I hesitate to call it a job

I’ve set up a new space for me. I’ve drawn a figurative line on the floor of where the kids can’t cross without asking first. It’s not an uncluttered space, but it’s mine and if it’s cluttered with all of the makings of my hundred different hobby’s supplies it just makes me that much happier. With the view of my barnyard  critters unhindered, (yes, I know they are in my yard and not a literal barnyard, details, details…) I find myself drawn to this space more and more. Heck, I even washed the window here. It’s the only window in the whole house to receive this special treatment so you know it’s a big deal!

The one clean window in the whole house.

Adding the computer to my spot was something I didn’t really want to do. I moved it and then considered just covering it up with other stuff so I didn’t have to look at it. However it sits here and stares at me, a blinking reminder that I love to write. That I need to write. A reminder that I would love for writing to be my job one day, which means I need to do it already! I even took away my one main excuse of “well, I don’t have a place where I can go to write that’s not surrounded by distractions.” darn it, why didn’t I think this whole process through the rest of the way?!

I hesitate to call it a job though. That word tends to suck the joy out of most things after a certain period of time. At least for me it does. How do you cross that line successfully? How do you go from, I write just for fun, to, I write for a living?  Maybe it’s by writing while at the same time taking photo’s of the ridiculous waterfowl in my yard.

 

Duke is always so suspicious…..

Maybe it’s by writing while wondering if they are going to leave me any grass to come up later this spring.

The divots that they are making right now……*don’t think about it, don’t think about it*

Maybe it will happen even amidst the pauses I find myself taking to explain multiplication to Super Ranch Boy and color matching to Ranch Pixie. I’m thinking that if I don’t cover this blinking screen up, it will just happen.

And hey, I have the background music of our new webbed footed cheepers to keep me company.

Because, you know, 6 didn’t sound like enough.

Maybe they could be a business tax write-off, you know, an investment that keeps me coming back to do my job……

Love from here,
Bobbie

And then there was a baby

This news story is a bit dated. A little over a month old to  be exact, but hey, sometimes old news is the best kind. At least if it’s already happened you know that it’s true, right?

Anyway, we have a new baby in the family. A little girl to be exact, born last month on a day when I was wondering about her arrival, but wasn’t thinking it was time yet. Thinking that I still had a week to prepare. But you know how those babies are, they like to catch you unawares and mess with your plans. I am just grateful that everything went smooth and that a healthy baby was there waiting for me.

Standing in the field waiting to be exact……

There she stood, a bundle of brand new cuteness.

Pride. Excitement. Pride. Ya, I’m one happy mama right now.

So is Mama.

But with a face like this, how could you not be?!

Welcome to the world, Skeeter-bug!

Love from one infatuated mama,
Bobbie

 

 

Instagramish Week 4

Deciding to do one of these posts every week does several things for me.

First, it shows me how truly fast time goes as it seems like just a couple of days ago since I was writing up last weeks post. And then I look and realize that it has been over a week. Sheesh!

Secondly, it shows me how much I truly do love taking pictures as I had a sea of photos to wade through to pick out my favorites.

Thirdly, I am reminded every single time how truly blessed we are. I love having the chance to show a little bit of our life to you and giving you a peek of the beauty we are surrounded by.

So here we go for this past week, a few of my favorite moments.

Some final random thoughts:

I love watching the kids get lost in a good book. We are finally watching super ranch boy find his own reading interests and the fight with him is lessening. I am relieved!

While planning the garden out I was struck with the startling realization of how much food our family eats! You would think for little people they would cut me some slack but no, they are good eaters. That leads me to my next thought…

How much are they going to consume when they reach teenager stage??!! and that leads me to my next thought..

Oldest ranch boy has started throwing some attitude around and I’m not afraid to admit that it caught me off guard. Aren’t they supposed to wait until they are actually teens before they do that? Not start terrorizing me when they are ten?! Right?! right?….. Any advice?

My final thought is this, time is going so fast these days that I am resolved to enjoy every moment with the little dirt devils while they are here. Even when it means cleaning messes up off the floor from the potty training trainee. Even when it means dealing with the drama Ranch Princess is drawn to. The attitude Oldest boy is testing me with, the thrown bowl of oatmeal from Little Jolly Rancher. Even on days when I am flat worn out by the end of breakfast and all I want to do is run and take refuge in the chicken coop, I am resolved to find the things that need to be treasured. That is why I take a hundred+ photos a week. To remind myself of how blessed I am, even amidst the crazy.

Love from here,

Bobbie

 

Feeding Time, a short story in pictures

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Love from here,

Bobbie

Meet the Girls

I have stories stacking up in my brain and no time lately to set them free, so they wait.  I have some great recipes to share but I keep forgetting to take pictures, so they too shall wait. The house is practically begging me to clean it but I happily and yet frustratingly make it wait. The weeds mock me and tell me that they don’t mind waiting for me to find time for them, as do the dishes.

