Friday's Hunt 3/4/2016

I'm joining Teresa at Eden Hills for Friday's Hunt again this week. The prompts this week are Starts with J, A Cuppa, and Week's Favorite.

It's been pretty crazy around here this past couple of weeks, both my does kidded and we have FIVE baby goats running around the goat pen! I have to give Teresa a TON of credit for everything she does. I only have two does, one buck, and five kids so it makes me REALLY appreciate how much effort she puts into caring for her lovely goaties. :)

Jeanette had triplets on Sunday, February 21st and Daphne had twins on Wednesday, February 24th. We have three bucklings and two doelings. Both moms and all the kids are doing great.

Daphne has a very pendulous udder and the kids were having trouble nursing so I have been milking her and bottle-feeding them...Four...Times...A...Day. I really don't mind but it does make it hard to be gone for very long so daytrip horse rides have been put on hold for awhile.

Seeing the babies fills me with JOY and this collage is my Week's Favorite.

The top left photo is of the two little doelings, Amie (left) and Colette. The bottom left photo is of the two bottle babies, Colette (left) and Bubba. The larger photo is of my darling Colette. She is purebred Alpine and I do believe she is a keeper.

It is hard to find Alpines here in Beautiful Southeastern Arizona, most folks have Nubians. I prefer the Alpines mostly because they are quieter and I like their calmer personalities. I was thrilled to find a purebred Alpine buck last fall and even more thrilled when Jerry agreed to let me buy him! He had always said "No bucks, they are too stinky!" But he has watched me struggle to find an Alpine buck to breed my girls to over the years and he agreed. Remy did a good job, the kids are beautiful! Here is a picture of Remy from last September when we got him. He was only six-months-old at the time.

That's it from me this week, I have blathered on long enough! LOL!!

Friday's Hunt 2/19/2016

I'm joining Teresa at Eden Hills for Friday's Hunt and I'm late again this week. (sigh)  The prompts this week are Starts With H, Family, and Week's Favorite.

The reason I'm late this week is because I have been spending more time with my Horse, Buster. I have started taking lessons and we have been going out riding too. Friday was a lesson day and Saturday I attended a Working Equitation clinic, it was a lot of fun! The weather has been so nice lately that we want to take advantage of it and spend as much time outdoors as possible. :)

Buster and Jerry's Horse, Paco, have formed their own little Family. One always stands "lookout" while the other catches a little nap. Here, Paco is lookout for Buster.

It always pleases me to see how the horses interact.

Well...most of the time anyway! Sorry about the quality here, I was shooting into the sun.

Friday's Hunt 2/12/2016

I'm joining Teresa at Eden Hills for Friday's Hunt again this week; albeit a little late! What a week and it's not over yet. I'm off for a ride on my horse after this.

Our prompts this week are Starts with G, In My Kitchen, and Week's Favorite.

Well, what did you expect for Starts with G?!?  LOL!!  That's young Remy on the upper left, Daphne on the lower left and Jeanette playing king of the feed pan on the right. I do love my goaties. :)

I haven't had much time to spend In My Kitchen this week but I thought I would share my favorite set of vintage Pyrex mixing bowls. The yellow one is not true to the set, it is newer, but the other three are from the 1940s. I bought these in Bakersfield way back in the mid-1980s and I love, love, love them and use them quite often!

For Week's Favorite I have a shot of a male Pyrrhuloxia that I got this morning. He was sitting in the top of a tree in the backyard singing his little heart out when I was coming in from hanging out laundry and was nice enough to stay while I hurried inside to get my camera. They are also known as a desert cardinal.

Friday's Hunt 2/5/2016

For this week's Friday's Hunt with Teresa at Eden Hills the prompts are Starts with F, Negative Space, and Week's Favorite.

I have one photo this week that covers them all! LOL!!  I really like this hawk Feather shot against black poster board to provide the Negative Space. It is one of my Favorite pictures. :)

Friday's Hunt 1/29/2016

For this week's Friday's Hunt with Teresa at Eden Hills the prompts are Starts with E, Sky, and Week's Favorite. I have been so stinkin' busy this week helping to get the Art Gallery ready for the Quilt Show that I haven't had much time for taking photos and I want to apologize for not getting around to "visit" everyone. I will do better this week! :)

For Sky, I wanted to share one of the overly gorgeous sunrises we get here in Beautiful Southeastern Arizona. This photo is from last year.

