ten year reunion

I know this is incredibly hard to believe, but I just had my ten-year high school reunion.  Yes, I know, I know.  The wrinkle cream is working wonders.  We can talk about that later.  

Now, some of my ranch co-workers wondered why I would bother to go back to my ten-year high school reunion and for those of you who graduated in a class of 500, I hear ya.  I'm pretty sure you have your 5 good friends you still keep in touch with and the 494 don't really matter.  I couldn't agree more.

However, I graduated in a class of 32 - plus 4 who didn't graduate.  I went to school with these guys since 1st grade (I went to kindergarten in Colorado.), so it's like having 35 brothers and sisters who I haven't seen in the past 10 years.  Or maybe only 5 depending on if they were at the last reunion. 

Of the people I DO still keep in regular contact with (by regular, I mean 2 to 3 times a year...I'm terrible at keeping in touch!) this is my best friend from high school, Erin.  Our third amigo was off selling cows to the Russians.  Who could be bothered with a reunion when that's on your plate?

Believe it or not, Erin actually lives in Florida.  And even though we were only two hours away, we only saw each other twice in the 3 years we were both there.  See?  Told you.  Bad at keeping in touch.

Erin had another big reason to come back for the reunion.  Her mom is retiring after 33(?) years of teaching.  And moving to Florida.

Why you ask?

Because of this little guy.  Erin's, 13-month old son, Jude.  And I have to tell you, there were a lot of these little guys running around.  But, as fate would have it, my camera failed to take pictures by itself over the course of the weekend.

However, I did manage to remember it at the dance following the banquet.  So here is a little peak of the people who either don't have kids or were able to pawn them off on the grandparents.

Jessica was kind enough to host a get-together for us on Friday night at her dad's house.  Of course, I have no pictures of that... (I suh-wear! Cameras these days!)  And Jeff is our class president, which means he's stuck making a speech at the alumni banquet every 5 years for the rest of his life.  I'm really glad he beat me for class president our senior year, I just gotta say.

Luke, in the middle, hosted the party at his house on Saturday afternoon, after pictures, which I missed.  Why?  Because I'm always late.  Luke and his wife didn't have to pawn off their kids because she's still growing it (that's a lemonade in her hand!), but you couldn't visually tell yet.  And Matt was taking this self-portrait.  Guess he thought his would be better than mine...

Rex was taking advantage of the evening's situation by dancing with two girls at once.

And you can see Janelle and Lacy better here.  I guess he's not quite sure what to do with them when they start dancing on their own...

Finally, I just want you to understand that this is the effect Orrin has always had on me.

Some things just never change.  He scares me.  You can understand, right?

Anyhow, for those of you who came to either Jessica's or Luke's party and I didn't get a picture of you.  I apologize.  I will scold my camera harshly for not doing its job.

All I can say is that I really hope my wrinkle cream continues to work!

she's gone

Remember this little thing? 

Her name is Selene.

Remember Selene?

If you don't, please click here or this story will not make any sense at all.

Let me give a quick background on Selene.  Last year, sometime in May, Dan bought 5 goats.  2 were bottle-fed, so they were very comfortable around humans.  One of those goats was a big goat and one was a little one.  There were two little goats, Selene and #2.  Unfortunately, #2 didn't make it through June.  We have bears.

Selene is the one looking at us.  They were cute no doubt.  And at some point, Selene either took a liking or hating to me, I'm still not sure which.  Here she was helping make my bathroom shelves.  

And this is her on my front step.  Protecting my room?  Or waiting to break in?  

While she was cute...

...her true colors came out.  And I declared the end of our friendship.

Then the bear took her away.  

And brought her back.

The last thing I blogged about her, we were friends again.  But that changed.

When I got back to the ranch this April, guests and new staff were telling me that they had bruises from her head butting them.

She started this last year, but wasn't so aggressive.

And I saw guest after guest standing inside a door looking out the window waiting for her to leave so they could exit the building.  Not to mention that she terrorized JackJack, the ranch dog.

