Farm Life

This Cold Stuff is For the Birds!

I think I’ve mentioned a time or two that I hate cold weather… yes? no? I know the other day I said it was pretty but I’ve since changed my mind. Why do you ask? Well, my morning started off in the 5 am hour. My husband called to say that his truck gelled over. Now if you don’t know much about diesel trucks… their fuel can do what they call gel.

Basically, it goes from a liquid usable form to a gel-like substance that won’t work. So the way a diesel is made, it has a paraffin type stuff present. At 32˚F it is in liquid form but as the temps start dropping it starts hardening. Once this happens it can clog the tank and the fuel filters. aka, no fuel for the truck.

He was like 2-3 miles from the house and luckily went back roads versus being stranded out on the interstate.

My dad worked on finding a tow rope so we could hopefully tow the truck home, but I decided it was taking way too long so I jumped in my truck and headed off to get him some heat. I’m not sure if you know this or not, but no truck work, no heat. As I was driving over there I looked at the dash and my truck said it was -15˚F. Holy Hades!

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Horses are related to Skunks and other musings

Horse on one side of the fence from a group of horses

Horses are related to skunks. If that title doesn’t make you giggle or seriously question my sanity, I’m not sure what does or will.

Why on earth would I compare a horse to a skunk? Well if you haven’t been around horses much, you’re in for quite a surprise. My mornings consist of the same things… wake up, answer emails/read blogs, go outside and turn horses out, start the rest of my day. Not always in the same order and sometimes not for very long on any of the above, but one thing is always certain… I’m going to turn the horses out.

Why not? I mean, they enjoy the great outdoors, right? So… I still haven’t answered that question… why am I comparing the horses to skunks? My horses are trained. I walk in the barn, open the back door, open each individual stall door, and they walk themselves out the back of the barn. Then I close the back gate, get the stud and throw a rope around his neck (because most days I’m too lazy to put the halter on him), and walk him out to his pen.

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Life Lately

So what have we been up to around here? Good question. Life is never the same from day to day or even minute to minute. Last week we worked with trying to trailer break Little Pi. What on earth does that mean?

Well it means, we were spending time trying to get her in the trailer. Why? Well, because we finally found someone to break her to ride. Unfortunately she’s a little behind in the training aspect for Cutting horses. Sad but true and that’s our fault. Usually a colt is broke late  (I’m talking late fall) of their yearling year or the very first part of spring in their 2 year old year. Shortly after (no real given time frame) they start cutting training. A lot of colts are trained and shown for the first time their 3 year old year in what is known as a Futurity. There’s a huge one in Ft. Worth the end of November/First of December, otherwise a lot of associations have smaller futurities in the fall every year.

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7th Anniversary

Hello. We’ve now been married 7 years. Some days it feels just like yesterday that we were dating and other days it feels like much longer. But the thing is…. we still kind of like each other. (haha)

This year our anniversary fell on Labor Day Monday. It does that from time to time. I guess that’s what happens when you get married Labor Day Weekend. Chances are your anniversary will fall on Labor Day Weekend. Totally cool with that, because that meant we got to spend our Anniversary together. Score.

Our morning started off with breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg. Ever eaten at one of them? You should. They specialize in Breakfast and lunch. This… this is good and totally worth every last calorie laden bite. This is the Carnitas Skillet. I’ve tried and tried to find the description and I’m afraid if I tell you I’ll forget something…. so be prepared…. It’s hash browns, eggs, cheese (Monterey Jack), pulled pork, sausage, bacon (maybe, I can’t remember), topped with tomatoes and onions and just all around YUM!

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Your Earliest Memory | Blogging 30

Oh heck, my earliest memory? I have a lot of memories and to know which one is the earliest is a bit difficult. So let’s go with this one since we’ve been recently helping my parents renovate their deck.

When I was about 5-6 years old, my dad was building a new horse barn. We had a hay barn that we had makeshift stalls in for the horses, but he wanted something a little more permanent. So that’s when we (by we I mean mom and/or dad) got the idea to make a permanent horse barn. It either had 4 or 5 stalls plus a tack room. As a kid, I was always outside. I remember walking out to the barn area looking for my dad who I knew was out there. When I walked around the corner of the new barn I saw him on a ladder, hanging on trying not to fall. The ladder had shifted on him and the only thing keeping him from falling on the ground was he was holding himself and the ladder up. It’s hard to describe…

I just looked at him and said, What are you doing? I don’t think he’d ever been so happy in his life to see someone. He immediately yelled at me to go get my mom. She came out and helped him down. But I just remember looking up and saying, “What are you doing?” very innocently.

