Heritage And Home Speaks Softly To My Heart…

01 Aug 2012 20 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Harvest, Heritage, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Lifestyles, Photography Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

As I was standing this evening on my front porch…

Looking out at the same view I have looked at all my life…I was filled with a grateful heart that was full of honor for my parents and for my ancestors that came before me. I am so incredibly blessed to live where I grew up…where my family has lived forever, as my Great Grandmother would have stood on the same front porch looking out at the same view…as did my Mom.

 To me that says a lot about living your heritage and breathing it in every day.

I live in my forever home…this is me when I was 3 or 4…it was taken on a snowy Christmas Eve as my folks and I were getting ready to join Grandmother T and all of Dad’s brothers and sisters with their families. I loved the family get togethers…I had lots of cousins my age and it was always fun!

And here is my beautiful Mom…she was such a lady…full of style and grace but mostly lots of love:) She would make homemade cut out cookies every Christmas and would take about 200 of them to the family get together as all us kids loved them! She iced them and decorated them…they were delights! I still have the cut outs…and guess what…she found a cut out of a horse so I could have horse shaped cookies too:)

And this is the front porch today…where I often stand to watch the weather or sit on the porch swing to cool off after a hot day…or watch the horses play in the pasture. It has always been front and center in the life of this house as when you want to see what in the world is going on outside…you go to the front porch. Right now it looks a bit bare as we moved all the furniture off the patio including the porch swing…and my pots of flowers as we are working yet on the patio as it needs some TLC.

Several years ago now I had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East with my sister in law…it was a gift of time for me to see another part of the world.

The above picture is of Jerusalem…we spent almost a week there touring the Old City as well as all the historic sites…it touched my heart and spirit deeply.

This photo was taken at the “Wailing Wall” in the Old City of Jerusalem, I am in the blue skirt and black t-shirt.

We were gone for three weeks and the night my plane touched down in Portland I was thankful to be almost home again…we saw many incredible sites in Israel and Jordan…Syria and Turkey…but the best site that I saw, was in NY at JFK Airport, it was a Burger King!!! Humus, strange meat and weird veggies did not cut it at all…I lost 20 pounds due to not eating unsafe veggies and meat…so an American Hamburger was “Manna” from heaven for this American Cowgirl:)

The first morning I was home I stood on the front porch and thanked God that He chose for me to live right here…where I have lived forever…and not in Syria or Jordan or Turkey or Israel…but here in Juniper Canyon:)

God blessed me with my parents and blessed my parents with me…they had waited a long time for me to finally make an apperence…I was their little cowgirl as I grew up and still a cowgirl today,  we had lots of good times together and good memories…and then God directed my path to meet Wild Bill and we made a family together of our own…God was determined that we would meet…we came close to meeting many times when we were growing up!

What a blessing it has been to live here in the same old house my parents and I lived in with Wild Bill…we have made lots of good memories here…where my family lived before me…leaving me lots of heritage, traditions, hopes and dreams…mostly though they left their love for us.

Often when I stand on the front porch or saddle up my horse to go out riding into the country or be in the kitchen cooking dinner I will smile and laugh as God brings back some good memories of my folks and I when I was growing up…good memories of Wild Bill and my folks…and our family. Living in a forever house does that…it brings back comforting memories, sounds, smells and love.

I look out the same window that my Great Grandmother looked out of and the same view that my Mom looked out at…now it is my view of life today…but for some reason I would rather view life the way it was…being an only child I know that all the heritage and memories will be lost with me, part of my wanting to view both the past and future is to write all the history down.

I can close my eyes and imagine what my Great Grandma saw and felt…I can hear the sounds of horses and mules with the noise of harnesses…men talking about how many acres that can be done today in the heat…or maybe she was baking homemade bread and pies…or Norweigian potato cakes…maybe not simpler times but they did things the old-fashioned way…and created family times…working together on the land…with hearts full of heritage and hard work for the future of their families.

This photograph would have been in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s…pull combines pulled by tractors without cabs or air conditioning…no CB’s or communication…you had to watch the machines in order to tell where a combine was in the field…sometimes the pull combine would be down in a canyon so you could not see it…but if you listen and watch for a puff of smoke from the Caterpillar tractor pulling the machine up a hill, then you knew…truck drivers always sat on top of the hill in the field, trying to figure out where they were needed. Today’s truck drivers have the luxury of radio or cell phones…and they know where they are needed.

