er…program that is. All the live-long day!
Not that I mind. Got a lot done today. Hopefully it will be ready to go to print on Monday, and then I’ll be on to new things!
Latest Entries »
So I go to Austin for the Miniature Hereford show and sale, (which was wonderful fun, by the way) and return home to a flurry of STUFF that has only now subsided to the point that I have a moment to blog. I guess that’s life. Mine anyway.
As I say, Austin was GREAT. The show was excellent, the sale went well and I had a great time catching up with friends I email all the time but rarely see. Always makes me wish I could attend more of these shows. :)
Probably the most exciting bit of news is….drumroll please….we are drilling a well the end of this week!! Yay, hurray!! Tons of thank-yous to Gramps for making it possible for us. Photos will be posted here if there’s any way possible. As in: if I’m HERE to take photos, they’ll be uploaded for your enjoyment.
The MHN is part of what had me so busy, and it went to print this morning. I”m very proud of it, and will post it as soon as the print copy arrives in my mailbox. I’d hate to ruin the surprise for those of you who get the real deal. I did work up some nice ads, however, and I’ll share those now:
Riverslide Ranch
PJ Ranch LLC
Well, anyway, I’m proud of them.
Next up project-wise is the Cowboys season program. It’s fixin’ to be about the same size as an issue of the Miniature Hereford News….which is great!
AAARGH! But I’m getting lots done and that’s what counts. I am SO taking tomorrow (today) off!
So…I have a load of work that kinda piled up all at once. Not a bad thing, but it does make me pull some long hours. I got quite a bit done today: updating sites, designing ads, adding info into QuickBooks so I know just how much money I haven’t got, and all that good stuff.
The thing is, baseball season is coming up rather quickly….and I’ve got to be out of town for a few days later this month…and I really wanted to redesign the Cowboy’s site for the new season…and well, that’s what I’m doing. It’s looking pretty darn good, by the way. A vast improvement over the last version – which, as I recall, was pretty amazing to me at the time as far as what I managed to accomplish. Anyway, the thing is almost done, and now incorporates a forum, community, photo gallery (that’s not new), and will have a FAR better system for handling roster, stats and results. Oh, yeah…woo hooo…..
I have one last thing to do, and am waiting for the site to backup before I install it…just in case, you know. Then….it’ll be off for inspection by the powers that be and we’ll have us a new site! YES!
I think the last few days of sustained 30 mph+ winds broke the Wind Machine. It was calm and still today, not a breath of movement. So much so it about made ya fall over when you stepped outside! I’m sure there are several frantic angels replacing broken fan blades and repacking bearings so the Wind Machine will be operational in time for the next Big Wind. Until then, I’m gonna enjoy the break!
This morning was spent weaning calves. Why so long to wean TWO CALVES? Well……cutting ‘em off was the easy part. Pen was built thanks to my little bro, but water was still an issue. The pen happens to be at the back corner of the property and we only have water to the front half of the property. Oh darn! Yeah, well, it wasn’t so bad. The 500 gallon tank that kept us hydrated for a summer before we had REAL running water came in handy, as did several lengths of half inch poly pipe we had laying around. Have you ever tried using poly pipe? If you’re still stuck in the dark ages of using metal pipe and fitting lengths together, wake up and smell the coffee! Poly pipe is cheap, handles a light freeze without breaking or splitting and is oh-so-easy to lay out. Just keep fittings and joints protected from the cold weather and you’re set. Anyway…it took me all morning to piece the pieces together, clamp down those (blasted) pipe clamps (hate those things) and get assorted floats and regular hoses back where they belong and presto! We’ll have to fill that 500 gallon tank maybe once a week so the calves have water, but at least we don’t have to deal with a quicky, drippy line running all the way out there. Assuming it is drippy. Honestly, I don’t know…but it’s a rare day that I can get those pipe clamps to clamp right. The real reason is that we don’t have a float on that tank and I’m too cheap to buy one. So we’ll fill it up and have a wee little water system at the barn. It works.
