Practically Ancient

What a forgetful slacker I am! Max's stepsister's birthday was March 1, and we failed to wish her happy anything. The sad thing--we were even at the big ranch with her. Sorry, Jordann, I'm getting old and I never know the date while we're out there! Plus, I just plain forgot. You'd think my hubby could help me out occasionally. Yeah right! (Max just disclosed that he knew it was her birthday on Sunday and that he extended his bday wishes. How odd that he wouldn't let his wife in on that!!)

The only thing I know to do to make it up to Jordann is post many, many cute pictures of her taken throughout the years. Fun for me to see how much she's grown and changed.

This was several years ago. That's Max's dad, stepmom, Justin, and Jordann.

Love these pictures! There is always something new and exciting to hold and hunt at the Wade Ranch. Jordann was holding one of several pigs she and her mom raised. Justin caught some innocent little cottontail. Garrett was pleased as punch with the whole situation.

Jordann has been a cowgirl since she was very young. I've been told she's one of the very best riders around. She should be--the girl has taken more spills and crashes than anyone else! From what I've heard, that makes a rider that much better. Jordann rides like the wind.
This particular night they decided to sleep outside on the ground, in the middle of summer! She wasn't scared of bugs! Not our Jordann. I'm laughing at the lack of a pillow case. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're going to be an overnight guest, you might consider bringing your own bedding and pillows. I'm just saying.

She's special alright!
She's holding Grant in this picture when he was only a few days old. Love it.
Any t.v. shows come to mind when you see the picture below?
Perhaps a show that starred Nicole Ritchie and Paris Hilton?! All I can say is that they didn't ask my permission before getting dressed that morning. I mean really, who gets that dolled up to wrestle calves and give injections? Jordann, we love you to pieces!
Happy late, great Birthday! I cannot believe you're already 17! The next thing I know, you'll be telling me you're 18. Crazy stuff.

Easy Cheesy

I'm still attempting to touch on all the bullets from my post titled "In a Nutshell." I don't know why I set such lofty goals for myself. Would any of you even notice if I neglected a few on the list? I bet not. Out of compulsion, I press on.

Let's start with City Slickers. Generally speaking, most people that come to the Wade Ranch are City Slickers. I think that adds to the charm. Our ranch manager, Candido, has worked on ranches his whole life. He would be the opposite of a City Slicker. However, the majority of the help he gets for big work weekends and brandings happen to be people with little or no experience. You know what--it works! Candido told us a few years back how great he thought everyone was--how good they were at taking direction and doing as he asked. Often times a "real cowboy" will show up on a ranch and basically be too cool for his Wrangler britches. Not at the Wade Ranch. Even the "real cowboys" we get are wonderful people! (Hi PeeWee, Matt, Steven, etc. We love and appreciate you!)

We are blessed to have individuals come out who love the experience and appreciate the opportunity to play cowboy. Candido gets a great kick out of everyone. We all love him.

This past weekend called for a cattle drive of the red herd. Here you can see Big Grant (Cindy and Jason's son) and Claire driving the whole herd by themselves. OK, not true, but doesn't it look that way? I love the image of those two kids and the huge expanse of cows ahead of them.

The red herd is notorious for being uncooperative. One year the riders pushed the cows all the way to the holding pens several times only to have them turn back at the last minute. We planned dinner for 6:30 but didn't get to serve it to all the riders until almost midnight . (Experienced individuals were also helping.) Big, bad red herd!

Friday afternoon you would have thought they were the most docile bovines on the planet.Father and son experiencing their first cattle drive together. Because there were not many riders and the herd is typically so difficult, Candido had Max pull the "cake" wagon in front of the herd. The cows are conditioned to come a runnin' with the cake wagon shows up.

I love this shot of Candido's horse--what an expression.

With the exception of one calf that broke loose, the drive was a non event. Tim even had time to take his own pictures--isn't that a hoot?
If he wasn't taking pictures, he was waving at the oh so talented members of the press corp bringing up the rear. Barb, excellent work steering my truck to excellence. If I ever go on a National Geographic safari in Africa as the lead photographer, you're my gal!As the drive came to a dusty/windy conclusion, we spotted Max pull into sight.

