

Stand beside your horse and your man, in that order.

~Sandra Odin 1886~

The least that I can say is that we had a fantastic trip into the Ochoco's...and nobody wanted to go back home! All good things have to come to an end, so they say...and it really is good to be back home. I'm waiting on some photos that accidentally got transferred off of my memory card...so I'll post about the wild horse inventory later this week.

It was perfect timing to be back home...the hay was dry and ready to bale...so that means we needed to get to work!

Hay Man Rudy is making his way across the field.

All the pretty bales in a row!

As Rudy is baling away, he gathered an audience...

The view from the rimrock...what do you think those cows are thinking!?!

I would say those cows are eye balling that fresh alfalfa! YUMMM!

At the same time, I had let Colt and Gus out in the area behind the barn, and they were kickin' up their heels in the fresh morning air! They had a blast racing each other around in circles.

Look...I can put my tail up almost like an Arab!

Am I pretty mom?

Gus is definitely putting on some weight...and he's lost all that shaggy hair. His coat is really a very pretty dun...and has a sort of smokey tint.

I spent the day cleaning up, doing laundry etc...then I had to get the bales stacked into two's so we could get them off the field and stacked when My Man got home from work...but mother nature wasn't cooperating.

As I was almost done with the East field, a few drops hit the windshield of the backhoe...and within 2 minutes it was pouring buckets and the thunder and lightening was incredible. Poor Cowboy was trying to get underneath the backhoe as I was driving it back to the house...and Abby...well, I never did figure out where she was hiding throughout the whole storm!

A huge bolt of lightening hit the hill just up behind our neighbor's house (1/4 mile)...and I was gettin' out of that backhoe!

After the thunder storm.

Then the sun came out and it was gorgeous!

The wind was still blowing like crazy though, but that helped dry off the bales some. It's supposed to be 90 degrees today, so we should be able to get it stacked this evening.

As the sun was setting, the storm clouds made for some fun photography...we don't get a lot of brilliant sunsets.

This photo was taken in "landscape" mode.

The above photo is pretty close to what the sunset actually looked like...but with another setting on the camera...

This photo was taken in "sunset" mode.

Well, it's good to be back...and I've still got a lot of catching up to do. Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday

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Colt's Cutting and a Couple of Gifts!

Last weekend flew by like a storm! Saturday the High Desert Cutters held their annual Scholarship Cutting. Colt and I competed and we did OK...scored a 69 and landed in the middle of the pack.

My Man was on camera duty and didn't get the video button pressed hard enough, but he did get a few still shots.

Competing in the Scholarship Cutting.

The club raised enough money to award at least three $500 scholarships that will go to college students from Harney County. This is the 3rd year we've done this event, and it's always been our biggest cutting of the year.

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This "Thank You" is long over due...I have a very bad habit of putting thank you's off...bad me.

See, this one's from back in March!!! March...wasn't it just March? Where has the time gone...anyhow.

But hey, see these totally cool horsehair key fobs?

I love the colors!

Susan writes a great blog over at Rocking Seven Mile Ranch and her husband, Tom, keeps himself busy with this wonderful art. It's so tiny and tedious that I always wonder how men do it with their big fingers and thumbs! But, they had a lil' heifer calf born and needed help naming it...so they had a contest...and I won with the suggested name of "Maybelline" because of her long, gorgeous eyelashes.

Actually, I want to use mine as a zipper pull, I just can't decide what to put it on!

So, I get my key ring in the mail and My Man immediately trys to take posession of it!! LOL...I bought another one. The second package came in the mail the other day and My Man said I had mail from Montana..."No honey, you have mail from Montana...you might as well open it." Needless to say, he's a very happy man!

Thanks Susan and Tom for doing such a fun give away and choosing Maybelline as the heifer's name!

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Then a few days ago we get a package in the mail from our dearest friends Ron & Carrie (they helped us paint our house last fall). We weren't expecting anything...but was a fun surprise!!!

