9/30/12

September's Photo Gallery

1. Myself, now ~ In my kitchen, where it's good to be queen. 2. Father ~ Doing something that he loves.
3. Faraway ~ having them with me on my jog, turned it more into a run! 4. Inside my mailbox…

5. Bright  6. Everyday ~ really, it's a mountain of laundry! 7. Natural ~ yes, those are Bull Elk! 
8. At Night ~ at the staff party.   9. Something We Do Most Weekends ~ decompress with the Xbox. 
10. Black + White ~ at the bus stop.
 11. Hero        12. Together      13. Table ~ really dusty tables!

14. Favorite      15. First Thing You See ~ This was such an amazing sunrise to see, we were driving to Basketball Town, which took 3 yours and we left before sun up, but I didn't think about any pictures until the sun came up and it was fire red! 16. Strange ~ the outfit she refused to change! Oh yea, she's mine!  

17. In my fridge       18. Price ~ in Little Town    19. Underneath ~ at the park 

20. Man-made ~ my new toy!     21. Sometimes ~ little girls get to cheer at the big game! 
      22. Up           23. Before bedtime ~ Oh come on! You know you were thinking that too! 

24. 3 Things 
25. Frame ~ made by Adventure Man    26. Near ~ one workout nearer    27. Love/Hate ~ I'm trying something new for my MS and I love the idea of it, and the way it makes me feel, but hate change, and the fact that I forget and just eat what I shouldn't. Gluten free is such a lifestyle change! 

 28. A God Thing ~ she got put in!   29. Errand   30. Myself, Then ~ The Afro Magazine Modeling Agency! Modeling in the 80's, baby! Guess how old I was there! LOL! 

I use the list put out by Chantelle at Fat Mum Slim. Her October list is out, so join in! xo

Worn Out

The guests are gone. 
The season is over. 
The staff are worn out. 
And so are these old boots. 











Ni Hao Yall


 

9/26/12

The Tack

Welcome to the tack shed! I just know you folks were thinking how much you love that old smell of worn leather. Man, I love the smell of it in here. I don't want to keep it all to myself, so I thought I would give you a little look-see before we pack it all up for the winter. 
 It looks as if there have been some others who think it's a pretty neat spot! These nest have been here for awhile. 

The staff has been oiling up the saddles and getting them all ready to be stored for the winter. This is our last week of guests and this group isn't riding. 

So I guess I wasn't being quite honest about the number of cowboy boots I have! Na, they aren't mine. We rent these to the guests for the week. Kind of reminds me of a bowling alley. Only you need a helmet if you're under 18 and we aren't tossing balls at pins, so I guess it really doesn't! 

Hanging the cinches out to dry.  

This is where they go. On the wall next to the bridles and harnesses. 

Why yes, those are cow bells! We put them around the necks of the horses who might like to hide from the wranglers in the morning when they go fetch them off the mountain. I think it's a good way to make sure that a few of the horses are humbled and humiliated by their peers. I love the sound of it when they run past the house in the morning. Although I have been known to dream of cows a lot! 

And all the hats are hung. 
 It's been a good season! Thanks for stop'n by!

 

9/25/12

I Took My Cat For a Walk

I went out to the barn to take this picture the other day of the first day of autumn. 


I left the garage door open and the cat had been inside. He followed me out. 
When we lived at the Other Ranch he was an indoor, outdoor can. He was young and a good mouser. He was also a good ground squirrel-er and rabbit-er. My little garden grew very well for all the critters I buried there. 

But here we are right on the ranch. The guests pass our house on the way to the horses. Their kids play at the ranch park, in our backyard. So the day Adventure Man came to have me bury a decapitated rabbit that was left on our back step, he decided the cat had to stay in. (Not to mention the threat of mountain lions, coyotes, bears, and zombies.) Really it's for the good of the cat! 


But he's a Siamese cat. And he has a Siamese cry. MmmEeeeAaawww. Once I woke in the night and thought a child was crying "Mama!" It was just the cat in the hall. He makes me crazy! He walks down the hall where the hardwood floors have a great echo effect. There he tells the world what a sorry kitty he is. In fact, even as I type this he is off somewhere crying like a baby. Oh, he has food, and water…. Just no justice. 

