Starting 2012 Off With A Bang!

05 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Ranch Life, Weather, Winter Tags: , , ,

We started 2012 off with a bang with some target practice behind our barn. I would love to have an indoor target practice range as New Years day was a bit cold with a brisk breeze fluttering about.

Beginning with the cast of characters….hmmm…what one shall I shoot with first? The last month we have had several country crimes close to where we live due to drugs and various robberies. We have had a neighborhood watch out in our small canyon now for six years…believe me when you drive around out here to look at the country we see you and we write your license number down…then we send it to the County Sheriff and he checks you out. In this day and age, drugs and crime have become a common thing for all of us no matter where we live.

I aim to be a good shot…while I feel very good about being able to shoot good I also feel sad that I have to even worry.

Wild Bill is an excellent shooter…scary good.

This is serious stuff….grrrrrr…I shoot my gun in order to protect myself or Wild Bill and unfortunately  I will do it if I have to. Yes we have several alarm systems out here…we have various ways of knowing everything we need to know. Life has changed country folks in the last ten years with the growing drug crimes and addictions. With our actively involved neighborhood watch program; we all keep watch for each other with the sheriff’s help.

Okay moving on to other ranch happenings…Tucker was being optimistic by practicing her sunshine girl pose…wishing and hoping for that sun to come out soon…today would be nice!

One of our barn Lions made a rare appearance for me to catch a good photo.

Actually they both came out to see us….are they not cool? They are huge too!

“For I am ‘King of the Jungle’,
I am a mighty lion.
I am the one who rules the roost,
so don’t even bother trying.”

A winter view looking down the canyon…

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.”

Winter skies above…

“All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.”

Ho Ho Ho Merry After Christmas And Happy New Years!

31 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Holton Secret Lab, Lifestyles, Ranch Life, Weather Tags: ,

Ho Ho Ho Merry after Christmas hello and as we approach 2012 we wish you the best of the New Year! ! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas time with your families.

Our Christmas was blessed with family, friends and lots of good food. No we do not have this much snow…actually we have none…this picture was taken in 2009 in front of “The Lab.”

Christmas morning broke, gifting us with a beautiful Juniper Canyon dawn which was glorious.

I love the early morning mist in this picture just as dawn broke…you can see the soft swirls of it. You can see two of our horses too…Annie is standing up and waiting on breakfast while Melody is laying flat on her side taking a nap….she likes to stretch out for her naps…she trusts me enough that I can walk up to her to scratch her while she is down…she is so sweet.

Santa Claws brought “Minnie Mouse” a new play house…it even matches her fur:)

I wonder what Santa brought Wild Bill? It looks like something for his horse Buck…ok smile WB.

Looks like Buck got a new bit…Wild Bill is modeling it…hmmmm…I wonder if I can put this to good use?

A-ha…Minnie got a little catnip…yee haw…we try to do it right down here on the farm!

Merry Christmas Yippee Ki Yay Kiah…we love you lots and lots:) Did you like your new chew toys and bones? Ah it looks like you enjoyed the black bird…

Minnie Mouse had a good Christmas…she loved her new house and her cat nip too…ahhhhh life is good:)

Wild Bill welcome to the technology of a Mac…you will love it. As you see…he is enjoying it and playing with  it:) We both have the iPhone 4S with the Siri feature which is awesome!!! Both our laptops have a similar feature.

Speaking of  Macs…as I said they are cool!

These are farm country Macs…hay swathers that we are painting for one of the local farmers here. They are parked at my back door…Hot Rod Cowgirl is not figurative.

I am real…a bit hot rod…a bit horse gal…a bit farm girl….thats me:)

Right Melody?

My hubby bought me this awesome ring from ZPT Silver…notice the bucking horse? That is the Pendleton Round Up logo and I love it!

Hot Rod Cowgirl’s garage…”Jagged and Sadie Sue Suburban”…we name our vehicles around here.

Note my cool bug shield painted by my hubby with his signature flames…and “Jagged” looking mean and nasty…waiting for good weather again.

This cowgirl thing goes way back to when my Dad stuck me on a horse before I could walk…this is me at a horse show way back in the mid 1980’s…it was extremely hot that day and I was riding one of our ranch bred horses Sally…it was her first horse show and we did fine except when we rode by some little kids who dropped their full plastic cup of ice water…poor Sally jumped but we managed to maintain and finish our class in western pleasure:) I was so proud of her as she had lived forever way out in the country so this show was a big eye-opening experience for her. Personally I like riding  my horses out and working cows or gathering cows…but in the 80’s I thought ok what is this horse show thing…had to find out…and it was ok but not my thing. Note…look at the hat …notice the feather and the high crown? Styles have changed…thank goodness!