After that morning I was kinda tuckered out and didn’t get a whole whopping lot of office work done. Oh-well, I’ll work twice as hard tomorrow and make up for it.
Come evening I decided I’d better go check on the newly-weaned fuzzballs to make sure they had plenty of water and feed. Water was good (MIRACLE!!) and they appreciated an evening alfalfa hand-out. I gave a bit of extra alfalfa to Tink as well, and snitched a pint of milk. Oh, that was fun! She didn’t let down too well, but given that I’ve never really milked her, she did really well. Didn’t dance around or fidget at all. Maybe she’s glad to be rid of the slobbery teenagers.
All in all, a good day. Now I think I’ll share some promised pics.
Headed Out
Lovely Evening
Planting Time
Dang! All the dirt fell off!
Steady the Baby
New baby in the playpen
Evening Orchard
Heavenly Sunset
Whaddya think?
Okay, so I had an awesome time at the Cowboy Breakfast and the last performance of the poetry. Red Stegall’s something else! Oh, and Cowboy Celtic. Can’t forget them, they’re incredible! Of course, I love western music (especially the REAL cowboy music – not the stuff on the radio but I’ll listen to the radio in a pinch) and I also have a thing for Celtic music….so stick the two together and WOW. A harp, fiddle, guitar and mandolin and I’m entranced.
After the breakfast I dropped Paul off at work (I twisted his arm into coming with me to freeze his rear off and huddle around the campfires) then picked up Mom for our Saturday Morning yard-sailing. Not a lot of yard sales this time of year, but even less competition for the good stuff. No one else is silly enough to be out in the cold. But those of us from up North don’t figure the cold is worth stopping for. I don’t think we found any amazing treasures, but we did have fun.
Dropped Mom off at the house again and headed over to the Big Bend Equine Center for their Annual Roping and Trade Day. Had the pleasure of meeting Billy Rousch, who heads up the Tuff Team Xtreme which is a non-profit rodeo event held every year for the single purpose of raising funds for charity – the charities being the Butler Memorial which puts kids through college (kids who can’t afford it, but have maintained a high GPA through high school) and another charity that uses horses and other animals to rehabilitate physically and mentally handicapped children. Both are honorable causes and definitely worth supporting.
Home again for a quick bite to eat, then back to JR’s studio. He’s got some large pieces of artwork that are hanging in the Bread & Breakfast bakery for his one man show during the month of March, and needed the truck to transport them.
We finished that, and I headed over to Bob Bell’s for a modeling session. Yep, I’m modeling for an artist. It’s kinda fun, really. Bob makes a fantastic cup of tea. His artwork is (to my way of thinking) fabulous, but then I kinda like the occasional flight into fantasy.
So that was my Saturday.
Sunday rolled around and I wound up modeling some more for Bob…then received a call to go watch the neighbor’s kids. They’re great little girls and a load of fun. We went to McDonald’s for dinner (not my favorite place, but a treat for them) and had loads of fun playing games afterwards.
And today…well….I stomped “fires” most of the day. All the little things that have to be done. It’s the first of the month which means bills have to be printed and mailed. A few sites requested updates so I completed as many of those as possible. The last bits of info are now in my tax packet to go to my accountant. And a couple new ads are ready for the next edition of the Miniature Hereford News:
Riverslide Ranch is a new client, but I’ve seen their cattle and they’ve got some awesome genetics.
Riverslide Ranch
PJ Ranch is one of my most long-standing clients. They, too, have excellent cattle and have been featured on TV several times (wish I could say the same!). They decided it was time for a new look, and here’s the result. One of my favorite designs so far:
PJ Ranch
We also built a pen today so we can FINALLY separate the calves off Tink for weaning. I should say, Paul built the pen. I could build fence like that all day: I point and “click” and Paul builds. Wheeeeeee. What a great bro I have.
And best of all, we planted our SECOND Christmas tree today. It is now nestled in its Forever Home, the first of the line-to-be of our Christmas Tree Calendar. (Our first Christmas Tree got an extra special Forever Home near our house.) Pictures soon!
