Cowgirl Commentaries

Retta's Room

2011-09-28T10:20:00.010-06:00

Here are some before and after pictures of Retta's room.

When we first moved into the house. Excuse the mess...

I repainted it shortly after we moved in.

And repainted it when we found out we were having a girl. For now we still have the guest bed in there.

It seems like her little laundry hamper is always full.

This was an old plant stand that I repainted and then decoupaged a piece of scrapbook paper on top.

I made a pendant banner instead of curtains over the roman shades.

I didn't have any cute fabric so I used scrapbook paper and stapled them to a piece of ribbon. (the lazy man's version)

The picture is of cowgirls at the 1911 Roundup. My Dad made the frame out of old barnwood and I threw some pearls on it to girl it up a bit.

I made these tissue paper balls (not sure of the correct term) and they were super easy.

Instead of a crib skirt, I used two different colors of tuling and wove them through the bars of the crib.

This is when we first moved in. I painted the dresser in the picture black and put new knobs on it. Goes good with the black crib.

My next project is to get the master bedroom finished. I need a deadline like I had with Retta's room (my due date).

New Babies!

2011-09-28T10:17:00.002-06:00

We are back! Time has flown by since our last post! Spring and summer were a blur and so much has happened with us…like two new babies. Larissa and Joe had a baby girl on July 5.

Londen Lind
7 lbs 7 oz

And Zach and I had a baby girl on August 9.

Retta Reece
7 lbs 10 oz

Randen and Mesa love the babies and like to touch their faces and grab their noses.

Scenes from the Weekend

2011-02-19T08:39:00.013-07:00

Last weekend us girls, Zach, and the kids invaded Mom and Dad's house. It was lots of fun. Dad's dog, Rosie, had puppies just weeks before so we got to play with them.

Mesa & Rissa eyeing the pups.

And we're over the puppies.

Mesa checking out her Mom's old playhouse and fantasizing about the day she can play in it.

Dad teaches the kids piano lessons or maybe vice versa.

Randen finds Auntie's camera.

And takes several pictures before we can get it away from him. These are some of the better ones.

Photography by Randen

Randen wondering why we took the camera away from him.

The cousins chilling together.

Husker

2011-02-19T08:19:00.007-07:00

In January, Zach and I rescued a Yellow Lab that had been abandoned and was temporarily living with Joe and Larissa. We couldn't decide on a name so when our friend's son suggested Husker, we went with it. He's the sweetest puppy ever and well behaved (as I watch him chew up one of my dress shoes).

He likes normal puppy stuff like playing fetch, chasing the chickens, chewing on shoes and laying in front of the TV.

He also likes to go coyote hunting with Zach. Their first trip out proved to be very successful!

I'm not sure who was more excited, Zach or Husker.

Drink anyone?

2010-12-12T10:11:00.007-07:00

At Thanksgiving, my Mother-in-Law wanted to give me some stuff and said that if I didn't want it to just get rid of it. The "stuff" were these retro cowboy drinking glasses. Heck yes I want them!

There are four different sizes with different scenes.

Cowboys around the fire with the chuckwagon in back.

A cowboy getting bucked off a bronc.

Roping and branding calves on the open range.

Cowboy roping a maverick in the pasture.

Here are a few of them in my Hoosier cabinet.

With no writing or stamp on them, I'm not sure of the brand or era. I'm guessing 1950 or 1960s. Whatever the era, I love 'em!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-27T14:19:00.002-07:00

Annie hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving for all of us. Here she poses in front of her fireplace at her new house.
She proved herself as a top-notch cook and hostess. The ham was the best ever, the turkey was wonderful. The stuffing was hands-down, no-contest, the best I have ever had.

She set a gorgeous table. Note the bench on the left side. It is a very neat find.

She even took it to a whole. nutha. level...

Turkey cheeseball!

Mesa's Dresser- Before and After

2010-11-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

I had bought a dresser several years ago at a junk shop. I didn't really know what I would do with it, but it had two huge drawer and a mirror on the top. I started stripping the paint right away, but put the project aside when I got to the mirror. It had some router work on the frame that was giving me fits when I tried to remove the paint.
So when Mesa needed a dresser, I just stained the dresser and then did some painting on the mirror so that I could get it done. (instant gratification)

The colors on the mirror frame match the colors of her curtains, which are bandanas. They also match the little decoupage that I did on the drawers.

One drawer says "Cowgirl" and the second drawer says "Gear." The next time we want to redo her room, we can just scrape these off pretty easily.

Photo Booth F-U-N

2010-10-11T13:39:00.003-06:00

Kayce had a photo booth at her wedding at the end of August. Mega fun for all ages! It was the perfect opportunity for some family pictures.

Aunt Rodie and Mom - they took quite a few in the photo booth - all of the PRICELESS!

Lindsey, Matt and Mesa - Not sure what Mesa's parents are doing, but she isn't impressed.

Joe, Larissa, and Randen - again, child not impressed with parents.

Annie and Zach

The starry-eyed guys and elated bride!

Lindsey, Larissa, and Lariann

2010-10-10T12:12:00.014-06:00

In September, Zach and I celebrated our one year anniversary by taking a trip to Reno, NV to see Zach's brother and his family. We had a great time playing with the kids, hiking in some desert mountains, sailboating on Lake Tahoe, and touring Virginia City (old west town off of the TV show Bonanza).

Me, Levi, Zach and Elise (in her Husker tu-tu)

Levi loves lizards! He was holding this one and it crawled up his arm and hopped onto his back.

Virginia City is famous for their Camel Races.

Seaman Zach

Me swinging off the side of the sailboat.

One of our other big highlights of the trip was the "swing."

Here we are in our harnesses and feeling pretty brave.

Anxiously awaiting our turn to take the plunge!

We were laying on our bellies and hoisted to the top of the pole. When we got to the top, Zach pulled the cord and we plummeted down about 40 or 50 feet. Then we went swinging out hard and fast. It was so scarey but so fun! Aaron videoed it and all you could hear was me screaming!

Safely on the ground and thanking the Lord we were still alive!

Redo of Dining Chairs

2010-08-14T16:09:00.004-06:00

I decided to recover the seats of my dining chairs this week. I had recovered them when I bought the set about 6 years ago. At that time I used a set of bandana dish towels. When I bought the chairs they were covered in a horrifying mauve and country blue print.

After six years of food getting spilled on them, they had started to look pretty rough.

So I ordered some oilcloth from an online retailer. Oilcloth is basically vinyl. They have a huge selection of oilcloth, much of which is in awesome retro patterns! I figured the oilcloth would be the best thing to have since you could wipe it off when spills happen.

This was probably the easiest projects I have recovered because the vinyl is so easy to work with. I just removed the seats which are screwed from the bottom.

I didn't even remove the old covering, just went right over the top of it. I did this because I am lazy and I love instant gratification. Plus, I was trying to get them done in between feeding my kid. She likes to eat alot.

I just stapled the vinyl onto the back fo the seat, and tucked the corners.

This is what the finished project looks like. I also used a red, yellow, and turquoise gingham to mix it up. I had six chairs and wished that I would have bought a different color for each. But, as I mentioned, instant gratification is what I strive for.
I already got to spill test it. I doused myself, Mesa, and the chair in a freak ketchup bottle accident. The chair was the easiest thing to clean up. Now, if we could just make clothes for Mesa and I out of oilcloth, we would never need to do laundry again!

So tired

2010-08-13T13:04:00.004-06:00

Gypsy, the dog, has been feeling pretty left-out and ostracized since Mesa came around. Matt and Mesa usually take a snooze at the end of a long day. In the old days, Gypsy and Matt used to take a nap at the end of the day. Now, Gypsy sits on the porch and laments about the old days.
But every once in a while, she will sneak her way into the house and pretend the baby isn't there and that she has Matt all to herself again.

Eeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-08-10T22:08:00.001-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, Zach and I went to visit the Wishards and install the central A/C (okay...Zach installed the A/C, I was just in the way). Anyway, it was a fun weekend staying in the new house!!! Yes! They have moved into the house! We had a riot playing in Randen's new sandbox, driving around the pasture, hitting golf balls, and making homemade ice cream.

On Sunday, Riss and I were sorting through boxes with the help of a 1 1/2 year old. Joe had just stepped onto the porch when he screamed at us to get outside. We ran outside to find a HUGE rattlesnake slithering straight to the house. It was instantly mad and buzzing like crazy.

Joe gave it a whack with a 12 foot 2x4. It coiled, buzzed and looked more than willing to strike. By this time it was right next to the house and Zach was closer than I thought was necessary. I continued to yell at him to get farther back. You see, Zach grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska where there is no such thing as rattlesnakes. He is amazed by them and doesn't realize that they can strike at a distance of three times their body length (I yelled that at him too). He then smacked it several times with a spade. The whole time Riss and I stood on the porch with Randen and told him how bad snakes were and that he had to stay away from them. I think we got our point across...he was shaking and yelling at the snake by the time it was finally dead.

We also had to tell Randen that Uncle was bad for picking the snake up.

Notice that no one else would get close enough to it to be in the picture.

We were wondering...

2010-07-20T07:33:00.003-06:00

We have all been wondering how Randen would react to Mesa. Randen is used to having the spotlight 100% of the time. He has a pretty low tolerance for anybody else trying to steal the attention from him. In fact, his grandma Linda was holding a cat on her lap, and Randen walked over and shoved the cat off so he could sit on her lap.

However, we were pretty surprised when he was a perfect gentleman to his new cousin Mesa. He was intrigued with her this past weekend. When she whimpered, he whimpered. He also liked to pick at her hair and her face. He tried to stick his fingers in her mouth and ears. He also tried to pick her up a couple of times.

Can he be left unattended with her for two seconds? NO! However, it is the start of a good relationship!!!!!

Zach's Party

2010-07-20T07:23:00.002-06:00

Zach had a birthday last week. Annie threw a party for him. Lots of people were there to help celebrate. Here are some random shots of the evening.

Checking out Barbara the camper...

Annie had tons of food, including a vat of Sangria. I said a vat, because there was tons of it!

Nice fire in the pit.

Festive mood with friends and family! Good way to spend a Thursday night!

Pretty Girl

2010-07-13T20:25:00.005-06:00

My name is Mesa Mae and I like to play dress up...

and sleep...

and be silly.

Proudly Presenting...

2010-07-07T21:34:00.014-06:00

Mesa Mae!!!

July 7, 2010 at 12:49 a.m.

8 lbs 7 oz 21 inches long...Lindsey was not that big so I'm not sure where Mesa was hiding.

Daddy and his little girl

Gwamma Linda

Grandpa Larry

Auntie Rissa

Auntie Annie

Mama and baby are doing great! Mesa is a cuddler and the sweetest baby girl! Our cousin Kendra is a nurse at the hospital so she made sure they both had the best care ever.

Cousin Randen has yet to meet her. Hopefully this weekend. He's super excited to have a playmate!

Hoosier Cabinet

2010-07-06T12:34:00.014-06:00

Five or six years ago I bought the bottom to a hoosier cabinet. It needed to be refinished but was in fairly good shape including the enamel countertop. Needless to say, it sat in my garden shed since that day. Then earlier this spring we were rummaging around in some old buildings at my Mom and Dad's. Buried in the back was the top for a hoosier cabinet.

It was in dire shape but I had to have it. We drug it out, knocked the mice nests out, and hauled it home.

I spent several days stripping paint, replacing glass, adding beadboard, stabilizing shelves, and painting.

The finished product.

I moved my kitchen table into the living room and put the cabinet in the kitchen.

Now I just need to find a cutting board to fit in the bottom slot.

Big Help

2010-06-27T10:37:00.005-06:00

Randen is only 20 months, but he is already good help.

This past weekend, him and his momma gathered heifers and pushed them up the chute on Scoop. When things got a little boring his just fell asleep on old Scoop. Then he slept on the 4 wheeler while he and Grandpa finished putting heifers back out.
He helps Auntie watch the gate.

He loves helping his other Auntie drive the panel trailer while gathering bulls. Evidently, he thinks we should be in 4 wheel drive.

He helps Grandpa lead Scoop to the trailer. It is so cute, he clicks to the horse and says "mon" for "come on." Scoop just follows dad and has no idea what shorty is doing.

Randen is also very good at driving. He drives the tractor or pickup or whatever. Here, he gives Auntie a lesson on driving the car .

He shows Auntie how to honk the horn and put the wipers on.

He also helps Grandpa put his boots on when he deems naptime has been long enough.

He is too cute

2010-06-27T10:31:00.003-06:00

Randen is just too cute. Love that boy.

Jammies and his cowboy hat.

And snowboots..

Mickelson Trail Marathon Recap

2010-06-14T18:45:00.002-06:00

Recently, Annie, Larissa, Kendra, Kannon, and Tenise relayed the Mickelson Trail Marathon. They did great!! This picture is their approximate time. I think they finished about five minutes faster than this, but we forgot a phot until later.
Here is Kannon after running the final leg. She actually had to run a mile further than she had trained for or anticipated. She did great! On a side note: This is the first time I have seen Kannon wear anything other than high heels. Seriously, this girl wears heels camping!

Here is Tenise finishing strong on her 5 mile leg. She had planned to run 6, but evidently they marked the trail out differently, thus the reason Kannon had to run extra.

Here is Ris finishing up her leg of the relay. She was showing off here.

Kendra is pounding out her leg of the journey. She is used to pushing two kids in a side-by-side jogging stroller that is almost as tall as she is. This worked to her advantage since her leg was uphill.

Here is Annie finishing up her leg. She ran the first and longest leg of 8 miles. She finished looking like she could have ran much longer. Some of her splits were 8.5 minute miles - much faster than she thought

Here are the two sisters (our cousins). The team name was Gypsy Joggers. They took the team name to a whole 'notha level by dressing the part of Gypsies!

Here is the team at the finish line in beautiful Deadwood.

More about Justin

2010-06-14T18:25:00.002-06:00

So, seeing Justin recently got us thinking about what a cool dude he is. The 5 summers that he worked for us when he was in high school were fun summers for us girls. As mentioned before, we were VERY annoying little grade-school girls that followed him and pestered him constantly. I am sure that he looked forward to long days in the hayfield just to get away from us!

