A Little Cowgirl Quilt!

So I actually started this quilt back in June, 2008, for our friends' new baby. She's not so new anymore, has already celebrated her 1st birthday, but finally--the quilt is finished!

It's the same basic style as the 1st quilt I finished in May 2008, for my cousin Abbey's baby boy, just different fabrics.


This was for a little cowgirl! It had to be special. I initially thought of pink camouflage, but I don't exactly have an awesome fabric selection in town. So I found the cute flannel with litte pink flowers, alternated it with yellow flannel and backed it with a lovely sage green fabric. I even found a matching sage green yarn to tie it.


I honestly don't know why it took me so long to finish. The initial work went pretty quickly, but then it just sat in a big bag for the longest time. There was always "something else" to do. Now though, it is finished! It really didn't take me long to finish it, just over an hour of "real" work and it's done!


I hope little cowgirl Corinne likes it. And her Mommy and Daddy too!

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!

Cars & Trucks & Fence Posts

Here are some little things we've been laughing about on the ranch this week...

On shipping day, after "lunch" which we actually ate around dinner time, I couldn't find Number One's new mini truck he got for the farm work. It's cute and small, and the steering wheel is on the wrong side of it, which means the stick shift is on the left, takes some getting used to. I needed it to take the leftovers from CG's house to our house, and it was already dark. Ranch hand told me it was parked over under a tree. I found it, even found the headlights in the dark, and drove it over near the door. Ranch hand said, "It's a weird little thing, it took me 10 minutes to find reverse!"

I said, "You mean where the 'R' is on the stick???"

So last night I was telling this story to our friend from ABEG, who came down to help with the branding and stayed the night in our new guest room. She laughed and admitted that she had also had trouble in the Dodge...Ranch hand was telling her to go somewhere and do something, and she said, "Well I would if I could find reverse!" (truthfully, there is a little trick to shifting the dodge into reverse, it's been a while since I've done it, but there is a button or some catch to it)

Last night, we all had some wine at CG's house after a big day of branding with our crew and a few ABEG greenhorns. (they call themselves that, so I'll take the liberty to repeat it) Before we left, CG insisted on a shot of tequila all around. (Ick). So then we were walking from CG's house to our house, three ABEG's and me, and it was very dark and we didn't have a flashlight and the moon hadn't risen above the canyon rim yet.

The ABEG's were trying to follow me (and I'm pretty sure I was wearing black), and they asked how they would find their way. I said, "Just feel your feet in the gravel. If they're not in gravel, stop and reorient." No sooner had I said "reorient" (it could have been less eloquently stated, but I'm telling the story here), than I ran right into a fence post. And then, disoriented at I was, I thought I was on the right side of the driveway, you know, where the fence is. I was actually on the left side of the driveway, you know, the side where there are, in fact, ONLY TWO OLD FENCEPOSTS. So as I was stumbling around, tripping over a piece of wire and running into the other fence post, going, "where am I?" and I'm sure everyone was laughing at me, I said, "Don't follow me!"

And then. Before the three ABEG guys headed for their hotel in town (lucky ABEG girl got to stay with us, remember), Number One's brother had drawn a map for them and asked them to pick up his truck at the repair shop and drive it back down in the morning. "The keys are in it," he told them.

Evidently, the guys decided that they had better pick the truck up that night, rather than in the morning. I'm not sure why, since there was only one mildly designated driver and the directions Bro and I gave them were "turn left at the jail." The truck wouldn't start, so they were trying to jump it, and in the middle of it all, the keys, which were in the truck to start with, got locked IN the truck. Sheesh.

So now ABEG girl has to go to town with me to pick up H-Bomb from school AND Bro's truck. She said, "that's another thing you can write about in your book." And I thought, why wait? Practically everyone is implicated in this story, so no one is singled out now! (no whining from anybody!)

I hope the ABEG's spend the night again tonight, and I'll have more stories for you tomorrow!

Squeals in the Night

Last night we woke up to the strangest sounds. Actually it sounded sort of like a baby giraffe or some other strange animal, squealing. And then there was running around, sounds of hooves and huffing and snorting. Right outside our window.

I had no idea what sort of animal makes those sounds. I did hear one of the dogs running around too, barking. I went to the back door with two flashlights and tried to figure out what the heck was happening out there.

I saw several sets of eyes, moving around. The squeals continued. Some of the eyes bounded away, and I figured out they belonged to mule deer. There was more squealing, and further away was huffing and snorting. I called the dog in the house, and he was panting, out of breath.

