COYOTES AND ROUNDING UP CATTLE!

While enjoying our campfire Monday afternoon, Ralph caught a pack of coyotes walking across Hoppy and Loy's ranch. We counted 5 coyotes. They did not seem in a hurry, just kind of walking merrily across the pasture. I loved seeing them, it was quite a thrill for us.

Yesterday, Hoppy called Ralph to see if he could lend a hand and help him and his neighbor Richard cut out the yearling's. They needed to be separated from their mothers because the yearlings were heading to the cattle auction.

This had to be done on foot. Hoppy got rid of horses and cattle years ago, but over the last couple of years he got back into cattle. So these 3 cowpokes rounded the herd up and got them into the arena. There they separated the calves into the loading chute.

I almost went to help, but I would have cried, I know how traumatic it is for cows. As soon as they started separating them, Ralph said the mother cows started to bawl and the bull started getting real angry. The bull charged and made contact with the chute a few times. He was trying to break the yearlings out.  Hoppy did not want the bull harming the yearlings by accident, so he started throwing small rocks at the bull to get him off the fence. The bull would then take off, start bucking only to turn around and come back and try again. He snorted and pawed the ground and showed his anger.

The calves got loaded up and down the road they headed. The mother cows actually followed the truck and cattle trailer down the lane to the ranch gate and that is as far as they could go. They stood there all afternoon just bawling. We heard them all day long.

I took this picture of the bull last month.

Happy Trails until next time................

BURRRR! AND A WONDERFUL LAZY SUNDAY!

SUNDAY, JAN. 5th-On days when it is cold and the high will only get into the 40's we sort of hibernate. Yes, I said in the 40's! We aren't from Maryland anymore! We are what the northern folks call "lizard people". Living in the sunbelt for several winters, we want no parts of anything that is below 55 degrees!

On these lazy days when not much is happening, I try to put pictures up from our past. Our friend's Chuck and Annie who we spent New Year's Day with are pictured here on the left. Of course there is Ralph and I, then Marilyn, Dennis, Rachael and Buck. We went to a country dance during the Christmas holiday in 2010.

Every couple of  years while "wintering" in the San Antonio area, we take a trip to downtown San Antonio and visit the Alamo. The battle started on February 23, 1836 and ended on March 6, 1836.A couple hundred Texians defenders held off a few thousand Mexican troops of General Santa Anna's Army during the 13 day siege.

Me visiting a Alpaca and Llama farm in Cheyenne, Wyoming in Sept. 2007

Here is Ralph with a couple of "Floosies". We were visiting Cody, WY. and they had cowboy reenactor's performing gunfights. We got to see Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane shoot it out with bad guys.

Here we are in Yellowstone National Park in Sept. 2007. We rode our bikes around the park looking for "downed trees". The park would allow you to cut anything that was down for firewood. We would put the pieces of wood in our bicycle basket and haul it back to our campsite.

We decided to cook steaks outside on the grill. Just as we pulled our steaks off the grill, a fast and furious snow fell. Luckily it only lasted 15 minutes!

A beautiful majestic buffalo and Old Faithful.

Funny story here.....Ralph and I thought it would be fun to get up early and walked to the Madison River in Yellowstone NP to watch the sun come up and listen to the Elk "bugle" off in the distance. So we did just that. We set our alarm not knowing the time of the sunrise that morning. At the time we did not have heavy winter coats, after all we thought we would never need them ever again. Well that morning we did!

We left the RV and walked about a mile to the Madison River. We had our coffee thermos, tripod and camera equipment. There we stood in the dark shivering waiting for the sun to come up. We had arrived way early and it was close to an hour before the sun made its appearance. What was really neat was while we were waiting, we heard the constant bugling of the Elk and as time went on they were getting closer and closer to us. That made the hair on the back of our neck rise a bit but we never did see them.

When we got back to the RV we put on the news. There was Al Roker telling everyone, "Last night the coldest place in the U.S. was in Yellowstone National Park". We had a good laugh over that
as we were thawing out.

We visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The animals are unable to live in the wild for different reasons. Many were orphaned and others were labeled "nuisance bears" because they were becoming dangerously comfortable around humans. They were given a second chance and relocated to the Discovery Center. The park rangers tell us that "A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear". Once humans start feeding them, they become use to that and no longer fear humans. Usually they are killed. Thank goodness for the Discovery Center.

One of the rangers gave a nice talk on birds of prey. All the birds here can no longer live in the wild. They were brought here because of injury or abandonment.

What a nice way to cap off our fun day.

MY FAVORITE KIND OF DAY!

There are days that are cold (by Texas standards is anything under 55 degrees). Yes it is funny. When we use to come down to Texas for the winter, we would laugh at the Texans in their winter coats, gloves and hats when it was in the 50's. We would be in short sleeves, or a sweat shirt or maybe just a light jacket. We would think this was wonderful having a winter like this. After all we were use to Maryland winters.