There are two things though that don’t wait. The kids have received a lot of extra time this summer and we are proud to say that we officially have three readers in the house! It took awhile to get a certain six year old Super Ranch Boy to concentrate long enough, but time was on our side and he is there, as is Muddy Ranch Princess. Success is sweet and I haven’t found anything lately that I enjoy more than to watch and hear three of my babies exploring books.

The second thing that never has to wait? Can you tell?

That gets it’s own way every single time it calls to me? That has me set to a strict schedule that I don’t mind at all, and in fact have come to enjoy? Well, it is finally time for me to introduce you to my new babies!

Little Miss Chloe

Miss Zucchi

First off, yes, they rode here in the back of the van. Yes, it was kinda smelly. However the humor of the situation made it well worth it!

Secondly, I can not speak highly enough of the cleansing and odor removing capabilities of baking soda and vinegar. Seriously. If I wasn’t in love before, I was after this trip. They could, no they should,  hire me as a spokesperson.

And thirdly, when you ask your children for name ideas remember that they don’t have your mental list of preferences in front of them and that they will throw out whatever name, or should I say, whatever noun, pops into their heads. Be prepared when your son tells you that you should name your goat Zucchini. This will crack not only himself up but you as well. You will find it hard to stop laughing and so you will decide in the fun of the moment that you really should name your brand new goat Zucchini. After finally calming down, you will realize that calling your goat Zucchini all the time could in fact make you look like a complete crazy person. You promptly brush that off though when you remember that you don’t care about that. However, Zucchini is one of those names (nouns) that could be hard to say in a moment of frustration. That is when you decide that it needs shortened to something that you can yell out without tripping over it, because you know that goat isn’t going to take your threats seriously if you can’t even get her name right. Thus you will decide on Zucchi, and it won’t take you long to discover that yes indeed it comes out smoothly even when you aren’t in the happiest or most peaceful state of mind.

I may mutter to Zucchi girl but I adore her. She wasn’t handled before we got her but it didn’t take her long to come around. She cracks me up every single time I go out to visit them, which is more often than I will admit too.

And then there is Chloe, the sweetest, cutest, ‘I want to climb all over you and chew on your hair’ little goat there ever was. I may or may not sit on the ground next to her just so she will climb into my lap to give me kisses. I’m seriously addicted to her snuffles.

And to that face……I mean, who could say no to her? If you tell me you can, I will question your honesty. You have been forewarned.

Now the question that we have gotten several times, “Why goats, don’t you have enough to do?” And you will know that my answer should be, ” Yes, I have more than enough to do.” However my answer was instead “Weeeellllll,  I think I can manage two milkings a day on top of everything else. Sure, why not?”

And you know what, it’s worth it. It’s worth every single bug bite, muttered curse word, sore head-butted shoulder, and stepped on toes. It’s worth every single drop and every single laugh. I wouldn’t have it any other way…….except to maybe have just one more……..

Love from crazy here,

Bobbie

 

 

 

Playing catch-up with a photo post

Do you know what this time of year is? CRAZY that’s what! CU. RA. Z! And because of this fact about spring I have been neglectful on here. Oh I think about it, don’t get me wrong. I take tons of pictures while mentally writing all these fabulous posts that you all adore. In fact they are so good that people start contacting me, begging me to write for them! ( yes I am aware of my overly active imagination, no I don’t think it requires medication as it makes me happy.) So anyway, those fabulous posts continue to swirl around in my brain but chores and all this craziness of spring come first, and when it is time for me to put my genius to paper, well…… that time finds me passed out on the couch once again dreaming of writing. Ya, I’m just that good.

 

So this morning while I was feeling guilty about not writing and wondering how in the world I was ever going to find the time to write all the posts that I am behind on, I decided on taking the easy way out this time. I’m going to do a photo catch-up of the last couple of weeks and then start fresh tomorrow. Sometimes you just have to cut yourself some slack!

 

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Branding is complete for another year except for a couple of stragglers that they will catch up with later. A sigh of relief that another hard job can be checked off the never-ending list!

The skies have been amazing lately and add to that the green that is appearing and it’s no wonder all my time has been spent outside instead of in front of the computer. Getting the garden ready to plant in the next couple of weeks is next on our list. More on that soon!

Love from this soon to be sought after genius writer ( hehehe),

Bobbie

 

 

April Showers….

All I’m gonna say is that these April showers had better bring about some amazing May flowers!

