Day 18: Your shoes

I love 'em...

Cows

I know.
It's not the blog challenge.
I'm working on catching that up this evening!

The yearling heifers are in the pasture next to the house, here, and are a constant source of amusement to me.  Think: eighth grade girls.  They like excitement...of any kind.  It might be something like a sagebrush blowing or a bird landing on the fence; one of them will notice something amiss and they all throw their tails and noses in the air and run. Together.  Like one big, black bovine mass. They don't know WHERE they're running or WHY, but it's deliciously scary to run from something.  However,  it occurs to them that they're running away from something that has potential to be interesting to examine and they throw on the brakes and trot back; heifers are ALSO notoriously nosy.  (Have you noticed? It's all drama...)


They're beautiful little cows, unencumbered by the responsibility of raising calves, (oh, yes...that's NEXT year) and they tickle me to no end if I'm not trying to move them to another pasture or get them through a gate.  We laugh at them because there won't be a yearling in sight...really!....and the minute we start feeding the bums, they appear from out of nowhere to watch the goings on.  (You can see how exciting it is, to live in Cohagen; we watch the cows, they watch us.) And of course, they're in a group. They are looking for action, hoping for action, but so far we've been pretty lame in that department.  There's really not many ways to jazz up bottle feeding, you know?


This morning, though, the dogs and cats followed me around, down next to the barb wire fence.
This showed promise. 
They pretended not to know what a cat was, even though they've seen them every day around here.  (Apparently, it was a slow day for sagebrush scares...)


Hoping, hoping for something to happen...anything...

This is how they look when they're REALLY checking you out; nose up, ears alert, tail ready to go.

My camera "scared" them, so they have to run away from the cow-killing eye or whatever they thought it was...

A-a-a-n-d they're back, because they just remembered the cat who is more intriguing than the camera is scary.  

It's good to have perspective.

Pretending to notice the cat for the first time in their LIVES...

Elizabeth the cat has a very low tolerance for cows.
Don't you think this heifer just wants to snuffle up the cat's fur?

They're disappointed that the cat didn't do something scary.
The cat is practically rolling her eyes, can you tell?
Oh, well...better luck at the evening feeding...

This picture is for Shelly, who likes cow's eyelashes.  I, myself, like their top knots and their sweet little cow lips and nose.
Yearlings really are pretty, I think.  And so silly.

   

And just like that, he's SIX!

My son had a birthday, last week.
A BIG one; the now-I-can-go-to-Maggie's-school birthday!
He wanted to go swimming, have a super hero theme, the Incredible Hulk on his cake (which was to be white with white frosting; what's THAT about?) and open presents that contained LEGOs.  All these things happened!

(I know...the kids cannot believe I pulled off TWO parties that actually looked like parties, either. Once every 10 years, babies...it's a long, long time to wait for another super hero party.  But if I save the leftover decorations, I'm halfway there, right? Can you imagine Angus's 16 year old face? This could be really fun...)


The obligatory singing of the birthday song...
(I didn't take pictures of the magnificent crepe paper streamers hung above the table! Drat.)

Birthday boy, making a wish (for more LEGOs) and nearly toppling the Hulk with his enthusiastic blowing!

Cake'n'ice cream, with Ben telling the whole party about the super hero movie...the Avengers?...I think.  Maggie looking like she's going to contradict his "facts" even though she knows nothing about it.

Hope it's more sharp little plastic pieces to scatter around the living room, down the hall, under the stove...

This picture makes me laugh!  See the beautiful teen age girl in the midst of the kids?  That's Haley, who ALSO had a birthday on July 20th (her seventeenth) and who spent the afternoon with kids significantly younger than her without pained sighing or rolling of eyes, even when we all went to the pool! We didn't even PAY her to do so!

Travis and Jen Pluhar just had their third baby, Sydney, and Maggie got to hold her and feed her.  This was such a precious moment!  And NO matter how much you beg, dear girl, you ARE NOT getting a baby sister.  You can just borrow Payson and Katie's once in a while.

After that, we went swimming and THEN....

BONUS!

We went out to Beth's house to play with cussins, eat pizza and watch a movie!

(I had to pick up 4 months worth of People magazines; what richness!)

It was a good birthday for the boy.

And now he can go to Maggie's school.

Skies...for my wish-we-were-in-Eastern-Montana-right-now friends!

No Air

I've been thinking about this for awhile, now.
You know; when I'm not thinking about quantum physics or global warming or molecular biology...


I never hear any Air Supply songs any more.
Why IS that?
I mean, all sorts of awful things from the 80's has "come back" to haunt our children as retro-cool, but Air Supply hasn't shown back up on the culture radar. (That, and banana clips, which I'm hoping NEVER do.)


