Friday, February 27, 2009

Good Buckin' Luck


Loaded Stubby up this afternoon and sent him to get checked in for a bull futurity. For those of you that don't know what a bull futurity is, I'll explain. It's a buckin' competition. He is competing against other 2 year old bulls. There is no rider, just a "dummie", which is a box similar to the one we use when bucking the calves. The bulls are judged on their performance. So here's hoping Stubby does well!

I will head out in the morning to go watch. Keep your fingers crosssed for us.
**Loved all the names everyone has submitted for the calf! It's going to be hard to pick just one. I'll make the husband do it! We'll let you know the results very soon.**

Friday Funny

A friend sent this to me on my facebook page. It made me laugh. Thought I would share it with y'all.


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Taming The Wild Beasts

How do you tame a young bull? The same way you tame a wild man, with food! When we first separated the bulls and heifers, they were a tad bit wild. The minute you walked into the pen, they would bolt to the opposite end. But they soon learn you bring food and good tidings when you enter the pen and started calming down. Now they wait at the gate for me. But if anyone new comes around, they bolt just like they did in the beginning.

We've bonded a lot over the past few months. When it's just me and the bulls, they are very calm. I started feeding one by hand awhile back. Then more become interested until now almost all of them eat out of my hand. The husband is NOT happy about it but we won't tell him, right?!

I thought you would like to see how I tamed the wild beasts. I set the camera up on the truck today to take some video. Sorry it's a little lop-sided.


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sunday Afternoon Walk

The kids and I went for a walk Sunday afternoon. I thought it would be nice to go in the neighbor's green field and let the dogs play. Plus I was tired of taking drab pictures. Our outing was pretty mild. Nothing like our past adventure (click here in case you missed it.)!

Here are a few pics...
Harley frolicking in the winter wheat.


Zena having lots of fun running.



Pepper at attention cause she knows there is something out there she must kill.

Must have been a field mouse. Sent these two in a frenzy.

And sweet Lil Man watchin' all the going ons.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Little Girl's First Video

I thought you might want to see the little girl in action. Get a sense of her personality. Every evening when I feed, she runs and plays. It's so fun to watch. Of course today, I didn't have my camera on me when she started. I ran to the house and grabbed it. Then she wouldn't do it again. But I finally caught her playin'!


Baby Heifer from The Wife on Vimeo.

Please Forgive Me-Updated!

I have received several awards in the past couple months and am truly grateful for them. I am just so bad about posting them. Y'all are so gracious to give them to me and then I turn around and don't post them. Such a bad bloggie friend!

And I hate pickin' a select few to pass them on to because I think you all deserve 'em. So I put it off and days turn to months, then I forget. It's horrible of me. Can you forgive me?

Maybe a contest will help in the forgiveness? I'm okay with bribing y'all. Whatever it takes. Stay tuned!


**The contest is HELP NAME THAT CALF!**




I asked the husband if he was willing to let y'all take a stab at namin' the new baby. And he said yeah!


Here is a little bit about her:


Momma- Silk Pudding
Daddy-#246, he's out of the Darkness.
Born on President's Day.


So you want to help name the baby? You've got from now until next Friday to submit your suggestions. Submit as many as you like! If we pick your name, I'll send ya some goodies!


**Update on Lil Man. He's doin' better. Thanks for all your well wishes!**

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Lookie What I Found

The talent of my boys amazes me daily.


Maybe this is the bull version of Jenga.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Lil Man Learns Ranch Lesson

I felt like such a bad mom yesterday evening but it was something Lil Man was going to have to learn living on the ranch. Here's the story...

I went out to feed the cows as I normally do after work. As I was feeding the girls, I noticed the new baby had a lot of poo packed on her hind end. I knew I needed to get it off before she started having problems. So when I fed, momma cow went to the end of the feeders and baby went to the other. This was my chance to mess with baby. Of course, you don't really think things thru when you get a split second opportunity with a calf, especially when you're out there by yourself. But I grabbed the little girl's tail in one hand and started getting poo off with the other. (Note to self, wash pink gloves!)

While I was dealing with that, Lil Man started SCREAMING! I looked over and saw Momma cow, Silk, had him down. She was hookin', kickin', rollin', stompin' poor Lil Man all over the place. I started hollerin' for her to stop as I ran over throwing the empty feed sack at her. After several seconds of yelling and waving of the arms, she finally gets off him. I swoop in and grab him up. He's yelpin' his little heart out.

