Treasures from the Stock Show.

Catherine and I got back late last night from San Antonio. We ended up having Reserve Grand Champion Grey Bull, but we are a little more excited about some of the things that we got while we were there.

The trade show at the show was huge. It was in three different buildings and had everything from blow up sauna's to fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Yes we tried the Fried PB&J and it was rather tasty.) We walked up and down the aisles and found some things that we thought needed to come back to the ranch with us.

First, we were walking along and found these neat Spanish/Senorita style pillows. We don't have a couch that is in need of new pillows, but we will thought we needed to get them. After you see the pictures I think you will agree that they were a good find.

We also found a booth that used pictures of outdoor elements to make the letters of the alphabet. It was very interesting to look at all the pictures of the different letters. Catherine and I decided to "just look" and see what Neumayr would look like with these photos. Well after we had all the letter lined up we thought we needed that too. So we picked out the details for the final framed artwork and the booth owner put it all together for us. I think that this is a really neat idea and I am glad we found this booth at the trade show.




Our new sign that hangs above the coat rack.



The rectangle pillow.



The two circle pillows.

A Preview...

Today after I got done judging at the San Antonio Stock Show, Catherine and I decided we would go to the zoo. I love zoos and while we were driving there I was randomly yelling out "We're going to the ZOO!" I was acting just like a little kid, but honestly, who doesn't like the zoo?

We have tons of pictures to share, but since we have the big Brahman show tomorrow we are going to call it quits for tonight with the pictures. But I do have one to share with y'all. This was a pig thing that comes from the Amazon. Pretty sure after seeing this I will not be going to the rain forests anytime soon.

Also, Catherine and I would like to say a big THANK YOU!!! to all of our followers. Our blog hasn't been going for very long and we already have 11 followers! We get very excited when we get a new one, so if you are enjoying our blog please become one of our followers and also leave us comments on what you think of our pictures and adventures.

Ok, so here is that crazy pig thing...



Just wait until you see what else we found at the zoo!

Stay tuned for more.

Sorry, No Pictures...

This is just a little note to say that Catherine and I are about to head out the door for the stock show in San Antonio. The ranch is taking the Brahman show string and I will be doing a little judging as well. We always look forward to the San Antonio trip because it takes us right by Nancy's Steakhouse in Columbus. Anyway with all the busy stuff going on at the stock show, we may not be able to keep up our daily blogging, but we certainly plan to. Hopefully we will be able to get some good pictures along the way and can share them with you.

On another note, is anyone as much of a fan of Imma Be by the Black Eyed Peas as Catherine and I are? I just noticed that I was doing a real bad dance to it an I was typing. If you have not heard it you need to download it or buy the CD. My favorite part is towards the end when the song starts to speed up, and as the tempo speeds up the dance moves get worse and worse.

Thats it from the ranch!

O Canada!

Two summers ago I got to go to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to judge a few shows. The way I got to go was by being the High Individual at the National Western Stock Show judging contest. This story will have to be a multi-blog adventure, because I have so much to tell about my trip. One of my favorite aspects of the trip was the amazing scenery up there. No matter where you went the views were amazing. I was just looking through some of the pictures that I took and the first ones that I came to were of this beautiful waterfall. The falls were called Elbow Falls and they are located just outside of Bragg Creek, Alberta.

Here are a few pictures of the falls. Once I get all of my pictures gathered up I will tell more of the story. Because a story without pictures it just boring.

Caroline Anne McCain

Today Catherine and I got to have lunch with one of our favorite people, Caroline McCain, even though she brought her parents along with her we will had a great time. Caroline is the daughter of our close friends Caleb and Anne McCain. We met up at Larry's today to eat a wonderful lunch. You cannot tell it by the pictures but this morning Caroline had to have tubes put in her ears to help combat ear infections she has been having recently. When I heard that Caroline had to have this surgery, I got real nervous. But as you can see from the pictures below there was nothing to be worried about.

On another note, Caroline will be having her first birthday tomorrow. Not to sound all "grandpa-ish" but I can remember the day she was born. I had an exam the morning that Caroline was going to be born. My exam was first thing in the morning so I thought that I would have plenty of time to make the two hour trip back to Wharton from College Station. However, when I got done with my exam I ran into the hallway to call Catherine to get an update on Caroline's arrival and the report was that Caroline was ready to show her pretty face to us. I thought "Great, I am going to miss it!" So I ran to my truck and started towards the hospital. About every 15 minutes I would get an update from Catherine about the situation. I will say that I was not too worried about Anne but more nervous about Catherine who was at the hospital and seemed very confused, nervous, and excited all at the same time.

