We were fortunate a enough to receive the book before it was out for sale so wegot to see what exactly was in the book. I thought I would share 2 or 3 pics with you that are in the book and if you want to buy it, it's for sale:) I took these pictures straight from the book so my quality is not too great..sorry 'bout that. Great gift for ranch folk. We like to decorate with these kinds of books that have people we know in them!

After much debate, I have decided to change this blog back to what I intended it to be in the first place, a blog about ranching, cowboys, cowgirls, family, ect. After getting caught up in the money hype, I realized I was becoming one of them. You know, those money making blogs. I'll still have my other blogs that do exactly that, but have decided to leave that kind of stuff where it belongs, so it will end on this blog (for the most part). I will monetize my blog with relevant ads that fall into the western/cowboy theme but that's about all.

Why some people won't like this-

There are going to be people that will dislike this decision for the simple fact of my lack of participation in certain things. This is a big risk on my part because I could lose some readership by not joining in on things that I normally do. For example: I will only be participating in 1 or 2 memes and they will involve photography....you know who you are.

My Apology-

I want to apologize to the people who might be dissappointed with this and perhaps even hurt by it. It's nothing personal at all, it's just that I want to get back to my roots and blog because I WANT to and not because I have to or because I feel bad about not joining in on something. Ya know what I mean? I'm sorry for drifting in another direction and turning this blog into something it's not.

I have made some wonderful friends and hope you will support this decision and continue to read my blog. Feel free to leave comments on any questions, thoughts, or opinions you may have about this.

My husband made his first bit! This was a new challenge because he hasn't even seen anyone build one of these. I think he did pretty darn good! I'm so proud of him, especially since he hasn't had any coaching what-so-ever. He's got some spurs on ebay right now. They have a naked lady on one side and a playboy bunny on the other. Anyways, here's the bit............

A long time ago, there was a photographer that came out and took pictures for his new book. Well, we got to see that book today and it's awesome! My husband is all through the book..COOL:) I have 2 8x10's of a couple of photos he took and gave to my husband. They are sharp.
The book is not quite available yet but I'm posting it here so you can see it and for friends or family WHO MIGHT WANT TO ORDER IT:)..LOL.
El Vaquero Real: The Original American Cowboy by John Dyer

Every year a flood of bats migrate to and from Mexico. They should already be heading back to Mexico for the Winter but we have a few that refuse to leave. The inside of our barn is made of wood with nice wide cracks in-between. This is the perfect hangout for our little friends. It was really hard to get pictures of them but I managed to take 2 fairly decent photos. The first one shows several bats and the second one is a close up. I had to flip the picture on its side so you could see them better. One of our favorite things to do is turn on our security light, and watch them fly around at night eating bugs. It's really kinda neat. Anyhoo, enjoy the pics. I mean really, who couldn't love a face like that?

Many people dream of owning a horse but due to the lack of knowledge and experience they have, horses will suffer. Horse abuse comes in different forms, but one of the most common form I see is starvation.

Horses malnourishment is due to several reasons. Many times the owners fail to properly feed the horses during the winter or during drought. The horses lose weight every winter and then regain the weight in the summer. This is a very common scenario brought on by owners who DO know better, but who choose not to properly feed for one reason - MONEY.

Another common reason is pure laziness. Owners or caretakers, "forgot to feed last night" or " I was busy and was only able to feed them once yesterday". Repeated enough times and the result is a starved horse. Because of people's ignorance, horses suffer for a long time with death waiting around the corner.

If you see a malnourished horse, contact your local authorities or animal control.

This post was written in support of the Bloggers uniting and trying to "Stop the Abuse".

I'm often asked how I met my husband, what does he look like, etc... so I thought I'd share the boring story with ya.

