| November 1-2 I was
trucker again on Thursday. I got left about 8:00 and headed to
Strafford MO to get Gold Beat, Vincente and Hot Rod collected. I
made it at 10:00 sharp and the folks at Genex were ready for us.
Really nice folks at Genex! Gold Beat collected 252 units of good
semen, Vincente had 92 good units and he won't be a year old until January
2008. There is a reason I called him Vincente or Vinnie for short!
He is also ployed as our little Italian Stallion for advertising purposes!
ha He is half Maine and half Braunvieh and his donor momma is
non other than Veronica! Hot Rod had too many immature cells to
collect so we will try him again in 3 weeks. I made it back home by
3:30 and cleaned out the trailer for the next trip! This one was a
pleasure trip! Wily, Tee and me went to Rita's for trail ride night.
We have been so busy all summer that I have had to miss them all.
Abbie was mowing down hay at the lease place and he said go ahead. I
was going whether he liked it or not anyway! ha Tee and Wily
evidently got into a bunting of heads and Tee came up short with a
bruise and cut on his chest. So we know who will be boss in the
corral. ha Wily did really well at the trail ride and he handled the
logs, water and new surroundings like a champ. He is going to be fun
to ride too. Smooth as silk! ha We had a going away
party for Julie who will be moving to Vermont. Sure hate to see that
girl go I was just starting to get to know her. I made it home about
8:30 after we all put forth our bounty of food. The ya ya
sisters are a fun group of crazy horse women! Our biggest
conversations include, horses, kids, events and menopause! ha We all
find tranquil moments being together riding in the woods! ha Best
mental therapy you can get and it doesn't cost much but your time.
It's just finding the time for yourself and your horse!
Note the cute picture of our friends Trevor and Joan Onley's
grandchildren at one of their cattle shows in Australia. Those crazy
Aussies are still breaking cattle to ride and here I am just trying to get
my steeds broke and rode! ha We have company coming in this
afternoon and we can't wait as Brian, Patricia and Thomas will spend the
weekend with us! We get to spoil Thomas! We have all kinds of
things planned. Horse back riding, tractor riding and petting the
cows! Sounds like we have customers coming tomorrow to pick up Gold Beat
too. Going to miss that bull. He has such a great personality!
But at least we can AI breed him now since we collected semen.
Dalya was a tiger for Halloween! That fits her personality pretty
well! She is a real stem winder! ha Not quite a fireball
yet but in training! ha That is my nickname from our friends at
Oologah! They call me fireball for some reason! ha My only
comment! It's better than being nicknamed a Deadhead blonde! ha
Not everyone has a bull named Vincente (Vinnie) either that is called the
Italian Stallion! |
Onley grandchildren in Australia on Fullblood
Braunvieh heifer
Dalton and Justin
Dalya as a Tiger |
| November 3 The kids got
here about dark last night. I was showing the cattle to three folks
from Beggs FFA Chapter when they drove in. Abbie mowed at the lease
place all day so he knocked down some hay! He says it will probably
put up around four bales to the acre. That means I will be raking
hay tomorrow. There goes our Sunday day of rest! We had three
different groups of people in this morning. Two groups brought cows
to A I breed. Jimmie Grant and George Lewis came to pick up Gold
Beat and looked at cattle. So there was trailers in and out until
noon! I stuck a Lasagna in the oven in the morning so we had lunch
ready when noon time came! Thomas is having a ball feeding cattle
and riding the golf cart. We quick baked up two apple pies for
Abbie's sweet tooth today too. Word from Vinnie, that
TLC Linda's Lulu was selected Reserve Grand Champion Heifer at the Conners
State Livestock Show today. Great job Rashele and Blakley crew!
That makes her 2nd Reserve Grand against all breeds of cattle. She
had to show and win the AOB Class to get there!
We have folks coming in this afternoon to look at
heifers so guess I best get busy with some yard work before it freezes
this next week! Sure hate to see my flowers go! They have been
beautiful this year. All the rain we got this year has helped
pastures and flower beds!! We have been blessed beyond belief
this year! |
Olivia 1 year old! |
| November 4-5 Happy 3rd Birthday
Thomas Ayden Thorne! We sure enjoyed having Thomas, Patricia and Brian
over the weekend! We spoiled Thomas on Saturday night as they went
to Brian's class reunion. Sounds like they had a good time and we
did too. Thomas got to feed cattle, ride a cow, drive the mule, ride
the golf cart and also ride in the
John Deere tractor. That probably had to be his most favorite thing
the tractor. That young man knows his colors too. He liked the
toy John Deere tractor we gave him for his birthday. I would bet he
will sleep with that green machine for many a night! ha They got
left for Amarillo in the afternoon and we caught up on a few things. Abbie went
to the lease place to finish mowing and I started mowing around the yard
and then went to the corner lot in the lake pasture to knock down the weeds that were over my
head! I got high centered once and had to walk to the house to
get the mule to pull it out! ha I finished about dark and
Dwight and Ty drove in to set up their flushing equipment for the next
day. We went to bed early as "Normal time" went back into effect. Wish
they would just leave the time alone!
