New Horses!!!

Howdy! Well, we didn't get the tile in yet...but guess what we DID get? LOL! Yep..you read that right...new horses! Our old horse Babe is really enjoying this as she thinks they belong to "her" and that she now has her own gymkhana/rodeo as everyone gets out there with their lead ropes & horses doing ground work! We got them from a family who is having to transfer out of state, so it would be fitting as we just traveled the same trail ourselves recently.

Guess I'd better introduce all the new members to the Bunkhouse!

"Annie" is a papered Quarter Horse mare & she is 8yrs old.

"Star" is Black Arabian mare with a star on her forehead & she's 10yrs. old. We are working on trying to get her papers...

"Cowboy" is a papered Arabian Gelding & he is 9yrs old.

And of course...not to be left out...our old horse Babe...to whom all of these "belong"! LOL! She's 24yrs old & counting, a papered Arabian Chestnut colored mare with Egyptian lines and has been trained to open gates, "dance" in parades & in general is an all around great horse. Btw, she is overseeing the other horses to make sure they behave themselves...HER pasture is the one closest to the house so she can also keep an eye on her humans to make sure they feed her when SHE feels we've slept long enough! Yes, yes...she can't wait until we get chickens and a rooster again, but she does know how to make the dogs bark to wake the humans when necessary! Heehee!

Remodel Underway...

So...we are all workin' fools around here! First step is the tear outs...tore out the old paneling! Tore out old carpet & old linoleum tiles.

Then, comes new construction in some areas, including putting up drywall, then taping, texturing & painting! We all have our talents & the WHOLE family gets involved!

I design & Kelly is in charge of new construction:

It's  been great to homeschool with all we typically do as a family...LIFE becomes the courses they study. Construction, Electrical, Flooring, Masonry, Automotive, Leather Tooling, Equine...well...think you've got the idea!

Country Road

Driving down our country roads here, you get a drift of the sweet scents of honeysuckle in the vines growing up the trees that canopy over the road mixed with occasions of hickory/pecan & hint of mesquite in someones smoker for the days dinner. LOVE IT! SOO BEAUTIFUL!

Texas House & Land

Howdy All, y'all! Real quick while I'm waiting for the Texas rain storm to pass, I gotta a few minutes to blog so figured I'd keep on goin'!

As most of y'all know who follow my blog...we buy fixer uppers and do the fixin! That is not so much about "flipping" houses as it is the need to fill what is lacking from a second income due to homeschooling. We can't buy the biggest or best house out there, just won't fit into the budget. But what we CAN do is to buy something that most people wouldn't even give a first look at let alone a second. Good realtor friend of ours from yrs ago used to say, "I LIKE you guys...you're so much fun! You can always find the 'Pony in the Poop' (which is an expression that means...if there's soo much poop all over the place...there's gotta be a pony in here somewhere!) Because you look at something & don't complain of how bad it is, rather which wall you can knock down & how you can fix the problem."

This time around, God has blessed us with a one story (for people in the northern region I know y'all can't fathom this one) 3bd,2ba, 2,000sq ft brick home. It has almost 8 acres of flat land to do all we wanted to do on land & couldn't living in hills. We have a spring fed pond with a creek running across the back of the property so plenty to feed & water horses & cattle with.

Pics are, house & front yard, pond (this is from a distance so I could get the whole thing in) and the creek.

From here on out, I'll be posting & putting up pics (with any luck as my other blogs had issues with that) to show you the progress of what all we are doing to the Texas Bates Bunkhouse!

Bates Bunkhouse moves to TEXAS!!

Howdy All Y'all!!

We just moved to the fine state of Texas & it's been a warm welcome to the Bates Bunkhouse & all we do! God's given us this land for a new start and believe you me, we are very excited about all the prospects!

Since I'm in Texas, we are gonna brag a bit as that is okay down here! Now, don't worry 'bout it, not a sin a'tall to brag when you are braggin about God's goodness and witnessing to all what is possible with God!

As many of y'all know, we were having financial difficulties in Colorado due to the political side of things & state of the economy there. The Bunkhouse was facing some mighty big challenges, not all of which had to do with the weather. Which, I might add was a might frightful what with snow from the end of May & starting up again on Oct. 8th! Didn't blog much at that time...just didn't HAVE the time. Dealt with downed horses in fencing due to ice, snow & living in Windy Hills on hilly/mountainous areas. Anyone following me on FB knows exactly all that went on.

This is to give all y'all hope in whatever situation you may find yourselves in. God answers prayers if we just stop imposing OUR ideas on Him! Yes...guilty as charged. Apparently God did not want us to be in the Amarillo area as we had planned but Thank You, Lord, we are at least a bit closer to cousin Billie Sue & in the state where she lives and Uncle Bobby Ray as well.

So, here's the tale. We had been struggling & looking for a better life as all good pioneering people would do. We contemplated Nebraska, Wyoming & even the Dakotas but decided that was WAAY too cold for this here So. Cal. country girl! Now, I say country girl because that is what I loved & when I was a girl, there was still a lot of country out there. Mainly ranches & the like, but I loved it & enjoyed many a warm day in the summer with temps well into the 100's. So, Kelly said, "If you don't like those northern areas then where else?" With a glint in his eye & a little smirk on his lips, I knew I had to come up with something & fast. So I shot back with, "I don't know...maybeee...hmmm...Amarillo!" You have family there & we always liked it when we traveled through there. Well, that began the whole thing & Kelly had looked for a time in that area for a job but nothing transpired. About a yr or so later, a job posting came up with Union Pacific RR in Ft. Worth with his job description...there aren't too many Boilermakers left, so figured it might be an answer from God, so he put in for it.

That's when the whirlwind hit! Kelly always says, "When you pray for God's will & are patient, just hold on when His will comes into play as things take off & you feel like you're hangin' on to a wild ride!" LOL! SOO true! Kelly put in for the job (even though we were very hestitant due to distance, climate with our asthma/allergies, etc.) He got notified within a wk that he had 2 days to make it down to Ft. Worth to interview for the position. Plane tickets were too expensive with the short notice, so we all drove down with him. He was notified while we were still in Ft. Worth that he got the job. We drove home to Colorado and began selling or giving away nearly everything we had. We had already talked to 4 realtors, all had said the same thing...that we would be lucky to sell & even if we were able to sell, we would most likely lose money in the deal. Well, the money we had put down on the house came from yrs of saving & some was retirement money to be able to live in a high dollar area in a broken down house that needed lots of work. It had appraised in Aug. 2010 for $350,000...that was without all of the upgrades completed! But, we were looking at half that according to most indications, which would mean we would not only lose, but lose BIG...over $100,000!

Once we had completed the upgrades, our dear rodeo friend came over to see if there was any hope...the news was still bad. Our friend is a Texas born man & Kelly's Mama being from Texas, they had a similar temperment of good friends being able to debate a subject loudly without getting hurt feelings...so they were leaning across the table, both adamant about their positions. Our friends, favorite expression is, "In my over 30yrs in this business".... "Kelly, I'm tellin' ya...it ain't gonna happen." Kelly just as determined said, "Jace, if God wants it to happen, it'll happen." Well, we just kept selling things on craigslist & I thought...why not just throw the house up there as well? I did and got 16 hits back, 4 of which came to look at the house. One guy came back twice. We had to list the house as we had to be down in Ft. Worth on March 19th (the Feast of St. Joseph btw) for Kelly to start his new job. So, I called the office & told the gal that I needed him to get paperwork ready. That same day, I got a call from the guy who looked at the house a second time & he said he was writing up an offer. I called the office back & said I have an offer, what should I do? We met with our friend & he said he could NOT BELIEVE IT! Infact, he told us that he would handle the paperwork for just 1% so he could be the guy who could tell the story to others!!

So, our house sold & Kelly transfered down here to Ft. Worth, Texas! Not only did it sell, but we got $45,000 above cost & were able to put 20% down on this house, which had appraised for $30,000 above what we paid and that is without remodel as well! So, our savings & retirement money has followed us here & is in this house!

Amazing what God does when we continue to pray & look not for our own will, but His! He is an awesome God who only wants the best for us! Of course, we live in the world & are meant to suffer, but only enough to place us close to His Son on the cross & to forge us into steel from a less than perfect metal! Suffering is daily & we all carry our crosses, but know this, God wants the best for you as a loving parent always does. Learn the lesson that is being taught & faithfully follow His will!

Activites in Colorado

Jessie with Kayla & Rebecca...the girls just finished giving the Behind the Shoots Tours for the Elizabeth Stampede...this has become very popular at major rodeos. The girls give a guided tour where people can meet the Rodeo Clowns & Contestants to see behind the scenes of what goes into a rodeo.

 

 

 

Billy on Jake & Kelly on Babe for Mounted Security at the Elizabeth Stampede...

She has a '76 GMC Sierra Truck and although she got the engine pulled, we've just been soo busy all summer with rodeos and gymkhana's that she hasn't had a chance to get it running. Hopefully, that's what winter is for....working in the garage!

 

 

 

Dolly had Puppies

Posted by Elvira Bates on August 23, 2010 at 9:14 PM

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Dolly had 5 puppies. We sold 3 of them and kept 2. One for Billy, "Bandito" and one for Jessica, "Cheyenne" for their (early) Birthday Presents.





Here are the puppies when born.

Sweet Pea

Posted by Elvira Bates on August 23, 2010 at 8:58 PM

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It's been awhile since I've been on here, mainly because I can't seem to post any more videos...don't know the problem...always says "error on page".

Anywhoo...gonna try to load pictures! We got a 5wk old heifer calf. She's a red angus beef calf. We bottle fed her for awhile, switched her to calf manna and eventually to grain. She's about 5 months old now and very sweet. We are hoping to breed her for more cattle at this point basically because she has a great disposition.




5wks.

Saddle Building

Posted by Elvira Bates on March 18, 2010 at 11:16 AM

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Billy has needed a saddle stand for awhile now and finally got it built  last wknd. He has been working on cutting out the skirting and tooling a steer head on it. He'll be cutting out the chap sides, riggings, including the cinch straps soon and will need the saddle stand for stretching the cinches and rigging.





Eventually, he'll make the saddle stand look more appealing, but for right now, it's barebones raw material so he can use it to finish building his saddle.






The weather has been nice enough that he was out yesterday doing some farrier work on the horses (that's trimming, cleaning and beveling the horses hooves). So, he's REALLY wanting to get that saddle finished...we'll all be riding soon!!

Leatherworking

Posted by Elvira Bates on February 14, 2010 at 1:17 PM

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Billy has taken to leather working like a horse takes to soft dirt....if he could roll on it and lay down in it, he would! LOL! He excelled beyond what 4H could do for him before the classes were finished and they directed him to find a saddle maker who could help him. Like any good old homeschooling family would do, we stopped 4H as it was not fulfilling the needs of our family to progress rapidly enough and moved on to finding someone who lives what you want to learn. There we found Irv...of Scottish decent, he had been a real cowboy as opposed to what he calls a drug store cowboy. He grew up the son and grandson of saddle makers and ranch owners, his grandfather came directly from Scotland and he can speak with a great Scottish accent, when he tells you what his grandpa said to him.  He worked ranches in Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado, so he's considered a northern range cowboy. Not only is Billy getting lessons on making saddles, but also the real life lessons of being a cowboy on the range and what you NEED in a good saddle when it's a working saddle as opposed to the fancy riding saddles that are most commonly seen. The old style cowboy molded the saddle to fit his backside and carry the tools he may need to repair fence, etc. There were no 4 wheelers back in the day. It was all done by hand, man and horse working together.



Billy and Irv



Of course, Jessica and I have already had Billy working on things for us! We have our own brand if you will,  picked out. Hers is Roses and Barbed Wire...the delicate beauty of the rose along with the strength of the barbed wire. Mine is the desert rose cradled by the horseshoe. The desert rose is a cactus flower... the beauty and resilience in the desert and the horseshoe for a positive attitude that also symbolizes horses.




