Ranch Photoblog

 Here's a little photo blog from the ranch taken a couple weeks ago.  Some are with my little camera, some are from an iPhone, some are edited by instagram and some were even taken by Kerry Don.  And they are in no particular organized order.... 

 

Kerry Don thinks he's funny, taking my picture while I take their picture!

 

 

 

 

And Hunter took this family picture for us... thank ya Bear.

I wish these pictures did justice but they don't... exploring new territory at the ranch is great fun!

Y'all come see us and I'll take you for a hike!

The "C" Word

My blog is like the story of our life and I try to document all the highlights of our daily lives on here.  I've debated about blogging about this but I've decided it's time to talk about it.  It's certainly not a highlight but it is life and it happening to us.  I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  The "C" word is pretty scary.  The good thing is mine is just stage 1 and hopefully it's all gone now, because I had a lumpectomy yesterday.  They also biopsied my lymph nodes and if they don't find any more traces of cancer in the lymph nodes, hopefully I will only need radiation.

So here's the story of how I found out and everything I've been through so far.  About 2 months ago, I noticed a pain on the left side that was a tingly pulling feeling.  I had also previously (honestly for about a year) noticed an indention underneath the left side.  I have since found out this is called a skin retraction.  I never had a lump and I could never feel a lump. I never thought the indention/retraction was anything. I had always heard to be concerned if you felt a lump, a knot, a mass, etc... Well come to find out my retraction was caused by a lump that you just couldn't feel. 

I went to my regular doctor for my yearly appointment.  He did my whole exam, told me I was good, and told me I was too young for a mammogram etc.... I told him I wanted to show him this indention, and that it was only visible when I stood up and raised my arm.  When he saw that, he said "Oh, ok well we need to get this checked out."  They made an appointment for me the very next day.  I went to Texas Breast Specialist and had a mammogram, ultrasound and then I was shocked when they said they wanted to biopsy it that day too!  I was officially freaked out.  So I waited for 5 days to find out the results, and in the meantime we had a blizzard so that kept my mind off of it some.

When we went in, they said yes it is cancer.  Shock, I was totally shocked.  How in the world can this be happening to me?  I'm 38 seriously.  So a week later, on my 39th birthday I spent the day meeting my oncologist and surgeon.  They flooded us with so much information and painted the worst scenario (I know they have to tell you everything). Thankfully, all of my test have been coming back positive.  Now, that my surgery is over, things are really looking positive.  When pathology comes back, hopefully (fingers crossed), I will only need radiation.  Radiation is 5 days a week for 7 weeks.  I can handle that though!  If I do have to have chemo, I will handle that too!

My life has definitely changed.  I don't necessarily think it's for the worse.  In fact, I feel like everything happens for a reason.  I have learned patience, my faith has been strengthened, and I am for sure stronger.  The main thing I want people to know from me is that if you see something different get it checked out!  It's not always a lump you can feel, it may just be an indention or retraction.  Do self exams and take care of yourself.  I am so thankful mine was caught early and I just know that I'm going to be fine.  My mission now is to help others and get awareness out there.  Very few people, I have talked to, have ever heard of a indention or skin retraction.  So tell your mothers, daughters, wives, and friends and spread the word.  It's all about early detection! 

As my son said, "Mom, cancer, ain't nobody got time for that!"  LOL  Thankfully, I have the most amazing husband and sons.  They are my rock.  I also have an amazing family and some pretty crazy friends that have been there for me too!  Thank you all!  My prayers have been with all those people out there that are waiting for results, waiting to hear if they do have cancer.  It is so hard waiting for news... so I pray for anyone in that position, I pray they will have strenght to get through the wait.  Peace, love and hope!

Bottle Babies

The boys have bottle babies.  They are up to eight.... yes eight babies on the bottle.

 

They end up with bottle babies because for whatever reason their Momma can't take care of them.  We won't go into all the reasons, because usually the reasons aren't all that fun to talk about =(

 

The babies are just so darn cute though!

They mix the milk up in a 5 gallon bucket, and then pour it into these tubes which are actually their bottles.  The tubes have a nipple on them and most of the babies take right to it.  This way you don't have to hold their bottle, and you don't have to wash their bottles!  That makes it nice, because they have to feed twice a day.

