Chaos.....udderly chaos

It has been quite chaotic over the last few lovely weeks. From our busy week with friends here for the poetry gathering and then busy building some working gear alongside my Buckaroo Man preparing for the winnemucca ranch hand. We just got back home from visiting our wonderful boys and meeting up with my in laws as well as an interview for a ranch job. What a neat place! So refreshing to see a place that holds dear to tradition. They still stack hay instead of baling it and feed with a team all winter!

As soon as we arrived home I had to do some rush grocery shopping as Buckaroo Man invited some working friends over for dinner! Its wonderful being married to a man that never slows down! I whipped up dinner last evening and even had enough leftovers to send home with one of the fellow buckaroos. Thankfully my mother was coming for a visit and got here early enough to clean up the house a little for me! Thank God for mothers!

I love chaos. It keeps us on our toes. Hopefully it will make me skinny again. I have heard it can do that. Its like the magic diet. Take 1 dose daily and you will lose 1 pound. Only problem is chaos makes me eat more. So maybe its more like 1 dose daily and you will gain 1 pound. Hopefully not. Well time to start some more chaos.....clean the house, move furniture, pull baseboards, and whatever else needs done to paint the walls! Oh and try to finish selling and delivering puppies through out it all......as well as sell 3 horses.....as well as find a safe horse for a dear older friend....as well as more chaos.

Oh how I love chaos, please stay busy life, but could you make me lose a pound instead of gain one?

Poor mamma dog, she is weaning and joining in on our chaos.

Well, back to the chaos! Until next time! Too-da-loo!

Calf nuts and a buckaroo slide show

Buckaroo Man has been busy taking a rawhide braiding class by Doug Groves. The week of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is always a fun busy one. We see many dear friends and get the pleasure of seeing some amazing silver, rawhide, and leather goods. Last year at this time I met my Buckaroo Man for the first time. I will share that story later this week.

Every day I have stopped in to visit with him and his fellow braiders. The knots and buttons they build are very intricate and very much put together like a puzzle! There work is absolutely beautiful. Raw hide has been used in cowboy gear since the beginning. Buckaroos, cowboys, and vaqueros used either grass reatas or rawhide reatas.  A reata is the rope used as a lariat. Now there are many other options-nylon, polyester, cotton, and many different blends. The buckaroo man is building a pair of rawhide hobbles. Hobbles are used instead of tying the horse to encourage it to stay put. The hobbles attach both the front feet of a horse together to restrict the range of motion...although some horses can run just as fast in hobbles as with out them...imagine it like stepping into a potato sack for a race.

Last evening we had a big get together with all the braiders and a bunch of folks from all over the country. I spent all morning baking bread for it. We spent an hour skinning frozen calf nuts then breading them and tossing them in the fryer. Women and men all jumped in to get the job done. Have you ever had fried calf nuts...aka rocky mountain oysters? They are incredibly divine! Absolutely the best appetizer you can have! After dinner was served we  had the pleasure of being entertained by a little girl and her father. They sang and played the fiddle. Then we all headed downstairs and watched a slide show a man had from his days buckarooing in the 1950's. The stories and history I heard throughout the evening are still swarming around in my head!

This week will continue to be a wonderful busy week. A few friends will be arriving today so we will be busy helping set up some booths. I suppose I best get the chores finished and head into town! Until next time! Too-da-loo!!