However, he was always a good sport and we had so much fun with him. He could do no wrong in our eyes. He could do cool stuff like a series of backflips across the entire yard. He had a Walkman and listened to Def Lep and Metallica and Alice Cooper. He also teased us as much as we pestered him. He would also take us fencing with him. We would sit in the back of the pickup and hand him staples while listening to metal music on his boom box.

One time, Justin was going to mow the lawn on the riding mower. Annie must have been taunting him or something. I don't remember exactly how it ensued, but he finally challenged Annie (probably about 5- 7 years old at the time) to a contest. He marked off a tiny chunk of the lawn for Annie to cut with her jack-knife in the time he mowed the rest of the yard. Now, us girls always packed a nice, dull jack-knife pretty much all the time. She had a particularly dull, little, tiny jack-knife she packed around and would proudly whip out when something needed cutting. So the game was on. She wielded that dull little knife over the patch of grass like a machete through the jungle. All the while, Justin would drive past her on the lawn tractor in road-gear, making her scream and cut even faster. Ris and I cheered and hustled Annie on like she was in the Olympic finals.

Of course Justin was going to finish WAY ahead of Annie, but looking back, I am sure he stalled and drove in circles so she could finish.

Where are we?

2010-06-10T17:43:00.004-06:00

While we have been absent from blogging, we have not been absent from everything else! I don't even know where to pick up to give you an update, so I will just do random posts of things we have been doing lately.

Last Sat. night we road-tripped to Edgemont. Annie, Ris, Randen, I and the guys went down to watch our cousins Justin and JR in a ranch rodeo. They did really awesome! We have lots more pictures of the night, including Justin in the wild ride! We had a great time catching up with the Colorado Smiths! It had been years since we saw Justin.

Justin lived with us in the summers when he was in high school. We were pesky little grade-school kiddos that followed him around non-stop and tried to "help" him. He slaved away in the hayfield, fixed fence, chased cows, fixed stuff, watched Mary Poppins with us, teased us, and patiently played Junk Poker with us. (Junk Poker was a poker game that we came up with when we were little. The pot consisted of useless crap we no longer wanted anymore.)
Justin is married to one of the sweetest, cutest women you will ever meet. He and Brenda have three awesome kids and live in Colorado. They run yearlings and chase the kids.

Here is a picture of Justin winning the Top Hand award at the ranch rodeo.

Here is a family picture of us after the rodeo. From left to right: Uncle Steve, Aunt Roxie, Joe, Ris, Matt, Lindsey, Justin, Brenda, Randen, Annie, Zach, and our cousin JR.

We had a blast seeing everyone!

Sugar & Spice-that's what little girls are made of!

2010-05-24T20:15:00.005-06:00

Spring is flying by and Lindsey's due date draws closer and closer. She's been feeling good and getting excited!

She's a pretty dang cute prego!

Larissa and I got to paint Pippy's bedroom and Lindsey has been busy getting things ready for it! We will do a full reveal once it is done.

Branding Pen Fun!

2010-05-24T19:48:00.008-06:00

We have not forgotten about the blog, we promise! Our weekends have been jam packed with with redoing the roof on Zach & Annie's house in town, working on Larissa's house, a cousin's graduation and brandings.

This past Sunday we went to our folk's to brand calves. Here are some scenes from the branding pen.

Randen & Uncle Matt
Randen is getting to be quite the cowboy and likes to yell "Haw!"

Larissa and Travis holding calves.

Annie dragging a calf to the fire.

The calf wrestlers.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts on the Marathon Relay Race, Hoosier Redos, more brandings, and South Dakota weather.

Scenes from the weekend

2010-04-14T06:08:00.003-06:00

Loading bucking horse mares.

Ris

Bucking horse mares. Cute little future bucker.

It's drying up.

Uncle Matt and Big R

The three R's - Ris, Randen, and Randy the Stud Horse.

Have you ever felt this tired?

2010-03-30T18:24:00.004-06:00

This past weekend was a busy one. It was so beautiful outside that we were able to get lots done.

Randen is a trooper. He takes any opportunity to take a nap when he is tired.

He fell asleep sitting straight up in the wagon while we walked to the corrals.

He slept in the wagon while we were at the corrals. He slept in the pickup while his mom and auntie got the pickup and panel trailer stuck.

He fell asleep while he was feeding with his dad. He slept in the tractor while everyone else worked on the house or dug waterline.

When he went to Grandma Linda's, he fell asleep while she and him were riding the 4-wheeler.

Does he like taking a nap in his comfy crib? Not really.

Thunder Chicken

2010-03-27T09:48:00.008-06:00

This is the story of Thunder Chicken...

Zach was a 2nd grader at Johnstown Elementary. They were having a class project of incubating eggs. Each kid got to pick out an egg and write there name on it. If the egg hatched, they could take it home. Zach's ended up hatching (and living) so he took it home. His dad and he were brainstorming for a name and his dad suggested Thunder Chicken. Zach loved it and from then on she was known as Thunder Chicken Lanka.

At the time, they had no other chickens so TC was kept in a box until she got older. Zach was constantly playing with her and carrying her around. She became so tame that she started following them around just like a dog. One day Marla and Aaron went to town to do errands. They parked on Main Street and went into the Post Office. When they came out they saw a black hen pecking in the dirt underneath the pickup. It was Thunder Chicken!! She had rode all the way to town in the engine compartment. Not a feather was missing!

As soon as Thunder Chicken was grown up, Zach took her back to school for Show-and-Tell. (His was the only one that lived to be a pet). After showing her off to everyone, he put her back in the cardboard box. She clucked for the rest of the day and the other kids kept going over there to pet her. I'm sure his teacher was thrilled.

Zach and Aaron would take her fishing and she would try to eat a worm whole. She would cough and choke and fall over dramatically. Then eat another one and do the same thing. She would also eat any food scraps. One year she hatched five baby chicks and raised them.

There big debut came when Zach took Thunder Chicken to the County Fair. They enetered in the 4-H show competition at the fairgrounds. There was a big long table and everyone was supposed to put their chicken on it so the judge could start critiquing. Zach plopped TC down and she didn't move a muscle. She calmly sat there and clucked. The other chickens were trying to run away while there owners scambled to grab their feet and contain them. Zach and TC ended up winning the purple ribbon and a trophy (which is still at Zach's folk's house). The judge commented to Zach that he had been judging chickens for quite a few years and that TC was by far the nicest one he had encountered. Thunder Chicken's reward was a Snicker's bar that she had to share with Zach.

I wish I had the picture for you to see of Zach and Thunder Chicken. Imagine a freckle-faced little boy grinning from ear to ear with a big, fat, black chicken resting under his arm.

So I wasn't surprised when Zach brought home three baby chicks the other day and told me it was our new project.

I have to admit...they are pretty cute!

For now we are calling them Cluck, Chirp, and Cheep.

Their home is a box in our living room.

They do NOT quit chirping.

Could this be the next Thunder Chicken?

Fun Mail

2010-03-24T19:55:00.009-06:00

Day after day when I go to the mailbox I find bills and junk mail. Some days I don't even actually get my mail. Confession: Sometimes, I actually stop at the mailbox, look in, and if nothing looks interesting, I don't even make the effort to get the mail out! Pathetic huh?

However, there are those rare occassions in which something fun is in the mail. Like birthdays. Or just for no reason at all. I was recently the recipient of fun mail that wasn't for my birthday!

My sister-in-law is a paper-crafter extraordinaire. If you are into scrapbooking, stamping, or making cards, you HAVE to check out her site http://www.katieskiff.typepad.com/. She is pretty much an expert in this area. She sells product, creates kits, showcases stuff everyday on her blog, is on design teams, and also teaches classes. She recently sent me all the materials and instructions to create cards she did at her last class.

The contents of the package:

Some of my finished cards from her packet!

I also received a huge box of goodies from a friend in Missouri. Her name is Tracy, and I met her online over a year ago. She is such a great person and has been a very supportive friend. She is the mother of a sweet baby girl. When she heard I was expecting a girl, she sent us all of this:

Oodles of really cute baby clothes, a diaper bag, baby soap, sleepers, you name it!

I hope you get something fun in the mail this week!

Snow and Mud

2010-03-17T19:50:00.003-06:00

This past weekend, Matt and I went to Wishard's. We left home while it was warm, dry, and sunny. When we got to the north country, it was a different story. Chronic fog and more wet, melting snow made things quite interesting. I really don't know how many times Ris and Joe had been stuck the previous week. We continued to wrack up that count over the weekend.

This is what the front yard looks like.
One minute you could be stuck in the mud and then next minute you could be stuck in a drift.

Ris and I made plans to make it down to the cabin to get a bunch of work done. We got an early start. Joe decided to drive us down and leave us there as there was another pickup there for us to drive back. We should have seen the writing on the wall.

We slugged through the mud and turned to go East when we started hitting drifts. Joe had been over that road with the tractor the day before but it was drifted in again, despite the warm temps. He onioned through several drifts and we finally came to a standstill in a particularly heavy, wet drift.

It was too bad there was only one shovel in the pickup. He dug the whole thing out and chained up while Ris and I gossiped and drank 7-up in the pickup.

We got going again. Ris and I both agreed we would have turned around, but it had become a personal mission for Joe to get us down to the cabin. We hit increasingly bigger drifts before we finally became extremly high-centered on a huge drift. Luckily, Ris and I had predicted this and had called Matt 15 minutes before this to start heading down with the tractor. Matt made it down and cleared the rest of the road for us.

The road going south was muddy and snowy, but we made it to the cabin. Ris and I started priming and touching up on the mud for the next 5 hours while the guys headed back to the house to finish feeding.

When Ris and I left later in the day, the warmer temps had turned the muddy roads to a completely impassable obstacle course. But we gave it the old college try. Ris made several attempts to actually jump the pickup onto the road while I ran ahead on foot to open the gate so she wouldn't have to stop. Fast foward 5 minutes and the Dodge couldn't have been more stuck. We had packed food and water and cell phone chargers but no cell phones. So we took off walking as it was going to be hours before the guys came looking for us.

We took off for the main road. The mud on the road was deep so we jumped off the road. Ris became majorly stuck in the ditch. Snowy slush coming dangerously close to flowing over the tops of her mud knee-high mud boots. We got her out and trudged along. She practically had to carry this fat preggers half of the way. Our plan was to get to the main road and go to an empty house that is used in the summer by a neighbor. Our hopes were that A) the house was open and B) the phone was connected and C) we could actually get ahold of one of the guys. Lots of holes in that plan, but it was warm out and we were optimistic.

As we neared the main road (still another 8 miles from home) we saw a guy driving a Ranger with tracked out in the middle of nowhere. (An anomoly, as we would NEVER see anyone out there.) He seemed a little concerned why we were out there walking, but let us use his cell phone. Then he went on his merry way and we continued walking to the road. We finally stood by the road for about an hour until Joe showed up in the tractor. We were both getting cold by then and I wondered if I was having contractions, but Ris assured me that it was just because I was SERIOUSLY out of shape.

Joe had to pull the Dodge an entire mile with the tractor. When he got there, we all decided that was probably the last trip we were going to be making in the pickup on that road until the forth of July.

Ris and I were happy to get home and eat beer-butt chicken, watch Sex and the City and fantasize about living on a beach.

Princess of the Single-Wide Trailer

2010-03-14T15:57:00.000-06:00

Before Zach and I got married, I had a little house in town. It was decorated super cute and had a huge kitchen. It was girly and clean and I loved it! I had ALOT of stuff packed in there but it all had a place and fit perfectly.

Zach, on the other hand, lived in a 1980's single-wide trailer north of town. He and two other guys had been living there for the last four years so you can guess how clean and girly it was. It has about the same square footage as my house but less closet space and an extremely tiny kitchen.

When we got married, we thought we better move in together (as married couples do). Since we have horses it seemed practical to live at the trailer (the roommates have moved out) and keep my house as a rental.

The renter that I was hoping to get, told me on Tuesday that she wanted to move in on Saturday. Yay! But yikes as I had been putting off fully moving to the country until we actually had a renter. With the help of Matt and Lindsey, we did a whirlwind move job. Furniture and boxes got thrown haphazardously into the trailer...wherever it would fit.

Zach thinks we need to have a giant garage sale and maybe take a couple loads to the dump. I'm thinking we just need to get a really big house to fit it all!

Winter fun

2010-02-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

Randen wanted to get outside and have some winter fun. While he was at Grandpa and Grandma's he decided to put his artistic talent to use. He created snowmen replicas of Grandpa and Grandma.

He portrayed grandma wearing a bikini top and sporting some ruby-red lipstick. A cigar-smoking Grandpa appeared to be ready to net the big one while patting grandma on the back.

He took a brief sledding break.

And admired his handiwork.

A day in the life of...

2010-02-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

One lazy Sunday morning Zach and Annie went coyote hunting...Ris, Randen, and I loaded up to follow our dad around to document his morning. It went something like this...

We drove around in dad's pickup and listened to his box set of CD's entitled 70's Love Songs. We opened gates for him while he fed hay. He fed bales at Clarence's.

He fed bales on the creek...

He fed more bales on the other side of the creek...

Dad got Bell's Palsy recently. Evidently, it is a virus that causes one side of the face to fall.

He had to wear an eyepatch for a while because he couldn't blink one eye. He seems to be getting better. However, his face looks rough. He doesn't want to go into public until it heals. Luckily, this crowd of cows don't count as "public."

His dog's name is Rosie. One of the neighbors gave him(?) to Dad. Rosie is quite a companion. He (?) likes to ride in the tractor and listen to 810 AM radio with dad.

Dad is actually smiling for this picture. One of these days the Bell's Palsy will go away and he will have his grin back.

Power Down – Fun Factor Up?

2010-02-23T19:44:00.006-07:00

Note: Many people have asked us how Larissa and Joe were doing during the storms. We asked Ris to compile a short diary of the events that happened during that time as well as her reflections. The following is a verbatim recollection of the events.

When she refers to the Cabin she means the new, under-construction house. When she refers to the Shack, she means the old house that they have been living in.

Dear Diary:

January 20^th –Power down. Went down to cabin (Rissa’s thoughts: How fun, I get to stay in the cabin)

January 21^st -The power briefly came on today, but then went dead again until February 6^th.(Rissa’s thoughts: I am going to get so much done to this cabin with the boys staying here!)