Hot Rod Cowgirl and Wild Bill along with Holton Secret Lab wishes you a Happy New Year! Stay tuned….I did a photo shoot today and will upload some new pictures on my next post.

Just As We Were Hurrying To Get All The Last Minute Christmas Shopping Done….

19 Dec 2011 1 Comment

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Lifestyles, Ranch Life, Weather Tags: , ,

Just as we are hurrying to get all the last-minute Christmas shopping done…holiday meals planned…and last minute details finished…we noticed a few days ago that there was an unusual amount of water on top of the road in front of our house. “Wild Bill” went out to look closer and found that we had a water leak under the paved county road.

After getting the necessary permits “Wild Bill” began the labor intensive job of tearing up the asphalt to get to the water pipe.

Not a fun job and rather over whelming to start this project now with freezing temps…but we needed water and we had to stop the leak.

“Yikes”….

This was rather serious folks…

As in trenches and “detours”…our poor dogs trying to do their job…barked and growled at every car that drove off the pavement to go through the detour…try to sleep at night…and no you do not.

Ask “Miss Melody”…she did not get any sleep either with the barking dog issue and “Patio Horse” was still staring at her too”.

And there is one of the culprits…and she is such a good girl..we love our Kiah…good good girl she is:)

Yes “Kiah my Kiah…you are a good girl!”

“Ok guys…what do you think?”

Since we fixed the leak of a 50-year-old pipe under the road it only made sense to fix the pipe all the way to the well…about 200’…to replace all the old pipe with new pipe….so Wild Bill dug and dug.  Dasher is the dog you see with Wild Bill…Dasher was born this time of year…perfect name huh?

The road is almost back to normal…the trench is filled with gravel…three days later all is well once again in “Juniper Canyon” and we have water in the house at last!

“Uh Dad….what do you think?” My two men…brings back memories of “Wild Bill” with my Dad.

Today we decorated our tree and got back to Christmas:)

And “Minnie Mouse said all is good:)”

This is country living folks…we is country folks…and we live it:)

Winter Wonderland Has Transformed Juniper Canyon Into A Twilight Zone

12 Dec 2011 4 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Horses, Lifestyles, Photography, Weather Tags: , , ,

Winter wonderland has transformed Juniper Canyon into a twilight zone of frozen earth and frozen air.

For several days now we have had heavy fog and frigid temps.

The landscape has become a monochromatic world of frozen tundra.

While the trees are clothed in a whiter shade of pale…and gray.

The heavy frost is slowly transforming ordinary things into weird shapes and  images.

The trees though held captive by the bleak grayness are beautiful in their own way…if you look for the beauty amidst the stark contrast with the sky.

Both man and animal alike is feeling humdrum from the gray days…as evidenced here from Melody to Patio Horse…. “What are you staring at me for?”

This kind of weather wears on you after a while and yet…there is still an odd beauty to the frozen days…our lone evergreen shrub looks frozen yet festive for Christmas!

My log fence is dressed for the holidays with its white garland…can you say brrrrrrr.

Melody is still not sure about “Patio Horse”….”Annie did you see that weird horse over on the patio….I tired to talk to it but it just looked at me with its frosty glare and icy hair.”

” Patio Horse” is a bit threatening with its eyes staring at you.”

Ooooops the grayness and surreal twilight zone pulled me into a warped sense of reality for a moment…sorry for the lapse…ok moving on to decorations….let’s forget weird and dreary for a minute!

This is one of our traditional decorations…not sure where my Mom got this Moose but she loved it and I dig him out every year.

And this is my Christmas Angel that I have had since I was little. She is one of my keep sakes and yearly traditions…the first decoration I get out right after Thanksgiving.

“Wild Bill” brought the tree home last night on “Melody” who was not thrilled as you can see by her look. I am hoping to get the tree decorated tonight!

The front porch wreath is up to welcome visitors…with a cherry Merry Christmas!

However our handrail looks a bit hairy and icy today and not too welcoming.

One last tree shot…despite the mundane days if we look hard there is beauty to be found all around us:)

Could not resist this fun shot…Happy Monday!

Last report I heard was that “Patio Horse” was running wild….keep your eyes open for him!

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