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Love from here,

Bobbie

You know you have a good marriage when you can look at chicks together

I know without a doubt that The Cowman loves me. He tells me and shows me every single day in many ways. One of the biggest being when he leaves the peace and quiet of work to come home to our zoo that is never quiet. Seriously! Until you have heard the decibel level that our house reaches around 6 pm (which is of course when he gets home), then you can’t fully appreciate what it must be like for him when he walks in the door!

There are other ways that he shows his love, some of them quite unexpected. Take two weeks ago for instance. We are in town for our monthly trip to lay in supplies. We had to stop at the feed store for some calf milk replacer and since it was just a quick in and out sort of stop, he ran in by himself. When he comes out he calmly tells me that after we are done shopping we will be coming back to the feed store so I can pick out some chicks. Just as calm as you please he casually throws something out there that has me wanting to say, to heck with food for the month! I want the chicks now!! Now, how is this a sign of his love for me? I had no clue that they had chicks in there. He never had to say a word to me about it and I would have lived in ignorant bliss. However, he chose to tell me because he knew how badly I wanted to add some chickens to our ‘flock’ of 4.

So we get done shopping for groceries and headed to the feed store. He indulged me while I awwwwed over all of them, and even when I had the girl box up 22 of them. Ya, that was a couple more than he thought we were getting.

So this morning while I was babying the chicks, yes I do that and you really shouldn’t be surprised, I got to thinking that maybe I owe my loving Cowman something to say thank you for not just putting up with my quirks, but for indulging them. I could offer to let him help me name the chicks, or to give him one of his very own! Or maybe I should stick with the theory of making his stomach happy…. I see chocolate in our near future!

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Love from the zoo,

Bobbie

First heifer calf , let the fun begin!

I don’t know one person who doesn’t like baby animals. I know plenty of people who don’t like baby people, but baby animals are always another story. There is just something about them that makes even the most hardened, take a second to go “AAWWW”.  Even if you never hear them say it, in their heads they are thinking it. Just take my word for it! So while the first calf of the year marks the beginning of a very busy season, Jason still took me over to the ranch so I could ‘ooh’ and ‘aaawwww’ to my heart’s content.

I am now giving you the same opportunity.

Oh go ahead already, nobody is listening! You know you want to! Just one eansy weansy ‘ aww’ isn’t going to hurt you! I even promise not to tell anyone!

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Love from here,

Bobbie

Pets for the sake of pets?

I put this out there to all my friends on Facebook but I was hoping you could all weigh in on it also. Just to satisfy my curiosity. Just to see what the majority feels. Just because it sounded like a good idea at the time I started writing this morning. Just because this is my blog and we all know that I am random quite frequently!

So my question for you, is if you have pets,  must  they have a “job”, or are they there just because you love to have them there? Do you apply this theory to all animals or just some? Ok, so that’s two questions but I thought they kinda went together.

We have both kinds of animals in our family. The cats we have for mousing. Now honestly, I think that only two of them actually mouse, but since they stay outside full-time now that fact doesn’t bother me as much.

And when they sleep like a dog, you kinda have to love them!

The chickens all lay eggs, at least they will when they get out of molt! Cora and Dori are out of it now, so that just leaves Polly.

Dori and Cora looking good after molting.

Poor Polly is still in the middle of the dreaded process.

The horses are a mixed bunch. Spade is the old man. He was my Dads horse and is living out the last of his onry old-man days here with us.

Old man Spade

Playboy, named for his playful nature I promise!!, is also getting older but is great for the kids as you can always trust him. And not comments about his weight ok?!

And yes, Gracie is like all little girls and loves her white princess-horse Playboy.

Lastly, there is Chigger, who is Jasons work horse.

Jason trying to convince Chigger that he should listen.

That brings us lastly to the dogs. First there is Baby. She was a pound dog that was very hard for us to adopt as she is a pitbull and we have kids so they didn’t want us to have her. Seriously, she is the best family dog! Loving, silly, playful, gentle, but she also keeps a watch on new people. Love this dog!

Baby dog and her baby.

Next, there is Buck, another pound puppy. He is an awesome dog. Very loving and friendly to us, very watchful and cautious of others. He follows the kids wherever they go and keeps animals away from the house and the chickens. He is a pet but he is more importantly our guard dog.

Buck, ever watchful.

Finally, on this long list of pets is Bandi, Jasons cow dog. She is a good at what she does. When she doesn’t have a job to do though, she takes her boredom out on me. Nothing of mine is sacred to that dog. I swear, I really like her when she gets to work, but I can’t stand her when she doesn’t! I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Bandi, being good for once.

So as you can see, we have both kinds of pets. The ‘useful’ kind and the have-them-just-because kind. I personally am on the side that says all pets are useful if you enjoy them. What do you think? What pets do you have? And finally, do you think Jason should let me get a pot-bellied pig? hehehe!!

Love from our zoo,

Bobbie