Week 2 is Upon Us

Rise and Shine! If you were up at 4 a.m. I sure could have used your help in the kitchen!

It always takes me a few minutes to become coherent at that hour. I'm not a coffee drinker. I love the smell of it, but cannot stand the taste of it and no amount of doctoring will change that. I make a batch of biscuits each morning to go along with breakfast and a batch of rolls to accompany dinner at noon. By Saturday night, I'm betting I'll never want to see another biscuit or roll!

1 meal down. 11 more to go. I've just got one fella in the bunkhouse and leftovers served on paper plates are what's for supper so I'm only counting breakfast and dinner.

On Saturday morning I made another pre-dawn trip into town for round 2 of grocery shopping. When I walked in, the lady at the front greeted me. I was giving my list a final glance and looked up to respond. She looked too and said, "Is THAT your list?!" I replied, "Yes, ma'am." She laughed, "Lord have mercy! Good luck! I'll see you in 2 hours." That's about what I had figured, but I knocked it out in 1 hour and 40 minutes to the tune of :

And then another $180 at Sam's. Hopefully that'll get me through 6 days. We went into town to visit folks and catch some of the ranch rodeo, but were home by 10 and asleep not long after. I woke up at 11, needing a drink of water and the electricity was out and it stayed out until just before 10 on Sunday morning.
Sunday was the final coop cleaning day before winter sets in:

And DH tended to the back breaking chore of trimming and shoeing horses:

While I scurried back into the kitchen to cook a couple of roasts for barbecue sandwiches for today as well as cook the potatoes for potato salad, and get Buttermilk pie into the oven:

It was a busy weekend, but the week ahead promises to be even busier. Reminds me of the book I read a few years ago by  Grace Snyder, titled,  No Time on My Hands. To paraphrase her philosophy, it's a blessing to be busy and have no time on your hands and I wholeheartedly agree...and I recommend the book as well! The crew'll be here in about half an hour so I'm headed back into the kitchen to get things warmed back up and after dinner it'll be time to start working on tomorrow's menu!

What I'm Working On...Maybe

Between cooking up a storm and working outside, there hasn't been much time to play with fabric. These cooler fall days are a welcome respite from the heat of summer and I am loath to miss a minute of it. But DH has been helping the neighbors this week and he's out the door by 4. He laughs and tells me to stay snuggled under the covers, but I just can't do that so what's a girl to do with almost 3 hours before daylight?

Get dressed.Throw in some laundry. Bible Study.Wash the floors. Clean the bathroom. Make the bed. That still leaves an hour and a half. :) I finally made my way to my sewing machine. Alas, I probably ought to tackle the piles that have grown up around it:

How does it get like this when I'm not sewing? It's been over 2 weeks since I've sewn a stitch. Clearing this pile could very well take all day so I veto that idea and riffle through a stack of patterns:

Pick a pattern. Any pattern. Let's start a new project! The fact that my bins of western fabric are overflowing, led me to the conclusion that I need to get these under control:

I think this pattern:

 will let me showcase some of the fabrics so I begin to pull:

And I realize that I will likely never need to buy another western fabric ever again! :)
I may change my mind, but let the cutting begin!

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Yum! Two thumbs up! Sinful! Is that  enough of an endorsement to convince you that this is a recipe worth making?

I found this recipe Thursday night that I had pinned. It originates here:  Some the Wiser, and I whipped them up Friday morning for the crew.

And let me just say that these will be in regular rotation around here. I have a recipe binder where I keep all of our family favorites and this one made the cut before they even cooled from the oven.

Cinnamon Roll Muffins


 Muffin Batter
2 C flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C sugar
3 Tbsp melted butter, slightly cooled
1 egg
1 C milk

Topping and filling
1 C brown sugar, loosely packed
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 C coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts (I left these out because I've got a crew member this round who is allergic to nuts)
3 Tbsp melted butter

Frosting
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1 C powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk
dash of vanilla

Preheat oven to 400. Sift together dry ingredients into a large bowl. In a second bowl, whisk together wet ingredients until well combined. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just combined.
In a small bowl, combine all the topping and filling ingredients. Gently fold half of the mixture into the batter. Line each muffin cup with muffin liner. Spoon batter into each cup and top with remaining topping. Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove to wire cooling rack. Whisk together all frosting ingredients and drizzle over the top of each muffin. Pencil in a long brisk walk because you're going to eat more than one!

I will never abandon my cinnamon roll recipe, but there is room for both in my heart...and my stomach! We'll ignore the hips for the moment. Hence, the mention of that long brisk walk. Licking your fingers is encouraged. :)

SO GOOD!

Fall Works: Part 1

This last week we weaned the Corrientes. 5 long days that started early and ended late, but the cattle are in good shape, the pastures are green and everyone stayed safe. Seems like ya'll always get pictures of the boys riding out before sunrise:

But the air was crisp with the promise of fall and I never tire of these desert skies. After I had hauled them out to West Bull, I scurried back to the kitchen to clean up after breakfast and get started on dinner. I try to get everything done efficiently on the off chance that I can sneak out for a few minutes with my camera if they happen to be working around the house:

And a few minutes is about all I get so I snap pictures with wild abandon

I was a long way off and hoped that my camera would yield some decent shots

The boys gathered and sorted::

Teamwork is always the name of the game:

No doubt humans and horses were tired at the end of the week:

Everything gets run into the pens:

Under the stealthy eyes of our resident storyteller:

 And funneled into the alley:

Where the ground crew dispenses the medicine: 2 shots and pour-on:

The weaned calves then settle into the pens with plenty of hay for a few days where we keep a close eye on them.

We always pray that we don't have any get sick. It's a little noisy for the first day or two as the calves bawl for their mamas, but soon peace and quiet reigns over headquarters once more: