Ranch Cookin'

I've been making food most of the week for the cowboys and crew, Tuesday was Shipping Day, and for lunch I made my Rustic Chili, several loaves of Artisan Bread, and the traditional Chocolate Sheet Cake to rave reviews all around.

Thursday and Friday, ABEG was here branding and sorting and preg-checking cows. On Thursday, I served lunch in the corral: Beef Brisket Sandwiches with our family's Famous Barbecue Sauce, chips, and Neiman Marcus Cookies. On Friday, I served another corral lunch of Cashew Chicken Sandwiches, chips, and Classic Peanut Butter Cookies. Friday was a very long day, so I also ended up serving everyone dinner: Sue's Pesto, pasta, a salad, wine, and some leftover cookies.

Last night, one of our old cowboys showed up with his son and a friend, and we also had another three cowboys show up to help move the cattle, which along with our regular crew and families adds up to 14 people. Now that the cattle are all branded, we have to move three large groups of them to three separate winter ranges. I'm not sure how we ended up with so much help this year, but that's the way it happened.

So this morning, CG asked me if I wouldn't mind making dinner for everyone--all 14 of us! I told her I'd think of something...

Stay Tuned!

Dust

On Friday, Number One and the Irrigator sanded the dining room and kitchen floors all day long. When the boys and I got home from school, they were still at it. We couldn't go in those rooms at all. The boys and I retreated to the master suite, and I occasionally went around the outside to retrieve apples from the kitchen for H-Bomb while Sawed Off continued his nap.


Nearly everything in the kitchen had been covered with tarps, and Number One turned off the refrigerator for the day. Now I know why we haven't moved many of our dishes and utensils and appliances back yet.

This morning, despite much shop-vac-ing by Number One, everything, and I mean Ev.Ry.Thing, was covered in dust. I wish I had bought more plastic tarps. I wish we had been able to finish the floors before the entire kitchen went it. Even though I know that wouldn't have been the best solution, given the months of builder/plumber/electrician comings-and-goings that followed the kitchen installation. Still.


The few cookbooks we brought over, which incidentally were under a tarp, were covered in dust. This clean up is going to be huge.


I pulled the coffee maker out of its pantry retreat, and cleaned the dust off of it. Yes, dust infiltrated the pantry. Thank goodness I hadn't moved very much in there yet! I wiped a spot of the counter top free of dust, just big enough for the coffee maker and a couple of mugs.

I didn't clean off the entire counter, because today is another sanding day. Hopefully we'll get a coat or two of varnish on the floors today too.

Number One and I stood there, admiring the floors. He says they shine when the sun hits them. I'm so proud. What a multi-talented cowboy I have!


And as you can see, someone has been having fun with this dusty situation. I guess it's not all bad! Those footprints look H-Bomb-sized to me.

So That Happened...

I woke up the other day to see this:

A huge tree branch had fallen on top of the boys' swing set/club house some time during the night.

You can barely see the swing set, right in front of our house in this picture. We are thankful it didn't land on our house, as it easily could have!


H-Bomb was very sad that they couldn't play on the play set until the tree branch came off. It really would have made one heck of a "tree house" with the branch on there, but it goes without saying that wasn't going to be allowed!


Yes, Sawed Off, your swings are still in the jungle there, you just can't swing right now!

We weren't home when CG had Ranch Hand and Farmer use the tractor and a chain saw to remove the tree branch. I just get to rake up all the smaller branches that made a mess of the side yard!

Now we have to replace several of the main support posts on the play set, as well as the swing beam that were all cracked from the impact with the tree. So there is still no swinging allowed...because you all know how far Home Depot or any lumber stores are from here!

Grace in Small Things: 4 of 365

Man, it has been a long time, but I will keep my word and accomplish this. Eventually!

Things I am appreciating today:

1. My powerful, shiny orange lawn mower I got for my birthday last year.

2. My boys who are just old enough and quite responsible enough to play unattended and not get into trouble while I mow the lawn.

3. My father-in-law and step-mother-in-law who are wonderful and thoughtfully booked a trip for all of us to a luxury resort this weekend.

