A preview...

Its late, but we wanted to share a picture from a session today that we had with a really cute kid. Bradley's mom is one of my cousins and we were excited to photograph this little guy. If this photo doesn't scream summer, I don't know what does! More coming soon.

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.

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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!

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 [REPTILE] Ranch

We must be on some sort of hidden camera show. First it was a water moccasin and then a dragon. Now it is a turtle, another snake, and a little more of our favorite dragon.

So recently we have been synchronizing another group of cows for a flush that we have coming up next week. I have been checking heats like crazy and if I ever see a cow ride another it will be too soon. (I will write a blog about this shortly.) Anyway, when I was driving from one pasture to another, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a huge buzzard in the middle of a grass field that was recently mowed. But why would this buzzard be doing in the middle of a open field? There was no dead animal that I saw, but I could see this brownish lump. So I decided to investigate and this is what I found.





It was a turtle, and a pretty good sized one. I think that this is a box turtle, but who cares about the specifics. It is a good thing I came because as you can see it was almost lights out for this fella. Since it was Earth Day and all, I decided that I needed to put a rescue mission into action for my shelled friend. So I had a box in the back of the jeep and picked up the turtle and brought him to the house.



First to see my find were the two porch cats, Buttons and Beans. They were rather unimpressed with the turtle. Beans tried to slap him in the face but the turtle must have made some sort of noise, because in mid-swing Beans jumped about 5 feet off the ground.



Buttons also wanted to say hello. He too was unenthused with my find. Oh yeah, dragon also said hello. He is quite the chatty little thing.

On a side note, I do not have a name for dragon. Any thoughts??

Finally Catherine came out to see my new friend. As soon as she saw what it was that I found she yelled out "Mr. TURTLE!!!!" (pronounced: Midder-Durdle). She yelled this with such enthusiasm that you would have thought they were childhood friends. ]

Next we took a couple of close ups of Midder Durdle.





Then I decided to take him down to the creek beside the house and release him.



When I saw this excellent beach front property I knew that it would be a great domain for my new turtle. He was not real sure of what he wanted to do when I sat him down. He just kinda sat there. I was expecting him to come of his shell, tell me thanks for saving him, and then slowly walk into the water waiving as he went.



So after about 15 minutes of him just sitting there, I gave him a little nudge with my foot. Good thing I had my camera on him because he shot off.



He moved so quick this is all I could get.



Also, when I was down by the creek, these stupid birds kept flying all around me trying to get me to leave. But do you notice the good weed kill that I got? There is still a touch of green but that will be gone shortly. Maybe a bazooka this time, I don't know.

The next day, when I got back from judging a showmanship contest, I called Frank to see what was next on the agenda for the day. He said that everything was done for the day, but that he killed a snake. So I jumped on my dragon and flew over to the pens. This is what I saw:

Are you still there? Did you fall back in your chair or run around the house screaming?

This is a chicken snake and although not as deadly as the Coral Snakes, Water Moccasins, Cottonmouths, or Copperheads that we have around this place but still just as scary to this guy. There is also a few alligators down in the swamps of a place that we lease. But I try to stay away from there. I think that a witch lives back there and has nightly sacrifices of birds of prey and stuff like that.

Here is Frank with the snake that he killed. He is not scared of anything - not even a fighting cow coming at him. He thinks of it as a challenge, whereas I think of it as a perfect time to wet my pants and suck my thumb. Anyway, Frank grabbed the snake so I could get a picture of it.

Then after we were done taking the picture of Frank with the snake, we hung it on the fence.

The folklore is that if you hang a snake on a fence it will bring rain. And we did get a little shower yesterday evening. Maybe it was because of this guy.

You may notice that Dragon was not in any of the snake pictures. He told me that he is scared of them and didn't want to get out of the car.

So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to think of a great name for Dragon. Nothing is off limits. But nothing girly - he is a manly dragon (just not when it comes to snakes, I guess he gets that from me!)

Until Next Time!

Our Little Dragon

Recently Catherine and I have become the owners of a new pet. Yesterday Catherine, her mom, and I all went to Catherine's cousins tee-ball game. I wish I would have taken my camera because these little kids made me laugh. They would be out in the outfield picking wedgies, the girls would do cartwheels, and some were just as serious as could be. The combination of all three made for a very pleasant and fun filled evening.

It wasn't until on the way home that we got our new little friend. We all were a little hungry and wanted to stop for a quick snack. McDonald's was the closest stop, so we pulled over and got a quick bit to eat. Somehow Micky D's got our order confused and gave me a Happy Meal. Little did I know that they also put a surprise at the bottom. It was a DRAGON!!! A fire breathing, flying, scaly dragon.

We did not have much of a choice but to take him home and let him live with us. I mean, he is a dragon, you kinda have to do what he says.


Here is our dragon. He was wanting to help me type this blog, but his feet were too big and he could not make his words correctly.


Here dragon is doing a little exploring. He said he was hungry and decided to see if there was anything in these pots.


We played a quick game of Hide and Go Seek. This is where I found him. He was buried in the grass plant thing that we have on the bookshelf.


One of his recent kills. He was very proud to report that he took this big fella down!


One thing that most people don't know about dragons is that they love to help out with laundry. Hopefully, he will be helping Catherine with this stuff and I will be released of my duties.


Apparently he was not satisfied with the huge bird he caught and discovered some biscuits. But not even a dragon wants to eat a biscuits with nothing on it.


I suggested that he try some strawberries on it, but you can tell by the look on his face that he was not diggin' that idea.


How 'bout some good ole butter dragon? Nope, he wanted the spreadable kind.


Well he found the spreadable kind, but it was guarded by a big mean salt pig. But I think we all know in a showdown between a dragon and a pig who will win...


The dragon of course! After a huge battle, he stands proudly by his butter. I can tell he is going to fit in just fine around here.


After a long and stressful day, all he wanted was a hot shower. However, he still can't get the concept that he needs to be under the water. Looks like I still have some training to do with my dragon.

I will be sure to keep updating everyone on the adventures of my dragon. I am going to try to take him with me to work cows this morning. Who knows, it could all end up as BBQ.

**Disclaimer**
Some of you may think it is rather silly that I am blogging about a kid's meal toy. But, it find it rather funny and that is what the little Elves that are sitting beside me are telling me to do.

Risky Business

Those of you who are in the Wharton County area were likely experiencing the same type of weather that we were this morning. Even with the time change when Catherine and I wake up around 7-ish the sun is already up a little bit. Be sure to note that I use the word wake up and not get up. Normally, we like to hit the snooze button about 7 times and then lay there and talk to the cat.

Anyway, this morning it was especially hard to get up because it was still dark. You know those mornings when it is dark outside and the air is cool, and you only want to bury your head back into the pillow and wake up at noon? The kind of morning when if you have a class at 8 there is no chance you will go. Well that is what this morning was. But Catherine and I wanted to get a start on cleaning the house and getting our new antiques (is that an oxymoron?) put away.

About 3.7 minutes into that ritual I got sidetracked by the fast approaching storm. You see, it is pretty flat around this neck of the woods and when I go out on the porch I can see for a good while. I also have this obsession with watching a storm roll through. So with the combination of having to do house work and a amazing light show going on outside, Catherine had noticed that I had gone missing. When she found me I was sitting on the porch trying to take pictures of lightning. Now that I read that, I may need to get my head examined.

Regardless of my level of sanity, taking photos of lighting is way harder than one would think. I would have my camera focused on the sky and when I would see the lightning I would press the button. Then I would get all excited and look in the image viewer and there would be nothing. Nada. Zilch. But I was able to get a few pictures of lightning strikes. And that is what the pictures on the blog are. When I say a few, it is only 4. Out of the nearly 200 pictures I took, I only got 4 with a visible strike.

On a side note, Catherine was sure that I was going to get struck by lightning in my adventures this morning. While I was taking pictures she went back into the house to move the couch or something and when she was inside I walked over towards the fence because I was tired of that stupid power line being in my pictures. Well when she came back out she could not find me and started to yell in this frantic manner for me. The dialogue was something like this.

Catherine: "Luke. Luke! LUKE! LUKELUKELUKE!!! Where are you?!?!"

Me: "I am over here! "

Catherine: "Are you alright, did you get struck by lightning? Are you dead?"

Me: (thinking to myself how could I be dead if I was talking?) "No I just wanted to get that stupid power line out of my way."

Catherine: "Get back over here, you are going to get struck by lightning. HURRY!"

So with that I will leave you with the pictures that I was able to get. Next time a storm rolls through your area, just try to take a picture of lightning. I dare you! It is much more difficult that this rancher thought!

See at the top of this picture. That is the stupid power line that kept getting in my way. I think I am going to go chop that down. Wait until you see those pictures!

Real People

So as you know Catherine and I headed up to Indiana for Easter with my family. We had told my sister that when we are up there we would like to take pictures of my nieces so we can actually have pictures of people and not just cattle (or Catherine and I taking pictures of ourselves). I told Cassie, my sister, that when the girls are dressed up in their Easter dresses we would try to get some good pictures of them.

Well any of you that have young children know that getting a four and six year old girl to cooperate is quite an undertaking. I have not, not that I won’t eventually, put up the “outtakes” of the girls. You know the ones with tongues sticking out, dresses over their head, and the like. Since this is such a serious blog I will just keep those to myself. Ya right! I will post them too and I am sure that years down the road my nieces will hate this blog and try to convince me that I need to pay for their therapy for the embarrassment they have sustained from the pictures I posted of them. I am pretty sure that was the longest run on sentence on this blog and if it makes no sense just forget I wrote it.

Continuing on with my story. We tried to get the girls to pose for us and tell them how to hold their hands, where to look, etc. For the most part they did great, but more than once they would say “Are we done yet?” or they would see an egg they did not find on the hunt and run after it.

However, we were able to get a few good pictures of the girls and even some of the newest addition to the family, Madi Bonebrake. Madi is the daughter of Adam and Stephanie Bonebrake. Adam is my first cousin. I think. I am really awful at getting that stuff straight. I really have to think about it when I am trying to tell someone how a family member is related to me.

For those of you who have seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off you should remember when Simone is explaining to the Economics Teacher about how Farris is really sick. And for those of you who have not seen this great movie, and are going to rent it right now, here is the quote:

Economics Teacher: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Simone: Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

Economics Teacher: Thank you, Simone.

Simone: No problem whatsoever.

When I am trying to explain where someone is in my family tree I am always like “He is my Mom’s Sister’s son.” which would make Madi my Mom’s Sister’s Son’s Daughter. Does that make her my second cousin? I think so. Sorry Steph and Adam, I know I should know this stuff better.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber. Here are the pictures!!!!



This is my youngest niece, Sophie.





This is my niece second cousin, Madi. Still can't get that right.



This is Hunter, another niece. Isn't that what my Mom's Daughter's Daughter is? I think I could really confuse people if I started talking like that. It kind of reminds me of those stupid questions on standardized tests that go like this. If all Whirps are Twits and all Twits are GargleBoomers, are all Whirps GargleBoomers? Does anyone else remember those? I think the answer is yes, but it always makes me nervous having to think about those.

Also, so everything is not black and white, here is a picture with some color! It is Hunter again.



Last thing, I promise. Don't forget about the comment contest that we have going. Tomorrow I will tell you what the prize is. Trust me, you want to leave as many comments as you can! Ok get some sleep and be sure to check back tomorrow for the prize announcement.

Forgive the absence.

It's been almost a whole week since we've blogged! Gosh... I bet you thought we'd dropped off the face of the earth, or as sooo many bloggers do, start going months at a time without updating.

Have no fear! We're back and in full force.

We have a good excuse for the silence though. Luke and I drove... yes, drove... to Indiana for Easter. It's about 1100 miles each way. We left from Boling, Texas on Wednesday and arrived in New Richmond, Indiana late Thursday evening. I'm sure we've covered this before, but Luke's hometown of New Richmond, Indiana is actually the famous "Hickory, Indiana," that was in the basketball movie, Hoosiers. The movie was filmed in New Richmond, although they changed the name to Hickory for the film. Still, all over town, like the post office, the cafe, the town's welcome sign... it says Hickory. Pretty cool stuff. If this has already been on the blog... sorry about that!

Anyways, we had a great few days back "home," as Luke calls it. Of course Texas is and has always been my home, but as time goes by, mainly because of the people we love that live there, Indiana starts becoming more home-like too!

We snapped a ton of photos. I have a few to post on the blog now and I'm sure we'll be posting more tomorrow or the next day. We're lucky to have some real live people (translation: not our porch cats Beans or Buttons) to be in our photos. We have the cutest nieces, Hunter and Sophie, and their happy personalities were easy to catch on camera. These photos here weren't posed - I just snapped them during some fun moments.


Right at the start of the Easter dinner at Luke's parents house. Hunter's Easter dress was black - she looked like a complete diva and we all loved it!

My greatest discovery of the trip was pepper jelly. I was parked in the kitchen standing by the counter where my mother-in-law had all the food and snacks out. Everyone kept coming over and getting a Triscuit, putting cream cheese on it, and then this green jelly. I was just standing there watching, but finally braved the unknown and gave it a try.

After an undisclosed number of Triscuits+Cream Cheese+Pepper Jelly, followed by an outstanding dinner by Luke's mom, we headed outside for the Easter egg hunt. Luke had been helping the Easter bunny all morning so he was ready to let 'em at it. It's fun to learn how different families do things. When I was a kid, we hunted real eggs, and it was more about finding the eggs than candy or prizes. My parents and grandparents put on some great Easter's,


Now I'm realizing that Easter has turned into Christmas 2, because I overheard someone saying, "What are you going to ask the Easter Bunny to bring you?" Well... as you can see, the Easter bunny brought this family's kiddos plenty of treats, such as a hoola hoop in a tree, recorders (the musical instrument you play with your nose), and about 5 tons of candy. Crafty Easter Bunny, huh? Here, the Easter Bunny Uncle Luke is lining the girls out on the rules of the hunt. Sophie (left) has got her eye on the prize, already checking out that hoola hoop.



And they're off! Does this little angel look excited to be on an Easter egg hunt, or what?



We took a break from monitoring the egg hunt to photograph this cool, old but completely restored Chevy pickup that belongs to Luke's parents and... drumroll please... is their wedding present to Luke and I! How cool is that! Yes, right now it is in Indiana, but Luke's parents are bringing it down to Texas this summer and we can't wait. It's in Bulldog green, too! (Boling Bulldogs, by the way!)

Now... back to the Easter Bunny/Santa scenario. Hunter and Sophie asked the Easter Bunny to bring them baby ducks, and.....

.....they got them!

Easter morning Sophie and Hunter were the proud recipients of 2 baby ducks. I got to know the ducks quite well as Luke and I were responsible for feeding, watering, and keeping them alive from Thursday night to Sunday morning.

The girls named their ducks Theodore (owned by Hunter) and.... American Idol (owned by Sophie.) Last I heard though, American Idol was getting a name change, I think to Chrissie. So there's Sophie and American Idol. I mean, Chrissie. Oh.... whatever. Sophie and her duck!

All in all, we were gone for about 6 days, and a week gone means lots of laundry and things to put away. We came back with a full car due to many hours spent antiquing around west central Indiana. We found some really cool stuff... blog coming soon about that, too!