2014 Bucket List Item --- Only 1

Yes, Spring is unmistakably present.  Spring, that bossy season, barks out orders:  "Trim that!  Clean this up!  Mow, mow, mow!  Pull those weeds!"  Do I jump when she says jump?  Yes.  "How high, my lady?"  I ask.

So here I am back at our Patch of Paradise, and of course,  Spring already has two jobs requiring my immediate attention:  1.  Mow the grass.  2.  Trim the trees out of the blackberry patch.  I hung my head and sighed, "Yes, ma'am."  Then when she wasn't listening, I think I may have let an expletive slip....I'm not completely sure about that...I may have lost consciousness for a couple seconds.  

1.  Mow.....

Cowboy's parting words as I was heading back home from the Western Edge, "Don't mow until I get the mower ready."

Ok.  Question:  How do I obey both Spring and Cowboy?  Clearly, it's rhetorical...I can't.  So....thinking on my feet, I called Cowboy and asked him if I (me...the humble, dutiful wife) could get the mower ready.  He said yes and started blurting out technical terms like grease gun, mower deck, spindles...blah blah blah.   Apparently...just grease.  Ok.  I've seen it done.

Have you ever felt like you were using arms and hands that weren't yours?  That describes my greasing fiasco.  In case you've never greased anything, I'll give you the run-down.

Locate and wipe off each grease zerk.
With one hand fit the coupler at the end of the grease gun hose over the zerk making sure it clamps on, then hold it there.
With another hand, grip the grease gun and hold it steady.
With your third hand, squeeze the grease gun handle several pumps till you think it won't hold any more grease.

The grease gun sensed I don't have the third hand necessary to do the job correctly and sprung to life, refusing to attach to the zerks, jumping out of my gripping hand, slopping grease where grease shouldn't go.  We wrestled for a minute, I broke its will, we got the job done.  Greasing 3 zerks shouldn't have taken as long as it did....oh well.  In case Cowboy asks, it was the grease gun who put grease on the belt...I was the one who painstakingly cleaned it up.

Still wearing my victor's crown, I checked the oil, fueled 'er up and mowed.  Ah, it looked just like a golf course when I finished.  Enough for one day.

Day 2 .....  What was the next item on the list?  Oh yeah...

2.  Trim the trees out of the blackberry patch....

The blackberry patch...despite its existence, Cowboy & I are still married.

I said, "I'd like to plant a few blackberries."
He heard:  "I'd like to have 500 blackberry plants so we can sell the berries and make a monstrous amount of cash."

He said, "Ok.  I'll get you some berries and make you a patch."
I heard:  "I'll get you about 20 plants and make a little patch for you."

Have you pictured my blackberry patch in your imagination?  It's gargantuan... and, well....overwhelming.  I've not nurtured it as I should have....so little (some bigger than little)  trees have sprouted all over.  Armed with my pruner and lopper, I headed to the patch...American Logger style.  Most of the trees' trunks were narrow in diameter.  I easily cut them with the pruner and stacked them on the gator.  A few trees were bigger and required the loppers.  Nothing cries out "WIMP!" louder than a set of loppers whose blades are poised on a little tree trunk.  I was actually angry ...angry...that I didn't have strength enough to cut those trees. Sweat was pouring down my forehead and into my eyes.  This was not good....not good.

I was determined to get those trees OUT.  I devised a new way to use loppers.  I positioned the blades on the trunk, gripped the lopper handles, put them between my knees and squeezed my knees together while pushing with my arms.  It was like a thigh master.  I was out there grunting like a weight-lifter.

Once the brush pile on the gator was practically unwieldy, I drove it to the big brush pile to unload.  You should come over with a video camera when I'm doing physical labor...you'd have millions of hits on YouTube.  I can't even describe my unloading procedure.  I think I grabbed an armload of brush, got slapped in the face, poked in the eye, and with zero grace whatsoever, I hurled the brush onto the main pile.  Oh, yeah...while making sure all the branches were laying in the same direction so it will be easier for his highness do deal with........

The harder I worked, the angrier I became.  Then it came to me:  a new bucket list item.  You'd think it would be strength training to improve my upper-body strength.  You'd be wrong.  I'm too lazy busy to undertake such a goal.

No.... the bucket list item of 2014......

Learn to use a chainsaw!     

I told Cowboy of my idea.  He laughed.  I'm sure he's telling all his friends what cute things I say. "Awwww...the things my wife says.....how cute."  Like we moms do when the kids say cute stuff.
But I'm dead serious.  I've already got the protective eye wear, the gloves, the earmuffs.  I just need some chaps, a couple lessons and a bunch trees.  Look out!

Recording My Life--5 Pictures at a Time

I'm at the Western Edge.  Fence is being repaired today.  I walked up earlier to see that Cowboy, Rancher and Ranch Hand were working on the fence to the back of the horse hay field.  What a beautiful day!  I remembered my camera, too.  Yeah, I'm hittin' on all cylinders.

Repairing fence

While there was nothing for me to help with, I took some pictures.

(Here's one of my many quirks:  the memory card went bad in my camera and instead of replacing it, I use my camera's tiny internal memory *5 or 6 pictures*---so I record my life...5 pictures at a time.  Lame!  I know)

So here is a glimpse of my world 

Registered longhorns

Longhorn and Angus

Ravines in the foreground and background

At the hay feeder.   Cowboy is cleaning up brush.

Angus momma (#108) and her little one

The men graciously found something I could help with:  bring them more insulators and about 6 feet of high tensile wire.  Oh boy!  I love being helpful.  

Not feeling too wordy today.  It's a show and not tell day.

It May Be Gray Outside; but It's Rosy through My Eyes

Even though I am ever so ready for Spring, 

I thrilled as I admired the dusting of snow Winter left for me last night. 

No snow on the driveway...just on the grass and trees

{like a magical fairy land}

In this black and white wonderland with its inherent peacefulness, Harry and I walked.

{His focus was on chasing squirrels, while mine was through the camera lens}

February used to be my least favorite month....shortest in days, but longest in duration...everything so gray!

My mind's eye is conjuring memories of my first grade classroom...

Decorated with red, white and pink scalloped corrugated trim,

large heart-shaped paper doilies to which pictures of George Washington & Abraham Lincoln were glued.

First grade February:  That's when I experienced my very first swooning moment.....

red foil heart stickers!!

{My teacher put the stickers on our papers...so glorious!}

  {They still hold a fascination for me...any of you armchair psychologists should tell me why this is.}

And the most beautiful valentines candy my 1st grade eyes beheld:

heart-shaped candy coated with tiny red and white candy beads.  I looked for a picture on the internet to no avail.  I wonder if you remember them.  They looked like lovely jewelry to me.  

So even with the grayness of February, my mind sees a whole month of color:  red, pink, and white valentines.  

February is not so bad!

Too Early for Spring Fever?

The days are getting longer!!

Even tho' it snowed this morning (barely)--and it was beautiful--

the afternoon sun was so welcome.

Like a friend I haven't seen in a while.

So-- I'm ready for Spring...I'm ready for flower beds, 

the rich aroma of the warming soil, 

the garden, the orchard....

Reminder to myself:  it's just coming up on Groundhog Day...but I'm hoping for

Spring, just around the corner.

Here's one of my favorite poetic lines (it's also a line in one of my all-time favorite movies-Groundhog Day):

And Winter slumbering in the open air,

Wears on his smiling face, a dream of Spring!

                                                                       Samuel Taylor Coleridge

                                                                       (and Phil) 

Hollywood Glamour? Not Me..Not Today

Not me

I momentarily forgot that it isn't all about me.  Happens every once in a while.  The plan:  to ease into the day    => sit in pjs, sip rich coffee, & read....and that's just how it began.  I love wonderful silky pjs...like the ones I imagine Hollywood starlets of old wore while lounging on an overstuffed chaise in a boudoir smoking a cigarette held ever so elegantly in a long cigarette holder, darling...  I almost pull that look off..minus the cigarette, chaise and the boudoir, oh...but with a pair of not-so-chic-but-warm slippers.

So far the morning was going as planned when Cowboy called the house phone.  He had gone to meet the electrician who would then follow him back to the farm ('cause the roads out here are confusing--even for Rand McNally).  The reason for the call?  The reason why my morning routine was so rudely interrupted?  He couldn't reach Ranch Hand on his cell phone.  Which is no big surprise since out here the words "cell" "phone" and "service" are never used in the same sentence unless "non-existent" is there, too.

"Hey, drive up to the barn and tell him not to light the fire.  Well, he might be in the front pasture.  Just find him and tell him don't light the fire.  Hurry!"

"Ok."  Hurry?  Not so easy when I've just been lounging in silky pjs.  Quickly my mind shifted into overdrive...get dressed?   No, it'll take too long.  It's 9 degrees!  Carhartts over the pjs...yes!   Socks? yes or no? Yes.  Snow boots.  Barn coat, gloves, glasses, hat.  ....then I went outside...no keys in the truck!! Lightning fast fingers dialed Cowboy's cell number..

"Uhh.  Where are the keys?"

"Oh, sorry.  They're in my pocket."

"Ok, I'll walk up there."    I wasn't really upset, to my own surprise.  It's only about 1/4 mile..if that.

  I walked up to the barn lot thinking "what a great workout, I should do this every day."  As I'm reflecting on that thought now, I realize how hastily it came to mind.  "Don't do anything hasty" -- that's my motto!  (well, one of them)   I saw that the gator was parked in the barn.  Oh gator!  I hadn't even thought of you.   It reluctantly started and I drove to the front pasture.  A scarf would have been good idea.  Oh well, I'm a tough broad.

I made it to the front pasture without frostbite.  

"Hey!  Don't light that fire!  I don't know why."

My mission was complete.  Just as I was closing the pasture gate to head back home, Cowboy pulled up.  He was pleased with me.  Yay me!

I decided that clothing would ultimately be a good choice since I had to go to post office and the hardware store.  I even went all out and did my make-up.  You never know.....

Errands done...good deal!

Then later in the afternoon, I decided a nap would be in order.  I stretched out on the couch with quilt and pillow (my nap buddies) and relaxed.  Just when I had let out that last contented sigh dividing wake and sleep, the back door opened.  It was Cowboy.

"Mom?"  (I know....he's always lived under the delusion that he's one of the kids and I don't have to heart to tell him otherwise).   If I don't answer right away, he just calls louder.....so

"Yeah,"  I called.

"I need you to go to the bank."

I was just in town 2 hours ago.  Oh well......it can't always be about me.

Oh yeah,  on the way to town I saw hundreds of geese flying north....what do you think?  Spring?  Around the corner?  It's January.  Maybe they're confused.

Did I tell you that I saw a bald eagle a while back?  Well, I did!   And it wasn't on the back of my quarter; it was in a tree!  So yeah, I'm feeling pretty darn special.