4. My husband who can make me laugh about things that bug me but really need to be laughed at.

5. A freshly-mowed, green oasis in the middle of the desert, and enough irrigation water to keep it that way.

For this cowgirl's feelings about and inspiration for this, go here.
Here are all of this cowgirl's Grace in Small Things posts to date.
For more information, go here: Grace in Small Things: A Challenge for All of Us.

House Updates

Except for finishing the bathroom tile and a few odds and ends, the contractors are about done with our house! The electricians are here for the second day, and will need at least one more day when our wall oven and chandelier parts arrive. Also, we need to exchange our bedroom chandelier, so that will need to be reinstalled...Then the plumbers need to do their work.

For now, here are our new corbels, supporting our lovely Silestone counter top. We backed the cabinets with birch beaded board, which complements everything beautifully.


Here are the pendants above the kitchen island. Aren't they lovely? So fun. We still need the butcher block top for the island, in which we'll install our bar sink.


Here's a view of our kitchen from the living room (pre-existing area) of the house.


And here's the kitchen, as seen from the new dining room. The pot lights have not yet been installed, so that is another thing on the electrician's list.


And another shot of the kitchen, I think I snapped that picture from the door that used to lead from the kitchen to the garage, for those of you who were familiar with our old house.


This is our sunny yellow pantry. I installed the old cabinets all by myself, and then Number One trimmed down the old counter top from the bar and we both installed that. I am proud to say that it is quite sturdy and level! We'll put that extra beaded board on the end to tie in with the rest of the house.


This gorgeous pantry floor has the appearance of natural slate, you'd probably never guess it's vinyl!


Here is the gorgeous ceiling fan in the master bedroom. We had the electricians take it back down today because there is a crack in the top globe. We will have to take it all the way back to Home Depot at some point in the near future for an exchange.

And here is Number One, painting away in the master bathroom. We've both been working hard to get everything done. It feels like there is so much more to do. But it is definitely getting close!

Yard Work

The front yard of our house is like an oasis in this desert of ours. When we moved in, we nurtured green grass, planted a little tree, and surrounded the yard with our boxed garden. As H-Bomb began to crawl around and explore on his own, we decided to erect a fence. Just to give an idea of enclosure, and it worked well for a long time. He knew his boundaries, and stayed within them for the most part. At least he never crawled out into the road!


Huge shade trees encircle our yard, providing relief from the summer sun. We've had many fabulous parties in our little space.


Now that H-Bomb and Sawed Off are older and uncontainable, and our house is bigger, our little oasis seems smaller, and out of proportion to the house. And the weeds on the outside of the fence seem more uncontrollable than the boys. Frankly I'm tired of pulling them.


Number One suggested we move the fence out, farther into the driveway, which widens in front of our house anyway. We decided to stake our claim and do it. We took the rails off the fence, and Number One dug post holes with the tractor. He knew, it being a driveway, it would be too difficult to dig by hand. We decided where to put the poles, and Number One dug the holes.


The boys are always tempted by holes and dirt. They practically filled one hole in before we made them stop. Luckily it wasn't too hard to dig back out with a shovel.


In the midst of our project, something on the tractor tire started leaking, and the tire went flat. We'll be able to finish with the backhoe, but we didn't get it done last night.


I can't wait to show you our new and improved yard. Now I just hope there'll be enough water in the reservoir to grow grass!

We have lots of other big yard projects in the works, planting our garden, more perennial flowers, bulbs, adding some rocks, etc. Soon I'll be able to show you!

A Cowgirl Moves...

...A Bookshelf...Make That A Pile of Boards and Some Horseshoes...

My famous last words today: "I think I can move it."

I just wanted to move my cookbooks, and the shelf that they were on, over to the bunkhouse. By the time I got all the cookbooks off the shelf, I could tell it was shoddily constructed, just three heavy boards nailed/screwed to some horseshoes that had been welded together. In fact, I lifted it and the top shelf came loose on one end.

The shelf used to sit under the "bar" counter top in our kitchen, thereby making the bar obsolete and unusable, but making a fantastic and convenient storage spot for my cookbook collection. I really wanted this continuity during our temporary residence at the bunkhouse: to have my cookbooks in the exact same order and configuration. I'm used to it. It makes sense to me. It's comfortable.

So I reattached the top shelf, and drug the whole thing over to the front door. Since I am all alone on the ranch today, I knew that I would need something to assist me in hauling this monstrosity the 20 feet or so over to the bunkhouse. The boys' red wagon is already being used, so my thoughts fell next to the four wheeler. Of course.