He is allowed into the garage. Where it would be nice if he caught a mouse. Sadly, squirrels also get into the garage. Apparently he doesn't really like to eat mice. But he can't finish a squirrel! So we trap mice in traps and he leaves bloody squirrel messes for me. 
No really! Once, the whole floor was covered with blood. Like he had slit a throat and just let the animal flop around. It was like the feline mafia had just had a shake down. 
"You talk'n to me?"
"Ah, Forget 'bout it!"  

So, I walked out and the cat just followed me. Stalking a long, never getting too far from my side. It's is as if he knows it's not safe for him here. He is out of practice. He's no barn cat. He never was. He is a fat house cat who wants to sit and snuggle. Seriously, we should have named him Romeo! 

Mr. Neko 
He used to be a great hunter. But now he is old and confinded. He spends more time sleeping and eating and coughing up what he just ate. It's a hard life being an old cat.

9/23/12

Starlight Star Bright How Many Stars Are There!

Today I want to share the pictures my husband took while we were hosting the Photograph the Rockies week, here at The Guest Ranch. This is the first time he has attempted this technic and I think they came out pretty great! 

The Milky Way by Adventure Man

The Lodge at Night by Adventure Man
Ni Hao Yall
 


9/22/12

Time and Space and The Black Holes

"When we think of time, we tend to think of clock radios, coffee breaks, afternoon naps, leisure time, halftime activities, parole time, doing time, Minute Rice, instant tea, mid-life crises, that time of the month, cocktail hour. 
And if I should suddenly mention space -- aha! 
I bet most of you thought of your closets!"
~Trudy from 
The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe 
by Jane Wagner


A few months ago I woke on a Sunday morning and started getting ready for church. I got dressed, put on my face and got my kids out of bed. I set out their things helped the baby into a dress and my preschooler into his shirt and tie. We were fed and racing out the door by 15 after and I was so excited that we were actually going to make the 35 minute drive with time to spare! I might even make the early morning meeting if I hurried.

That was when I looked at the clock in the car and I was filled with complete confusion. It was 9:15, not 8:15? How could this be?

I had set my alarm clock the night before with complete confidence that if we got up at eight o'clock, we would have an hour to get ready and get out the door by eight fifteen! (No, this isn't a typo, stay with me!)

How had this happened? What time was it? I spent the whole drive trying to figure this out in my head and my brain couldn't piece together what had just happened.

Sure enough, the first hour of church meetings were almost over when we arrived on the scene! I still couldn't understand. Then, slowly, logic started to compute and time and space seemed to come together. Of course I couldn't wake up with just fifteen minutes until I needed to go and think I had an hour! Why did my brain not understand that! But still, my brain wouldn't let go of that knowledge that I had been right! My brain seemed to have been having an argument. I know, logically that that was not possible but my brain kept saying that the time frame was right.

This scared me. I knew I was wrong, but my brain couldn't accept it. It was as if I had two brains in my head. One was right, normal, healthy. The other was not supposed to even be there. It was sick, it was hard to control. It wasn't mine. It had holes in it.

I have a picture of that brain. An MRI. It does have holes in it. Little black spots that are the scars of the MS. Are they the reason for the miss function? I don't even know.

MS is hard because it could be MS, or I could have just sat on my leg wrong and it's just gone numb. Am I dizzy because I haven't had lunch yet and am I hypoglycemic? Or is it the MS and I'm starting to have a bat of vertigo? Sometimes it's easy to make a small thing into a big deal. But it's just as easy to overlook the danger signs and write them off as nothing.

I do that a lot. I would rather it not be a big deal than have everyone worried about me. So it's just a fluke.

Last week was Homecoming. My daughter, a 4th grader, got to participate in a cheer camp that the squad puts on during Homecoming week. Kids 3 and up can go and learn a routine to perform during halftime at the big game. It's so much fun! It raises money for the cheerleaders and lots of little girls get to learn what it would be like to join the squad thus promoting the team as well.

