Searching For Time to Bind

 I haven't spent a whole lot of time sewing this year. In fact, I've only finished one quilt thus far, but last week I picked up 5 quilts from Jackie after working at the sale barn:

I'll have to look back, but I think these were all pieced in 2020, 2019, and 2018. I made 4 of  the bindings before I handed them off, but it may be a while before they are bound.

The next day (Tuesday) I cooked all day because we were branding (Wednesday) and I had a crew to feed. I set the alarm for 3 a.m. to start breakfast. I made a new recipe for dinner that will be a keeper and Arkansas Possum Pie for dessert:

It was going to be 105° so getting started and finished early was important. Thus dinner was served at 10:30 so it helps to prep as much as possible the day before. Then it was into town for a feed run, oil and filters so DH could change the the oil in our rig, and a barbershop visit.

With the 100+ temps, we've been enjoying a lot of this:

We eat a lot of watermelon around here in the summer and this yellow one will be hard to beat!

Then on Thursday we drove to Lubbock - a 2 1/2 hr trip - to go hat 

and boot maker shopping

And then we spent about 3 hours at the Pollard Ford dealership because the starter in our 6 yr-old pickup decided to retire. Sigh. We generally drive our vehicles for about 15 years or more. We take care of them and kind of expect them to last. I guess it could have been worse than $1100.00. We were grateful for fast, friendly service though and met some incredibly kind folks God put in our path before moving along.

I spent much of Friday mowing and weed eating and on Saturday morning DH drove 75 miles for the Safari Club board meeting and summer picnic and some shotgun games. I opted to stay behind. I really felt the need to be domestic. 😉 But I did manage to get the quilts trimmed:

I love hand stitching the binding to the back and I'll get them bound eventually, just don't hold your breath! 

Blessed Rain

More prayers were answered on Memorial Day as it began to rain. The kids and precious Emma all headed back home that morning and DH and I - and Skeet - spent 6 hours the next morning making a circle in the Ranger to keep from tearing up the roads:

We checked 12 rain gauges:

And yes, I made a list so we could document everything - DH records everything he does in a book:

Another gorgeous morning with crisp desert air filled with the smell of blessed rain. I wish someone would invent smell-a-vision because the smell of rain in the desert is truly heavenly:

When it rains in the desert, the phones start ringing as ranching friends begin inquiring about rain amounts:

Spotted Tank was full

And the birds seemed to be celebrating:

Skeet has to test out every tank

And give his seal of approval:

Time to test out the 4-wheel drive

                                                 

Skeet looks a little skeptical - LOL -

A few prayers were sent heavenward because it would have been about a 12 mile walk back to the house:

DH said I ought to have a little more faith

And yes, our feet were soon back on dry ground

Boy howdy, does he ever love to run

Another stamp of approval

He's always on the job

Where to next?

I love windmills, but I'm sure glad we don't have to pull them anymore

Our rain gauges often dry rot between rains out here so that gives you some idea of how happy this moisture makes this rancher

His 4-legged side-kick kind of likes it too

 

And as I finish up this post, I hear thunder rumbling! That means I'm fixing to throw open the windows in hopes of smelling rain while we sleep because it'd be good to make another circle!

Meeting Emma

 All that cooking I wrote about a few weeks ago was to celebrate the arrival of this precious gift:

We're officially grandparents! Meet sweet Emma May

She arrived on April 27th - 6lb 6oz - 19" long and we are smitten:

Everyone came for the weekend and we all soaked in every minute. She is just precious and SO sweet natured. 

I didn't even take a thousand pictures because I was too busy inhaling time with this charming baby:

We all spent lots of time visiting

And passing Emma around

And around:

And every once in a while we let her sweet mama hold her

And it warms a mama's heart to see her boy become a daddy and take such a hand-on approach with his daughter:

They are making a good team:

They asked these two to be Emma's Godparents:

The men manned the smokers:

Because no-one goes hungry at the end of the dirt road:

The electricity went out one night, but that's not unusual around here. We just pulled out the propane lanterns and gathered round the cribbage board:

Emma is a champion sleeper so we had lots of time to visit, but there's not much I'd rather do than hold this sweet girl:

We had a rousing conversation about what we wanted to be called. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it and our girl laughed, "It's not that big of a deal." 

Oh, I beg to differ! It's a VERY big deal!

I was thinking Gram and Pap.

She threw some names out there and I told her I got to chose and I could chose anything I wanted. I could be Pooh Bear if I wanted. Side note: I have a soft spot for Winnie the Pooh and I read a lot of that to the kids when they were little. I could even do all the voices although I'm pretty certain I've lost that ability. 

Our girl's fella, Kenny, said he had a friend who called his grandpa PaDaddy and when our girl said I could be called Pooh Bear he piped up that it was perfect

"Ya'll could be Pooh Bear and PaDaddy" Now mind you, Kenny is from Oklahoma and he has an accent so imagine that being said with a strong southern drawl. Oh my word! We bout wet our britches we laughed so hard!

Now, I don't really want to be called Pooh Bear but when Kenny says it, it just cracks me up and I am afraid Pooh Bear and PaDaddy may stick, but I'm afraid we'll have to move to Oklahoma to live up to it. 😂 Our girl looked at a list and saw Moo-ma and she thought that was perfect since we raise cattle, but I vetoed that right quick.

I imagine Emma will name us anyway and it'll be perfect. Did I say we were smitten? 

The family is growing and we couldn't be happier!

Emma, you have brought such joy into our lives! Adventure lies ahead!

Taking a Break

 I am falling woefully behind on blog posts. Life is happening faster than I can write about it. Not that anything earth shattering has happend, but I want to document our days and I guess I'm too busy living life to spend much time on the computer. I probably need to work on balancing things a little better, but I figure I'm not going look back on my life one day and wish I had spent more time on the computer. 😉

Back in April ( yep, that long ago) DH and I loaded up in the ranger one morning and headed to the north end of the ranch.

 It takes close to an hour to get there, but we needed to check a few dirt tanks and look at the shinnery. We'd had some of our crazy desert spring winds and we thought we'd poke around some of the old Indian camps and do a little arrowhead hunting along the way:

We can't really take vacations (we've taken 1 in 35 years) so we find other ways to take a break while still tending to ranch responsibilities. It was such a pretty day and Skeet is always game for new adventures:

At one point we high-centered on a cactus and we shoveled our way out of the sand using our hands. One of us lay on one side and the other lay on the other side and we both just dug. Needless to say, there is now a shovel and a wench in the back.  😄 Skeet tried to help too. Shade is hard to come by when the mesquite still hasn't leafed out:

We've had some rain since then, but in April, the terrain was just down right discouraging to a rancher.

 We were still spending the majority of our time hauling hay to cattle. 

We didn't have a lot of luck on the arrowhead front, but a yummy dinner was on the menu when we got back;

And this is one of our favorite ways to take a break from ranch work:

And even though we were disheartened by the drought, we still found beauty in time together and in our surroundings:

And the rain prayers continue: