Have A Pheasant Monday!

Friday Morning I got the chance to be pretty up close and personal to some pheasants. This male wasn’t exceptionally excited about having his photo taken, and I had to be pretty sneaky. I guess he knew I wanted to “shoot” him. Isn’t he pretty though?

This one might be my favorite. I love the road and the fence line in the background.

A slightly different view:

And because I can’t leave well-enough alone:

I love how his tail feathers are all curled in this one:

Happy Trails!

My Office View

Yesterday was all kinds of fun. I started my morning by walking into the 60 acre saddle horse trap and catching my horse in that large trap. I wanted to see if I could do it. Gump has taught me a lot about catching a horse, so I wanted to test my abilities. It took me about 45 minutes. I got him brushed and saddled and I had planned to just ride through the saddle horse pasture, since I haven’t been through there in ages.

As I got on and rode out of the barn, I looked across the driveway and what do you think I saw?

If you guessed an escaped brumby, You’d be right. He and a 2 year old stud colt, named Fuz, were out near the dam, clearly outside the realm of the hot wire fence. I got them put back into the pasture where they belonged, and then put them and about 15 others into the North end of it.

The following is me telling you about my day- kind of like I did above. Only cooler, because I’m riding a horse, and trotting through God’s Country chatting at you like you’re there.

Now, part two of this is, that as I was trotting over to the gate on the east side of the pasture, that brumby brought every horse that I’d just put in that gate, out of that gate. I guess I should have closed that one first! They ran all the way back to the “Hole” a pass-through trap off to the East, where I’d let them water before I hazed them all the way out North and shut the gate. I got them lined out and that brumby took half the weanlings and a couple two year olds with him one way, and as I rode over to haze him back to the herd, the stud, Banjo made a bee-line back to the gate at the Hole, where he could gaze upon the 2 year old fillies and other mares I’ve got near the corral to handle. I decided to leave him there, and gather up the brumby and his crew. I got everyone back together and hazed back to the corner, with two attempts, before Banjo finally went one way, the brumby and his crew another. I didn’t have my rope on my saddle, or a flag with me, each of which would have been handy in this situation. So Gumpy and I decided to go eat some lunch and bring the ranger out for the afternoon job. I’m certainly not brave enough to take it down one side of that big creek and up the other, so I had to walk down one side and up the other to get across so I could get the gate closed, but I got it done.

While I was “at lunch” I made the nearly 20 mile round trip to the mailbox to get the mail because I figured I had good stuff in my box and that it was probably full. It was full and I got a new Buck Wild, Wild Rag in the mail. Plus a check for photography services. A wild rag, money, a sunny Spring day! Can it get better?

Now you’re probably wondering if I got to ride Dino and move cows, just because I can, right? I didn’t. But my nanny goat did have triplets yesterday afternoon!! And yes, there will be photos!

Happy Trails!

Stringer Rings

It was brought to my attention, shortly before the holidays, that I’d been missing out on something amazing. In fact, maybe even more than amazing.

I don’t keep it a secret that I love jewelry and that there’s a teenie girlie-girl streak in me. I mean I talked about the awesome rings I got in vegas. But what I discovered before I went to Vegas was even more amazing.

I’m talking about rings, made right here in the USA- by hand.

They’re Travis Stringer rings and every cowgirl will want one when she sees them! I know I do!

I just chose some of the ones I love- but really, I love them all! And as you can see from the photos, not only does he make rings, he makes bracelets and crosses! Oh my! Who’s in love besides me? Who thinks they need one besides me? Raise your hand if you want a Stringer ring!

Now, he’s only a one man outfit, so there’s a limited number of rings he can make in a year. Right now he’s limited himself to wedding rings only. Most rings run from $1000-$2000. If you want to contact him, you can reach him via his Facebook Page.

I don’t know about y’all but I could look at these all day!

Thanksgivsmas

I am sitting in the airport this morning very thankful for the few days I had to spend with my family over Thanksgiving.

Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, but we also got to celebrate Christmas early! We started this tradition a few years ago when my little brother got married. We do Christmas one year when we’re all together and Thanksgiving the next.

This year we had lots of fun decorating the tree and the house. And we turned on the fireplace just because these Texans think it’s cold at 40 degrees.

I love having a fireplace mantle to decorate! I am not gonna lie. I also love the glow of Christmas lights.

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And I love the thought put into all the gifts. This year I got an extra special gift from my little sister, who stood in line for hours this summer after just getting back from visiting me, to get Janet Evanovich’s autograph for me! Talk about some hyperventilation! Wow!

