Branding Time...

It is Spring, and calves are being born all over the place. All the calves need to be branded, and it's easier to do it when they're young (and relatively small). Yesterday, it was a three person operation. I'm not sure how many calves were branded, but there were quite a few. Number One, riding my horse Calamity, roped the calves, then RanchHand and CowGirl branded them, earmarked them, castrated them (if they were steers, of course), gave them a shot of vitamins and a shot of "7-Way," then sent them on their way. (Number One is going to bring me the "7-Way" so I can better explain it later)


Number One is an excellent roper, but he likes working the calves on the ground too. These days, he's the only person on the ranch who knows how to rope, so that's what he ends up doing all day long.



After Number One ropes the calf and drags it over, RH and CG tie up the other legs and do their work. The earmarking is actually cutting the ears in a particular pattern that is assigned to our ranch. In addition to the branding, it makes it harder for cattle rustlers to steal them. I'm not kidding. Sometimes brands can be doctored to look different, but it's harder to do that when the cow's ears have been cut. And there have been cattle rustlers in these parts, more recent than you might think.


The branding irons are kept hot in this firepit thingie (it's too dry and windy to have an open fire in this particular corral out in the desert).


Yesterday was pretty windy. And dusty. But Number One kept at it. If you look closely, you can see that perfect loop in his rope, despite the wind. He is a good, fast roper. RH and CG couldn't stand around if they wanted to!

H-Bomb and Sawed Off were there also, sitting calmly on a cooler the whole time. Then of course after their snacks, they played in the dirt and avoided protective mother cows. Our dogs Coffee, Jack and Donut were there as well, cleaning up the spoils from the castrations. Hey, at least WE didn't eat them.

I took some other pictures with my 35mm camera; I will post them after I get them developed this weekend. Now I have to thoroughly clean both of my cameras!

A Conversation With Sawed Off

“Sawed Off, do you need a ba-pah? (diaper)”

“No.”

“Do you have poop?”

“No.”

“Do you have pee?”

“No.”

“Are you telling the truth?”

Sawed Off holds my gaze and smiles. “Frog,” he replies, showing me his toy frog. This kid is smooooth.

Water, Tentatively

So, our water was switched over again yesterday. That means, the three houses down here are currently receiving water from CG's secondary well, approximately 1/10 mile up the road, near her house.

The cold water seems to be better. After an initial faucet running/clearing out, it didn't smell like glue or fuel or anything, and had just a few grains of sand in it. That's a big improvement from what we've been experiencing.

The hot water still has a smell, a residue of plumbing glue, an eau d' fuel. After talking with Uncle Fred, we think we are going to have to drain the hot water heater with a hose and see if that helps. If it doesn't, we may need a new hot water heater. However, we're not jumping to, ahem, conclusions, until we drain the heater.

I took a shower at CG's again today. I was sooo looking forward to showering at our house this morning. But no. We still made coffee with bottled water. We'll just wait and see.

Things are looking up, however slightly. Unfortunately this doesn't bode well for the environment, as it appears our well water may indeed be contaminated. Again, we'll wait and see. And of course keep you all posted.

Light in a Waterless World

What's that saying? "Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink?" Something like that.

In an attempt to provide us with potable water, CG hired plumbers to run a line down from her secondary well to our houses. It is all finished, and we switched over the water last night. Imagine our dismay when the water not only smelled like plumbing glue (nasty chemicals) but also had sand in it. Number One and RH decided to try to flush out the system using garden hoses. (And I wonder if the plumber didn't get mad at me when I asked him to not drive so fast down here and drop a glob of glue inside the pipes before they buried it)

This morning, when we awoke, we had no water whatsoever. There is something wrong with something (wiring? I forget) with CG's well, that will have to be fixed. So in the meantime, we are back to mystery-petroleum product-smelling water. I do think it might be getting better.

And we've heard that an environmental consulting firm may show down here in the near future. I just hope they focus on the root of the problem, i.e. start with the well, before jumping to conclusions. I believe I've said this before.

