Happy 1st Anniversary to ME!!

Hello again!!

Yep...it's been a year since I stepped forward and started making changes in my life for the better.

The goal...to NOT let cancer come back. Cancer sucks! 

And I was blessed by God that he gave me a wake up call.

Sunday evening sunset...driving home from church...just gorgeous!

If you have followed along over the years, you'll maybe know that I have posted many sunrises, but very few sunsets. Where our home sits, we have a huge rim rock to the west and south...no sunsets from our place! 

Today, I read a story that used this:
Winnie the Pooh famously said, “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”

You know, some of us (including me) just take longer to "get it!"
We have fluff in our ear!

What I would do all over (if I could) is be concerned and proactive about my health and my finances.

Why wait until it's broke to fix it?! I sure don't do that with my truck...or my horse!

So, what it comes down to is...help yourself now not later!!

Below is my Facebook live from today...thanks for following along!!
(not sure why there's just a gray screen, but it's me!)

Your Health Assessment is FREE! Let's find Solutions!
#JTTA Just Take the Assessment!



  

I'd love to hear from you...leave a comment or find me on Facebook!!!
We can "do life better together!"

In Health & Love~

 #DoLifeBetter   #JTTA    #Solutions

 gtyyup

The Meltdown

With 42 degrees and sunshine yesterday, the snow is melting away. It was a gorgeous day for a quick walk with the pups, so we went down to the old building of Princeton which is on our property at the end of the driveway.

I posted a couple of photos in my Photo a Day blog for day #8 of Old Princeton. Slowly the building seems to be blowing away...literally. I find shingles in the alfalfa field quite often, and the insides are falling in and the insulation of newspapers and magazines on the walls are becoming very sparse.

Cindy Sue of course...bundled in sweater and her infamous red coat.

This door to Old Princeton made a nice frame for the photos. Red Dog was too busy sniffin' for varmints to capture him!

Rastus with his "look." His eyes are my favorite.

After wasting time in the sunshine...even though it felt Oh So Good...I decided that I better go check the main barn. Dang, it was not good.

The usual flood behind the barn...which flowed into the barn at the front and the back...sigh.

So, I spent the next hour and a half, digging (chipping ice) ditches for water to drain, shoveling some of the remaining snow away from the barn in the runs and scooping water out of the aisle and one of the stalls with a large flat shovel.

Every year, My Man and I say we're going to fix the problem, but finances are always needed somewhere else...so the project gets put lower on the priority list...and we get to do this every year when we have a large amount of snow. Fun! Not.

It's already drying up inside the barn, so it'll be back to normal soon. Nothing is ever damaged; it's just a pain.

And life goes on...with a beautiful sunset...

Shadows from the hill behind our place cast its outline on Hat Butte.

A Pocket of Sunset

More snow is forecast for today and tonight...but not enough to amount to much.

Happy Hump Day!

Sunday Stills~Sunrise or Sunset

~The land is beautiful and hard, like life itself.~

~Pearl Morgan 1900~

This week's Sunday Stills photo challenge is sunrises or sunsets...I chose the later.

We don't get the spectacular sunsets like Arizona gets, but when the elements are just right, they can be quite pretty.

Summer Sunset to the west (of course).

And like Ed has stressed in the past...look behind you...

Reflection of the Summer Sunset looking Northwest.

Check out all the other sunrise and sunset photos over at Sunday Stills...look in the comments for the links!

Just Another Week

~If you always tell the truth, 

you'll feel good about yourself.~ 

~Mabel Wheeler 1878~

Participating in:

SkyWatch Friday

FarmGirl Friday Blog Hop

Farmchick's Farm Photo Friday

It's been a busy week...but that's typical of course for summer. Moving irrigation wheel lines twice a day...over and over again...

But, when you're up with the birds, you get to see gorgeous sunrises!

Mornin' Flight

And, at the end of the day as the sun begins to set, the views are just as spectacular as in the mornin'. Pivots and wheel lines all across the valley are running 24/7...growing alfalfa to feed hungry cows who in turn provide us with milk products and beef.

High Desert Farmland

This photo of our 1st cutting bales was taken on 6/26/11 (just 12 days ago). We started irrigating this field that evening.

Stacked in Two's

It's amazing what a lot of summer heat and good water will do...after just 12 days, the alfalfa is over the tops of my rubber boots...and I had damp jeans this mornin'! Grow alfalfa grow!!!!

When the Wind Blows

Tomorrow, My Man and I are headin' into town for the annual Harney County Ranch Hand Rodeo...a day to relax, visit with friends, eat good food, and watch a bunch of great buckaroos and horses do what they do best...brand, rope and ride!

What are your plans for this beautiful summer weekend? Whatever you do...have a great time doin' it!

Smoky Pritchett Clinic & Life at the Ranch

~If I ever become successful in life, I'm 
going to get me a ranch of my own.~

~Emily Downs 1892~

The days are flying by!!! It's already Wednesday, and I'm finally sneaking time in to do a blog about last weekend! I've got my Horsefly publication deadline coming up...and some ag surveys to do also...OK...gotta make this quick!