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Southern Oklahoma – Part 2

And we’re finally back for the rest of the story… aka AC & UB’s part 2. Let’s just start off by saying we had so much fun that I kind of hated to leave. But, let’s look more in depth at the fun we had…

Wednesday

Aloha (that’s the horse) is one of the best, kid friendliest horses but she had one flaw… she’s a PITA (pain in the @$$) when it comes to saddling her. She’s extremely frustrating. UB & Tbug worked on that all week to the point that by mid week Tbug was saddling Aloha by herself. Now that may not sound like much, but that’s HUGE!

AC had Wednesday off. She had a hair appointment while we were working horses. When she was done, we were just finishing up with riding. Remember, southern Oklahoma in July=try to beat the heat working horses. When it gets hot, the horses and cows get tired, hey do you blame them? The summer I spent with AC & UB, we worked horses at midnight so that it wasn’t so darn hot. At least 6am is better than midnight… I think….

Anyway, as we were getting done riding for the day, AC pulled into the driveway. UB decided we needed to run in to town and eat at Scout. This restaurant was interesting, but the food was excellent. This early morning stuff got to Abug and she slept all through lunch.

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A Week in Southern Oklahoma – Part 1

Over a year ago, my aunt and uncle made Tbug a deal that she could come down and spend a week with them at their house, riding horses. Last summer, hubby and I couldn’t get her there. At Thanksgiving they made the offer again. Hubby and I knew we were going to get her there this year, No. Matter. What.

They extended this offer to me when I was a teenager and I actually got to spend a couple different weeks with them. I’m telling you, other than it’s hot in Southern Oklahoma in July, it was an excellent experience and when I told hubby, we knew it would be a good thing for Tbug. Spending an entire week with UB and working on her horsemanship skills. What better way to spend a week than riding horses…

Earlier this spring Tbug’s mom said that she had 3 weeks this entire summer that she had nothing going on. The first was the week of the 4th of July, the other 2 were the first 2 weeks of August. I finally got it worked out between all of our schedules that we were going down the week of 4th of July. Tbug got home from Cheer camp Friday June 30th at 11something at night and we made arrangements to meet up with her mom around 4 something July 1st to head to AC & UB’s.

Friday Night

Friday evening after hubby got off work, we spent the evening checking the running lights/break lights on the trailer. We figured if we were going to be driving at 4 something in the morning and beating the sun awake, we better have lights on and working. Out of like 30 lights, at least half were burned out (or so we thought). We ran to Walmart to buy new light bulbs, when we got home hubby went to replacing lights. Out of all those lightbulbs that “didn’t work” only 2 had to be replaced. The rest were just a loose connection that hubby tightened up. Not bad for a 23 year old trailer.

Saturday

I wasn’t kidding when I said we got up and left before the sun even rose. Who knew 3 something existed? Hubby and I had a pile of stuff to load up first thing, then we loaded horses, ourselves, and headed out to meet up with Tbug and her mom. They were on their way to North Carolina. I guess we’re all crazy… getting up early to drive somewhere, right? Serious, crazy… lol.

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Grandma’s Cookbook

Grandma J's Favorite Recipes Cookbook

If you know one thing about me, you probably know 100, but here’s another tidbit of information about yours truly… I love cookbooks. Yes, it is a fact that I absolutely LOVE cookbooks. I swear, I have a cookbook addiction. Some days I think it’s a bad thing and other days I absolutely love it. The funny thing is, you can probably find any and every recipe you want on line these days, yet I want those hard cover cookbooks. It’s just the thing that I need to have. I love the feel of the paper and the weight and having it right there all spelled out for you. I get frustrated when I get flour on my computer or my iPad goes to sleep before I’m done following a recipe.

Why do I bring this up? Well, for Christmas last year my grandma gave me a present I truly cherish. She compiled a bunch of her favorite recipes into a small three ring binder. All the recipes are in protective pages so I can pull them out if I need, but are easily cleanable should I get stuff on them. And best yet, a lot of them are in her handwriting.

Jump forward a couple months and she went into the Church to give pie crust making lessons. I don’t really know all the details, but I just know that a bunch of the ladies in her church wanted her pie crust recipe and wanted to learn the lessons from her. My Christmas present is a copy of one she made herself. When the ladies at the church saw this cookbook, they wanted one too. That’s when, Grandma’s Cookbook was created.

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