So, with all this in mind, I'm attempting to find some positives. Since we're back on the old well, I can continue to catch up on laundry (it doesn't smell after it comes out of the dryer, so that's good). Whee.

Incidentally, we've been dying to have people over for dinner, but have been avoiding it because we have no water. In case you're wondering. We may just go ahead and invite people down anyway, as there seems to be no end in sight to our nasty water dilemma.

Oh, I can't wait until I can get a glass of water out of the tap, wash the pots and pans without heating "good" water out of jugs to do so, and take a shower any time I like in my own house! I wonder if Culligan would come down here...oh, and it would be just awesome if my computer would stop crashing. Is all that too much to ask?

On a positive note, I took some pictures with my cell phone yesterday, to show you how well my beautiful plants are doing in the town house. My geranium LOVES the sun room, it has been in beautiful bloom all winter long. The succulents I got in Santa Barbara are loving it there too:

Perhaps We SHOULD Home School

Learning about Tallahassee, Florida during "Foreign Friends" week isn't the only thing. The rest of the story came out during dinner, when H-Bomb proclaimed "they have crocodiles in Tallahassee, Florida!"

"Um, no, they're alligators."

"Well, Tallahassee, Florida is at the ocean."

"Uh, I don't think so. Let me mapquest it. Nope, it's 20 miles from the ocean."

If this is an example of what the kids are learning in preschool, I don't have much faith in Kindergarten and beyond. Time will tell.

I wonder if I should take my passport the next time we visit Florida, just in case it's true?

ABEG Just Blew Us Off.

Number One and I have been trying to find out the results of our water test by any means necessary. In other words, we have asked anyone we could think of who might have seen them.

RH and Wifey didn't see them. CG said she sent her only copy to ABEG. CG's bookkeeper didn't keep a copy, but thought the water was only tested for e. coli and other bacteria. Well, that's not what we are smelling in the water, obviously. If that's the case, we definitely need more testing. We emailed ABEG and asked that they email us the results. First, ABEG said they hadn't received them.

Today, water results in hand, ABEG emailed us this response:

"I sent it back to CG so that she can show it you and discuss it with you. We are in the process of hiring an environmental consultant firm to handle the matter, so please coordinate any issues, concerns, or actions with CG who will coordinate with me.

I don't know what to say about this. It's great about the environmental consultant firm, as long as they start at the very beginning: The Well Pump. The Plumbing. Instead of jumping to the Environmental Disaster Conclusion.

But people around these parts don't seem to be very good at "coordinating." You know how it goes, A tells B and B tells C and before you know it, it's all twisted around and not at all what A originally said. And we don't like being kept out of the loop. Especially when it's our family, our boys, indeed our future, that could be most impacted.

Don't blow us off, ABEG. It doesn't suit you.

Life in a Small Town

I just think this is funny. I realize that resources from the outside world are limited in the small town in which we live. Here's what happened:

H-Bomb is going to preschool. It's a preschool run by a very nice lady, out of her home. He attends twice per week, for two hours per day. This week, the theme was "Foreign Friends."

On Tuesday, I went to pick up H-Bomb, and the teacher was mixing up some Hawaiian hot chocolate. Exotic, perhaps, but foreign? It had bananas in it. It was delicious, but I'm quite sure that one of these United States is not foreign.

Today, H-Bomb was the leader, which meant he got to bring snack. He requested muffins with pine nuts, so I rounded up a recipe on the Internet. Orange Marmie Muffins with Cardamom Pine Nut Streusel. These are excellent muffins, and cardamom just happens to be from India. (although our jar is actually Guatemalan...primarily from India, then)

After school, I asked him what else he had learned about. He had taken toys for Show and Tell from France, a Lucky Luke figurine that was a gift from our friend Jean-Claude; and from Mexico, a colorfully painted wooden fish we acquired on our trip to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. (P.S. Ukko, H-Bomb is wondering when we can go back to Mexico to the ocean. Just so you're aware.) For crafts, they had made little Mexican lanterns out of construction paper, and had glued sparkly streamers to sticks. I asked H-Bomb what country the streamers were from.