January 22^nd- Matt brought a generator out. Cooking on the wood stove, it took 30 minutes to fry one egg (Rissa’s thought: I am hungry right NOW! But this is still pretty fun, except for getting stuck and the frigid temperatures)

January 23^rd - We got a 2^nd generator, boys got the toilet in so we melted snow to flush. Obviously, no wells would work w/o power so we moved cows to a spring that a kind neighbor let us use! Other bunches also drank out of springs. (Rissa’s thoughts: It’s pretty awesome going to the bathroom and not getting frostbit!)

January 24^th - Been stuck with all pickups at least 6 times already. Tried to hook up a PTO generator to the old shack, didn’t work as it was -30 wind-chill. Looked in the old house and the toilet had frozen and broke. Joe was at the very top of the tractor bucket, in the dark, trying to fix the electric wires at the top of the pole, with me shining a crappy flashlight at him. (Rissa’s thoughts~ I am cold, but you know what? This WILL get better!) Tried to pry hand off of flashlight.

January 25^th- Randen went to his Grammy’s house. Exchanged him for a propane camp stove. We are at the cabin eating well!!! Huddling in front of the wood stove with the doors wide open watching a DVD that is plugged into the generator! We are real pioneers! We all are feeling SEVERAL drafts that need to be plugged in the cabin! That night huddled next to Joe in sweatpants, long johns, stocking cap and 6 quilts and wondering if it is possible to know that I am freezing in my sleep. (Rissa’s thoughts~ I HATE WINTER, really when will this blizzard end??)

January 26^th -Some other neighbors called and said we could come take showers (propane water heater!!) BEST NEWS ALL MONTH! That night their electricity was restored so we “moved” in with them. (Rissa’s thoughts~ I am okay now, I got the grease out of my hair I feel revived, refreshed and full of awesome food)

January 26^th- the end of January - Wondering how long we should invade the neighbor’s house. Should we move to the next neighbor’s house??? Do I scrub her floors? Do I buy food? What are the rules on squatting?

Somewhere around January 29^th - Had a minor breakdown that involved feeling of doom that the temp will NEVER get over zero again, hysterical crying, a wish that I lived in the desert, I hate ranching etc. you get the picture) One hour and a headache later I am okay we will be fine, don’t be a baby.

February 6^th - We finally got power and the fuel oil furnace unthawed to the old shack and the only thing busted was the toilet!! Felt we were pretty lucky! Moved BACK into the shack, although when the power first went out I said I never would move back in… oh well.

February 5^th and 6^th- Tried to unthaw waters and replaced pressure switches etc… no luck (Rissa’s thoughts: Man, ranching sucks)

February 7^th- Cows finally got water. The temperature got to, like, 10. (Rissa’s thoughts: Awesome, ranching isn’t so bad!! I love it, it is totally a lifestyle!!)

February 13^th- Another blizzard, moved cows home from Bills (5 or so miles) Rissa got stuck 3 times in a matter of an hour and wasn’t even helping with the “drive”… very cold (Rissa’s thoughts: You know when I said that ranching wasn’t so bad? Never mind. I must have been out of my mind)

List of expenses and things that had to be replaced during the storm

15 flat tires…. Yes 15

4 brand new tires

7 broken u-joints

2 ruined pumps for the feed trailer

3 dead batteries

One new headlight and casing for the pickup

$4500 bull at the bottom of a dam

$4,000 in fuel oil and Ag diesel

1 new generator

1 new toilet

4 new brake lines

3 new pressure switches

2 sets of pickup chains

1 scoop shovel handle

1 axe at the bottom of a different dam

Dead Animals:

1 horse

2 cows

8 calves

1 bull

And a frozen partridge in a pear tree

Blast from the Past

2010-02-21T20:19:00.007-07:00

When we were growing up, we played a LOT of board games. We had a closet full of games that we chose from. Among our favorites was Sorry!, however, someone always ended up in tears while playing that game. So we usually picked other games that didn't cause emotional outbursts. One of our favorite standbys was Sweet Valley High.

Some of you ladies may remember reading the series of Sweet Valley High books by Francine Pascal. The books were about twins Jessica and Elizabeth who resided in sunny California. The books chronicled their high-school endeavors and experiences including fights with their friends, clothes, and boyfriend drama. We read a good portion of this huge series of books, so we were elated when we got the game.

We used to play the game a lot back in the days of pink, stone-washed Rockies and banana clips. It also became an Easter tradition among the girl cousins. We played hours of this game during the celebration of our Lord's Resurection.

Ris and Annie dug the old girl out the other night at mom's to relive the good times.

The only difference between playing now and playing back in the old days is that now you can drink a Corona while playing.

The game board is a replica of a high school with classroms. The characters in the book, Jessica and Elizabeth, along with their friends Enid and Lila, must find all the necessary objects for their upcoming big date.

So, for Elizabeth's weekend bike tour, she must find the her teacher, clothes, bike, gear, and her boyfriend. Yes, this is a game that teaches big, life lessons.

So you roll the die and scurry around the halls of the school looking in classrooms for your needed items including your boyfriend. There are setbacks, like one player might have a conflict with her boyfriend and have to put him back in one of the classrooms. High school drama revealed.

Ris (or Enid) was having bad luck. Tears might fall yet.

Good times!

Birthday Girl

2010-02-18T20:45:00.005-07:00

In celebration of Larissa's birthday, we sat down with her and asked for her reflections.

How old are you today?

Twenty-five again! Har har. Twenty-nine.

Give us some statistics from the year of your birth.

Dolly Parton's song "9 to 5" was a number one hit.

A stamp cost $0.15

A gallon of gas cost $1.38

A dozon eggs cost $0.90

A gallon of milk cost $2.22

Ronald Regan just took office

If you could have anybody, either past or present, sing you happy birthday, who would it be?

Minnie Pearl and the HeeHaw Band or

Joe in a high-pitched soprano with air-guitar

When you blow out the candles this year, what will be your wish? (It will still come true if you tell us)

That my house would be done by the end of the month!!!!!! Okay, that is not realistic. A more realistic wish would be that my garden is bountiful this summer.

Name the single most notable positive thing that happened to you this past year.

When I got to take a shower after 6 days. It was hot to boot!

Which birthday gift would you pick out of the following list:

a) Hot pink stone-washed jeans and a banana clip

b) A two-year subscription to Cat Fancy magazine

c) A Scooby-Doo Chia pet

Since you already wrapped the pink stone-washed Rockies up for me last Christmas, I would have to say the I would like the Cat Fancy magazine subscription. My thought is that if the mice see pictures of cats lying around then they will get scared and run off!

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Randen's horses

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Randen has several horses in his string. He has a paint bouncy horse that is crippled right now (the springs are off).

He has a buckskin named Cisco that he has broke pretty good.

And he has one named Mom that always tries to buck him off!

It's a girl!

2010-02-09T20:10:00.006-07:00

Matt and I are having a baby girl! She is due June 30th.

We cannot wait!!!!!

Random work on the house

2010-02-09T11:30:00.001-07:00

These are scenes from this weekend. We got a lot done, sometimes progress just doesn't show!

Annie and Ris hanging sheetrock in the bathroom.

A view of the future kitchen. Right now it looks like a war zone. The couch is there because of the campout during the power outage. Note the cookstove on top of the tablesaw.

Here is an after-shot of the kitchen ceiling with sheetrock and one layer of wet mud on it.

Here are the guys hanging the sheetrock.

I am mudding the ceiling. I did not get a single drop of mud on me during this process. (wink)

Here is a joint effort of hanging rock in Randen's bedroom.

Annie and Ris put yet ANOTHER coat of poly on the walls. Annie is feeling the effects of the poly here!

I am cutting and hanging sheetrock for the short walls upstairs.

Ris is taping the ceiling in the master bedroom.

Annie was all geared up to tile the bathroom floor this weekend. Luckily, she laid out the tile before she put a coat of thin-set down because we were severely short on tile! Before that was determined, she had to put the subfloor down in the bathroom. Unfortunately, that was on the bottom of the trailer. Her and Ris unloaded a TON of sheetrock to get to the OSB.

There are some perks to being pregnant. I only had to open the door for them. Good job girls!

Annie did her fair share of mudding also.

Matt was catching a breather here.

More mudding for Annie. She didn't get any on her either.

Obviously, there is plenty more to do. We got a lot done this weekend!

Finally Home Again

2010-02-08T18:46:00.015-07:00

It is Monday night and we just got home from Wishards. There is so much more snow up north. We got up there on Sat. morning and got busy.

Annie and Ris loaded feed in the tractor and fed some calves.

It was overcast out, but we had big plans for the day.

While the girls were doing that, the guys quickly fixed a U joint in this pickup. I watched.

Then we headed down to the new house to spend the rest of the day working on it. Here Ris and Annie break the trail down to the new house.

The fog was heavy and tons of snow made it hard to see the trail sometimes.

There is sooo much snow in that country.

So we worked on the house all day Saturday and Sunday. We had heard there would be a blizzard on Sunday night, so we intended to leave earlier so we could drive while it was still light. We were all so busy that we forgot about that plan and left after dark.

When we finally got onto the highway, the roads were slick in spots, the wind was horrible.

And the visibility was pretty poor. Okay, the visibility was about 10 feet.

By the time we turned south of Faith, I had to stick my head out the passenger side window to find an approach that we could use to turn around on as we had the horsetrailer too. We slid past two approaches and got pulled into the third.

We decided to go back to Wishard's that night. Randen was happy to see us again!

Today we called work and told them that we weren't going to make it. There was a couple more inches of snow. The wind was howling, the pickup wouldn't start, and the wind chill was -30 degrees. So we ate pancakes and spaghetti, watched movies, and played with Big R. Annie and Randen did a little cleaning.

We finally got the pickup started and we made our second attempt to leave. We made it about 10 yards down the driveway and got majorly stuck in a big drift.

Here, Annie is digging out.

After we got out of that drift, we hit the main road. It is a couple miles to the highway and we busted huge drifts the entire way. We hit one particular drift with the full onion; it was about bumper-high. We got through it, but it messed things up.

We got to the highway and pulled over. The serpentine belt had come off. Matt got it put back on, but the batteries in the pickup are old and it wouldn't restart. A guy in Lantry tried to jump-start the pickup, but it wouldn't turn over. Joe showed up and he was able to get it jump-started. We were on our way again. The rest of the trip was nice and uneventful.

We can't wait for summer!

Stay Tuned

2010-02-05T09:16:00.002-07:00

In the last week or so we have been busy. In addition to our day jobs, Annie is in the process of moving out to the country. We took some time off to go to watch the guys at the ranch rodeo. They didn't do so ranchy this year. Next year boys! We have also worked on the Wishard house. Plus, we are getting geared up for the coming big work weekend on the Wishard house. We are going to get soooo much done. It will be epic.

So be prepared for some news and pictures on the house progress, an interview with a special lady, and hopefully, a big reveal on Tuesday night.

Most Recent House Update

2010-01-24T19:41:00.010-07:00

So work has continued on the Wishard house saga. These picture were taken last weekend. You can see that there is still a lot to be done on the house, but progress is being made.

Currently, due to the power outage in most of the north country, Ris, Joe, Randen, and Matt have been camping in the house since it has a woodstove. No water or power in the house, but they hooked the generator up so they can keep working on the house during this storm. As of yesterday, Randen sold out and went to stay with Grandma. Can't blame him!

Here, Ris helps Randen navigate up the stairs. Going around air hoses and power cords.
This is a view of the upstairs. The ceiling is sheetrocked and Annie and Ris started taping it.

This is the main floor. The guys were going to sheetrock the ceiling tonight (Sunday) since there is no TV to watch.

Randen helps Uncle Matt.

Here is Ris standing at the bottom of the stairs. Most of the wiring is done.

While Zach was in the crawlspace for most of the last several weekends working on the HVAC system, Matt and Joe were up in the buckets of the tractors. They have been working on the soffits and all that jazz. This picture of Joe was taken out of the upstairs window.

Matt is working on the soffitt too.

Neither Annie nor Ris decided that they might pursue a career in taping/texturing. Not their bag, baby. They are doing a good job though!

So, even though it is really roughing it to stay down at the cabin when it is not finished, Ris admitted that a lot more work will probably get done this way!

Tubing on the 4th

2010-01-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

Mother Nature has been throwing her fury out in full force recently in the form of blizzards and bone-chilling negative temps. I thought I would share some pictures from one of her better days!

On the 4th of July we had a family gathering at Aunt Joyce and Uncle Ed's. One of the highlights was a leisure float down the river. There were a LOT of us floating that day, both young and old.

I would like to note here that Joe and Matt were not too keen on tubing for they didn't want to get wet. So they opted to stay dry and maneuver the canoe downriver. Notice both of them optimistically fully-dressed.

Here is a shot of most of us getting ready to launch. Deb, Mom, Colby, Annie.

I have a broom to use as a paddle. It really didn't help me much as I missed the bank at spot we were supposed to get out. Almost tragic ending...

More cousins getting into their canoe. These three were pretty good with the paddles. They ended up towing some of the tubes.

Here is mom really enjoying the ride.

Here is Annie, also enjoying the ride.

Here is a shot of the Joe, Uncle Ed, and Matt going through the rapids in the canoe. Uncle Ed was the experienced oarsman. He was trying to coach Joe and Matt, obvious rookies, on the finer points of not tipping a canoe.

Lincoln and Zach are in this picture too on the tubes.

Needless to say, the following picture was a common scene on the river that day - the canoe upturned and the two cowboys (fully dressed) completely soaked.

After about the third time the canoe flipped, Uncle Ed decided to walk the bank for the last mile or so to stave off impending hypothermia.

Just when they were getting the hang of it!!!

Before and After - another chair

2010-01-09T18:37:00.004-07:00

Matt's dear grandma Alice passed away about this time two years ago. She was a sweet woman whom I did have the honor of getting to know. When Matt's mom and aunt's were going through Grandma Alice's belonging some time later, they ran across this chair. Matt's mom thought I would like to have it.

I thought it was really great, but wanted to redo it as it needed a little TLC.

I love this black and white upholstery fabric. I had bought it when a local store was going out of business.
I had started to strip the wood of it's finish, but didn't feel that I was going to get a good result. So I decided to paint it black.

I added some black trim to the bottom of the seat to dress it up a little. I really like how this turned out.

P.S. Obviously, these pictures were NOT taken today! Ha! It will be summer before we know it again!