Billy is teaching classes on Leatherworks for our homeschool group, the kids are having a great time! I'll get pics up as soon as I can.

On The Range/New Arrivals!!

Posted by Elvira Bates on February 8, 2010 at 6:15 PM

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Got a call at 6am this morning...our Day Old Chicks had arrived at the Post Office from the Hatchery! We dressed, heated up the suburban and headed down in a light snow with about 2 inches on the ground, to pick them up. We got them home and got them settled in, tended to the rest of the livestock and sat down to breakfast. Jessica said, "Hot coffee and hot homemade biscuits never tasted SOOooo GOOD!!


 
 Last yr on ill advice from a "farmer?", I ordered too late, this made it especially bad because due to the economy...people were ordering who lived in town and were hiding them in their garages and basements! The hatcheries sounded like an auction house in the background when I called. So, I ended up with 25 white leghorns...although they are top producers, they are flighty and I'm not fond of them, (especially while I'm training a young herding dog)  they lay your standard white store eggs.

THIS yr. I listened to Kelly's Mama and ordered them in January and had the first shipment out the first of February, they will start laying sometime in late summer. This yr I got what I wanted. We have 25 White Rocks (Kelly's Mama's favorite, when she ordered, she used to order 200!!!) they are the yellow chicks, they will lay brown eggs, but will grow to be large white hens that are also good for meat. We also ordered 25 Rhode Island Reds, they are the redish/brown chicks (MY Mom's favorites that she had when she grew up on a 300 acre farm in upstate New York) they also lay brown eggs. The little brown striped chicks are Aracaunas, I like them for their greenish/blue eggs and I ordered 10 of them...they just make the basket of eggs or carton look really farm fresh and colorful! They shipped an extra 4 chicks altogether, so we have 64!!
I have been selling off some of the white legrns but still have 35 chickens in our henhouse altogether.
 
They are SOOooo cute!!

On The Range

Posted by Elvira Bates on January 30, 2010 at 3:21 PM

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Just a little intro here to those who are not aware (those who have known me since childhood can remember this!!). I have always loved working with and training dogs since the first time I laid eyes on the old Lassie show! My Dad worked in L.A. and many of his customers and those he knew were Hollywood "Movie Dog" trainers. I began at just 5yrs. of age to work with a curly haired lab my Dad brought home and I was interested in "tricks" at the time. He would let me talk to those experienced people. For instance, some of you may remember Benji the movie dog? His owner was Frank Inn and my Dad bought his motorhome that he toured with when Frank was buying a newer one. It even had Benji's dog house built onto the back...his own "Pad"... Hollywood dogs are so spoiled!! LOL!

Some of you remember, by the time I was 10, I held the big rage at the time,
"Backyard Carnivals"...some money went to charity. I had my dog trained to climb up on a chair, put her paws up on the back of the chair with the command "pray" and put her head down on her paws. She was an extremely smart dog and was a great worker. I also had a sheep dog who really never had what it took, but was a very loving dog. I often used him for my "clown" dog because I would tell him to sit, he would lay down, I would tell him to lay down, he would sit. It was pretty funny. He understood the commands, but in reverse...can there be dyslexic dogs??? LOL!

When I was a kid, they had a poster that told all the different breeds and their purpose (why they were bred) which most were in the category "working" dogs. These lie under the titles of: Guard, Hunting, (which  has 2 categories which are your retrievers and your hound dogs) and Herding dogs. When I was a young lady, I got my first Herding dog, she was an Australian Shepherd. This was BC (before children) and I had time to work with her daily.  I came to truly appreciate the genius of the herding dog through her. My husband had his own security company, but one night worked for a friend whose guard didn't show up. He couldn't carry a weapon on this job, so I told him to bring my dog. I had trained her around firearms as well. It was a good thing he did because he encountered a guy with a gun and Sheppie jumped between him and the guy. Kelly told him he had better holster his weapon because she would be at his throat before he could pull the trigger. She was an EXCELLENT dog and I still miss her.

