America The Beautiful!

03 Jul 2012 25 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Lifestyles, Photography Tags: Heritage, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Juniper T Ranch, Landscape, landscape views, Life, Life Scenes, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography

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: Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, landscape views, Life, Life Scenes, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, travel

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: Clouds, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, landscape views, Life Scenes, Lifestyles, Minnie, Minnie Mouse, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunset, Weather, Wild Bill

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!

Whoa…Slow Down…Summer Times A Flying!

13 Jun 2012 35 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Farm House, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Minnie, Photography Tags: Cats, Clouds, Farm House, Heritage, Horses, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Juniper T Ranch, Landscape, Life, Life Scenes, Lifestyles, Minnie, Minnie Mouse, Odd beauty, Photography, Ranch House, Remodeling, Sunset, Weather, Wild Bill

I know I know I need to do a post about life here instead of awards….I am sorry to be so dang slow!!!

We have been busy busy with the house remodeling job and doing all the various summer chores….

Wild Bill was taking a picture of me mowing the yard…a country yard is sort of dirty work…out here we do not have manicured yards as we have various visitors such as gophers or critters that dig holes and then when you are innocently mowing the yard you accidentally hit a dirt mound and poof:)

It seems the days fly by and here it is almost half way through June!!!

Yikes I want summer to slow down and stay for as long as possible with warm sunny days:)

With this post I would like to show you how the old house has changed over the years. This is a picture of my parents right before they got married in 1939…when they returned from their honeymoon, Grandpa moved them into the house here in Juniper Canyon…where we still live today.

The house has changed the last 100 years, but it started out like this in 1920…with a full basement and the upstairs. It was a typical white clapboard farm house…built really good as it is very solid. When they poured the concrete for the basement they poured it deep…and the wood they used for the structure was solid good stuff as Grandpa spared no expense as he wanted the best for his Mother. This picture would have been in the 1950’s…about 35 years after the house was built. I think that is my Dad on the tractor on the left, he is moving dirt in prepping the site for the concrete patio…and I think that is one of my uncles off to the right.

Fast forward to 2007…the patio runs the whole side of the house wrapping around to the front porch. The yellow siding was added to the house by my parents in the 1970’s…the windows were changed out in the 1950’s the first time and eventually replaced with storm windows. In 1980 we moved into the house as Mom was tired of the stairs…she wanted a one level newer house. I was delighted as I loved growing up in the house…it was home to me. Over the years Wild Bill and I have done various remodels and upkeep to the house.

This year it was time for some major upkeep remodeling with a new roof, new siding, a floor upstairs and revamping our master bedroom and re-doing the concrete patio…along with a new well and all new water pipe to the house etc. This was about a month ago…we have the new roof on and the old siding off.

We added blow in insulation to the outside walls and roof…and then they wrapped the house with insulation…so we have double insulation now and I can tell the difference already!

We chose a Hardie Plank Red Cedar siding as it matches our log fence and also the cedar bat and board shop. I love how it came out!!! The garage doors need to be painted yet…and we still have to re-do the patio.

Oh my the patio…I roller skated on this patio…had lots of birthdays on it…swam in my swimming pools over the years on it and have loved it…still do today as we live out there during the summer. Our contractor feels they have to tear out the concrete on the side of the house and re-pour it….it has aged a lot the last ten years and it is time to address that too. Ok Minnie…you and me need to head to the high country as this will be very noisy!

Ms. Melody is not impressed either…she is down at the barn…good water and nice stall but….she wants her old stall back right outside my window at the house…when we drilled for water it was in her old stall so I had no choice but to move her to the barn for a while….its ok Mel…we love you lots and we are setting up new stalls for you, Buck and Annie close to the house:)

Me and Mel when she was three a few years ago…first night she spent here after I brought her home. She is a very social horse:)

I will update photos over the next few days to show you what we have done inside the house too:) This is the new floor upstairs…it is Acacia Wood and I love it!