In todays techno world…combines are outfitted with a GPS, that can program the machine to drive themselves…and the driver does not have to drive it as the combine is satellite guided. We have come a long ways baby!

Farming has gotten as high-tech as my office is high tech…smart phones…satellites…gps…computers and all the incredible bells and whistles.

Todays equipment does not compare to yesterday’s equipment…today they have 40′ headers that flex in the center, with their own wheels to help drive and turn them.

This is a Gleaner combine with the 40′ header…you can go with a 42′ or a 45′ header as well.

The smaller John Deere combine next to today’s machine is a 1955 model…no cab and a 10′ header compared to the 40′ header…it held 40 bushels of wheat while todays model holds 400 bushels of wheat…when I was driving truck we had one of the JD 55’s and my uncles always used it to open up fields and draws or canyons…I can not imagine the 40′ header today…WOW!

Harvest has changed a lot since my Grandfather homesteaded the land out here…often I wonder what he would say today if he saw the equipment and how much our way of life has changed.

Back when WB and I farmed the land, the machines we had were considered the art of technology…20′ headers and a bulker that held 120 bushels of wheat. Here the combine is leaning as it is using the automatic leveling to unload the wheat into the back of the truck.

The first summer I drove wheat truck, I was 15. Our harvest started June 25th on the winter cattle ranch…if all went well with good weather and no huge equipment breakdowns, we were lucky to be done by my birthday in late August. We had a total of about 5000 acres to cut…we ran four pull combines with tractors and two open cab combines that at the time we called pushers as they were the first of the machines you see today. Harvest took a long time as the machinery moved slower and the headers were small…as were the wheat trucks. My little truck held 2.5 dumps from the combines and I would be off to the elevator to dump it…my truck had a hoist which means I would stay in the cab of the truck and would activate the hoist which would lift my truck bed up into the air at an angle so that the wheat would dump out the back of the truck, falling into the grate on the elevator floor, going into the elevator bin below, where it would be stored until we sold it. Today, the old cab of my truck sits out in one of our fields behind the house…someday I hope that we can restore it…I loved that old truck!

As the world of farming evolves each year with new farming practices, along with equipment that has all the bells and whistles…I am blessed to have the old memories of farming during a different time when life was a bit slower and time seemed to stand still…and with the old stories that were passed on to me about my Grandfather coming to America when he was 13 years old…eventually homesteading 10,000 acres.

My imagination carries me back in time when he was here farming and my Great Grandmother was seeing a whole new world as she stood on the front porch watching her son farm…I am reminded of the past and how hard my ancestors fought for this land, working long hours and days to leave a lasting legacy that today blesses my life.

I was born country right here where I live today…with a 100 years of down home, filled with rural heritage and hard honest work…I was born country and this country is what I love!

Born Country

By Alabama

Clear creeks and cool mountain mornings

Honest work out in the fields

Cornbread in my momma’s kitchen

Daddy saying grace before the meal

Family ties run deep in this land

And I’m never far from what I am

I was born country and that’s what I’ll be

Like the rivers and the woodlands wild and free

I got a hundred years of down home, running through my blood!

I was born country and this country’s what I love

Moonlight and you hear beside me

Cricket’s serenadin’ in the yard

What more could two people ask for

Laying here in love beneath the stars

Now this is where I wanna raise my kids

Just the way my mom and daddy did

I was born country and that’s what I’ll always be

Like the rivers and the woodlands wild and free

I got a hundred years of down home, running through my blood

I was born country and this country’s what I love

I was born country

And I will always be that same country cowgirl, farm girl…this is what it is all about. Traditions, family heritage and the incredible land and soil of the ranch. I thank God for His blessings and His incredible beautiful land and scenery…His animals and His world:) For harvest time and the blessings of those who went before us and those who someday will follow in our footsteps after us.

In remembrance of Donna Goff…she was a great lady and a good friend. 

Harvest Traditions and Family Heritage In Juniper Canyon

08 Jul 2012 77 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Lifestyles, Photography Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The smell of the wheat is in the air tonight…that smell speaks to my heart and soul:) It is a smell you never forget…much like a cattle truck pulling up to the barn or corrals to load out cattle or deliver cattle…I can hear the trucks as I write…familiar sounds…smells…memories that bring comfort as…

Times past speak softly to me of heritage and family…traditions and hard work.