It was August of 92' when me and my girl were cruisin' downtown in my 280ZX. (Yeah, I was the cool one;) We saw these 5 guys with cowboy hats all squished up in a itty bitty car. They were all brothers. We drove past them and one of them stuck his tongue out at me. (REAL mature!) I looked at my girl and said "he's the one". Well, later that night me and the "posse" were hangin' out at the Village SuperMarket parking lot when guess who rolls up? No, not all the guys...instead it was the one guy, who stuck his tongue out, inbetween 2 girls. The driver asked me if I had a problem with him, pointing at the tongue sticker outer, and asked why were me and my friend making fun of him and the other guys. I responded with "we weren't making fun of anyone, we were flirting but if you want to get out of the car we can settle it right now". (Yep, I was also a badass:) AND, I had backup so I could talk smack. The guy said forget about it and they ended up leaving. That guy is, of course, my husband. We basically had 3 run ins with eachother in a weeks time and being young and stupid, I fell in love. School started in a week and he was leaving in a week to Kingsville to work on the King Ranch. I was sad and apparently desperate. I skipped my first week of my Junior year, called in sick to Kmart, and took what money I had in my purse & headed to Kingsville. Didn't tell nobody by my girl. I made it all the way to San Antonio and then ran out of gas. I was out of money, it was late at night, and I was a bit scared. I flagged a car down and said I would sell them my bracelet for some gas money and that I had lost my wallet at some other town I made up. The man offered me a place to stay for the night and he would give me gas money in the morning. So I went. WHAT IN THE HELL WAS I THINKING?? It turned out that he was a juvenile probation officer. He gave me money the next morning and sent me on my way. I finally arrived in Kingsville but now what? I grabbed a phone book and looked up the last name. I found a few and picked one. Got directions to the house and headed on over. You should have seen his face when I got there. Shocked would be an understatement. I mean, we had only known eachother for 2 weeks!! I stayed there and we got to know eachother. I did have to take the car back home because my parents reported it stolen but I took a bus back to Kingsville. This was in August of 92' and we married in January of 93'. We have been together since.

If you have a weak stomach or love animals sooo much that you don't want to see them in an "uncomfortable" position, then I suggest you leave now or just start scrolling way down to find my archives;)

Sorry 'bout the title...I couldn't resist;) Every year the mares(momma horses) have their colts(boys) or fillys(girls).....and then when the colts are older they get cut so they don't become studs. Anyhoo,......there are a couple of ways to cut a colt but the most common and the way I'm familiar with is to~~ give them some medicine that makes them sleep a bit or makes them drowsy, cut their "goods", and let them wake up. Poor lil fellas:(

Unfortunately this has to be done. You can't have only studs around trying to get to every Dawn, Trish, & Carrie. Besides, when you get studs together, they'll just fight and can even kill eachother.

I hate seeing this done so I thought I'd torture ya'll with it too. Enjoy the photos:o)

When we lived at the Fulton Quien Sabe Ranch, we had several huge longhorns. They were old as sin but very neat to look at. We actually had one die while we were there and were able to get the horns. Do we still have the horns?...Nope. My husband traded them to a guy who builds cedar furniture, which is how I came to have my king size cedar bed;)

I love pictures of horses and Thumbelina is one of my favorites. I'm sure most of you know who Thumbelina is but I thought I'd share a picture for those who aren't aware of this little cutie.

The 17 inch tall, 57 pound miniature horse travels in a mobile home and sleeps in a dog house.
Most dwarf miniature horses don't survive, but this little cutie pie has a clean bill of health.

And what about the World's Tallest Horse? Meet Radar

This gentle giant is an amazing sight for horse lovers of any age. Standing 19 Hands, 3 1/2 Inches tall (6'7 1/2" at the withers) and weighing almost 2700 lbs.

The 2008 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records will feature a picture of Thumbelina with Radar, the world's tallest horse.