The Smoky Pritchett clinic was awesome!

The only photo of the clinic. I was too busy listening!!

Every rider got to work one on one with Smoky with a maneuver in the reining pattern...rider's choice. Horses were at all levels of training (green snaffle bit to bridle) and riders were of all ages (youth and adult). What everyone's main point of trouble boiled down to moving the horse's body parts...hip, shoulder, nose. For example with the lead departure, the hip needs to be to the inside as well as the nose...and the horse drives from the hip to pick up the correct lead. If the body parts can't be moved by the rider, the horse won't be able to do the maneuver very well.

For me personally, I rode Colt in the two-rein and asked Smoky for some help on getting him starting correctly and some basic use tips. Since I've never had any formal training with the two-rein, it seemed like a good place to start...from a man who's been there and done that! I brought along my hackamore just in case, but never had to use it.

After Smoky helped me adjust my bosal under the bridle correctly, we got started. First he had me pick up the bridle reins...well, I'd only been riding Colt with just contact on the hackamore reins...so, I took the slack out. We practiced his neck reining...making sure that Colt's eye was tipped to the inside. We'd spiral down in the circle and come back out in the same direction and pick up the lope. Colt tends to drop his shoulder going to the left and I need to work on keeping him balanced. It was a really good exercise to get the horse positioned correctly.

After we had finished, I told Smoky that I'd never picked up the bridle reins before today...he said that it seemed like I had and that I had a really nice horse. That was a wonderful compliment coming from a man with his background!

Then after everyone had their one on one, we each got to box a cow...a fresh one at that too! I've never had professional help with my boxing or fence work either, so it was a great learning experience. I just need to do my job..."stop the cow!" I've got to make sure that going to the left I get in front of the cow (I tend to lag behind too far) and then Colt needs to finish his stop before he turns (rider adjustment).

There was another gal there in the two-rein and she'd been in it for a year, so I got great info from watching and listening to her works.

It was supposed to be a two hour clinic, and it ran 3 hours and 15 minutes...but everyone was learning and they wanted everyone to get their works in...it was a great day!

After the clinic, they started the horse sale. This is the annual Shelman Family Horse Sale. I didn't stay too long, but saw this photo op and couldn't resist:

If you want to sell a horse, get a cute lil' buckaroo to show it for ya!

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It's been pretty hot for the past week or so...the dogs are taking full advantage of the pool too!

Abby loves her pool and is always laying down in the cool water!

Everyone except Abby only wants to get their feet wet...Abby's the water dog!

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What do you do on a hot Saturday night at the Rough String? Well, stack hay in the barn...what else is there to do?!?

First My Man puts 3 bales in the tractor bucket...

...then My Man stacks it in the barn....what am I doing? I'm driving...and taking pictures!

This photo in the barn looks like it's snowing...but it's just hay dust emphasized by the flash. We finally got done around 9:15 PM or so...we only have to stack 3 more loads (including our own alfalfa bales).

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Hmmmmmm...Sunday...what shall we do? Let's put in the new deck!

My Man got a smokin' deal on this "already built" deck that was used for a home and garden show...and we'd been thinking about putting a deck off the front steps.

Whala...instant deck!

This load made that lil' tractor grunt!

This is probably the heaviest load our lil' tractor has ever carried...My Man had to drive it in backwards because it didn't steer right! But after wiggling it around for a while, he finally got it into place.

We placed pier pads underneath it...and it's in!

Now all of the landscaping comes (that's like my job). I'm planing on using the "lasagna" method. This link talks about vegetable gardens, but it's the same theory for flower beds. If anyone has had any experience with this method, I'd love to hear your thoughts...pros or cons.

The pups have moved right in!

The posts are coming off the deck and My Man is going to make a cedar flower trough along the front that will hide the pier blocks. Finish it off with one of my Leopold benches, a two chair bistro set and the BBQ...we're ready for outdoor entertaining...until the skeeters drive us indoors ;~)

A picture perfect ending to another great weekend!

The hay is cut...raked this AM...and now I hear thunder and it looks pretty dark up behind our hill...pray that the rain and wind hold off for a couple of days~

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!

Sunrise to Sunset

The days quickly go by, and I never seem to get enough done.

Colt is slowly but steadly improving. He's still on stall rest and getting therapy. Brego is coming along. But the Eastern Oregon winds have picked up, and it's just been darn cold for training horses without an indoor facility.

So, I bundle up with the insulated bibs and spend a good part of the day at the barn. I'm so thankful that my round pen has good footing right now, and I'm able to make some small progress at least.

~Sunrise~

That seems to be the only part of

the day that we get any sunshine. The rest of

the day is usually cloudy and dark.

Ellie and Annabelle are enjoying some of the

bad hay we threw out into the waste pile...

go figure...

But, look closely past the wheel line to the left.