When I had children, it was simply a no brainer to have herding dogs. They are gentle with children, protective and will keep watch over them. Now, saying that, there are also different types of herders used for different types of jobs. I have sold my puppies to ranchers specifically looking for my breed of dog. One rancher complained that his heelers were too aggressive and he needed something that wouldn't heel bite down so hard on his cattle. So, I showed him my dogs, their training and what my puppy would be able to do for him with the proper training. He had just come back from Iraq and was headed down to Texas to his family's 3,000 acre ranch.  He was totally satisfied with our pup.

Here is my most recent addition to my dogs. His name is Dillon and he's a purebred Australian Shepherd out of Jack and Molly, formerly of the Fries. Dillon at about 5 wks.

 

Dillon at about 7wks. VERY nice coloring, he's a tri which is what my old shep was and what I was wanting...thank you, Mary!!





He was very alert, even as a tiny puppy. Knew I would have a lot of good instincts to work with!!



Dillon is now just a year old, but very big as he took his size from Jack. He is a beautiful dog with good instincts, but ALL puppy... still! LOL!  Check out my videos below to see my methods. I will be adding to this information as I go...just started this site, so please bare with me! We had a nice break in our winter weather, this was in January and although I was well enough to go outside and work with the dogs, I am a little slower sounding, not in the best of shape as I had a bad tooth infection and was on antibiotics and pain meds!! So, please bare with that as well. I wanted to "redo"  it, but the kids convinced me that the information is important and I should just go ahead and put it up as it is.  So...here we go!!!

Oh! My jaw is SOO slowen here, I am surprised I can talk! LOL! The pain meds are probably why I can!

I will have more information on bonding, puppy manners, time to train and advanced training as I develop my site.

Around the House

Posted by Elvira Bates on January 13, 2010 at 3:58 PM

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Well, we got that work done around here we were wanting to do. We hired some contractors to come in to do the big stuff this time! Kelly was glad...too many yrs we did ALL the work ourselves, meaning mainly Kelly with the kids and I helping. First, due to some hail damage, we were blessed to be able to get the whole roof done at no cost. While they were replacing it, we had most of the skylights removed and the ones in the bathrooms were replaced with ones that open! We had 4 "Tubelights" put in over our kitchen and dining room, which really gives us  LOTS of sunlight!

Then, we had a natural gas furnace put in. The all electric floor heat was great in it's day, but very expensive today to operate. We still have it available for use if we should choose to and it still has individual room control. Now, we have 2 heat sources, which is always good to have. Oh! And of course, our woodstove!

We also had electricians come in and upgrade our electric service. Our local electric company came out to install an updated transformer and service to the house. We had our breakers updated as well. Kelly had them put in a 220 line service to his garage for his welder.

Around the House

Posted by Elvira Bates on January 10, 2010 at 6:13 PM

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Christmas was a quiet one this yr. We had record snow early this year and record temps as well. We didn't go to do much of anything. I think God gives us  these types of winters to give us time to reflect and prepare...sort of time to get ourselves in order...HIS order, that is. We did manage to get the kids some of the things they have been waiting for all year. We typcially don't indulge our kids and usually they go without, this is done on purpose so that they know well how to sacrifice and take what you get. But, at Christmas, we celebrate the full 12 Days of Christmas, so there are gifts every day. Some years it's meager, other years we just buy them all that they will need for the activities they will be doing during the summer. We are VERY active during the summer and the kids work hard around here, as well.

Around the House

Posted by Elvira Bates on November 2, 2009 at 11:50 PM

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We've had a lot of parties here at the Bunkhouse, here's one with the kids dressing for a WILD WEST GHOST TOWN!


Complete with Dance Hall Girls and Card Sharks!

This was pre "ghost town" ! Just a few fun shots!


And plenty of other interesting characters around!


Hmmm, can't tell what you're thinkin' behind that hat!




Dog on...got a poker face there!



I don't bluff and I don't cheat!!




This here is what I'm holding...don't go for that gun, boy!!!
Whew! Glad that ended well!! See you on the trail!