My heart can hear the sounds of my families history…the sounds of the horses pulling the combine…with the men it took to run it…dry dusty hot days for man and animal alike.

Before the farmer had a truck to haul the wheat into the elevator he had men who would sew the sacks of wheat shut…can you imagine harvesting thousands of acres and having to put the kernels into gunny sacks and then sew them shut…then you loaded your wagon and went to the elevator to unload the sacks of wheat…often driving your team of horses with the wagon several miles to reach the elevator.

My Dad remembered having to take the wagon loaded with sacks of wheat to Vansycle Elevator which is 8 miles away…16 miles round trip…he said it would take the day to take one wagon and the horses or mules would be exhausted when you reached home…all of Grandpa’s horses and mules were very well cared for and loved…they had to do their job but they were cared for. Dad used to come here to the barn (our barn is older than our house) and ride some of the work horses bareback…he spoke often of the various ones he remembered…Grandpa kept around 80 head.

Today we have semi trucks with double trailers hauling wheat out of Juniper Canyon…night and day.

Heading on down the road to the Columbia River…

Where the kernels of Juniper Wheat are loaded onto a barge…and they begin the journey to feed the world:)

Self leveling combines…hillside machines…can you see how the combine is leaning a bit…it is leveling itself.

This photo is better so that you can see how the combine keeps itself level rather than leaning…I heard that most farmers do not buy the combines with the automatic levelers anymore due to the price…

Wild Bill is showing how the leveler works as he is touching the spout. I could not imagine not having the machine level as we have some really steep hillsides!

Here is an older picture of the land when we farmed it…sorry this is a scanned image before digital…the house complex is our home and the green fields are the wheat crop of that year…see the road over in the dirt?

That is WB’s air strip for his plane…looks cool sitting in the wheat…actually it is on the strip.

Tucker is hiding in the grass…she follows me everywhere keeping an eye on me:)

Soon farm families will once again put in long days to bring the wheat crop in…as has been done for over a 150 years.

150 years of country strong…we dig deep when it comes to toughing it out.

And if the going gets tough…the tough get tougher:)

No matter how hard!

Harvest is a time of hard-working families working together for the same reason…the goal to get the crop in…harvest is like gathering cattle with my Dad in the mountains…we shared our work effort together to round-up the cows and that is what makes memories and heritage!

It is the working together and sacrificing…and harvest time is a sacrifice…husbands leave the house before sun up and come home when it is dark…often putting in 18 plus hour days in the heat of harvest.

I grew up driving wheat truck through my high school years with my other cousins…then after WB and I married, my Mom taught me (no this picture is not of Mom and me…more like my Grandma and Great Grandmother) the tradition of cooking a large lunch for our men and the crew. While it was a lot of work to cook a huge meal by 1:00 each day it was my family…I came to enjoy hearing about what had happened in the field and then all the joking and funny times too…I felt very much part of the harvest crew and was always sad when they finished the fields around our ranch moving on to the fields around my Aunt and Uncles homes.

Food was in abundance when the crew came in for their hour lunch break…we had home cooked meals with meat, potatoes, gravy, salad, vegetables and desert…and home made ice tea…no not sun tea or tea made by a tea maker…real deal tea!

Here is the recipe:

Get a small sauce pan and fill with cold water…buy Lipton Black Tea…loose leaves….put 2-3 heaping tablespoons in the pan and boil…then cool it and strain out the leaves…dump the tea water into a gallon jug and fill with ice-cold water and ice and you have real ice tea…all the good caffeine and antioxidents…and so refreshing!

Harvest skies and harvest heritage…have a good night wherever you are! HRC has her eye on the land…will post new pictures as soon as harvest begins….stay tuned…I keep hearing the song Country Strong going through my head…in fact I am going to go listen to it now!

Country Strong

I know you see me, like some wide-eyed dreamer
That just rolled in, off a dusty Midwest bus
Yeah on the outside, Hallowed fragile
But on the inside something you can’t crush

I’m Country Strong, hard to break
Like the ground, I grew upon
You may fool me, and I’ll fall 
But I won’t stay down long 
‘cause I’m Country Strong

I have weathered, colder winters
And longer summers, without a drop of rain 
Push me in a corner and I’ll come out fightin’
I may lose but I’ll always keep my face

‘Cause I’m Country Strong, hard to break
Like the ground, I grew upon,
You may fool me, and I’ll fall 
But I won’t stay down long, 
‘cause I’m Country Strong

America The Beautiful!

03 Jul 2012 25 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Lifestyles, Photography Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

America The Beautiful

By Hot Rod Cowgirl July 4, 2011
I am re-blogging this post from a year ago off of http://www.holtonsecretlab.com
Happy 4th Of July America!

Sing With Me…America The Beautiful

O Beautiful For Spacious Skies

For Amber Waves Of Grain

For Purple Mountain Majesties

Above The Fruited Plain

America America!

God Shed His Grace On Thee

And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood

From Sea To Shining Sea

God Bless America

Hot Rod Cowgirl Wishes You A Happy 4th Of July

So Does Annie

And Kiah Too

We Pledge Allegiance To The Flag Of The United States Of America And To The Republic For Which It Stands…One Nation Under God, Indivisible With Liberty And Justice for All.

God Bless America!

The Mighty Columbia River Gorge Of Oregon!

03 Jul 2012 26 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Today I thought for fun I would do a post about the Columbia River Gorge of Oregon. If you ever get the chance to drive through the Gorge I highly recommend it!

Whenever we make a trip to Portland, Oregon we travel down the I-84 freeway, which runs along side the Columbia River most of the 200 miles to Portland.

The Gorge has some of the most scenic and beautiful views you will ever see…

And it can be hell on earth if the weather hits it just right in the winter with ice or snow or both.

The Gorge has its own weather systems during the fall and winter….

And when it feels like being nice it can be beautiful!

The West end of the Columbia River Gorge has several water falls…this is Multnomah Falls… a 611-foot-tall roaring, awe-inspiring cascade of icy water, lets you experience the power and beauty of nature up close.

Looking down from Crown Point…on the old highway, before the freeway….you find amazing views.

This is Vista House on Crown Point…it is worth it to travel the old road…stopping in at Vista House to learn more about the history etc.

The mountains and the ever flowing Columbia River that flows along side of the freeway make your trip interesting…never boring…I have traveled the 200 miles to and from Portland all my life at least twice a year to shop…

And I have never grown tired of the incredible river view.

The Columbia River Gorge is a spectacular river canyon cutting the only sea-level route through the Cascade Mountain Range. It’s 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep with the north canyon walls in Washington State and the south canyon walls in Oregon State.

Coming home from Portland traveling back East you experience the beauty of the water falls and trees until you hit The Dalles.

This photo shows the dramatic difference in the environment. Each mile east you travel in the Columbia River Gorge, you find less and less annual rainfall.  You can see the spring green hillsides I’m standing on, Interstate 84 heading off towards Idaho, on the southern side of the gorge, and the arid hills in the more easterly portion of the gorge.

It changes quickly…all of a sudden…you are without trees and moss…as you travel home to Eastern Oregon…the dry side of Oregon.

Becoming more barren…yet still pretty:)

The Columbia River is a huge river that  is wide and deep. Looking across the Columbia to the Washington side….getting closer to home….

On down the freeway we go…we are on the home stretch now!

Heading down the last hill into Pendleton…

Welcome to Eastern Oregon!

Can you see the mountain in the sunset? You will have to click the picture and enlarge it to see the mountain that is Mt. Hood which is close to Portland, 200 miles away…I took this photo last fall on top of the hill behind our house.

Looking towards the Blue Mountains. We still have the wild west going on in Eastern Oregon…drier, isolated country and down home country folk!

Spooky And Stupendously Spectacular!!!

25 Jun 2012 61 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography, Storms, Weather Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wild Bill and I decided last Saturday that we need to get more of our outside projects done…I would mow yards and deal with weeds etc. while he uses the trencher to dig a trench for the new pipe for the new well…as you can see in the picture below it is quite a process.

We have 2000′ feet of new pipe to install for the house, shop, barn, irrigation etc…it is a huge job with trenching, running the backhoe as needed, and laying the new pipe and fittings etc.!