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And I learned that the little brewery in Shiner, Texas blesses texans with some amazing cheer!

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I hope your Thanksgiving was as great as ours!

Happy trails!

I’m Lucky Enough…

That this is true!

 

I found this saying on Pinterest and I have to say, I’ve heard the buzz and what not about this site; but I dared not give in, because well, I feared it might become an addiction. And frankly, it will. I’ll have to be careful. The good news is, I can do it from my iPhone in the car, so I’ll be sure to have fun on my upcoming road trips!

Now, go have a great Thursday. I know I will!

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Yesterday Afternoon

We’ve been having some lovely weather here in South Dakota recently. Those of you in the South don’t hate, please? I got the chance to saddle Gump yesterday and move some pairs and I must say, it was a gorgeous ride! I took my iPhone and snapped a couple pictures. Someday folks, I will pack the big camera, but for now these will have to suffice.

Below you will see blue skies, grass and happy cows as well as the best way to view the world- from the back of a horse you know? There’s also pretty lighting!

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Happy Trails!

Cone Flowers

Here on the prairie, there’s all kinds of lovely flowers in the spring and the summer. One of my all-time favorites is the Echinacea Flower or “Cone Flower” as it is commonly called. They’re gorgeous. And yesterday I finally got to see a field of “pink”. I got some really pretty shots, and even found a bug on one of them. Enjoy!

Happy Trails!

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Cattle Business Weekly

I’m just now getting back into the swing of things here, as it’s been crazy this past week. My folks have been here from Texas for our big branding, I’ve got three interns living in our house with us (can we say bunkhouse anyone?), not to mention the rain and the other things I need to do. I have more photos to share than you can count on your fingers and toes combined, and I see no end in site. So if I sporadically post, you’ll know why. If I post regularly, you can pretty much bet I had a few hours to get caught up and every post was scheduled ahead of time!

In the meantime, I meant to share this weeks ago, when it premiered, but I failed. Miserably.

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed in Cattle Business Weekly and I thought I’d share the link, in case you missed it.

So head over, read this, and maybe, just maybe, tomorrow, I’ll have something profound to share- like photos of pelicans, rodeos, branding, new horse photos, or foal photos. There’s so much to show and tell, I just don’t know where to start.

Happy Trails, and Happy Wednesday!

Prom Pictures

I promised these a while back and I’m just now getting around to them. It was prom night a couple weekends ago so I thought I’d show off some the Cowboy’s pretty daughter and some very colorful dresses!

Prom in a small town is done quite differently than it is say, when you grow up where I do, in a high school with 3500 students. Up here, everyone goes to prom, not just juniors and seniors (or underclassmen that get asked by a junior or senior). They have a grand march- where every couple gets announced. If they’d have done that for our junior senior prom we’d have never got to dance! Plus they let the parents come in to take photographs before, during and after the grand march- then they kick us out and let the kids be. There were no parents anywhere near our prom. At least not that I recall. It was a long time ago, after all.

That said, it’s quite an affair and is fun, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite shots!

There’s always pretty hair:

Girls being crazy!

From L-R: Zach’s daughter Kelsey, nieces, Katie and Cindy

Creative Corsages:

I don’t know that anyone here uses real flowers in their corsages. That was unheard of when I was growing up. Or maybe it’s a product of where I grew up? It’s not like there’s a florist on every corner around here! Did y’all use real or fake flowers at your proms?

Proud Parents:

There’s garters and flip flops and cowboy boots! Oh my!

Sassy dresses:

The above dress was a particular favorite of mine. Animal print and turquoise. I mean, really? Can it be cooler than that?

It was a “Hollywood” Themed night!

There was a spotlight and a walk down the red carpet for every couple (I won’t show them all!):

Lots of matching was going on!

These shoes! Oh these shoes!

I love this photo of our niece, Katy and her date:

And now that I’ve sufficiently bored you- let’s cut loose to the junior class being introduced again:

The juniors are who do all the work to put on the prom.

Three crazy amigos!

And that concludes our tour of prom. What do you remember from your high school prom? I’d love to know!

Happy Trails!

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PS. Don’t forget my contest ends at noon today! I’ll be announcing the winner this week!

Texas, Baby

I am on my way to Texas today; and that also explains my lack of posting this week. But I promise I’ll be back soon with stories of calving, trailer cleaning, photos of snow piles and so much more!

Happy Trails!

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