Diamond Dash Quilt Finish

 Ya'll keep wondering how I get so much done, but I think there's a discrepancy between real-time and blog-time. It only looks like a lot when you write it down and read it. It seems like I'm showing a lot of finished quilts lately, but they've been in the works for years. I actually haven't even set foot in my sewing room in almost a month, but chances are good that I'll get to sew today. DH left before 3 this morning and I've got leftovers in the fridge. Plus, the wind is absolutely HOWLING. There is dirt in the air - even in this old ranch house so cleaning house is out of the question, but it's still a good 3 hours until daylight so hope springs eternal that it'll calm down as the morning dawns.

So, the quilt I'm sharing today was started way back in 2015 

                                          

I was looking to use an old Layer Cake and I like the fact that this pattern showcases the pretty prints in a collection.

                                      

 It's a Missouri Star design and you can find the tutorial here

                                         Diamond Dash

I pieced it in December of 2015 according to notes scribbled in my project notebook, but it looks like I never blogged about it so there are no in-progress photos and I finally finished binding it last week. The fabric collection is called Summer House - bright, pretty prints:

Jackie used a pear green thread and a pantograph called Fresco Feather that shows up beautifully on the pink dot backing I pulled from my stash

                                                

This made a 57" x 72" quilt and I hope it brings joy in it's new home:

Somehow, this got pushed back, but after 5 years, it finally gets it's day in the sun

                                                

Preg Checking

 I wanted to sneak away for a little while on Thursday to take pictures so I hustled to make cookies (the 9x13 pan is a Honey Bun Cake) before the boys showed up for breakfast:

On Thursday, they were preg checking some cows. Our vet, Dr. Blach, spends the morning at the back-end of 180 cows:

I sent him and his tech home with baggies of cookies:

Sorry gal - if we had grass, we'd keep you and you wouldn't have to endure this indignity

We don't preg check all of our cows, but since we were selling these, we did.

The buyers aren't usually on hand, but this is the first time we've sold bred cows and this buyer was here for this set:

 DH always has a 90%+ breed up rate on the cows, but the intense drought means we are selling a lot of bred cows this year.  No rain means no grass and no grass means we have to drastically decrease our numbers. It's heartbreaking. Prices are depressing as well, but we'll survive and truly, we're blessed - even in the midst of a drought.

Since the beef cows are on the north side of the ranch, we worked them at the North Camp pens. Working the old chute takes more muscle than the hydraulic chute at headquarters:

We only had 16 open (not bred) cows and the buyer bought the rest at a price that made both parties happy. 

DH has built a good program and he raises a good cow and it's nice when that's recognized and appreciated. We'll sell the open cows...they're only 4-6 years old and may be purchased as recip cows (cattle that will be inseminated with an embryo).

As the trucks arrived:

I had to scoot back to the house to put the finishing touch on dinner 

Refueling for the afternoon - it always does my heart good to have folks belly up to our table:

And it always does my heart good to capture a shot of this good, honest man that takes pride in a job well done

Weaning Week I

Another busy week here on the ranch. The pens would soon be filled with bawling calves and in preparation, DH and I cleaned out water troughs last Sunday afternoon:

Another ranch-wife workout:

And more fish were transferred as DH was adding medicine to the water

We weaned the beef calves on Tuesday. 

I spent most of the week in the kitchen while the boys gathered and cut the calves from their mamas. The beef calves are on the north side of the ranch and the boys loaded trailer after trailer and hauled them to the pens where they ran them through the chute to separate the heifers from the steers and for vaccinations:

Heifers on one side

Steers on another

While DH mans the chute 

The beef calves will stay here over the weekend

DH rides through them each day, vigilantly watching them for any signs of sickness. Weaned calves are stressed and more susceptible to falling ill, but we do all we can to keep that from happening.

Last year, the guy that bought our calves said he's never received healthier calves - they didn't have anything to doctor. He wants our calves again this year, but DH has been fielding multiple phone calls from interested buyers all week:

On Monday, he'll drive them out to pasture where we'll keep them for 30-45 days before sending them to their new home. For the time being, these babies are singing us to sleep

Life Gets Busy

 Sometimes...even in the middle of a pandemic...life gets busy. And just in case we look back on this time and think we really didn't do anything, I wanted to have proof in a post that that in fact...is NOT the case. LOL.

Friday night, I got back from visiting my mom in Texas. I was away for 10 days. I told her to keep a list of things I could do for her and I sawed my way through that list:

Many of you have inquired about her (thank you). She is doing remarkably well, considering that the Sarcoma has now metastasized into her lungs. I went down to be with her for scans and appointments and her first immuno-therapy treatment. She will have 2 more, 3  weeks apart, and then another round of scans. So, I'll go back down again then. Right now she is not in pain and feeling good. I'm so grateful that she is still able to be independent for the most part. She has a care giver 4 hours a day - 5 days a week who takes her to appointments and runs errands and her huge never-ending tribe of friends are always in and out. Plus, she still cooks and feeds the neighbors.

I had rented a car so we returned that on Friday night after my 9 hour road trip. It was close to dark by the time we got home and began to tend to evening chores. 

I saw a skunk. 

And then Skeet saw a skunk. 

So Skeet is banished from the house until I can find time to de-skunk him. That, in turn, means that I will need a de-skunking as well. He came running to me for sympathy immediately, but I scolded him away and his poor feelings were hurt. I wanted to console him, but then I too would have been banished from the house. 😉

 Then we were out the door by 5 Saturday morning, headed to a state sectional pistol championship 2 hours away in Clovis. It was supposed to be in the 80s and nice, but it was 46 when we arrived and the wind BLEW hard. Non-stop. All.Day. Long. 

Add to that, the fact the dirt there is like baby powder. Oh what fun! I told DH I was a fair-weather wife because after he shot a station and I helped him clean his mags by insuring the parts did not blow away,

 I trudged back to sit in the truck until it was time for his squad to move to the next station. I added a few stitches on a binding while in between stages

                                   

 and I had packed a lunch so we dined on sandwiches and apples and carrots on shop towels...without grit. 🤗 Almond M&Ms for dessert. 😉

I scribbled a tentative menu on the back of an envelope while we were en route as we are weaning next week and I'll be cooking for a crew of 10-12 Tuesday through Saturday. So that meant I had a grocery store run to make on Sunday morning and when I ran back into the house for a second, I came back to find this:

Poor Skeet. He's never done that before. Evidently he'd had enough of me being gone and DH said this was his way of saying, "Enough. No way are you leaving me again!"

4 hours and $500.00 later, I was home, getting things put up and starting on dinner and dessert for Tuesday because we are looking at another 12-14 hour day at the sale barn tomorrow and after a 4 a.m. breakfast on Tuesday, I have a date to take a steer to the processing plant in Ft. Sumner....a 4 hour round trip, which puts me home at 9 and dinner for 12 is needed at 11.

So, anyone ready to sign up to be a ranch wife yet? LOL.