Rainy Days

Well, that's what I deserve for squandering last night's cool calm on the couch with a book, I suppose. But when T rolled out of bed this morning for the start of this month's drill weekend (Army Reserve), the sun was just peeking over the horizon out and it was lovely. The forecast did say 40% chance of rain, but there wasn't any sign of rain!

After the first three loads of laundry on the line there were clouds. And of course it started raining before they were dry enough to bring in. Not hard, but steadily. We can use the moisture, but....

So, instead of tree-trimming (should have headed that way this AM instead of dirty clothes & bathrooms!), I tackled some more postponed housework, baked a couple pies and watched the line sag under wet clothes' dragging weight each time I headed for the back door to let the cat in and out.

For Mabel, two-feets are all doormen to be enlisted as necessary in her continuing quest to always be on the right side of any closed door. And which, you may well ask is the right side? Why, whichever one pleases her at the moment, of course. She's a cat, after all!

"I'm on the wrong side again!"

On the side of accomplishment I can count the pies, bathrooms, laundry, and satisfaction in the warmly insistent, purring lump of cat poised in my lap waiting for me to finish typing and pay her more attention - or open the door again.

Pear Pie

I've never attempted this recipe before. Pie crust is not my favorite thing to make, but since I couldn't find the store-bought ones I thought were in the freezer, I cheated. I can successfully make a cheesy salmon pie recipe. The crust for it is lovely, light and flaky, but thick to counter balance the hearty nature of the dish. I've discovered that if I make one recipe (double crust for the salmon pie) and divide it in four before I roll it out, it makes two double-crusts pies that are light, buttery and flaky and thin enough for dessert-type recipes.

The final result is pretty enough - now hopefully I cut the pears thin enough to bake in the time recommended. Here's hoping it turned out!

Cowboy collection alert

Don't you love it when interests intersect? I just discovered that the Library of Congress American Memory project has collection titled Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982.


And I quote:

The Buckaroos in Paradise Collection presents documentation of a Nevada cattle-ranching community, with a focus on the family-run Ninety-Six Ranch. The documentation was largely the work of the Paradise Valley Folklife Project (1978-1982), a research initiative conducted by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. This collection presents 41 motion pictures and 28 sound recordings that tell the story of life and work on the Ninety-Six Ranch and of its cowboys, known in the region as buckaroos. Motion pictures produced from 1945 to 1965 by Leslie Stewart, owner of the Ninety-Six Ranch, are also included. An archive of 2,400 still photographs portrays the people, sites, and traditions on other ranches and in the larger community of Paradise Valley, home to persons of Anglo-American, Italian, German, Basque, Swiss, Northern Paiute Indian, and Chinese heritage. About 2,200 of these photographs were made during the folklife project and about 200 photographs date from 1870 to 1958. Background texts provide historical and cultural context for this distinctive Northern Nevada ranching community.

Browse by subject or search by keyword, and there are also some essays on western life. Some of the film is pretty neat.

Good-bye, Lace, Hello, Mr. Chainsaw

Lace has a new owner. She leaves (unexpectedly) this evening. She's Colorado-bound, but in the meantime will be collected tonight by a friend of her new owner who lives west of here and has a Colorado trip planned later in the month.

ASA Onyx Lace

I'm sad to see her go. She's a lovely little mare with a sweet disposition, and she carried me cheerfully on many a trail ride while I waited on Sunny to get big enough to ride.

Her new owner is quite excited to have located a mare with her bloodlines (she's an ASA Ebony Turk daughter). From what I understand not too many of them are still around. (And since J is determined to downsize the herd before winter, I believe her asking price was a pleasant surprise, too.)

Pick up was originally scheduled for this weekend, but plans changed last night. J called to let me know in case I wanted to say good-bye (of course!) and to ask if I'd mind catching Lace and leaving her in the lot this afternoon when I was out. J doesn't like dealing with the whole herd in the pasture, and was afraid Lace might prove hard to catch if she waited until the trailer was in the driveway.

