What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Our cows were temporarily in pens at a friend's feed yard and last Monday we headed out well before dawn to brand the calves before hauling mamas and babies to grass across the state line in Texas where they would join our heifers. We just had 66 calves to brandSo we called up some friends for the crewIt'd been 16 years since our son had been on the crewBut he fell right back into his

 Last Thursday we had our HVAC system serviced. Thankfully, it just needed to be rewired so that it would communicate with the thermostat so it won't cost an arm and a leg, but service calls are not inexpensive since it's 50-60 miles out here.As Joseph was leaving, with cookies

 Monday night we went to bed with the windows cracked open, listening to the sound of a soft rain playing across the tin roof. It's one of my favorite sounds.And if you're lucky enough to be in the high desert mountains when it rains, the smell will intoxicate you. It's one of my favorite smells.I woke early Tuesday morning...3:00...too early, yet perfect timing. I could hear another

 Yes, we are all safe. I'm sorry I haven't posted the last few days - we just haven't had much free time. If we weren't working on roads or trimming and hauling grubbed treeswe were both fielding SO many phone calls! Plus, we're still juggling cattle business and needing to brand calves. I needed to get the rest of the garden planted and add mulch.On the fire front, it moved a lot throughout

 Another wild day. At night we can see a few flamesThe fire increased from 2645 acres to 6390 overnight according to the Sunday morning report. By Sunday evening it had grown to 8971 acres with 0% containment and 245 crew members on site. Multiple aircraft were providing air support, but the increasing winds grounded them.It's still a few miles from us, but we have to rely on phone

 We're still here. Not much we can do, but wait...and pray.The fire was agressive today and expanded from the 577 acres Friday evening to 2,645 acres Saturday evening. Evacuation orders have been issued, but we're still here. Now, don't fuss.

 I may be posting about this for a while as the fire is 0% contained. You simply cannot extinguish it in this kind of mountainous country. The latest report as of last night was 577 acres. This was taken about 10 miles down the 2 lane paved road.As I sit here for a moment on the deck, to type out this update, the smoke is strong and the sound of multiple chainsaws echo across the

 DH and I had made plans to be away overnight tonight. We had planned to leave the house at 4 a.m. But Thursday morning we were awakened at 4 with a fire alert. We have an app on our phones that keeps us informed of fires. And it wasn't just a fire. A medi-vac plane had crashed into a mountain, just under 8 miles from us and 4 people were lost. Such a tragic accident. This is in a Wilderness

 If your husband, without you ever even asking, scoops up horse manure every few days and fills 3 mineral tubs, and hauls it to your garden beds and you think it's romantic.

 DH requested my assistance last Friday.We've been planning to re-fence our property since we first moved here 18 months ago and we're finally getting started. The existing fence is a little shoddy and not on the property line and DH needs gates that can be opened when he's horseback.Fencing 164 acres in the mountains is not a project for the weak of heart...or for old folks, and we figured

 Yesterday we loaded up and headed out at 4:30 in the morning and pulled back up to the barn at 5:30 that evening.Seems like we do that a lot for retired folks.

 These days our ranching program looks a little different.We bought a set of cows 2 years ago in South Texas.The fella that was looking after them, daily, was from a family we've known for 30 years and as dependable and reliable as you could ever hope to know, but we still made multiple trips to help gather or work. It's a 12 hour drive one way so DH put on a lot of miles, always leaving out

 And it has nothing to do with basketball. The fact that I even know there is a March Madness related to basketball is surprising because I've never even watched a basketball, or baseball, or football game. Well, some football in college, but that was many moons ago. But this last week was just full. We're always busy, but when busy removes me from my dirt road, it unsettles me. Yes, I'm

I guess I should have waited a day to take the pictures of the Christmas quilt I posted yesterday because this morning we woke up to thisThe mountain had disappeared into the cloudsWhen you hear 'Snow Day' what do you think? Curl up under a quilt with a good book? Sew? Do a little baking? Sit by the fire?The answer? None of the above. Although I did spend time by the fire.DH came in at 7 and

 Since moving to the mountains, it's been difficult to tear us away from home. Especially when tearing us away means being in town. But this weekend found us at the fairgrounds for a 2 day ranch rodeo. A good friend coordinates and produces this annually and he always asks DH to be a judge. It is good to catch up with ranching friends we rarely see and in this year of plentiful rain,

Moving to the mountains means the chainsaws are getting a workout. That also means this old ranch wife is getting a workout too.

 After almost 38 years of being a ranch wife to a rancher, I thought I'd share a few things that have worked for me. Should some future ranch wife stumble upon my ramblings at the end of the dirt road, hopefully she'll find something useful. Of course, these days everything is shared via social media, but back when I started, I was on my own and I would have appreciated hearing about others'

 Last week DH and I took a roadtrip and drove 600 miles to check on our cows. Then we drove 600 miles back. Lots of miles for a couple of old folks. We left on Monday and got back on Thursday. The new camp man started last week and it'll be a while before he gets his feet on the ground, but other than a few phone calls about water troubles, he held down the fort. Another phone call

 I'm sorry - I didn't mean to disappear again. I've had some kind readers contact me as they were concerned that we were in the path of the Texas fires, thus, I hadn't posted. I am touched by your thoughtfulness - thank you! But we are well and the fires are not close to us. We are close to the Texas border, but in New Mexico. However, we know many of the folks in the Panhandle and it's

 I haven't been posting much about ranch life because we've pretty much been spending our days doing thisStill no help at North Camp so feeding 700 hd of cattle on 128,000 acres means DH is in the feed truck every day for 6-8 hours. I wish we had another feed truck because then we could divide and conquer. We had a load of cubes delivered on Monday. It arrived at night and the next morning