It's a board game!!

Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth

And it came at a perfect time!! Tomorrow my good friends Kris and Debbie are meeting me up in the Ochoco National Forest for the annual wild horse inventory! Four nights and five days of camping and photographing wild horses! Not to mention LOTS of good food and beverages!

Life, Love, Passion, Friendship...a game for swapping tales, sharing friendships, exploring self.

This should be a blast and keep us well entertained in the evenings!


I hope to get lots of great wild horse shots as well as an array of wild flowers and hopefully a few shots of the local wildlife.

Hope everyone has a great week...and weekend...see y'all next week!

Sunday Stills ~ Go Low, Looking High

This week's Sunday Stills photo challenge was a lil' bit different; frustrating at times...but fun! I used the 'delete' key a lot to say the least!

I had visions of cool horse and dog photos from a different perspective...but they all got the 'delete'!

So, here are my submissions for this week~

This is the only photo from my archives. It was taken
last year with my old Fuji camera...but I remember
very clearly climbing around the hillside in the
cool grass after changing irrigation on a warm day.

My chive plant is in full bloom. This photo
reminds me of soldiers for some reason.

I would call this a grass flag! There's an alfalfa
top in there along with a tiny bug too.

One of the wheel line movers.

One thing I learned from this photo challenge is that my dogs are very brave to be at this level with all of the livestock and machinery around them on a daily basis!

Check out more 'Go Low, Looking High' photos by clicking here and go to the comments!

Colt Experiences the Two-Rein

It's been a struggle for me, both mentally and physically, to make the decision to move Colt to the two-rein this year...for my Harney County Reined Cow Horse Futurity, it's required as a 5 year old horse.

Mentally it's been a challenge because the two-rein is something I've never done before with a horse (totally new territory). Is Colt ready?...am I ready to take on the responsibility to guide Colt to the next level in his training with this huge bit and under-bridle??? OMG...the last thing I want to do is screw him up!

I happened to see one of our neighbor's over in Idaho at the vet hospital earlier this year and she said that Colt and I were a team...we had to continue our journey...we couldn't quit.

Well, I wasn't going to quit...I had basically decided that I was just going to put Colt's advanced training on a holding pattern until I worked out his advancement through my training Project with Mike Bridges.

But, this friend/neighbor wasn't the only person who said that I had to keep going (peer pressure ya know?)...so I decided to give it my best shot.

So, then it became a physical issue...it takes a long time to get the right bit and the right reins (that I could afford) to come together...I've finally got it all together and put it on Colt today. The "under-bridle" (the smaller bosel and mecate rein) were won by my Ol' Man Toby in my first year with the cutting club...I'm so excited that I get to use them with Colt!

Hey Mom...I'm a good sport about
everything...but what's with all this garb???

Colt looks so grown up!!! He was such a good boy as I adjusted everything to fit as best as I knew how.


OK everyone...HEAR ME NOW...if Colt's not ready so show in the futurity in September in the two-rein I WILL NOT show him...PERIOD.

I'm excited to learn about the development of the bridle horse in the two-rein phase, and will be studying to learn as much as I can.

We'll just see how it goes between now and September!

Wordless Wednesday

Go 'Wordless'!

From Working Cows, to Pictographs, to the Garden

It's already Tuesday and I'm just gettin' around to post about the weekend! It was a busy, fun weekend though. 

My Man left on Friday for Missouri to visit family (he came back yesterday, Monday), which left me all by my lonesome...but it was OK...nothing happened that I couldn't handle on my own ;~)

Actually I need to start with the weekend before! Let me introduce you to the sire of next year's calves...

Goof the bull with some of the herd.

My friend Andi, who we got our two cows from, needed a bull for her remaining 4 cows...and we needed a bull for our two...so, we rented a bull! The cows were all vaccinated last weekend and Goof arrived on Saturday afternoon. Everyone is here at our place grazing the 270 acres up behind the house. Goof is a very sweet bull, as far as bulls go (he's been shown and all sorts of stuff). His owner raises a lot of livestock and knows her stuff. I think we're going to have some mighty fine lookin' calves next year!