"Tallahassee, Florida," he replied.

"Oh really?" I said, "Tallahassee, Florida is in the United States."

"But the United States is a country," H-Bomb said.

"Yes, but it's not foreign. It's our country!"

He went on to tell me that they had also had crackers with "spicy white stuff" that he tried and loved. I asked him what country that was from, and he responded, "It's not from a country. It's from Tallahassee, Florida too."

Hmmm. Exotic. I'll have to ask the teacher about this Tallahassee, Florida business next week.

Carpinteria!

I forgot that I have not yet told you about our stay in Carpinteria! After our long weekend in Santa Barbara, about which you may have read here and here, Number One's Aunt graciously allowed us to stay in her ocean-front condo in Carpinteria for a few days.

It was a perfect place to stay, everything we needed, although just a bit chilly at first as there was no heat. We managed to stay warm by piling more blankets on the bed and baking a sheet of cookies to eat with hot chocolate each night. (you didn't hear H-Bomb and Sawed Off complaining about that!) After the first night, we acclimated and it was actually fine without the heat. And we had plenty of warm clothes with us since at home it was still winter!

The ocean was cold, of course, but that didn't stop our boys from playing on the beach every chance they got! We were within walking distance of the charming town of Carpinteria, so we walked to the grocery store and discovered the best little succulent nursery.

I already told you about the dinner we made, which was excellent. It was so nice to be able to extend our vacation in such a beautiful place.

We then drove up to Solvang, bought some books for H-Bomb and Sawed Off at Aunt Kathy's bookstore and stayed with her for a night in her lovely new pool house, and had a delicious pizza dinner with one of Number One's cousins and her family. It was a perfect vacation! We would love to return to Carpinteria when the weather is a bit nicer.

Thank you, Aunt Kathy!
You're the best!

A Birthday Present!

Number One and I decided that H-Bomb and Sawed Off need a swing set. CG kept looking at them at Costco, and we decided to take up a collection (and dedicated our precious Costco rebate to the cause!) because we couldn't afford one of these babies on our own! We decided to make it the boys' combined birthday present this year, from virtually everyone in the family!


We picked one up while we were in the Big City earlier this week. I guess "picked one up" is kind of an understatement.

We drove both our Dodge Grand Caravan AND our Jeep Cherokee up to the City (a four hour drive, one way). We knew we couldn't fit all five of the swing set boxes AND the boys in their car seats in the van. The van, with all rear seats stowed, has a capacity 8 feet long. Thank goodness the people at the swing set company took this into consideration: the longest box was exactly 8 feet long.

We put the boys' car seats in the jeep. We had two Costco guys helping us. After the boxes were in the van (but not the slide, which is quite a bit longer than 8 feet!) the Costco guys left. And of course, their loading job was unacceptable for a four-hour drive home. I bet we were in the parking lot for an hour, moving those HEAVY boxes around.

We debated lashing the slide to the top of the jeep. Then we decided on removing the front middle console from our van (we love you, Dodge!) so the slide would fit in between the seats. Here is what our van looked like when it was all loaded and ready to go:


(the blue thing is the slide, and it does extend its entire wavy length to the front of the van, where it is wedged in between the front seats where the middle console used to be! incidentally, you can see the gray middle console on top of box 4 of 6!)

We got home after an uneventful trip, and Number One took on the daunting challenge of assembling this monstrosity. Below, you can see the parts and hardware list. I don't have a picture of the instruction booklet, but it includes 60 pages detailing 35 "steps." Each step requires various parts, only some of which are numbered/labeled and only some of which are partially pre-drilled. Nice. And each step? Each step is a task in itself: "build the picnic table," etc. Number is currently on the step which has you "build the roof" and includes several steps within that step!



Below is what the swing set looked like near the end of Day Two. The boys ate lunch on their new little picnic table (which is underneath the platform, right in front of Number One)


Here you can see some of the parts/boxes. Not including the slide, there were five huge boxes of parts.