I take him in the barn and hold him until he calms down. Did the usual pat down. Run my hand over his body to check for any injuries or broken bones. He doesn't yelp or whine as I do my inspection. I put him down so I can finish feeding and he's not able to stand on his left hind leg. He gives the most pitiful sad look that breaks my heart.

I finish up the chores. Lil Man has made it outside the barn and is laying in the grass. Still with the pitiful look. I get him some children's pain reliever to help with the pain and soreness. But I still feel horrible for not watching him more closely. I take him in the house and rock 'em in the recliner for about 30 minutes before puttin' him back outside for the night.

This morning, he's still gimpin' around with his left hind leg up. I gave him some more medicine and some treats. I may take off early from work this afternoon so I can go check on him. He's young and resilient but I don't like when my babies are hurt.

Lil Man got his first dose of angry momma cows. I hope he's learned something from the experience, like don't be the slowest dog around when momma cow wants to hook something! I bet he thinks twice before going out with me to feed!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wordless Wednesday-Givin' Sugars


I've been known to kiss a little a$$ every once in awhile! Sorry, I couldn't be completely wordless today!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

President's Day Surprise!

We have been waiting for Silk to have her baby FOREVER! Well maybe not that long but it seems like it! For the last two weeks, she has been really bagged up. We knew it could be any day. The husband would call me every evening and ask if there was a baby. He got the same response every evening, "No!"

Finally, yesterday, the husband was burning trash and noticed she was off by herself. We figured she was finally having the calf. I told the husband he better go check on her cause she had been on feed for a month or so and we were worried she was going to have problems. He headed out into the pasture. When he didn't return for awhile, I knew something was up. I headed out there myself with Lil Man in tow.

Sure enough, we got out there and she had just had the little booger! No problems and it was doing fine. Hungry but fine! Of course, I didn't have the right lens on my camera so the shots were way too far off to be any good. But this afternoon when I fed, Silk came up and brought the little cutie!



After Silk ate, she took the baby off to the hay.


Momma and baby are doing just fine! I love babies!

Let the Buckin' Begin!

Bunches of y'all wanted to know about our bucking stock. There were many, many questions in regards to it so I wanted to be able to take my time and answer them all at once. I got the husband home today so he is available for any clarifications if need be! But, like he reminds me daily, I know EVERYTHING.

Our History:

So many years back, we started dabbling in the bucking bull business. The husband was a professional bullrider but after three shoulder surgeries and a much needed forth, which has never happened, he retired. In order to remain in the sport, we took to raisin' a few bulls. We would just buy, sell and trade in order to increase our herd. The husband had his own fencing business at the time so he would trade fence with stock contractors for bloodline heifers. We knew we couldn't go wrong with quality heifers. Plus we are lucky enough to know people with good bulls that would allow us to breed to them.

In 2002, at Jerry Nelson's bull sale, we had the highest selling bull. He later qualified for the PBR finals. His success was shortlived, however, he broke his leg and was put down.

Our Stock:

We rely heavily on genetics for our breeding program, specifically quality females. If mama and daddy buck, then odds are baby will buck too. When calves are about 6 months old, we load em up and take em to the arena for their first buckin'. This is our first chance to see if they've gotten what it takes to stay on the ranch. The video below shows how we do it.





The box on the back of the calf weighs approximately 8 lbs. It simulates weight on the calf's back and has a remote control to release it and the flank strap (which is located around the calf's flank. It does not go around any boy bits or cause pain.) The box does NOT shock them or cause any pain either.

So once we see how they do, we make a judgement call whether to keep them or send them to the sale. If the bulls show potential, we usually will keep them for 6 more months and re-buck em. We don't re-buck heifers. They get put out to pasture to grow or sold to contractors. Our precentage of keepers is currently around 70-80%.

As for the training question, you don't train bulls to buck. Either they do or they don't. We just hope ours do. It all goes back to the genetics really. If they want to buck, they will and believe me, you can't make one buck. If it doesn't want to, it won't.

The only "training" we do is working them in the chutes. We spend a lot of time trying to calm them down around people and getting them used to being hauled. You want to be able to handle them. I get in trouble by the husband for really calming them down. Like eat out of my hand calm. He doesn't like that!

What we strive for currently is keeping all of our "special" heifers and increasing the quality of our herd. We sell most of our bulls to other stock contractors for them to haul. We would prefer to keep our bulls and haul them ourselves, which we have done in the past, however, it is very time consuming and expensive. It is very rewarding to see them grow and do well whether it be with us or someone else.