I moved the van so I could pull the four wheeler right up to the front door. I drug the shelves out the front door, and balanced them precariously on the front end. They are about 87" long, so they were sticking out obscenely on either side of the four wheeler. I backed up a bit, determined that yes, I would miss the grill on my right. However, I was definitely going to snag the forlorn pile of Christmas lights on the table on my left.

I'm not sure exactly how what happened next happened at all. I was holding on to the shelves with my left hand, and had my right hand on the throttle. (is that what it's called, that little lever that you push with your thumb, that makes it go?) I was going to hop off and move the Christmas lights, when all of a sudden, my hip (my hip? some part of my body, I was driving while standing, after all) hit the throttle. The four wheeler lurched backward, making the shelves lurch forward, and I, still hanging on to the shelves and saying "Whoa!" also lurched forward, which in turn pushed the throttle even further and the four wheeler went backwards even faster.

The four wheeler came to a stop on top of a folding step stool AND our garbage can, climbing up the side of the house, I swear it was on just one front wheel, tipping precariously as I hopped off. The shelving, boards and horseshoes, was in a pile in the mud, not one piece attached to another.

The garbage can is fine, but the step stool doesn't fold or stand, and I had to extricate it from the four wheeler's undercarriage. I cannot find a screw or horseshoe nail that formerly held the shelving together. Well, I take that back, I found ONE horseshoe nail sticking in my shoe.

I can't help but laugh at the stupid chain of events. I briefly thought of putting the whole thing back together, but decided against it. I will simply sacrifice some pantry space in order to have my books in the kitchen. Number One wasn't excited about putting that darn bookshelf in the short hallway over there anyway.

I think/hope the four wheeler is okay. Please don't tell CG...

Ranch Chores

The alternate title for this post: We Do Things Differently Around Here.

As we continue on our winter's adventure on the ranch, I thought I would share a few things that make our daily life somewhat...different.

Nearly every morning, we wake up to no water in our house. Not a drop. We make a pot of coffee using water from a gallon jug we stash every night. Then Number One goes out to the well and turns on the heater to thaw the frozen water pipes and/or jostle the water pressure switch. Anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour after that, we can resume our usual watery activities like flushing the toilet and doing dishes.

Every day, sometimes more than once, I am tasked with feeding the lizard. The lizard has a fancy wooden cage/home that RanchHand and Number One made, complete with a big rock and sunlamp, a large branch for climbing, and his own water dish. This, however, is a wild lizard, and a very particular one. He only eats live food, and his food of choice is grasshoppers. There is a shortage of live grasshoppers in these snowy and frozen parts, and the occasional live cricket we find isn't enough to sustain the lizard. We have a remote-controlled feeding dish that would theoretically make the freeze-dried insects "jump" but it doesn't fit in the lizard's home. So I had to come up with a way to feed the poor creature.

Every day, I loop a strand of nylon thread around the head of a freeze-dried cricket. (the dried grasshoppers needed to be refrigerated--who knew?--and I had to throw them away). I dangle the cricket into the cage, and make it jump, crawl and hop around to attract the lizard's attention. Sometimes I just dangle it in the cage and he comes and grabs it. (Today he ate three in a row this way). Sometimes he's just not interested, and I suspend it so it hangs through the wire screen of the cage, and later I come back to find he's eaten it while I wasn't looking. Thank goodness. Sometimes I worry about that poor guy's eating habits.

Our oven no longer just "turns on." We can't just turn the knob, set the temperature, and start baking. There is something wrong with it (thank god it happened after our Thanksgiving feast!). Now, every time I want to bake something, I turn on the knob, and nothing happens. Number One has to come in with some sort of flame and light the oven burner thingie. I don't know exactly, but sometimes there is banging and cursing involved that seems to help with the process. And then the oven heats up and I can commence with my muffins or what-have-you.

We have been looking at these ovens...but are a bit frightened that prices aren't listed on the website! Perhaps someday I'll have you all help me choose a color...we'll start saving our pennies.

Taking care of Woody and Jessie used to be on our list of daily chores. Sadly, they are no longer on our list. It pains me to throw away banana peels (their favorite), crackers and miscellaneous vegetable scraps. It feels wasteful. As does the brand-new stake they received for Christmas.

