Who's out there?

We have been very fortunate to have a very diverse following with our blog. We are constantly meeting people who are fans of our blog. I really have to think when someone that I have not talked to for a long time asks me "How is Beans?" The confused look on my face must be very obvious, because their question is normally followed by "I read about him on your blog." Then it all makes scense.

Please let us know who you are. Just select the best answer below, or if more than one is correct pick more than one.

Fruit of the Sea

Last weekend when we were heading back from South Texas we called up our good friends, the McCain's, and asked them what they were doing. You see we pass right by their house on the way home and we were going to stop in just to say hello and then make the other leg of the trip.

When we called them they told us that they were going to be boiling some shrimp and had plenty. Needless to say, our break from driving turned into a wonderful evening filled with laughter and more shrimp that I could shake a stick at.

I think that fresh shrimp boiled in a pot of spices with a few potatoes and corn is maybe my favorite way to eat 'em. I mean there are a bunch of ways to cook a shrimp. You can "barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."

Who knows what movie that is from?

If you like boiled shrimp and are not a follower, please become one. If you don't like boiled shrimp, become a follower. If you are allergic, become a follower. We love followers and it blows our skirts up when we get a new one. You never know what we may do when we reach 100 followers. But you will find out when we do.

When you follow us you get to see pictures like these!


Oooo, just lookie there! They's-a steam a comin' off that black ole pot. But whatchey got in der?


Hello SHRIMP!


All those shrimp just sitting there soaking in all the flavor from the spices.

I think that a shrimp (or crawfish) boil cannot exist without Tony's. It is a must.

Add a few potatoes, corn and sausage and you are ready for some good eatin'!

Now if those pictures do not make you a little hungry, you must have just had some.

Enjoy your day!

The rest of the San Antonio Zoo pictures. Finally!

So I just stumbled across these pictures from when Catherine and I went to the San Antonio Zoo during the stock show. Do you know that "A-ha!" moment you have when you find something that you forgot about? Well these pictures have been on a laptop that we never use, and I just was piddiling around on it while Catherine is forcing me to watch the LOST finale and found them.

Speaking of LOST, does anyone out there like that show? Raise your hand if you do. Yeah, me either. I am grateful that tonight is the last show that I will have to watch. I hope that they end it good and not something stupid like it was all just a dream.

Back to the important stuff. I have been educating Wilma and Dragon about these animals and now I will share my wealth of knowledge with you. Ha. Ha ha. I barely know the names of these creatures, let alone their genus, species, and phylum.

Just enjoy the pictures.


This is a Capabara (spelling does not count on blogs!) and it happens to be the largest rodent in the world. I will admit, that I am an Animal Planet/National Geographic/Discovery Channel junkie and know too many random facts. But you can share this tidbit at your next social gathering and look like a real somebody.


Just a pelican.


Crikey! I thought this was fake, until it jumped into the water after laying motionless for about 5 minutes.


This neat looking bird was trying to catch some fish.


African Crane anyone?


I think that that was some sort of deer, like maybe the smallest one ever? Anyway, I was very proud of myself that I got him (or her) with his tounge out.


Ooo, I know what this was. It was a Red River Hog from the Amazon. Pretty neat, huh?


This is a Cassowary. Check out those feet! You know what they say about big feet, right? Big socks of course.


A sleepy Rhino. Does anyone remember that scene from Ace Ventura when Ace is in the mechanical rhino and his fan quits? Still makes me laugh.


You guessed it, a Giraffe.


This sign made me laugh, so I took a picture.


Mingos! My niece Hunter used to call flamingos, Mingos! I still do.


Catching up on some zzz's.


Check out this aerobatic pair. The mom would swing all over their enclosure and the little baby would just hang on and go right along with her.


I wonder is this is a relative of my dragon?


I wish I could be more like these monkeys or is it monkies. I think monkeys. Anyway, they were pretty cool. We still email each other once and a while.


I do not know what this thing it. Maybe El Chupacabra's mother?


This bird was cool too. I named him Henry. Just now, not at the zoo.


The real version of Tucan Sam. Except these arn't tucans, they are macaws. So just scratch that previous part. But I am going to get a bowl of Marshmellow Blasted Fruit Loops. Maybe one of my favorite foods. I get rather cranky when I run out of them.


Jungle cat.


Sushi anyone?


He wanted some sushi.

So I am a little kid at heart, I love the zoo and take any chance I have to go to one. I am always running from one exhibit to the other and then grabbing Catherine and saying "You have to come see this, it is so cool!"

If you have a zoo close to you, I encourage you to go and take someone with you. Regardless of age, everyone loves the zoo once they get there.

Wilma Meets The Water Faucet

Its been too long since I, best blogger at Our Little Ranch, have written a blog. I've been pretty busy lately and just haven't had the time to sit down to write. Not that I am griping, but having Wilma (or any puppy for that matter) is hard work and it seems one of us always has to be watching her, feeding her, or cleaning up after her.

Adding to my busy-ness recently was the fact that Luke was a bit under the weather yesterday, so with him and Wilma, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off!

While we were in South Texas this past weekend, Wilma came along for the trip. While the 3.5 hour car trip with Wilma sounded a little scary to us, we want to get her "broken in" for car trips so that we can take her with us when we go visit our family in Indiana.

The little puppy rode in Luke's lap the whole way there and the whole way back. This is a change for us because usually Luke drives everywhere and I'm the passenger. Wilma's arrival has turned me into the primary driver, mainly because I'm not as good at playing with Wilma as Luke is. I tend to panic when she starts biting me, or gets bored, or starts barking. I will be glad when she's out of the puppy phase. So will Luke, because lets just say... I'm not the best driver. While I drive painfully below the speed limit (I'm terrified of getting a speeding ticket), my issues with driving lie in simply not paying attention. There were several almost-accidents on this trip.

While we were in South Texas, Luke and I wanted to run into Kingsville for a few hours to check out the antique shops there. My wonderful mom (former Bulldog breeder) volunteered to keep Wilma for the time we were gone. As Luke and I got into the car to drive away, I gleefully squealed, "We're free!" and we peeled out. Its not that we don't adore Wilma — we do. It was just nice to have a break.

About 2 hours later we returned and found Wilma outside playing - soaking wet. You see, Grandma Luann (my mom) introduced Wilma to a water faucet. We have now discovered that it is the cheapest toy you'll ever find. The best part is that Wilma plays so hard that she tuckers herself out and then sleeps for hours afterwards.

Here's some photos of Wilma playing while we were in South Texas.



Not only does she like to drink from the faucet, but she loves to let the water run on her back. She goes crazy!


Rock climbing is one of Wilma's newer hobbies. Look at her face. If that ain't a happy puppy, I don't know what is.

I think she thought we were about to take that stick out of her mouth. Not so happy, here.

-

We asked Wilma, "Hey Wilma, do you like cats?" This is the face she made. Excellent sense of humor.

More playing.

Wilma - senior portrait style.

She loved this grass. It is a special drought resistant grass that is thick and deep. Only bad news is that she laid there and got bit on her belly by either ants or chiggers. She had big red welps on her stomach but they cleared up.

Sometimes she runs so fast her ears start catching some wind and flop up! Wilma the bat bulldog!

South Texas Weekend Getaway

This past weekend Catherine, Wilma and I all set out on our first road trip together. We went to south Texas to meet up with Catherine's parents, Jim and Luann. Any excuse we get to head down that way we take, but this time we had an actual reason and not just for a vacation. You see it was Jim's birthday this weekend and he wanted to have a birthday dinner at the King's Inn.

If you have ever been close to the Kingsville, Falfurrias, Premont area and have not stopped at the King's Inn, you do not know what you are missing. It is a restaurant that sits right on Baffin Bay and serves fresh seafood that was caught earlier in the day. I mean the food is amazing, and I know good food!

So not only did Jim's wife, daughter, son-in-law and first granddaughter (Wilma) make the trip south, but also so did his mom and dad (Mollie and Sloan Williams) and also Luann's parents (Gene and Sammie Johnston). It was a great time of sitting right on the water, smelling the sea in the air, and stuffing ourselves to the gills. We had many laughs over the meal and all needed a nap and a bigger size pants afterwards.

After we recovered from our seafood induced coma, we drove around the ranch that we stay at down there. I have blogged about this before. If you would like to read about the details of the ranch, check this out.

While we drove around, Catherine, Luann, and I were riding on top of the truck in the "look-out" seats. I am not sure what the exact name is but it is a platform on the bed of the truck that has seats on it from another truck. It is like the third seat in a SUV but placed in the bed of a truck and elevated to where we have to climb up some steps to get to it. Do you get the picture? Maybe.

I took our camera and we got some pretty neat shots. The ride was really putting my skills to the test because trying to get clear shots when you are being bounced around is a little tricky.


We were driving around trying to look and see if we could find any animals out and about. It was maybe 502.4 degrees down there, but as the sun began to set we did start to see some deer. If you look real close you can see two deer in the tall grass along the right side of the picture.


The wildflowers down there were crazy! So many different colors and smells (some from Wilma that weren't so bueno) that it was like a peaceful retreat to go and forget about all the bothers in your life.

I think that I have some sort of weird fixation with windmills. The fact that windmills are the only way for the livestock and wildlife to drink, aside from the occasional pond, and that they are powered by the wind just makes me think that we have turned back time to the olden days where we have to walk up hill to school both ways! As we were driving around I took some pictures of the windmills.


Here is one of the holding tanks that holds the water before it drains into the water trough. With the warm weather I was very tempted to climb that latter and go for a swim. But with the Coral snake and Coachwhip that we saw I think that I will just stay in the truck.


Here is another one with the sun setting in the background. How pretty!


We also had to check on the cattle that were on the ranch. One of the bulls really wanted to be a part of Our Little Ranch and posed for a couple of photos.


This is one of my new favorite shots. It is very funny how we get so excited over the pictures we take. We did not have a computer with us down there and we were a little too enthusiastic to put the card into the computer and look at the pictures. Then we sit back and go "Ooo, Aaa, WOW!" over our pictures. Then we try to remember who took what ones. But I am pretty sure that I took this one!

The sunset in south Texas was breath taking. I tried to take some pictures of it, but really you have to see it in person to do it justice.

I will leave you with just a picture of the sky. Imagine yourself sitting out in your most comfortable lounge chair, smelling the wildflowers, listening to the birds, and looking at this wonderful sky.

Enjoy you day!

Whittling...

Do you ever have the urge to whittle? I sure do! I love to grab a piece of wood (or anything else for that matter that is hard and able to be whittled) and whip out my pocket knife and see what I can create. For the longest time I would think to myself "If I had a whittler, I would whittle in the morning, I would whittle in the evening, and I'd whittle at suppertime," but the problem was I did not have good whittling equipment. Now I have a great knife and go and whittle stuff often. You may find me in a random person's yard whittling a bear out of a stump.

I mean who does not like to whittle. I think that whittling is a hobby for some, an obsession for others, and a joy for all! I got that from the World of Whittling web site. Words to live by I tell ya!

Anyway, my most recent whittling project was a sign for Catherine and I to put in our yard. This was about a week long project, but the final results are pretty good if I do say so myself.

First we had to dig a hole for the sign. Since it's hot, and I am not so much for using a post hole digger to make a 4 foot hole in the ground, I enlisted two of the ranch workers, Frank and David and the use of one yellow tractor with an auger attached.



The ground was incredibly hard and for a minute I thought that we struck oil, but it was nothing. We had to let the hose run in the hole over lunch to soften up the soil a bit so we could dig deeper.



Frank and David (who the ranch could not function without) made quick work of the digging after the soil was wet and soft.

The next picture is of the sign that I have been whittling on. Not quite what I had hoped for when I started, but once I get better skills I can make another.



Not to bad for a novice whittler huh?

As you can see, I still need to wipe off the bottom part of the sign with our last name on it, but after all the hours of whittling that I did, I just wanted to be done with the sign for awhile.

Look at all the detail that I put into this sign, magnificent.

Ok, ok. Much to your surprise, I did not make this sign. I got it as a wedding gift for Catherine. You see, we also got a really large sign for the ranch entrance. We got this as a Christmas gift for Catherine's parents and I sneakily had one made for Catherine. So when the big sign came in we had a big to-do over it and made Catherine's parents come out of the house with blindfolds and then unveiled the new sign. Then when everyone was gasping in amazement at the new sign I brought out the smaller sign that I got for Catherine. We had hoped to have the big ranch sign up before the wedding, but the weather was not cooperating so we did not make that deadline and it still happens to be waiting to be put into the ground.

But I could not wait any more for our sign to be put in, and this past week I have been working on getting it assembled and put up. Now we just have to decide how to decorate around it. Feel free to leave suggestions of thoughts you have. Flowers, just mulch, stone? I don't know.

If you like this sign, I would suggest visiting Sign-It Signs to look at all the great signs that they have made. Noella was the greatest person to work with and I could not be more happy with the end result. If you have always wanted to get a sign for your ranch or business check them out.

On another note, Wilma is doing great! We have so many pictures to share with y'all of her. But having a new puppy really takes it out of a person. So we will try to find a way to manage keeping up with our blog and keeping up with our sleep. It is a little more complicated than we thought.

Our Little PUPPY!

Please forgive our absence from the blog. We have had a lot going on around the ranch this week. But the most exciting part is that we got this.



I would like to introduce you to Wilma Sue Neumayr. She is the latest addition to Our Little Ranch (well I have not checked the calving pastures this evening, but puppy trumps new calf any day of the week). She is a 8-week-old English Bulldog. We picked her up yesterday evening and have had a blast since. She is already potty trained but you still have to watch closely for when she needs out. The breeder suggested that we allow her to sleep in the bed with us for the first three nights and then after that it is up to us. We are only on night two, but I am sure she will remain my snuggling partner for quite some time. Especially since she drools less that Catherine.

Wilma's breeder also said that we should take her out every three hours or so, even during the night. So last night I was up at 11:00 and 3:00 to take the little fur ball out. Each time I would have to wake her up, and I felt kinda guilty about waking her from her slumber. The funny thing is this. Catherine has been saying how "tired" she is from having to deal with Wilma all night long. Ha! She didn't even know that we were gone! She just kept sawing logs and dreaming of snake free summers.

I will say that I think that a puppy may be more of a challenge than a child. I mean with a kid you can slap a diapee on them and set them in a play pen. Wilma, not so much. But a kid can't fetch until they can walk, so it has its tradeoff's.

You may ask how Wilma got her name. Well, I will tell you how. Wilma was born in March and her breeder gave the litter all names from the Flintstone's. So she has a sister named Betty, a brother named Fred, and so on. We had tried to think of a different name but each time we talked about it we would always say "What are we going to call Wilma?" After a few times of that, the name just stuck. We did add Sue though for a middle name.

I am sure that we will be taking memory card after memory card full of pictures of our "Widdle Gurl." She has not yet met Dragon, but she did meet Dixie cat. She is still alive so I would say the meeting was a success.

Here are a few other pictures of Wilma. Feel free to leave comments and tell us how cute you think she is.



Of all the toys that we bought her, she likes a foil ball-thing that she stole from Dixie.



Get it Wilma! She also really likes to beat the mess outta Mr. Pig.



And I leave you with a picture of Wilma in her bed. She really loves her bed. We only put her in it once, but now she takes all her toys and stores them in there when she sleeps.

Keep an eye out for updates. And remember we still need ideas for the next "Our Little Rancher" contest.