I was going as fast as I could to make it there but it looked like Caroline was determined to beat me. When I was only a few minutes away Catherine called me again. She reported that I needed to hurry up and get there because she (Catherine) was getting very nervous and was not sure what to do. She told me that there was a lot of yelling and running around of nurses and she was not sure 1) what was happening and 2) if she could handle any more. I quickly reassured her that everything would be fine, but in the back of my mind I was thinking that Catherine could freak out at any moment!

I finally got to the hospital just as they were weighing Caroline and getting her all bundled up so we could hold her. Catherine quickly found me and told me that she did not think that we could have kids, it was just too stressful! However in the year since her arrival Catherine has got much more used to kids and I think that she is over her fear of newborns.

Here are a few snapshots of Caroline from lunch. I would have more, but people were looking at me weird with my camera so I put it away.







Caleb (Caroline's Dad) made a very funny quote about this picture. He said "That's all she does, eat all our money!"

A New Hobby

Since we have started our blog, I've had several of my friends on Facebook comment or send me messages complimenting us on our photos. How exciting!

I have to say though, I can't take much credit for the photos. Luke takes almost all of them. Lets just say Luke is big time hobby photographer. Every since he came to visit me the first time in Texas 4 years ago, he laid eyes on my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and immediately grabbed my telescopic lens and went out snapping pictures all over the ranch.

Sometimes I find his hobby a little irritating... such as when I grab my camera to take a photo and it says, "Media Card Full." But... all in all, I am glad he's so interested in photography.

Now that we actually have a public place to post our pictures, I think Luke's interest will just get more serious! Just the other day we thought we may have to babysit one of our friend's kiddos, and the first thing we thought was... "Yay! We can get some cute photos of her!"

I have a lot of friends who are interested in photography and have turned their interest into a career. Who knows what the future will bring. We're definitely enjoying taking photos to share with everyone and are already trying our best to learn more about the technical aspect of photography. I have a friend who's photos I have admired for a while and I finally bit the bullet and sent her a message asking for some tips. She gave me so much great information! I have passed this along to Luke and we are having so much fun with some of her tips, information, and recommended reading.

So that's the story on our photos. We'll keep snapping pictures and keeping everyone updated.

Here's my photo for this blog... and it was actually taken by ME not Luke. This is one of our favorite wedding gifts... a personalized doormat from our good friend Rick Frye in Iowa.

Beef It's What's For Dinner!

Catherine and I have been on a mission to cook as many meals as we can at home. One of our favorite recipes is a slow cooked roast recipe that we found in a cookbook put out by one of our local churches. Everyone knows those church ladies know how to cook and this wonderful recipe shows just that. So tonight we tried to take pictures along the way so we could share this easy and delicious meal.

The ingredients you will need are:

• 1 Beef Roast (we have tried different cuts, but haven't found one we like more than others)
• 1 packet Onion Soup Mix
• 2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup or Golden Mushroom Soup
• 1 soup can full of water

Here is what you need to do.

First brown your meat. We put some Season Salt, Pepper, and flour on the meat and then put it into a dutch oven with a little oil in the bottom. Once one side is brown (about 3-4 mins) turn it over and hopefully it will look like this.

Once the roast has browned remove it to a plate.

This step is optional, but we poured a little red wine into the pan to loosen up all of the wonderful brown bits stuck to the bottom.

After you get all those pesky bits off the bottom of the pan, add the mushroom soup, can of water, and onion soup mix. we also added a few sliced mushrooms to the mix.

Next put the roast back into the pan. Like this.

Then push the roast to the bottom of the pan and make sure that the roast is covered in what will soon be the most wonderful gravy you have ever had.

Put this in the oven at 300 and cook for as long as you can, at least three hours. You can also add some vegetables into the pan during the last hour of so of cooking. We added some sliced new potatoes to ours.

For many this would be all they would want for dinner but we also had some cornbread and Catherine's amazing dump cake. This is another great recipe that only has three ingredients. 1) one box yellow cake mix. 2) your favorite pie filling. 3) butter, and a lot of it. All you do it put the pie filling in a pan, the put the dry cake mix on top, and finally cover the top in little globs of butter. Then cook at 350 until the top is brown.

The cornbread as it is baking in the oven.

The dump cake with a big scoop of Blue Bell Vanilla right on top!

If any of you readers out there have any good recipes that you would like to share, please comment and leave us your favorites.