It feels like there are more weird daily chores around here. When they come to mind, I'll add them. Until then, I've got to go find Number One so I can make some more muffins.

Intermittent Water

It seems like ever since we switched from our contaminated well to CG's secondary well for our water supply, we've had nothing but problems. Along with an intermittent water supply. CG's secondary well was never used before in the winter, so it's not well-equipped to handle the freezing temperatures we've been having. Luckily it hasn't been something we've had to wait days to get fixed; usually the problems are resolved in a matter of hours.

As a result, more often than not, we wake up to not having water in the morning. The pressure switch sometimes doesn't function as it should, which results in no water. The cellar door got opened somehow, and the water pipes in there froze. Luckily they didn't break, and after Number One put a small heater in there for a few hours, we had water again. The pipes have now been freezing up near the well, where they are housed in some kind of hole along with the pressure switch, accessible from above and topped with a wood-framed piece of tin, but not insulated. Number One put a heater in there, and that helps on that end, but he can't leave it running without fear of catching wood parts on fire.

Oh, and if CG unplugs a cord in her laundry room attached to her sprinkler system? Guess what. It is attached to "our" well somehow, and we have no water. Isn't this fun?

We've taken to filling a gallon jug at night, before we go to bed, so we can have coffee in the morning before Number One has to face the freezing cold and figure out which part of the pipeline needs fixing. Last night, we forgot to fill the gallon jug. This morning when we awoke to no water, it also meant no coffee. This is a tragedy.

But as I type, I can hear the toilet refilling, which is the signal that Number One has figured everything out and got water flowing again. For the time being. We need to make a trip to the building supply store and get some proper insulation to stuff down in the pressure switch hole.

Number One reports that one of the problems is that the hole in the ground was enlarged this fall, to roughly five feet square, instead of a 2 1/2 feet hole (which possibly wouldn't need to be insulated because the surrounding ground would keep it warmer). As it is now, the ground isn't close enough to provide any insulation, plus it's a huge hole to try to fill with anything, and a huge heavy wood and tin cover. Number One needs to do some work on this set-up.

And now I need to make some coffee...

Shipping Day

Number One and the rest have been gathering cattle for weeks, bringing them all down from the mountain, getting ready for shipping day. This year, my mom and dad were here for shipping day, for the first time ever. My mom took H-Bomb and Sawed Off to school, while my dad and I stayed to help with shipping.

This year, since my mom was helping with the boys, I got to go watch the early morning roundup. I'm sure Number One would have let me ride and help round up the cattle, but honestly it was before dawn and I was exhausted. So I just ran around taking pictures.


They loaded up the truck with hay in an effort to lure the cows into the corrals. Sometimes it works. My dad drove the hay truck through the fields, and there were four or five cowboys pushing the cows toward the hay truck. My dad drove the truck right into the corrals, cows bellowing and following behind him. With this many cattle, it takes more than one pass with the hay truck, and some fast riding to round up the stragglers who by now are trying to escape.


Essentially, one shipping day is the same as the last. You have the buyer, the broker, the ranch hands, moving and sorting all the cattle. You have the semi truck drivers. You have the folks working the scale and keeping records of weights and numbers. You have the dust and the dirt and the fussy cattle.

The cattle are sorted into separate corrals, heifers (girls) and steers (boys) and then the buyer and the broker go through them all and decide which ones they want. My job, again this year, was to keep the cattle from busting back through the gates, and to help my dad fill the alley and the waiting corrals with cattle. It moves pretty quickly when the cows cooperate. The cattle the buyer wants are sent to the scales to be weighed, then to a corral to await loading into the trucks.


The cattle the buyer doesn't want are sent to a separate corral and ultimately released back into the fields.

After the trucks are loaded, three semi truck loads today, the cows that are left need to be let out into the fields and then they all need to be fed.

And at the end of the day, whenever that may be, you have lunch. Whether it be 2:00pm or 8:00pm, it is still called Shipping Day Lunch. This year, I prepared a huge pot of my Rustic Chili, a humongous salad, and the now-traditional Chocolate Sheet Cake. Because I volunteered to be in charge of lunch, I got to leave the corrals about an hour early so I missed the loading of the trucks and the feeding. I had made the chili and the cake the day and night before, and tossed the salad while the chili was reheating. Everyone loved it, it was the perfect end to a hard day's work.

