Summertime Fun in Photos

14 Jul posted by

Trampolines make for great entertainment if you’re a kid:

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Nailed it!

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Having a colt sniff you for the first time-this is our other intern, Emily:

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A cloudy, stormy, western sky:

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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.

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A little cowboy:

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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

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Filed Under: family, horse training, Horsemanship, horses, life, photography, ranching, summer

Ibaflitnbird

22 Jun posted by

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!

[flickrset id="72157624332575880" thumbnail="square" overlay="true" size="medium"]

Xo

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Filed Under: cowgirls, family, photography, ranching, summer

Minature Gardens

28 Apr posted by

Tuesday.
A project.
Several Projects.

In case y’all didn’t know, I have more projects and things that I need to do than I can shake a stick at.

Back to the projects.
Let’s take them one at a time.

Last year I purchased two half whiskey barrels. I had every intention of planting blueberry bushes in them. The plants I wanted were back-ordered. I’ve since decided that they wouldn’t have made the winter in those barrels, because they wouldn’t have stayed warm enough. So, long story short, those barrels sat dormant all last year. They were however in their current locations. I need some height in my landscape, which is one of the reasons I chose the barrels- but not being able to put a perennial or some sort of evergreen in it due to my fear of the roots freezing off in these brutal winters had me confounded until last week when I had a moment of inspiration.

Zach filled them with compost out of an old manure pile.

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I have a couple cool pieces of driftwood. Must find more. Stat. Luckily I live near a river.

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Messy. Gardening is messy. Very messy.

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My solution to the problem: Purple Fountain Grass. It’s one of my favorite ornamental grasses. I love ornamental grasses! This grass turns really dark in the fall and grows to about 36 inches in height.

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Part two: Petunias. One of my summer favorites. I opted for white and purple flowers.

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These flowers were big and healthy so I opted to separate them.

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And then placed them on opposite sides of the grass

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I alternated the white and purple flowers, watered well and then mulched with some Western Red Cedar.

Here’s the finished product. Both barrels.

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And my second piece of really cool driftwood:

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I might have gone crazy with the after pictures. I’d say I’m sorry. But I’m not really. I think it took me about an hour total to do both barrels, in case any of you were wondering. I didn’t take the after photos until a couple hours after I’d planted the flowers- because I wanted to get a good watering in on the new plantings and have the flower get all bright and perky again, so it was easier to mulch. Do any of you have garden plans this year?

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Filed Under: decorating, gardening, life, summer

Sun, Glorious Sun

28 Jul posted by

And a beautiful River and beer.

I mean, what else can you need on a hot, sultry, summer afternoon?

Yesterday we got our four outside horses rode by 2pm or so, and so I asked Zach if he’d take me down to the river (the one that’s, *tee hee* right out our back door!).

So when we got back to the house, we packed a cooler, a blanket and towels, and headed out on the four-wheeler. I spent two fabulous hours in the sun and helped to keep my tan from dying completely.

I think, as it gets warmer here, there will be more afternoons spent at the river- I’ll be up and riding by 7 and have most of the work done by noon or so. Then we can take his kids and his niece with us and we’ll all have so much fun!

It was a great way to spend an lazy afternoon!

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Filed Under: summer, weather

Happy Birthday America!

4 Jul posted by

Today we celebrate our freedom as a nation. We should all take the time to contemplate what goes in to making our country as great as it is.

Have a safe Holiday!



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Filed Under: holidays, summer

Dear Fall…

27 Sep posted by

Will you PUH-LEAZE push Summer out of here?

I mean, she’s more than overstayed her welcome.

I’m tired of hot. Of humidity. Of dust. This sun and her heat are sucking the life out of my very soul, as if my own life isn’t doing that already. I’ve got my own personal soul-sucker, and then on top of that, the sun has to come in and suck more of it; yes, I’m complaining.

I need cooler temps. I’ll take low 80s with less humidity, please. Oh, and could you throw some cloud cover in there too?

