What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 After almost 38 years of being a ranch wife to a rancher, I thought I'd share a few things that have worked for me. Should some future ranch wife stumble upon my ramblings at the end of the dirt road, hopefully she'll find something useful. Of course, these days everything is shared via social media, but back when I started, I was on my own and I would have appreciated hearing about others'

 Last week DH and I took a roadtrip and drove 600 miles to check on our cows. Then we drove 600 miles back. Lots of miles for a couple of old folks. We left on Monday and got back on Thursday. The new camp man started last week and it'll be a while before he gets his feet on the ground, but other than a few phone calls about water troubles, he held down the fort. Another phone call

 I'm sorry - I didn't mean to disappear again. I've had some kind readers contact me as they were concerned that we were in the path of the Texas fires, thus, I hadn't posted. I am touched by your thoughtfulness - thank you! But we are well and the fires are not close to us. We are close to the Texas border, but in New Mexico. However, we know many of the folks in the Panhandle and it's

 I haven't been posting much about ranch life because we've pretty much been spending our days doing thisStill no help at North Camp so feeding 700 hd of cattle on 128,000 acres means DH is in the feed truck every day for 6-8 hours. I wish we had another feed truck because then we could divide and conquer. We had a load of cubes delivered on Monday. It arrived at night and the next morning

Someone please show us how to slow things down a little! I flew back in from the wedding trip on Friday. We grabbed a bite to eat at Texas Roadhouse and made a mad dash through the grocery store before heading home. We made a mineral run and checked water that afternoon and rolled more of that into Saturday. We've been running so hard that I didn't even know about the eclipse until everyone was

DH and I have been spending lots of time bouncing over ranch roads                                  Thankfully, a few of them have been muddy                                Project #1                                      We plumbed in another new water trough                                   Making use of the skid steer saves some shoveling                      But plenty of shoveling still

It's been a really rough couple of weeks here on the ranch. Sadly, our North Camp man (he was just 36) passed away on the 13th and it's been all hands on deck trying to keep things afloat. First and foremost is supporting his wife through this as much as possible. The ranch was sold in June so we've been on a bit of a rollercoaster since February (although losing him had nothing to do with that)

Who coined the phrase 'lazy days of summer'? We don't get many of those around here. Something's always needing to be mowedOr cleaned outOr fixedOr movedOr hauledOur shovels don't get a whole lotta downtime.

It's been close to 2 months since I've set foot in my sewing room and I've been itching to get back in there. DH helped brand on another ranch on Thursday and Friday and he left at 3 a.m. I had big plans to spend those days sewing. Alas, he got a call on Wednesday evening that a cousin from Nebraska wanted to come for a visit the next day. Always tickled to visit with family, but he felt bad

Living in the desert SW, heat is expected, but oye!Even the kitties are wilting I'm ready for Fall! Almost every morning for the last 3 weeks, you can find me here at 5:30. DH has been working with a couple of horses and time in the arena is part of their education.We usually spend about 2 hours first thing in the morning trying to beat the heat of the day.Monday evening we had a welcome shower

On Wednesday morning, the boys gathered 122 steers from Middle Bull Trap and brought them into the pens (this is a shot from a different day - I was tied up with the brand inspector and missed them driving the calves in, but the sun was just coming up and it would have looked like this)we shipped out 2 loads of steers that we sold private treaty. That's just a handful compared to what we sold in

Fall Works are in full swing around here this week so our days are full. We sold 1768 hd of cattle at the sale barn on Monday and I had planned on grabbing groceries to feed the crew after work, but it was close to 7 p.m. when I left and I was too pooped to tackle my list. So that meant an early morning trip to town on Tuesday. Paul's Vet Supply, Sam's, and 2 grocery store stops because store #1

In an earlier post, I mentioned that DH was replacing the floor of our hydraulic chute                                            Putting On My Assistant HatOur camp man helped him unload some of the metal and he asked him why DH doesn't just buy a new chute. Yes, that might be easier, but WAAAYY more expensive and DH is wired to fix things instead of replace them if they can be fixed. I know

Thursday morning, DH came in after he finished working with his colts and asked "Can you please come help me for a minute?" He was bringing up handful of cattle - a few bulls to process, some steers to vaccinate, and a couple calves to brandBovines - checkOur 4-legged brand inspector - checkHot irons - check                                     First in line         Tipping horns to keep men,

My sewing machine has been at the local quilt shop for a cleaning for the past week so it's been a non-sewing week, but there's been plenty to keep me out of trouble. 6 a.m. every morning finds Skeet and me hereDH has 2 colts he's been working with and the next step has been time in the arena:The mornings have been so pretty before the heat sets in and bringing cattle up and working the chute

Two weeks ago, Sunday afternoon, we sat and watched thisA few days earlier we had two 0.6" rains and on Monday morning we added another 2.7".                                                This is the first moisture we've had since September and we are over the moon grateful for every dropSeems like most folks fuss about rain, but it's such a necessity for farmers and ranchers and out here in

It's weaning season around here:That means - yep, you guessed it - I'm in the kitchen again, but before the crew trailered the calves over from the north side of the ranch last week, Skeet and I walked out into the pens after breakfast and added Corid to the water troughs:Hubby and I had put out 12 big bales of hay in the pens the previous evening:Steer calves in one pen and heifer calves in the

We've got a lot of storage troughs on this place. We've never counted them up, but I think the number hovers around 60. And they get dirty...filled with silt and muck and moss and every so often they need cleaning out. Alas, we're still on this place without help and even when folks HAVE been at North Camp, it's been many a year since any of them cleaned out a storage trough. So, DH has been

Seems as if life has been awfully busy lately. On Thursday, Sept 30, we drove to Lubbock - 3 hours one way - for a couple of appts. Seems we have reached the age of becoming acquainted with doctors that end in -ist. Dermatologist and Audiologist during this visit. We try to bundle appts since it's such a drive. We popped into the new HEB grocery store before heading home. I do not enjoy grocery

When the kids were here Memorial weekend, it began to rain. Our girl is in Oklahoma and I don't think they've dried out in 3 years. They are sick of the rain. She even said she thought she was beginning to mold and she was looking forward to soaking in some of our NM sun and drying out. Alas,  she got wet in the desert. We've been praying for rain and we were so grateful for answered prayers. DH