Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Latigo Issues And Doggie Beds

Yesterday morning the alarm clock went off at 5:00…

I hate that sound. It’s the worst thing to wake up to, I mean really. It has this sort of annoying twang sound… If this alarm clock had a voice like a person, it would be one of those people who talk… oh I dunno… nasally. Like they are pinching their nose. Stinkin’ alarm clocks.

Anyway. On Sunday, as you know from my former blog post, we gathered the heifers. Or steers or whatever, I forgot what they were… =P BOVINES. Yeah, there ya go. So anywho, we are still shipping off our steers and heifers, despite the fact that we did a good bit of it back during Fall Works. So yesterday, I got up, bundled up (I much prefer the cold over the heat, the cold is awesome!) and out into the blustery morning to catch my ferocious beast. It was a difficult mission. Really! It was a much more arduous task than normal. He was playing hard-to-catch… literally. He was being grouchy too- not only was he hard to catch, he was dragging at the end of a lead rope a lot harder than normal, and turned his head away in irritation when I tried to get a burr from his mane. (No he is not sick, he was just being cranky.) Well, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the hay rack! Oh well, I got it done, saddled him up… And then I ventured back inside where it was nice and warm, for a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes. We had a crew of seven- the 5 of us (meaning Tyler, Daddy, Grandpa, Clint and I) Dave, and then DK came down. DK is the “big boss”. (We call Daddy the Boss. DK is the Big Boss. Hehe.) He owns this ranch as well as another and a rather large oil and gas company as well. So he only comes down about twice a year, he stayed this time only for part of the day, didn’t even stay for dinner. Anyway, it was fun. Despite the cold, I really enjoyed getting to lope out across the pasture. Wyatt was being really good, he wasn’t being as lazy as usual. Again! Maybe it’s this cold air, does him some good, gets him motivated I guess. There is really nothing like setting out across the pasture. Let’s set the scene, shall we? It’s dark, very dark. The stars are still winking in the deep black sky. The only noises are the horses snorting or nickering back and forth to each other, the creak of the gate hinges, the occasional mutter from one of the fellows, or a light chuckle. You set out across the pasture… Now lets add the steady drum of 7 horses and their hoofbeats. You look off to the East (no, wait, West. or was it South?) and see the sun rising, it’s glowing rays engulfing the darkness…

Quite poetic if you ask me. Yessirree!

Anyway, it was pretty cool. As we headed towards the back of what we call the Long Trap, Wyatt suddenly pins his ears and kicks. What the heck? I slow him down… And discover that my latigo has slipped from its keeper and with every jarring step (Wyatt is very short strided, must have something to do with him being ridden to the point of torture as a 2 year old) is tapping him under the belly.

Houston, we have a problem. A latigo problem to be exact. Halt all ongoing procedures!

Aka... stupid latigo fell out of the keeper! Whoa, horsey, stop! I will save you! Slip the latigo back into my keeper… I’m way behind the others. Lope to catch up… *pin ears and kick* Oh darnit! Stop again… back into the leather slot… Okay, off we go! This time I keep an eye on it… dang you! It keeps coming out! It has about a 4 inch tail (should be longer, it’s a combination of Wyatt being fat and the latigo just being a little short I guess, I need a new one) and maybe the cold making it stiff is making it… reluctant… Can leather be reluctant? I guess it can. Anyway, I spent the rest of the ride holding onto the latigo with my left hand and the reins with my right… Until I finally got smart when we hit the back of the pasture and I slipped it through the D-ring…. Ahhhh, there we go. And all is well with the world once more.

But other than that minor issue, I had a great ride. =D

I got picked on a good bit too… Dave was there, remember? And Clint has a tendency to occasionally throw in a tease. Ah, well. I’m used to it by now, and to tell you the truth…

I kind of sort of, just a teeny bit, enjoy it. Kind of.

So we got done early, about 9:45. That’s really early. Hmmm. Well Daddy had done a lot of preparation work so there wasn’t a whole lot to do that day except weigh the cattle in and load ‘em up in the truck. So by then Daddy and DK had gone off to look at some stuff on the ranch, so that left Grandpa, Tyler, Clint, Dave and I hanging around the rigs at headquarters chatting about… Nonsense really. Just cowboy chat. Spurs and broncs and ropings and… ropes… and the such. After a while we came inside for coffee and peach cobbler (Dave and I substituted hot chocolate, not being major fans of coffee) and then Dave and Clint left. Yeah… An hour or so later, we all ate, and then Momma, Tyler and I had to leave for town. Tuesday is one of our “town days”. Tyler has college two days a week, guitar lesson for him on one of those days, piano lesson for me on another, and then there are always the errands.
Errands. There’s always time for errands. There may not be time for ice cream. But there is always time for errands.

Post office, library, bank, water, insurance agency, Wal-Mart, feed store. Not to mention the college, piano lesson, guitar lesson, occasionally places like Hobby Lobby or the scrapbook store.

