New Life

Even in the midst of hotness, dryness and death, you can find little bits of new life.  You see small blades of green grass after watering and still see a few vegetables from the garden producing.  It was almost a shock to me, however, when I noticed a new baby calf just after it was born.

At first I felt a little dismayed.  It has been around 105 degrees on our covered front porch for too many days and I wondered how a new life could survive.  But, it was already standing up…or trying to stand up and its mama was ferociously licking it off.  They were located in the clump of oak trees not too far from the house.  I kept looking out from time to time watching the cow and calf and thought I saw a deer out over the hill feeding.  It is not too unusual to see deer out in the coastal looking for food, but I wasn’t really sure it was a deer and it kept walking up closer to the house toward the cow and calf which was very unusual. We had let the cows out in the north pasture so the mama cow and new baby were up here alone.

So, I got out the binoculars and saw it was not a deer at all, but a coyote.  I quickly looked to see if the shot gun was loaded, but knew I wouldn’t get close enough to really shoot it with that plus I didn’t want to shoot toward the cow and calf, so I did the next best thing I could think of…hurried outside, threw open the gate and took off after it in the pickup.  It quickly ran when it saw me and jumped over the fence into the woods, but I kept driving up to where it jumped over and it was just sitting there looking at me until I got closer and then it ran on off.

After I got back in the house and looked out again, I thought I saw a few turkeys walking down toward the cow and calf.  I thought that was weird because usually turkeys are nowhere near a coyote, but after closer examination with the binoculars again, I realized it was buzzards walking up to the cow and calf.

We’ve been getting some bad reports from neighbors about buzzards eating new born baby calves or parts of them.  There is an overabundance of buzzards in this area and they are a government protected species so you aren’t supposed to kill them.  (Where is Anthony Hopkins…aka Colonel Ludlow…when you need him!?)  So, as I was starting to drive out there again, the cow started moving her calf over around closer to a clump of trees on the east side of the house.  It was a slow move as the calf could barely walk, but it has been a fighter.  It had to stop and suck along the way which made me feel a lot better that it was eating already.  That was the only way it was going to survive the heat and the coyotes and the buzzards…to eat and get stronger.

So, it was an eventful morning watching the new life emerge and witnessing the fight for survival.  But, I always learn from watching the animals.  They don’t have to analyze, they don’t read the latest books, they don’t call their friends for advice, they just do what God has instinctively instilled within them.  They get up and protect and fight for life.

Here’s the new baby…

Here’s what her mama did when she noticed I was taking pictures of her baby!

She came and got her!!!  I think she must have already forgotten that I am the one that ran off the coyote!!!  I love living at the farm!!!

Oh, and Ranch Hand is looking into getting me a rifle that I can shoot all by myself…without it kicking me to death.  I expect even the dog and cats will start acting better when they see me carrying a rifle around…and maybe even Ranch Hand, too! 🙂

What’s for Supper? Fresh Garden Treat!!!

Once in a great while, I start craving something good and fresh and vegetable-like.  I’m sure it is my poor body saying…put down the chocolate and give me something good to eat!  Right now there are plenty of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and onions available, so here is my Garden Treat Salad!

Garden Treat Salad

3-4 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced thin

1 medium onion, sliced thin and separated into rings

3-4 tomatoes cut into fourths (or eighths…depending on size)

Dressing:

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tablespoons of Red Wine Vinegar

3/4 teaspoon of granulated garlic (or 3-4 pods of garlic cut into small pieces if you have fresh)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

(Some people prefer a sweet dressing.  The balsamic vinegar adds a little sweetness, but if you want, you can add a teaspoon of white or brown sugar or sugar substitute in your dressing mix.  You can also use bottled dressings from the store…Zesty Italian is good or any oil and vinegar based dressing that you like.)

Mix all ingredients together and pour over salad mixture.  Stir and refrigerate at least two hours.  Better if you can wait overnight, but I can hardly ever wait to eat it that long!

Here’s the cucumbers cut up…

And the onions…

And the tomatoes…I had a bunch of little tomatoes on hand so I just halved those and used them in the salad rather than regular tomatoes.

Here’s what I put in the dressing…Go ahead and get a bigger bowl than you started out with so you can stir the dressing easier.  I had to use my OLD tupperware bowl instead of my nostalgic OLD pyrex dish!

Pour on the dressing!

Refrigerate for as long as you can stand it without eating some!!!  This salad is really good!

Add a plate of grilled sirloin…And some potatoes also baked on the grill so the house doesn’t get too hot with the oven on…

And there you have it my friends…a mighty fine and wonderful Ponderosa supper!!!  Wish you were here to eat this with me!!!

The Dry, Long, Dry, Hot, Dry Spell…

I’ve been a bit uninspired of late and not able to think of anything too exciting to write about.  The dryness has affected me physically and mentally!  It is a sad thing to see when you look outside (or can stand the heat enough to go outside) that the pastures look like the dead of winter.  Of course, the heat reminds you that it is not winter, but an awful drought.  I go out early in the morning watering and looking for little bits of the garden that might be producing even though I let Ranch Hand harvest because he enjoys it so.  I more so enjoy the planting and nurturing part.  But, it has been hard to nurture anything outside during this spell.

I don’t know how the cows are surviving the heat.  We are feeding protein cubes every other day now which makes them want to eat the dry grass.  We still have some dry grass so we are able to save our hay.  Hay is now $11.50 for little rectangular bales and $125 for the round bales.  We paid $1.50 a rectangular bale for our first cutting of the coastal and the barn is full at the moment.  Some people did not get the first cutting and have no hay.

Last weekend we did have a wonderful one inch rain!  It does give us hope that it will rain some more!  We drove out in the north pasture and noticed that just that little bit of rain brought out some green kline grass, so we let the cows out in that pasture and they have eaten and eaten.  It must be nice to have something green and tasty again even if it is all eaten up in a day.

The teaching staff had Ranch Hand’s “going away from the teaching profession party” last night at a nearby fish barn!  It was a little sad to me because it was really everyone’s going away party since they closed the Education Department at the prison unit.  Most everyone has a job now, but Ranch Hand!  Most were willing to transfer to another unit, however, which Ranch Hand said he was not because the closest unit was too far away.  But, he has gone to a job fair and we have been sending out resumes and letters to places and since most companies are just dying to hire a 62-year-old and spend a lot of money training him, I’m sure we’ll have a job any day now! 🙂

My son so eloquently reminded me, however, that we are in our 60’s and in all these many years, God has never let us go hungry, and we are about to get a retirement check for a large sum of money (to us) and if we have to use it, we can.  Of course, we don’t know what to do with this money although we thought we did until the last few weeks.  I am leaning more toward cashing the check, getting a waterproof can, digging a hole, and keeping it somewhere nearby!

So…it is official…Ranch Hand will soon be unemployed or forcefully “retired” as of August 31st.  Once you have your “going away” party, you are done, and there’s no going back!  He also spoke at the last GED graduation at the prison on Saturday about making a difference to the people around you…a “good” difference.   Ranch Hand says that he isn’t sad about leaving and that he is ready.  I feel a bit sad about it, but change has always been harder on me.

You knew I would mention it…AND…we have had some fun times with our children and grandchildren during this dry time.  I am always so busy with them that I forget to take pictures.  Thankfully, 5-yr-old grandgirl #1 has taken up photography…well, until Papa saw that she had the camera and told her to put it up…it WAS NOT a toy!  Here are some of her treasures that she captured!  And honoring her photo gallery is the ONLY reason I will let my picture be included before makeup and hair-fixed appropriateness.  Unfortunately,  you now know what I look like when I wake up most mornings!  I did not crop or change any of her captured images!

I just discovered that she switched over to video after taking MY picture.  I don’t know how to edit the video to put it on here and can’t get an image to save off the video.  If I put the whole thing on, I’m afraid you would get dizzy because she moves the camera all around even though it is all quite darling with her commentary!  Maybe at a later date, I can find time to figure it out!  Until then, you can enjoy my “purty picture!” 🙂

Vacation Time…

This is the second week of our three week “vacation.”  Honestly, this vacation is about to kill me.  We have weeded the flower beds, and I have a LOT of them, and put down new mulch.  They do look so nice, however, especially since we finished this morning.  It has not been easy as I still have back pain from my “calf-loading” accident, but I “gutted it up” and worked because I was afraid my ranch hand would not do it like I wanted unless I was out there helping!  It was hard enough with me right there with him!  He just loves for me to tell him what to do! 🙂

We have also overcome the following obstacles…

1)  Air conditioner went out – hopefully it was still on ten year additional warranty, but haven’t heard yet.  It was fixed in time for all the kids and grandkids to come down.  If it hadn’t been, they would have all had to stay in a hotel somewhere.  They are such city people and can’t take it getting 90 degrees in the house! 🙂

2)  Hot water heater went out – bought and installed new one.

3)  Still in the process of overcoming “calf-loading” accident – yesterday was the first day I went the whole day without ibuprofen.   I did call doctor’s office to get a referral to chiropractor at Ranch Hand’s insistence as still having back pain.  Face still bruised, but not as swollen.

4)  Took bull to vet as he had been limping for two weeks and not getting better – bad report there as he had irreparable knee injury so we took him on to sale.  I wasn’t quite ready to give him up yet.  He was such a good, gentle bull and treated the cows so well.  Okay, I made him my pet, too!  I really wish I wouldn’t do that!

5)  Door cable on old farm pickup broke – made numerous trips to town to get parts to fix it, then part on tailgate broke after that.  I asked Ranch Hand if we couldn’t just take truck to dump and park it there.  He said…NO!  He makes pickups his pets.

6)  Took my mother to doctor last week.  Walked in and doctor said…oh my lord what happened to you?  I didn’t think that was too good of a sign since she isn’t even my doctor!  Mother checked out okay, though.

7)  Mother called early one morning this week all upset as man at nursing home came into her room and wanted to get in bed with her.  She told him…NO…thank goodness, so he just sat down in her room and she kept punching nurse button.  When they came in and found him, he threatened to kill them and said their blood would run up and down the halls.  It was a bad morning, but Mother seems okay now.  Man was removed from facility.  I was on phone with nurses and administrator and then went to town to see her and spoke with head nurse.  All this was a bit unnerving to me, so I’m sure it was a hundred times worse on my mother.

8)  Going to look at a new bull this evening and have called several places inquiring.  We sure needed another project.

9)  Getting ready to paint door facings now, if we can find time in between going to town and getting another part for old farm truck’s tailgate and looking at bulls.

I told Ranch Hand that he just has to go back to work soon or I will be completely done in.  He will only have until August 31st to teach at prison as the Education Department at his unit is being closed due to state budget cut-backs.  We have updated his resume and sent it out to a few places, but we don’t know what is next.

We have fallen down in the rocking chairs on the front porch a few times during vacation.  This is one of the things we have seen.

Sorry…I need a fancy camera to take pictures that far, but it is a little deer about to get a drink of water!  His reflection in the tank shows up better than he does!

We still have water for the animals to drink, but the lack of grass due to the heat and no rain is starting to be a very serious situation.  People are having to sell their cattle due to tanks drying up and no grass.  It is very expensive to feed, but we are starting to supplement this week.  We desperately need rain in these dry times!  Rain on me!!!

 

Some Facts of Life

My daughter was telling me about some of the things God has been showing her in her Bible study that she has been attending.  There were a lot of things worth repeating, but the main one I am sharing is that God indeed sees the whole picture and purpose of our lives.  So many times we just see the bumps in the road and focus on that bump.  Sometimes we have a flat tire in the bump and stay there awhile until we get it fixed; sometimes we dodge or go around the bump and sometimes we stop and just stare at it wondering what to do and how to get around it.

