My New Favorite Day!

17 Jul 2012 23 Comments

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

Good Morning To My New Favorite Day!

Grab your coffee and read on:)

I recently had a chance to meet Shannon Pruitt, of My New Favorite Day…here is a link to her blog http://mynewfavoriteday.com/.

Shannon is an incredible wife, mom, daughter and friend….she brings good into life with a beautiful attitude and she is one awesome lady! She lives in CA. with her husband and their children. Here is Shannon’s introduction of herself from her blog.

“My name is Shannon Pruitt and I am a childhood surviving, divorced, now happily married, IVF success story, working mother of 2 amazing babies who were born 12 weeks premature. While my children are now 2 years old, my son, Q, has thrived while our daughter, E, has had a much more difficult journey.  She is considered special needs with a tentative diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy, and so as she grows, so do we as individuals and as family. How to help her, how to celebrate our differences while allowing ourselves to cope with the challenges that we never knew to expect.  So while much of this blog is based on our experiences (good and not-so-good), it is also based on how we must not let ourselves become victims of our circumstances but rather advocate in our own lives.”

“After being in a bit of a self-imposed emotional isolation for about 18 months, 6 months ago an ordinary moment in our living room became extra-ordinary and I thought perhaps sharing these stories of hope and inspiration can help and motivate others going through similar circumstances.  So that night, with my nerves on fire, I created my first post for ‘mynewfavoriteday,’ and what I found out from so many of you was that these emotions and feelings were not unique to us or our circumstances, but rather permeated all of your personal experiences through your relationships and situations with parents, conception, siblings, IVF, prematurity, parenting, children, special needs, terminal illness, and everyday stress.  It became very clear that we are all united by common emotions of love, fear, hope, faith, sadness, happiness, strength, and joy and most importantly, we are all doing the best we can, how we can.  We all need one another and if we can remember to find the little nuggets of inspiration and motivation we can try to make each day ‘ournewfavoriteday’.”

A very good friend of mine who lives in Central Oregon sent me a link to Shannon’s blog site last winter as she knew Shannon’s best ever friend who lived down the street from her. I clicked on the link and the friendship with Shannon began developing that night. She grew up in Ashland , Oregon and has been to my neck of the woods in Eastern Oregon…and has attended the Pendleton Round Up.

I felt a connection to Shannon immediately as we share a lot in common with life and an artists heart.

So today July 17th Shannon interviewed me on her blog and if you go to her web/blog site you can see the interview:)

http://mynewfavoriteday.com

I am humbled that she wanted to interview me…my life is truly just like yours with both good and bad times…we just keep a going and find something each day to be thankful for and grateful for…then we look for a really good belly laugh to get some of those feel good cells moving:)

And there you have a pearl of wisdom from Hot Rod Cowgirl…and Melody:)

Shannon calls her blog “My New Favorite Day”, as it is her choice each day to find something amazing in her life that day and that one day becomes her new favorite day!

What an awesome way to look at each day as we roll out of bed…no matter if we have something fun to wake to or something hard to wake to, each day “CAN” be our new favorite day if we want it to…

We just have to make that one choice and decision…

At times with serious determination…we can choose to be upset or we can smile even when life seems to hit us hard…there is always a way to find hope…the choice is ours…

To either let it ruin your day or your life or choose instead to carry on and find a way to survive it with grace and a can do attitude with heart.

We can survive the whatever it is with the belief that things will get better and life will go on…and we can survive with strength and joy.

Hot Rod Cowgirl and her dogs choose to find a good belly laugh each day:)

Along with my horses…

And Minnie too:)

And my hubby Wild Bill:)

Be sure to check out My New Favorite Day at http://mynewfavoriteday.com

Ok this 4:00 am stuff is not bad usually but I have been up for 24 hours…I gotta go take a nap…yawn…we have had terrible lightning storms nightly and various other things like wind, hail, more thunder and last night was four hours solid of every kind of lightning there is over the top of our house from 10:00 pm-2:30 am…kind of scary when you think about it.

We have an abundance of dry fuel with dried out cheat grass and mustard…the right combination for a raging fire…and an 80 plus bushel wheat crop waiting to be harvested…which was postponed again due to heavy rain and flooding last night…pins and needles for the farmers around us as well as for us too.