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-24T08:09:00.003-07:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

What a mess

2009-12-09T19:34:00.002-07:00

A note to you all. If you are going to put a spaghetti squash in the microwave to soften it, make sure to poke it sufficiently.

If you don't, this is what happens.

It actually blew the microwave door open and spewed forth spaghetti squash into a good portion of the kitchen.

More Wishard house progress

2009-12-09T19:13:00.004-07:00

So a LOT more progress has been made on the house. Much more than is actually shown here, but I will get you up to speed.

Here is the view from upstairs, looking down to where the woodstove and dining room will be. (The woodstove is actually in!)

Here is the view of the main floor. This is the kitchen area. You can probably notice the black streaks running down the walls. That is from all the rain and snow that got in the house last winter when it wasn't enclosed. Mom, Aunt Rodie, and us three girls spent an entire day scrubbing the walls with bleach. That did the trick and removed the icky black water streaks. We then sanded the walls.

This is a view of the upstairs. Insullation has since been put into the ceiling and dormers. Lee
spent most of a day filling in those big cracks above the windows that you see. Most of the windows had large cracks over them. He did a good job getting everything filled in. All the gaps will be sealed with chink when the weather warms up a tad bit.

Last weekend Zach worked on the furnace unit, Matt worked on plumbing in the bathroom, and Joe worked on the wiring.

Views of the outside.

The dormers will have log siding on them to match the rest of the house.

This is the view of the front. The upper level and lower level will have decks built on them.

Matt has the septic system put in except for being backfilled. There is still a lot to go, but it is getting closer!

Buck Fever

2009-10-22T20:31:00.001-06:00

We are entering fall and winter and all the seasons that they bring. Holiday season. Football season. And to my husband...the most important season of all, hunting season.

Now when I think of hunting I think of getting up around 8 and driving around in Glen's heated suburban for several hours, drinking beer, sipping on Cranastia, laughing loud and telling windy stories (usually in an Austrailian accent). If we get to shoot at something, great. If not, no big deal.

Zach on the other hand is not your typical hunter. Nope. Every hunt, whether it's for coyotes or a trophy deer, is serious business. It's up before dawn, no sudden movements, no talking (and if you absolutely must say something it has to be in the quietest whisper possible) and no suburban. Yep, you have to hoof it if you hunt with him. And starting in October he does not wear deodorant because animals can smell it way before you see them. And we're not talking about just the morning of hunts. He doesn't wear it for six months straight! Luckily he wasn't dealt the kind of sweat glands I was.

So he left me after only a few short weeks of being married to go chase elk in Colorado. The thought of not showering for over a week, sleeping in the cold, and getting up before the sun was enough for me to stay home (that and I wasn't invited).

He left being my sweet baby faced hubby...

and came home a rugged mountain man.

Anyway, he and four of his relatives headed out in hopes of that thirdy point buck, I mean bull. After breaking down and waiting for a replacement pickup they finally made it. I think they were secretly hoping to get snowed in up there because they packed food for an army and enough horses to trade with the locals.

After hunting a few days with no luck, Aaron and Zach got on fresh tracks of an elk.

Before long they found some fresh scat. For those of you who don't know, scat is animal poop. I asked how he knew that the 'scat' was fresh. Apparently you rub it to see if it is warm in the middle. That is dedication...They followed the tracks for over 4 hours and finally came to a spot where they got a glimpse of it. Aaron frantically whispered to Zach to shoot it. He pulled the trigger and the rest is history.

I can only imagine what the scene was like after that. Both of them jumping up and down and whispering "Sweet" and "You nailed him!" Maybe a big hug and some tears.

Anyway, it was almost dark and they still had to ride all the way back to camp. Aaron got the horses while Zach gutted his new trophy, a 6x6 bull. By this time it's snowing and they have their head lamps on. That's when they realized that Zach's saddle pack, which contained his tag, had fell off when Aaron was leading the horses back. No tag on dead game equals big fines. They quickly tried to find the pack before it was snow covered. They searched for quite awhile and then fortunately found it near a creek that they had jumped earlier. It was dark now and they couldn't pack the thing out of there with only two horses. So they hung it up in a tree and rode home getting to camp around 11:00 that night. The others were about to send out the search parties.

The next morning they took three extra pack horses and rode four or five hours to retrieve the elk. It took a good hour just to get all the meat and rack secured to the horses. Zach was leading Zippy who had the head and antlers (horns?) attached to his back.

Zippy was not in the least bit thrilled to have that thing strapped to him. He started bucking and racing forward trying to get away. Zach dallied up to try and get control. His Dad was yelling, "whatever you do, don't let go of your dally." That was about the time that Zippy raced behind the horse Zach was riding and the rope slapped Chief's rump. Chief went to bucking. At that point, Zach had to make a critical decision. Let go of his dally which held his prize or risk an even bigger wreck by hanging on to it. He let it go and Zippy went racing through a meadow, heading straight for a very wooded area. He got to the edge and stopped, knowing there was no way he could go into those trees by himself.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing after that.

Looks like we'll be eating elk all winter.

I didn't realize I married such an elkoholic!

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-10-19T22:21:00.004-06:00

Weird...a striking resemblance!

Snakes in Winter???

2009-10-12T18:33:00.004-06:00

This year in South Dakota, we basically had spring, three nice summer days, skipped fall altogether, and then jumped to winter. No seriously. The other morning, the tree in my back yard had green leaves on it as well as 2 inches of snow. It's been unseasonably cold and yucky out.

Anyway, Zach has been in Colorado elk hunting and he took all the horses but Charlie. So I've been going out to our "country house" and feeding Charlie. On Saturday, after I broke three inches of ice on the tank, I headed to the shed to get some grain. Just as I crawled through the fence to open the shed door, I looked down and saw a snake right in my path! Ackkkkk!!!!!! I screamed and ran into the panels two times before I could get away. I only allowed myself a split second to get a glimpse of the snake who seemed to be just as scared and stunned to see me. He was so cold that when he tried to coil up he looked more like a used rope left out in the rain. I raced back away from the shed and tried to figure out what I was going to do next.

Thoughts rushed through my head. It's 17 degrees out...why wasn't he in a hole somewhere? How was I going to get the grain? How many of his scarey buddies were lurking nearby? Had he been in the shed already (I had been in and out of there several times in the last few days)? What if he headed for the house and decided to curl up in there for the winter?

Of course, I couldn't call for Zach because he was gone. Matt and Lindsey were out of town as well. I had to handle this on my own. So I put on my big girl panties and did what any other real man (or woman) would have done. I drove to Tractor Supply Company and bought a brand new bag of grain. By the time I got back, the bag had ripped and spilled all over in my trunk and then my next fear was that mice might start inhabitating my car. Ya...laugh all you want! But at least Charlie got fed.

More Wishard House

2009-10-01T19:44:00.000-06:00

Here are some more pictures of Joe and Ris's house. There has been lots of progress even since these pictures were taken.

Annie and Z discussing when to get married in between cutting logs.

Z and Shane take a break from cutting more logs.

Joe got a telehandler to lift the higher logs.

Donnie and Matt setting logs.

Matt, Ris, and Donnie

Fast forward to the gable ends and ridgepole, this is the upstairs.

More updates to come. Hey, may the actual progress on the house move more quickly than our blog posts!

The House - An Introduction

2009-09-30T20:09:00.000-06:00

We have neglected to mention a BIG ongoing project. It is a project that started last fall and is still going. The project has been interrupted with calving, a baby, haying, weather, and life in general. This project is the building of Joe and Larissa's house.

It is going to be wonderful when it is done! So we will go back in time a little bit here to see some of the work in progress. To date, it has most of the roof on and the doors and windows mostly in. We will show some more recent photos in a couple of weeks.

So last fall, the footings were poured

Fast forward to the crawlspace being poured. Then the floor joists, floor, and a round of logs.

Here is Ris last fall. She was prego then. I think that she was going to try to not go into labor until the house was done. Good thing she just went ahead and had the baby.

Here is a picture of some of the crew. By the way, family, friends, or absolute strangers are welcome to show up on any given weekend to hang out, i.e, work on the house!

Uncle D is good help!

Sometimes breaks are taken. Annie and Dad take another break.

Below is a picture from last fall. You can see Ris was really starting to doubt that the house would be done before Randen was born.

When I grow up...

2009-09-29T20:07:00.012-06:00

Big R is 324 days old and we're already predicting what he'll be when he grows up. There's the obvious...

a cowboy like his daddy!

Probably not a rhinestone cowboy though.

Maybe a famous piano player like Mozart!

Or a model for some big designer clothes company. Maybe he could help his auntie shop for fashionable clothes.

Or how about a taste tester? Hmmm...mashed lima beans.

I hear dog whisperer's make big money!

Or a real estate agent. Ring ring!

Hello - why yes! I have a property that would be just perfect for you.

Let's face it...he's already got the cell phone thing down and who wouldn't want to buy a house from such a cutie?

But for now he'll settle for being a mama's boy.

Sand Creek - Girls' Campout

2009-09-20T15:09:00.017-06:00

As mentioned earlier, we are going back in time. We are remembering the lazy days of summer. Actually, we are just posting some of the stuff we haven't gotten around to yet!

One of the highlights of the summer was going on the annual All-Girls' camp weekend. The group consists of aunts, cousins, and friends. We always have a blast! These gals are awesome!! It truly is a highlight of our summer.

We go to Sand Creek by Beulah, WY. The scenery is gorgeous. Our Aunt Barb and her friend Vicki plan the weekend and tell us what we are eating and what to bring. The weekend consists of eating, tubing down the creek, geocaching, sitting around the campfire, laughing, and having a contest of some sort.

Here is a picture of Vicki cooking up some vittles.

Here is a picture of the pink flamingo that is the camp mascot of sorts. It used to have a partner, but evidently it was stolen out of camp one time.

As mentioned, each year there is a contest. The contest this year was most creative apron. Here is a picture of one of the winners. Vicki's apron was cool and practical with potholders and towels velcro'ed to it. Larissa is in the background. She also won a prize for her apron.

Here is a group picture of all of us sporting our aprons. Back left: Ris, Vicki, Aunt Janet, Annie, Lindsey, Anne, Shannon, Kendra Front: Aunt Barb, Julie and her adorable daughter. Kannon was not there for this picture.

We didn't get any pictures of the tubing adventures, but it was GREAT! Aunt Barb has a camera housing that she uses on her diving trips, so we are still waiting for her to e-mail those pictures to us...

Here is Kendra in front of her camper.

Here is Aunt Barb enjoying a glass of the good stuff!

Annie and I are enjoying nature.

This picture is all of us having a meeting at mid-day. Here Barb, Anne, Janet, and Vicki find a geocache!

Anne and Larissa were geo-cache virgins. This was their first one. Here they confer on coordinates.

Ris and Annie set up the GPS.

Before the campout, Aunt Barb usually sends out the itinerary. For one of the meals, the instructions said "Dress for Dinner." Which probably meant to put clothes on instead of just wearing your swimsuit. Annie read that differently and wore "Old Blue" the promdress. Pretty sure she was the best-dressed person in Beulah!

Here was one of the campfire nights. Making S'mores, drinking toddies, and laughing. Life doesn't get any better than that.

Goodbye summer, we miss you already.

Pre-Wedding parties

2009-09-20T14:08:00.001-06:00

We are really behind on our posts. We have tons of stuff to post about camping trips from earlier this summer and a host of other things that happened this summer. But we will get to that... probably by the first snowfall. So we are going to go back in time a little bit here.

Annie was showered with gifts and parties before the nuptials. Here is a recap.

This picture is a little grainy, but it shows Annie at her shower thrown by her coworkers. It was a REALLY nice shower!

Gorgeous cake!

Wonderful gifts!

The we had a little get-together at Annie's house. This was earlier in the night. We drank pomegranate margarita's and ate food by the firepit until the wee hours.
What a fun summer night! P.S. Our fire-making skills were honed, but it still took us a LOOOONG time to get it going without the aid of gasoline or the like.

Kayce is sampling the food below. She brought the most amazing hot wing chip dip. YUM!

Some of Annie's former coworkers and her former boss, the fabulous Cindy Guthrie, hosted another shower for her. It was a garden-themed party. It, too, was awesome! I don't have any pictures to share of that.

Then we had our traditional Klima shower at Aunt Rodie's house. She is a fantastic hostess! Check out her place-settings. P.S. each napkin ring was an actual diamond ring from Rodie's collection. Of course they were real dahling. Puuuhhleaaaze!

Here is Annie opening the gifts from all of us.

Aunt Rodie always made us four girls a Barbie cake for each of our birthdays. For this occasion, Barbie became a bride!

She had pearls on her voluptuous skirt, rock and roll hair, and a very risque, lattice bodice.

So that is a recap of the pre-wedding parties! We had a blast!!!!!!!!

Isn't that sweet...

2009-09-20T12:09:00.003-06:00

Matt went to work really early this morning. Before he left, he must have gotten creative with the used, shish kabob stewers from last night's steak-tip supper.

Aaaawwwwww! Isn't that sweet! It's like an old-fashioned text message.

Things Worth Celebrating

2009-09-19T20:05:00.004-06:00

It is always fun to get something new. New clothes, new jewelery, new boots, new shoes. These things make a smile everytime we use them.

But every once in a while we get something new that makes us jump up and down and squeel with joy. Especially if the new item replaces something in our lives that we hate. Recently, Ris finally got to replace her old fridge. Big deal you might say. Well, this fridge provoked more profanity from Ris over the last year than anything else. Here it is in all it's alvocado splendor.

It is probably the same age as she is. Part of the refridgerator compartment freezes food, and there is an area that keeps food just over lukewarm. The freezer won't stay defrosted and the fridge door wouldn't stay closed. Another strike against it, was that it was TINY.

When the new fridge was finally delivered, she jumped for joy. She was a little disappointed when the delivery drivers (who had driven from Rapid City to Lantry) didn't share in her glee.

TA DAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new model is huge, the door stays closed, the food stays the appropriate temperature, and the freezer is a big drawer that slides out.

The delivery guys did say that it is crazy what makes women happy. Upon delivering a new washer and dryer to one woman, she hugged them. Hey, some things are just worth celebrating!

A Wrap-Up of the Honeymoon

2009-09-14T14:17:00.006-06:00

Come hell or high water we were going to make it home yesterday. A 12 hour drive from Durango, CO got us to Rapid City late last night.

It was a wonderful trip and a great time with Zach. This was the most time we had ever spent together in a row. I learned a few new things about him…

He is quite the history and geography buff. I was quizzing him about several foreign countries and their capitals. He knew tons of them (I had to look them up on the internet). He also knew a lot about the history of the places we visited. We argued about the Rocky Mountains and then come to find out I was totally wrong about it all.

He can go all day without a meal. I can’t.

He can pack ten days worth of clothes into one small duffel bag. I had numerous suitcases and bags and still almost ran out of underwear!

He is not afraid of heights. I had to yell at him several times to get away from the edge.

We can entertain ourselves for hours by playing Guitar Hero while driving (not having any instruments or TV screen).

Other interesting things on our trip...

The present day hippie van. Decorated with pop bottle caps, laundry detergent and coffee can lids.

On Friday and Saturday we went to Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly on the Najavo Indian Reservation. Livestock is free to roam wherever. It was nothing to see a herd of horses in the middle of town or flock of sheep at the visitor's center. On one of the highways we came upon a horse that had recently been hit. That was pretty sad. We also saw a 2,000 pound bull that had got smoked as well.

We realized we were a minority at the tourist attractions. Most everyone was over 65 and foreign. And if there was a younger couple, they were foreign.

We had a great time but I'm glad to be home. There's something about sleeping in your own bed that just can't be beat. And, this weekend Lindsey and I get to hang out with Big R while his Mom is working.

Tomorrow it's back to reality as we head to work. But for now I'll enjoy the last few hours of the honeymoon.

The Lanka-Spanka Honeymoon Must-Do List

2009-09-14T12:37:00.018-06:00

Lindsey, Larissa, and two coworkers, Ky & Tenise, put together a "Lanka-Spanka Honeymoon Must-Do List." It was a fun and goofy list of things that we had to do on our trip. Some of things included...

Take photo at a state line.

Get a trucker to honk at us. While we were stopped at the Utah sign a trucker honked. Not sure if he was honking for us to get off the road or if he saw the writing on the camper. We did get several honks and thumbs up from the writing on the camper.

Take a picture of wildlife. We got tons of pictures of wildlife including lizards, humming birds, ravens, deer, coyotes, a snake, chipmunks, big horn sheep, and wild horses. The one thing Zach really wanted to see was an elk and we never got to see one. Come to find out Dad saw one in his pasture the other day. Crazy!

Try a new activity. Kayaking was one of our new activities. The mule ride was a first for me as well.

Purchase a small object with state name on it. I purchased a couple tacky sticker decals to put on Barbara.

Take a picture of Zach hugging a statue.

Take a picture of Annie shaking a bartender, waitress, or clerk's hand.

Annie must wear the pink sunhat in public. I wore this a couple times. Once was at a wildlife museum. When I walked in I thought the clerk was going to burst out laughing.

Stop at one roadside point of interest or historical landmarker. If Zach would've had his way we would have stopped at thousands.

Ask an older couple the secret to marriage. One lady told me to always make sure whatever you are throwing at him during an argument is empty. She threw a pan of baked beans once and then had to clean it up.

Take a picture of a sunrise from an early morning hike. This was in Moab and the church was used in a John Wayne movie.

Get a picture of each wearing the leopard-print Snuggie. Zach has yet to put the Snuggie on but I'm working on him.

Day 8: The Mule Ride

2009-09-11T20:11:00.012-06:00

Why two ranch kids from SD and NE had to travel 1,400 miles to pay for a trail ride is beyond me. But we did. And it was fun. We were on the North Rim so it wasn't as steep as the South Rim trail rides can be. However, it was plenty steep in some spots. Supposedly on the South Rim, the overnight trail rides are the only ones you can do. They are trying to ban all of the mule rides. It's not a PETA thing or "Save the Mules" kind of deal. It is ecologists who think that the rides disrupt the natural enviornment. Anyway, we got to go on a mule ride on the North Rim.

My mule was Dede and all the guides said she was their favorite. I didn't seem to have any problems with her. Zach rode Dagwood.

He felt the need to make Dagwood be a little broncier than Dagwood actually was.

We were grouped with 6 others who were over 60 and had never rode a horse before. They were pretty funny. Two of the men had had this on their bucket list for a long time. They all showed up with bandanas and "cowboy" hats. There were several rules on the ride. 1. You could not get on or off your mule without the assistance of a guide. (Zach and I did not pay attention to this rule) 2. You could not remove your jacket without the guide holding your mule (Again, Zach and I did not pay attention to this rule) 3. Keep 3-4 feet between the mule in front of you (Zach did not pay attention to this rule as his mule got kicked by mine a few times) 4. Do NOT get more than 3-4 feet behind the mule in front of you. 5. Don't let your mule eat (I occasionally let Dede eat and Zach would swat her on the rump to get her going). 6. If you wore a wide brimmed hat you had to have a stampede string (I had a cute bejeweled cowgirl hat of Lindsey's but couldn't wear it b/c it did not have a stampede string).

Anyway, we tried to obey the rules and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. We didn't go down all the way to the bottom but stopped at a tunnel and let the mules rest while we listened to stories from the guides.

Then we headed back up. The whole trip took about three hours. We had a good time and even earned a "Muleteer" certificate!

Note: If you are interested in seeing the actually "beautiful scenery" pictures, please let me know. I'm more concerned about getting my smiling face on the blog than those picts but I'd be glad to show them to you sometime.

Days 5 & 6: Hiking

2009-09-10T10:42:00.006-06:00

We have been in a hole for the last two days. No internet or cell service. But it was beautiful! On Tuesday we went through Bryce National Park and yesterday we were at Zion National Park. Both of these areas involved alot of hiking. By the end of the day, Zach was dreading the thought of another *%#^$ hike.

I, on the other hand, couldn't curb my enthusiasm.

No more hikes for awhile. Tomorrow, we are jumping on some broncy mules for a ride down the Grand Canyon. I'll write more later...low battery and poor service.

Day 4: Mountain Biking & Arches Park

2009-09-07T20:52:00.010-06:00

Life on the road has made its mark on the camper as you can see. Hopefully this is not a sign of what our house is going to look like after four days!

Today we went mountain biking. Wow! What a neat experience! We were the only ones on this tour and our guide was awesome. Zach and I both decided this is something we would like to do again. We drove out early in the morning to Klondike Bluffs which is north of Moab about 15 miles. We quickly learned the ropes of riding a "true" mountain bike and then headed uphill on an 11 mile ride. It was dirt and sand trails mixed with alot of slick rock and small boulders. Along the way we saw several petrified dinosaur tracks in the sandstone rock.

We ended up at the most beautiful cliff that overlooked najavo and sandstone bluffs. I had to yell at Zach several times for getting too close to the edge.

The downhill descent was so fun! Very fast paced with white knuckle jumps.

Shortly before this picture, the terrain was dirt with rocks over the trail. To this point I had been trucking along like an old pro. But then all of a sudden I got between a rock and a crack in the ground and then my tire fell into the crack. I was going down. And in slow motion. I had time to look back at Zach, look to the guide, and then back to Zach. I probably could have took a drink of my water. I'm sure it was pretty comical to watch. I landed on my side and elbow right in a cactus patch! I was giggling pretty hard mostly at how ridiculous it must have looked. Zach and the guide ran to where I was and tried to evaluate the situation. I had hundreds of cactus thorns in my arm and the top of my rump. Zach finally got them all picked out and we headed back down the trail. At the very end Zach about tea kettled his bike when he hit a thick patch of sand. He managed to keep it up right and out of any cacti.

PS-we saw more lizards. I think it's the Utah state animal.

Day 3: Rafting

2009-09-06T20:50:00.011-06:00

Today was the big rafting trip down the Colorado River! We were both stoked at the idea of some class 5 rapids, maybe even something bigger. We had signed our lives away on the waiver form and had mentally prepared for the fact that we may not come out alive. But as we were standing in line to load the bus that takes us out, we saw a little family with a three kids, the youngest being maybe four. The next clue that this wasn't going to be too wild...they didn't give us helmets! Okay, no big deal. Then we realized that we were going to be packed into a raft with 8-9 others. Great...

But then, one of the guides had a very special announcement. He had three kayaks that were up for grabs. I plowed over about five people trying to get to the guide to tell him Zach and I would take one. Yahoo!! Our first kayaking experience.

So we didn't hit the class fives but we had gorgeous scenery and actually did hit a few good rapids that left me quite drenched.

We stopped half way down the river to have lunch at Cliff Ranch, which was a vineyard/events center.

We even saw some true desert wildlife. (It's a lizard in case you couldn't see it).

I do

2009-09-06T20:35:00.000-06:00

I'm happy to say I am now Mrs. Lariann Lanka! We had a very nice ceremony at our church that we attend in Rapid City. Pastor Rebecca married us off and we had two witnesses that have been married for 43 years. Ironically their names are Larry and Linda, which are my parents names!

We had a surprise visit by the wedding crashers who threw birdseed at us, wrote on the camper windows and stuck a sign in my front yard!

The first mishap of the trip happened before we even left Rapid City. As we were driving from the church to my house, the camper got a little close to the neighbors mailbox. Okay, really close. We smoked it! I won't say who was driving but he might have been the groom! I was laughing so hard I could hardly see straight! The camper door was bent up a bit and the mailbox needed to be reattached to the post.

After quickly trying to repair the damage, we got on the road and headed to Denver. Luckily, that leg of the trip was uneventful except for an arguement about the Rocky Mountains. Saturday morning we went to see Lovely Louise. She's doing great and sends her love to Mom, Lindsey, and Larissa. The drive from Denver to Grand Junction was interesting. Imagine two country bumpkins driving through busy holiday traffic. It was stop and go on the interstate for quite aways. Zach was concerned that I was riding the breaks too much. He didn't know riding breaks until we got going down some of those mountains. Anyway, we made it to Moab, UT in good order and set up camp.

Zach was pretty concerned that he was missing the Husker game so we managed to find it online. They won! (I know you all were wondering).

Technology Problems

2009-09-06T07:58:00.004-06:00

Good morning from Moab, UT! We are getting ready for our rafting trip down the Colorado River. We made it to our campground yesterday afternoon. We might have gotten a few snickers when we pulled in. Most of the campers are bigger than my house!

We're having problems with good internet service so I haven't been able to load any pictures. I'll try to climb the tallest cliff and load some later today. Stay tuned...

Wedding Bells

2009-09-03T20:51:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow is the day! This is my last night as a single white female. I'll soon be Mrs. Lariann Lanka. Most brides-to-be would be running around tying the last few pew bows and crying over the melting ice sculpture. Not me. I'm trying to pack 10 days worth of clothes and food into Barbara the camper. Yes! We are taking the camper on our honeymoon. Lots of fun and excitement in the next week. Our first stop is in Denver to see Lovely Louise, the little lady I used to live with while I did an internship there. Please stay tuned for updates, tales and pictures of our whereabouts.

HAYING - It's over for now

2009-08-15T10:00:00.000-06:00

We got the chance to cut some hay on shares this year. We were excited about the prospect of getting to cut hay close to home and hopefully make a little money at it - a good deal. As most "good deals" transpire, they are not always simple. That is what makes them fun and supposedly builds character.

At the time the deal was made, we did not own any haying equipment. While cutting a few hundred acres of thick alfalfa/grass hay with our jack-knives sounded like a good way to spend the summer and save on fuel costs, we decided it was probably not the most prudent approach to the venture.

So we set out to look for some equipment. We made a deal with another guy to bale the hay, but we still needed to find swather. We looked high and low. A friend told us of a friend whose father-in-law's neighbor might have a swather in mint condition that might be just what we were looking, i.e., dirt cheap. Rumor had it that it had been used very little, just to cut road ditches. After traveling several thours away and giving it the once over, we decided that if it made it through the season, we were in luck. The kind gentleman let us use a specially designed trailer to haul our new purchase back to Rapid.

Since it had sat idle for a few years, it might take a little work to get it on the trailer. So Matt and Joe packed up their standard mechanicing tools - a mismatched set of wrenches, a 5 lbs. sledge hammer, and a can of ether - and headed up to load the swather on the trailer to make the trek back. What ensued at this point is a loose recollection from the guys. It was one of those adventures I was glad to hear about later, and not witness in person.

Using the appropriate tools listed above and a half hour of minor tweaking, the guys were ready to start the old Heston up. When Matt gave the thumbs up, Joe turned the crank. It coughed and sputtered and screamed to life. Within seconds, Joe noticed that the controls were a little leaky, i.e. uncontrollable. The swather started veering on it's own. It managed to bump into the pickup parked close by. At the very same moment, the combination of a battery cable spark and excessive use of ether sparked a fire in the vacinity of the engine. Matt was yelling at Joe, who was too busy trying not to have a demolition derby with the parked pickup which happens to have a $1000 insurance deductible. Matt used his quick thinking and dumped a 20 ounce Mountain Dew on the infant fire. It proved to be just enough sugary goodness to put the fire out.

Soon, all was under control and they started to load the swather on the trailer. After a couple of failed attempts to load it (it has two crazy wheels in the back) they were successful. After the engine was killed, both men breathed a sigh of relief. They started driving back to Lantry. It quickly became apparent that it would be a slow trip as they could only go about 15 miles an hour. But they used the time to listen to a little 810 AM radio and talk about every saddle bronc they had ever rode (I would assume). At some point the whole contraption started to pull a little easier. As one of life's oxymorons, sometimes when things get easier, a lot of times it means, something went wrong. They looked back to see that one of the rear crazy wheels had gotten even crazier, ie, it came off and was rolling alongside the highway.

While they were reattaching the renegade wheel, a wise old rancher stopped and informed them their first of many mistakes was that they had loaded the swather on the trailer backwards. Hmm. Who knew that the thing was supposed to be loaded rear-first.

Anyway, after making it back to the homestead, they unloaded the improperly-loaded swather and began doing the major repairs to it.

Even with the help of Joe's dad, who has worked on his fair share of machinery in his day, some problems were still mysteries. The guys then delved into the manuals. Yes, you read that correctly.