Her specific study has been on Ruth.  After Ruth’s husband died and there was no one to take care of Ruth or her widowed mother-in-law (Naomi), they returned to Naomi’s homeland where they knew they would be going into a life of poverty.  Naomi told Ruth that she was free to go back to her home or where she wanted, but Ruth decided to follow the true God that she had found through Naomi.  Ruth had no idea what was ahead, but in the destined land of poverty,  she married into great wealth, had a son, and became the great-grandmother of King David.  We never know for sure what is ahead, but it is so important to do the true, right thing that is in our heart when we hit those bumps.

We had a bump in the road yesterday!  After 28 years in the education field, Ranch Hand was among the RIF…Reduction In Force that is taking place.  We had heard that over 300 teachers in Windham ISD (the prison education system) were losing their jobs, and the news came yesterday that the education department was being closed at his unit.

We have been contemplating retirement for awhile, but it is just not enough to live on without other employment, so the decision was always put off.  Now, it is a reality.  We are very thankful to have the opportunity to go ahead and retire and keep our health insurance benefits.  We will also have a bit of a cushion, if we need it, to rely on until we find something else to do to make some money!  We also have the garden and a bunch of calves around so we won’t starve!  Not everyone, however, was in the position to retire.  They are in a really hard place with families to provide for.

You know things are bad when teachers start getting laid off.  It so rarely happens.  But, I am thankful that Ranch Hand had a job for so many years where he felt like he made a difference in some people’s lives and enjoyed it so much.  And we both agree that if cuts need to be made, by all means stop educating the prisoners and spend it on the kids!

So, we are going around the bump in the road and seeing what is on the other side.  I told Ranch Hand the other day as we were deciding whether to stay married until our 41st anniversary on Monday 🙂 that I thought I’d had enough of this “sickness and poorer” stuff and was ready to move on to the “richer and healthier” part at least for a FEW good years!

In reality, we’ve had so much all of our lives!

Here are a few of the priceless ones…

Oh… and I’ll also be very happy to not have the alarm go off at 3am every weekday morning, too!  It so interrupts my beauty sleep and I think that may be one reason why I look a little more older than I should! 🙂

 

What’s for Supper? Roasted Chicken and Vegetables!

My daughter-in-law, Kazia, (Kay-zuh…no one ever knows how to say her name when they read it…and…no one knows what her mother was thinking when she spelled it that way…including her mother! :))…who is a VERY good cook… shared a recipe for Roasted Vegetables that sounded super yummy!  Since I am such a big one-dish-type-person, I decided to just add some cut up chicken breast to the recipe and see what happened.  It was delicious!!!

ROASTED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

1 onion

1 bell pepper (any color)

1-8oz package of fresh mushrooms

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

2 potatoes

1/3 cup Extra virgin olive oil

2-3 boneless chicken breasts

Seasonings to taste (I  used fajita seasoning…Kazia suggested Savory Herb and Garlic Lipton Soup Mix OR salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and crushed red pepper).

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Slice all veggies relatively the same size and put in bowl.  Add 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil and seasonings and toss to coat.  I actually sprinkled my fajita seasoning over everything when I got it in the baking pan.  Scatter veggies in a baking pan in a single layer.  Bake for 25-30 minutes depending on how done you like them.  We all like brown edges!  Happy eating!!!

Directions…

chop up the onion

chop up the bell pepper (can you tell that I only had 1/2 bell pepper on hand?  …but it worked!) and the mushrooms.  You can buy the already sliced mushrooms if you need to save time!

Chop up that good zucchini and yellow squash!!!

Here’s the two potatoes…chopped!

And here is the boneless chicken breast cut up.  I used three, but we are big protein eaters and I wanted left-overs for lunch the next day.  But you can use as little or as much as you want!

Throw everything into your best, old-timey, tupperware bowl and add 1/3 cup of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil…if you’ve never watched Rachel Ray) and stir until everything is coated.  If you are using the Lipton soup mix for seasoning, go ahead and add that now, too, while you are stirring.

Layer everything out on a big baking sheet.  Then sprinkle your seasonings on top (if you didn’t use the soup seasoning).  I sprinkled it all over with fajita seasoning.