Our small town is under water tonight…this was early yesterday morning…once the water recedes then the clean up of mud begins…it has been a long week here…and harvest is on hold. This is a place where we have a choice of giving into the negative or we can choose to have a brand new day become our favorite day…I am gonna choose a brand new day:) How bout you?

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

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!

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

17 Jun 2012 58 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Cattle Ranch, Family, Juniper T Ranch, Ranch History, Ranch Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

I am a bit late with posting this but seems life right now is a bit fast and crazier than I want…today is a very special day of honoring our Dad’s.

This is my Dad…he was an amazing man…he lived with a left stiff leg from a football injury during his senior year in high school. Yet not once did he ever complain or make excuses for his life. Instead he fought to live a normal life and he did. I saw it and was witness to it…Dad was the real deal when it came to being a cowboy and a great Dad!

Dad with his horse Jingle across the road from the house in the 1940’s.

Dad roping in the 1950’s…

Dad in the 1970’s running one of the biggest cattle ranches in the state of Oregon. One of the very last cattle ranches in the state to drive their cattle down from the mountains in the late fall to the winter pasture. It was a 90 mile cattle drive with 800 head of mamma cows.

Newspaper Article On The Juniper T

Yearly Fall Cattle Drive

Cows headed home…we drove the cattle every fall for almost 30 years and by the time we did it the last year…it was a piece of cake. They knew where they were going…home.

Dad looking weary on the drive about half way through. This is my Dad…his horse Bucky…his dog Blue. He was pretty much John Wayne to me and Mom and kinda scary to Wild Bill:)

Oh come on WB Dad does not look scary here!!!

 “WB are you gonna marry my daughter?”

“Yes sir….I am!”

“She is our little girl…and our only child…so I am watching you!”

“Don’t worry Dad…I am good with WB.”

I have so many good memories of growing up riding with Dad and working cows…but some of the best ones are when Dad took me fishing or when he taught me how to drive a four speed Scout up in the mountains…he was the solid comfort in Mom’s and my life…and he always kept a going.

Dad, you gave me the gift of life and horses:)

Happy Father’s Day…I learned everything I could from you about life and living and I miss you and Mom so very much.

I thank God for giving me a cowboy Dad like you!

Hotrod Cowgirl headed on down the road with horse power and horsepower:) Over and out…see ya on down the dusty trail!

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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:)”

Magical Country Nights With My Car Guy

25 May 2012 25 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Holton Secret Lab, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography, Wild Bill Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As spring slowly slides into Juniper Canyon, the evening light has become softer with golden highlights…perfect light to capture pictures of the various customer vehicles we have built. This “1951 Chevrolet Pick Up” came to us from Calgary, Alberta and it was time for pictures as the owner was on the road headed to our shop to take his truck home, as the job was complete:)

The late day light makes the colors pop…which I love!

The chrome grill and rounded nose of this vintage truck rock with artistic design!

This is one very classy Chevrolet, completely restored to stock. The owner bought this truck at the Barrett Jackson Car Auction in Scottsdale, AZ. and once he got it home decided that it needed some TLC. He did some searching and  found “Holton Secret Lab”…that is our business here…he loved that we were the “Secret Lab”.

We restored a “1948 Chevrolet Pick Up” a few years ago and took it to the Portland Roadster Show several times winning Best of Class. Both pick ups are almost the same color etc. and they are both restored to stock. You can take a look at the “1948” on our website under portfolio and also awards on http://www.holtonsecretlab.com. It is on the second page of the Portfolio.