I'm telling you, if ever we needed syrupy, sentimental love songs, it's now! 
There's angry rap, get-offn-my-truck country, political reggae for heaven's sake, alternative Indie music that I really can't seem to define, and yes...bless their hearts...Bon Jovi is still alive and well.  There's still teen-idol music, blue grass, the blues and the Black Keys.  There's gospel music and contemporary Christian music...good stuff there....but no sappy love songs.  


What I think is remarkable about Air Supply is that they put out love song after love song....whole ALBUMS of them...and people kept buying it.  I don't know about you all, but when I've heard one Air Supply song, it holds me for a while.  A LONG while.  I'm not sure I could handle 8 of them in a row or whatever they put on an album.  It would take me a year to get through.  


But still, I kind of miss them, you know?
When I hear an Air Supply song, I'm INSTANTLY eleven years old again, listening to Brenda Thomas's boom box in her room in their trailer, it's hot and we're bouncing off the walls from all the Mountain Dew.  Nothing touches a dramatic girl's pre-teen heart like a good, overdone love song.  Except maybe a horse.  


So, for your listening pleasure, and because I really think they need to be heard again, 
here is a link to one of my favorites...well, it was one of my favorites when I was eleven:


Enjoy!
Don't watch the videos...just close your eyes and sway.
:)


Lost in Love

AND....
just in case you're feeling REALLY nostalgic and can handle buckets of drama...

All Out of Love

You're welcome.

Rancherese...additions to the glossary

1. "I think we'll let 'em stand for a bit..." -translates to "Get on your wheeler and get those cows moving, now!"

2. "You wearin' THAT?" - my choice of corral garb is either a. too light for the conditions, b. too heavy for the conditions, c. too bright for the conditions or d. not enough pockets for all the shtuff I'll be needing to tote around.

3. "You said you were goin' to town? Right away?"- I sure hope you didn't have anything planned because I need you to stick around until I get the part off the swather and my list of gotta-have-by-5-p.m. things.

4. "Stick your head out once in a while and look for...(smoke, the white pickup, the cow with the #148 yellow tag, cumulonimbus clouds)" - bring your dishes outside, because you need to be scanning the horizon with your Leupolds every 3.68 minutes. Conservatively.

5. "Be here at 8 or so..." - be there by 7:25 and ready to roll.

6. "Have you heard from...?" - call them and find out what the h-ll is going on, then report back to me around 8 or so.

7. "It's no big deal." - I'm trying not to wring your neck with my bare hands, so step back and don't say a word. (This one is mine. Seriously. Out in the corral, everything is a big stinkin' deal.)

Day 17: Technology

Love my MP3 player!

Right now, (not in this picture) my new download is the Uncaged album by Zac Brown Band.

Particularly, The Island Song.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I hear a pina colada calling my name...

*Guess what tomorrow is? That's right folks; the one I've been waiting for....SHOES!!!*

*Stay tuned!*

We're FIREMEN!

It's fire season, here, in a big way.

There was a fire last night at a neighbor's house and fires on the news, everywhere.  Montana burns, with the incredible heat and lack of rain, lightening storms and sparks from machinery. We're all jumpy and cautious; any little wisp of something in the air causes phone calls and concern.  

This morning, Maggie spotted a tiny little smoke plume in the south and ran in all breathless to tell me about it.  I tried calling the Farmer, but he was moving cows and couldn't answer, so we just kept an eye out for a little while.  

In the meantime, Maggie got organized and formed a fire fighting crew.   

I KNOW.

I had the hardest time not laughing at these very serious fire fighters with helmets and everything!

The helmets are very versatile...water buckets when finding a flame, lunch bucket when needing refreshment. 

Yes, that's a cowboy hat on top of the helmet.

You're never fully dressed without a cowboy hat.

Especially in times of peril.

Oh, do you see the war paint? 

I have no idea why they did that, but it really is black ash from campfires past and seems to lend them a note of authenticity.

The plan is this:

Spend the night out in the yard, taking turns being on guard watching for fires. 

They're gathering "supplies" right now.

Updates to follow...

Day 16: Long exposure

Fat girls running

Our Irish Setter, Twilla, has started running with me in the mornings.  This is remarkable, because Twilla is notoriously, royally lazy.  And when I say "royally lazy", I mean that her favorite pastime is to lounge upon the sofa like an Egyptian princess, sleeping and glaring at us when we walk by too loudly.  She has to be ORDERED off the couch and even then, she steps down in slow motion, indicating her displeasure by her reluctance to move.  One does not rush a princess...

And because she's so indolent, she's also tubby.  Most Irish Setters are lean, lovely dogs, bright eyed and energetic, almost irritatingly so. See example 1.

  Not our Twilla! (Remember, she's not an Irish Setter, she's an Irish Sitter...) See example 2.