So... I interrupted the herd's peaceful grazing and brought them all in for a good brushing, just in case J wanted to show them off later.

Star - looking star-like

Not wanting to leave Lace by herself in the lot for 3-4 hours, I left the three senior mares in together.

Foxy, Lace, & Pennie

They look terribly enthused, don't they?

Ordinarily I wouldn't worry about leaving Lace in alone, but no one was going to be around this afternoon, and she'll be calmer and less stressed if she has company. J is comfortable enough dealing with the senior mares, and leaving all three means that when Lace is loaded up to leave, the other two will, hopefully, not panic at being alone and go tearing up through the mess in the alley.

Which brings me to the mess in the alley....Monday's fencing plans were aborted when we arrived at the farm to find see dead trees toppling along the section we'd planned to work. The aftermath isn't pretty.

Thankfully, the guys did drop the trees away from the fences. But they didn't cut them up or haul them away. Which means there are six or seven large tree skeletons in the alley and one of the pastures. And of course, several of them landed smack across the horses' preferred track in to the lot for water.

But did the fact that they are walking into and through Deadfall City phase them? Nope. Rather than walk around the trees along fence where there's a perfectly clear aisle left open....they prefer to walk smack through the middle of branch-land.

J was afraid that they wouldn't come in for water through the trees. Huh. Yep, they look terrified.
When I turned the rest of the crew loose they headed straight up into the thick of it to see if they could nibble any grass from underneath.

So now I'm the paranoid one, thinking about one of them poking an eye out on something. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow evening and this weekend? Yup. Tree debris clean-up. I broke off some of the nastier limbs this afternoon, but it's going to take more than one pair of hands (and fewer four-footed assistants!) to make much progress.

Somebody likes me!

It never ceases to amaze that I have readers :) You guys rock! And now, thanks to Latigo Liz over at Cowgirl Up I have this nifty award to display, too! And I'm going to share.

In no particular order, here are a few of the ladies whose blogs I've come to look forward to seeing updated...

• Pike Road Girl
• The Eventing Percheron
• How Did This Happen?

And I'm reserving the right to nominate a couple more down the road as I come to know and grow fond of them, as well!

Of course, nothing in life comes stringless, so here are the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person from whom you received your award.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

As has been already pointed out, some of those that share a gabby, horse-y bent have already been nominated - and it's great to be in your company. I don't know about you all, but reading everyone's horse-related adventures brightens up those days that I don't get to spend any time out with the four-feets.

And somebody's always horsing around somewhere. So thanks for sharing!

Long weekend

Long weekends are highly appreciated around here - three days mainly free from "paycheck" work mean extra time to get caught up on housework, farm work, and sleep.

This one had a sad beginning, though. M flew out Saturday morning early.
I took a few pictures at the airport, unfortunately, no one was wearing very happy faces.... The best I captured just looked odd. He made it back to CT without incident, however, and has been calling to give us updates on what he's had for supper, where he's been, and what his friends have been doing.

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Saturday afternoon we decided it was time to tackle a postponed fencing project. New wire needs to go up on one of the cross pasture fences, and I wanted to get T-post tops on, too. There were some downed limbs to be moved, and some holes to be filled in.

Of course, since the fencing stuff was in a bucket, we very shortly had an attentive audience.
Star was fairly sure that she should get first crack at whatever munchies might be in the offing. Silly girl.
After they'd tipped the bucket over and determined there wasn't actually anything edible in it, they were content to just hang out and keep an eye on us.

We'll put in some new T-posts and stretch wire today. Gates will wait for the weekend, I think.

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This morning T and I went adventuring. He's been anxiously awaiting the day when the elderberries were ripe, and lo-and-behold, the day's arrived.

To get to them we only had to wade through a few thistles....
But there were also plenty of these lovely sunny faces for encouragement.
I brought a big bunch home for the kitchen table.

Now I'm being paged for fencing, so more later....