Once most of the bugs were worked out, we set out to load it up again to make the trip to Rapid. This time loading it correctly as instructed. As I mentioned before, sometimes doing things the right way are actually much harder than doing things the easy way. After many failed attempts to load the swather, for the sake of this story, lets just say it dumped itself off the trailer during loading. At that point it took a large loader tractor and a couple of strong-arms to get it back on the trailer properly. I was actually videoing this whole process for the sake of this post. I had correctly assumed that something video-worthy might happen, but my cinematographic duties were interrupted when the guys yelled at me to move the pickup- short, quick, and in a hurry. So the video was basically footage of my feet running to the pickup as fast as possible and then exciting footage of the cupholder.

After the longest trip to Rapid that I have endured, I am happy to report that the old Heston did manage to cut its share of hay this year. It runs a little hot, has a bent header, plugs up constantly, and occassionaly shoots a flame out of the muffler. Our friend, Nick, noted after watching the machine in action for a couple of minutes "It looks and sounds like a giant angry mosquito." Yes, it does but it got the job done this year!

BEFORE AND AFTER - OAK TABLE

2009-07-29T16:25:00.016-06:00

I had bought an antique table several years ago. I bought it at an antique store in Pierre. It was is oval-shaped in great condition. It has three leaves and six chairs, and was what I had been looking for quite some time. I felt that it was a very sound purchase, however, I was never quite in love with the finish on the tabletop. Instead of aging to a beautiful patina, it had come to resemble a dishwater blonde color. I had decided when I bought it that I would eventually get around to refinishing the top. About four years later I finally got around to it.

So the other day, I gathered the necessary supplies: Heavy-duty stripping chemical, a natural bristle brush, a putty knife, and chemical gloves. Special note: Spend the $3 and get the gloves. I have done many of these refinishing projects and cheaped out and not bought gloves. No matter how careful you are, you end up getting stripper on you and then you feel the burn. Yikes! You would think that I would learn after the first 2 or 15 times, but I am a very slow learner.

After donning said gloves, I usually start by pouring a liberal amount of stripper onto the piece. I try to work in manageable areas, because this stuff dries quickly.

Use the brush to spread the chemical over the piece. Let it work it's magic. Usually about 5 minutes or less.

When the old finish starts to bubble, use the putty knife to start scraping the old finish and stripper off. I usually have a cardboard box or something else handy to scrape the nasty stuff into. You may have to repeat this process again depending upon how many layers of old stuff you need to remove. I have had to do this process up to 6 or 7 times on some things, especially if paint is involved. Major pain!

Once all the old stain is removed, you can use another chemical rinse to prep the wood for refinishing. Most of the time, at this point, I am usually so sick of this project, that I usually just wipe it down with a damp cloth. Then I can slap some stain on it and get on with my life!

Check that off the list. Goodbye dull, dishwater blond; hello shiny warm highlights!

STUFF WE LOVE - FIESTA WARE

2009-07-29T16:19:00.008-06:00

I love bright colors. I love sturdy dishes. I love Fiestaware! About five years ago, I asked for some place settings for Christmas. My family has since given me tons of gorgeous Fiestaware. I have pitchers, platers, place settings, bowls, baking dishes, gravy boats, and a ton of other accessories.

I like all the colors. Each year they issue an new color. This year they released Lemongrass. I don't have it yet, but it looks great!

This is only a portion of it. The rest is in the diswasher. I use it everyday. When I eat my cold cereal for supper out of a Tangerine colored bowl, it feels like, well, a Fiesta.

Here are some of the other cool accessories. Spoon rest, salt and pepper set, and tiny little pitcher. I use it to serve vinegrette with salads.

I love the signature on the bottom.

A cool vase.

This stuff is really hard to break also! In the years that I have it it, I have only chipped one piece. Pretty good, and looks great!

Crawling Cowboy

2009-07-27T19:50:00.001-06:00

Beefcake started crawling last week! Look out Mama! Ain't nothing going to stop me now!

Maybe a little insane...

2009-07-27T07:40:00.000-06:00

Zach comes from a long line of runners. His Aunt Dawn is a personal trainer who has ran numerous marathons and 1/2 marathons. His brother as well as several cousins compete in marathons, triathlons and extreme relay races. I, on the other hand, was a sprinter in high school so the mere thought of running more than 400 yards sounds grueling and unthinkable. However, for some unknown reason, I got the itch to run a 1/2 marathon, which is 13.1 miles. So I started training in January. Countless hours on the treadmill (it was a cold, snowy winter here in SD), a carb loaded diet, and no alcohol quickly became my routine. Um...not quite. I wasn't your typical trainee. Yes, I did run faithfully but I lacked the discipline of eating right and not having the occasional beverage.

June rolled around and race day was finally here. Time to see if my hardwork had paid off so that I could finish the Deadwood Mickelson 1/2 Marathon alive. Zach's mom, Marla, and his Aunt Dawn were also running the 1/2 and Aaron, his brother, and friend James ran the full. It was runner's dream weather with tempatures in the 50's and no wind.

Catastrophe struck that morning and my MP3 Player would not work. How was I ever going to run 13 miles with no music to keep me distracted??? I pushed the buttons frantically, tried turning it off and on a thousand times, prayed to God to let it work but nothing. After I got over being a baby about it, I vowed to not let it interfere with my race. And it didn't I was easily distracted by the other runners and the gorgeous scenery.

Here we are at the starting point. Luckily, this photo does not portray the fear inside me. As thousands of runners lined up, we quickly tried to make our way to the front. The gun sounded and we were off!

At mile 4 I already had to go the bathroom. Now I'm a ranch girl and have no problem going in the wilderness. However, with hundreds of strangers running by at all times, it wasn't that easy. So I forged on and tried to keep my mind off it.

When I turned the bend and saw Lindsey, Larissa, and Randen at the first major "cheering station," I got an instant surge of energy. It was like a Hammer Gel pack but better.

By mile 8, I was really cussing myself for drinking those two Powerades before the race and was looking for every opportunity to slip off behind a tree. I finally found a secluded spot and quickly did my thing, getting back on the trail before too many people went by.

At this point, about mile 11, it felt like I was sprinting but when I looked down at my legs they were barely moving. I was wondering how I ever could finish. But I pushed on, telling myself I would never be this young again or feel this good. In the last 1/2 mile I saw Zach and Greg. They were whooping and hollering and it was just enough inspiration to get me to the finish line.

I've never experienced child birth but but many mothers say that you forget about all the pain once you get to hold the baby in your arms. Same goes for running 13.1 miles. Once I finished the race and all the "congratulations" and pats on the back began, I quickly forgot about all the pain, blood, sweat, and tears. (Okay, there were no blood or tears). I was happy with my time of 2 hours and 1 minute. I'm shooting for under two next time! Yes...there will be a next time!

Relaxing with my biggest fan

Many people have asked me if I would consider doing a full marathon but I don't think I'm that crazy!

The Reveal!!!!

2009-07-09T20:42:00.018-06:00

Here it is! The reveal of Barbara the Camper. Drum roll please!!!!!!!!

Lindsey tries to curb her enthusiasm for our first "real" camping trip!

The Dining Room

Enjoy gourmet meals, drink wine, tell windy stories and play a round of the Cowgirl Game.

Put down the table, spread the cushions out and ta daa! You have another bed!

Each cupboard door has a saying that depicts life on the road.

The quaint kitchenette complete with stove, oven, and sink. Check out that turquoise stove!!!

The "living room" has a couch that turns into a bed, sleeping two easily. Lindsey designed and sewed the heart and wings.

The bunk offers more sleeping space. Don't have the extra guests? Simply push it up and keep it out of the way. So far our little friend Jayda is the only one that has slept up there.

If you happen to visit the camper you must sign our "Door of Friendship." It easily accumulated signatures after the Smith Family Reunion over the 4th of July!

Look out Sand Creek...here we come!

See you down the trail!

CAMPING - For Real

2009-07-07T18:00:00.012-06:00

Annie and I decided we needed to get the heck out of town and commune with nature before the 4th. We haven't taken, Barbara, the camper out near as much as we had intended. Besides camping at the branding corrals and Annie's trip to Nebraska, the camper has sat idle.

Up to this point in our lives, we had never camped in an actual campground to my knowledge. Childhood camping trips consisted of a tent on someone's lawn or a tent out in the pasture. So we decided to go to an actual lake in an actual campground in a National Forest. We drove in the rain to the campground, paid $19, and found a spot. By, the way, we have never paid money for a camping spot either.
Annie got Barbara backed into her spot. We then went on a nature walk to gather some wood for a campfire. All the kindling we got was soaked. We quickly realized how unprepared we were for this camping experience.

On most previous camping trips, our men are along. They usually tend the fire. Starting a fire for them consists of a large propane bottle with a branding torch, or a 5 gallon jug of gasoline, and an industrial sized lighter. We forgot all of these necessities and had to resort to wet kindling, a Martha Stewart Magazine, and some decorative matches. After a smoky start, the gracious campground host kindly pointed out some discarded 2x4 boards that we could use. After 1 1/2 hours and a six pack later, we had a fire.

We roasted some brats and ate bean dip.

We also figured that since we were staying in a public place, we should install a lock on the camper door for safety. We had not thought of that before. I set to work getting that installed so the boogie man wouldn't get us. We didn't want to be on a future episode of 20/20, "Two sisters' last camping trip."Being so handy like I am, I installed the lock in such a manner that it actually prohibited the door from closing.

Grrrrr......... Annie, hand me another beer.

Anyway, we told stories at the campfire and discussed the world's problems until late. We turned in and slept like babies. The next day, we had fully intended to get up and go suntan by the lake. The rain just kept coming down. So we sat in the camper and drank coffee until lunch. Then we packed it up and headed out.

I did get a chance to wear my camp coat. It was warm and cozy and Annie tried to buy it from me. For a $1,000.

This is the life.

4TH OF JULY

2009-07-07T17:33:00.011-06:00

We had a fantabuloso 4th of July, and we hope all of you did as well. We enjoyed a full weekend at Aunt Joyce and Uncle Ed's place in Belle. Lots and lots of family there. Food, family, fun. We are so blessed to have such a great extended family. Besides catching up with everyone, eating, tubing down the river, and playing horseshoes, we went on a nature walk. Aunt Joyce created a cute little nature trail throughout their pasture.

So several of us took off on a nature walk. Not knowing what to expect. Besides a couple of mosquitos and a few geese, we also saw....

this quacker peeking out of the grass. Notice it gazing at us with a wary eye.

We walked a little further, and at sunset we saw this...

A buck eating grass. We snuck upon the deer and noticed that its horns were curiously growing opposite of normal antler pattern. Truly an anomoly!!!

Thanks to Aunt Joyce and Uncle Ed for hosting a great weekend! For more great pictures from the weekend, visit Aunt Deb's website. She took a TON of pictures! http://www.kdsmith7-life.blogspot.com/

Larissa's Pictures

2009-06-30T08:58:00.008-06:00

I love looking at pictures. I really like to look through pictures other people have taken. If I can get my hands on your laptop and look at the pictures you have taken, I will. I might even whip out my USB memory thingy, and copy some of them.

That is what I did this weekend while at Larissa's house. These are some pictures she has taken.

This is her usual attire when she is out taking these pictures.

Chair Mania

2009-06-24T22:12:00.022-06:00

If Lindsey could admit it, I can too...I have a chair fettish. I must have picked it up from her or maybe it was those chair deprived years in college. One scanky couch for my roommates, me and our numerous "study buddies" to hang out on. Whatever the case may be, I love chairs. I recently counted 17 in my home; which isn't even a 1,000 sq. ft. I'm always on the look out for a good bargain, one that is unique or one that I can "redo."

I purchased this one at Sandhills Sage in Johnstown, Nebraska. If you are in that area (30 miles East of Valentine) I highly recommend that you stop in to see the ladies at this one of a kind store. They are only open about 4-5 times a year but it's totally worth it.

This is an antique rocker that I purchased from a co-worker. She had bought it at a rummage sale several years ago with the intent of redoing it.

Most of my projects end up sitting dormant for several months but I was on a time crunch with this one. I was trying to finish it to give to our sister before she had her baby. Needless to say, Beefcake was born and another rocker was given to her before I finished. So I kept it and it sits in my already jam packed living room.

When my fiance and I first started dating, he thought it was cute. In fact, he even fed my obsession by giving me a 1950s retro piece for Christmas.

Now my habit has quickly become one that he dreads. He cringes at the thought of me and all my chairs moving in with him after we're married. On a recent garage sale excursion, I ran into two dining room type chairs that I just had to have.

For $2.50 each who cares if you don't have any room for them. He was the least bit thrilled and started protesting but I didn't hear him. I was too infatuiated. I quickly snatched them up before a little old lady had the chance to even eye them.

If you have an idea for these chairs, please let us know! I will be redoing them in the next month.

I will try to get a handle on my habit. The first step is to admit you have a problem, which I have already done. So I'm on the road to recovery. Just beware when you all start getting chairs for your birthday, wedding, Christmas, graduation, baby shower, bar mitzvah...

After Branding Campout

2009-06-06T16:03:00.002-06:00

We thought we would show some scenes from the After-Branding Campout from last weekend. We had absolutely perfect weather for branding and the campout. One week later, we are enjoying the much-needed rains. Life is grand.

Joe just happens to plan things so that the second bunch is done down in the prettiest spot on the place. When the last calf is worked, and the team is unharnessed, we can just walk over and start relaxing.

The horses are unsaddled and are happily eating green grass.

The Prairie Oysters are cleaned (they aren't Rocky Mountain Oysters when you are this far from the mountains...) The fire is stoked and the lard is ready.

Ris starts getting food ready as Gypsy waits for her to drop something.

Jayda shows Ris how to properly cook a brat.

Yum! Note the lineshack in the background. The mice were camping in that, so we all decided to camp outside.

Everyone was ready to eat, drink and be merry. (And tell windy stories) Note Barbara, the Camper in the background. She made her maiden voyage plus a trip to Nebraska last week. More on that. Plus the reveal, which we keep putting off. Not intentionally, of course.

As dusk fell, the stories got windier: horses became legendary, dogs performed supernatural feats of rescue, and Ole and Lena became the butt of jokes.

Big John sits here soaking in the stories as Margo trys to determine whether they are factual or not.

Zach was the chief nut-fryer. Matt tries out the biscuits Joe made in the dutch oven. Survey says: They were next to heaven!

