Ranch Life

Being as I am not very computer worldly wise or whatever one would call it it is hard for me to do this blog when they change how it was done and how I was use to it being done. Now to re-figure out how to get what I want to get on here on here is the challenge. Push this button and presto zappo it is all not what I want but I have no way of changing it cause I can not figure that out!! 

Those are the challenges of living in the wild and not having anyone near by long enough(or patient enough) to teach me what, when, where, why, and how of this contraption. I do understand that as a Christian who loves the LORD my God that it is not appropriate that I should want to swear or threaten to kill the computer either. I sit here humbled by a machine that thinks it thinks and have completely come to the conclusion that I should probably stick to listening to the birdies twitter or the river roaring down its watery pathway or the trees swaying in the breezes. I do have the comfort of the fire crackling cheerily in our wood heater seeing as it is June 15th and was 33F this morning. A hot cup of tea and a small bowl of yogurt to appease me in my total state of confusion.
               For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches 
                           of the saints.  1 Corinthians 14:33

Blessings of Home Life

Bread rising

I sometimes think the blessings of home-life are not given much praise. The sweeping and washing of floors. Endless dishes to wash after the making and cooking of meals. The laundry that piles up waiting for washing. Toilets that need scrubbing. Cobwebs that need to be swept down from ceilings. Not to mention the cupboards that are needing re-tidying and re-organizing. Closets and dresser drawers that are hard to close because of overcrowding.Porches to tidy, little bums to clean, phones to answer, internet to look at, books to read, sewing to do and all kinds of other handiwork. And all that and still look as fresh as a daisy. That did not include the cow to milk or a calf to pull or a chicken house to clean, a garden to weed or to plant so you can weed. And on and on BUT still the blessings of freshly baked bread. The smell of homemade soup.  Being able to eat off of clean dishes. Not afraid to use the bathroom cause it looks so nice a clean. Climbing into a fresh smelling nicely made bed after a long hard days work. There are so many sweet blessings of the daily living in the homes God has blessed us with. I only pray that all of you who have a home will feel the honour that has been bestowed upon you. That you can truly look upon this as a blessing and not a drudgery. That you can take a quiet pride in all that you do even if the family does not fully comprehend all that you do.

Moose(y) Monday Morning

Comforting sounds of the coffee making in its electric pot. The automatic washing machine chuga-chugging away as the bedding gets washed. The fire in the wood heater gives an occasional sparking throwing its welcomed warmth into the kitchen. The very comfortable so-called working cow-dogs stretch out on the floor soaking in the heat.. Large brown moose have nibbled their way across the wee island over the frozen snow-covered river to Laurene's cabin and meandered off into the bush behind it. Always pulling at a willow here and there.Snow-laden trees are their only cover.
Silence fills the air. The deep silence of a cold march morning in an almost forgotten corner of the Cariboo country here in the northwest central British Columbia.
That was Monday morning now it is Tuesday the temperatures have fallen to 30 below zero. Moonbeams are still touching our part of the world somehow making it magical inspite of the cold. Hinting of dawn is being greeted by numerous over-zealous roosters.
I love the mornings~~well I actually love the days too but mornings are somehow my favourite time of the day. This morning with my cup of tea in hand and my fire stoked dressed in warm flannel I am going to cut out a new nightie and crochet on some of the afghans I have on the go.
This is the day that the LORD has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
Have a great Tuesday
Roxanne

Ice covers my "screen"door. The one with glass in it. There is a strong breeze blowing on this dark dark January morning. Temperature is below zero if you are here in Canada but slightly above zero if in the States. Our whole winter thus far has been pretty mild with just a few very cold temps that never last longer than a day or two. Gives credence to the global warming following.
As of yesterday I am a year older and here is hoping ~wiser too. Can't really understand the whole age thing. It seems like as we grow into elders we still think we feel like we are nineteen or in our twenties but our bodies don't always get that and tend to act like we are much older than what our minds picture ourselves as! Strange ain't it?
It seems like it has been a long time since I have written anything on here. One comment by a friend was that my husband has been sitting on that stump for a long time. Could be he is just slow moving and not as young in body as in mind eh? But really Christmas gift making, helping one of our daughters and her husband and baby move back here has been pretty time consuming.
True too that I just kind of lost interest in fighting with my computer too. Today (maybe cause I am older now) I am full of patience thinking I would post something on here just to get myself back into the roll of things.
So here I am trying hard to think of what to write about and not coming up with a whole lot of anything. I could tell you about the winter but I already did that. Maybe Christmas~~that was very fun~ a blast really. Lots of target practice and the whole family here by Boxing Day. Even a really magical display of fireworks!
Dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens, rabbits keep us occupied. Wolves howl around us day and night. Coyotes come in for a visit too. No moose so far this winter season. But then it is so mild out they don't need to come eat our hay. that part is nice but miss seeing them.
Firewood to get for our daughter as her husband is in the north country working. I guess that helps our bodies to try to act like the youth in our minds. Somehow I am not sure that it is working all that great but nonetheless we carry on.
A single pileated woodpecker flew over me the other day when I was walking a very old old horse up to this corral near the house. There is usually two of them but haven't even seen one of them for a long time so it was a surprise to me.
Friends and neighbours drop by for coffee off and on bringing news and laughs and just plain friendly conversation with them.
Handiwork keeps me occupied too when I let myself sit around and do it. I now (since Christmas) have a jigsaw and have started learning how to use that. I could do that kind of thing for hours but it gets cold standing outside for a long time so usually last about an hour and then come in for a warm up. Of course once in one realizes it is time to put laundry in the dryer or make a meal or answer the phone and then it is another day before I can get back at things with the jigsaw.
I have this desire to start my own hanging baskets so am hoping I can scrounge up enough seeds to start some sometime soon here too.
There is a huge jigsaw puzzle taking up space on one of my kitchen tables that I pick away at. The picture is an aspen forest with the odd pine tree in it. But all the pieces are beginning to look alike to me. YIKES!!
That about rounds up the happenings here. We are looking forward to 2012 with a wedding of our son and fiance coming up in the summer. Our youngest daughter and husband are expecting a new little one due in the summer. The hopes and dreams of a bigger and better garden. It will be interesting to see what the LORD has planned for us this year. God Bless all of you Love Roxanne
Though your beginning was insignificant,
Yet your end will increase greatly. Job 8:7 NASB