The kids participate at the pep rally, then ride the cheer float in the parade, and finally, that night, they cheer at the game. I went to the rally. After that I couldn't find a clock and was worried we would miss the parade. I walked to main street and waited. No one was there. I turned on my phone. The school called and told me my 4th grader was waiting to be picked up? OH MY GOSH! They were calling to let me know that they took her to the parade float and she was fine. I never realized that there was an hour between the end of school and the time for the parade. We, my three other kids and I, walked back to school, checked on the one daughter, and then walked back to main, just in time for the parade to start.

It had happened again! My brain had not been able to calculate time and space! Plus, I got the #1 Parent Fail Award! Then while standing on the street watching the parade, some lady came up to me to tell me I had forgotten my daughter at school!

Thanks for that! How do I know you?

9/20/12

Sunrise With A Lesson

For our anniversary, we splurged and got ourselves a new camera. I've been using my husband's old Nikon a lot lately so we decided that the new one should be for both of us and our anniversary seemed like a good time to do it. Plus, the ranch is having a Photography week this week. Timing is everything!

In May and September we have week long workshops for our guests. In the spring we offer Grizzly Week and two Birding Weeks. In September we have had a Hiking Week and a Photography in The Rockies week. We invite experts in the field to come and spend the week hiking with, talking with, and teaching our guests.

So this week my husband has been taking his our new camera around and getting hands on tips and tricks! Now I sure hope he shares some of his new found knowledge with me!

Here are some of his shots! 
Monday Morning Sunrise 
The Guests on Monday, in the act of Photographing the Sunrise.
 At sunset they headed out to the front to see the elk. Adventure Man was messing with all the new settings.
Purple Mountains Majesty 
Monday's sunset with the elk, and geese. 
 On Tuesday they hiked up to the ridge and waited for the sun to come up onto the field. Once it was high enough our wrangler set the horses out and chased them along.
Tuesday morning horse run.
 The gate to the main house where the original owners used to live.
He built everything with his own hands and most of it is as it was!
Querencia

The river that runs through the property. There is a little foot bridge just to the left of this shot.

Wednesday they went out to the Front to see if they could do more with the elk, but it looked as if the land owner down there had been cutting hay and all they saw were geese and some coyote. They had seen a great horned owl, but he didn't cooperate with the photo shoot idea.
Go South! 

The Names Coyote, Wile E Coyote.  
I had gone into Little Town to pick up Bean from Cheer camp and take Lulu to Young Men and Young Women's Youth Group that night. When we came home we passed the van on the side of the road with all the guests out in the dark crouched in the grass. They waved us on as they had lots of folks stop to see if they were OK. I laughed and said I'd see them at home! I wish I had taken a picture of all them out by the side of the road!

Tuesday night they went out and star gazed. We have such an amazing amount of stars, the pictures are the first Adventure Man has tried and are fuzzy but still show the splendor. I will share them on Sunday.

Thursday morning they went down to the swamp lookout to see if they could spy a grizzly, but had no luck. The bears have been numerous this season, but are much more sparse now! Thank heavens!

 I'm so grateful to Adventure Man for letting me share these beautiful pictures with you!  I hope you have enjoyed them!

Now, I hope I can get a lesson in! And get to use the new toy!




OrangeFridayBadge


Happy Blogiversary! One Year, Baby!

OK, I mentioned this before, but yesterday marked one year from my first post! Kind of amazing that it's been a year. Kind of amazing that I'm still here. Kind of amazing how much I enjoy this. You know, telling a bunch of strangers about my life. What's even more amazing is that people actually find my life, as the Innkeeper's Wife, interesting! Ha!

Please don't count the gray hair! 
So I decided to celebrate with Embrace the Camera at The Anderson Crew
The kids had a lot of fun. 
Enjoy!

Bunny just wouldn't keep the hat on! Oh well… 

Party hats make everything fun! 

I know, it's blurry! But the look on his face just melts my heart! 

Mad Monster! 

Crazies! 
So, that was what we did to celebrate. Then we had pizza, finished homework, bathed the kiddos and got them off to bed, almost on time!

Thanks so much for sticking around! I love your comments. I try to check in with everyone and read up on you, sadly basket ball schedules, cheer camp, music classes, Homecoming week, and hours of driving time makes it harder than I wish. I do appreciate you all! Thanks for reading!