I was a little surprised to see Hank on top of the vehicle! Max said that about half way through the experience, he could no longer see Hank in the back of the pick-up. Max and Garrett finally figured out he crawled up top and stayed there! That, folks, was the vanishing animal I mentioned before. That little dog surprises us all the time.
And here you can see the cake wagon and the bunkhouse. They match!! We are a very coordinating gang.

I will close with two more bullet topics.

The man below is Rocky Balboa, or at least he thought he was in the pens Saturday morning. Supposedly Max made some crack and Rocky, AKA Jason, hauled off and popped Max a good one in his mending chest. Jason didn't even realize the error of his ways until Max said, "You probably shouldn't have done that." Jason, "Why?" I think not too long after that, he realized what Max was saying. I, for one, appreciate Jason following through. It makes what I did back in January not look so bad at all! Good times! Jason, prepare for Max to tease you about that forever.

And here I present Goofy done cool! Have a great one.

Dairy Done Right

Being a woman of my word, in this post I will strive to fill you in on a couple of the points I mentioned last night. Again, if there are any new readers feeling confused, the ranch I will be speaking about tonight is not Galloping Grace, but the Wade Ranch. Both places are near and dear to my heart. Therefore, I use this blog to discuss our family's experiences at both.


This past weekend was a working weekend at Wade Ranch. There were 750 cows that needed to be vaccinated. Friday was a cattle drive (another night's post) and Saturday was the day the cattle were pushed through the chutes and injected with all kinds of good stuff.


I want to start by pointing out all the darling red heads in attendance. First up we have the lovable Hank dog. He obediently stayed in the back of Max's pick up for several hours while the action took place. He was quite the little spectator staring at all those cows and hanging out with a bed full of children. Speaking of cute little spectators with red hair...We had the pleasure of meeting this little sweetie who came down with her mama and friend to help out. She really enjoyed loving on Hank, even when he wasn't especially cuddly. (More on that another night as well.)


And this young red head is Jordann, Max's hip stepsister. Jordann is a pro at working cattle. Our family has had the ranch since Jordann was around six years old. She has definitely been there and done that again and again. I love Jordann and her silly ways.


This last red head was not near as chipper. You know what they say about their tempers! If she would have been more cooperative, she would not have had to have that clip attached to her spongy nose. (Are their noses even spongy?? I'm going to have to go with not really.) OK, moving on from red heads to red ears. Number 194 stood out in the herd.
I simply adored her fro head and long white eyelashes. She's a beauty queen in my book.


I told you last night that some were "worn and weary with one foot out the door." This big mama demonstrates that point.
Geez, not as clear to see here on the blog. If you can click on the picture to enlarge, (why does that work sometimes and not others? Does it have something to do with cropping?!) you will see that her bottom middle teeth are no bueno. Once it is determined that their teeth are not good, they are separated from the herd until they can be sold off. To hear Candido (ranch manager) tell it, if their teeth are bad, they will not be able to eat properly which will eventually cause issues with their calves.

Here is another example of a cow headed on the next train out of Dodge. If you look at the far right side of her eye, you can see the white area. That is definitely not good.

She has cancer. It will quickly eat up her eye and then that side of her face. For obvious reasons, we will no longer be requiring her calf bearing services. I hope she enjoys her remaining days here on Earth. It's sad to see them have to go like that.

On to happier topics. During the pumpkin stand and Christmas Corral fundraisers, we had the help of some pretty amazing people. Some helped us out in the field gathering pumpkins while others helped work the stands. A few did both! This is Tim.

Some of you might recall his unwavering dedication to working at both stands every single weekend we were open. He gave many a child a pony ride, hauled trees to cars, carried pumpkins by the basket full, etc. Tim and his wife Barb were also the couple who opened up the Christmas Corral Thanksgiving weekend while we were out of town. What friends! Would you believe me when I tell you we didn't really get to know them until the end of September when they came out to the farm to gather pumpkins? Tim and Barb took a whole truck load of the baby pumpkins back to Albuquerque for us. From that point on, the favors never stopped coming. When Max was put on pretty extreme restrictions in December, Tim worked the tree stand every night AFTER he got off his job. Again Tim, thank you so much for all you did for us! (You too, Barb.)