Once I brought it to Dan's attention that she was attacking, bruising, and adversely affecting his paying guests - oh and she knocked over his toddling granddaughter on several occasions, which didn't go over well with Ellen, either - he finally agreed that she needed to go.

He posted some pictures of her on Craigslist, told the honest truth about her (she poops on the porch, she terrorizes dogs, she headbutts teenage boys in their pride, pees in beds, etc.) and still had at least 6 people interested before Craigslist pulled his ad.  

Now this takes me on a tangent for a moment.  The only thing we can figure is that they didn't like that he said, "Take this goat before my wife changes her name to Stew." So here's my question:  how can you post for a random sexual hook-up on Craigslist, but not post the truth about an awful goat?

Alright, I'm over that.

The point is, somebody wanted that goat even knowing all of her bad aspects.  So, she is living (or stew, not sure which) elsewhere and will no longer be peeing in beds, pooping on porches, or terrorizing guests at this ranch.

Amen.

official start

Yesterday, May 23, was our official dude season opening...and our last day of bed and breakfast.  What a hectic change over!

We had weekend guests who were taking their last ride and finishing around 11:30.  Lunch is at 12:30 (but there's feeding and dishes to be done in that hour) and new guests aren't supposed to arrive until 2.  But, of course, half of them showed up during lunch, so we had to rush to finish cleaning rooms for them to move into.   Phew!

I have to say that the first Monday of dude season went pretty smoothly...until the end of the day.  Actually, I take that back.  It started at the beginning.  Fortunately, almost all of the staff showed up last week, so they're mostly oriented by now.  Which means horses were saddled and ready to go on time, if not early.

But, as it turns out, one of horses, Velvet, got nicked by the tractor bucket (sharp) when some horses pushed her back into it and it was moving forward during feeding this morning.  Being black, it was hard to tell much was wrong as she limped off.  Now in the cowboy world we have a saying, "Cowboy/girl up," meaning toughen up, walk it off.  So it takes a while to know if something is seriously wrong or they're just walking it off.  Unfortunately, as we pulled her for saddling a few hours later she was still limping.  And once Mr. Vetman (one of wranglers going to vet school) cleaned her up with some water, we saw just how bad of a "nick" it was.  I think Velvet will be having some time off to heal up her cut.

Then, as Donovan and I were removing manure from the arena - via tractor and Jeep pulling 1937 manure spreader - we decided to let the horses out to graze so they wouldn't be in our way.  It turns out the food truck driver left the gate open unbeknownst to us.  The good news is, when we rounded them up tonight they were all here.  What a sigh of relief!

All in all, though, I have to say this was a much less hectic start to the beginning of dude season than last year.  I hope it's a positive indicator of a good season to come!

PS - I apologize for the lack of pictures, but manure spreading doesn't always make for the best pictures...

final paint

Well, we finally did it.  Yes, we started this process in March and we finally picked a paint color and painted the living room.  Part of the reason it took so long was because we wanted to do it on a bad weather day such as this...

And this is what it looked like when we got started.  Seriously.  The date on this photo is 5/12/10.

But of course, when I got around to joining on my day off it looked like this.  The date on this photo is 5/14/10 - 2 DAYS APART!!!!  Crazy Colorado weather.

Anyhow, we finally picked a color and just threw it onto the wall.  I almost said "threw it up" on the wall, but I thought that those of you who disagree with my color scheme might have agreed a little too wholeheartedly about the throwing up part. 

What I was looking for was to get a little color into Dow's house since everything was white.  And it's a big house.  Dow is very outdoorsy and does have a lot of paintings, so I was trying to pick something he'd like by pulling from his paintings, but at least get some color in there!

We originally thought about a sage green until we realized that was the color of the curtains.  So we needed something complementary and decided a nice golden, brownish, wheatish color would work wonderfully.  Except finding that color was WAY harder than either of us had anticipated.

