Dennisranch

Mothers Day

So, does this mean we honor mothers or make them work? 😉

Father Peter said a very nice blessing to all mothers at the end of Mass today. He also had a very good homily about love, that followed today’s readings. He’s a nice guy and we only get him a few times a year when our regular priest is not here. Fr Peter is one of the Jesuit’s down at the Sioux Spiritual Center, south of Plainview. He is a very soft spoken, yet dynamic speaker. I always enjoy him.

But back to Mothers Day, I of course think of my Mother. It is amazing all the things Mothers will do for their offspring. I really doubt anyone else would go thru’ what they do for their children. Fathers will do many things also, but only the mother gets to carry the baby and feel all it’s movements for 9 months. And because the baby lies under the mothers heart, I think there is a closer contact. I bet God designed it that way, don’t you think?

Happy Mothers day to all the mom’s out there. And remember, you can be a mother with out actually giving birth. It’s you mom’s like that’s day also….

Nice day

Started out kind of cool and some wind but it slowly went down all day. By this evening when I rope up north to move some heifers it was almost calm. Real loverly evening.

I took the spade and cut burdock off at the roots around the shed and corrals this morning. Made me sweat! Then I went to Punkin Center and got some bean for the bull and steer and some mineral for the other cattle. This afternoon I put a longer spoon in a spade bit i have. the longer the milder. Doesn’t seem right, does it? But when you think about it, all that length and the extra copper wrapped braces help the horse to hold it up off the bars of his mouth and the longer spoon makes it easier for him to feel the slightest change in the reins. Mijo seemed to rally like it. He was chompin’ and had his moth foaming…

When I came back from moving yearlings this evening I rode thru’ the cows and two had calved. We are slowly whittling them down…

Pictures. Don’t forget to click to embigginate…

If you look close, you can see two cedar trees on the bank, in the picture with Buck getting a drink. I planted them quite a few years ago. They sure grow slow, but at least they didn’t die like most I plant!

Another day

Got a good nights sleep last night. Slept in and got about 9 hours. It was delicious!

Did skirt work, as Linda calls it. this morning. With me I guess it’s kilt work! 🙂

Paid bills, did some laundry. Planted the tomatoes in the green house. The tree lady came and got the tree planter. So I had to wait around for her… I made some lunch, she came and got the planter, I took a nap (yay, more sleep!) then went out and fixed fence and the windmill down south east and got it going.

Didn’t seem to do that much, but I am ready for more sleep!

Wind came up this afternoon and really howled. got warm today. Up in the 70’s anyway. Supposed to blow all night and part of tomorrow, but a little cooler.

A whole bunch of females to deal with….

Been going to branding the last 3 days. Almost to the point of not being fun…. Nahh! It’s still fun!

Got the last of the yearlings in yesterday. Mostly heifers.I took Bob and Buck and moved them up in to Harry’s tonight.
Here’s pics. Click to make them grander… 😉

Sure was a nice day.

Another female in my life

She’s kind of wrinkly and old lookin’. but I kind of like her and I think with time she will get better lookin’. Cindy may be jealous of her but she’s just gonn’a have to get over it. I call her C C. Her name is Cecilia Marie. JUst met her last night.

Seventh grandchild and third grand daughter. I am a rich man….

Jill

I drove over south east of White River today for a funeral service for Jill. I was honored to be asked by her mother to share a song and some words.

I had met her some years back when she called with questions about a mare who wanted to buck and saddle fit. The upshot of that was, she came one day, all the way from Indiana, with horse and saddle in tow, to see if it was her saddle that was causing it or just the horse. (to be totally honest, she was coming to her uncles for a branding, but she still had to drive 200 miles out of her way. We decided that it was just the horse, but she ordered a saddle anyway. I ended up making a bare bones for her and ordering another tree which I covered and when I was done with it, she came and got it, went to a local branding with me, at which she had a blast and we made her rope until she caught one by two feet, and she was just a novice at roping. She left the first one and wanted me to finish it. I never got to as she got a brain tumor and it finally got her after about 2 years of fighting it.

She was originally from down at Wood, SD and that is where her mother had the services today. She died about a year ago, but complications made it unhandy to have the services.

Jill is the second friend I made from saddle making that has died, the other was a wonderful gentleman, Terry Brown, who I talked to at least monthly, if not more often, either on the internet or over the phone. When he was killed in a car wreck, it was devastating, and unlike Jill, I had never actually met him in person. Seemed strange that it effected me so. I can still hear his voice in my head in his soft slow almost drawl, “Hello.. Robert..”

And when I say friend, I mean it, in every sense of the word. Tho’ most might find it strange for a married man to have a married woman for a friend, that is what Jill was. I got her to come and join the Ranch Country board (who had me take this flower arrangement in the picture, from the whole group) where she was a delight to everyone with her grit and stories. Especially the on going feud with the beaver on her property who were screwing up her ponds with their proclivity to try and build a dam there. And her attempts to assassinate them! I say assassinate because it was a vendetta. No, she would not hire it done, she took it as a personal issue to be dealt with by herself!

Like Terry (the other friend who was killed) we talked often, either on the net or on the phone. I always teased her that her husband would think she was having an affair, but she just laughed and it would be hard to have an affair with someone who you only saw twice in your life in person and then in the company of others.

She will be missed and is missed greatly and held in high regard by her friends and probably her enemies sleep better at night knowing she is not there to get them. Like I said, she had grit!