Where did the summer go???

As I sit here listening to the raindrops (the first i've heard in about a month by the way) I think of the fun things we've done this summer as a family and the wonderful steps i've made to become a photographer. I feel horrible for not keeping up with this blog because it serves as a great outlet and a great way to "journal" our family life on the ranch. I hope to be able to look back on all the entries one day with fond memories of our daily lives.

Today is one of those days I hope to remember. It didn't start out wonderful with a trip to the doctor with not so great news, but it ended fabulously with fun times spent together. It hit 104 degrees here today, and Little Man was beggin to go outside. Shawn was inside this afternoon to get out of the heat so he decided to build a homemade slip'n'slide. Little Man had a great time and I enjoyed standing back (out of the freezing well water) and watching! Here are some pics from today's adventures. (Little Sister didn't enjoy the festivities quite as much as everyone else by the way).

Fun in the Sun

Good morning everyone! I'm currently consuming my daily limit of caffeine trying to get motivated for the day. Shawn is already out fixing fence so he could get it done before the heat of the day. I worked the past three days at the hospital and I'm a little worn out but I *think* I'll make it through the day and hopefully get a lot accomplished. Is it just me or does everyone else's house seem to look as though it's never seen a mop or a dust rag after just 3 days away from house work? Well, my house is a disaster zone so I'm hoping to get caught up on the housework so I can get going on some other projects on my list. I thought I'd share a few of the new things going on around the ranch lately.

1. A new pony for Little Man and Lil Sister (I'm sure a post on "Oreo" is in my near future)!
2. A new indoor/outdoor cat that is actually tame and won't scratch out the kiddos eyeballs if they try to pick him up. So far, so good!
3. There is actually sunshine in SD now! The high is 88 today, and I'm sure Little Man will have me talked into letting him run through the sprinkler's today! Something about running through the sprinkler's brings out the kid in everyone. We might have to get Dad in on the action too!
4. We picked up a trampoline for little man at a yard sale a week or so ago. It has been a ton of fun for everyone and so far has only caused one doctor's appointment. Oh the joys of having a rambunctious boy around the ranch! I hope everyone has a great day!

Branding

Good Morning! We once again had a busy week on the ranch. Imagine that! We branded on Thursday of last week and again yesterday. We lucked out and had good weather both days and had great help to get the job done. Big thanks to all our wonderful friends and neighbors! I was able to get a few pictures in each day when I wasn't busy running cookies out and making salads. I had a good friend come out from work yesterday for her first branding and it was a lot of fun showing her the ropes. Yesterday was a pretty small crew and she didn't stay long because of previous plans but I think she got the idea! The kiddos each had a great time, too. Lil Sister was extremely intrigued by all the bawling babies and mamas. Little Man was not so keen on the whole situation. He would rather run around and play and didn't really want to help this year. Hopefully next year he'll be ready to jump into the mix! Here are a few pics of my favorite time of year! Some are of the actual branding and some are of the great family times had after the work is done. I love summer time!

Hope you all have a great week! The weather is looking to be a bit better up here finally (but I'm NOT complaining about the moisture)! Now that branding is done we're now busy getting the bulls checked out and getting them turned out with the heifers. The cycle begins again!

Getting the Ball Rolling

Good morning everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post but I have a detailed, lengthy excuse. Enjoy .... :)

It's been a busy few weeks around here. The flu bug not only flew through our home a few weeks ago, he apparantly decided to camp out and continue to wreak havoc on my plans... Grrrr! I am still recouperating a bit today but I am feeling a lot better than I was just yesterday. I haven't been able to sleep because I have been feeling so pukey so I decided to write a blog post about the past few weeks!

A few weeks ago I drove to the big city (somewhere around 4,000 people, haha) and I registered a business name! My future photography business will be known as Western Lifestyles Photography. I am looking forward to building client list and expanding my portfolio. I am lucky enough to get to photograph a newborn in the area sometime in the next few days! She's just darling and I can't wait to capture some sweet moments.

Anyways, I have also recently purchased some new professional equipment to "get the ball rolling" on this business. I have good equipment now, but I REALLY wanted a professional quality lens with a large aperture for portraits and action shots (i.e. rodeos, sports, and wild 3 year olds).  I also was able to purchase a diffuser/reflector kit, a Heliopan filter, a tripod, dedicated flash, background support, a couple backgrounds and of course some newborn photo props! :) Yeah! Thank you Ebay for wonderful deals as well as B and H photography! Here is a couple images of my new photo props. I know they need some work but I have a couple ideas to make them not only safe, but super cute for newborn photos. Okay, enough about all the new equipment. I just can't wait for it all to arrive so I can get to work!

Getting this business going hasn't been the only thing on our agenda lately though. In between rainstorms there have been many brandings to go to in the area. Just last week we branded our first calf heifer's calves. It was just a small bunch and I figured it was no big deal so I just prepared a couple salads, a couple desserts and some hamburgers. Thankfully the neighbors were bringing some salads as well. Shawn told me to expect around 14 people so I spent the day mowing the lawn and doing yardwork. When branding time arrived, however, there were around 30 people to feed! Talk about a mad rush to defrost hamburger and fix some more desserts! Thank goodness for wonderful friends and neighbors who were patient with me during my first experience going solo on branding dinner! Unfortunately this is the closest I got to the branding corrals that day...  

We are having our "Big" Branding on Thursday. Hopefully the weather holds out. It's been raining here for the past week and it looks like it's going to continue. Not complaining about the moisture though, just the mud! :) Have a great day everyone!

New Life on the Ranch!

Good morning everyone! It's a beautiful, sunny day here in our area of South Dakota today, and I hope it's beautiful wherever you are as well! A little flu bug has been flying around our house the last couple of days and it finally caught up with me so i'm a little under the weather today. Subsequently, I decided to stay inside with the kiddos instead of loading them up and riding along with Shawn this morning. Shawn knew exactly how to cheer me up this morning, though. Our mare foaled sometime in the past couple days and Shawn brought her and the stud colt home today! We now have a cute little colt in the front corrals in front of our house (for a few more hours anyways). I felt good enough to go outside and get a few pictures of the new little guy. Enjoy!

Have a great day everyone!

Here comes Peter Cottontail, Hoppin' down the bunny trail

I would like to take this opportunity to formally introduce you to the newest member of the family. Drumroll please......................

This is "Peter". Very original, I know. 

Peter joined our family yesterday afternoon.

Did we ask for Peter?      No.

Did we look for Peter?     No.
Did we ever mention that our kiddos needed a soft, furry, unbelievably cute rabbit to cuddle?     No.
Did our kiddos Great-Uncle bring "Peter" over to our house none-the-less? Yes.
Thanks Uncle B!

Anyways, to the story. I was gone all day in town at a class for my "real" job. I arrived home and was told that "Uncle B" had dropped off a baby cottontail rabbit he had found earlier in the day. Little man was playing with an empty cage at that point in the middle of the living room. Oh great...  "Peter" escaped from his cage an hour earlier and was hiding behind the extremely heavy entertainment center. This is starting to remind me of the time Shawn brought a wild duck into the house and turned him loose in the kitchen.... Don't ask. Long story. Anyways, Peter proceded to live behind the entertainment center for another couple of hours until Shawn came inside for the night.

Needless to say, we have decided to keep Peter. We have even gone as far as stopping at the vet to buy Milk Replacer for the little guy and special rabbit pellets.

Little Man is very excited about the newest member of the family but is a little too rambunctious for Peter at the moment. Keep your fingers crossed for us that little Peter survives and begins to drink the milk and eat the pellets. The lady who sold us the pellets assured us that she has seen many wild cottontail babies survive. We will see!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

It's not just feeding and fixing fences...

A couple days ago Shawn and I set out to do some cleaning up on the hay meadows while the kiddos were napping at grandma's house. I drove the Ranger and Shawn drove the tractor. I had a wonderful traveling partner whose breath smelled of lilacs and hair smelled like vanilla. Okay, maybe not, but she sure is cute!

Have I mentioned to you guys how much I love Border Collies? Well, I do. Alot. I will never own another dog other than a Border Collie. Okay, maybe a basset hound but only because The Pioneer Woman makes Charlie seem so appealing.  This is "Callie Dog". It's Callie to me, but little man always calls her "Callie dog". Don't ask me why, but I think it's pretty darn cute. He can pretty much turn anything gramatically incorrect into something cute. It's a toddler thing.

Anyways, back to the story. We went to clean up the hay meadow so that the equipment wouldn't be harmed by the wood during haying season. We didn't get the meadow cleaned up last spring and it cost us a lot of wasted hay that we had to drive around. We're in a bit of a time crunch right now because we need to get it cleaned up before the meadow gets too flooded to drive across.

Shawn and his dad had already gathered the wood good enough for firewood and the rest we ran through the wood chipper.

Watch out Tom! He actually got whacked in the face by a piece of wood not long after this photo! Don't tell him I told you or you might not here from me again!

I stayed in the cab of the tractor until Tom gave me the look. It was a look that spoke to me. It said something like, "get down here and help or go back to the house". Or was it, "Why is she up there in the comfy cab and i'm down here pickin up sticks?" Either way, it didn't take me long to climb out of the cab and help gather wood.

Shawn ran the chain saw. I love my each of my extremities way to much to risk losing them just to prove i'm rough and tough. Besides that, it would take more than operating a chain saw to prove a thing like that about me. Shawn is pretty darn handy with a chain saw and he really likes them for some reason. I think he secretly wishes he was a logger for one of the companies on Ax Men. Just one problem, he loves ranching way too much and it's been in the family way too long to ever consider leaving to try something new. This brings me to another point about why ranching is so wonderful for someone like Shawn. He gets to use his many skills to make the ranch operate efficiently. He can be a carpenter, a cowboy, a businessman, a welder, and the list goes on and on. I like the cowboy part the best. He looks pretty darn good in his hat and chaps!

The job didn't get finished that day and I ended up going back to the house because the kiddos cousin was around for a visit to the ranch. The guys are back out in the field this morning picking up the last of the wood before (fingers crossed) we get a good rain to get the grass growing.  I hope everyone else is having a great day!