We finally settled on Pollen Grains (top) and decided we'd do a dark sage green on the ceiling, which is Dried Basil.  The bottom color was Pollen Grains at 50% white, but we were afraid to mix the green with white ourselves to lighten it, so we went with the original colors. 

My theory on the ceiling was this:  If a dark color on a normal height ceiling makes you feel suffocated, then a dark color on a ridiculously high ceiling would bring it down to a normal level.

And the ceilings are ridiculously high.  We had to use scaffolding just to paint the darn room!

See?  Ridiculously high.  And not to change the subject, but I like how these two colors go together.

This is kind of a gratuitous picture of Dow pretending like he enjoys painting.  I didn't know that painting could put such a good-natured person in such a bad mood....

Here's the final product.  See?  No more smiley faces and rainbows!  And the closet doors are still off because we're going to paint them the same color as the ceiling.  Quite frankly, I like it.

And I even suggested the mount move to that wall, which is a big step for me considering I told Dow they'd look great in the garage after knowing him only a month.  But then again, no one has ever found me at a loss for an opinion, right?

Now we just have to deal with the big space above the left window.  

I've got two ideas going.  

I saw a picture in a decorating magazine that was very plain, minimalist, but covered a good deal of wall space.  They took a slender, bending tree limb and hung old camping pots from it.  I was thinking the same thing, but antler sheds (moose, elk, deer, etc.).  

OR 

Dowma gave me some cloth flour sacks that are about the same size of a bed pillowcase.  Their emblems are faded from being washed, so they look kind of old.  I was thinking maybe I'd hang a clothesline from antler to antler and clip the flour sacks on there.  

Whaddya think?

bierocks, risotto, and chicken casserole

So, I haven't been around here in well over a week.  And a couple of days ago, I planned on letting you know why I'd been gone, that I'd be back, and that the rush of finals week was over, which meant I was done tutoring until the fall.

WRONG!

BOTH of my tutees are taking summer courses and want me to tutor them through it.  Which is both exciting and exhausting at the same time.  The beauty of it is that one of my students pays me with a trade for massage (she's an orthopedic massage therapist - ouch!), which will come in marvelously this summer.

While my tutoring will NOT be slowing down.  This was the last week for Food Guy, which means I won't be cooking anymore.  Yes, you may let out a sigh of relief if you have absolutely no interest in cooking and thought this was supposed to be a dude ranching blog.  Hopefully, it will be again soon...  Hopefully.

But for now, you're stuck with one more food blog and I'll be honest with you...the food isn't very exciting (except for the risotto).  However, it is great freezer food (except for the risotto), so when Food Guy's desperate he'll have something to eat (except for the risotto).  In case you weren't sure, the risotto was fabulous!  But I didn't make it for the Food Guy.  It doesn't reheat well.  At all.

Before we discuss food, though, let's talk about more important things.  The whole reason I was cooking for Food Guy was so he could have healthy meals while training for a marathon.  Aaaannnnddd....he completed his first marathon this past Sunday!  Congrats Food Guy!!!  Come on, let's hear it, everyone!

YAY FOOD GUY!!!!!!

Ok, back to food.

When I was a kid, my parents made bierocks.  When I say "my parents", I'm assuming my dad since there was yeast bread involved and let's face it...my mom can't make bread.  I, on the other hand, have been practicing all winter, so I'm starting to have more successes than failures.  See?

If you don't know what bierocks are, they're also known as runzas (there's even a Nebraskan fast-food chain of the name) or krautburgers.  I'm not sure if there are other names, but I'm sure there are.  And I'm sure someone will let me know.  But basically, they are ground beef, onion, and cabbage baked into a bun.  Delicious when served with about a cup of ketchup.  Ok, so most people don't use a cup, but I reeeeeeeeeaaaaalllly like ketchup.  

The other great thing about bierocks is that they store VERY well in the freezer and can be pulled out one at a time when there is absolutely nothing else in the house to eat.  And you live 45 minutes away from the grocery store.  I might have made a triple batch so Dow and I could have some in our freezer, too. 

