The Rough String's Top 10 in 2010

~Hold those saloon doors open for me.

Ain't you got any manners when you're with a lady?~

~Betsy Morse 1875~

Linda over at the 7MSN had a great idea...listing the top 10 blog posts for the year...and she made it into a blog hop!! What fun!!

What a decision though!!! Here in chronological order are my Top 10...some just 'cause I like them and others because the comments of you my readers seemed to enjoy the post...Thanks for a great year!!!

Bella Jo's got a BFF!!
Our newly acquired rescue pup Bella Jo has a huge play day with the neighbor dog Missy...lots of action with these two girls!

Little Giant
Captured from his home in the Ochoco National Forest, Dreamsicle shows the other stallions that size means nothing! The good news is that Dreamsicle and his mares were released back to their range after negotiations between the Forest Service, BLM, and the Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition.

A Photo Shoot with Tat the Barn Cat
Tat was struttin' his stuff...but soon became bored with the whole deal!

Ahhhh...Sunbathing
2010 inducted us into the ranchin' business...jokingly called "The Two Cow Ranch." But those cute lil' calves brought a lot of photogenic moments!

Carpenter Ranch Branding
Tradition...ropin' 'n draggin' the calves to the fire for brandin'. My Man gets to rope his first calf!!!

A Date at the Ranch Hand Rodeo
Family fun is what Harney County is all about! The annual Ranch Hand Rodeo is something we never miss!

An Afternoon in the Field
This is just what we do in the summer...and lots of it...irrigation. It's always a good time...HA!!!

Too Much Go and Not Enough Whoa!
Bella Jo tries her paws at working cows and Colt and I spend lots of time in the saddle gathering cow/calf pairs...nothin' in life is better than that!

The Look and Feel of Indian Summer
It was the best fall ever! Gathering cows, enjoying the garden's produce and beautiful, colorful days provided lots of photo ops!

Gathering Cows on Stinkingwater
Gathering pairs and finding old homesteads where there are no roads...awesome!!!!

Well, that's my Top 10 of 2010!  Thanks for comin' along for the ride!!!

Enjoy your New Year's Eve celebration whatever that may be.  My Man and I are spending a quiet evening at home with good food, spirits and a warm fire.

Cheers to 2011!! We'll see ya next year!!

Wishing You and Yours a Very Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry and Blessed Christmas

from our home to yours.

Wordless Wednesday

~To have courage is to have the life you want.~

~R.C. Jonas 0904~

Riddle Mountain & Dry Lake

Check out more Wordless Wednesday photos HERE!!

Winter Solstice...The Big Day is Here!!

~Every day I look for unusual things to happen.

It keeps my life from being too dull.~

~Rosie Mass 1884~

Last evening was an unusual event...a lunar eclipse with the coming of the Winter Solstice. It was a beautiful, clear, cold night.

On the eve of the Winter Solstice.

I took this photo just as the moon was rising over Hat Butte. At 10:32 PM our time, the lunar eclipse began....in my slippers, I watched for a few minutes...didn't even try to take a shot...and went back into the warm house. Yep, I was a weenie!!!

But hey...the really BIG DEAL is that the days will starting gettin' longer again!!!

YEAH!!!!!!

A Lil' Christmas

~I'm proud of what I know

and I've learned it the hard way.~

~Barbara Carter 1906~

It seems like it's taken me a very long time to get into Christmas this year. I've got the shopping done, but I still have sewing projects to finish and lil' bit more at the leather bench.

Yesterday I finally got the decorations up...less than a week from Christmas...better late than never?!?

The Sunday Stills photo challenge for yesterday was of course Christmas decorations...and I didn't get my post up. So, I'll do it today.

Juniper and holly. The fresh juniper fills the house with its Christmas fragrance. 

My ag survey job supervisor sent me a box of fresh holly, so I had to take the trip last week to find some juniper trees. This was a fun project!

The 'stand in' fake tree. But with the rich smell from the juniper wreath in the same room, we just pretend it's a real tree!

The wood stove kept me too warm! As I was dusting, cleaning and putting up decorations, I was also sweating! I let the fire go out, but by 3 PM or so it was starting to get chilly again...the temp was all the way down to 68*!!! I like my 75*, so I started another fire.

The Christmas stuffed animals...what would Christmas be without these cute lil' faces?!?