For Starts With E, I have a two-fer this week. First, I'm going with my Elephant bank. It's not very big but I only put dimes in it so by the time it's full, there is quite a bit of money in there!

I also want to share some of the beautiful Eggs from the Chicken Girls. My new Red Sex Link hens are phenomenal layers and now that the older Buff Orpingtons have started laying again too, I actually have eggs to sell. ;)

Friday's Hunt 1/22/2016

For this week's Friday's Hunt with Teresa at Eden Hills the prompts are starts with D, Beautiful, and Week's Favorite.

My starts with D is our old Donkey, Chuy. We figure Chuy is 35 or 40 years old. We had him for about five years and then gave him to a family with small children for about five years but then they got transferred to Texas and couldn't take him with them so...he is back living with us. He is a sweetie pie but he is so old now that when he starts to bray he farts and farts and farts!! LOL!! It cracks me up every single time! ;)

For Beautiful I'm sharing one of my favorite shots from the archives. I really enjoy playing with the textures and creating photo art and need to do more of it.

For Week's Favorite I'm sharing this candid photo of my horse, Buster. I was trying to take some pictures of him the other day and he started shying at the flash so I just started snapping shots to try to get him used to it. I rather like how this one turned out! :)

Applesauce Molasses Cake - Friday's Hunt 1/15/2016

For this week's Friday's Hunt with Teresa at Eden Hills we are doing starts with C, Inside, and Week's Favorite.

For Week's Favorite I thought I would share one of my Favorite snack cake recipes! This cake reminds me very much of gingerbread, spicy and very moist. I also enjoy doing food photography and I'm always trying to practice and improve. ;)

Applesauce Molasses Cake               **click here to print this recipe**

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups Baking Mix
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch cast iron pie pan.
Cream butter and sugar; beat in applesauce, molasses, vanilla and egg.
Add dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve with whipped cream.
I use lightly sweetened homemade applesauce and substitute Pumpkin Pie Spice for the cinnamon and nutmeg.

For starts with C and Inside I'm sharing my favorite Cat, Ernie. (Shhh...don't tell the other two!)
Ernie is supposed to the the barn kitty but he has figured out that life is better Inside!! I really don't mind, especially him sleeping Inside at night. That way, I don't worry as much about the coyotes having a late night kitty snack. Been there...done that. 

Friday's Hunt 1/8/2016

 This week's prompts for Friday's Hunt with Teresa at Eden Hills are Starts with B, Outside, and Week's Favorite.

For Starts with B, I'm sharing our Big dog Buddy. He is a sweetheart and helps keep the critters down by the barn safe at night.

It has NOT been a very pleasant week to be Outside here in Beautiful Southeastern Arizona! This is a shot from Thursday afternoon. We have had cold, wet, windy weather all week. Not what we are used to. We can always use the moisture though. :)  I'm also sharing this shot with TexWisGirl's Good Fences.

For Week's Favorite, I have been working on more western themed photos to display in the Tombstone Art Gallery. I rather like this "still life" of Jerry's boots and hat. As you can tell by looking at them, he ain't no Drugstore Cowboy, he uses his gear! LOL!!

Friday's Hunt 1/1/2016

I'm joining Teresa at Eden Hills for the kick-off of her new meme, Friday's Hunt! This week's prompts are Starts with A, Week's Favorite and Celebrate.

For Starts with A and Week's Favorite I'm sharing a photo of our new Ameraucana rooster. He was the "bonus" chick in an order of Red Sex Link chicks my friend and I got last fall. Isn't he handsome? He kept running away from me but I'm going to work on getting a better picture of him to frame. :)

For Celebrate I'm sharing a picture of the treasures I found at the secondhand store this week. The Corning Ware casserole dish is from the very early 1960s and is called Pyroceram. I had never seen this type before with the solid lid. I felt it was probably a pretty good buy at $12!!  :)

Thanks Teresa for starting this new meme! Hopefully, it will encourage me to start blogging again...at least once a week!

Wordless Wednesday - Soaking Up Some Sun

Tuesday's Tails - 02/25/2014

Hmmmm...I guess we know how Missy Mare feels about getting her picture taken! ;)

Random 5 Friday - 2/14/2014

1.  I finished the chicken applique quilt top this week. Now, I'm all caught up with the Quilt-A-Long and looking forward to the next step! :)

2.  Jerry has been a member of the Tombstone Art Association for about a year now. His watercolor paintings and colored pencil drawings have been doing very well at the Art Gallery, he sells two to four pieces each month! The Tombstone Art Association is having their annual juried art show next month. I decided to enter some of my photography. I also joined the Art Association so that I can offer my photos for sale at the Gallery.