I also made him 2 Chicago Deep-Dish Pizzas for his freezer.  And I won't go into those details here because you can see them at the favorites week posting.  

Since I still had his 9x13 pan in my possession, I figured a casserole would be another great freezer food and I love this Green Chile-Chicken Casserole.  Now that I think about it, this might have been MY favorites week....  Anyhow, I think next time I make the casserole, I might throw some more stuff in, like chopped red bell pepper, black beans, and corn.  That way it's an all encompassing meal.  But that's just me.  And I live 45 minutes from the grocery store. 

Also, I forgot to take a picture of it when I put it together.  When I baked it.  When I ate it.  (I made one for us, too.)  And honestly, the half pigged-on refrigerated version really doesn't look good.  So, just click on the link above and have a gander.  It looks WAAAAAY better than what's in my fridge right now.

I did, however, remember to take a picture of the risotto and I have to tell you, this might be the best picture ever taken by a cheapo-point-and-shoot camera.  Ever.  

Or maybe this Pan-Seared Shrimp and Arugula Risotto was just that good.  I think my picture was even better than the picture on the recipe.  But maybe it's just because I added grape tomatoes. 

Ok, ignoring the picture for a second, have you ever had risotto?  I don't think I'd even heard of it until I was an intern in San Francisco a few years ago (and by a few, I mean about 8).  It's basically rice that is cooked slowly, liquid added little by little, and stirred constantly so it has this amazing creaminess to it.  That rich creaminess disappears with refrigeration and reheating, which is why I couldn't make it for the Food Guy. 

Risotto has a bad reputation for being extremely time-consuming, but that's just a bad rap.  This was a one-dish wonder and was ready in just about 45 minutes.  Yes, you do have to do a lot of stirring, but you chop something, stir, stir, stir, wash up a dish or two, add liquid, stir, stir, stir, wipe the counters, add liquid, stir, stir, stir, etc.  So it's really not that bad.  In fact, I was encouraged to try my hand at it because of this radio piece.  The Autumn Risotto with Apples, Pancetta, and Sage is, as Lars would say, "to die for".  

And if you were dying for one more thing to try, this Cucumber, Apple, and Mint Cooler was delicious.  And green.  And refreshing.  And green.  And easy.  And...green.....

Alright, enough food.  Go forth and enjoy!

southwestern falafel, glazed pork, and more!

Alright let's start off with an answer to a comment.  I was asked "So, do you like making all this food at one time, then just reheating it?"

And, you know, on any other day I would have said yes.  And I would still probably say yes.  But on this particular day, my answer was no.  Probably only because I was asked.

This is what my kitchen looks like less than halfway through a cooking day.  And depending on how well (or not well) I plan my menu, I have to rewash the same pot, bowl, etc. a million times.  Or at least it seems like a million times.

This time, I washed everything a million times.  And it doesn't help that I had to do both my grocery shopping and cooking all in one day, either.  That's usually about a 2 hour event - one store for produce and the regular store for everything else - not to mention it's an hour and a half roundtrip drive.  And then 6 more hours of cooking.

But usually, I use a separate trip for grocery shopping and then get started cooking by 7 am, so I'm done by 2 or so.  AND, I like not having to come home after working at the ranch and trying to figure out what to cook when it's already 6 o'clock.

So the answer to the question is:  Yes, I like making all this food at once and then reheating it.

Now, onto all this food!

If you'll notice, this Shrimp and Okra Gumbo seems to be missing a key ingredient...perhaps there should be some...shrimp?  I decided that it would get rubbery if I added it and he reheated it.  And the recipe gave me a make-ahead hint of leaving it out.  So, I sent some frozen shrimp with him to throw in when he reheats (on the stove).

It was served with creamy grits (grits with Greek yogurt mixed in).  I'm still trying to decide if I like grits.  Yes, after living in the south for 4 years, the jury is still out on this one.  I can't tell you if this meal was great or not...it's components were ok (the gumbo better than the grits), but the combination of the gumbo and grits could be phenomenal, just like the Southwestern Bean Stew with Polenta (see item 6/5a).  By the way, just so you know, polenta is basically grits in a tube.