 When we run, she's like a tail-propelled red ottoman bouncing down the road.  A very HAPPY ottoman, but overstuffed.  I feel lean and graceful, running a quarter of a mile behind her, but I can't match her zeal for the moment...not in a million years.

She's excited about funny shaped rocks.  She points antelope droppings.  She dances around what may or may not have been a piece of a tarp strap, lying in the road.  She crashes through the weeds, waiting for me to catch up, emerging with twigs bristling, pink tongue lolling.  She dashes to the top of the butt-killing hill, watches me grinding up, then runs back down,  a portly, but enthusiastic Richard Simmons-ish personal trainer, encouraging me to kick it to the top.  Mostly because she wants her bowl of chow when we get to the house, 50 yards past the peak of the hill.

My little old grandma dog, Molly, runs with us most mornings, but it's getting to be too much for her, especially in the summer.  She and I run about the same pace, born of miles and miles of gravel traveled together.  Twilla drives her nuts, because she just magnifies how slow we really are. Neither Molly or I like to be in second place.  We always try to beat each other to the top of the hill.  It's completely discouraging to watch the red ottoman not only beat us, but come back and limp the geriatric joggers to the top.  So Molly only goes when she thinks Twilla isn't going, or when it's cool enough to frisk her up.  It's kind of sad, for me, to watch but I'm glad that I won't be without a running partner when Molly decides to retire.

Right now, 15 minutes after our run, Twilla has completely inhaled her bowl of chow (because the cats want it, you know, and we can't share a morsel) and is sacked out on the deck, trying to find the motivation to stagger to the couch to rest up for a busy morning of...well,...more sleeping.  She's shot.  Blown all her energy on 30 minutes of morning adventure.

It's a good life.

Alternate image

This was the alternate image for the 13 things, but I don't think it really represented the theme suggested for the day.  I played with it in Picasa; usually I don't like to edit much beyond cropping, but this was fun to goof around with!

Both images were taken with a self-timer...tricky.

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 14: Eyes

I don't know if he's going to a party or just getting home from one, but this dog's eyes make me smile, every time I look at him!

Day 13: Yourself and 13 things

Not what I wanted to do, but desperate to get this up and move ON! (There were 13 stems of flowers, you'll just have to trust me...)










STILL can't count them accurately!  
For the gardeners who are trying to ID the flowers:  heliopsis, larkspur and unknown pink roses from Jodi Pierson so I call the roses Jodi roses, on my purple garden bench.

Day 12: Sunset

PARTY!

Does it seem like we're always partying around here?
We are!
We will use ANY reason for a get-together!
Third Day of School Party, Visiting Author Party, 500th Blog Post Party...

But this time, it was a Birthday Party!
Maggie's 8th birthday is tomorrow, but we had the party today because on Saturday we're having the Visiting Author Party and that's just too much revelry too close together, even for US.

She and Angus are taking swimming lessons every morning this week, along with a lot of her friends, so we just had it at noon, after everyone was done bobbing and splashing.

*Preface to the photos:
About every 6 years, I get it right....get the supplies, put up decorations, bake the right cake, invite the right people...for my kids.  This year was that year!  Huzzah!  Most of the time, I get one element out of four right.   That's terrible.  So when you look at the pictures, realize that this is as rare as a cicada hatch. Truly.


For some reason, this blurry picture is one of my favorites, because this is EXACTLY how it was when they came through the door and saw the decorations....just a big, girl-y blur!

The girls settled right in to do the puzzles on the back of the cowgirl place mats.  The boys?  Took their (toy) guns and went outdoors to play war games or something. They had no time for pink and green cowgirl place mats and balloons....

I didn't take pictures of the pizza lunch...you've all seen pizza...so here, abruptly, is the cake part!  Maggie was VERY specific about her cake: chocolate with green whipped cream for frosting and a Breyer horse on top.  And it really tasted good!  It looks a little odd in the picture.  (Note the ticked off dog, panting on the deck behind Maggie...not allowed in for the festivities. Grumble, glare...)

Nothing caught on fire...we're gold!

Cousin-who-is-also-a-good-friend...

Another cousin-who-is-also-a-good-friend....

Yet ANOTHER cousin-who-is-also-a-good-friend...

Still related to someone in this picture....

NOT RELATED TO THIS GUEST!!! 

 OR THIS ONE!!!

Gifties...

She read the card out loud, much to the impatience of her guests...

 Can you almost smell the sweaty little bodies and cake-y breath, leaning in as close as they dare?

Not sure about the COMPLETE Beverly Cleary book set.  I was excited, she was suspicious...this looks like it might be a little school-ish.  

And then they went outside to do The Showdown Hoe Down.
In the parking shed.
Where it was 110 degrees.
And only 3 of them wore shoes.
I know.
But it was FUN!

So glad Maggie (and our whole family, really) is blessed with such good friends!

(And cousins....)