Don’t get me wrong! A lot of this stuff needs to be done. And I am willing to admit this. But I still don’t enjoy it. At all. I hate town. Ugh. I would be perfectly happy if I never had to go to town.

Okay, so that’s not 100% true. I enjoy piano lessons and the 4-H dances and the horse sales. But all that other boring crap… I could definitely do without.

So yeah, Tuesday was pretty busy. Oh! Monday night I got to go to Youth! For the first time in about 3 or 4 weeks. YAY! It was awesome. Justin (our youth leader) is simply phenomenal, and he just really gets me fired up for another week with God. Here’s to Justin- thanks Justin! Okay, yeah, I’m done. But it was great, really really great.

Not until about 2 months ago, did I start really reading my Bible and praying, growing close to God. That’s kind of a personal thing to say, but yeah. And since then, I have realized, how sometimes, our time with God can really slip away. It’s so easy! I mean, I love to read my devotional and read the Bible and spent honest time in prayer for atleast half an hour every morning, and maybe another half hour in the evening. But there are always those mornings when you sleep in, then you have to hurry to get dressed, eat breakfast, feed the cat, let the dog out, take out the trash, do the dishes, what seems like an endless list of assignments for school, practice the piano, do the laundry—and you get so caught up in doing these things that seem like they need to be done and are so important, that you forget the most important thing of all! And it’s very frustrating, for me at least, because I have to fight the urge to start getting that stuff done (and no offense Mom, but usually you are telling me to do these things, and I have to fight that too) and then I feel guilty because I didn’t spend time in the Word, but I know it’s my fault because I slept in, and I get frustrated at myself all over again!

One word---- RAWR.

I dunno if the rest of you guys out there experience this, but I sure do. So I’m starting to NOT SLEEP IN. I’m just NOT letting myself. I’m cranky if I sleep in and I have a bad day, it just doesn’t start off well, I feel sleepy all day. And I'm very ineffient on those days. And I feel incredibly rushed. So I’m starting to get up at 6:00. That’s not early at all… I can definitely manage it. (No I am not being sarcastic! Really 6:00 isn't early. 5:00 isn't even that early, I'm just not that ambitious. 4:00, in my opinion, is early.) That’s what I did this morning, get up at 6:00, and I had time to make my bed, tidy my room, eat breakfast, feed the cat, and read my devotional and spend time in prayer and the Word, by 6:35! Yay for efficient me! And so far the day has been going great. I started school at 7:00, and finished at 9:45. Let’s hear it again! Yay for Efficient Me! Lazy Me shall never return again! NEVER!

Okay, so maybe it will. And probably very soon. But while Efficient Me is still here, I’m gonna go get some laundry done.

EDIT: oh, yeah! Efficient Me is still here and I remembered Tucker's new bed, and then Efficient Me suggested to Regular Me that I should upload the pictures, crop them on Adobe Photoshop, and add them to my recent blog post. Good idea Efficient Me! So that is what I did.

Tucker, my 7 year old *slightly overweight* Beagle, has always slept on either this big rough-textured pillow or in his crate in my room when he comes inside. (The pillow was for daytime, the crate at night, especially in winter.) But the pillow has since gotten very flat and hard due to his... erm... Body mass. (He's not really that fat, really, but he is very big for a Beagle, and a little overweight, but not bad, honest!) So I have been wanting a dog bed for him for months. I wanted one of those couch-type ones that have the siding, because I knew he would like to lean against it. But the only place I could find that kind was at PetCo and they are so expensive! And at Sams they have good prices on dog beds, but they were all like big pillows and none had the sides like I wanted. Well, finally! We were in Sams yesterday and there was a reall cool dog bed, just what I was looking for, for only $30.00! (Seems like alot, but as much as this dog loves it, and seeing that it was even on my Christmas list, it was worth it.) So we came home with it and he really loves it. He loves to be in his crate, but last night he would not go in it! He only wanted the bed. Greedy little sucker. Oh, well, glad he likes it. So I took some pics... That scruffy toy in there is a stuffed dog. Kind of a long story, but it was Tyler's, Tucker would always steal it... from his room... And the rest is history. He looooves his Doggy.


Awww! Doesn't he just look so comfy?

Zoey has been sending hateful looks his way ever since he got it. As if, "I cannot believe they gave you a new bed and I have to share one with these disgusting two-legged creatures!" She really is put out with him. And us. But, I promise you, if I were to get her a bed, she would ignore it as if it didn't exist. I know just what she would do. Sniff it, then walk away. Diva cats. So here she was coming up to confront him... He is glaring, as you can see. He growled and I had to scoot her away before he snapped at her. He's slightly possessive of his new bed.

Oh, dear! I am such a terrible mommy to my precious Zoey! She works so hard, slaving over all this paperwork, and I don't even care enough to give her her very own bed! *emotional tears*

Eh. She'll get over it.

2 comments:

Ranch Wife said...

Hey, I like this "efficient me"! How long you reckon I can get her to hang around here?

Ranch Kiddo said...

Hehe funny Mom.