Neither the dogs nor I noticed this stealthy visitor.

I realized he was there when I downloaded

my photos from the morning...a coyote.

OK...to answer a few reader's question from this week's Macro Monday, "what is it" that I photographed in the first picture...to tell you the truth, I haven't a clue. But, it's some sort of moss...

It's very green and grows quite well

on the rock cliff where the sun doesn't shine too much.

To see the macro photo, go down two posts and

there you'll see it.

This is sunset at our place. The hill to the west behind our house prevents us from seeing the actual sunset, but we get awesome views looking to the east as the sun descends behind the hills to the west...I know...back asswards...

Shadows on the hillside...

Hat Butte in the glow of the setting sun. The dark

clouds behind the butte really emphasize the

light contrast.

It's Thursday!!! The weekend is just around the corner!

The Number 50

My Dearest Fellow Bloggers:

I'm absolutely (well...almost) speechless...today, I have reached the BIG 50...'n I'm not talkin' 'bout how old I am...even though I'm 50.

Today, the number 50 also represents the number of bloggers Following My Trail...it's truly unbelievable to me!!!

When I started blogging in October of last year, I had no idea of the social aspect blogging could provide. It amazes me how quickly I got hooked to blogging and how many wonderful people I've met along the way.

Every one of you have brought a piece of yourself into my life...and I thank you for that. It really is hard for me to comprehend why 50 wonderful, individual people have chosen to Follow My Trail...but I want to thank you from the bottom of my lil' heart for the honor.

May I leave you with a few photos from our fun day today helping our neighbors get their cattle ready to move tomorrow...

Being guided by Colt's ears...moving the cows
down State Hwy 78 to an overnight holding pasture.

Me 'n my lil' guy...the Coltster.

Blessings to all of my fellow bloggers from
JKs Rough String Ranch.

Hmmmmm...riding weather?

This doesn't really look like welcome outdoor riding weather to me...what about you? Yuck!
Hopefully it will subside and I can get a ride in in the afternoon.

~~~~~

This was Colt when I went out to get him a few days ago...oh, it was so hard to get him up...full belly from breakfast...why should I get up?!?

~~~~~

I've actually been working...yep, working. One of my many part-time jobs is working for the National Agricultural Statistics Service. I interview farmers and ranchers in Harney and Grant Counties via either phone or in person to gather data. All those USDA reports you hear on the radio or see in the paper...all the data is gathered by us lil' people out in the field, sent to our regional office and is compiled in aggregate form. All individual data is strictly confidential by law.

So, my dining room table has been a desk since Christmas with piles of reports...four different ones this time; Cattle, Sheep and Goats, Cash Rents, and a few follow up ones from the Fall Ag. But, I'm almost done!!! I'm down to the last four. Yipee!!!

I enjoy doing the interviews...it's just really hard to get a hold of ag people. Most of the interviews are done in the evening...just when I'm done with my day and ready to quit...I gotta get on the phone and pretend like I just got up and be lively and spunky. In the summer time when we're irrigating, My Man usually cooks dinner while I make phone calls...he's quite the guy.

~~~~~

On the way back from the Post Office yesterday, I saw this nifty cloud as the sun was beginning to go down, and it actually turned out in the photo. The building is "Old Princeton" at our driveway gate.


Speaking of the Post Office...this next pic is for 20 Meter Circle. She used to live in the area and had asked if the Princeton Post Office was still there. Well, yep, it is...and Teresa the PostMistress says "hello" to you!




That's all there is to it!!! I love it!! They won't deliver mail to us because we live on a gravel road, so we have a Box at no charge. Now, I don't wantchya'll thinkin' we's just a bunch of ol' rednecks here...those Christmas lights are up because it really was Christmas when I took the pic LOL!!! They're down now ;~)

~~~~~

Yesterday morning when I was heading out to feed, I spotted our resident nesting pair of Great Horned owls on a low branch in one of the Elm trees. We love watching the babies when they start coming out of their nest up in the rock cliffs. I actually saw one drop about 20 feet from the nest 2 years ago...I climbed up to the base of the cliff and was promptly dive bombed by the parents...I got the heck out of there in a quick hurry...I'm assuming the lil' one made it. Soon after, there were 3 lil' ones in the trees.

Sunrise to Sunset

We haven't had fog for quite some time...morning feeding was beautiful.





Colt is waiting patiently while I load up the wheelbarrow.




Such a peaceful morning...this part of the crew seem to be happy... but then what horse isn't happy with a feeder full of hay?!?





Another semi-truck came to get a load of hay. This is our 3rd cutting that's going to a dairy in the Salem Oregon area. Cindy Sue can be spotted anywhere now with her new coat!!




Just about got it loaded.



Still need to get the stacks lined up straight on the trailer and get it tarped.





Head supervisor at work!





Another beautiful day coming to a close. Because of the rock rim behind the house, we don't actually get to see sunsets. What we get to see are the colors from the sun setting in the west on the hills to the north and east!