We invited them out this past weekend to play cowboy. Besides being hilarious, Tim is one very grateful guy. He must have thanked us fifty times for having them out.

Believe me, it was our pleasure.

Now on to lumps. The cows get some gigantically huge abscesses. The cowboy way of dealing with such issues is to pull out a knife and stab at it. In these pictures, it looks like a delicate little procedure. Please note that there is nothing delicate about it. The cow is thrashing from the assault and the men with the knives are far from gentle. Get 'er done! I guess the big ol' lump on this gal wasn't ready to give up any of its good stuff. She was sent back into the pasture with a gaping wound. I tell ya, I would not want to be a cow! (Book in the works on this topic--chapters filling up every time I step foot on the ranch.)

Even though I do not have any pictures of this particular cyst-type thing being "popped", I do have some pictures of the eruption. Feast your eyes on this.

And you thought milk only came out of udders! Silly city folks!

Please let me assure you that as disgusting as that might look, the smell is a hundred and twenty times worse!! This is where the saying gag a maggot came to be. Apparently these mountains of nastiness are caused by rattle snake bites. Candido was surprised to see as many as we did being that it's winter and rattle snakes should be chilling out in their little scaly dens. My technical advisor just informed me that the popping does not always result in such a runny consistency. Often times, a nice cottage cheese-like substance is squeezed out. YUM-MY! Talk about fresh and from the source. Those are the days we don't have to bother serving lunch.

I will end with a shot of the old cows exiting the trailer into their very own leper colony until they can be removed from the premises. There final job is to rear their little calves. After that, sayonara and adios!
May your pastures be greener at your next destination. We appreciate your faithful years of service and wish you nothing but the best.

Snippets

It's been a slow news day. I have very little to say. (Much like most of you after reading my posts!) I thought I'd just throw a few pictures at you from our trip to our family ranch. No real reason for any besides amusing myself. As we were leaving the ranch, I was struck by how different our ranch is compared to Mark and TJ's in northern California. TJ, look what kind of landscape would make up the pages of any calendar we did.
Can you see an orange speck in the far left of this picture? That's Hank, our Golden Retriever. He went on two long trail rides on Saturday and Sunday. Not only is our family ranch my children and husband's favorite place on Earth, but now it's Hank's! He was one tired pup last night. I guess miles and miles of running beside horses will do that.
This is my father-in-law, Jerry. The kids and most of us all call him Pop. He reminds me of a movie character in this picture. Any guesses as to which one?
I found my brother-in-law, Jim, checking on his big rig. He runs his own trucking company out of Oklahoma. He brought a load of hay for the cattle ranch as well as for Galloping Grace. It's pretty unbelievable that it was cheaper for us to have Jim haul it all the way from OK than to get it here in NM. Back to that Jim man--he makes the best rolls and biscuits! I am so happy he and family made the trip out. (Jim is married to Max's sister Alicia in case you're keeping a family tree on us.)
The girl on the left is Tristan, Jim's daughter and our niece. The girl on the right is Max's step sis, Jordann. I love them both so much! Cute girls, great riders. I coerced them into this shot right before they left for a ride.
Last random shot for your entertainment. These are Max's siblings and dad. Top row from left to right we have Terry (the one headed to Iraq--brave, smart man, scared to ever play me in ping pong again--you shouldn't blame him!), Max (love of my life, handsome hunk!), and Roy (pumpkin chucker, tree hauler, bench maker, stand shelter builder!) In the front from left to right is Tom (reading machine, three black lab having, hunter extraordinaire), Pop (don't ever call him Grandpa, rotten rascal, hard worker, loving guy) and Alicia (super funny, so great with all the kids, wish she lived so much closer, miss her already girl.)

I'll stop now.