Mr. Blanco looks sorta funny alongside all the other black babies.

Mr. Baldy is just my favorite though!

 

 

So speaking of bottle babies.....

the calf in the middle is Mike and he was a one of the boys bottle babies last year. 

 Almost one year later, he became quite a big boy.

It was shipping time!

Time to ship these babies to the sale,

well they're not really babies anymore since they now weigh 800-900 pounds.

And what in the world would we do without portable panels?  These panels just fold right up and we hook them onto the pickup and take them to the next pasture.  It takes the whole crew and we sure are thankful for our crew.  It's been busy around here, because the deadline has arrived when we have to get the cattle off of the wheat that we will save for harvest.  So most of the cattle are shipped to the sale....  It's a happy time and a sad time.  Sometimes, I hate to see them go =(

Do y'all remember Helen?  Well she had a heifer.  She's so cute.  Sadly Helen will be headed to the sale next week, too.  I sure will miss the colorful cows and their colorful babies. 

 

 

 

The Blizzard 2013

They said it was going to snow and that the wind was going to blow.  Kerry Don hauled some hay, and I made sure that we had plenty of food and water.  We really didn't think it would really be a blizzard. 

 

However, when we woke up Monday morning... we knew it REALLY was a blizzard. 

Snow was packed on all the windows, I could barely see out of my front door.

 

Most of Monday was white out conditions!

Late Monday afternoon, it cleared alittle and the guys were called out to the interstate to help rescue stranded people.

Kerry Don, Pake, Deon and Bray hauled some truckers all the way back to town.

They also helped pull out these big rigs.  Luckily everyone was safe!

 

 

Finally, Tuesday we headed out on the tractor to check our own stuff.

The drifts were huge in some places!

 

Kerry Don had to dig out the hot wire fence on a few places.

It was pretty deep!

Of course all the tanks were frozen over, and the cows hadn't been able to drink.

Kerry Don had to put hay forks on the tractor.

 

We hauled hay!

 

'Ole Bessie here says, "Thanks for the fresh hay!"

 

I felt like I was standing in a tractor rut 3 feet deep and that the drift behind me was 5 foot tall....

I guess it wasn't quite that bad, but that's the deepest snow I've seen in a long time!

When the snow started melting, well then there was mud. 

Yes Pake got stuck and here we had just pulled him out. 

Tate, Hunter, and Meghan had fun playing in the snow and mud,

but I never got a picture of Pake.

I guess he was too busy getting stuck, as you see here he also got the Scout stuck.

 

Oh I almost forgot to mention all the cattle that were out.  Stray cattle were out everywhere, thankfully none of them were ours.  But many neighbors drove their cattle to the Roll-A-Cone pens, until they could get them home.  Why did they get out?  Well, evidently cattle start walking south when there's a blizzard.  The drifts are so high sometimes they walk right over the fences, and they just keep walking south. 

Most of the cattle penned at Roll-a-Cone were from as far north as Happy.

There were so many cowboys and trailers at Roll-A-Cone Wednesday afternoon, it looked like we had a livestock auction.  They sorted the cattle by their brands and ear tags.  I believe there were at least 7 different owners. 

By now lots of the snow had melted and there was sloppy mud shin deep.  Hopefully, everyone got all of their cattle back.  It was crazy, but we met some new neighbors.

 

 

Thursday, there were still huge snow drifts in the backyard.

 

Tater even made a tunnel. 

 

The Blizzard of 2013 will definitely go down in the history books,

but we are so very thankful for all the moisture. 

 

 

Randomness

This post is random....

I'm so glad I don't do their laundry. Oh Wait... I do!  I need dirty jobs stain remover.

 

They had some fun in the mud beside Roll A Cone.

The boys have bottle calves... Scout and Reno had to check them out.

They were also going for a ride in the 'ole buggy but it broke down   :/

So we played darts. 

Who's that hippie chick?  She's my little sis and she can rock a headband!

 

Darts are fun, but I always bust!

And last but not least, I just had to introduce y'all to Sasha... she's Dan's new pet! 

She talks and dances and well she's just something else.  "Hello Sasha"

 

So these are just some random pictures of what's been happenin' around here.

 

  Oh we had a blizzard... I'll tell y'all all about that soon!