And Ms. Minnie Mouse says “Remodeling stinks…why Mom does this I do not know…of course I am the cat…and I know where it is at…my name is Minnie Mouse and I am the Queenie of the House…Humph!”

We have had several beautiful sunsets….with intense and incredible colors!

Lots of weird but beautiful clouds…

Funky ones of every kind:)

And then there was this big boy…it seemed like it was sitting on us…it was just beginning to rain a bit when I got this picture.

But then it did this and the day ended beautifully once again here in Juniper Canyon…ahhhh.

Minnie had a good day too as she had a nice sun bath before it rained…whew:)

Have a good night wherever you are:) Minnie says “Bye for now:)”

Incredible Storms Rolling Over Juniper Canyon

30 May 2012 16 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography, Storms Tags: Clouds, Horses, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Juniper T Ranch, Landscape, landscape views, Life, Life Scenes, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunset, Weather

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!

It’s Tawanda Day! Tawannnnda!!!!!!

05 May 2012 44 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Landscapes, Photography, Storms Tags: Clouds, Harvest, Heritage, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Juniper T Ranch, Landscape, landscape views, Life, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunset, Weather

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: Clouds, Horses, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, landscape views, Life, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunrise, Sunset, Weather, Wild Bill

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: Clouds, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Life, Life Scenes, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunrise, Weather

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!

Crazy Wild West Weather Captures Hot Rod Cowgirl’s Eye!

07 Apr 2012 19 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Clouds, Landscapes, Photography, Weather Tags: Clouds, Landscape, Life, Life Scenes, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunrise, Sunset, Weather

April blew in with fury and might arriving in Juniper Canyon with wild whacky weather…take a look:)

We woke to snow on two mornings…yikes and what???

I know I complained back in December for Ms. Madame Cold Winter to come visit us but…it is time sweetheart, for you to go away as Spectacular Suzi Spring is waiting patiently to do her thing. However, you keep rearing your cold winter head and it is a nasty head cold you are dealing with…ok here is my box of kleenex…you need NyQuil and rest Ms. Madame! Seriously GF it is time to let it go and hibernate for a few months and get rested up again for next winter! I will be asking once again for snow on Christmas Day…and no I will not forget you!

Sammy Sunshine heard me and answered my plea…he came out to warm the earth enough to melt the snow:)

While heating up the floor for Minnie who was into the groove of her super sunny sun bath:)

Yet each day the seasons have continued to fight back and forth for either winter or spring…thankfully with the skies putting on a show for camera nuts like me.

Brisk rain drops falling on my window instead of my head:)…making for a cool view. Real horsepower with a hood scoop and real horse power in my view! Am I in heaven?

Gentle drops of rain wash the grime and dirt of winter off the land that is filled with the beauty of new life with the buds of April.

Clouds that threaten with ominous darkness one minute…

And turn into perfect blue skies with circles of blue and white sky the next!

Melody has her ears up…hmmm…something is going on as I can never get her ears up when I take a picture!

Now I see why her ears are perked up…here we go again with astonishing weather and cloud formations.

Wild weather was all around us the first week of April 2012! Yee-Haw!

UH-OH…Hey Toto…can you hear me?

Grab my hand…’er paw and

“Hang on tight…here we go again!”

“Happy Glorious Easter!”

“Celebrate His Life”

“For He Has Risen!”

“Wild Bill…HR Cowgirl…Minnie…And All Our Horses and Doggies…Barn Cats…And HSL…Wish You All A Happy Easter Sunday!”

“Hello Kansas…Are you Missing Some Clouds?”

28 Mar 2012 22 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Animals, Clouds, Landscapes, Photography Tags: Clouds, Landscape, Life, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, Sunrise, Sunset, Weather

Hello Kansas…Oklahoma…how about Nebraska…we are having the most incredible bizarre weather we have ever had here…a bit crazy…a bit wild…wild west weather…ride ’em cowboy!!!