Every Spring & Fall, the works begin. The cowboys gather the cattle and brand the calves. We start our Fall works in August. The cowboys will gather all the cattle and hold'em up in a pen or corral, one cowboy will go in the herd a horseback and rope a calf, drag the calf to the branding fire where 2 cowboys flank the calf, then the brander comes in and brands the calf with a hot iron with whatever the ranch brand is. This is very important; believe it or not there are still cattle thieves running around. Havin' the brand is proof that the cattle belong to the rightful owner.

I have a couple of pictures to give you an idea. The first picture is of my son, Tyler (who is horseback) and my 2 nephews, Wichita & Utah who are flanking the calf. Flanking is where they grab the calf and put it on it's side, then one holds the head down and the other basically holds the legs with one of the legs stretched out....this is where the brand will go ( the hip/leg area). In the second picture, my nephews are still flanking the calf while the brander comes in and brands the calf. Some calves need to be earmarked or have shots given to them. After that, they get released back to the herd. Finally, all the cowboys drive the cattle back to the pasture they belong in.

Okay, so everyone is doing contests these days and I thought I'd mount up and do the same. This will be an easy and small one but I thought it would prepare me for a bigger one I might wanna do some day:)

• Leave a comment or Contact Me with your guess. Only 1 guess per participant.

That's Life Bein' A Cowboy 5 yrs. old gettin' ready to ride the rough off this mean shetland, Buckshot. He sat there about 20 minutes, just to put his spurs on, thinking about how he was gonna break this rank little pony!

I submit this photo to Herbrokentoy.com, who is having a contest. Great contest & great blog!

I've had to cook at a couple of ranches but the most memorable is when we lived on the Quien Sabe. My first "cookout" was for 15 cowboys. I had to cook breakfast and lunch for 7 straight days. Whew!..I'm gettin' tired just thinkin' about it. Do you think 15 sounds like alot?? Well, it ain't. The most I had to cook for was around 38 cowboys and cowgirls. This included actual ranch hands, dayworkers, friends of the boss, and kids that tagged along.


Now cookin's not too hard but when you have to cook for (on average) 20 people for 5-10 days, breakfast & lunch, then you start to get tired and a little crabby.
Preparation was the biggest part. I had to make my menus, figure about how much to make, go shopping, and start preparing the food for the following day. I made just about everything from scratch and even though it was more work, it was also very cost effective.
Here's an example of a daily menu:


BREAKFAST

• Eggs


• Bacon


• Sausage


• Biscuits


• Gravy


• Hash Browns or Fried Taters


• Juice


• Coffee


• Milk


• Jelly (about 3 different kinds)


• Honey

LUNCH

• Chicken Fried Steak


• Mash Taters


• Corn


• Pinto Beans


• Rolls


• Peach Cobbler


• Ice Cream


• Cookies


• Tea


• Coffee


• Koolaid

Now that is just one day ....try thinkin' up a menu for 20 cowboys for 7 days.

My cooking was OK at the beginning but improved a great deal over the 5 years we were there. Of course, none of the cowboys are gonna tell you it wasn't good but I knew if I had a crappy meal or two. They would always say "Thank you ma'am..that was good", rinse their plate in the sink, and then go outside and visit while everyone else finishes up.

Some people ask me if I miss it and..........I miss the interaction with adults and I did enjoy cookin' all the different things but I DON'T miss the cleaning!

After cookin' for that long you start to accumulate MANY recipes, so I thought I'd share a EASY & cold dessert with you guys. We call it Pookey...don't ask why;)

POOKEY for a family of 4

• 1 Package of DOUBLE STUFF Oreo Cookies


• 1 Carton of Cool Whip


• 2 Boxes of Chocolate Pudding
  

Make your pudding using the directions on the box, break oreos into pieces and add to pudding, add half of cool whip in pudding mixture and mix it all together, and then add the remaining cool whip on top. I would finely crush some oreos to put on top for garnish but it's up to you. If you want to fancy it up a bit, you can use a clear bowl and do layers. Add or subtract according to how many servings you want. You can eat it right away but I think it's better to refrigerate for an hour or so. Hope you all enjoy!!