It is now Day Three of Swing Set Assembly. Today, Number One has the help of Uncle Fred.
And here is what it currently looks like, just an hour or so into the day. Number One is currently assembling the roof. I will let you know when it is all finished.


*Sawed Off is talking up a storm. He and H-Bomb were just getting ready to go out to supervise the building process, and Sawed Off was putting on his own cowboy boots, repeating over and over: "Ba-Bow Booft. Ba-Bow Booft." If I must translate for you, he was saying "Cowboy Boots." =)

Aah, Spring!

In reality it's only 44 degrees here, so it sure doesn't feel like Spring at all. I'm cold! I'm wishing I had put my long underwear on today, and I still just might. But things are happening on the ranch that are making me hopeful.

Sometime in the past couple days, little Coffee had a litter of puppies! Five cowdogs in all, the last legacy of dear Stanley. I haven't been able to get in there to take pictures of them, because Coffee is a good mama who's keeping her babies warm and snug in the hay.


There are two that look like Donut, two that look like Jack, and one that looks like Nut, from the last batch of puppies. Here are pictures of those older pups so you can be reminded of the coloring. Of course I will update with pictures of the actual puppies when Coffee lets me get in there. I believe the sun will have to come out before that's going to happen.

Nut, left, and Jack, right

Donut

This morning, Number One was out feeding the horses and sheep, and he noticed that the sheep we call Ma was having a lamb! We gave her some time and space, and the cute little thing came out quick. I took some 35mm pictures that will be better than these, but it was fun to watch the little lambie trying to stand up, then taking his/her first steps (too early to tell). So sweet.



All this makes me hopeful that one day, Spring Will Arrive. And it will bring the sun and some warmer weather too.

(stay tuned for sheep/lamb video. blogger is tempermental at the moment.)

Ranch Safety

Here is a copy of an email Number One sent out the other day:

Everyone needs to SLOW DOWN when driving past the houses. People have been racing by, and there hasn't been a fire anywhere!

We are afraid one of the boys is going to get hit. The boys could be outside at any moment, they are small and hard to see, and they don't stay in the yard anymore. It's not enough to look in the yard while driving past, you might hit one of them because they're NOT in the yard.

We are going to start fining speeders, and either use the money toward their hospital bills or college funds. Let's hope it's a college fund.

Please slow down.

I love him. I love that he is as concerned about the boys as I am. I just hope that people will take notice and actually slow down for more than two days. One would think the problem would only be with people who don't live here and aren't aware that there are little kids here, (like the guest of CG's who hit one of our dogs a year or so ago and didn't even slow down), but it's not. Despite the fact that other than us, everyone who lives here is a grandparent, the speeding still occurs. We don't know what people get so worked up about.

We bought some signs (above) that we will be posting today. Perhaps that will help everyone remember, as well as let visitors know...

This Is Not The Time...

...to write a blog, perhaps. But I've been meaning to. So here goes.

We've been having issues with our well for a good week now. In a nutshell, the water smelled like fuel. You know, like some random petroleum product. Some people thought it smelled like diesel. I honestly didn't smell it that closely to be able to distinguish, but I knew the water started tasting bad, because I'd been drinking it. Thinking, huh, that's odd, where is that fuel smell coming from? I wish I were joking, but honestly, Number One does stuff with fuel everyday, so I just kind of thought the smell was coming from his laundry. Or something. But then I made him smell the water, and taste it, and it was gross. We decided.

So for a few days, there were ponderings about diesel contamination that didn't make sense:

No recent diesel spills; this has never happened before; CG's well water did not seem to smell (although it did not get tested); no recent rains (to raise the water table to reach the historical diesel spills, see how much we've been thinking about this); no big thaw yet this spring (see above). We were kind of freaking out, anticipating some sort of ABEG/State raid on our property to determine the Source of Contamination.

We sent off a water sample, which came back "clear" and added to our puzzlement. It just wasn't making sense. At our house, we've been using bottled water for everything, i.e. the kettle of water that we heat for making oatmeal then gets used to wet washcloths for washing faces. The only thing we do with our well water is flush the toilet.