I’ve lived in this area since January of 2002 and never managed to make it to the poetry gathering. We have the second largest and second oldest gathering in the United States and somehow something always came up when it was actually taking place. Well, I take that back….living in Fort Davis, it doesn’t take anything “coming up” to not make a trip into town….if the function doesn’t land on town-day you aren’t going to go.
This year I finally got to change all that. I went to the Poetry Gathering last night and had a marvelous time. As with most of the few activities I manage to attend, it was populated mostly by the golden generation…so a bit of me felt completely out of place but hey – it was fun. The poetry and singing was incredible. Pure country, down to earth and a lot better than some stuff you hear on the radio these days.
It’s 6 am and I’m planning to go to the Chuckwagon breakfast, too. I’m sure those cowpokes are already out there baking biscuits and other goodies over their open fires…but I gotta get a few things done on the computer and grab some coffee before I go.
See y’all later!
Miniature Hereford Breeders! The Star of Texas catalog is now online…it will be updated as more info becomes available, but at least you’ll get to see what will be selling at the auction next month. Here is a direct link to the pdf version of the catalog – designed by Pardner, by the way.
On to othert topics…lotsa website work coming in and keeping me pleasantly busy. I should have a website or two up and ready for viewing next week sometime. It’s “Ad Time” again for the Miniature Hereford News, which means for several ad designs in progress right now. Don’t forget: deadline for the April issue is Monday, March 1. I need those ads in so I can start laying out the magazine.
That’s about it for tonight….gotta get some more work done! :)
Yep. Getting to be that time of year. I intended to do ‘em yesterday….but managed to eat something that had me a loooooong way under the weather if ya know what I mean. No-way ho-say to taxes yesterday!!! So whoopee-do I get to do them today! I mentioned some time ago that I did invest in QuickBooks…and sooooo glad I did. I’m entertaining wonderful day dreams of clicking twice and sending everything to my accountant. And that’s IT! Not so this year. I wasn’t smart enough to buy QuickBooks the year BEFORE last. So I sort through receipts.
It’s not all bad. I did discover that, while I was managing to pay the bills each month (the most important part, y’know), I actually doubled my income from design over the previous year. Cool beans! That offsets the losses on the cattle. Yay! Make no mistake, last year was horrible as far as the cattle were concerned!!!! Drought, lack of pasture, barely able to take care of the family let alone the herd on a mountaintop kinda left a mark in their production record…..*sigh*
Anyway. I think QuickBooks is finally whipped into shape and properly recording my finances and my taxes are almost done. It’s a wonderful day!!!
That about sums up my day. Been so busy on the computer, I haven’t run errands in a while, and boy-howdy they were a-stackin’ up!
I actually got myself into town before lunch today. See, usually I have something really important to do on the computer so getting out of the office before lunch is a miracle. Today I decided to just ignore (try not to hyperventilate) the computer work and just go get groceries. Honestly, the fridge was getting a little sparse.
Soooo…..while I was out and about I picked up a sack of grains for the hens…..and since I’ll need hay in a few days I decided to call my hay guy and set up an appointment to get another bale. This afternoon, while earlier than needed for me, was preferable for him, so this afternoon it was. And the bale I got is just gorgeous!!! Almost 100% alfalfa, thin stems and leafy. Oh, the girls will LOVE it!
This afternoon I spent in QuickBooks preparing info for taxes. FUN!
Today is a national holiday, so I took it off…I’ve discovered that, being self-employed, and in charge of setting my own hours, if I don’t TAKE my vacation I don’t GET my vacation. Someone always calls and needs SOMETHING. Which, if it is an emergency leave a message and I WILL sacrifice my vacation to troubleshoot your website. But emergencies aside, I stay out of my office on national holidays.
Boy, I need more of these!!!! Whoever invented the vacation was a genius! I had a lovely, long, slow day….a nice tea-party with my mom while we watch a girlie movie…..a nice visit to the cattle and enough time to play with them……a visit to the chickens…….sit in the sunshine and out of the cold breeze and doze……all in slo-mo.
Very good for the soul!!!
