Larissa's Pictures

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

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

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

Have you seen many cowboys wearing puppy bibs?

WORKING CALVES

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

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

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.