When it got close to bedtime, Joe and Matt had a competition to see who could set up their range tents faster. Technically, Matt won, but Joe had to climb a tree to get his pitched. It was probably a toss-up.

Jayda and I check out the digs. Very nice and campy!

Happy camping!!!!!

CUTEST COWBOY

2009-06-04T16:14:00.002-06:00

Have you seen many cowboys wearing puppy bibs?

WORKING CALVES

2009-06-04T13:42:00.007-06:00

I think that everyone would agree that May is one of the busiest months of the year. This one was no exception, so we apologize for the infrequent posts. However, during our hiatus from the internet, we have been having a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have done so many fun things lately, with more to come this weekend. So we will be devoting the next couple of days to catching up here on Cowgirl Commentaries.

We start today out with scenes from the Mostly Wishard But A Teeny Bit Mangis branding.
We spent most of last week getting ready for the big event on Saturday. All went well, we had lots of good help and some good entertainment.

The team was harnessed and drove to the first bunch hauling supplies, then to the second bunch. Matt, Marty, and Jayda are the teamsters. Jayda was there to help control runaways.

Zach dragging one out.

Marty and Joe discussing who is a better daytime host Oprah or Rachel Ray.

Matt is thinking to himself "Man, I could really go for an iced mocha caramel latte, right now!"
Jayda is diligently making sure that the cows don't come back down the hill. Old Gray looks like he might buck huh?
Zach and Bud - just another day in the office.

The Boss...
The real boss cutting calves. Big John taking lessons.
Me trying to avoid actually throwing a calf.That didn't work...
Annie and I showing how proper ladies work calves.
Nurse Annie doling out the shots.

A mystery spotted calf?
Happy Trails from Cowgirl Commentaries!

Final Touches

2009-05-27T21:17:00.012-06:00

Like any kind of construction job, we didn't quite make our completion deadline. There were just too many little things that needed finished up before we set off on our "maiden voyage." So we opted to wait another two weeks and do it right.

Over the long weekend I worked on cleaning cupboards and drawers, putting up a new mirror (the other one webbed when Lindsey got the final staple in the frame), decoupaging quotes, sewing curtains, touching up paint, and caulking the outside.

The picture below is of the floor in one of the stow-away compartments. Dirty....Clean. That's what the original floor looked like before we tore it out and put down new subfloor and laminate wood. I'm happy to say that you can now eat spaghetti off of it.

I quickly caulked the outside, trying to beat the next South Dakota tsunami that hit. Lesson learned after the first one raged through and left water leaking through random invisible areas.

By gritting your teeth the caulk sticks better and you can work faster. It was super windy but the job got done.

This weekend is D-Day! We are escaping the 40 hour doldrums and taking Barbara to the middle of nowhere for the Wishard/Mangis branding. Should be interesting. Us girls will stay in the camper while the guys camp out in their new range tents. On Sunday, after the work is done, I will hit the trail to Nebraska to help the future in-laws with Rodeo Bible Camps.

A complete reveal will be coming late next week...

Hooptie Sleeper

2009-05-24T10:08:00.002-06:00

From time to time I compare notes with a coworker who has been fixing up a camper as well. He shared an interesting term that he uses for his camper. I thought it was pretty fitting for our Barbara.

In his exact words...

HOOPTIE

"an urban, old school rap term for a low-budget ride that is done the cheap way. Back in the day, before we knew the term “pimp my ride” if you “accessorized” your car you either did it with style or class, or you went to WalMart’s auto care isle and got ya cheap bling like plastic chrome hubcaps and do it yourself tint. Doing it the latter way made your ride a hooptie. The main point though, is that it already started out as a piece of junk and ya tried to fix it up to make it look 'dope.'"

Yep, I think that sums up this project perfectly.

Camper People

2009-05-17T09:23:00.000-06:00

When we started the Camper project, we planned to do all the work ourselves, just Annie and I. Even if doing it ourselves meant not having a clue WHAT we were doing or probably even doing things absolutely wrong. Here, Annie ponders our next move while checking the integrity of the ceiling.

Lindsey does some work to the newly rebuilt top bunk.

Although we have done the majority of the planning and work ourselves, we have found the help of Zach and Matt invaluable at times. Here Matt fixes the hole where the furnace used to be.

Zach contemplates the wiring.

The guys also modified the axle around so that the camper would have more height. Annie and I had no clue that was a possibility. The camper used to be low-rider, now it is all-terrain. They have also helped with the flooring and other technical stuff.

We would like to think that they are helping because they want to see us succeed, or simply because they love us. We know better. They want to take the camper elk hunting. Nonetheless, we are happy for their assistance.

Besides the guys, other people have helped out also. Thanks to Ky and Andy for researching things for the camper. Thanks to Renae for convincing her grandparents to sell us the camper. Thanks to Renae's grandma for hooking us up with extra sheets and dishes for the camper. Thanks to the Academy for nominating us. Thank you...

We are so close to being "mostly done." We will have some minor things to do later on, but it's time to get this show on the road. Look for the reveal next week!

All Work, No Play

2009-05-13T21:19:00.018-06:00

We sincerely apologize for not having any updates or posts lately. This camper business has been all work and no play. We've been slaving away with repairs, painting, and preparations for its maiden voyage. It's a wonder we've been able to hold down our day jobs!

Here Lindsey prepares the bunk for installation. After she made some modifications to it, we installed it and she convinced me to climb aboard to see if it was stable. Kind of like the time she, our other sister, and our two cousins convinced me to get in a sled in the creek. They all reassured me it would float. Needless to say, it sank and left me soaking wet in my snowsuit. They begged me not to go to the house and change for the fear of mother finding out. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, we were all sitting inside, getting a lecture about the dangers of playing near the creek.

This time it turned out a little better. It didn't sink but it definitely needed some reinforcements.

As you cans see, we barely took the time for breaks...

Here Matt shows his suprise at finding yet another rotten wall.

Zach works on the gas line for the stove. I think it helps to stick out your tongue.

No, not quite a chain saw but it works just as good...or something.

Lindsey is all too excited about wearing her new "sitting-around-the-campfire" coat. Gag! I'm sure on those chilly nights, we'll all be fighting over it.

Doing a little Guitar Hero with the flooring. Can you guess what song I'm singing?

Like I said...this camper business is all work and no play. Lindsey had to catch a nap while Annie convinced Matt to finish the flooring.

Our goal is to take a test run this weekend. Our folks are branding their calves and we thought it would be a great time to see if it could make the 115 mile trip. If there are no posts on Monday, you will know that it didn't go so well...

CAMPER CUSHIONS

2009-04-27T17:41:00.000-06:00

Countless hours, blood, sweat and tears went into reupholstering the camper cushions. I should rephrase that...Lindsey put countless hours, blood, sweat and tears into it. I sat on the couch eating bon bons while telling her how it should be done.

The previous material was a lovely floral pattern that basically crumbled when you touched it.

Once again I was petrified of mold and could feel my throat tightening up so I'm not sure why I was so eager to model the old material.

Picking out the fabric was a tough decision. Ultimately we wanted some red faux alligator material. However, when you're camping in 112 degree weather, the last thing you want to do is stick to the cushions when you are already playing a heated game of spoons.

We wanted it to be funky and make a splash yet practical and somewhat basic so that it flowed with all of our other design elements. Being on a budget was also a key component in the decision process.

So we ended up going with this combo, which I might add, was all on sale!

We topped all the cushions off with over 100 feet of piping. I was going to go into the riveting details of how to make piping but I will spare all of you. Your welcome!

Here Seamtress Lindsey slaves away on one of the cushion's zippers.

Cushions are complete!

A CAMPER UPDATE...

2009-04-24T09:54:00.001-06:00

We haven't posted much about the camper's progress recently. You are probably thinking that we have been eating snack mix and watching TV. Well we have. BUT we have also been slaving away on the camper.

We will post more pics of what we have accomplished so far, but to summarize we have done the following: removed the old furnace, rebuilt the cubby in which the furnace sat, put subfloor down, painted, rebuilt the top bunk, put up trim, painted hardware, picked out fabric, drank a few beers, painted some more, scooped snow out of the camper after one blizzard managed to completely fill the camper after the wind tore a window off, replaced more rotten wood, fabricated a new backsplash for behind the stove, painted the appliances, drank a few more beers, painted a lot more, and completely reupholstered everything. This is not even a complete listing of things we have done so far.

Our original goal of having the camper completed by Easter was severely overshot. We were upset for a moment, then decided to enjoy the journey.

The following pictures show some of the stuff we have done to the kitchen area. It is not finished, but it is closer. The upper cabinet floor had completely rotted out. We unded up ripping that out and replacing it.

Although the green/copper walpaper is neat-o, we thought that it was time for it to go also. That was a mistake. Evidently the wallpaper was the only solid piece of that wall. We had to replaced the wall behind the stove completely also.

We wondered what to do with that wall after we put the OSB in. We bought a roll of aluminum flashing and cut a piece for the backsplash. Can't show that yet though.

We primed the cabinet and decided that it was much better. Notice the canned-pea green stove? It's not canned-pea green anymore. It's rockin' some new paint! We can't show you yet.

BEFORE AND AFTER...

2009-04-21T22:09:00.000-06:00

4/Today I will be showing you a before and after redo project that I had done. This redo project was a chair that I purchased and refinished several years ago. But before we get into that, I must confess something.

A few years ago I had a problem. I fondly refer to that stage in my life as the "Chair Era." It started innocently enough. As a newlywed, I needed a couple of chairs in which my husband and I could sit upon as we ate the homecooked meals that I so lovingly prepared for him. So I acquired two antique, somewhat shabby dining room chairs to fulfill that need in our lives. Then I had the opportunity to purchaes a couple more chairs that were quite similar to the others. My rationale was that we may someday have guests and they too would like to be able to sit and enjoy my cooking. It seems that that particular style must have been common as I found and purchased many more of the like. I also thought it would be fun to paint them all different colors. I now realize that was probably violated some interior design law. Not the first time, not the last.

Shortly thereafer, a dear friend purchased a new dining set and generously gave me her six matching antique chairs. Then it seemed to consume me. I would find miscellaneous dining room chairs at auctions or garage sales or people would just give them to me because they knew my love for chairs.

At one point, I took a rough count of dining room chairs, which at this point had been scattered throughout the house. There were 17. I had a full-blown problem. Matt started to question the need for so many chairs when there were only two occupants in the house, and we rarely had guests. Like a junkie, I started to hide them from him. I hid them under piles of clothes; I stacked them on top of each other in less-used closets; I even started stashing them in the crawlspace under our house.

The addiction soon spilled over to chairs of the upholstered nature. I would buy any simply upholstered chair that I thought I could ruin with my rudimentary upholstery skills. This is one of the acquisitions during the "Chair Era."

I purchased it in an antique store in Mitchell. The wood's finish had faded to an ugly olive color. The joints needed to be tightened up. The upholstery was of a hideous nature, somewhat resembling Velco-like Astro turf. It hurt my eyes.

An interesting note about this chair (I don't have pictures of the actual redo process) was what I found when I ripped away the old material. No it was not a mouse nest of Guinness book proportion. It was a note inside the springs of the seat.

In scrolling cursive writing on yellowed paper, the previous owner had written the date and a few other details explaining that they had reupholstered the chair back in 1978. I wish I had taken a picture of the note, or at least remembered exactly what it said.

Before I put the final tack into the upholstery, I slipped the original note, along with my own note into the seat of the chair. Someday, someone will think that this fabric is ugly and "What was she thinking!" and decide to recover the chair in Velcro-like Astro turf. They will find both notes inside.

In case you were worried, I have since downsized my chair collection drastically. I now have a very healthy number of chairs in my house and only a couple stashed underneath in the crawlspace.

A BEFORE AND AFTER...

2009-04-17T22:09:00.002-06:00

Annie and I plan to post before and after pictures of different projects that we have done and plan to do in the future. The camper will be one of our big before/after projects. But until we get that finished, I thought I would post a very random Before/After.

Let me paint the picture for this Before/After. This past summer, Matt was a groomsman in a close friend's wedding.

As you can see, he is smartly dressed in suit and tie, complete with the standard dress shoes, versus his usual cowboy boots. Just couldn't lose the hat though. He would feel naked then. He is carefully shaved and groomed. He looks daper.

After the nuptials, the dance started heating up and so did Matt's dance moves. Here he demonstrates one of his signature moves - "Air guitar" complete with rock and roll face. At this point, you can see that the suit jacket has been discarded.

Here he rocks the Hokey-Pokey by putting his right hip out. The nice black dress shoes have since been traded for cowboy boots.

And finally.....

The After shot.

The dancing is over and it is time to relax. The cuff links are lost and the tie is gone. Evidently, Matt's shins were overheating from all the dancing, so in an attempt to cool them off, he rolled his pants up. That happens when you bust some moves like that.

HUNTING PORCUPINES

2009-04-12T09:00:00.001-06:00

The recent blizzards that had us snowed in the house takes me back to memories of snowstorms that occurred during our childhood. As most young kids, when we did not have school due to a storm, we jumped with glee at the prospect of staying home unfettered by the confines of the education institution. Our minds raced of all the possibilities of how to fill this free day.

During one particularly bad winter, that of '96-'97, an anomoly occurred. We actually almost got sick of snow days. The winter was so bad, that we actually ran out of things to do. Sure, we helped our dad feed cows in the mornings and then rode or drove through the cows to check on them. Then the rest of our day was free to do as we pleased.

We filled these days with whatever entertainment we could find. We did not have television (gasp!) and this vague concept of the "world wide web" evidently was world-wide except for our area. So therefore, after feeding, losing a few games of cribbage to dad, and 1/2 hour of torture, otherwise known as "practicing our piano lessons," we soon grew bored. It was then that we did what every other sibling group does when confined, they fight and bicker. "Bickering" was only briefly tolerated by my parents, and then we were instructed to take it outside.

Once outside, the frigid air would rally us together and we would try to find something to do until it was determined by mom or dad that we were through bickering and would be allowed back inside. It was during one of these outings that we discovered one of our favorite winter activities - Porcupine Hunting.

Our creek was plagued by porcupines that eat bark and kill trees. So we were free to kill porcupines at will. We would take dad's little pump-action .22 and set off down the creek in search of the ever-elusive porcupine.