Finally, I googled "water smells like fuel." And I found some things that indicated that perhaps it was a problem with our well pump. Pumps have some kind of oil in them (mineral or something that wouldn't show up as a contaminant) and if the pump started to leak oil, it would affect the water. And definitely, when we all stopped using water for 24 hours, the smell lessened. But when we ran a bunch of water to "leach" the system or whatever? Of course it got worse. So CG has gone off to buy a new well pump, hopefully to return today. We couldn't locate an internet source that would overnight a pump. WTF? Don't they understand there is kind of some urgency to this situation? Anyway, we could possibly have clean water by tomorrow! Or perhaps Friday? At any rate, we are hopeful.

However, if it's not one thing...

It Is Another. The plumbers came down to put in a new septic tank for one of the houses. Currently, their septic line (which has a nice break in the pipe, by the way) runs directly underneath our house. Trust me, it's bad enough when your own septic line has issues, but when you discover that it's someone else's septic line that is leaking someone else's sewage into your crawlspace? That is just a whole different kind of nasty. (that happened a few years ago. The current break is just a small hole, and thankfully it is outside of our house).

So anyway, the plumbers came down. I guess there was no other way around it, they tore out a cute little stand of young trees to put in their line. I'm upset about it.


And then, of course, the backhoe hit several power lines. Which now need to be fixed. The other day, in addition to being without potable water, we were also without power when Number One had to run and turn the generator off until they could figure out where the line came from, where it went, etc. The broken line has been taped up until we can get splicers and what-have-you to fix it properly. Whee.

And Now, Another! Our darn computer has been shutting down for no apparent reason, out of the blue. If that weren't annoying enough, last night it did it so much that we lost all of our bookmarks, web history, cache, and other things I don't even know to tell you. I'm trying to figure out how to fix it, but haven't had any luck yet. In the meantime, I have to a) try to remember web addresses for everything or b) Google everything I can't remember. Talk about a hassle! I couldn't access the "Live Chat" last night, and this morning I find out they aren't even available until 1:PM PST!!!

I can handle having no water and having to shower at CG's house and having to heat water in a pan on the stove to do dishes. I can handle eating off paper plates and bowls and using plastic cups and utensils (so I can use a smaller pan for dishwater). I can even handle being without electricity for a few hours every now and then. But having computer troubles that aren't an easy fix? That is when I have a problem.


Post Script: I have gotten most of the browser issues fixed. Still have to address the crashing problem itself. But I'm hopeful.

Found: Roger, Cowboy

I say "found" because we didn't know where he was for a few years. Ole Roger "Dodger" has worked at the ranch on and off for many years, since Number One was born, I think. We sent Christmas cards, but for several years in a row they were returned. And we were getting worried.

When Number One and I went to Santa Barbara, we drove up to Lompoc (last known residence) and searched for hours, everywhere we could think of. (When he didn't turn up in the cemetery, we were even more determined to track him down!) I was going through the phone book in a gas station, looking for his sister Diane "with a last name that is like Schultz, but not Schultz" (our last-ditch effort with help from Lee back home), and there she was. We drove to the address listed, and found an apartment complex. Number One started knocking on doors, and she thankfully decided to open the door to a stranger, and then Dodge came over, alive and well.

We were so happy to see them, and we had a great visit, spent the rest of the day with them. The boys loved playing with Diane; she made them lunch and kept them entertained. It's good to find people you've been missing. We hope Roger and Diane will come visit us at the ranch this summer.

Garden Planters

While we were driving through California, we passed by several nurseries that sold huge plant pots, fountains, etc. I would have loved to get a fountain, but we didn't think the van could take the weight of a fountain (even a smallish one) in addition to ALL the stuff we already had in there. Number One said we could possibly get a fountain next time! Here are a couple I really like:


I did find some great plant pots. There is a beautiful nursery in Carpinteria, where I got some awesome succulents and some colorful pots.


H-Bomb and I went to the Carpinteria nursery while Sawed Off was napping, and he was excited to pick out some little plants and the beautiful square green pot below.