Saturday was my favorite day...I got a call from the Temple's and they needed a hand sorting pairs! Ty picked up me, Colt, and Bella Jo around mid morning (Cindy Sue needed to stay home, because I worry too much about her with unpredictable cows as she thinks she has to be right next to me...it just wasn't going to work).

Colt's surveying the situation...forming a plan ;~)

I've watched sorting before, but never actually did it...but Ty offered, and I took him up on it! First, it's hard  to read whether the cow & calf are a pair if it isn't obvious, like suckling. And my first couple of attempts weren't very pretty nor were they successful.

But, it started to come together. Colt and I are always cutting, which is watching one cow at a time...working a pair out is definitely harder! But, he and I were both picking it up...and it's fun and challenging! We even sorted a couple of bulls out too...I was very proud of my cow pony!

Bella Jo...the cattle dog in training.

Bella Jo is starting to think cows. Ty gave me a couple of tips and he doesn't mind that I bring her. He thinks with her being with his dogs who herd well, that she'll start getting it...and I think she will. In this photo, she found a spot in the shade that she could watch as we separated out the pairs. She knows to stay out of the pen when I tell her to and she's finding all of the spots to get around the corrals the Ty's dogs use...it's nice to watch her figure things out!

After the work was done, Ty hauled us home...but we stopped along side the road and walked to a rock rim...he and his grandfather had found these when he was a kid trapping in the area...

Paiute pictographs.

The Burns Paiute Reservation is just north of Burns. They are the descendants of the "Wadatika" band of Paiute Indians that roamed the central and southeastern Oregon area. There were many other pictographs, but these were the most legible. The elements have warn them away.

Look who was watching us!

Then coincidentally, we spy this lizard watching us...hmmmmmm...made my mind wander...envisioning what the area looked like in those ancient times compared to now. Our place is only about a 1/2 mile away, and I can see it from there!

Ty helped me get my round pen panels back up from where we vaccinated the cows. I tractor mowed a bunch of tall grass and weeds then changed implements and harrowed the round pen. After that, I called it a day!

Sunday was gardening day. I had bought plant starts on Friday, and they needed to get into the ground. But I had a lot of weeding to do as well as adding compost to the veggie bed.

First I get this lil' surprise!

One lil' birdie!

This is the encore photo from last week's Wordless Wednesday! It gets awfully hot in the greenhouse during the day, so I keep all the windows and vents open...hope the lil' bugger survives the heat...and then the critters...it's a tough world...

Either Momma bird or Papa bird.

The pair were not happy with me running the tractor, weeding and going in and out of the garden shed...but I got it done as soon as I could, so they could get back to their lil' one. I still don't know what kind of bird it is.

The garden is finally lookin' like a garden!

I still have more plant starts to buy...but I've got a good start on the garden, and it sure looks a lot better than the overgrown weed patch it was...oh, my aching shoulders might disagree!

A parting shot...

Chive flowers...they sure do grow quickly!

I get more enjoyment from the flowers than from eating the chives. I'll have to cut them back when the flowers die off. But they're lovely now!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday Stills ~ Eyes

"Eyes" is this week's Sunday Stills photo challenge...and there are eyes everywhere, so this was a fun, easy challenge!

Who...Who...Who are you?
This is one of the juvenile Great Horned Owls residing
in our Elm trees.  They are almost as big as their parents!

Cowboy's white eye lashes...they stole my
heart 11 years ago.

Colt's soft, kind eye...he's my boy!

OK...this is not an eye...but it's the only end Cindy Sue would let me photograph!

So this the End of my Sunday Stills for today!

Check out the other "Eyes" by clicking here and checking the participants in the comments section. Join us next week if you have a mind to!

Enjoy your Sunday!