Sadie #3

While sitting at dinner, during a pause in the conversation, (that had to do with basketball, by the way…)


“Did you know seals don’t have taste buds?”

Warm fire, Hot Coffee, Comfy Couch....

There is nothing I like better in the winter than a warm fire, a comfy couch and a hot cup of coffee.

This is because I have usually just spent a significant chunk of time in the freezing wind and horizontal snow, breaking ice in water troughs, pitching hay, fixing fence, feeding chickens, etc....

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Sadie

Sadie (7)- "Did you know that they sell underwear attached to socks?"




McKenna (10)- "Sadie, that's called long underwear!'

A Few of my Favorite Things...

For some reason, the song "A Few of my Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music, has been running through my head, nonstop, for three days....

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Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments

Do you want to be able to give your friends and family a handmade gift that will last for years to come?

Do you want every pore of your furniture, your walls, your skin and your dog to smell like cinnamon for days and days on end?



Do you want to do something fun with your kids that leaves lasting memories and is almost free?




Did I mention that you will smell like cinnamon?






This is the activity for you--

Note: In respect to our stomachs after overindulging yesterday, this is a non-edible recipe-
my stomach is thanking me-- actually, if you really wanted to, you could probably eat this....

technically you can eat dog food too, but do you really want to?




The Cast of Characters
We bought the big jug of cinnamon from Sam's Club because:

a)it was cheaper



b) I knew my kids were not going to want to stop at the 12-15 ornaments that the original recipe calls for

c)my in laws were going to Sam's Club, so they bought it and I forgot to reimburse them- makes it free for me!!

Yeah, yeah, I'm giving them their money......I promise

d)we like to buy things in bulk on the prairie




Mix 3/4 cup applesauce with 1 cup + 2 Tblsp cinnamon in large mixing bowl- actually you don't need a large mixing bowl, a smaller one will do......




we just like to do things big out here....


This is my big momma-jomma mixing bowl--- love this mixing bowl, but I am pretty sure all my bread dough is going to smell like cinnamon for a while.....



My mom had one just like this growing up that she rose all her bread dough in--- she made buttery crescent rolls for Thanksgiving from this mixing bowl---

oh yeah, no food--- no food for at least 2 more days..... please, no more food.......



Where was I......?

Mix applesauce and cinnamon together, using a spoon at first and then with your hands--- you can let your kids help with this step, but please, don't let them touch their face or their eyes!!!




Yes, I, not my children, learned this the hard way..... I sacrifice so much for them....





Dont'cha like my lovely rancher wife hands? Have you ever noticed that there are not many hand models among pioneer women?

In my alternate life I wanted to be hand model.....actually, I never did..... but I do envy women with lovely hands, small veins, and a noticeable lack of barbed wire fencing scars, calluses and broken bones..... wild mustangs, fences, ropes and lovely hands do not mix well....






Mix until it sticks together in a ball--

Taking small amounts of dough at a time (covering the rest), place between two sheets of Saran Wrap and roll to between 1/4 and 1/3 thickness-



This is my 7 yr old's hand- she has lovely hands...










Peel off top layer of Saran Wrap and cut with cookie cutters-- this is where you can let your little imagination and creativity run wild--- you can make snowmen, candy canes, stars, hearts, or even St Patricks Day shamrocks----



This is my 10 yr olds hands- she also has lovely hands, but you can see the deterioration beginning already....see the scuff on the knuckles and the barb wire scratch on the arm?


I am so sorry honey....your dreams of hand modeling are going to have to go the way of my own...


We have one of those bags of 100 cookie cutters that you can get for $6.99 at Wally World so we can do every holiday on the calendar and a few that they haven't even invented yet.... if you have the same, have fun....

I am sure that your friends will understand the Easter Bunny shaped Christmas ornament gift that your 7 yr old just had to make......or the Fourth of July flag with red and green ribbon tied to it that is going to the 5th grade teacher....

With a regular drinking straw, or in my son's case, a chopstick ( I have no idea where the chopstick came from-it's not like we have chinese food around the corner on the prairie), poke a hole in the ornament somewhere for a ribbon or raffia to go through--



Trust me, don't skip this step... it is really hard to get the holes in later..... really, really hard....









You can also use toothpicks to draw designs in the shapes or, once again in my son's case, a hole in the head of his snowman.... gonna have to take him to therapy for this one...
actually I think it was just a misplaced ribbon punch... and we're gonna stick with that explanation.....


If I had a Nikon d80, this would be a crystal clear picture in all it's hole in the head glory....



But as much as my little Kodak has stood me well these past 3 years, it just can't cut the mustard anymore....

Somebody puhleeeze buy me a Nikon d80 for Christmas?

I don't want to resort to begging..... it so isn't pretty or ladylike and we all know that ladylike is something that I aspire too.... ok, ok, I'm begging here....



Place all your shapes on cookie sheets and place in a 200 degree oven for 2 hours (or you can let them sit on the counter and dry for two days in the interest of saving energy- or you could throw a few potatoes in the oven with them to bake in the interest of saving energy and multi-tasking- whatever floats your boat-- aaaahhh! I mentioned food again....sorry)

We had this lovely mold (center of picture) that we found in the jumble of cookie cutters in the cupboard-- got it at a Pampered Chef party some odd years ago--



It has never been out of the box.....It was thoroughly broken in tonight, let me tell you...




