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!!

I love the DMV

Its down right chilly! I am procrastinating this morning so that I can have just a few more minutes next to the cozy stove! Soon I will be busy in the kitchen and that should keep me plenty warm. My husband's cousin came and spent the weekend with us and boy did we have fun. We decided to make a bunch of meals for our freezer as well as for some dear friends who are fighting cancer. I would post the recipes but  I have to figure out how to override this blog thingy in order to do so!!

Yesterdays adventure included 3 visits to the DMV! Did you know that policies can change over night? Or that state to state could be soooo complicated!? My advice......avoid buying a car out of state if you can help it! What a blast to sit and observe people-I thought people watching at the airport was good but its got nothing on the DMV. If you are ever bored and want some free entertainment then head on down to the DMV.......its free of charge to enter and your welcome to stay as long as you like!!

It sounds like a pack of chimps have entered the house! The pups are a little over a week old and it wont be long before their eyes open, but boy can they make some noise!!! They sure hate when their mamma has been out in the below zero weather and she comes in and lays on them-you should hear them holler!! The little red dog has definitely been feeling better because she spent over an hour herding her chickens!

Time to get to doing something this morning. The Buckaroo Man and I have to get ready to go to a Gun Engravers Guild gathering this weekend and then off to MSHA training! Once we come back I will have to whip the house into shape, plan some meals, and get some more things built for the upcoming Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Our house will be full of friends and cowboy gear!

Until next time! Too-da-loo!!!!

The Puppies

P1080768, a photo by The Buckaroo Bride on Flickr.

My little red dog is finally rested after her long weekend! Her little ones are all healthy and very demanding! While she has been resting I have been trying to clean our too big of house. I have decided that I would prefer to live in the wall tent, then dirt on the floor would be completely acceptable! 

Well, enough of this brief break and back to removing all the regularly tracked in dirt and hay! Too-da-loo!

Chicken Thief

I never imagined it would be so hard to sit down and get on the computer this winter but who knew it would be so warm? Hard to stay inside when there are so many interesting things I can be doing outside.  There are always dogs to chase, chickens to herd, and plenty of potting soil to clean up after the dogs have dug all my bulbs out of my whiskey barrels!

Speaking of my Buckaroo Man's dog; this weekend was a bit adventurous for us! A week or so ago Buckaroo Man's cow dog pup, aka... Skunk, decided that chicken was for dinner so he helped himself to my laying hens. (he already helps himself daily to my beloved brown eggs!) The surviving chickens are still disturbed by his presence! After getting walloped a few times with what was left of my favorite chicken he has decided that he no longer desires chicken upon his pallet. Due to our chicken loss and severe egg reduction we began hunting for laying hens for sale. We found some and headed to the armpit of america(battle mountain, NV) to pick them up. We planned on 5 but brought 10 home!

Once the beloved chickens were deposited in their coop we headed inside to warm up. The moment we walked in the door we were greeted by the sounds of new born puppies! What a wonderful sound! My little red border collie, aka....Reata, spent the last 15 hours in labor. The birth of puppies is probably one of my favorite births to be a part of! As soon as that puppy came into the cold noisy world her mama would swiftly clean her face so she could breathe, sever the umbilical cord, and nudge her until she squirmed and cried! This was followed by a detailed cleaning and help on finding her new food supply! Aren't maternal instincts amazing! We now have 8 cute little puppies! New life is such a wonderful thing!

Time to let the little red dog out. Until next time.....too-da-loo!!!

Life as the Bride of a Buckaroo Man

Merry Christmas. I decided that sharing my first Christmas as a newlywed was a great time to start this blogging thing. I hope everyone that takes a peak at this blog will enjoy hearing about my adventures as I learn to be the wife of a buckaroo with a ready made family. Thank God my ready made kids are boys! I have already decided that growing up as a tom-boy and loving to play in the mud has been an instant hit with my newly acquired boys!!! (not to mention I make some killer fried chicken, fried mozzarella sticks, and mac n' cheese)

The best part of having boys is that buying Christmas and birthday gifts is soooo easy! Pretty much anything that involves building things, batteries, carharts, tricks, super heroes or spitball warfare (in other words anything that would interest me) is a total go! We even went a little overboard so we are already stocked up for their upcoming birthdays!!! Our 7 year old spent a long conversation with his dad asking for a pony-when he was told that we had plenty of horses he said that he changed his mind...he wanted the little one (a yearling quarter horse filly) and he wanted me to train it to be a pony!!! These boys have been the best addition to my adventures than anything I could have asked for!!

I sure enjoyed the little surprises my beloved Buckaroo Man wrapped up. If the wrapping wasn't amazing.......3 different patterned wrapping papers all taped up to cover the boxes up-quite the uh..artistic ability.....then the gifts were! I received a new pair of spurs that are to be engraved upon by my Buckaroo Man and a new serger so that I can start sewing and selling wild rags. Wild rags are the silk scarves cowboys and buckaroos use to keep their necks warm in the winter, keep the dust out of their mouth and nose in the dusty season, as well as dip in the creek to use as a rag or to cool their face and neck.

The number one thing I had to learn by being the bride of a buckaroo is that cowboys don't like green things in there food. If they can see it then they generally mention that it shouldn't be there! I made a tasty Sausage, potato, and kale soup just like Olive Gardens "Zuppa Toscana". While we were eating he began bouncing the Kale up and down-I figured since he was playing with his food there was something he wanted to say. So I tapped him and he looked up and said how tasty the soup was and how nice and flavorful it was. Then with a sheepish grin he asked if there was anyway to take the strange green stuff out! I learned quickly that if it is green and can't be covered in ranch then it just shouldn't be there!!

Well, looks like my Buckaroo Man is ready to start building the new whelping box for our very pregnant cow dog! Then we are off to try out his new Henry Rifle. So until next time-Happy Holidays and Too-da-loo!