OH NO.!.!.!

Oh no! It rained here in west Texas again. Actually we had a down pour. Today we went out to check on the horses and OH NO Ghost, (White Guy) shrunk in the rain. What will our son ever do!! No more roping, goodness at this stage his stirrups will drag the ground. He actually will have to probably pick the horse up and carry him. Ghost is now shetland size. I am just heartsick how could this happen.

Boy and did his mane grew over night. I guess because he shrunk sooooooo much.

Look he doesn't even come up to the 2nd rail on the fence anymore! I am just heartsick!!

Fooled ya!! I bet I really had you going?!?!? That is the shetland that keeps our son's horses company.

Oh, and this is the preview for tomorrow!! Exciting huh!!

Ranch Livestock...

Over the years we have dreamed about what we will do with the ranch. It has always been a dream that the whole family would be involved some how and that it would provide a safe haven for everyone...

My nephew likes that idea!! He loves being on the ranch. Actually he just loves hanging with the cousins, and checking out what's in the pantry.

We need to do something with it that will allow me to be able to ride everyday if I want.

So we have thought of making it a deer ranch, but realized that those things are so wild that we wouldn't be able to contain them. But then we realized that are all over the ranch anyway so that wouldn't work. Part of a working ranch is in the fall being willing to go up into the woods and rustle around in the underbrush and trees looking for your livestock.
Well...
Two days ago our daughter went rustling through the underbrush of our backyard and located...

yes, another turtle. So then the idea struck us, maybe our livestock could be turtles! They are really plentiful here is west Texas. Oh yeah, we are onto something roundups would be easy, the cost of feeding would be minimal, a few grubs here or there, some fruit chopped up. Are you getting my picture?

The BLM would allow us to be in the government ground longer during the summer since there wouldn't be a chance of over grazing. So I approached this guy and have a conversation with him about rounding up all his friends and signing a contract to be a part of the ranch. I explained all of the benefits, the pros and cons, the biggest con being the ride in the horse trailer from here to the ranch. And he just

walked away from the deal. Wait I asked "are you going back to your buddies to get their opinion and come back at us with a deal. Or are you just walking away from the deal?" No response. I was ready to offer him a deal of a life time. Of course I didn't mention the hours it would take to cover acreage, that the winter's were cold, he must have seem the deception is my eyes. That was it. I should have worn a mask to present the deal!!

So I chatted him up again trying to swing a deal. Hoping this time he would listen. I even put the biggest smile on my face.

I really am getting the picture now. This definitely means no deal!!
I guess we will puzzle for few more years so what to do with the ranch!!

The troll cake...

For young women's tonight my daughter's group decorated cakes. This is my daughter's masterpiece. She did Norwegian cake. It is a troll face. Can you see it??!?!?! She is so talented. Actually the lady who helped made the flowers and our daughter did the rest.

Have you ever seen such a beautiful troll face!!

The Desert in bloom...

There is a plant here in the desert call the century plant. I remember seeing them outside of my grandmother's drive way. Her's were huge, but then I was a little girl so maybe they weren't as big as they seemed. Above is a century plant that has already bloomed.

Here is one that has been in bloom for almost 2 weeks. Everyday when I take my husband to work and drive by it I think to myself I should take a picture of that!! So this morning I toted my camera along and snapped some shots. The plant dies after flowering, but produces suckers from the base, which continue its growth. The average life-span is around 28 years. (this is according to wikipedia)

I would love to pop over and try to feel what the flowers feel like, but...

1. It is at a very busy intersection in town

2. It is really tall, I thought about climbing it but decided that it wouldn't hold me to get up to the top so, it will remain a mystery as to what the flowers feels like.

The Wee Tortoise

Today we decide to measure the wee tortoise. We took him outside and boy did he love the sunshine. He stretched one way

and then the other

He measured in at a whoppin 1 1/2 inches wide spread eagle.

One inch wide partial spread eagle

Two inches only in length. Spread eagle he is almost as wide as he is long. We had a tough time measuring him this way. He kept curising away from Alex. Every time she would sit him down he would take off like he was running a race. The best part was one time she let him go and there was a bowl sitting on the table. He cruised directly to the bowl and hid under the edge. It is amazing how fast he can boogie.

You can't really see it clearly but his skin goes completely back into the shell. Our daughter said this little guy has on a wet suit and is completely protected.

It is fun having this little guy as part of the family. Everyone who comes to visit like to check him out. He has actually become quite shy. He runs, digs a hole in the corner of his digs and tries to disappear. I just realized that all through this post I refer to the wee thing as a he. So go back and read the post and put she in each place where I put he.

To petsmart...

We took the turtle for his first ride. We broke out the design carrier (old cereal bowl with straw) to take him on his first ride. We ventured to Petsmart to find out what we needed. Actually we went to Petsmart first and after a length conversation with the sales person she decided we had better know what kind of a turtle it is. Aqua vs land, Box vs Snapper. So we cruised back home and loaded the little guy up in his designer carrier.

The sales person is showing our daughter some characteristics of the snapper turtle. She was the one who thought it was female and only about 2 months old. It will double it's size this first year. Double it's size the second year, and then from then it will slow down and you will hardly be able to tell that it has grown each year.

We are loaded up. The daughter bought a terrarium, sand that contains calcium, turtle food (which contains a container of grubs. That are in my frig. Hopefully it is cold enough they won't turn into bugs, and cold enough they won't decide to go hunting for better digs than a plastic container), a log home, and a wee little swimming pool.

Here is the girl getting ready to put together the home!! She didn't want to do it by herself and her favorite person to help her is her dad. (Because he had turtles when he was little and loved them) So she got everything ready to go and...
Waited and waited because the yard man was hard at work and it was getting hot outside and he wanted to finish the project before it go tooooooooooo hot which it does here in west Texas. WE ARE TALKING 103 this week!!
So you will have to wait to be able to check out the turtles new digs until another post!!

A Weekend Treat

As a kid I remember my mom and my aunt making homemade ice cream. It was always so creamy and delicious. Ice cream wasn't really a big treat for us because my uncle worked for an ice cream company and we always had 2 or 5 five gallon containers in our freezer. But when mom and auntie made homemade ice cream it was special. They were always experimenting with what they put in it. Fruit, chocolate, mint candy etc. (sometimes I don't think we dared asked what they put into it!! But it was always delicious!!!) It was almost as special as the homemade rootbeer they used to make. (that is another story for another day)

With living out of the country I could never find an ice cream maker. When my aunt and uncle visited one time I mentioned it in passing. That year for Christmas we got an awesome ice cream maker in the mail.

It was hard to make ice cream in Norway because a secret ingredient was missing. (Or maybe I just could never figure out what it was!!!) But here is the secret ingredient...

Can you guess which one it might be... Well vanilla is a good try but no we could get what we called vanilla sugar over there. Actually now that I have cooked with Norwegian vanilla sugar I preferred it to the liquid vanilla. The missing ingredient was Half and Half!!!!! I tried to make the ice cream with watered down cream in Norway but it just didn't taste right.

We have some fun traditions in our family. Friday night is pizza, video night. So this Saturday I decided that I would start a new tradition. Saturday night ice cream!! I actually made two batches. One for us and one for my son's friends family.

I made vanilla. That is what my family loves the most. But next week LOOK OUT!! It was enjoyed by all of my family. I am already thinking of what crazy kind I can come up with next week. Maybe cantaloupe, peppermint, cookies and cream...
Hey if you are thinking about storming our house for some... come on over we can make plenty!!!

Our Newest Family Member

No this isn't the newest member of our family. This is the sexy yard man that shows up every Saturday and does my yard work. He just feels so powerful with this tool in his hand. I told him he could start to cut all the neighbor's kids hair and make extra money.

I can tell he is in deep thought about if he trimmed the bushes to match or if he was going to have to trim one a little bit more.

He is such a handsome yard man.

Ok Ok enough of the mushy stuff. Why is the yard man in this blog anyway? Well the yard man found something special for his daughter in our yard. He came into the house holding something behind his back. (for a second I thought he had a snake since it was behind his back, but I knew he wouldn't do that to me since the last time he showed me only a snake skin he got slapped across the face and the wife started to scream we are talking a scream that could raise the dead from their graves, so that thought only lasted a second!! I knew he would be foolish enought to try that again.)

So we want to introduce to the newest member of our family

Everyone say hello to pet turtle (our daughter named him)

He is a little and I mean little snapping turtle. My husband found him in our side yard.

The people who owned our home before had a whole herd of turtles. (Do you refer to them as a herd?? ) Well anyway she had about 10-14 turtles. We have taken 3 that we have found over to her that were older. Apparently this was one of her babies. The lady at petsmart told us she thinks it is a she and that she is only about 2 months old.

We have set her up with a home in our home. Rooster is a little jealous of the attention she gets but he will get over it. Stay tuned for the post showing the 5 star hotel that our daughter set up for PET TURTLE. (Maybe we should have a pet turtle name contest. I would sure hate for her to get a complex because she doesn't have a more personalized name. After all we were told they could live for 30 y ears. ) 30 YEARS!! what in the heck will I do with this thing when our daughter goes to University!!

They struck...

This afternoon my son and I had to go get horse hay from the feed store. While we were gone his good friends and his sister did a number on his workshop. They decided that it definitely was too plain and that it needed some added feminine touches.

I think these are supposed to be like the elegant curtains that hang from the ceiling and circle the bed. (only here they circle to cot and the bedroll) Trust me the cot and the bedroll are in there somewhere.

They added curtains. The sheer kind.

They left him a smiley face, so he wouldn't feel so lonely while he was working.

They thought his weight bench needed some added interior design. Wait is that really a weight bench under there?

I sent him out to his shop for something thinking that he would come back in and say something about it. He didn't. About 30 minutes later he started to tease his sister about it. The two friends acted dumb like they didn't know what was going on. He continued to tease his sister. Then one of the friend couldn't stand the sister taking the blame so she jumped into help by saying "but I had your keys remember" the look on her face was precious. She realized she had just incriminated herself while trying to protect the sister. We all just cracked up!!
I just love having young single adults in our home. They bring so much laughter, fun, and joy into our lives.
These two really keep my son on his toes!!