So did that answer most of the questions regarding this subject?

**On a different note, I lost a follower yesterday. What happened? What did I do? How can I win you back? Was it something I said? **

Monday, February 16, 2009

Technical Difficulty

I was all ready to post about our bucking stock this afternoon, but Blogger had a different idea. It won't let me upload a video. And I refuse to post without it. I'm hard-headed like that. And then I was going to post a bunch of pictures from our adventures this weekend. But my internet connection keeps going out and downloading pictures has become an infuriating task. However, I will not be deterred! I WILL post something! This is the only thing I could get to work after many, many, many and did I say many attempts.


Let's see how much lil man has grown in the last month. This was the day I brought him home-January 11th.




This was Sunday-February 15th.

I think he's grown just a little!

He's just fluffy cuteness!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my daddy's birthday! He's just a good 'ol cowboy with an awesome daughter!






Love ya Pa! Have a great day!

Sunday Stills - Moon

This week the Sunday Stills assignment was the moon. The weather has been really cloudy lately so I didn't get a chance to take a new picture. I went into my archives and found this one.


Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Wife Can Cook?

Can you believe that is the response I get anytime I mention I cook? People give me that tilted dog head expression and say "Really, you cook?" Why is it so hard to believe? I know I am not a domestic goddess by any means. I would rather clean the barn than the house but I still can COOK! I love to cook. My mother MADE me cook growing up. She didn't want some poor man stuck with a girl that didn't know how to boil water. And boy is the husband grateful for that!

For Valentine's, I decided to make some little treats for my co-workers and the husband. I had ordered heart shape cupcake molds and wanted to try them out. Aren't they cute!
I filled them with Red Velvet cake mix, the Husband's favorite.

Then stuck em in the oven. They're almost done!

Let em cool off and remove the mold. Then they were iced with buttercream icing! Yummo!


I think everyone enjoyed my tasty little treats! So the Wife CAN cook! Hope your day is filled with sweet goodness! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

**I will resume answering the questions about me later this weekend. Thanks for being so interested!**

Friday, February 13, 2009

Sweet Hubby

Look what was delivered to my office this morning....




I have such a sweet hubby! I guess I'll keep him around another year or so.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Remember Me, I'm Mud

We've had some storms this week. It has rained twice, which is a blessing cause we haven't gotten any precipitation in a long while. So I enjoyed wearing my mudboots to feed. It had been awhile since I had these babies on.


And look at those grey sweats. I am such the fashionista when I'm feedin'. No wonder those bulls are always after me! I'm too hot to resist!

Remember this little guy. He tried gettin' me a few times when we were sortin' a few weeks back. Well, we named him Mud. Seems very fittin' now.


And the last storm a few nights ago so graciously provided our barn with a skylight.




Very nice!

Thoughtless Thursday-Ode to Gizzards


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Gizzards & Calf Fries??

Rising Rainbow asked, " what about how you decided to name your blog.......that's got to be a story in itself."

I've had several wonder where I got the name for the blog. It's no mystery really, just pulled it out of my butt!

As I ponder more about it though, I think it had to do with how I was feelin' at the time of my blog's creation. The husband and I had moved to the big city for my job, leaving the place we refer to as home-a nice country town. People round here think I am looney for sayin' this is the "big" city but to me it is. I mean it has a mall, hundreds of eatin' places and Asian people makin' sushi in the grocery store! Come on, that's BIG CITY!

Anyhow, let's just say I stick out. All of my co-workers are from Texas yet they say I talk funny! My twang is a little more country I suppose and the use of my words may be somewhat different but I'm just a country girl. So when I started the blog, I wanted something that was true to me.

I grew up on gizzards and calf fries. That's who I am. I still eat gizzards on occasion. I mean, what's better than stoppin' at the gas station and buyin' some gizzards! And the husband stops by the chicken place on the way home sometimes and brings me some for supper. He's so good to me!

I haven't had calf fries in a long while. Luckily for our bulls, they get to keep all their male bits. See...here's Stubby's!



His are spotted which really fascinates me in some weird sick way!

So that's my explanation behind the name. Does it make sense? Probably not but do I ever?

Monday, February 9, 2009

And the Answers Begin...

Miss Lacey Jo asked:

Guilty Pleasures/Addictions- What can't you live with out, what makes you happy when you are down, what are you absolutely obsessed with?

Pet Peeves- Who/What kind of things really annoy you and why?