Well now we laugh at ourselves because we now bundle up when it is in the low 50's here in Texas. When it is in the 40's we don't even want to go out.

Such a day was today! It was Saturday, January 2nd and the high is to be around 40 couple. We have no where to go today and nothing that needs doing! Hooray! Not only that, we really slept in! Ralph woke up this morning at 8:45 a.m. and I woke up at 9:45 a.m! I am thinking it must be all that good food in our belly from Annie and Chuck's New Year's Day dinner! You know what they say about turkey and tryptophan!

It was cold and dreary out. We had our electric fireplace going and the our hazelnut candle lit. A perfect day for snuggling. The best part is we stayed in our PJ's!

An added bonus was a TV station playing John Wayne movies all day. We watched Rooster Cogburn, Donovan's Reef, Angel and the Badman and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

I decided to try to see if my camera could take a picture of John Wayne. I wish I would have thought of this earlier, for Rooster Cogburn was the last John Wayne movie that was on.

Too bad kids of the last couple generations can't and don't appreciate movies with real acting, great actors and wonderful story lines. Glad I got to grow up in an era when movies and TV had hero's and cowboys.

Happy Trails Until We Meet Again!......................

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!

The longhorns showed up near our yard. Momma was giving her baby a bath.

New Year's Eve we were in bed by 9:30 p.m.! We don't go anywhere on New Years Eve. We just relaxed with a quiet evening at home.

On New Years Day, we headed over to our friend's Chuck and Annie.

We met Chuck and Annie several years ago at Lake Medina RV Resort/Leibolds/Grothues Ranch in Lakehills, TX. where we became fast friends. At the time they lived high in the mountains of Colorado but during the winter they would come to the RV resort.


Chuck does "Cowboy Action Shooting" and also does cowboy reenactments with a group called the "Bandera Cattle Company Gunfighter's". Both he and Annie dress up in western period clothing from the 1880 era and put on a show for the tourist that come to visit Bandera.

Bandera's, population is under 900. It is known "officially" as the "Cowboy Capital of the World". In July they celebrate "National Day of the American Cowboy". Every weekend the town has something going on for the tourist. Several times a year they have a rodeos and parades with cowboys, cattle, wagons and the tourist live the old west all over again. Cowboys are often seen riding through town on their horses. There are several bars and restaurants that have hitching post for their horses.

There are many "Dude Ranches" on the outskirts of Bandera. Folks come from all over the world to stay at these guest ranches and live the dream of cowboy life.

Last year they sold their home in Colorado and bought a home in the close by neighboring town of Lakehills.

Chuck has had a bit of a tough time the last few months. He went in for arthroscopic knee surgery and ended up getting an infection. He ended up staying a solid 2 months in the hospital battling infection after infection. Finally mid December he was able to go home. Annie has taken over the nursing and sees to the "doctor'in" up of his "boo-boo" that is still healing.

Well since he had to be in the rehab nursing facility over Thanksgiving, we thought to have Thanksgiving on New Years Day!

Annie made the most delicious turkey and wrapped it with bacon. Oh my gosh was it delicious. She did sides of mashed potatoes and gravy. I made sides of stuffing, green bean casserole and triple berry crisp.

Clean up was a snap. Everyone lent a hand. Ralph and Annie cleaned the turkey with Buddy their Golden Retriever supervising.

We retired to the living room where the fella's had a nice fire going. We enjoyed chatting about everything and above all cherishing our friendship. This never would have happened if we hadn't chose the wonderful life of RV-ing!

I couldn't imagine a better way to bring in the new year. What a perfect and fun way to celebrate New Years Day! I know 2015 will be a wonderful one!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

I MADE HOCKEY PUCKS AND WANDERED AROUND THE RANCH

Since we have hunkered down for the winter, I have time to try different recipes that I have been collecting over the years.

The last couple of weeks I have been interested in baking bread and rolls.

A couple of weeks ago I made a delicious Jalapeno Cheese Loaf, a week ago I made home made hot dog rolls and biscuits.

Today I made home made hamburger rolls.

Well it was a disaster! I should have taken step by step pictures. I got them ready for the second rising and dusted them with flour and covered them loosely with plastic wrap as the directions said.

When they were done with there second rising I went to take the plastic wrap off and the dough really stuck to it. I tried to pull it off gently but the dough was still sticking to it. This pulling caused them to deflate like a flat tire!


Still I put them in the oven hoping for a miracle. But the miracle was not to be.

They came out of the oven and looked like a cross between a hockey puck and a flying saucer made out of cement.

I am not going to give up and I will try them again down the road.

It was a beautiful sunny day. Ralph and I took a walk around the ranch and stopped in to visit Loy.