I was chased by a bull or two, and/or some cows in the past week, but I will post those stories another day because I honestly can't remember if any of it happened on shipping day or not...

Unexpected Harvest

On Sunday morning, CG informed us that she had ice on her trees, from where she had her sprinkler running all night long, and that her weather station said it had gotten down to 30 degrees during the night. She asked about our tomatoes. Our weather station, 1/10th mile away, said 36 degrees. And our tomatoes were fine. Peppers too. So honestly I didn't think much about it, and since Sunday was already scheduled as Salsa Day, I spent the morning making eight batches of salsa with all of our ripe tomatoes. I left the green tomatoes on the vines.

Sunday night, however, it FROZE for real. I awoke to our weather station registering a low of 26 degrees. Wilted tomato plants and pepper plants. I knew, after we got home from school today, we'd have to harvest every single vegetable in the garden.

We have yet to turn on the heaters in our house. We're just not ready for this kind of weather. I think I'm in denial.

Today, when we got home to school, I got to work. Wifey said all of her tomatoes, every last one, froze. She tried to bring some in the house, and they were just mush. She pulled up all her tomato plants and fed them, tomatoes and all, to the goats.

I harvested all the tomatoes that weren't mushy, and some that were. I am going to experiment with roasting them tonight into a batch or two of salsa. Roasting and salsifying tomatoes makes them mushy anyway, so I'm hopeful. We'll see. And I'll let you know.

I harvested all the peppers, even the teeny tiny ones that just didn't have enough of a chance to grow, and all the tomatillos. It seems like this is a very early freeze--it seems like I usually don't have to harvest EVERYTHING until at least the end of October, sometimes later.

We lost about half of our beautiful basil. I fed the blackened, wilted, frozen basil, stalks and all, to the goats. Another experiment: I moved the EarthBox of herbs (basil, Italian parsley, sage) in front of the windows in the addition. We'll see if they will last just a bit longer until I can at least make some pesto or dry some of the parsley. I don't see why they wouldn't last, as long as I write a note to myself about keeping the box watered.

Now I will need to monitor my bowls of tomatoes, gathering the ripest ones for salsa every couple of days. Did you know you can pick green tomatoes and they will ripen on the counter or in a bowl? I was happy to learn that several years ago--it really works!

So anyway. The salsa will continue until we are out of tomatoes...

Downsizing.

This is a process that's been going on for a while. I think it all began when we were out of town and CG decided to give away every single one of our puppies. H-Bomb and Sawed Off were devastated that they didn't get to say goodbye. They LOVED those puppies. And I was devastated at the method of "giving away" that was employed: a cardboard box, unattended, in the hot sun with no water, outside a Walmart which resulted in the Humane Society being called. Seriously. That is exactly what happened, and I am not yet over the cruelty and irresponsibility of it all.

And then, Coffee and Jack decided it was really super fun to attack and kill the sheep. One by one. At first, we thought it was just an "accident," cow dogs are too rough for sheep, sheep are more fragile than cows. We found one of our sheep had gotten out of the pen, and figured she had gotten cornered by the dogs. Then we found our lamb, in the pen, dead. Then there was a night of massacre, we lost another sheep and three of the four remaining were limping around and bleeding.

We put all the dogs on lock-down. Shortly thereafter we left for our scheduled vacation. While we were gone, it happened again. Despite our explicit instructions, more than one dog was out of the kennel at the same time. I believe three dogs were out at once, and they packed up and went after the sheep. Again. We lost another one.

We are down to three ewes now, and we are going to sell them. They are just not compatible with our current dog situation, and it is better to get rid of them now than to haul off their corpses later, honestly.

Then there are the goats, Woody and Jessie. I am really torn about this one. Since H-Bomb has started going to Kindergarten, I have felt like I just can't take care of the darn goats by myself. It's just too much. And Wifey is afraid of them, ever since Woody pinned her leg against the fence with his horns (I think he just wanted her to give him some attention) and then knocked her down and out of her shoes as she was running away from him. At least she is able to laugh about it, but she doesn't want to take care of them while I'm gone.