As I was finishing up the mowing I looked up on top of the hill behind our house and saw these ominous black clouds drifting in overhead.

There was no doubt that a storm was imminent…I got WB’s attention and pointed towards them…then I ran into the house to grab my camera!

Why is it that when I see clouds like this that I think of ET or Jabba The Hut???

I couldn’t seem to fit the incredible clouds into my lens…the cloud cover was massive and I knew I had a short window of time to capture the magnitude of the storm…I needed to get as far back as I could!

Finally I ran hard down into the pasture across the road and I captured this photo…you can see how the clouds were transforming the blue sky into night…at 2:00 in the afternoon!

Ok Toto this is not looking good…HRCG get your buns back to the house!

The storm slowed to a stand still overhead…something was going to happen as I could feel the temps dropping from warm to cold…which was an odd feeling.

I ran back to the front porch…whew…pant-pant…whew. Running is not my thing…walking fast is good or riding a horse!

I could feel a brisk breeze on my face as the air got colder and the dark clouds began to turn white.

And then the heavens opened and all hail broke loose!

Thankfully the hail began to turn to rain within a few minutes…heavy rain where you could almost not see through it like a fog…we actually got 1/4″ in 10 minutes!

By late afternoon we were back to life is good in Juniper Canyon…blue skies with the sun shining and birds singing…I could not help but break out into song:)

The hills are alive,
With the sound of music
With songs they have sung
For a thousand years

As the day slowly ended, God blessed us with one of His beautiful sunsets…I never grow tired of seeing all the incredible colors of nature and the world God created all around us:)

Buck says the day ended well:)

Minnie says…hmmmm…ok well kiss my stripes…why…no reason…remember I am the “Cat” and my goal is to keep you guessing:) I know Minnie Mouse and I loves you lots!

With that said…follow your heart…take along your forever friends and family…they will keep an eye out for you as they travel along with you…they are your heart and a blessing from God to your life:)

Wishing you a Sunny and Shinny Day:) Happy Monday wherever you are!

Incredible Storms Rolling Over Juniper Canyon

30 May 2012 16 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography, Storms Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our weather the last year has been odd for this neck of the woods….but perfect for me to capture images to share with you all:)

It all began like this….dark couds overhead with threatening skies…I knew it was camera time.

Within minutes the first rainbow appeared…as the sun was dipping lower and lower so the incredible colors are natural.

Looking back towards the barn….beautiful skies!

We had several short cloud bursts of rain….

Incredible…God’s colors…in person they are intense and beautiful and awesome!

Another rainbow…and this time it was reaching over the entire ranch….we have land on each side of the road and this blessing rainbow was reaching from side to side of our land…wow!

And Mr. Buck was on the move…he was feeling good and stretching his muscle!

And a classic Quarter Horse stop…Buck is right on…head down…butt tucked under and haunches set…slide a bit and stop…love Quater Horse butts:)

“Did yah see that Mom?”

Ok this is the third set of rainbows…totally weird…I do not ever remember seeing so many in one storm here.

Neither does Buck….

Another incredible sunset in Juniper…

Melody and Annie were right with Bucky…weird weather makes them feel frisky…they love to play and run and buck too!

A beautiful end to an unusual storm for us…I know many of you have scary storms…so far ours have been unusual and great photo ops for me…by the way I shot over 350 pictures in a few hours with this storm and it was hard to pick the ones I did for the blog:)

Buck says whew that was fun! Now I need sleep…it is the time to say God Night:)

With that said…have a great night!

Sunsets…Horses…Moon Rising…Spring Evenings

20 May 2012 38 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Horses, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography, Sunset Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Spring evenings are magical here as the earth begins to turn green everywhere and sunset time brings soft light and incredible skies.

I never grow tired of looking at this view…

The CRP is getting greener and is full of life.

Hey Mr. Buck Buck…love his Buckskin color…and he is such a good boy!

The sun is beginning to slowly slide behind the canyon hill….

While I fill water troughs and check horses…

My Sweet Melody…such a pretty girl:)

Heaven above is painting the sky colors and hues that we can not make ourselves…as it is God’s way of blessing us with His nightly creation…

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!

God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

And as the sun-kissed the earth one more time with golden colors…I was blessed with this view out the window…the incredible moon sitting on top of the hill.