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Filed Under: fall, summer, weather

Dear Summer…

4 Sep posted by

Lord knows I’ve had so much fun!

My hair got some lovely highlights.
I got a decent tan.
I made a few trips to the lake.
Had some good bar-b-ques.
Spent sometime in the pool.
My horses got slick and shiny.

But now it is time for you to go.

I am tired of the heat.
My skin and face are tired of sweating; which causes breakouts.
My prescription can’t keep up.
I need a facial, and until you leave it’s an exercise in frivolity to do so.

So please summer, make your exit, and make it quickly.

We’ll have fun again NEXT year.

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Filed Under: summer, weather

Not Enough Time… Or Enough me to go Around!

26 Aug posted by

School starts here tomorrow.

And I have to completely re-work my lesson schedule.

Luckily, I’ve managed to get some adult students that can come during the day. Which is good because I lost about 4 kiddos. Plus I’ve still got goat tying for the next couple weeks (and then maybe more!), and then I’ve got someone working on putting together a bi-monthly group lesson, one county over.

I’m kind of glad school is starting tomorrow. I’m most productive in the hours prior to noon, so I will be able to get up, and get straight to riding my horses, not have to get up and give lessons. And while I love to teach and see the progress my little ones make, if I had my way, I’d only coach barrel racers and rodeo kids.

And there was a run on me this week; I got like 5 calls for training horses, picked up a really nice open horse to sell, and have a new horse coming this morning who will be here for at least 30 days, so hopefully in the next couple weeks my barn will be completely full. I’ll think I’m rich when it is. Which is good, because I’ve not put a dime into savings in 2 months and that really wears on me.

Daddy is in Saudi Arabia this week, so I’ve been feeding every morning. He has no idea how much I appreciate that he does that for me. Makes my life so much easier. And speaking of feeding…it’s time to head in the direction of the barn.

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Filed Under: horses, summer, work

Sweltering Texas Summer

12 Aug posted by

It’s here. Summer has officially arrived. 100 degree temperatures, humidity out the wazoo. It’s not really fun. I’m so tired of heat. Tired of sweating. Tired of going through three shirts in a day.

Today was no exception. We got up this morning, my husband and I, and went to feed. It wasn’t so bad. Then we went to get hay. Then we went to ride a horse that I’ve been asked to sell. Then we went to unload the hay. When we got to the barn the thermometer in the barn read 100. IN THE BARN. IN THE SHADE! In a barn that runs the traditional north and south. Wow. 100 in the shade. It’s just suffocating, this heat. The horses are drinking so much water! But who can blame them? It’s ridiculous. This summer has been very mild- we have only had 50 days over 90 as opposed to 85 like last year. And since it rained almost our entire May and June, well then, we’re a bit spoiled I suppose. Anyway, shade trees and box fans are welcome at this time of year!

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Filed Under: horses, summer, weather

Blah, blah, blah

5 Jul posted by

It’s 4:45pm Central time, and I’m at home. It’s raining. Once again. It rained on me during my 9:30am lesson, that I didn’t start until 9:45. We finished at around 11, and then I tried to ride another horse. It started raining harder. So I came home. I cleaned the master bath (my husband will be so excited) and I just finished scrubbing the kitchen wastebasket. I then googled my friend Rachel to ask her if it was too early to start drinking. She said no. So maybe, just maybe I’ll start drinking now. I’m so bored.

And I had one of those mornings. I got to the barn and had a colicky horse, and one that had a puncture wound. This is what happens when you mix horses with fireworks, evidentially. I’m not excited about it. I am so tired of rain. I’M TIRED OF RAIN! Have I mentioned I’m tired of rain? I know it’s cloudy and it’s only 80 outside as opposed to 105 but seriously. I’m so so so tired of it. My backroad has been closed for nearly a week now, and after going to look at why, I’ll tell you it’s not going to open anytime soon. Certainly not if it keeps raining.

Ok. I’m going to make a vodka tonic and sit on the couch and read my new Barrel Horse News. Blah!

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Filed Under: summer, weather, work
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