We also saw several playful little insects and animals at several nurseries, made from iron and rocks. Some of the sculptures have movement, they were so fun! They looked fairly simple, so we are going to try our hand at making some of those this summer.


We also stopped at a garden accoutrement place around Pear Blossom, CA. They only took cash, and we don't carry much around anymore. We did get some for our trip, but we were on the way home, so we were down to about $50 in cash. I found some great pots I liked, and I wanted three of them. They were marked $20 each (which is a good deal in itself). After much debate, I decided to haggle. I approached the Hispanic guy running the place. I said, "I want to get three pots, they are marked $20, but I only have $50." And he didn't say anything. Then I said, "Can I show you which ones?" And he followed me. I pointed out the pots I liked. He said, "Alrrrrighh. Tell yourrr huss-ban, brring the trucK." (I am trying to get his accent across. It was very thick. I was prepared to pull out my Spanish if necessary.) Number One was doubtful I could even fit the three pots I bought in the van, but I am a good packer, especially when I am determined! Here is how loaded down our van was (you can see some of my great plants in there as well):


So, we got all the pots safely home. But, I still think we need more plant containers, especially with our new backyard that we are going to be fixing up. I was doing some research on the Internet, and I think I am going to make some plant containers this summer, out of cement and hypertufa, so I wanted to see what kind of containers we had around (we do have some nice plastic ones) to use as molds. I also ran across a website that was very inspirational, describing different things that could be recycled/reused as plant containers.

With that in mind today, Number One, Sawed Off and I went up to the Boneyard on the four wheeler. (H-Bomb couldn't go; he was in an especially long time out because he needed a major attitude adjustment. Don't judge me, you were totally not here.)


I don't believe you've heard about the Boneyard before. This place is an artist's dream. The Boneyard is where everything that is old or broken or unused or no one knows where else to put (but it still might have good parts! we might need it someday!) from the ranch eventually ends up. It is a treasure trove up there: old cars, wood, metal, I can't even describe the myriad of things that are there. There are old farm implements, antique and rusted things that you can't begin to guess at.


(This is also the place we will find most of the metal required to make the above insects, animals, etc.)

And I got lucky today! I brought home a cute little white enameled metal box, and a wooden box, both for holding plants.



I also found the cutest old stove you have ever seen to use as a planter. One leg is broken, but still attached, so I'm sure we can make it work. (to quote Tim Gunn. Yes, I am a Project Runway fan. And so is Number One. Just ask him. He'll deny it).

But the find of the day? Some huge metal troughs that had been collected and brought down from somewhere! I had seen these at some point around the ranch, and told Number One how perfect they would be for planters and how much I coveted one. Or several. Well, now there are several just waiting up there!


Gorgeous rusted turquoise-colored, about 8 feet long, with built-in drainage! One of these will be absolutely perfect in front of our new dining room windows, which span about 10 feet, and fabulous planted with beautiful perennials. I am so excited! I cannot wait for spring!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sawed Off

the theme:
Red Tractor

the menu:
Hot dogs & fixins
Potato salad
Red Tractor Cake
Lemonade
Iced Tea

the activities:
Running around with the boys
Red Tractor Bean Bag Toss

the guests:
Ukko & TennisLady
Miss Jenny, two boys and a girl
Cath & boys


So as you can see above, Sawed Off fell asleep right before the party was scheduled to begin! Miss Jenny and Cath were already here, with all five combined kids, but Sawed Off was too tired I guess. He slept for a couple hours amidst the excitement. We were lucky to have a sunny spring-like day with a high of 65 degrees, so the party was outside for the most part.

The kids loved the bean bag toss, and everyone won a little red tractor and some candy. Sawed Off was more interested in presents this year, and had an enthusiastic present-opener helper in his brother H-Bomb.

The boys (the only girl guest is 8 months old) had so much fun running around and playing on the ranch. It is a boy's dream, this place.

It was a fun little party. We're so excited everyone was able to come and help us celebrate.