3. My goat, Daphne, is definitely bred so we will be having baby goats on the ground in June. They are always so cute!

4.  The mare, Missy, got out of the pasture yesterday while Jerry was gone riding his gelding, Paco. He had looped the chain over the gate but hadn't latched it. We think the dog got the gate open trying to squeeze through. Anyway, when Jerry got back, Missy was out in the front yard! He thought (ha-ha) that she would just follow him and Paco back into the pasture but noooo. She ended up across the road at the neighbors' place so Jerry latched their gate and then we proceeded to try and catch her. Every time Jerry would get within 10 feet of her she would take off. By the way, the neighbors have eight acres. They also have a very nice roping arena and they have a couple of their horses 'stabled' in it. After about an hour, Missy went down the alley that is used to bring the steers up to the chute. When she finally realized there was nowhere to go, she stood quietly and let Jerry put the halter on her.

5. Today, when I got back from town, I went out to hang the sheets and there was a smell kind of like a skunk but not really. I checked Red Dog and he was okay, so I brought him in the house with me. Within half an hour, he wanted to go back out (just like having a 4-year-old!). When I went to let him back in, he had gotten into whatever that awful smell was! Blech! There were several javelina in the back yard a week or so ago drinking out of the dog dish so I looked up javelina smell on the internet and lo and behold, another name for them is "skunk pig!" A couple of months ago he got into what we thought was skunk but now I think it was javelina. Here is some info I found: And that smell! Strolling through the Arizona high desert, you'll often smell a Javelina before you see one. They have a gland at the base of their tails that they use to mark trees, rocks and even each other with a sharp, musky scent something like that of a skunk, though just a touch less eye-watering. I tell ya' there's never a dull moment around here! ;)

I hope you all have a very happy Valentine's Day!! :)

Linking up with Nancy for Random 5 Friday. 

Tuesday's Tails - 02/11/2014

Sunday, we tore down the old pieced together with chicken wire, T-posts, pallets and cattle panels chicken run and put up this new one. When I removed the wire holding the old gate to the T-post, it actually fell over because the termites had eaten the bottom! Jerry likes this MUCH better, the old one was a real eyesore. Here is a picture from 2011, the coop is out of the picture to the left. Quite an improvement I'd say!

The new run is a 10 x 10 x 6-foot chain link dog kennel that we purchased from Tractor Supply. We also purchased two extra 10 x 6-foot chain link panels to make it 10 x 20 x 6-foot and purchased the shade/roof kit. We covered the open top area with 2 x 4-inch wire. The chickens wouldn't come out of their coop when we opened their little door so Jerry went in and chased them out. Once they got out, they seemed to really like it. They have extra room too as the old run was only 8 x 16. What Jerry and I really like though is the 6-foot height, the old height was only 4 1/2 feet. I still catch myself stooping over when I go in to give them feed and water. ;)

By the way, I LOVE Tractor Supply and am really glad they finally made it to Arizona and to our little town!

Wordless Wednesday - 01/22/2014

 

Wordless Wednesday - 01/15/2014

Linking up with Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Howdy...

...I've missed you guys! :)

As you can see, Bert and Ernie aren't kittens anymore but they are still mama's boys and quite lovable. We have been experiencing above normal temperatures here in Beautiful Southeastern Arizona the past few weeks while most of you were caught up in the Polar Vortex. I even planted some winter vegetables in the garden and most have sprouted. Everyone is doing well and I hope to get back to a regular blogging schedule now that the Holidays are over. I did manage to get granddaughter JayCee a stocking hat made just in time for her to help cheer on Daddy's favorite football team, the Denver Broncos!

 

Tuesday's Tails - 11/12/2013

I just loved this little brindle calf used in the cattle handling demonstration at the Empire Ranch Roundup and Open House recently. :)

Joining Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday - 11/06/2013

B Troop - 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Memorial) from Fort Huachuca, AZ presented the colors to kick off the 13th Annual Empire Ranch Roundup and Open House this past weekend.

Linking with Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Tuesday's Tails - 11/05/2013

Bert taking a nap up in the rafters of the carport. :)

Le Cafe des Chats

Bert and Ernie and the neighbors' cat enjoying supper together. :)

Sharing with the Rurality Blog Hop.