A Most Unwelcome Visitor

A few weeks ago as I was sitting looking out the window, I saw a red tail hawk fly down out of
the trees and catch what was probably a mouse. But, why should he bother with a little ol' mouse when he can dine on a big fat hen? And that's exactly what he did. When we found the dead chicken, that was the only thing we could attribute it to...a hawk. So today I'm out feeding and I hear a chicken squawking like it had laid an egg...but then I see two chickens come out of their little trap door of the chicken house just carrying on about something. So, in I go to feed and gather eggs. But I notice that the count is not what it's supposed to be and there sure are a lot of feathers around. I open the door and see a dead chicken on the floor of the house and then look up to see this huge hawk with wings spread and mouth open like I dare to disturb his meal.









































Well, now I'm mad. This is two chickens he's killed and one chicken that is still unaccounted for. I call my brother-in-law...he's not home but says to use rat-shot. Great...Buddy's got the gun with him that holds the rat-shot and my little gun would blow a hole through the side of the chicken coop. Buddy's an hour and a half away so I call my good preacher man.. wonderful...he's on his way and he'll have something to get rid of him and keep my hen house intact.

So, preacher man gets here and comes out of the truck with a small piece of rope...okay...what are ya gonna do...rope him? No..he just grabs his legs and then he's ties them with the rope. He wanted to take this hawk home to show his kids. Apparently, he has taken quite a menagerie home to show the family. Whatever...I just want him gone.

So I'm going to share some of the pictures I got. As mad as I was at this bird, he was very majestic.

















Happy Trails...

Cold and Frisky

The morning ritual...the dogs and horses kicking up and playing the cold.

Ahhh...all settled in. Jasper has them right where he wants them. Out in the far corner off his porch.

Happy Trails...

Yummmm...What's for lunch?

Campfire cooking on a cold, rainy day.

Cowboy stew and cornbread...

Hot, bubbly cherry, apple, blueberry and peach cobblers...

Happy Trails...

Yes, we had snow

I did see some real pretty flurries today...more in Bryan/College Station than out here at the farm. And, no, I did not take pictures..I seriously doubt they would show up on the camera. But we did get all the critters tucked in and blanketed. I'll try and get out tomorrow and take some pictures.

Okay..so here's a picture of our lovely Christmas tree..it actually looks a lot better in the picture than in person. One of our friends came over today and was standing there looking at it and finally decided to ask... "Did you just run out of ornaments or are you not finished?" Ha! Ha! Truth is I had it all decorated and here comes Dottie, the cat, and shinnies up the middle of the tree. Great... and, at night, as soon as we turn off the lights, we can hear the ornaments falling and hitting the floor. Forget a tree skirt..all I'm doing is sweeping up broken glass. Yep, I've learned my lesson this year..no more breakable ornaments...I just gave up! Since we just moved into the house, I can't find our traditional ornaments I usually put up...the unbreakable ones. So.. this year we live with lights and redoing garland every morning.

Happy Trails...

Git On Outta Here!

Ever since we got Cinch, Buddy's horse (on the left), he and my mare, Jess, have become best buds. Yes, they leave out poor Bridget. The only good thing about this new relationship is that Bridget's mane is finally growing back from the other horses chewing it. This is the most common sight now..the two of them standing at the back gate waiting to come into the yard to eat what grass is left. So, big-hearted Buddy has been letting them in the yard for a few hours a day this past week while he's been off. But then they get full and here's where they end up....

Right on the back porch in the smack dab middle of all the pecans I've just picked up and trying to crack.

Not only did they spill them everywhere, they had to smash them up. And, if you can tell in the picture, Cinch got into a bag of bird seed and destroyed it. So I say...

Git on outta here!

Happy Trails...

A Little Catching Up To Do

As you can see by how high the river is, we've had quite a bit of rain here lately. Can't complain but we're pretty wet right now.

As I promised a long time ago, here are some pics of the WRCA ranch rodeo our church put on back in September.

This is one where we were setting up for the church service and all the broncs were so nosy..they were turned out in the arena and coming up to find out what was going on.

Then we tone it down a bit for our Fall PlayDay we had a couple weeks ago. This was a blast! We had events from Lil' Britches on up to adults.

Here's a string of horses tied up waiting for the stickhorse race... this little buckaroo had to be real careful not to get too close for fear of getting kicked...

Dear sweet Bridget was a champ. I think she ended up with eight kids riding her....that's eight kids going through all the various events! But that's okay...she finally got to go to an arena other than riding the kids around on the farm. She's usually the one that gets left at home but this was her day.

This is the goat ribbon pulling where the little ones had to run and pull the ribbon off the goats tail. This was so much fun!

Yep, Cinch and Jess got to hang out at home...

Happy Trails...

The Three R's

Not to be confused with Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmatic. But rodeo, rain and recuperation. Everyone at church put so much into our ranch rodeo for the church kick-off and now we're all pooped! I didn't explain in my last post about the WRCA..my sister called and asked me what that meant. It is Working Ranch Cowboy Association. The events in the rodeo are similar to what a working cowboy would typically do on a ranch..bronc riding, team sorting, branding, cow doctoring and wild cow milking. Each team is made up of 4-6 members and these teams came from all over..some from Nebraska and Kansas. They were qualifying for the world this past weekend. As soon as I get some pictures, I'll be posting. Should have some pretty good ones.

With all the rain we've been having lately, which by the way is wonderful, it has made the grass just start popping up. It's not so good for Bridget, the little horse we have for the grandkids, because she founders so easily. That's a term for laminitis, which is really too much blood flow going to the horses feet and it's very painful for them. So we have her put up in the round pen to keep her off the grass and out of the mud, which irritated them more but with the rain this morning, she was in more mud than the others. Poor Bridget, she's such a sweet little horse.

Then there's Jess and Cinch...see how clean they are? They are two compadres and are always leaving out Bridget. It's funny to watch the hierarchy with these animals.

Speaking of animals, have you ever seen such an ugly dog? He's got eyes like a mule.. very sad eyes. I hate to admit it, but he's so ugly, he's kinda cute. Gosh, did I just say he was kinda cute?! Living in the country near a college town, we are the ones that end up with the critters that someone has no use for anymore and they dump them. This is some kind of chow mix..not quite sure what he's mixed with though! Haven't had the time lately, but this guy has to find a new home. He's on the unpredictable side. We've had three dumped out here this year.

Remember when this one was dumped last year? Yep, this is Jasper. We ended up keeping him. The second dog dumped out here, my neighbor ended up keeping. So this new dog will have to go somewhere. I'm not trying to be cruel but we are not a rescue and cannot keep taking in these animals. It makes me angry when people dump them out here to let us deal with the guilt and the feed and vet bills. If I could, I would keep them all but that's hard to do.

Now that the rodeo is over, I'm looking forward to getting back to normal around here. As soon as I get the pictures, I'll be posting again.

Happy Trails...