Tough Day

Checotah, Dan, Me and Reno after riding at one of the state parks.

We lost our Reno this morning.  I met him the day Dan and I had our first date.  He graciously let this girl who hadn't been on a horse in many years ride him that night and he never did me wrong.  We had an understanding--I wouldn't work him too hard and would let him even grab a bit of grass here and there as we rode and he wouldn't trip and fall as I rode him. 

Reno wandering (on a mission it seems--probably to find some good food)

Reno in the Gloaming--sparkling snow and a sparkling Reno!

A drawing I did based on Reno--I know he doesn't really look like that (especially in the face), but Reno always had great angles when he moved--fun for capturing in a drawing.

Another drawing based on Reno--what a superstar--he could have modeled on a catwalk (well, except he startled pretty easily with flashing bulbs and also didn't like lots of loud noise--he also didn't like to hear the sound of his own hooves on pavement--such a country horse)

Sweet Reno, I'll miss you so . . .

Sweet Reno, I'm really going to miss you and the way we could hear you coming (even in the dark)--he had this certain way he blew air through his nose.  I'll miss you practically falling asleep as we trimmed your hooves--such heavy hooves--you really liked to be rooted to the ground--you would never have made a good jumping horse.  I'll miss your stumbling feet.  I'll miss your excitement at the sight of grain (or any food really, especially treats).  I'll miss your sad, old eyes. 

Alrighty, I have to stop here--I'll start crying to hard.

Found

Two female (umm . . . scratch that--6:30 in the morning eyes apparently are blind--they're boys, but they're such cuties that they should be wrapped in bows and snuggled!) puppies this morning around 6:30 near our home. 

Here's the one of the cuties sniffing for more food--don't worry he was well fed this morning, but he is a growing puppy after all . . .

They're movers and shakers (as you can tell by this blurry picture! silly little guy)

Dan found these little guys on his way to work this morning.  He brought them home and I gave them food and water and put down an old blanket for them to lay on for the time being.  We've called the local sheriff's office just in case someone reports them missing, but for now they are staying in our shop.

Long time no write

Hope you've all been having a good new year (you know, now that its March and all).  Here are some pic's to update you on stuff going on since my last post in November (yeah, I'm bad--like I say to Dan a lot when I don't get something done that I meant to do--"It's because I'm a terrible person.")

Ummm . . . big thing, I guess--we went to Mexico with my brother and sister-in-law back in the beginning of December)

Us in Tepic

Dan and our family's old exchange student, Michele in Tepic

With my brother and his wife on his birthday!

The street in front of our hotel

Me in the water on Stone Island

Restaurants on Stone Island

Olas Altas Bay--from our hotel room balcony

Fun was had by all (and we left on the day of a snow storm and arrived back . . . ummm . . . two days later than expected due to the snowstorm that took down the Metrodome roof)

But--we do like the snow--we love the snow!


Sooo . . . snowy wintery scenes around the farm . . .

Tinkerbell and Rowdy eating in the snow

Rowdy eating in the feed bunk

Dan added this divider so that the cows could no longer stand in the feed bunk to eat--while it makes an adorable picture, it causes quite a mess (as cows don't care where they do their business) and we weren't quite sure if the bunk's 2 x 12 boards were really able to handle pregnant cows day after day!

Sleeping out in the snow--Dan and his cousin slept out one Friday evening in early Feb.  Meanwhile, I stayed in the house and watched a movie and some old episodes of Bewitched with my sister-in-law.  Woohoo--sorry, Dan, I know that couples should do things together, but sleeping out on the frozen ground is not on my agenda--love camping--I've even camped out in well below freezing temps, but that was in a Teepee.

Wheat in the field where Dan and his cousin slept--would this be considered winter wheat?

Me last week in front of a mongo drift that formed in front of one of our old buildings.

A last look at the cows on a snowy, foggy day!

 Well, hope that catches you all up! 

Rowdy and Tinkerbell

Rowdy and Tinkerbell are our new longhorns!

We drove down to La Crosse, WI area two weeks ago and picked them up!!!!!  Woooooo!!!!

The farm we picked where we picked them up!