I do love taking pictures of the work my hubby does as when the vehicle is finished it is amazing as I know how it looked when it came into the shop. WB has incredible vision and can see through the rust and nasty looking vehicles that our customers often bring to us to make them new again. Kind of like me with salvaging some of the antique furniture we have…when I begin to restore an ugly piece of old dilapidated furniture I can see the end result even if no one else can:) WB puts his whole heart into the customers dream vehicle…doing what he said he would do…and he does it with perfection:)

Very cool shot…check out the headlights…and all the amazing chrome:)

When I first married WB I had allot to learn with Hot Rods and Customs. Thankfully on my own accord in High School I fell in love with the love of automobiles and cool cars….of course my parents did not allow me to have anything cool…geesh. I wanted a “1966 “396” Chevelle” for my car on my 16th birthday…I heavily hinted this to Mom and Dad as their very good friend owned a Chevy garage and on his used car lot he had this exact car…a dark black cherry color with black interior…I even test drove it…hoping beyond hope…instead they bought me a three speed on the column “1966 Dodge Coronet” or I could drive my Dad’s Chevy Pick Up or his Chevrolet Blazer…which was pretty cool in “1968-1969” as they were unique.

Simple times…simpler days…no iPod or iPhone or high-tech stuff installed on this dash…just get in and enjoy the drive:)

I love that the wood is oak with chrome strips…what a flash!

Ahhh…the good ol’ days!

Had to throw this in so you would not get too bored with car stuff…this was last night between storms…we now seem to get mid-west weather…wild clouds and wild weather…hoping we do not get tornadoes next or something crazy…weird clouds and storms are enough…perfect for a country cowgirl camera addict:)

Ok time to put her away…

Hmmmm? I wonder what he is seeing or thinking?

My car guy…love you WB:)

After 35 years you still make my heart pitter patter:)

It’s Fabulous Fantastic Freaky Friday!!! I am wishing you an incredible day filled with lots of good belly laughs with plenty of sunny sunshine!!! No matter where you are…there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you look for it! It may not be actual money that you find but something very special and meaningful:)

Look deep into my eyes…the force is with you…Happy Freaky Friday!!!!!!

My New Love Affair

16 May 2012 47 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography, Sunset, Wild Bill Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I have a new love affair living here and “Wild Bill” knows about it…in fact he is the one who gave me this new love for Mom’s Day! I bet you are wondering what it is…

Let me introduce you to” Lola”…a completely stock “1955 T-Bird” that WB surprised me with for Mother’s Day:) Yes we name our vehicles around here…always have as we feel they each have a distinct personality!

We are the third owner and interesting enough…all three owners have been women. I fell in love with this car the first time I drove it with “Wild Bill”. A customer had asked us to check all the running gear out on it as he had bought it for his wife in 1992 and they were ready to sell it.

When I first met “Wild Bill” this was my car…a silver “1964 Corvette Coupe”…which I loved so much! I have looked for another one the last 35 years and have not found one yet. After I drove “Lola” I was taken back to driving my “64”…Lola drives the same and feels the same and is very much like my Corvette! I know there are some Corvette addicts out there that are rolling their eyes that Lola can not possibly be like Lucretia (my “64’s” name)…and I admit this is the first Ford I have owned.

Lola is all class…leather dash and all original interior…6 volt…both tops…three speed overdrive…enough room for two people…and that beautiful Torch Red. She is also the first year of Thunderbird…and honestly if she was newer than a 1957 Bird I would not like her. I personally thought the 1955-1957 T-Birds were incredible.

When you drive her you have to actually drive her:) In other words in my Suburban I just lightly steer and off we go…with Lola you have to steer and watch the tach and shift up and down:):):) So that is why she reminded me of my “64 Vette”. This is a classic sports car back when America knew how to build cars…the golden age of real steel and real parts with attention to detail on horsepower and the ride:)

Here is a very cool touch…the exhaust exits through the two chrome ports above the bumper. They were designed to look like a WWII machine gun ports on a fighter plane…really!

And the hood scoop…love it with the cool grill in it:) Love the flags with the Ford logo.

Smile “Wild Bill”..I love you…so does Tucker and Dasher…he hates me taking his picture…can you tell?

I can’t stop taking pictures of Lola to share with you how amazing she is in person and I love taking pictures! Have you noticed?

My “Baby Bird” has a 292 CID overhead valve V-8. It was the second year of these motors for Ford…a big improvement over Ford’s old flathead engines. Lola’s really peppy even as a senior citizen:)

As I often say…see ya on down the trail driving Lola…L..O..L..A Lola…La-La-La Lola:) Ok here is a test for…who sang the “Lola” song I am humming along to?

Another beautiful country sunset that gifted us on a perfect weekend!