What we call a “Harvest Moon” as typically we often have beautiful moons like this during the heat of harvest and summer…

And lift off…the end to a perfect spring day in Juniper Canyon….

Wishing you all a blessed Sunday…and a great start to a new week on Monday!

I will be updating some new pictures of the house remodel as it is beginning to change quite a bit!

It’s Tawanda Day! Tawannnnda!!!!!!

05 May 2012 44 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Landscapes, Photography, Storms Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you remember the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes”? I loved that movie…and Tawanda! So every once in a while it is Tawanda Day here…why…because it represents a sense of freedom and complete silliness!!! Which I personally need and love…we all do. In our busy crazy lives, wherever we live, we need to remind ourselves to take time out of each day and dance…laugh…let your hair down…be you…and just do it:) Tawaaannnnndaaaa!!! Yee-Haw!!!

We had rain this morning…with this amazing ground rainbow….I have never seen a ground rainbow…it was quite curious to me.

At noon we had a small break and now the clouds are definitely building…looking a bit ominous too.

 A FEW THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE ACROSS THE FOOTHILLS OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. SOME OF THE STRONGER STORMS WILL

PRODUCE WIND GUSTS TO 50 MPH…HAIL…AND HEAVY RAIN.

Well that does not sound fun!

I need to go check on my girls…Melody and Annie…they have been at the real barn since we began moving their portable stalls across the road…I miss seeing them out my window…the barn actually is very nice with quality stalls etc. for them but they miss me too…that is why we bought the portable stalls so they could be closer to the house.

So because it is a Tawanda Day…I had Wild Bill take me for a drive last evening to grab some shots of our landscape…I wanted to shoot the Canola now while it is yet blooming as in a few days it will drop the blooms…right now it is a vibrant yellow…this is for you:)

I loved taking these shots…could not stop as it was beautiful with the colors, the clouds, the light…it was magic time!

This is above our house…yes we can see into forever here…we live in a beautiful pristine land…most of the families that live here are like us…our ancestors came to America over 100 years ago to settle the land…to farm and begin a new life to pass on to their families and they did. Now we are the caretakers of the land and we all seek to do it right.

The view behind me….

And to my right…back towards the Blue Mountains…the carpet of green is this years wheat crop growing.

Incredible huh…golden clouds above a golden-yellow field of Canola.

This particular field has lots of memories for me…it is up the road from our house and joins our land…my cousins farm it. I ride my horses on it when there is stubble or no crop for the year…I love it as it has lots of hills and draws to explore. When I drove wheat truck in it…well it was never boring…very steep hills and draws to climb with one long 45 degree hill that lifts the back wheels on a self leveling hillside combine off the ground!

One year when Wild Bill was driving combine, I rode with him for a day sitting on a bean bag pillow on the floor, my back was against the glass and my view was either looking at WB or looking at the back wheels of the combine. As we came down the steep hill, I saw the back wheels lift off the ground…the only thing that kept us from rolling was the header! Of course my cousins and WB thought it was so dang funny as I was pretty wide eyed…no make that hysterical…oh wow what a ride…yeah!

Back to the Canola…this is how your Canola Oil becomes oil…next time when you look at your oil…think of this incredible yellow field…the seeds are there in the head of the flower. After the blooms fall off, the stem dries out, then the farmer pushes it over and harvests the seeds.

And this is what makes “Hot Rod Cowgirl” get excited with her camera!

The ever changing light, the colors, the landscape…beautiful and incredible:)

Country clouds and….

Wide open spaces…perfecto!!!!

Annnd…HRCG is on the move!!!!

Have a great weekend!!!! Taawwwaannndaaa!!!

Weekend Warriors!

02 May 2012 20 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Landscapes, Photography, Ranch Life, Wild Bill Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A few weekends ago we began to move the portable horse stalls we set up here at the house to the new set up across the road from the house…last weekend we decided to move the hay/feed room.

With running a small business during the week and currently remodeling the exterior part of the house etc…often our weekends are when we do ranch chores.

In the spring especially, the ranch requires lots of TLC…we spray weeds and burn weeds…clean up around the buildings and along the roads…drag pastures as well as drag the gravel driveways around the ranch complex…fix fences, gates and sprinklers if needed…clean the barn, saddles and corrals…work up the dirt in the arena into nice soft un-clumpy dirt…lots of this and that type things.