Put it in your 450 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Take out and it should look something like this…

Get you a plate out and a fork and start eating this stuff!!!  It is so good and very economical if you can find the chicken breasts and mushrooms on sale…which I did! 🙂  I love this stuff!  Thanks Kazia!!!

Summer farm scenes…

Here are a few pictures from around the farm…

The honeysuckle is growing!

The cows are full!

Joe wants some petting!

Joe loves getting petted!

Now…Bear dog thinks he needs petting!

Excuse me…I am the one that NEEDS petting!!!

(I guess I’d better go finish up my petting chores!!!)

How does your garden grow?

I find that in the midst of chaos and sickness, I am comforted by constant things.  I enjoy the sun coming up in the morning and going down in the evening.  I enjoy a normal uneventful day, if there is such a thing anymore.  I enjoy watching plants growing in the garden and still wonder how things form from a tiny seed and grow into something beautiful or wonderful or useful.  I love going out in my garden!  Although we have only gotten radishes and a few onions out of it so far, I am greatly anticipating some fresh produce.

Some of the cows think it looks interesting…

The green beans look good (and a few tomato plants)!

We’ve had so much wind that Ranch Hand cut up some feed sacks and put them around the tomatoes to protect them from the wind.  I would have never come up with that idea, but he is very resourceful!

 

More tomatoes…Early Girls…Better Boys…Beefsteaks…Porters…we get all varieties and I mark them at first but later forget which ones produce the best.  So, the next year I get a variety again! 🙂

 

These are okra plants and a few more tomatoes.

 

Here’s the sweet onions and radishes.  I’ve never had onions grow so well before.

We also have an asparagus bed, but it just looks like dirt now because the asparagus is about done.  I wish I had a few more beds of asparagus!  It is yummy!  And we also have some yellow squash planted but I somehow didn’t get a picture of that.  We even have a baby squash growing.

And last but not least…a couple of cucumber plants…which will be plenty if they get going!

I’ll keep you posted on my growing adventure!

“Quit taking pictures of that garden and come over here and pet my head”…said Sweet Thang…sincerely…

Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity

Did you ever watch “Ben Casey?”  It was a great “doctor” show and my favorite at the time!  I remember having to get “special permission” to stay up and watch it during the school year.  It came on at 9pm which was my bedtime!  But, one night a week, I could stay up until 10pm and watch my favorite doctor!  At the beginning of the show, the older doctor would write out the symbols for and say…

man

woman

birth

death

infinity

on a classroom chalkboard.  And then the show would begin.

I was wondering where my Ben Casey was this week when Ranch Hand came home about 8am Monday morning from work.  I just had an awful, sinking feeling when I saw him.  My first words were…what’s wrong?!  He was hurting, feeling terrible and going to bed.  I said…can I call the doctor?  He said…no, I am going to bed and don’t feel like going to the doctor.  About an hour later I asked him if I could call the doctor and check on the latest culture that they had done the previous week.  He said that I could.  But, all you can do is give them the message and they will call back.

They did call back later that afternoon with the news that the culture was lost…they had no idea what happened….and would we mind coming “by” for another one?  Our coming “by” is another 90-mile-round-trip to town with a hurting husband usually lying in the back seat.  Ranch Hand was pretty cooperative about it; his pain level had increased and he knew he needed his “500th” dose of medication or something.  So off we went and came back with the news (along with more medication) that if he wasn’t better by Thursday, he would go into the hospital for a scope where doctor could remove the remaining stone particles that he thought must be causing all the trouble.

But, we didn’t make it until Thursday because about 2am Tuesday morning, he stopped being able to go to the bathroom.  By 6am I had convinced him to call the hospital and have them page the doctor and he did.  He said to come to the ER and he would be there.  So, we did and he was there and he went to surgery and hopefully got everything out that shouldn’t be there!  We did have to spend the night in the hospital again, and this time I didn’t even have a comb with me!  I just hate it when my hair looks bad in the hospital! 🙂  But, my mind was focused on getting Ranch Hand to the hospital when we left home!  I hadn’t even thought about spending the night there!