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!!!

Hot Rod Cowgirl’s Horse Power and Horsepower!

18 Apr 2012 28 Comments

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

Often I am asked, how did I come up with the name Hot Rod Cowgirl? Am I really a cowgirl? What does Hot Rod mean in your name? How can you be both a Cowgirl and Hot Rod Girl?

 The pictures will help to explain the how and the why:)

Horsepower and horse power represent my life. I love my horses and I love horsepower! This shot is perfect…I can see both at once in my view:)

I grew up like this…horses and cows…on a large cattle and wheat ranch…in the middle of nowhere!

Horses have been a large part of my life and my heart…from the time I was 2 years old:)

scan0013

Then I met WB…and my heart became his…this country cowgirl turned into his Hot Rod Cowgirl!

Horsepower…My Classic Hot Rod!

Horse Power…My Classy AQHA “Fanny Annie!”

 “Hot Rod Cowgirl.”

Happy Horses…Happy Heart!

 Cadillac Truck…Cowgirl Style!

Hot Rods…Horsepower!

Hot Rod Cowgirl, Hobby Horse And Dog Maggie May.

 Original Cowgirl Cadillac…Miles Of Memories.

Go Fast GTO Horsepower!

Hot Rod Cowgirl Cutting Loose With Horse Power!

Hot Rod Cowgirl’s Cadillac 4-Horse Hauler Deluxe!

Cowgirl’s Hot Rod Husband…

And Her Cowboy Husband…He Has A Dual Look For Me!

Hot Rod…

Cowgirl:)

I hope that helps to explain it…we live on the ranch and operate our successful hot rod business here…we live the western life  with our horses, Aussie dogs and…Hot Rods!

Hot Rod Cowgirl Is Headed Down The Trail…Ta-Tah For Now!

Celebrating The Days Of My Life…April 11th 2006…An Amazing Day In A Country Girl’s Life!

15 Apr 2012 19 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Cancer, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Life, Photography, Survivor Tags: , , , , , ,

We celebrate April 11th as it is “one of the blessing days of my life”…a new day and a new birthday!  I had been diagnosed with wide-spread non-invasive breast cancer a few weeks before…we could still do something proactive as it was contained and had not become invasive or spread. It was the size of a small orange, so we chose to do the most proactive treatment we could do…a double mastectomy with immediate tram flap reconstruction with a 99.7% survival rate for a healthy life.

We explored the other options…but it was recommended by both the radiologists and my oncologist that we do a mastectomy due to the large wide-spread area. I was young and healthy…with lots of life yet to live with WB. Having been high risk for many years, in many ways, to us it seemed like a gift as we could choose the best option for us.

When they took me to surgery it was 7:15 in the morning and when I opened my eyes again and I saw my hubby “WB” it was 2:15 the next morning, April 12th. I was okay after 18 hours…16 hours surgery and 2 hours recovery…to me that is yet a miracle. I actually had 4 more hours of surgery after 48 hours…so in total between April 11th and April 14th I had a total of 20 hours surgery without complications. Through the months of recovery I healed quickly and was back working out at the athletic club by October.

 “Wild Bill” shared with me how scary it was for him as it was hard to watch other families wait…then leave to greet their loved ones who made it out of surgery and were in recovery. OHSU was a huge teaching hospital and he only heard a few updates in that long 18 hours a part.  He was the last one in the waiting room that early dark morning, when my Dr. came out with a smile letting him know that I was fine…all was well.

I am healthy today…my usual silly ding-dong self… living a happy life!

Today we wear pink to fight cancer…to bring awareness to the disease and to give hope that there is life beyond cancer:)

Instead of making lemonade out of a bunch of sour lemons…since we are out here in the farm country…let’s make bread out of kernel’s of wheat the same way. “Grind It and Just Do It!!!!”

I thank God for sparing my life…for giving me a future, a hope and a life!

Where ever you are…please support raising money for the cure of cancer! It is striking more and more people each and everyday…it is an insidious disease that needs a cure!

We can find the cure!!! “Let’s Just Do It!”

“LIFE”….We Can Fight…Yes We Can!

 “Save a Life”…Make a difference America!

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