View from the driveway

Dan has wanted to have some longhorn cows for . . . . hmmm . . . . bunches of years.  There used to be a guy who would bring his longhorns to this local rodeo every year and Dan just loved going and hanging out by their pen to see their cool horns and the beautiful variations in color that they have.  He's studied up on all sorts of stuff on raising them, asked questions of family members who raise cows (or used to raise cows), and that was that for a long time.  We knew we would want to be fully prepared to be able to handle the cows (and needed to save up money to buy them as well).  We still have to make a definite decision as to how we will have our cows bred come next summer, though.

Sooooo . . . anyway . . . here are some photos of the actual cows.

Getting out of the trailer

Here comes Rowdy

Here comes Tinkerbell

Ahhhhh . . . right to the hay

Dan's cousin's cows were out in the pasture and came running to meet the new gals

Rowdy is on the left and Tinkerbell is on the right

We left them in this holding pen overnight

Then the next afternoon (it was really wet outside that day), we let them in with the rest of the cows (and horses, too).

Checking out their new digs (notice the herefords hiding behind the rock pile)

The view from my window over the kitchen sink that afternoon.

The cows have started to make friends--the yearlings and little Donald are still a bit afraid of Rowdy & Tink, but they'll all lay down amongst eachother now at least.  

Now, hopefully (if Spike the bull from Wisconsin did his job) early next summer we will have two little longhorn calves running around the place!

New and imperfect!

Remember this?

It is now this!!!!!!!!

Is is perfect?  No, the bathroom is not beautiful by any means yet, but our bathtub and shower are usable once again!  No more showers in the little square shower stall in the basement bathroom!  . . . and yes, that is a pretty well permanent rust stain on the bathtub--it is a good, solid, cast iron, porcelain tub and therefore would be very difficult to replace with any other kind of tub, so what it really needs is to be refinished, but as we can't quite afford the bathtub refinisher to come and work on our tub we just will live with our imperfections.  Imperfections are what make each one of us unique (including our bathtubs!)

My garden was a very imperfect garden this year--totally my doing--the plants worked their best to overcome my lack of weeding and care and so Saturday when I went to pull out stakes from the garden so that Dan could chop down the tall weedy mess, I was able to pick these  . . .

 . . . and put them into my cute rooster pitcher.

Lastly--the cows enjoying the Fall weather . . . 

Do you see them down there?  They love laying in the shade of the trees at the bottom of our south barnyard.

This weekend we'll be getting two longhorn mama's to add to our animal population.  I can't wait to meet them!

A title should go here

Just a few pictures of the fun going on around here!

Last week was our anniversary, so we both took the day off and went down to the Como Zoo and Conservatory in St. Paul!  (And following those pictures are embarrassing photos of Norman and Bernie that I took this week--I know, I know--who really needs to see these photos, but golly these animals make me laugh!)

The Animals

Pink flamingo!

Sleeping polar bear!

Giraffe and baby!

Gorilla!

 The Plants

Pretty flower!

The fern room!

Light through the leaves!

Now how about those embarrassing photos!

Norman & Bernie-the misfits

Can you do this?  And be comfortable?

You can just play with his paws and he barely slits open his eyes!

Bernie yawning--if you are any kind of vet could you tell me who Bernie's teeth are soooo small--he's got really short whiskers, too and his front claws are only little claw nubs (his back claws are normal, though)

 Well, those are the sights I've seen this past week!

The Fall of the Year

One of the maple trees in the pasture

Gorgeous weather this past week has led to gorgeous color and temperatures perfect for walking through our pasture!  (It has also led to thousands of boxelder bugs congregating on the south side of our house--the side with our main door, the side our bedroom window looks out on, the side our big dining room and living room windows look out--thank goodness for beautiful fall color in the outdoors!)

I love red maple leaves

I also think these vines look beautiful--they are considered bad as they can kill off trees eventually, but golly they're pretty as they do it?

Yep, fall is pretty!  I love fall--I got married in the fall--Our 8th anniversary is next week--Happy Anniversary, Dan (though, you don't know how to find my blog--I'll bring you in and show you this post, though, so I guess I can make sure you'll see it!)

Happy October, everyone!