If the goats are staked out during the day, someone has to keep an eye on them so they don't get too tangled up and don't knock over their water. At night, they have to be run over to their little pen near the sheep. In the morning, they have to be run over to wherever it is they are to be staked out. It doesn't sound like a lot, and perhaps it's not, but day in and day out, it does get old and tedious.

I told CG that we needed to get rid of them, but now I'm having second thoughts. Maybe I could do it. I'll try it and see. If I get into the groove of taking H-Bomb to school, get organized, perhaps I could still put the goats in and out. I was really looking forward to trying to make goat cheese.

So anyway, as soon as we find a buyer, we won't have any more sheep. I'm not sure about the goats, and as affectionate as they are, we will miss them if they go. I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: I asked Wifey if she would help with the goats one or two nights a week, and she said yes. And then later, she said no. So, unless I can find someone on the ranch who is willing to help with the goats...they're going to have to go. =(

Plumbing Problems

The reason I was able to spend the day cleaning the barn loft? Number One just returned from the mountain yesterday, and the boys and I got back from spending the night in town. And for some unknown reason there was no water coming out of the kitchen faucet. And I had left a sink full of dishes when I left Thursday morning. I got some hot water out of the bathtub and washed a few pots and knives to feel better about the sad state of my kitchen.

Today, he spent the morning fixing the faucet, but then the pea trap broke as well. He was going to run in and get a new one, but CG just happened to have one lying around. She was headed to town, and said to send a text message if he needed anything else.

The pea trap she gave him didn't work. We immediately sent a very simple text message:
"Plumbing.
- metal pea trap
- flexible pipe 1-1/2" (about 1 foot long)
- teflon tape
- thread-sealing paste stuff"

And then we waited and waited and waited for her to return. I decided to clean the loft, and Number One took care of the boys. They've been missing him anyway, so they needed a day with Daddy.

CG got back from town and drove right on by. "How much do you want to bet she didn't get the parts?" I asked Number One. "A whole lot of money," he replied. We both knew it: she hadn't gotten the parts. "Didn't get the message." Although we sent it well before she got home, we had no parts. And it was too late for us to drive to town to get any.

So anyway. She went home and dug around, scrounging all the plumbing parts she could find. Including a Master lock. Who knows. Unfortunately, none of them worked. Now we have to wait until Monday before we will be able to use our kitchen sink...

But this means that Number One can time his trip to town to coincide with taking H-Bomb to Kindergarten, so we can all go! It'll be fun to ride our bikes together and drop him off. Maybe he'll even pull the bike trailer uphill all the way to school!

Cleaning Day

Now that I'm clean, I can share with you the filthy, depressing events of my day:

I cleaned out the barn loft.

The loft is where, six or so years ago, I put my things from my house in town into "storage" when I moved down to the ranch. Number One and I were sharing a tiny, three-room house, and there just wasn't room for everything. I packed it all up, and naively assumed it would be safe in the loft.

I was wrong. A few years ago, after I hadn't had a reason to go up into the loft for a while, something took me up there. I was definitely not prepared for what I saw. Every Single Box of Mine had been ransacked. They were ALL standing open to the dust and the mice. There were lots of things that were obviously missing, and more to be discovered missing. Some boxes were tipped, the contents spilling out. Things, like my luggage set, that I had stuffed into garbage bags, with labels, were torn open, exposed.

Who could have done such a thing? Well, it was mostly the Mexicans we had working here for a while. We discovered many, many things missing, during the time they were here (from when I discovered my brand new fleece blanket draped over their couch--I nabbed it back when they went to town--to the time I saw Hector loading sacks of oats into the back of his truck). We discovered many, many, many more things missing after they left--tools that hadn't been needed over the winter (almost every tool on the place, including some that had been locked up!), shower heads from the bath house, and even the bath house toilet! I can't even name everything they made off with, but when I told CG about all my stuff in the loft, she said "you know, they asked me about that stuff and I TOLD them it was yours." So I KNOW they were into it.

But I can't just blame it on Hector and Co. There was also the cowboy who stole Cases of Heineken beer from our Wedding, and then served it up at a party a few weeks later. I wish I were joking. So, my things have been openly ransacked, gone through, and stolen for several years. I've been too depressed to think about it, so I just left the mess up there, as is, for years.