This is a good ole American meal.  Glazed Pork with couscous and green beans.  While I think it would have been better with mashed potatoes, the couscous was a HUGE time-saver.  The pork was a quick recipe, I'd say less than 30 minutes.  So if you were going to make this meal, do so in this order:  green beans, pork, couscous.

The green beans are a recipe from my friend and quite delicious.  1)  Heat a Tablespoon of butter and a Tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan.  2)  Add about a half onion sliced vertically, let them caramelize.  3)  Add 1 cup of Chicken Broth, let it boil until it reduces by half - or use bouillon and add less water for a time-saver.  4) Add fresh green beans once the chicken broth is reduced.  5)  Cook until green beans are cooked and broth has reduced/thickened to a sauce.

Don't stare at this out-of-focus picture too long or you'll go blind.  My mom said so.  Or wait, your eyes will freeze like that.  Or something.  Anyhow, both of these items take a lot of time, but are not time-intensive. Get it?  The Oregano and Lime Roasted Chicken takes 4 hours to marinate and the Wheat Berry Salad with Raisins and Pistachios takes 1 hour for the wheat berries to simmer into something edible, but they take less than 30 minutes of actually prep work time.

The chicken gravy was DE-lish-us.  We haven't had the chicken yet.  I just licked the spatula.  After I was done.  And the wheat berry salad was better than I was expecting, good, actually, but I'm not sure I'd make it again.  I don't think I'm THAT into health food yet.  But if you like wheat berries' chewiness, definitely give this a try.  It's got great flavor.  And the reviewers of the recipe have given it 5 stars.  And I would, too, if I liked the wheat berries, but I don't.  Or so I just found out.  Ok enough of that.  You get the point.

Now this, THIS is my absolute favorite vegetarian dish and if every vegetarian dish was this good, I'd become vegetarian.  Maybe.  Southwestern Falafel with Avocado Spread is sooooo, sooooo good.  You're gonna love it.  At least if you love refried beans like I do.

You basically throw a can of pinto beans in, mash them up a bit (I forgot to do this step first, so I threw in some refried beans to help it stick), 2 handfuls of Monterey Jack cheese, some green onions, cilantro (if you don't hate it, which I do), crush some baked tortilla chips, add an egg white and voila, smash it together and call it a falafel.  So quick, so easy, so delicious.  And in the 6 minutes the falafels are cooking, whip up the sour cream/avocado sauce.  Dinner on the table in about 20 minutes.  Did I mention, so quick, so easy, so delicious?  You will seriously consider becoming vegetarian.

We had Korean-Style Beef Skewers with Rice Noodles and Peanutty Coleslaw last night, except we used an elk steak because it's free and in the freezer.  And may I just tell you, Dow and I just "mmmmm....this is good" "yummmmmm...." "oh man, this is good" 'ed (that's past tense of all those phrases) through the whole meal.  I followed the recipe exactly (ok, so I added some sesame oil) and it was definitely on the spicy side, but still finger-lickin' good.

This is another pretty quick meal.  The meat does have to marinate for 30 minutes, but you can throw the coleslaw together in that time.  Then the meat cooks for 2 minutes on a side, so we'll say it's a 40 minute meal.

So I think that's it for food this week.  One more week to go and that's it.  I'm going to do only a few big meals Food Guy can throw in the freezer to keep him a little longer, so stay tuned!

floating teeth

Ever heard the saying, "Getting long in the tooth"?  In case you haven't, it means "getting old" and the saying comes from horses.  You see, you can pull back the lips of a horse, have a gander, and determine its age.  

For instance, I saw THE cutest little Red Roan mare (not this one - she was cuter - but just so you know what they look like) at the auction and pointed her out to Dan, who also liked her...until he looked at her teeth.  She had these little itty bitty teeth, which meant she was only 2 or 3 years old and probably not ready for dudes...if people at all.