We arose early and started the process of flushing 11
donors. The day went great and we ended up with 58 eggs to freeze.
Everyone got some except Bob and Karen's Angus cow flunked out. I
cooked up sloppy Joe's and Baked Beans for dinner. We had apple pie
left over from the weekend so we did have something sweet too! ha
Tiff came and she washed and groomed up three of the cattle so we could
take new pictures. The pictures of
Heart of Gold came out really well! Glad we finally got a good
picture of her as some people were complaining that the one we had was
bad! ha We hung up the new banners in the barn from Tulsa
today. The walls are starting to fill up. Maybe by the time we
get too old to show we will have the barn walls completely full and live
on memories from then on out!! ha Go see
Full Force and
Hard Rock's new pictures at the Sire Page!
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| Thomas getting a tractor
ride |
Thomas fell asleep in
the tractor |
Abbie, Brian, Thomas and
Patricia |
Embryos ready to freeze |
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Thomas and Angel
Thomas riding Wonder Cow. He is praying
for help! ha |
| November 6-8 Wily got a nail
in his back right hind foot on Tuesday. I held him and Tiff
pulled it out. We both cringed! Our neighbor vet Chell stopped
by and we gave him several shots and put a baby diaper on his foot and
wrapped tape around it to keep it clean. Always something to take
the grin off your face!.
Someday I am going to have a nice pen for the horses. That old barn
is going to have to get better or get gone! So there goes the plans
for the trail ride at Cowboy Church on Sunday! Abbie mowed hay until
late so I did the feeding and was just finishing up when a truck and
trailer came in to have him AI another heifer. So it was burr cold
and dark when I got to the house! He came a bunch later! Yesterday was sort and doctor day! Always
seems like someone has an ouch. Ella had a pretty heifer calf
today out of Bud! The Angus heifer Fancy had a really nice Hardy
baby too! Tiff came and she has been very helpful! Hate
to brag too much as I know she will read this! ha It's nice to have
an extra hand though. We ran to Pryor yesterday so Abbie could get
his Thyroid medication refilled! You have to go in for blood
tests each year now to get it filled. They figure out some way to
get your money! ha We had lunch at the Pizza Hut. The
tree trimmers came from PSO and trimmed up our Silver Maple and also took
two trees out of our front bull pen! All in the name of high lines!
So now all the bulls have is one lonely tree to shade them! They
should have to replace all the trees they cut down! It
finally frosted the pumpkin. I covered all my begonia plants in the
front just because they were so pretty this year. I might save them
for a few days! ha All the other stuff came into the house the night
before. Sure hope I didn't bring in a snake, frog or spider in!
Didn't have much time to check them in the dark!
I revamped the web site look and fixed some things that
were not working! Hope you noticed! Wiley is doing
better on his foot! He is limping still though! We are
going to the hayfield today! Yep you heard me! The hayfield in
November! We have about 90 acres down and it's suppose to get up to
70 degrees today and tomorrow. Abbie thinks that it will put
up around four big round bales to the acre. So sure hope the
machinery stick together to let us finish this winter hayfield project! ha
Take care and come back soon! Texans are coming in tomorrow.
So best put some goodies in the oven! The banana bread is hot out of
the oven!
November 9-10 We got more hay up and
it is really turning out to bet better hay than you would think this time
of year! I guess we are not the only one's late! We saw others
still baling up hay the other day near Pryor! Wonder if their lives
are as crazy as ours! ha The Texans got in about 6:30. Tiff
clipped on calves all day while we were in the hayfield. We were
just finishing up feeding when they drove it! Abbie got in about
dark too and we all headed to the truck stop for supper! The
guys got left for Louisville a little after 7:00. I was up at 5:00
and banging pots and pans for breakfast! So I am probably going to
wear down about 11:00! ha I am running into Pryor to check on Wily
and also pick up more health papers! Then we will be in the hayfield
today! So best get rolling! You all have a great weekend!
Stop back soon! |
Thorne Family Crest
Hardy, Hot Rod and Vincente. