A Couple of Days Following My Brother...

This time of year you would think that life would slow down for a rancher, but it is still crazy with getting critters ready to ship and sell, buying new stock, putting part of the ranch to bed for winter. His work is never done... (he is counting out cows to make sure we gathered all of them off of the range.)

After the shoes were pulled from the horses so they wouldn't slip and slide and get their feet full of snow balls they were mounted for a ride to collect the ones to be shipped.

This is his big rig that he uses to move the cows to where they need to go and to ship them to market.

Here he is hard at work, branding the new crop of cattle.

I had to throw this picture in. This is my brother old dog. He is blind in one eye and is deaf, but he still loves to help work cattle. He loves to catch them coming out of the shut to hustle them along.

This is the work crew. We worked almost 250 head of cattle that day, and yes we did it in the snow.

A better view of branding.

He has an electric chute you would think it would be easy, but you really have to be fast to catch the critters or they bolt through the chute.
He works hard to keep things going. It isn't an easy life, you have to get out in all kinds of weather, rather you want to or not because you have all kinds of critters depending on you.

Arches National Park...

On our trip to the ranch we stopped to do some sightseeing. Mother Nature had decorated the park with a light layer of snow. I hope you enjoy the tour through the park!!

A Day with my Dad...

I love being here on the Ranch with my Dad. This time of year there isn't much actions so we just have time to sit and visit, talk about everything and anything, catch up on everything, eat a lot of food. BUT my favorite thing is to just be with him. Above he has loaded some hay to feed the horses. I am the official gate opener!!

We drove down to check on the cow and saw a coyote in the field.

My brother has a baby colt and is he a cutie!! More on him later. But I had to show him in the blog because of course he had to be feed and watered.

My Dad just amazes me at how much he enjoys getting out and working.

We feed the cows.

My Dad didn't want to bother with hooking up the big tractor so he just hooked up the four wheeler onto the wagon. What would we ever do without the four wheelers around the ranch.

We also put out mice poison, raked some leaves, drove around and check out some cattle that are getting ready to be shipped, and went and visited my mom's grave.

We spotted a bald eagle. This was taken without a telephoto lens so could can see how close we got.

Saw a beautiful buck and his harem of does.

But the best part was just being with my DAD!!!!

What I love about FALL...

I love this time of the year. The evening darkness is coming quicker. The home seems cozier. I like to burn cinnamon candles. The lamps shine dimly in the recesses of the house. The leaves are being to change. My most favorite memory of fall is driving the children home from school in Scotland and driving down a very narrow road with trees on both sides. The road looked like a carpet of red and orange leaves. As I would drive through it the leaves would fly everywhere feeling like we were having a shower of leaves. There is a real crispness to the air. The comforters come out to snuggle under at night.

The bushes get trimmed for the final time this summer. The trees seem bare, but you can tell they are anxiously waiting their Christmas light to dress them again.

The summer flowers in the flower beds have died and have been cleaned out. The beds are waiting for the pansies to be put into place to bring them back to life for the winter.

The trees seem like they are on fire. The air has a wood burning scent. BUT the best part is that...

Christmas is just around the corner and guess what I love that season more than FALL!!

A Night at the Oscars....

We have the most awesome young women's presidency. They did the young women's in excellence program last night. It was called the night at the OSCARS. And what a night it was...
This is my daughter getting ready to walk the RED carpet...

Hamming it up on the red carpet. They had photographers there snapping pictures constantly.

Sending kisses to the crowd.

The leaders presented each young woman with an OSCAR (The statue presents the OSCAR) The leader would stand and call out the category and then of course with much anticipation would announce the winner. Then the recipient would come forward and share about her project.

This was our daughter's category. Her project was based upon her pillowcases for cancer kids sewing project that she did.

This is the whole group and they are an awesome group!!!

It was a black tie affair so of course our daughter talked her Dad into really making it a black tie affair. As soon as the young women saw him they cheered and shouted their approval of his black tie dress. They make a very beautiful and handsome pair even if I say so myself.

Why we went to DC... and the results...

These two girls are second cousins. They have always really enjoyed each others company. This summer they spent 2 weeks together at my aunt's ranch.

They have alot of fun together.

They can talk and talk and talk and never run out of things to say. We only heard silence from them when one of them or both of them were sleeping.

SO why did we go to Washington DC...

1. Our daughter is taking American History this year for school. We have always tried to take our children to the places that they are studying so that they can experience it rather than just reading about it in books.

2. We went to Washington DC so that they (the girls) could spend some time together. Not to mention that my cousin and I went to Washington DC when we were young with our parents. It was such a great trip we decided to keep up the tradition and pass it onto our girls. It was supposed to be a girls trip, but when the Dads found out we were going they begged us and pleaded with us to come so finally after having them promise all the riches in the world we decided to let them come.

So what were the results...
The girls had a great week.
BUT what did our daughter take away from our week there...

I asked her at the end of the week to tell me what she was taking away from this week...
In her words, "I am so touched by how inspired our forefathers were, how creative they were and how much they sacrificed to make this a free country."

"I also have a better understanding of the sacrifices that have been made through the years by many people to keep us a free country."
She came away with a much stronger understanding of what it means to be an american. (that was one of the main reasons why we wanted her to make this trip)
BUT...
even after that great week and the deeper understanding she gain about America, that silly girl is still only talking about wanting to study at University abroad!!

Halloween Fun...

For 9 years we haven't had a chance to truly celebrate Halloween with living out of the country so this year we did it in style (especially since this will be our daughter's last halloween as a high schooler!!) Our daughter talked her dad into dressing up this year and told him how much she loves a scotsmen in a kilt!!

Our daughter and her buddies. She has truly been blessed with some wonderful friends.

It has always been a tradition that my husband and daughter (and son when he was younger) have carved our pumpkin. So they didn't break with tradition this year. BUT they participated in a pumpkin carving contest at our church. My husband always carves the face.

Our daughter always seems to be in charge of cleaning the inside out. And always seems to pull this face year after year!!!

I dressed up as our son!! (Actually I snuck into his closet and borrowed his chincks, hat, shirt, scarf, boots and spurs)

These are some good friends. No one recognized them, it was great. They were by far the biggest hit of the evening.

Here we are in position for the trunk or treat event to begin. This is one of our other dear friends. She came as a witch. But warned us all that only this evening could we refer to her as a witch after that we had better never refer to her in those terms.

Then the youth came back to our home and hung out playing WII (I think they had 4 or 5 controllers going at one time)
eating pizza and ice cream, playing murder, and just having fun.

It was a great holiday for all of us!! Especially for our daughter to really and truly celebrate Halloween with so many good friends!!