'The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there."

Oops...I miss counted...we need one more for Gus!

Of course Santa is a cowboy!!!

And Christmas has to have at least one rocking horse...or a dozen or so?!?

And yes, snowmen really do ride horses!

Enjoy these final days as we quickly close in on Christmas day!  Remember...there is no X in Christmas.

Merry Christmas!  

SkyWatch Friday

~I can carry everything I own in my buggy,

and I just might leave this place.~

~Carrie Black 1901~

I found some beautiful sunshine when I went out to get some juniper branches to make a Christmas wreath...it was wonderful!

Lookin' east up Virginia Valley

Anderson Valley meets Virginia Valley

Lookin' NW up Anderson Valley...the butte in center left is Hat Butte that lies just east of our place

Enjoy skies from around the world by going to SkyWatch Friday!

Workin' Girl Wednesday

~I'm proud to be a strong woman,

even though the men don't like it so much.~

~Mable Smith 1898~

Ah yes...the workin' Girls of the Rough String Ranch. They literally finally got back to work!

Yea, I'm a workin' girl. They just want me for my eggs!

We started with six Barred Rock chicks last spring and one died. The Girls really didn't produce very good through the summer and fall. Then the molt came on and of course nothin' happened then.

I felt sorry for the poor Girls...half naked when we had that cold spell a few weeks ago! They have a heat lamp, so they all huddled up to it!

The Girls enjoy time out of the coop...but I keep a close eye on them.

All the pretty eggs in a row~

We even had to break down and buy store eggs...no taste and texture like rubber...oh we missed our  Girl's eggs.

None of the eggs are the same (like the ones you buy in the store)...we strive for individuality!

But, the Girls are back workin' again...

This beats McDonald's any day!!

Enjoy an eggstraordinary Wednesday!

Santa's Workshop & Round Barn Party!

~Some men are more trouble than they're worth.~

~Sandra Davis 1877~

Well, the above quote does not apply to My Man...but there's others that fit it to a 'T'! But, the sayin' is...if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all...so that's all I've got to say  ;~)

It's that time of year again when I have to unbury and dust off the leather bench. I really should be doing projects all year long, then I wouldn't be in this panic to get everything done...duh!

I'd show pics of what I'm makin', but then the receiving end will know what they're gettin'!! So, you'll just have to wait.

Tat the barn cat...is enjoyin' some indoor time at night and sometimes during the day too since he's so old and it's been so cold. He pretty much stays in the mud room on the picnic table next to the leather bench...kinda keepin' me company while I work!

The snow's pretty much all gone here. In other parts of the county, they've still got 5-6 inches. It's supposed to cool off again and bring some more snow...which I'd much rather have than the 2 inches of mud everywhere around here now! All the horses are mud from head to tail.

Lookin' east out the kitchen window (that's why you're seeing a reflection in the pic) as the sun sets over the hill to the west. That's the hill's shadow on Hat Butte.

I love the view out my kitchen window up Anderson Valley. There haven't been many sunny days lately. I've been frustrated with photos being dark and dim. Ed over at Thoughts from the Road says "pics make themselves, rain or shine..." Well, I'm workin' on it Ed!

Sewing projects and photo projects have been on the list too...I'm slowly getting some things done. I spent a good part of the day yesterday putting together a calendar for My Man's mom. She doesn't have a usable computer so, she doesn't get to see everything we've done for the past year. I think I put 54 photos on this calendar...she should like it!

Sunday was the Round Barn Customer Appreciation Party and it was a great time as usual! Lots of friends and neighbors standing around talking, eating and drinking...always fun!! Oh...I guess I should say there's a good bit of shoppin' goin' on too!

"Hi there...my name is Jezebelle." Look in the background of the photo...I think the pups want to play the board game!!

Cindy Sue was not thrilled with this 12 week old bundle of energy JRT!! Jezebelle is a perfect name...the lil' thing was growlin' at Cindy Sue already!!! She's a pistol...but cute as a button as you can see! She belongs to friends of ours.

Mom...are you done lookin' at the books yet? How boring...

I love perusing the book section. From cookbooks to birdwatching to Harney County history, there's something for everyone!! They have a great section of horse/tack/bit 'n spur coffee table type books that are gorgeous as well as a wonderful selection of books about the cowgirls of yesteryear.

