Ranch Pictures

The Bag Lady hasn't got much to share with you today. It was cold and rainy at her house yesterday and she spent most of the day hunkered down.

She did go out and check cows first thing in the morning (like she always does) and took these pictures of part of the herd.

See those trees in the distant background? Her house is behind those trees. They don't look as far away as they actually are because of the slope of the (much greener!) land in between.


And here are a couple of pictures of one of the calves bravely checking out the Bag Lady's finger.

Right after she snapped this picture, he actually made contact with her finger and spooked and ran away!

Silly calf.

Thunderous Birthday

It was another busy weekend on the ranch. The Bag Lady's mother-in-law held a surprise birthday party for the Rancher's sister, and the Bag Lady and her sisters-in-law all helped out. The weather was very co-operative - the huge thunderstorm held off until after the party!

It was a lovely hot day, and it seemed as though everyone had a good time.

The Bag Lady made spinach salad, and spinach dip, and carrot cake. She carved a watermelon into a swan, but forgot to take a picture of it!

Here's the cake, though:


The Bag Lady had a lot of trouble decorating the cake - it's been quite a long time since she actually wrote on a cake!

There was a ton of good food and they roasted hot dogs over an open fire.

The Bag Lady tried to take some pictures of the storm, but she had left her video camera in her truck and wasn't about to run through the torrential downpour to get it! It rained over a half an inch in less than a half an hour, and the thunder and lightning were incredible!

The Bag Lady took this picture before the storm broke:

It's a Mystery!

The Bag Lady doesn't have a lot to share with you today.

She and the Rancher had to go to town yesterday for appointments and a few groceries. The river was quite swollen, so the Bag Lady asked the Rancher to take a picture (she was driving). Here is what was on her camera when she downloaded the pictures last night:



She has no clue what that is - perhaps the inside of the console in her truck??

Actually, here is the picture of the river that the Rancher took.


And this is a picture she took of the rain gushing into her already full rain barrel during a rather violent thunderstorm that tore through the other day. (And apparently, tear it did - tore part of the roof right off the Rancher's uncle's house!) The Bag Lady took this photo through the window screen in her sun porch. It was pouring rain, but the sun was still shining (must be why she calls it a sun porch....)

The Bag Lady and the Rancher have a few things planned for the weekend, so perhaps she'll have something interesting to share with you next week! In the meantime, have a good weekend!

Groundhog Day

Another inch of rain fell throughout yesterday and last night, so the ground is quite soggy now! The rainfall warning has been lifted, and the rain is supposed to subside into showers for the rest of the week.

The Bag Lady and the Rancher watched the news on television last night at 6 pm and were surprised to hear that their area was under a tornado watch. Apparently, a funnel cloud had been spotted in the area. A thunderstorm blew through, but they didn't see any funnel clouds.

The Bag Lady has been trying in vain to take a photograph of the deer who is living in the bush across the driveway from her house. This doe has twin fawns who spend most of their time hiding in the underbrush, but who do come out and play periodically. Unfortunately, they usually come out when the Bag Lady is too far away to get a good picture (or she doesn't have her camera at all!).

She and the Rancher went to the dump... oops, they don't call them that anymore landfill the other day, then decided to take a little drive around the community. As they were taking the long way back to the highway, the Bag Lady spotted something slowly making it's way across the road in front of them. She asked the Rancher what it was, and he replied that it was a groundhog! The Bag Lady had never seen a real live groundhog, so she groped for her camera, only to discover that she had forgotten it! (Gasp!)
She was quite disappointed because the groundhog was on her side of the road when they went past, and she could have quite easily gotten a good picture.

Once they reached the highway, not long after they got up to speed, the Bag Lady spotted something moving on the verge on her side of the road. The Rancher slowed down and, sure enough, there was another groundhog. The Bag Lady watched as they went by, and the poor little guy backed up rapidly, like something in a movie. In her warped memory, he stood up on his hind legs, waving his hands in front of him as if to say "No! Don't hit me!" then covered his eyes as they swished by! (He was far enough off the road that he was in no danger of being hit.)
The Bag Lady hopes he made it safely across the road, or changed his mind and went back the way he came. And how typical that the very first time she sees a groundhog, she missed two good opportunities to take pictures.

