Albuquerque, yo!

Well, actually that's Utah, as we were getting ready to touch down in Salt Lake City.

But this is Albuquerque! Or at least pretty close to Albuquerque. I'll be here until Saturday for work, but it appears I'll have quite a bit of down time, so I should be able to get caught up on photo editing and some blogging!

But, as always, don't hold your breath and please cross your fingers!

Happy Faces

This is my 50th post!!! And to celebrate, I've brought two of the happiest faces along with me. Enjoy!

The Man Chair

This is one of the pieces of furniture that we brought home from Palm Springs with us. Oh man oh man is it ever a chair. A man's chair. The Man Chair.



This is definitely Cowboy H's chair. Every evening when he gets home from work, he plops down in it to kick up his feet for a short while. If he's home, no one else sits in The Man Chair.

Except for Hank. He's pretty sure he's a man too after all.




And he's pretty sure we brought this chair home especially for him.

She Doesn't Eat Vegetables...

But we're breaking her in.

Slowly of course.

This is my lovely sister-in-law. She just made a BIG move from Missouri to California and is currently occupying one of our guest bedrooms. And making good use of that bathroom we just remodeled. And I love it. And I love her.

But, we still have to work on the vegetable thing.

Although, she's been a pretty good sport so far.

Would This Be Considered A Problem?

If I brought this guy home, would that mean I have, like issues? A really bad habit? Or even an addiction?

I really need some answers here, because this little guy just became the fifth four-legged member of the Homestead.

And I think Cowboy H is going to stage an intervention.

Ranch Sorting

The ranch where we keep our horses hosted their first (in a long time) Ranch Sorting last week. It wasn't necessarily a competition, but an opportunity for all the boarders to get together and learn the ins and outs of the sport.






Pretty much everyone who showed up that night had never participated in a Ranch Sorting before and most all the horses had never been in close contact with cows before. To say this was a learning experience may be an understatement.





You begin with a group of cows, usually ten, which are numbered 0-9.

Quite the motley crew, don't ya think?

The cows are put into two round pens, which share a side. The panel between the two pens is removed, so that the cows (and horses and riders) can move back and forth between them.





Anne and Jack went over the basics of the competition, explaining the method and rules for us. Then her and Laura gave a fabulous demo. As I said, pretty much everyone there had no idea what a Ranch Sorting was all about.

Teams of two horse/rider combinations are formed. Before beginning, the team is given a number between 0 and 9. That is the number of the first cow they have to get.

The cows are moved one by one, in numberical order, from one pen to the other. If your team started with 9, you would first sort 9, then 0, 1, 2, etc. You get the idea. Usually, in competition, you have one to two minutes to sort the cattle.

Typically, one rider holds the "gate" or the open space between the two pens, while the other rider sorts out the correct cow. The "gate" person is responsible for making sure that only the correct cow gets through (cattle like to "mother" or pair up) and also keeping the already sorted cows from escaping back to the herd. If cows pass through the gate out of order, or if any sorted cows get back to the herd, the team is no-timed.

The night was a blast. The ranch had a great turnout of boarders, and everyone stayed till dark, when we had to shut down to to lack of lights. In fact, it was such a huge hit that we repeated the fun this week, with the addition of cattle numbers, lights and a BBQ!

Bella apparently felt right at home, because she spent most of the evening dozing off just outside the sorting pens!

Well, I Never Thought of That...

Editor's Note: After discussing this with Cowboy H, I learned that Olivia has a pellet in her head, not a bee bee. A bee bee would not have mushroomed the way the pellet did. The fact that a pellet gun was used is even more upsetting because they can do much more damage than a bee bee gun.

If something, like a bee bee, is embedded into a bone, then it wouldn't move around. Which is exactly why the bump on top of Olivia's head wouldn't move. It is stuck in her skull. And its staying there.




Do you see it? Its a little hard to miss. One of the girls at my work could see it from across the room. My poor baby. She got pretty lucky though, apparently it didn't go all the way through her skull, and so far she's still normal (for her that is.)

Now, to find out who's shooting bee bee guns in a cul-de-sac neighborhood...

Maybe I'll have to stick Cowboy H on them.

He can do a little detective work.

Freedom!

It's official. I have been released. No more rechecks, no more restrictions, no more excuses. Which means I actually have to start going to the gym again and riding the horses. And I can start working my part-time Saturday job again.

Which led me to this conclusion just now: My blog posts are probably never going to have pictures again. It takes me way too much time to resize and upload my pictures into every single post. You guys are just going to have to use your imaginations. I'll explain every detail down to the pearls on my wedding dress, but you're on your own after that.

In addition, I have to take my cat for xrays tonight. She sprouted a bump on the top of her head last week. Hard as a rock. Actually, it feels like bone. It's about the size of a bee bee but doesn't move around like a bee bee would. She is completely unaffected by it, but man, my curiosity is killing me. I have to know what it is.