There are not enough hours in a day for either Wild Bill or me from about February until maybe December and then we have the holiday rush!

“Wait…Hey Mr. Sun…you can’t leave me now…come back I need more daylight please!!!”

We began the process of dismantling stuff and I had gone to the house to grab some water for us to drink and my camera…I glanced out my kitchen window as I walked by and I saw this! We had moved the two stalls by taking them apart the weekend before…and Wild Bill…now you can see why he is known as “Wild Bill”…decided there were too many screws in the hay/feed room to take it apart sooooo…he was Wild Billing it!

“Uh honey, we are blocking off the road and it looks like you are beginning to slide down the embankment…which means you are likely going to roll the tractor and the feed room is chained to it so it will follow you!!! What are you #### doing!!!”

Yikes the tractor is sliding…ok I can’t watch this…no I have to watch this…”WB…there has to be a way to do this different #### !!!”

“Wild Bill get off the tractor!” The gravel and ground is sliding terribly!

Somehow WB, “Wild Billed it”…saving himself, the tractor and the feed room! Maybe it was me falling to the pavement kicking…screaming with a few swear words and praying hard!

Ta-da! Almost to the right spot! Aussie dog Dasher is supervising!

And then WB tries one more time to tip it over! I think he likes to give me a heart attack or something just to see if I am watching!

The new stalls are across the road from where they were before…this was a distraction picture as I was trying to not look at WB and the feed room that was trying to tip over!

Buck is munching away on the nice green pasture grass…soon the big irrigation guns will be watering the pastures again with having the new well:) “Psssst Buck…look at WB…the feed room is tipping!”

“Uh you mean the hay room…the feed room with the treats in it?” Buck was worried too!!! He loves that room!

Well we got it all moved without tipping something over and without yelling too much…just a few rather loud cuss words:) The feed room looks good…next we will re-assemble the stalls with a pen in front for a run and dry lot. I think they will like it better…more to do and not as boring.

Yes….we had more rain on Monday. Sunday had been beautiful…today it is semi cloudy and cold. I want warm days with sunny sunshine:) If you look close you can see the field down the road with the yellow hue to it. That is Canola…when you use Canola Oil this is how the farmers grow the seeds. I will get a better picture of it this week to show you.

Have a peaceful evening and a great week!!!

Moody Spring Clouds On A Taupe Tuesday…

24 Apr 2012 26 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Good Taupe Tuesday Evening to you!

The last month we have been remodeling and updating various things on the house, the shop and around the ranch.

All of a sudden the roof was 22 years old and not so great…the heat pump is the same age and needs a bit of help…the siding on the house needs to be changed out and while we do that we plan to insulate the walls and the roof to help out with the electric bill to be energy-efficient. The patio concrete has died and we are trying to figure out if we re-do the concrete or do some kind of natural stone look…decisions decisions and decisions.

Whatever I choose will be a last forever decision…so I better be absolutely sure:)

We did something that has never been done here before…not ever. Do you want to guess what it is?

We dug a well for our water…at 200′ deep we found good water at almost 300 gallons a minute….wow!

My hubby took the pictures saying “Honey this is our trip to Hawaii so I wanted to get pictures.” “What…wait minute…does that mean we are not going?”

My ancestors dug a 25′ well by hand a hundred years ago and lined it with bricks. I grew up on it and our kids were raised on it as it was the well we had. It is across the road from the house in a well house…when you shine a flashlight on it, you can see the water and the bricks. The water pressure we have now is about 25 gallons a minute…my showers have always been a trickle so it will be nice to have better pressure and water!

We will use the old well to water the pastures for the horses. The new well is next to the house, so we are moving the horse stalls across the road from the house where I can still keep an eye on them:)

Minnie says “What are you looking at?” “This house remodeling is very disruptive for napping!”

This evening we are to have thunderstorms…I have my camera ready to go if we get any interesting weather. Last night we had one of the most intense lightning storms I have seen here. Reminded me of the Wyoming storms we used to get when we lived there. The storm lasted for well over an hour…heavy winds and heavy rain came with it…along with rotating thunderstorms!

It is almost time for me to figure out dinner so I will head for the kitchen. Have a safe night tonight wherever you are!

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