Did I mention the food?!? They just kept bringing it in all afternoon long!  YUM!

The Wild Bunch!

A nice ending to a fun afternoon!

BTW~Photos of the Pete French Round Barn can be seen here from a post I did a couple of years back.

Skywatch Friday

~If I could start over again,
I'd marry the other cowboy who asked me.~

~Anne Jeffers 1896~

Beautiful blue skies enhance the blanket of newly fallen snow on the juniper trees. Bend, Oregon

Enjoy more sky photos from around the world...Skywatch Friday

Hope I'm Back!

~A woman's gotta know how to handle herself in any situation.~

~Gail Bailey 1910~

It's been two and a half weeks of this, that, and everything in between! I'm not sure where the week of Thanksgiving went to, but I do know that My Man and I had a wonderful, candlelit ham dinner at home...just the two of us (we're opting to go to Portland for Christmas).

Every year hundreds of these fat lil' Quail show up in Harney County. They dig all these holes in the snow getting to the seeds and grass under neith.

Well, I do know that we had a bunch of snow that week, I had a doctor appointment in Bend (which always takes the whole day with the driving), the horses had their shoes pulled, and the dogs got wormed. I was also working frantically on my Horsefly publication...which got to the publisher just in the nick of time the day of printing...we're not doin' that again!!! (which leads to the next paragraph)

So, Black Friday should actually be called Red Friday since I spent so much money...new computer, printer, software and going wireless as much as possible. I chose an HP all-in-one 200xt. So far I love it's color on the monitor, there's virtually no noise, but I'm not convinced that I like the 21 inch screen. I'm having a problem getting the font size to adjust; it's either way too big or so tiny that it's hard to read. Computers are always a work in progress...I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.

Ah yes...the software. I gave up the ghost on my Microsoft Publisher and going for PagePlus X5, splurged and got Elements and Premier 9, and Microsoft Office 2010...I really should take these changes in small steps, but it just wasn't going to happen. I had to get a software that could do my Horsefly and convert it into PDF format (that's what was causing all the problems with the Horsefly). So, I've got 15 days to figure it out and have all my pages ready for the January issue...wish me luck!!

After all that, then came the trips to the vet...and of course the vet bills!!! On Dec 2 I loaded up all four dogs and Tat the cat into the truck...yep...in the cab; thank goodness it's got an extended cab. Abby, Cowboy and Bella Jo rode in the back seat. Cindy Sue likes to ride on the console and Tat started out in his box...but they exchanged positions about 10 minutes into the ride...

But I like the box mom!!!

Tat rode on the console most of the way into town (45 minutes)...I'm sure we were quite the sight!  Cindy Sue liked the box so much, I cut off the flaps and cut out a curve in one of the long sides, put all her night blankies in it and she's as snug as a bug in a rug!

So, the pups all got their shots. Abby had her ears looked at...she has an infection in both ears, and had developed an hemotoma in one of them just the day before...so we left her overnight so she could have surgery the next morning. I had the vet look into Cindy Sue's eyes because she'd been having a hard time seeing at night. She was bumping into things. The vet thought she might have glaucoma and referred us to an eye specialist in Bend.

So, off we go to Bend again two days later...on a snowy mornin'. It was slow goin'...and we were late, but we made it. The good news is that she doesn't have glaucoma, which is a very painful, debilitating disease. But, the bad news is that she does have PRA; Progressive Retinal Atrophy. It starts with loss of night vision and progressively the dog looses all sight...probably years before she's totally blind. So, we'll just deal with it one day at a time. We've started her on a supplement called Ocu-GLO, which is developed for dogs with the same ingredients that are used in human eye supplements.

Cindy Sue's havin' a run at the 'off leash' park in Bend. It's a nice break for her and Bella Jo on these long trips.

Bella Jo went with us of course for moral support!!! The two of them slept in the back seat of the car the whole way...they're good travelin' pups.

So, all the dogs and horses seem to be situated health-wise for now...but, today was my turn...when you turn 50 you know they want to you to do one of those dreaded colonoscopy procedures...I'm just glad it done and over with...for another 10 years!!!

Awwwwww...poor momma...

Let's just move on to Christmas!!! In fact, this Sunday is the annual Round Barn Open House...that'll take all the blues away!!