It’s been chilly enough, even Spike is wearing a cap!

Spike, Cindy’s mean watchdog, was setting on the back of the couch the other day and Gabe put Lige’s cap on him. I don’t think spike really approved, but I got a few pix before he ran off in disgust.

More lite snowfall and Cindy is whining about the roads.

We went to Mass last night and again tonight. Last night the church was warmer, but fewer people. It was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

Tate was here when Kass, Gabe and I got home from church last night, so he went along tonight.

There are two Advent candles burning now.

For some good reading, check out Tyler and the rest of the seminarians blog, posted along the side of this one. Really good one on there tonight about Saints.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. No real excuse other than laziness I guess. That and there hasn’t been too much going on. Been cold and windy for the most part. I do my chores and then put around in the house and never seem to get too much done. Kass had to go to a funeral today and so Gabe stayed with me. Odd, seems likes it’s harder to get things done when you have an almost 3 year old tagging around with you asking all sorts of questions! 🙂

A man came yesterday and installed a pellet insert into our fireplace. Nice to get some wood heat again. Tho’ it doesn’t use any of the old wood from up on the creek. Maybe I need to get some type of a wood chipper and try making my own pellets. Might be more work and cost than it’s worth tho’.

After the last load of propane we decided we really needed to do something to try and cut down on propane. $1.75 a gallon. Cost me $600 and usually he comes once a month. Ouch!

I’ll try and get some more pictures on here soon. Maybe even some new horse pictures for Mad.

Speaking of Gramma.

Here’s Gramma and Gus. She’s usually got a grandkid in her arms or lap. That’s what Gramma’s do evidently!

Cold and windy again today. I worked on a saddle and started on a pair of chinks for a guy. ‘Bout all for today.

Sorry Pixie, all the ponies are out and it’s too cold to take new pictures. I’m weaning myself of Copenhagen, so I guess you’ll have to wean yourself off ponies. At least until I get some new pictures.

Ponies maybe ain’t as bad for your health as Copenhagen, but they sure cost as much or more!

And here we see the future of Dennis Ranch.

Gramma insisted I take a picture of these little rascals, and of course, I always do what Gramma wants! 😉

Bustled around and got more things ready for the cold times that are headed this way.

I will be leaving on Firday morning for a gig back east river and won’t be home until some time on Saturday, so I thought I should get some things prepared for those who will be here to make it easier for them.

I didn’t work with the team today, but hopefully tomorrow. That and work on some saddles and covering more of the houses windows with plastic to slow down the cold.

Cindy went to town last week and ordered a wood pellet insert for the fireplace, so hopefully they will get that installed very shortly. I will miss the warmth of cutting wood, but not the aches and pains and mess of it. And Gramma don’t want no wood on her carpet! And as I said before about what Gramma wants……..:)

We had our Thanksgiving today. All the kids and grandkids were home. Noisy, but fun.

After dinner we hooked the team to the chariot. Went fairly well, but at the end we had a little mishap and bent the tongue in the chariot. Oh well, nothing I can’t fix and neither Ron or Roz (I changed my mind to Roz as it sounds better with Ron) got hurt.

The boys got the tin on the lean-to this morning also.

Almost ready for winter now!

I hope all of you who read this in time, or even after the event, have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving with those around you.

Over the years we have spent the day with friends and family. Now, we have our children here and it seems more like thry are friends and family. I like that.

I’ll get on the ball and get some new horse pictures for you Mad.

By the way, one of the things I am thankful for this year, is all of the kind folks who read this drivel I put on here and are so nice as to comment and let me know they are reading it. Poor, poor suffering people. 😉

Thank you. 🙂

Here’s my latest “turkey”!

Nightmare

You know how you can have a dream?
when maybe you ate too much
some kind of evil spicy food
like tacos’, burrito’s and such

I had one of them kind the other night
it was about the end of time
way, way, way in the future
the world was ugly with grime

a worldwide holocaust had come about
or some other stupid thing
yup, it finally came at last
that damned ol’ nuclear spring

I saw a cowboy ridin’ there
he’s the last of his breed
on the sole surviving cow horse left
the best of their genetic seed

they rode across a wretched landscape
moving at the speed of a snail
searchin’ for the last lingering bovine
the equivalent to Ahabs whale

all at once, in grim finality
by the only cedar tree to remain
that poor ol’ horse dropped dead on the ground
as a coyote called out his refrain

that cowboy sat there all forlorn
with his friend there dead at his side
as that last coyote came sneakin’ up
sniffing at that dead horses hide

the cowboy quietly brushed back a tear
knowing he would soon pass too
the coyote licked his nemeses hand
the end of the primordial stew

The cowboy suddenly had an amazing thought
they were all that was left of the past!
Just he and this coyote he considered his kin
they were the only ones left, at last

but then, from behind that cedar tree
larger than any stagecoach
to bring this nightmare to it’s inevitable end
came the last, starving cockroach!

Robert Dennis 11,07

Okay Pixie, enough of babies, back to horse pictures!

This is Eric a couple of springs ago at a branding. Eric starts my colts. Wellll, he has in the past. He’s threatening to quit. But he’s got to start enough to for a saddle we traded for, that I’m building him!

Went out and got my first deer of the season, this afternoon. Venison is pretty good, if you cook it right!

Okay, here is the official news.

Elijah Ryan Dennis was born on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 3:18 am.

He weighed 7 pounds 14.9 ounces and was 20 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair, brown eyes and looks kind of puzzled about the whole deal!

I guess they’ve decided he’s a keeper! 😉

Here is something I just ran across, that many of us have known for a long time. Please, please read this and pass it on!

Newswise — Ranch families working viable ranches that sustain ecosystem services and contribute to the social fabric and local economies are critical to a West that works, says Dr. Richard Knight. This perspective is provided in more depth in a new article from the latest issue of Rangelands.

Ranching has been found to support biodiversity, because it encompasses large amounts of land with low human densities and it alters native vegetation in modest ways. Private lands, Knight says, are more important than public lands in maintenance of the region’s biodiversity. When ranches support viable populations of species that are sensitive to harmful effects of sprawl, they serve much the same role as protected areas because they act as “sources,” or areas where birth rates of species exceed death rates, of sensitive plant and animal species.

Outdoor recreation is the second leading cause for the decline of federally threatened and endangered species on public lands, and residential development is the second. Exurban development and outdoor recreation are year-round activities of elevated human densities that both perforate and internally dissect land with roads, trails, house sites, and recreational facilities.

With the conversion of ranchlands to ranchettes, we will have more generalist species—species that thrive in association with humans—and fewer specialist species—those whose evolutionary histories failed to prepare them for elevated human densities and advanced technology.

Grazing by livestock, when appropriately done, contributes to the necessary disturbance that rangelands require. Ranching, done right, can coexist with healthy land or even restore land back to health. Done wrong, it can damage and destroy.

“Rather than rattlesnakes and warblers, we will have garter snakes and robins. Is that the West we want? It will be the West we get if we do not slow down and get to know the human and natural histories of our region better, and then act to conserve them,” says Knight.

To read the entire article click here:
http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/rala-29-05-04-09.pdf

Rangelands is published six times a year by the Society for Range Management. For more information, visit http://www.srm.org.