I love how Loy decorated her porch. You can tell a lot of grand children come to Grandma and Grandpa's home.

This sign is right out side their door. Grandma Loy's home is always full of candy and cookies. I can't keep my hands out of their cookie jar.

This is Hoppy's "Cowboy Cave". It is decorated with all kind of ranch and antique items. Hopefully you can make out the lariats, horse shoes, horse bits, tools, pots, lanterns, window frame and license plates.

As I said the other day on the blog, Hoppy and his children use to rope in rodeo competitions many years ago. Here are pictures of their horse barn and roping arena.

It may be a little hard to explain to folks who are not familiar with roping competitions but I will do my best. 

Here is a chute that a calf or steer goes into. On both sides of this chute there is a 3 sided box made out of pipe and that is called the "roping box". Depending on if the roper is a left handed or right handed roper there is a roping box is on both sides of the chute. The horse and roper back into this box and wait for the chute to open and the calf or steer to take off. There is an electronic timer that tells the roper when to start his run. This is to give the calf or steer a head start and start running. Hopefully the cowboy will rope the calf or steer.


This picture is the alley way where cattle are herded down towards the roping chutes.

Walking back to our rolling home on the "Back 40". 

WYATT GETS HIS HOLSTER AND WE GOT CHILI DOGS!!!

The other day I made Buttermilk biscuits. They turned out very good and I had a good time making them.

As you can tell, one is missing. I just couldn't wait. While still nice and warm, I put a pat of butter on them and watch it melt. Then I added jalapeno jelly! Heat and Sweat!

Wendy's son Wyatt is 5 years old. He has a cap gun but he couldn't carry it. So Ralph made him a holster and gun belt. He showed us some fast quick draw moves too. He really liked it and gave us a big hug.

Now he wants a pony. Oh Oh! It must run in the family. The Herbert's were Team Ropers when their children were growing up. Every weekend all 4 kids and Dad would enter roping competitions at rodeo's.

Hoppy tells a funny story. He said the rodeo roping competitions paid for their kids college tuition. You would think it was from the money they won in rodeo, but no that wasn't it. It was when their kids got into high school, they became very good and big in sports. One day they said they did not want to rope anymore. So Hoppy sold all the horses, the herd of roping calves, saddles, roping equipment, gear, horse trailer and truck. That money sent their kids to college. We always got a chuckle out of that story.

Loy soon whipped up cheese chili dogs on buttery toasted buns with onions and jalapenos! Oh my were they good! Ralph and I love hot dogs!

The Herbert Ranch house is decorated with with western and Native American relics through out. Everything from horse collars, buffalo skulls, tomahawks, to bits, horse shoes and spurs.

I always love spending time in their cozy ranch house.

On the say back to our "Back 40" I caught a glimpse of our rolling ranch house through the mesquite tree.

RANCH LIFE AND ART CLASS

The pictures of these 2 horses are right outside our back door. They are from the next ranch over from Hoppy's and the fence line is just behind our Rolling Ranch House. That rancher also has cattle and several are Brahma crosses.

I love our little spot here on the Herbert Ranch. It is peaceful and quiet. It's a 360 degree view of open space with the sounds of horses and cattle, along with coyotes howling, owls hooting through the night and on occassion the squeaking sounds of the oil wells.

Wendy is Hoppy and Loy's youngest. They have 4 children and all there names start with "W".

There is Wade, Will, West and Wendy. They are all grown and have families of their own. Wendy lives near by and has a 4 year old son named Wyatt.

Wendy is a teacher here in town. I think being a teacher is one of the most toughest jobs out there and these last several years certainly one of the most dangerous job.

She invited me to go along with her and take an art class. She said this was her and Wyatt's Christmas present to me. How sweet and what a fun gift it was.

We arrived at a cute cluster of rustic cozy boutique shops. Nestled in the mists of these shops was a brightly colored artists shop. We walked in and it was a good crowd who came to paint. I estimated around 30-35 people.

There I met Wendy's friends Patty and Fallon who are sisters.

We soon found our stools and sat down. There in front of us was our easel, our canvas, a paper plate with blobs of black, yellow, red, blue and white acrylic paint along with 3 different size brushes, a cup of water and paper towels.

After a bit, the instructor went up to the front of the classroom on top of a stage where everyone could see. He stood next to the easel and told us where to put blobs of paint and what to do with it. Yikes, there was no sketching with a pencil!

For the next 2 hours we watched him do each step and than copied what he did. There were a couple of his associates walking around helping us if we needed it.

Soon our "Masterpieces" were done and I think we all should be proud of our accomplishment! It was a lot of fun. Here we are showing them off. Wendy is holding my picture in her right hand as well as hers. Patty is in the middle and Fallon is to the right.

What a fun day, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Until next time, Happy Trails...............