Just a note, if you use a mold like this one, make sure that you spray it well with non stick cooking spray---those little buggers do not want to come out, I tell ya!



Once the ornaments have cooled, you can take raffia or ribbon or whatever, string it through the holes, hang it on the tree or give it to a friend.... we strung the smaller shapes on some raffia for a garland for our tree.....





Now I sound like Martha Stewart.....


I wonder if Martha Stewart smells like cinnamon?

Prairie Pastor

Periodically, I will feature snippets of life that can only be found and seen in our corner of the prairie.

If you have seen it somewhere else, please let me live in blissful ignorance..... we like to think that we are unique and special 'round here.....

This week, we are featuring the Prairie Pastor--

He doesn't know I'm doing this.... he, he, he!

Yes, this was his choice of costumes for Halloween.... and yes, that's a poodle skirt....

He promised to pay for therapy for my kids..... I'm holding him to it, cuz they will need therapy...... and hey, someone's gotta pay for it......

This is the vehicle of choice for the Prairie Pastor----

This is the Prairie Pastor's church and how the Prairie Pastor dries his laundry.....

(It's our church too......just thought I'd clarify)

This is the Prairie Pastor's hobby.....

Don't you wish you too had a cross-dressing, truck driving, pistol packing, Prairie Pastor?

Well, sorry, you can't have him.....

He's all ours......

Actually, for a six figure salary with benefits and paid vacation, you probably could have him.....

Let's just say that is not what he gets out here.....

You wouldn't really take it, would you, pastor? Pastor.... Pastor?!

He is never gonna let me take pictures of him again.....

Jack

Jack is missing....

I remember the day that we brought him home-

A white fur puffball with little black inquisitive eyes and a tiny black nose, looking for all the world like a tiny seal pup.

We had just lost our other Great Pyrenees and in a quest to find a companion for our St Bernard, who was also a puppy at that time, we discovered Jack.

They truly loved each other, and would sleep, two big gentle giants filling the front hallway of our house, and play, like two enormous bears, chasing each other around the yard...

He has been a pillow for our kids, a protector of our sheep, a guardian of the house, and an amazing companion.

In short, everything that the breed aspires to be-

His soft fur has comforted hurting children that have come to our ranch, and his ferocious bark at night has kept the coyotes away from our horses.

He loved our cats, especially our big orange tom, who would sleep curled between his front legs, and perched on top of his fluffy back, sinking his claws in and out in rhythmic massage.

He had the funniest habit of goosing every visitor that came through the entrance--

He did this because, every time, without fail, they would give an "OOOH" and reach down and pet him--

What a better way to train a dog?

We didn't stop him because, frankly, it was pretty humorous and became our private joke...

On a hot, sunny day in July, he patiently helped his little buddy win a ribbon in the pet show at the local fair.

He sat up every night outside, strategically positioned to watch every entrance, so that he could keep his family safe.

He slept all day in the cool green grass in the yard, or buried in the soft dirt under a bush, resting up for the next night's work--

In the coolness of the evening, as we sat on the front porch, he would sit in regal splendor, his beautiful white coat highlighted against the deep green of the front yard.

We miss you Jack--

We pray that somehow, in the miles of the prairie grasslands, you will find your way home--

Branding

Aaaahhhh!!! Sniff, sniff....

Branding day- the smell of burning hair, the bawling of calves, the chaos of people and cows and branding irons and vaccination guns, all in close proximity.

Did I mention HOT branding irons?

Note the flame coming off the hide of this poor calf-

I could pretend to be all politically correct and worried about the pain that the calf is going through, but, it's a necessary fact of life for these calves, the pain is momentary, and within moments, it's done and they are off to mama.

Yes, occasionally someone gets stuck with the vaccination needle- but its's ok- they are guaranteed not to get blackleg or rhinovirus for at least a year-

In this yearly event, all the community that is available participates, moving from ranch to ranch, often branding 300 calves in just a few hours.

Cow/calf pairs are rounded up from the pasture by 4-wheelers and horses, brought into the corrals, sorted and seperated. Groups of up to 50 calves at a time are run into a corral filled with people. Two folks pick out a calf, grab it from the group, wrestle it to the ground, and while one person sits on its head and one holds its feet, it is systematically vaccinated, branded, and if need be, castrated.

Hence the Rocky Mountain Oysters: Castration is done by the older guys with a knife and their fingers- generally the knife is held in the teeth inbetween cuts-

No, I am not joking- it's the way it's done- The cool thing is, the kids are brought right into the middle of things- this is my girl, barely 75 lbs, sitting on the head of a 200 lb calf that she brought down (with help!)

Castration was not something my kids learned how to do that day, but eating calf nuts fresh fried on the branding iron was not an experience my 12 yr old son was able to pass up!

Sorry, no pics of that one!!

At the end of the morning, an enormous feast is spread in the ranch house- 5 main dishes in enormous crockpots, huge baskets of bread, 5 different kinds of salad, iced tea and lemonade, and 10 different kinds of pie.

That, and the unlimited beer (come on, this is ranch country-beer is water here), are all the pay that the folks get.

Then onto another day and another ranch, 300 more calves, more beer and more food---it's a good ranch life!!