(Disclaimer: We had been taught proper handling of firearms from a young age. Porcupines were extremely overpopulated in the area. Any e-mails to us about killing of harmless creatures or gun-control will be promptly deleted. As Joe Dirt says: "Don't focus on the wrong part of the story.")

In an effort to maximize the experience, we pretended that we were on a televised safari, like those on the hunting channel, hunting the cagey, wild porcupine. How we even knew about such hunting shows is odd because as mentioned before, we didn't have television. But, anyway, two of us commentated the hunt in loud whispers as the "hunter" pretended to be stalking the sly porcupine. A special note here, the commentators always talked with an Australian accent for whatever reason.

Someone would then say "to hunt the porcupine, you understand the porcupine" and then we would all errupt into giggles. The hunt would usually be over because we would be laughing too hard.

Here is Ris demonstrating porcupine behavior. I laugh everytime I see this picture.

Gosh, we were odd kids. Probably still are.

LET THE DEMOLITION BEGIN...

2009-04-11T10:53:00.001-06:00

We were so excited about our camper purchase. We knew that there would be some work involved in getting the old girl up and functioning. The camper is a 1969 model, therefore, older than either of us. As it takes a FEW cosmetics for us to look decent in the mornings, we knew that it would also take some cosmetic changes for "Barbara" to look good as well.

Our intent when we started this project was never to refurbish the camper to it's original 1969 state. Moreover, our goal was to repair it as best as our limited skills would allow us, and to add a little bit of flair.

We knew that there had been some water damage in places. It appears that the roof had leaked and damaged much of the back wall. The veneer walls had peeled like a 3-day old sunburn as you can see below.

We decided that we would start on the back wall. We removed the bunk and also the couch. With immense apprehension, we wielded crow bars with the precision of neurosurgeons. We started tearing off the veneer to reveal what was underneath.

When the dust and debris settled, we found that there was extensive water damage below the surface. We looked at each other with fear in our eyes. We sat back on our haunches, drank a beer, and deliberated our next move. We decided to dig even deeper to remove more rotten material. It was at this point, that Annie decided she was getting a sore throat due to all the mold she had breathed. We then spent the next hour convincing ourselves that it was just the start of a cold, and that there were no mold spores present.

We finally reached the end of the rotten wood when we saw daylight.

The silver door is actually the door for the compartment that is accessed from outside. We completely removed the lower half of the wall. We then started to rebuild the back wall.

We replaced the studs, and some of the floor that was rotten. This is the water tank that supplies water to the sink. But not the bathroom. There is no bathroom.

Then Annie measured how much plywood we would need to rebuild the wall.

We installed the plywood by the light of the work lamp.

Tracking material in and out caused a huge, muddy mess.

But, we were pleased with the results.

NOTE: At no time during this phase of the project did we have ANY clue what we were doing. We were the lucky victims of a series of "happy accidents" as the painter Bob Ross would say.

Stay tuned as we search to uncover more rotten infrastructure!

GYPSY, THE STORY OF A DOG

2009-04-08T10:58:00.001-06:00

I never thought I would be one of those "Dog people." The type of person that talks to their dog and truly believes she understands what you are saying. The type of person to let the dog sleep on the couch or bed, to generally treat the dog like one of their children. Well, I became that person. Don't judge me. Seriously, I quit caring.

Gypsy, is a miniature Australian Shepherd. She also goes by G-dog or a host of other ridiculous pet names that I have concocted. Her hobbies include sleeping, laying on the couch, chasing rabbits, and following Matt or I around. Now, her breeding would indicate that her talents lie in the cattle-herding area. This is not the case. No matter how much we wish she did herd cattle, she has no interest in this field. This could partially be due to our poor dog-training skills, or her general lack of interest in anything other than lounging. Nonetheless, she is the most faithful canine companion either Matt or I have had. She is also the most polite dog that I have encountered.

The story of how she came to live with us is actually very cute. Several years ago, we had different dog named Barbie that was killed when one of the feed pickups ran over her. Now that part of the story is not cute, it was actually quite sad. Our sadness over the loss of Barbie was noticed by our neighbor's young son. His grandmother raised Australian Shepherd pups that she was quite proud of. He convinced his grandma that he wanted a pup. She finally parted with one as a gift to him. Much to everyone's dismay, he then, headed straight to our house and gave the pup to us with all the sweetness that only an eight-year-old possesses.

We named her Gypsy. What a cute puppy! I can only imagine why we took this picture, but obviously it didn't make the Christmas card cut.

The winter we got her was particularly bitter cold, so she stayed in the house much of the time. It was then that she quickly found her new favorite hobby...lounging on the couch. Thus a pattern was set for the rest of her life. Occasionally, she does get off the couch.

Sometimes she will Foxtrot with me. Surprisingly, for as much as she is sedentary, she is an extremely athletic dog. She has a shockingly high vertical jump that she does when she gets excited.

She unabashedly likes to ride horseback too. No matter how much ridicule she receives from the other dogs. She doesn't care.

This picture is testament to her zeal for cattle in general. While all the other dogs are behind the herd, nipping at the lollygaggers' heels, Gypsy is tracking behind a horse with her tongue out, waiting for a rabbit to jump up.

Her glassy-blue eyes seem to hold an undetermined understanding. (Okay, that might be pushing it!)

These eyes are saying "I am so humiliated."

REVEALING THE NAME!!!

2009-04-06T09:16:00.013-06:00

Many of you have been curious as to what we will be naming our 'summer fun wagon.' My initial thought was to hold a contest and pick the wildest name. However, after further discussion we decided to save that idea for our next camper.

While we thought long and hard about her name, it was pretty obvious what the slogan should be, especially after the first day of demolition.

Rotten to the Core

Yep, I think that's quite appropriate. Anyway, back to the naming. Lindsey and I brainstormed and finally came up with the perfect name.

Drum roll please......

Yes! Barbara! We decided to name her Barbara after our Aunt Barb who was our inspiration for this project.

I came up with a few little acronyms for her. These do not necessarily represent our Aunt Barb...just Barbara the camper.

B is for Boy deterrent (There were big plans coming from the husband and boyfriend about taking her elk hunting, etc. That came to a halt as soon as they learned about the pretty pink heart and rhinestoned pillows)

A is for Ancient (1969 in camper years is actually very old)

R is for Rotten to the core (enough said)

B is for free Bird (my address is like my shoes, it travels with me wherever I go)

A is for Airy (when the wind blows there is a bit of a draft...or when it blizzards we find snow packed in every little crack and crevice)

R is for Rebellious (well behaved women rarely make history)

A is for Adorable (she is basically the cutest thing ever except for our nephew and Gypsy and...)

Here's a little teaser of the future decor.

Throughout this post I have given several clues that elude to some of the future details of the camper. Can you guess of any of them?

One more clue: $18 bottle of turquoise spray paint

2009-04-05T22:36:00.000-06:00

A TOUR OF THE NEW CAMPER...

When Annie and I got the camper home, we parked it in front of the shop and admired it from afar. It was cute and quaint. We stood in silence, imagining the fun trips we would take, the open road, the far-flung places that we would tow it. Ahhhh! What a summer this will be!

Let's take a tour of our new fun wagon!

When you step into the camper, you can see the huge amount of storage area. It also comes with a full-length mirror and a furnace, for those chilly nights.

The kitchen area features a three-burner gas stove and very clean oven. All appliances, including the range hood are a lovely "canned-pea green" color. There is an economy-sized sink and plenty of storage. The cupboard doors are painted a chartreuse-ish color that compliments the color of the appliances and also the upholstery throughout the rest of the camper.

The backsplash in the kitchen is a psychedelic green and copper wallpaper.

Moving to the dining area, you will notice the large windows that let in plenty of natural light. The booth-style eating area also conveniently turns down into an extra bed. Overhead storage space will be great for storing all the necessities for life on the road.

Finally, the sleeping/living area. The couch easily pulls out into a comfortable bed. The upper bunk also folds up for extra head-space.

Now, I will give you a tour of the bathroom.

Wait, where's the bathroom?

Lindsey: "Annie, I can't find the bathroom."

Annie: "It's outside."

(silence)

Lindsey:"So you're saying that nature is our bathroom. Is that what you are telling me?"

Annie: "Mm-hmm. Less plumbing to worry about that way."

Lindsey: "What about showers while we are on the road or camping?"

Annie: "It's CAMPING, not a Holiday Inn."

2009-04-04T11:27:00.010-06:00

YET ANOTHER SNOW DAY...

We are being hit with the third blizzard in as many weeks. The drifts are as high as the deck railing and almost over my car. I am in my nice warm house with plenty of projects (like reupholstering the camper cushions) and a bottle of wine, so I can't complain. I do worry about those that are tending stock right now. Western South Dakota ranchers are in the middle of calving season, and the blizzards don't help. Lots of calves have perished in this weather so far.

Matt, our brother-in-law Joe, and our friend John took off this morning to go ride through the cows and try to save some calves. They took fresh horses, a team of horses and hay sled, and hopefully enough warm clothes to get through the next 24 hours or so.

Here is what the hay sled-thingy looks like. This picture was taken over a month ago. The Three Amigos (Matt, Joe, and Zach) were taking the team for a spin.

The guys plan to camp out in an abandoned line shack down in the pasture. They have a kerosene heater that should keep them pretty warm. So they can ride and check cows and bring calves back to the shack to warm up.

This is what the shack looks like in warmer weather. That is Joe and our sister, Larissa. Don't let the shack's extravagant appearance fool you, it is pretty humble :)

Thanks to the modern technology and limited cell service, the guys have been able to phone the main house and request that a deck of cards and a bottle of Forty Creek be delivered. Unfortunately, that request went unanswered as there is no travel advised. Going to have to just tough it out guys!

Matt just sent the above picture message to me. Well, at least visibility appears better! Anyway, we hope all you West River ranchers come out of this storm okay. Spring is coming.

She's a Beauty!

2009-03-27T20:52:00.020-06:00

Our new winter project will soon be our new summer hobby!

After some unsuccessful searches, word got out that we were in the market for an old (I like to say vintage), inexpensive camper. As luck would have it a friend of mine asked her grandpa if he would sell us his.

And he said yes!!!

A 1969 Yellowstone Travel Trailer!

Sure...it needed a little work but the price was right and it was pretty much everything we could have dreamt of and more!

My friend's dad was not overly excited about the thought of us hauling this dormant camper 15 miles with no lights and shoddy tires. But heck! what's to worry? Okay, there may have been some white knuckle driving and Hail Mary's muttered while we were flying down Elk Vale Hill but we made it just fine.

Lariann & Gypsy

Lindsey and Gypsy

Now that we have paid for it and got it home, we should probably fully inspect the conditions. This is the impulse buyer coming out in me...buy then inspect!

The damage: Oh ya! This is going to be good.

Stay tuned...more to come!

Geocache Bash

2008-12-23T19:21:00.009-07:00

Lindsey and I had a blast this summer camping with our aunt in Wyoming. We tubed down a creek, drank a few Bud Light Limes, told stories, giggled, and wore crazy hats. We also went on our very first Geocache Hunt! We never realized tromping around the wilderness could be so fun. On the trip home we vowed to be regular "cachers" and find as many as we could; however, returning home to the 40 hour doldrums of work quickly made our new hobby fade away. Several months went by with no new caches; just work, chasing cows, and spoiling Joe Jack Jr. (our new nephew).

Joe Jack Jr.

Until a very monumental event happened in December...Lindsey's 30th birthday! Now, many in her position may have hid under the covers in the fetal position and mourned such a milestone. But not our Lindsey. When I called and told her to dress warm she didn't ask any questions, just did as told. I picked up her and Matt and we headed out. I finally told them what we were going to do and soon the hunt was on! It was a cold day but we found two geocaches and discovered an absolutely beautiful canyon!

Lindsey and I will definitely not let months go by without another geocache excursion...

...not sure Matt is really into unnecessary hiking in the wilderness though!

Remembering Retta

2008-10-17T18:16:00.008-06:00

She could put on a pair of blue jeans with cowboy boots and work cows all day with the men. Then dawn a dress by evening and throw a dinner party with nothing left to imagine.

She had an infectious laugh and a smile that would light up the room. We thought she walked on water. She was a jewel who got along with everyone.

She was our Grandma Retta. We always viewed her in a sense of wonderment as she was unlike anyone we knew in our young lives.

We lived just across the road from her and Poppee on the ranch. It seemed her patience with three small girls never ran thin. She would drop everything and devote her time to playing with us. She would let us play dress up with her clothes, read our favorite books to us, paint our fingernails, make ice cream cones, and do our hair. She even convinced Poppee to let us do HIS hair!

She would often take us on the seven mile trip to get the mail. We loved these short trips with Grandma. As soon as we got in the car she would give us all a stick of gum and lead us in a chorus of "The Crawdad Hole."

Whenever we were together and it was time for her to go, she would kiss each of us, leaving an imprint of bright, red lipstick on our cheeks. Then she would take her thumb and skillfully rub at our cheeks and announce with a giggle "Now you have rouge." As we got older she continued to do this and everytime made me giggle and love her even more.

When they moved to the city, she would throw birthday parties for each of us. In typical Retta fashion, everything was done with flair. There are not too many people who bring out the fine china for a five year olds birthday! She always served our favorite meal at these parties, fried chicken and her famous gravy. Everyone in attendance was required to wear a party hat, this included Poppee and Dad.

We would go to the city and stay with them for a week during the summer. She would take us to the grocery store on the first day and we were each allowed to pick out our favorite cereal. She also let us each pick a different restaurant to eat at while we were there. Our days were packed full of swimming, sightseeing and shopping. Never a dull moment with her.

The sad day came when the woman we thought was invincible passed away from Alzheimer's. Moved and afflicted by the firsthand effects that this disease had on her, we formed a team and walked at our local Alzheimer's Memory Walk this past September.

We walked to honor Grandma Retta and in hopes that someday soon there will be a cure for Alzheimer's.

They say that you carry on something from everyone you meet. Grandma had somewhat of a heavy foot when she got behind the wheel of the car. Many times us girls (including our mom) would tear out of the driveway like the devil was behind us. After one of those episodes, Dad said, "you girls learned that from your mother...and your mother learned that from Retta." She was a goer. We learned a lot more than that from her and our many memories will continue to teach us more, like kindness, patience and cheerfulness in all weather. We thank the Lord that He put her in our lives and we'll remember her with love forever.