One set of eyes was near the ground, I heard the little deer sort of flopping around, not quite able to get up, and squealing. The deer must have gotten trapped in the new corner of fence created when our neighbors moved their garden, joined the fence with the fence on the field and took out the natural pathway from the orchard, where the deer clean up the fallen peaches.

In the distance, I heard the mother deer call softly, similar to a goat's bleating, to her fawn.

I moved away from the door as I saw the mother's eyes coming back. She was still calling to her fawn, and huffing. I'm not sure if the huffs were from running and jumping or just a sort of warning to me and the dogs.

I went back to bed, the squealing stopped, and the dogs settled in for the night on the carpet.

In the morning, there was no dead baby deer behind the house, as I'd feared we would find. It's mother must have gotten it to its feet and guided it out of the yard.

Shelving Maniacs

In the new master suite, which used to be a very small bedroom, there was an old, small closet. You know, the regular size closet that accompanies every small bedroom. We had a guy rip out the walls that framed in the closet (it only had one door anyway, the other fell off years ago and was never replaced), patch the drywall and flooring where the old walls came out, and it became...

...an Alcove.

It made more sense, since we just added two big closets to the master suite anyway, and didn't need a third, ugly little closet. Now, the alcove looks like it belongs, like it was part of the room originally. (I haven't had time to take a picture, sorry)

We decided the Alcove needed some bookshelves. Number One and my Dad went to town for wood and supplies, and got to work. You may remember the shelves Number One built for the new pantry? He's a good shelf-builder, but I wanted a different design.

Number One and my Dad came up with the shelving design. They ran the plans by me, but then while I was gone they changed them. (I'm over it now). Number One decided the shelves needed arches at the top.

They spent two or maybe three days building, then my Dad spent a day sanding and varnishing. And here they are:


I like how open they are, and I like the arches too. You can barely tell that space used to be a closet! They are just waiting for all of our books and things.

Now, we just have to do something about this light fixture in here:

Lost & Confused

If you're going to claim to be a "tour guide" taking people around this area, don't you think you ought to know where you're going with customers, instead of tearing around the ranch driveway looking for the road to the Basin?

"This isn't the road to the Basin, is it," he said, pulling up in his classically logo-ed up tour company vehicle after zooming right past me and turning around at CG's house at the end of the drive.

"NO. You take the road by the [lovely new] bathrooms," I replied. "You're a guide???"

"Yeah, sorry, I just haven't been to the Basin for a while."


DUH, DUDE. What do you think "No Trespassing" means exactly? And while we're at it, how about the sign that actually says:

"Basin -->" ???

The Dining Room

Never mind that my parents are mere hours away, after driving across the country to visit us.

Ignore the piles of as-yet-unpacked boxes you may glimpse in the corners of the room.

Please imagine that the painting and lovely photographs are hanging on the wall, not propped up against it waiting for frame clips and picture hangers.

Oh, and definitely don't look too closely at the windows!


I just had to show you:

The Dining Room!

My vision for this room was to have mismatched black chairs that would tie in to the chandelier, the bar stools, the appliances in the kitchen. You know I don't like things to match, but I do like them to coordinate. Black has become one of our main accent colors in the house, along with yellow and possibly burnt orange (if I have my way in the living room!)

Originally I thought, wouldn't it be nice to find chairs at thrift stores and garage sales, and paint them all black? But then I realized that our teeny tiny town doesn't have those kinds of thrift stores OR garage sales, nor do I have that kind of time for treasure hunting if I ever want to eat a meal in the dining room.

So I went treasure hunting online. I kept going back to Target, for their reasonable prices and occasional free shipping They actually have lots of choices for black dining room chairs, and they are relatively inexpensive. I went there, and went there and kept going there. Finally, it happened. Four different styles of black chairs, in sets of two, all On Sale, all with Free Shipping and all with an Additional 15% off!


UPS delivered three sets, and FedEx finally surrendered the set they had been given to ship (after they'd hauled it around in there truck for almost a week--that is another post all together). Number One and I assembled them, and here they are. I have two chairs set aside because I made the table smaller and they just didn't look right. But now, the table is just the right size for the whole family, with my parents.

I am still looking for two arm chairs for the head of the table, black ones, possibly with fabric, we'll see what turns up. This may be where the thrift store shopping comes in, since I haven't found any chairs that I like that aren't outrageously expensive. Yet.

This is a work in progress.
But for now, isn't it gorgeous?