After a few terrible episodes with bladder spasms the next day (and my awful hairdo), the doctor okayed him to come on home after they finally subsided.  The doctor said that I could even stop by the beauty shop on my way home if I wanted!  I am just always so happy to get away from the hospital.  It seems like a terrible place to try and get well.  Ranch Hand didn’t even get into the OR when he could have because the nurse didn’t get some paper signed so she sent another patient in ahead of him.  We had only been there five hours waiting…plenty of time to sign one more paper if you ask me!

But, we were finally free to come home and things have looked up ever since.  Two months ago when he had surgery I would say things like…do you want to get up and walk out on the front porch a few minutes?  This time I am already saying…don’t lift that…I’ll do that, and we even went to the little movie store in our little town eight miles away and rented some movies to keep him occupied!  He is supposed to stay home all next week before returning to work which I am already thinking may be a challenge!

If “Ben Casey” was still on TV, I think I could easily come up with an interesting script!  I have, after all, left out several gory details for this G-rated blog and your reading pleasure!

Now, it’s back to the business of the ponderosa.  We saw two new baby calves when we came home from the hospital.  The coastal field was scheduled to be fertilized the day we went to the hospital and it rained 1 1/2 inches on it the next day when we came home from the hospital.  I washed and fixed my hair!  Wonderful things still happen!

Wind in your face…

After having grandgirls #1 and #2 here this weekend (and my son!), I decided that every kid in the whole world should have the opportunity to ride down a pasture road in the back of a pickup bed with the wind blowing in their face!  I saw so many happy smiles during that little trip down to the lot to work on the cows.  My son later told me that grandgirl #1 said…this is going to be a GREAT day…as soon as we started driving down to the lot.  Of course, I didn’t have my camera at the time, but I hope I never lose that image in my mind.  It makes me happy to think about it!

This image is staged…back at the house…where I did have a camera!

We had a pretty great time working on the cows with my son helping keep us very organized.  We always start out with everything planned out when he is here.  And he makes sure that we follow the plan as closely as possible! 🙂  It all went without a hitch except for one of the bigger calves that decided she didn’t want to be in the chute and knocked her head into the chute gate enough that it tore it right off the hinge.  I had long moved away from the gate because it was my job to open and shut the chute gate and I was standing right there.  Thankfully, I can still move fast enough when I see one start throwing a fit.  But, it was just a minor mishap.  Ranch Hand went to get one of his 15,000 wrenches stored in the tool box in the pickup and my son just loosened the bracket and sat it right back down on the hinge.  Ranch Hand tightened it up and we were back in business.  Even the bull didn’t give us too much trouble.  He pawed the ground a couple of times and then walked toward us a few times, but Ranch Hand said that he just likes to show us who is boss.  He went on in the chute and took the doctoring just fine.  Of course, still no pictures because I forgot my camera!

The girls ran around and played in the back of the pickup which Ranch Hand strategically parked in the shade.  Mother came up to visit on the rural ride bus and she kept them rounded up pretty well.  The girls were good to play around and run from anything flying that looked like it could possibly be a wasp!  When we got back to the house they had the time of their life playing in a little plastic swimming pool.  You never know what little thing might make a kid happy!

My son mowed the yard for us besides working the cattle and we let him fish a little for his entertainment.  He caught enough catfish for us to grill, but I never got a bite of it because I stayed busy getting grandgirl #1 enough to eat off the bone.  She loved it.  He also brought down steaks and grilled them for us for my Mother’s Day celebration.  He knows me too well!  That’s also why I didn’t mind not getting a bite of catfish! 🙂

When the kids come down it’s always a whirlwind visit and then they are gone!  That’s how it is when they grow up and get out on their own.  But, I do so enjoy being in the whirlwinds!

Sweet Thang says Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!  I tried to get a picture of her baby, but it was on the other side of the tank and not cooperating with my photo shoot!  But, it is frisky and healthy!