I'll update you on that too.

I maybe like a month. After I get caught up on everything else in my life.

In General

Today, I have another recheck for my arm. It has been three weeks since I last saw the doc. Since then I have gone backpacking, worked cattle, and begun putting my hair in a ponytail again. Hopefully he tells me today that I'm actually allowed to be using it.

Last night we hosted what I guess we could call a housewarming party. What started as a BBQ with another couple and their son turned into a 15 person rager that when on until midnight. Just kidding. A little. We ended up hosting about 15 people and really the last ones didn't leave until midnight. But, we behaved ourselves. Cowboy H manned the grill and made hamburgers so thick you couldn't put anything else on them. Not even a bun. I didn't take a single picture. Sorry, but I was hosting.

Sunday night Hank took care of my geranium bush in the back yard. He figured the place would look a lot better if the plant was on the patio concrete instead of in the flower bed. At least he did all the hard work for us.

Friday we headed to Palm Springs to pick up some hand-me-down furniture from Cowboy H's old boss. If only all hand-me-downs were like these. Being as it was our last Friday-Saturday off together, we decided to make a getaway out of it. Finding a cheap hotel room was easy enough; no one wants to be in the desert in August. Laying by the pool Saturday morning was much much harder. So was getting Cowboy H to leave the bar Friday night. Ahhh, but it was a good time.

More on the furniture to come...

New Shades, Baby

Much (all) credit has to be given to Cowboy H for the following home improvement. He picked them out all by himself, down to the color. And, I love them.

Of course, we must also acknowledge the fact that he picked the MOST EXPENSIVE type of window coverings you can get. And I had nothing do with it. And, I love it.

These, these babies, they just, they, oh shucks, just check them out:

Facelift

These have been piled in The Homestead for awhile now, waiting patiently to be put into their proper place.

All in all, there were 8 windows that would be replaced.

One in each of the guest bedrooms.

A large picture window in the living room.

Two tall skinny windows flanking the fire place.

"Oh, hi there. What? I'm supposed to be helping? You mean this isn't helping? Ohhhhhh."

"Hi Oz!"

And two smaller windows in the dining area.


Originally Cowboy H was taking his time, replacing one or two windows at a time since other things (like finishing the bathroom) were more important. But then we heard word that our window coverings were ready and set to be installed! So we got our hinneys in gear (mine included) and installed the last four windows all in one day.

These are the two guest bedroom windows looking out toward the street.

Our version of American Gothic.

I Forgot To Tell You...

Today marks 4 weeks and 1 day since I broke my arm.

I figured I should let you know how that is going.

I think I got lucky. In more ways than one. First off, I did not need surgery. Secondly, I was not going to have a cast. Third, my arm was free to move again after only 2 weeks.

My recheck appointment with my orthopedic surgeon was 2 weeks ago today, and they determined that my break had not moved at all and everything was set to heal properly on its own. The major problem at that point was regaining mobility in my elbow joint. After having my elbow in a 90 degree angle for 2 weeks, it was locked up. I could barely move it in either direction. I should have had Cowboy H take a picture, but he's not really into picture-taking. Unless its of me sleeping. Or my butt.

Anyways, my joint is almost fully functioning again and I go back next week to see if I need me some physical therapy.

In closing, here are a few things I learned about having only one hand/arm:

1. You absolutely cannot put your hair in a ponytail.
2. You cannot operate a standard can opener.
3. You cannot drain a big ole pot of pasta.
4. You cannot tie your own shoes.
5. Washing knives is extremely difficult.

Cuz That's How We Roll

Awhile ago (meaning: before I broke my arm) Cowboy H and I headed out to the Ranch to visit with our horses. Sometimes we go out just to see them, spend some quality, non-riding time with them. This is mostly so our horses always look forward to seeing us, knowing that they won't have a saddle slapped on their backs every. single. time. But also, because we're lazy sometimes.

On this particular day Cowboy H hosed Bella down and I turned Maria out in the arena. Maria has a very particular trait I have discovered: she will not lay down or roll in her living quarters. Whether in a box stall or out on pasture, she stays on all fours. But, as soon as you turn her out into a round pen or arena, BAM! She hits the ground faster than you can practically get her halter off. I could barely get my camera turned on before she went in for the kill.

Love the last one with that one leg stretched straight out. After we get the roll out of the way, I usually amuse myself by forcing Maria to follow me around the arena. This day I had her trotting after me and (hee hee) had her actually follow me over jumps. Somedays, I swear she wonders about me.

Then I got a brilliant idea. I'm going to ride her, bareback and bridleless. I asked Cowboy H and he agreed. So I handed over my camera and swung up.

And then we did this:

Meanwhile, on the other end of the ranch, Bella was showing off the latest hairdo:

It's all the rage with the pasture horses these days.