My journey through life on South Dakota Ranch
I was asked this summer to take Kara’s senior pictures. Since she was going to be here riding all summer and graduates from high school in December, her parents figured this would be easy. Yesterday we were able to take some of the pictures, and it was so much fun! I had a great time, and so did Kara.
Here’s some of our favorites…
We plan to take more photos today- and I’ll also be taking some Senior pictures for Kelsey.
Hope that everyone has a good weekend!
XO
TSDC
A couple weeks ago I took the kids to the river. We’ve been several times since the Fourth of July and always it’s been a great time. But this particular time, I took my camera and captured some great shots of them having lots of fun! Kelsey and Kara played “queen” of the inner-tube and Ty just wanted to swim. He’s kind of a water rat that way!
That particular day the river might have been about 70 degrees. Since then it’s warmed up a lot and is more the temperature that this former Texas girl is accustomed to!
What are you doing for fun with your family this summer?
I know I haven’t participated in ages. Summer has me super busy.
But I captured a cute, blue dragonfly at the river the other day.
Happy Monday!
Just when I think the days can’t get any more beautiful, and the colts couldn’t possibly be any prettier, and that my photography couldn’t possibly get any better, a couple weeks ago I had one of the best days behind a camera. Ever. I am undoubtedly one of the most blessed people on the planet. I’m going to let the photos do the talking. There’s more photos coming soon, but know that these are among my favorite! You can click on the first photo, and go through a slide show that way, in case you’re new to these parts. The cute little colts you see scratching and rubbing noses are apparently buddies. They were roughhousing with each other that day. I just wasn’t fast enough to catch any of it.
Happy Sunday!
Trampolines make for great entertainment if you’re a kid:
Nailed it!
Having a colt sniff you for the first time-this is our other intern, Emily:
A cloudy, stormy, western sky:
First Rides- this wasn’t Kelsey’s first colt throw a leg over, but it was for our intern, Kara. She’s on the little black colt, we fondly refer to as Wyatt.
A little cowboy:
Short of the technology in our world, and of course the trampoline, I think one could consider our life a little bit like “Little House on the Prairie”.
What do you do during the summer with your kids and family?
XO
While the rest of the country suffers from a heatwave- or so says the internet headlines (I don’t really watch the news- I prefer to read it), it was about 75 here yesterday and threatened rain on and off. This past week we began to cut and bale the alfalfa fields, which are right across the gravel road from our house- so we were perfectly fine with the threat of rain once that little task was completed. The boys worked round the clock, literally, to get it done. You must bale alfalfa when there’s dew on it, in order for it to be at its best. There were many sleepless nights for both Zach and his brother Bud. They’d work from midnight (or later) until the dew was no longer wet enough to hold the hay together. Then they’d sleep if they were able.
Needless to say, when they finished and we’d managed to stay relatively rain-free (there was one teensie shower while hay was down and not baled), everyone breathed a sigh of relief. And then yesterday we had a passing, summer shower. The pictures from the aftermath are just beautiful, and really, even the camera couldn’t capture the scenes.
On either side of the field was the end of a rainbow- the skies were too pink and cloudy to see its massive arch above, but you could see either end of it.
Happy Wednesday!
XO
Sunday was sort of a lazy day on the ranch. I mean, lazy as they get while it’s sunny and pretty. Some of the branding crew was still around to hang out. And the cows and calves still hadn’t all paired up, so we chose NOT to move them out to pasture. Plus we were all just a little wrung out. Some of the branding crew, and our resident fence builder, Zach’s brother Bud, were building fence up until 6:30pm the night before branding (we have a traditional pre-branding party at a local steakhouse on Friday night) and Zach, myself, his brother Guthrie and Bud all skipped the party to finish putting stays on the newly built fence, stretch an old fence, added lag bolts to the new corral boards, as well as gathered vaccine, ear tags, fly tags, vaccine guns and all the other sundry items one needs to put on a branding.
So obviously all the stuff we’d done leading up to branding had taken its toll, plus we’d had a week-full of late nights, and early mornings, and the after-branding party the night before. My dad spent his Father’s Day in our John Deere Skidsteer and moved manure around, while I took my mom and sister to see my 2yo filly, Dolce, registered as Ibaflitnbird. She was the first filly I raised and I own her mama, Streakin Iron, also know as Sonora, Nora, or my pretty gray mare. My sister took some pretty pictures and the day could not have been more beautiful.
Enjoy the photos!
Xo
Chances are very good I’m moving pairs or am horseback while y’all read this. It’s time for our annual branding here in on the ranch (it’s Saturday), so while we’re busy getting ready, there’s going to be a LOT of babies showcased here this week!
Here’s a pretty dun filly by our stud, WDX Nukem, out of Kelsey’s bay mare, DX Karmell Delite.
This pretty bay colt is out of our mare DX Snipadee by our stallion, Poco Tivio Pep. He is sooooooo cute!
More to come!
XO