Firewood is a very important part of our life. We spend much of our time all year round thinking about firewood. If we are not out falling trees and limbing and bucking them into the needed lengths then we are burning it.
A lot of hard work goes into the gathering of firewood. First comes the drive to the end of the ranch that we like the most for firewood at least when the weather allows us to get into it.
Once we have got ourselves to the area we want to be in it is just a simple matter of trying to park the truck so that it is not in the way of falling trees and won't roll away on us (not a very good emergency brake have to block it) Powersaw, fuel, tools, ax, wedges, chain (for if we need to drag a log to an area to get at it easier) We walk around sizing up the trees as my husband decides which ones he is after and where he is going to fall them.
And then again not all the trees are obedient to his wishes! When these scene happens there is some very careful falling of the trees that had the audacity to get in the way. Sometimes that goes real straight forward sometimes not! Nonetheless the wood still has to be got and it is.
There are times when we as a family get firewood in huge loads for each other. That is quite the deal. Nice to get a lot of it at once. Everyone has to pitch in but the work gets done and gives us a bit of a break for a little bit.
I love stacking firewood even if it isn't exactly always the most stable of stacks. There is just something about getting it all piled up neatly in ones woodpile. Kind of makes you feel warm and cozy and taken care of.
And then when the winter weather hits it makes for a nice backdrop for one holding a Yedi Teddy bear too!! :)
Here is hoping and praying all of you have your firewood in too~~we still have a long ways to go and there is snow on the ground today from yesterday.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might... Ecclesiastes 9:10

Fencing

Fall brings all kinds of interesting chores to be done ~~Fencing is one of the many things that we have to do around this ranch. Our fencing is snake fencing which is done with logs. It is all done by hand sometimes a pickup is used to pull the logs to the fence. When the right size log is found it is put in place after first notching at just the right angle the log then lifted into place. It is very nice to have two strong good looking men to do this. I have lifted logs too but oh my gosh I do not have the strength of a man that is for sure!! There is a lot of fencing here. When you are working on it it really seems like it will never end. I suppose that is a form of job security. LOL

Much of the outer fence now is getting quite old
so next year will have to be replace. It was going to be this year's project for sure but we were flooded out most of the season. the year before was a huge forest fire. I think the only thing left to hit us now is an ice age!!

There are some remnants of old moose fencing here and there still around the ranch ~~I love this old fencing and hope to one day put some around my garden.Try jumping that !!It is a fence with the poles sticking up at angles to keep moose out. Cows and deer don't like it either and will not jump it. If they did the outcome would be critter on a stick! This kind of fencing is a little more work intensive but the good part is it takes poles instead of logs.

One mustn't forget the corrals and the shutes are all needing fixing too and the stackyard ~~So nope no time for boredom in the fall and seeing as we really won't be fencing this fall we will move onto the next part of fall work~~FIREWOOD~~but that will have to be another posting LOL

Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, leading to edification. Romans 15:2

Mya God's Word be your fence love Roxanne

Rodeo and More Rodeo

As the hats are off for the national anthem. The animals are ready and raring for action. After the grande entry comes the various events ~~sometimes it starts with Wild Cow Milking. A funny and wild full of action event where cowboys and even some cowgirls in teams of three try to rope and milk a cow and get back to the judges with at least a squirt of milk in their bottles. There is usually a steer thrown in for fun sometimes more than one. The teams rope and get dragged around the arena . Getting tangled with others ropes is not unusual.

Next there is usually barrel racing, Team roping. For some folks these are their main events for some it is the interlude to the rough stock. Rough stock being intermingled with the more gentlemenly events if bulldogging can be considered gentlemenly.Wild horse racing is an event that is full of action. Cowboys and horses everywhere. Horses kicking, biting, jumping high into the air with some cowboy (the header in this event) hanging on so that the rider can get on while the anchor man holds on tight on the end of the rope. Eventually the little steer riders come out. They are tough little guys and girls riding for all they are worth. Alternating between events with barrel racers and more team roping the rough stock makes its entrance. There is bareback riders and saddle-bronc riders and the bull-riders. Rodeo seems to get in folks blood~~Riders competing with their rides it seems at times. Crowd tense some cheering . Before you know it the whole show is over and if you somehow mangaed to get yourself injured in any of these crowd pleasing events be of good cheer as someone is sure to come up to you with a serious look in their eyes and those encouraging words on their lips"COWBOY UP"

So, don't be anxious about tomorrow.

God will take care of your tomorrow too.

Live ond day at a time. Matthew 6:34 God Bless Roxanne