4th of July project

Well, actually I've been working on this for a while now, but finally finished it last night.  It's a patriotic grocery bag!

 I have bought cloth grocery bags before, but they are all gone.  Maybe my sister stole them.  Anyway, I finally got so sick and tired of all the plastic bags cluttering up my pantry.  I gather them and stuff them into one bag, but I never actually get them to the recycle bin.  True, we use some of the plastic grocery bags for garbage bags, but we still have way more than we need.  So, I decided to make a few cloth bags and do my part to keep all those plastic bags out of the garbage.

 It's huge!  That is the biggest box of Kix that there is, with a jumbo bag of pancake mix and a few other things thrown in for good measure.

My favorite part is the pocket to hold keys or a grocery list, or a wallet, or change.  I have another bag in the making right now and I will hopefully finish it while the baby is napping.  Here's hoping for a good nap!

Since I'm showing off projects, I'll go ahead and share that I finished that saddle blanket.  Here it is without the saddle.  (and a very cute puppy coming out of the barn.)

 And a few shots with a saddle.  (It's my little man's saddle, but he can't reach the stirrups yet, so that's why there's an extra pair.)

 The blanket is basically square, so it can go either way.  I can't decide which way I prefer it.  Vertical stripes, or horizontal stripes?

What do you think?

Springtime at the ranch: branding, flooding, playing

Back from yet another trip to the ranch!  Almost two weeks this time, getting ready for the branding and then recovering from it.  I had lots of things to tell you about, but I think I'll just sum up the trip with some pictures.

Love the baby horses!

Remember last year, when everything flooded really bad?  It hadn't done that for almost 30 years, but it is flooding again this year.  Two years in a row!

Mud boots were necessary to enter the basement.

 There was cowboy-ing to do... cousins to play with and water to look at.

 Here's what they were looking at.  The water over the culverts was making a whirlpool and sucking sound.  Very interesting to kids and very worrisome to moms.  Very difficult to catch on camera too.

There are also things in bloom and happy border collie dogs.

Water flowing over the road.

Hawthorn bushes in bloom.

Jonesy looking dignified.

I mentioned cowboy-ing, right?

Coming in from the gather.

Roping in the little kid's pen with Dad.

There were other things going on during the branding, like puppy petting and a scavenger hunt for the kids.  Plus the normal adventuring of kids in a grove of trees.

The old Johnny Popper.  There was a clue on the seat.

The outhouse... and a destination in the hunt.

Old chicken coop, also a destination.

Playing pirates... or something like that.

Can you see me?  The girls, probably hiding from pirates.

It was fun, but it's good to be home.  The garden has really grown, but I'll update you on that another day. 
So, what have you been up to?

What a week

Whew! I made it! We held our annual branding last week. Preparations took most of the week before and we're still trying to get things put back together. It's exhausting, but so much fun too. Around here branding season is something everyone looks forward to. It's a time to get together with neighbors and friends and show off buckaroo skills. Cattle rustling is still alive and well in the west, and actually increasing lately, so branding is still a necessity to ensure that we find all our cattle in the fall. My dad is as cowboy as they come and insists on doing things the old fashioned way. We don't have any ATV's on the ranch, and we do nearly everything on horse-back. Branding is no different. We still rope the calves from our horses and dad insists on things being done well. No crashing around, no racing. He likes to see the cowboys using good horsemanship and good loops to ensure that the calves aren't overly stressed. All five girls in the family learned to rope and our branding has become a place where other women feel welcome to work with the men. Cowboy traditions are important to my family. We feel strongly about preserving this way of life. That's why we also started a kid's roping pen- to teach the next generation the cowboy way. We sort off the smaller calves and let the little guys have a go at roping. This picture is my little man, setting off to catch a calf. The parents are right there to help out and give instruction.

The bigger kids also get a chance to rope from horse-back, learning and practicing until they feel comfortable roping with the adults. I wish we would have done this when I was a kid.

My role during the branding has changed. Where I used to be one of the hands, now I'm the cook and nanny. Since I'm the one with the youngest child, I sit out from roping and make sure lunch is ready and that the kids are okay. It's been a hard transition for me, going from ranch hand to baby sitter. I've had to realize that I just can't do everything, and that my job now is just as important as any other. We put on a big spread of food for everyone, since that's the only pay they get for their help. It's a big job, preparing in advance and then getting everything heated and ready. It feels good to be the one that makes sure everyone gets enough to eat and I do enjoy cooking.
Getting the kitchen back under control has been a battle though. Things are still a mess from the flood we had as well. We are in the process of moving off the ranch for hubby to finish up school, and this week was when we had to move our stuff, so add the craziness of moving to the general mayhem, and you have my week. I'm looking forward to getting things back in order this week. The dishes are finally tackled and I made it to the grocery store today. Laundry tomorrow...

I'm so proud of my little man. Today was a big day on the ranch. We had to gather all the cows and calves and push them several miles in preparation for the branding tomorrow. My five year old loves to ride his horse, and really wanted to go on the gather. He thinks he's so grown up and he really wants to be just like papa. So I told him he could go, and then worried a lot last night. I packed tons of snacks and drinks into his saddle bags and prayed for safety. I can't go because I've got a little one that needs me often, so off he went with his dad, papa, aunts and two other little cousins. I met them on the other side with a late lunch and the three young girls, not quite knowing what to expect. All smiles when I got there. It sounds like it went nearly as well as it could have. He had so much fun and was actually good help. (The horses see to that, whether the boys want to or not.) There will be no stopping him now. Tomorrow is a very long day. We will be branding calves and I will be watching a herd of kids, getting lunch on, and cleaning up. Off to bed!

This is not a picture of today, I forgot the camera. This is one of my favorite pictures of my little man when he got a saddle for his birthday.