Ranch Nights

Our first Ranch Nights was a success! We just happened to have had some of our Colorado Rodeo family down for a visit for our opening Ranch Night. I’m really bad about taking pictures with others here and having a good time…just don’t want to spoil a festive mood. But, I’ll show you a few “before” pictures and explain what we’ve been up to.

We learned a lot from our Rodeo Families and we bring all of it to the Silver Spur Ranch. Hospitality workers at a rodeo keep the atmosphere homey and comfortable. Contestants and VIP's travel great distances to get there to perform. Hospitality tries to make their stay enjoyable as we set up tents or rodeo grounds with a ranch home feel to them. Bringing the indoors outdoors is part of that job.

We had lots of "hands on" help on Friday...so Friday night, in typical rodeo style...we had our workers spend the night with tents, campers and motorhomes and enjoyed a "prequel" or pre party! Here is some of their handy work!

First, a sitting area...Jessie fell in love with the bronco, the sconces add a little depth and evening lighting...I loved the wing backed leather chair and pillow. The antique chair leant a bit of whimsy along with the carpet.

Loved the antique doors...they are a great accent.

Of course, plenty of room to sit and eat. And yes...the table at the end is the picnic bench many of you told me about from Lowe's...we stained it with Pecan stain. Picked up the chairs from Gypsy Trunk in Burleson...they are about 50yrs. old.

Here is the famous deck made with Railroad Ties...great view of the work arena, pasture and pond beyond it with the wooded "reserve" in the background, great view from this deck...it's under a huge oak and pecan tree. There's usually a nice breeze coming through there as well.

A little diversion for the eyes...Jessie put these together.

And...a camping spot near the camp fire...there was a tent set up there as well. We have lots of space whenever y'all come out for tents and campers! You can be up close to conveniences or out in the boonies! Hey...that reminds me...may just be time for a boondoggle!

Ranch Work...

Ranch work…well, that’s a looong story! We work all the time around here and we keep making it all better for y’all to come on out! People marvel at how we are always up to some sorta work around here. Yessiree…guilty as charged!

In fact, it’s been so busy around here that I’ve not had a chance to update my blog. So, sit back and see what we’ve been up to! We had a lot of barbed wire fencing around here with rusted field fence and we replaced it with wood poles and stable fencing. Here is Babe as I'm trying to get a picture of the fencing...we'll say howdy to her first! Her ears are back because I just told her to move...she thought I was going to take a picture of her!  

Sorry, Babe...but the blog post is about fencing. I'll do more on you later...maybe with all the kids you love and teach! Btw...Babe is a papered Arabian and her papered name is Bathsheba! There ya go Babe...doing you a little justice!

Okay...so here is a nice view of the fencing...sorry Babe...without you in it! 

We found some great stain that we used on the fence posts that we really love. It gives it all a rustic look and besides, it matches the Railroad Ties and huge old poles that are probably over 50yrs. old that we decided to retain. You can see one of them right there by Babe.

As you can see, this place came with some very cheap gates that we’ve slowly been replacing them as we go. This is what happens to gates during "horse play" yes...a lot of kicking and wrangling of positions and opinions! We've taken out a good deal of barbed wire, field fence and T-posts.

 

We put in an extra big stock gate so we can fit our tractor and other equipment into the work arena and be able to start working on our full sized arena.

Baby Rabbits! (Kits)

Lilac had her babies! Baby rabbits are called kits, there are 6 in the litter…one all black, some white and some black and white spotted! Lilac is a mix and that is why all the pretty colors!

 

In this picture you can see inside the nesting box. The mama rabbit pulls her fur out to make a soft warm blanket for her babies! They will be ready to adopt in a few weeks! We hope to sell them as pets because they are a mix, but they can also be used as meat rabbits. We also have Californians and Flemish/Californians who are meat rabbits. They are a much larger rabbit.

Working the Horses

Horses need to be ridden regularly and if not, some will develop little problems as they may have not had complete training, may forget some of the more subtle commands, even question why they are being asked to do a specific thing, etc.

Our Papered, Chestnut Arabian Mare, Babe, is fully trained with 26yrs. of experience. She is able to rein, compete in barrel and other events, as well as open gates so that the rider doesn’t have to dismount and has performed in parades by rubbing spurs along her sides, she will “dance”. This is not painful, it sort of tickles and that is her cue to dance.

The best way to train horses is “gentling”, which helps them understand you want to be their “partner” not an aggressor. Sad to say, too often most horse trainers are aggressive in their training. Good training takes a long time and a lot of patience.

We recently had a cowboy friend of ours come up from Amarillo and help us work out our horse, Cowboy…who is a smaller stature Papered White Arabian Gelding and was spoiled by the previous owner that we had gotten him from, but they were not his original owners or trainers. So, he knows most of his commands, but we’ve had to work on him to get him out of a few bad habits that he had developed in their care. He was not wanting to back up, he was crow hopping, not turning to the left and just in general not responding to commands.

Star is a Black Arabian, she is papered but we have not yet received those papers from the ranch that bred her. She is larger in stature and "cowie" which means she will make a good team roping horse. She was head shy when we got her, but she is coming along nicely now.

 

 

 

 

Starting up the Garden

First, we bring in the big guns! We had sold our tractor in Colorado when we left and only NOW find out it was a collector tractor…our new one is as well and we paid close to the same price…soo it’s all good! Here's what a tractor can do in short order!

 With the ranch, we inherited an old swing set that was beyond repair and actually dangerous. We thought maybe we’d just scrap it but that inventive spirit hit and we decided it would be a great backdrop for a garden! Since we didn’t have a tractor, Daniel did his best to tiller it up for us and we made due with a small garden…the first year we just experimented but soon found out this ground just, like Colorado ground, needed a lot of amending to the soil. Oh, it was rich and black enough but would dry up hard as a rock and crack in the heat of summer and become a sponge when it rained. We didn’t have time to build up a compost, soo, we went down to Habitat and got LOTS of bags of garden soil at a cheaper price to get us started.

Once the ground was broken up and cleared, Daniel brought his tiller in to dig deeper. He then filled it up further with compost...so it is "Double Dug" to about 24 inches which helps retain the soil when it rains and gives new plants or seedlings room to easily stretch out and build their root systems. Because we now have compost, we were able to double our garden space.

Jessie is standing in the middle of where the old garden stopped and where the added garden starts.

We had such a problem with squash vine borers last year that I am going to start out my heirloom seeds inside and get the plants fairly large to get them in the ground by the first of Sept. The vine borers come out the last week of June and last well into July or a little beyond. Since we have a long growing season, thought I might give this a try! Last year I lost my gorgeous squash to the borer and in reading up about them, they're nearly impossible to get rid of if they've gotten into your soil but they will die out the next year without a host. So, say a pray and wish me luck!  ;) This year I wasn't even going to plant at all and just give the soil a rest. But, a dear friend of our offered some extras that she had started from seed and had no more room to plant! That got us going! So, have scoured stores around and found some heirloom plants! We'll mainly be planting hot crops for the summer which will be a lot of varieties of peppers and tomatoes, and the plants that our friend gave us.

I planted a vining rose last year and these Tea Roses. The Tea Roses I transplanted as they were at the edge of my  old garden so am hoping they take.

 

Re Enactments/Pat Cleburne Days

Our whole family has been involved in Re-enactments! Here is my eldest, Jessie and my youngest, Daniel, enjoying Pat Cleburne Days here in Cleburne, Texas! It was a beautiful day!

As ranch folks, we have a tender part in our hearts for the old west of course and that has led us to also participate in Re-enactments and fun with those we’ve met who enjoy history. When in “Character” we become people from that time period and we thoroughly enjoy it…partly because it is who we are in real life, or who we would have been if born in that time period as far as the clothes we might have worn and the places we might have sought out to be. Our characters model real ranch life many times.

Daniel has a fascination with guns…has since he was a little tyke! He is now certified in shooting Canons and is a part of Terry's Texas Rangers! This is Daniel loading and preparing to fire.

This next one was a little blurry but that's what happens when one of them fires...it is actually very dangerous, earth shakingly loud and that is why a person has to be trained and certified to do this.

Here's Daniel playing for us at camp. His uniform is what the Confederate Artillery Units wore. He just learned "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

Another activity of the day, learning to make Rag Dolls.

Here is a dress that Jessie is working on for Re-enactments...she will be adding more lace to the top and to the bottom and using her hoop skirt once she is done.

This is Robert our Corpsman "Army Medic".

 

 

Cowboy Mud Room

Cowboy Mudroom! Here is something pretty inventive! This was a curb pick up…someone had old fencing sitting at the curb to take. So we took it and have done all sorts of things with it. This is one of the many uses you can find for an old fence. Kelly put hooks on it and hung it on the wall. It’s really stable and holds, cowboy hats, chaps, even some horse tack! It’s right handy by the door. We also bought some cheap rugs we got at Big Lots and threw them down by the door…hay and mud cling to them instead of tracking through the rest of the house. A quick once over with the vacuum cleaner makes a quick job of it! That’s not easy when there’s so much work goin’ on outside and mud everywhere, tracking in with all the galoots we have trampin’ across the floor! If you do this, just make sure the wood is free from any wood eating varmints. Then, put up a sign like we’ve got that reads, “Life is full of choices…Remove yer boots or scrub the floors.”

 

Happy Trails Y’all!