On the other hand, as most of our fellas are good, broke, dude-proof, child-donning horses, they are, as you might say, long in the tooth.

And when they get long in the tooth, they can get really sharp edges, or hooks, on them.  Which in turn can cause ulcers - think of biting your cheek constantly.  Which in turn can cause a horse to lose weight, because it hurts to eat!

So, our vet came out yesterday to float teeth.  Never heard of it?  Well, consider it your dental cleaning.  Kinda.  She basically grinds, or files, off the sharp hooks.  

This is her tool kit.  Notice the drill, eye protection, ear protection, needle, head lamp, and rag.

Her first patient of the day was Doc, so we'll follow his whole procedure. 

 First things first, horses are some of the worst dental patients, so they have to be drugged, intravenously.  

It works pretty darn quickly.  I'm not sure if Doc was just showing us that he was ready for his teeth to be fixed or what.

Let's have a closer look, shall we?

Hey guys?  I can't feel my lips!  Am I doing anything with my lips?  My lips feel REALLY weird!  I swear!  I can't feel my lips!

The drugs put the horses into what Dan calls "the 5-point stance," the head being the fifth point.  So this contraption helps them keep their heads up.

You can see it a little better here.  They attach the rope to the top of the halter, throw the rope over the top of the gate, and then Donovan uses the pulley to keep Doc's head from sagging to the ground.

Next comes the spectrum, which will hold his mouth open, as well as cover his teeth with a metal plate so in the event he does close his mouth there's more surface area and less sharpness.

Here it is in his full glory.  Don't you like his nice shiny smile?  It's like he's got braces and headgear.  Notice how his legs are all sprawled out?  He's drunk.  Aaaand stumbling.

Once he's all set up, it's time to rinse his mouth out with water.  Horses will store wads of hay in their cheeks like chipmunks, so she uses a syringe to get all the leftovers out.  Just a little bit larger than what they use on us, huh?  

I think this picture is funny for so many reasons, but Donovan just looks so cooooool.  If I was a better photographer, I think I'd send it to GQ, although I'm not sure what they'd think of Doc.  Donovan just might be taking after his younger brother with a career in modeling.  

Alright, back to business!  The vet is having a look inside.  

She determined that the loose molar Doc had the last time she inspected him fell out.  And that, in fact, he had another loose molar.  Which can cause pain if it wiggles when he eats.

Here, have a look for yourself.

 Yeah, it's kinda hard to see anything.

Putting her nose, er, teeth to the grindstone, the vet started grinding away with her drill.  And then she broke it, the drill, that is, not teeth.  Or the battery died.  Or something.

So she had to go back to the old fashioned way of doing things.  Using a file and pushing and pulling to grind it down manually.  Talk about hard work!

The good news is Oz, our new housekeeper, is a mechanical engineer.  And after much inspection and tearing apart.  Ok, so there really wasn't much tearing apart.  He determined that her knob on the top was stuck between speeds.  So once she chose a speed, she was back in business.

That's the man himself right there.  Oz, the redhead.  And the rest of the audience the vet had that day.

But before we go on, I want you to have an appreciation for the physical strength involved in floating a horse's teeth.  Just look at how she has to brace herself!  Not to be confused with Doc's wide-legged stance.

Finally, the vet has to make sure that the front teeth are filed down enough for the molars to make contact.  Otherwise, the horse can rip the grass off, but can't chew it up.  

Remember I mentioned that Doc lost the loose molar that she had seen last time and that he had a new loose molar?  Well, she told Dan that he needed to get a dental specialist out here with the proper tools to pull it.  Dan kindly explained to her that we did not have the funds for such a specialist and that it was either him or her.

She chose her. 

And this was the outcome.  

At the end of the day, this what they looked like.  Still wobbling and hanging like old, drunken soldiers.  But with an almost-brand-new set of teeth...not enough to disguise their age, though!