Okay, so what can I not live without? That would be my ball cap! I really hate fixin' my hair. If I could wear a ball cap all the time I probably would. On the weekends, it's pretty much a wardrobe staple. I am worse than the husband. I have ball caps coming out the wazoo!

What makes me happy when I am down? Well there are two things, first is the love of my animals (oh, and you too honey! Geez, almost got in trouble there.) and Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Nothing gets my spirits up better than those two things!

What are you totally obsessed with? Hmm, I had to think about this one. I guess right now that would be photography. Since I started the blog last May, I have really focused on my picture takin'. Oh! And FOOD! I love me some food. All kinds, I don't discriminate!

Who/What kind of things really annoy you and why? Number 1 is SNORING! Ugh, how it irritates me! I know people can't help it but I can't help waking you up either! I really don't know why it bothers me so but it drives me insane.

Number 2 is LYING! Working in the criminal justice field for many years, I just figure people are lying to me most times. Cynical, huh? Well, I've found that the people I deal with usually think it's easier to lie than tell the truth. They don't realize life would be so much easier if they're just honest. But I guess if they were honest people, they wouldn't be dealing with me!

And Number 3 is MAKING EXCUSES. I think this reverts back to my job too but I think you should take responsibility for your actions. Whether good or bad, it was your decision to make and you made it so suck it up.

So to stay on my good side, all you have to do is not snore, lie or make excuses. That's easy cheesy! Oh, and bring Blue Bell ice cream if you stop by! We'll be friends forever!

The answers to the rest of the questions will be up soon! Thanks y'all!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Lectures, Questions and Pugs???

The husband lectured me Saturday night. He asked if I had blogged and I told him no. He proceeded to tell me, "You don't have 65 followers by not blogging! You haven't done anything but post pictures since Wednesday. They don't follow you to see a picture everyday. They want to read your stories."

I told him I hadn't had anything to blog about. My world had consisted of going to work and coming home, nothing exciting. He said I better come up with something to give my followers! Talk about pressure!

And now as I typed this, the husband called me on his way home and asked if I posted today. I said "yes, my Sunday Stills picture." His response, "What, another picture?! You want to lose your followers?" I laughed. He is so funny about my blog, I mean "our" blog.

I still don't have anything to talk about really. So I thought I would open it up to y'all. Give me some ideas on what y'all want to know? Anything? Nothing?


Also, blogger buddy Libby over at Neas Nuttiness had her canine figurine dognapped! She has asked for help in bringing it home. To help, please go to the following site and make a plea for Percy's safe return. It's really a shame, they've blindfolded and paw tied the poor pug!

Sunday Stills-Reflections

I waited until yesterday morning to see what the assignment was for this week at Sunday Stills. Much to my dismay, it was reflections. Not that I don't like them, but there is not a lot of great reflections goin' on 'round here. So I knew I had my work cut out for me. Of course, it was overcast the entire day and the wind was blowing like crazy so no reflections in the tank. But then it hit me and I came up with this......



Thursday, February 5, 2009

Thoughtless Thursday-My Yard Art

**UPDATE...many of you have asked about my yard art. We did buy it at a store in a small town near our house. The store is now closed and I have never seen another one like it anywhere else. The husband is a welder and could make it if I held a gun to his head. He HATES doing stuff like this. I used to have him make horseshoe hat racks and candle holders. But he gets no enjoyment out of it. I love my pistol packin' gal!**



Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Lil Man's Big Adventure

The weather was gorgeous here on Sunday. Around 80 degrees and nice. So the kids and I went for a walk in the pasture. Poor lil man, I think everything on him has grown but his legs! He does his best to keep up. Usually stays right with me. His tongue was hanging out but he kept goin'.
We made our way out to the tank. We've been going out there in the evenings but today was warm enough for the dogs to get in. Lil man had never gotten close to the water until today. Poor guy, he is not coordinated at all. His biggest obstacle was the cow track holes. Man, did I get a good laugh!

Had to rest. He exerted a lot of energy moving over that rough terrain.

Then to make things worse, Pepper was makin' fun!

Finally, we headed back to the house. He was so happy to be on smooth ground!

Monday, February 2, 2009

My Thoughts Exactly


Monday!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Sunday Stills-Go High, Go Low

This week's Sunday Stills assignment was to take a picture from a different perspective, either above or below. So I did what any normal person would do, I laid on my back in the yearling bull pen to take pictures! That's what y'all did right?!



Then I moved to the pasture with the horses. They weren't as cooperative but I got a few shots.