Pinterest anyone??

I am always the last to know.  About anything.  My mother lives almost 200 miles from me, and she calls me why I haven't told her about so and so and yaddayadda yadda.  I live under a mushroom.  And for the most part I am ok with it.

BUT seriously I just recently discovered Pinterest!  How did I ever survive without Pinterest???  I Heart Pinterest.  I love Pinterest.  Pinterest was invented for people like me.

I guess I should be thankful that finally someone slipped up and told me about Pinterest.    I like how it gathers all those fun little blogs, or crafts or recipes that I tried to keep written down on an good old yellow notepad, in one place.  I mean all that info is right there on my finger tips.  No more yelling at they hubby or kid for stealing my little yellow notepad of off my desk.  No more trying to guess what I had jotted down that is now covered in crayon scribble.

Pinterest.  How did I survive without you??

New Blog, New Fun

A Friend of mine has started a blog of her own.  I am not really sure if anyone even reads my blog anymore since I have been horrible about posting lately but thought I would give you a link to her blog anyway.

Dirt Road Dreamer    Check it out.   Whitney is funny, shoots straight from the hip, smart, tough, and to top it off has one of the cutest Corgis ever!!!

Enjoy her blog and her ranching stories.  I know I will!

 I am trying to play catch up here.  And of course brag a little bit.  It's my blog, I get to brag all I want!!!

Last September I loaded Tally and Baby TC up and good ol' Fred and headed down the highway about 50 miles to take T to a little kids rodeo.  Her first rodeo, besides the fun nights we have at home.  For several weeks I had been building up to her about riding a sheep.

*Ride a sheep, all the cool kids do it.

* Did you know your mom used to be a heck of a mutton buster.

*Honey, it runs in the family your auntie has a buckle or twos he won from riding a sheep.

And so my 4 year old agreed to try and ride a sheep.  But of course I knew nothing about riding a sheep, and she needed Handsome Larry (family friend) to take her to the bucking chutes and help her.  I was ok with that, because then this mommy got to take pictures and video of her little cowgirl riding a sheep.  

And ride a sheep she did!! My 4 year old cowgirl won the 8 and under sheep riding for the 2011 Go Getters Rodeo!!  I was so damn happy and proud I cried!  That's right, I cried and I am not ashamed to admit it!  But not only did she win the sheep riding that day, she also for the first time off her horse by herself  to do the goat tail tying, which was also a first for her.   She met some new people, as did I.  She did her events all by herself, some successfully and some not, but she did them.  And most importantly she had fun!!

A shot of the sheep riding.

Getting of her horse by herself for the first time!

Trying and trying to tie that ribbon on the goats tail.

And we are still trying, but she ran out of time.  

Walking up to accept our sheep riding winnings.

A great bunch of young cowgirls and cowboys! 

My cowgirl didn't want the day to end.  She rode ol' Fred over to the corral to give him his grain.

Tally and Fred posing.  She wanted me to take a picture of her and her horse and her rodoe winnings so her Papa knew that she had 'done really good and was taking care of her horse'.


Yep, that's my bragging post!  That horse is worth at least a million bucks in my mind!  He makes Tally smile, and she has so much fun with him and wants to take care of him!  Every kid should be so lucky.

Fall Work

These pictures/this post was scheduled to be published last October.  Somewhere there was a hiccup and it wasn't.  I find the pictures too cute not to post now.  So here ya go, better late than never.

It's October in Montana which means fall gathering, shipping calves, and working cows.  One of my favorite times of the year.  I missed out on a lot of gathering and fall work this year because I have a sweet 10 month old baby girl to take care of.  Such is life.  

Last weekend our good friend was gathering his herd and planning on running his cows through and working them.  The forecast called for an unseasonably warm day with no wind.  Let me tell ya, no wind in Montana is call for celebration!  Big T was at preschool with Grandma scheduled to pick her up.  So Baby T and I loaded up and headed out with Big D to go help Uncle Charley.  Baby T and I waited as the rest of them gathered the herd.  She actually caught a good nap, and I got caught up on some reading.  

Then came the sorting and the working and the visiting.  So what else was I supposed to do.  We backed the pickup up next to the chute, and threw the jumper/exersaucer on the back and  Baby T got to take in all the action!

Checking out the herd.

Smiling for mom.

Some may think it's wrong.  I think that there is no such thing as too young!  The weather was great, and she was happy!  And like it or not this is her life until she is 18 and gone!  :)  Besides, it's fun to watch all the cowboys (young and old) interact with a baby when the baby is on there turf!

Winter Fun without any Snow

Snow has been quite scarce in North East Montana this winter.  I would go as far as to call it nonexistent this winter.  And the temperatures have been incredibly warm.  What I am trying to say to is it is the end of January.  There is no snow.  It's been 40 degrees out.  AND did I mention it is January in North East Montana!!  

But since we aren't doing any sledding or snowmobiling....  Course even if there was snow I, myself, wouldn't be doing any snowmobiling; we're are still doing some fun winter stuff around here.

Fun stuff like riding Fred.  Course, the little Cowgirl is thinking it's fun, but Ol' Fred has given me the look a time or two that I read as "Really????  I thought I got to spend my winters with my head buried in the hay feeder."  But as tough as he may want to be, Fred sure does take good care of his little cowgirl.

And off they go.  Nothin' like saddling up and stickin' the spurs to him!

If you look hard enough you can see the big grin on my Cowgirl!

T and Fred.  Fred and T.

Yes.  You are seeing things right.  Fred has his ears pins back because he is not happy!

Her sled hasn't even left the corners of the garage this winter.  But, her saddle isn't sitting around getting dusty!

New Year, New Lots of Things

New Year; New Blog??  Well, not really new blog, but just a promise of doing better.  

New Year; New Camera.  Yes, new camera and I still have lots to learn when it comes to using it to its full potential.  

New Year; New Commitment.  Like I said above, Be A Better Blogger is one of my new years resolutions.  I have tons of ideas floating through my  head, I just have a hard time getting them onto the blog.  I am working on that.

New Year; New Challenges.  Challenging myself to do new things, try new things, on top of the regular old challenging things of ranching and farming.  

New Year; New Pictures.  To kick off things off, here are some pictures I snapped last fall on shipping day. Enjoy

Weaning Day

One Fall Day

Sign of Time Gone By

Fall

For Those That Can Read