Meanwhile, Back on the Ranch

It has been a very dry year around here, so far. The Bag Lady was out in the pasture the other day, and tried to take some pictures of just how bad the conditions are. She discovered it isn't easy to photograph dryness accurately! This patch of grass gives an indication - at this time of year, it should be lush and green. This looks more like a picture taken in August after a hot, dry spell: (please note the concern on the face of your tour guide, the exalted Princess.)


Here the Princess points out that this area should be lush and green, not dry and brown:

Here is an area where the cows walk daily:

See the dust they are kicking up as they go through the gate?


The clouds threaten, but don't produce much. The cows have resorted to kicking dirt onto their backs to help get rid of the flies!


Average rainfall for June around here is something in the neighbourhood of 60 mm - this year we had 6 mm.


It finally took to raining yesterday. When the Bag Lady got up this morning, there was an inch in the rain gauge. (Please click on the picture to enlarge it if you would like to actually be able to see the rain in the gauge...)


That's more rain than what fell in both May and June! And, apparently, the rain is going to continue through today and tomorrow.

The Bag Lady's rain barrel is full!


And her garden seems to have sprung up several inches overnight (she knows that isn't true, but it looks much happier than it did a few days ago!)


Now, as long as the rain knows when to quit.....

Weekend Recap

So.
Another weekend gone!

The Bag Lady spent a mostly quiet weekend, hanging around the house. She did some housework, and did some yard work, and painted a chair. She also made a dessert last night that turned out very well. In fact, she was so pleased with it, that she will share the extremely fattening recipe with you.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Graham Cracker Crust:

Mix together:
1 Cup graham crackers, crushed
1/3 C melted butter
press into pie plate, chill 15 minutes.

Filling:

12 oz softened cream cheese
2/3 C creamy peanut butter
14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk (low-fat)
1/3 C lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 oz Cool Whip

Mix first 5 filling ingredients, beating well. Fold in Cool Whip.
Pour into crust.
Chill for 3 hours.
Before serving, drizzle with chocolate sauce.
(The Bag Lady also added some extra Cool Whip, and garnished with Reese's Peanut Butter Bites)

Here's how it looked:


She and the Rancher also spent a good portion of the weekend watching the chuckwagon races on television. The Calgary Stampede is on, and the Rancher and the Bag Lady are acquainted with several of the chuckwagon drivers, so they always watch the races and root for the hometown boys!

Travels with Baggie

The Bag Lady and the Rancher went on a day trip with some very good friends of theirs the other day. Their friends are working to clean up some property to ready it for sale, so they were moving old equipment and salvaging mementos. Here is a picture of one of the pieces of equipment they moved. The Rancher was pleasantly surprised to see it, because it reminded him of the very first piece of equipment he learned to operate when he was a very young man. He was almost sure it was the same model he skidded trees with when he first went to work. (And no, he isn't all that old - the machine was old when he operated it!)


When the work was done, the four of them went on a tour to see more of the land that was in their friends' family. During the drive to the river bank, they woke this guy from his afternoon nap:

(click on any of the pictures to enlarge them)He had a huge rack of velvet-covered horns - so large, in fact, that when he was still lying down they at first thought he was an elk! Once he stood up, they realized he was a mule deer.

After a very short walk through the bush, they came out on this hogsback and were treated to this marvelous view:



It's a little difficult to tell from this next picture, but the hogsback narrows to a point where the Rancher and his friend are standing. The Bag Lady has an unfortunate phobia of heights, and she simply could not force herself to walk all the way down to where they are standing. They kept trying to coax her down there in order to take a picture looking up the river, but she was afeared.



This was the best she could do as far as a picture in the other direction went:


And, on the walk back to the vehicle, she saw this lovely wild tiger lily, growing sensibly far away from the scary steep riverbanks!

Have a great weekend, everyone, and Happy Fourth of July long weekend to our neighbours to the south!