I forget what even made me think about it today. Possibly the fact that there's a big ABEG dinner coming up, and CG is wanting the place to look nice. And when CG is wanting the place to look nice, she...well, to be honest, she goes just a bit nuts. She takes it upon herself to throw things away in a cleaning frenzy. I knew there wasn't much left up there, but I certainly wanted to be the one to go through it, just in case the loft got into her sights this time.

Today, I spent most of the afternoon up in the barn, amidst the dust and dirt and mouse poo. My hands were black. Twice. I sorted through everything. It was very sad. I found one box, marked "Kitchen," which was completely empty. At this point, who knows what had originally been packed in there. The boxes that had been tipped over, contents all over the floor, were missing lots of things, and a lot had to be thrown away because it was mouse-damaged, broken or just plain filthy. I'm glad I was alone, because I couldn't help but say some choice phrases about the looters during the cleanup.

Now, I think the results were about even: the same amount of garbage and salvaged items. (you can see the garbage stacked in front of the barn) Possibly a couple more salvaged items if you count the luggage and my old wine rack. I found one of my two pairs of roller blades (unfortunately not the good pair), but only one of my knee pads. I still took a break to roll around the barn. Slowly. After I knocked the mouse poo out of them. H-Bomb said, "Wow, Mommy, you're really good at that!" as I inched around in circles in the barn. Ha.

The things that made me the saddest were my jewelry equipment. I used to have a whole kit for making glass beads, including a special torch, special bead-cooling pads, glass rods, etc. By some miracle, there are a few glass rods left (they were removed from their packaging and just strewn about in a larger box) and They must not have seen or recognized the value of my $50 safety glasses. They did steal my torch, along with the MAPP gas canister, and the cooling pad box was left open and the pads subsequently taken over by mice who needed a bed.

Number One had quite a bit of stuff up there also, for his leatherwork. I found several empty boxes that used to contain leather-working tools. There is still leather strewn about the room, hanging out of boxes and containers as if someone was looking for something and just left it where it fell (I'm sure that's exactly what happened)

I packed up a bunch of stuff to use at our house in town, and stored a few things in the cabin with all the rest of our "storage." The cabin, by the way, is currently locked and we have the only key. We have learned our lesson, albeit the hard way. The rest of the garbage is piled up by the barn, waiting for someone to take it to town and/or the boneyard for disposal.

I admit, I just cleared out my stuff. Number One's leather is still strewn about and littered with dirt and mouse poo. There are some other things up there that are not ours. I wasn't about to do any sweeping in there without some kind of a dust mask.

Now I have showered thoroughly. However, if I fall suddenly ill, be sure to test me for the Hanta Virus...(I wonder if Airborne can cure that?)


P.S. I'm just kidding about the Hanta Virus. Kind of. Number One says he always worries about that for a while after he's cleaned out one of the outbuildings, but he's always fine. So I'll be fine too. No worries. I might take a shot of Airborne just for the hell of it. =)

Open Range

The horses got out yesterday. One of GBNP's rangers came driving in, and told me they were on the road. Perfect. Of course Number One is up on the mountain. Wifey came to watch the boys, and I grabbed a halter, and took off to try to get them in.

The only problem with this scenario? I didn't know where to put them. I wasn't sure where they had gotten out, and I was not entirely sure where they had been. I had seen them earlier in the field by CG's house, but none of those gates to the road were open.

I parked the van in the road by a curve, with the hazard lights going, and took off on foot. Of course none of them wanted to come near me. I finally got a halter around one, and he followed me all the way to the gate, into the field. I put him in, closed one gate, but left the other gate open and went back for more. It was hot walking on that pavement!

This is a busy season, traffic-wise, lots of tourons (tourist + moron = touron!) driving too fast in a rush to "See It All--Now!" So I wondered not only if the horses might get hit, but if my van would. Luckily nothing got hit. I got behind our miniature horse, Bilbo, and he started running. I ran behind the others, encouraging them by slapping my legs and yelling, and they all headed right in the gate. I still didn't know where they belonged, but there were off the road.

I cruised the fence line, found a gate that looked like it may have been cut (not much wire to fasten it) and managed to fasten it with the only tool I had: my fingers. Good thing I have pretty strong fingers. No other gates were open.

I was headed out on foot to check a couple other gates through the fields when I realized: I have to go through some tall brush. There might be snakes in there. I am wearing my sparkly sandals. I hopped in Number One's jeep and maneuvered it through the fields. I didn't know which gates were supposed to be open, which gates closed, but I figured if the horses could get to water, they'd be fine.

I sent Number One, up on the mountain, several text messages asking what to do, where the horses should be, etc. (In case you're wondering...no, we still don't have phone service of any kind down here. There is spotty cell service on the mountain, so I can email Number One from the computer, he receives it as a text, and then texts me back, which I receive as an email. It's basically emailing between cell phone and computer. It confuses some people. I'm honestly not sure why...)

This morning. A couple more park rangers drive in. The horses are on the road! First I said "Again?" And then I asked "Where?" Because the gate was open to the "Open Range" section--I knew the horses could get water at the creek, so when I found it open I left it open.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, "Open Range," it basically means an unfenced area through which a road runs, which isn't fenced so the animals are free to "range" back and forth on both sides of the road. This allows sections of land with no water (on one side of the road) to be connected to sections of land with water (on the other side of the road) so the land can be put to better use. It is well-marked with signs, so people have been warned. If they drive too fast, they are putting their own vehicles at risk--you don't want to hit a cow or a horse unless you want your car totaled.

The ladies said the horses were in the open range section. I said, "Okay, good, that's fine." But they wouldn't let it go. "People drive so fast! That little one is going to get hit! The chances! Oh, I just know one of them is going to get hit!"

"Yeah, yeah, I don't know what you want me to do about it. It's clearly marked open range, people need to slow down, cows get hit all the time because people drive too fast" I said.

They wouldn't stop. I kept repeating, "well, people need to slow down and look out" and finally they sort of threw up their hands and left. Honestly. They're our horses, right? It would be sad if one got hit, but of what concern is it to you? I'm not going to sit and argue with you when our horses and cows have a legal right to be where they are, when there are signs clearly stating Open Range. (Except for one time, someone put "W" stickers over all the R's on the signs, so the sign actually said, "Open Wange." Number One and I thought it was hilarious!)

I went inside, where I then got a text message/email from Number One. He said the horses were supposed to be in the pastures near the houses. Not in the open range. So I had to go get them in. I tried to find Wifey but she wasn't around. I packed up the boys in the minivan, grabbed a hat and took off. The halter from yesterday was still in the van.

I figured the horses would be right there, near the gate so I could just push them in. But NO. Where did I find them?


THREE MILES down the road. And guess where the four wheeler is? On the mountain. And I'm in a minivan, with two boys in the back. No off-road horse chasing with that thing.


I got behind the horses, parked the van and got out. There was a ton of traffic to watch the show. I whooped and hollered and ran after them, got them all herded up and headed in the right direction. I ran after them for a little while, then ran back to the van and drove ahead, yelling and honking from inside the van. I'm sure it was a sight.


I had to stop the van and get out and run behind them three or four times, but finally, in their own meandering, roundabout way, the horses just kept running in the right direction. Thank goodness, because the road veered away from their path at one point and they were a good half-mile or so away from me. No way I'm running through the desert that far in my sparkly sandals. (Yes, I wear them everyday. No, I didn't think to change my shoes before I left. I honestly thought it would be a piece of cake. I didn't envision I would be running through the desert and down the road so far in my sparkly sandals)


So, the horses kept running, me following beside them now, 1/2 mile away, still yelling and honking, waving cars past me. And I see Wifey, driving her truck down the trail, about right where the horses are headed! I really hoped she would see the horses running toward her, and park out of their path. Thankfully, she did.


The horses stopped at the irrigation ditch for a drink, and I drove down there, got out of the van again and herded them out of the ditch. They knew right where they were supposed to go, and ran right through the gate into the field. I ran after them and attempted to close the gate behind them.


I don't know what is up with this gate, but I couldn't close it correctly. I tried for a long time, but finally I just had to use my fingers again, and wrap a loop of wire around the bottom. At least it gives the horses and cows an "idea" of a gate. They could get through it if they wanted to, but I bet they won't.


Wifey had been picking flowers for her and I, some kind of lovely weeds. And she saw all of these hummingbird moths on the flowers, so I took some pictures.



The horses were right where they were supposed to be when I got home. And I got enough exercise for the week!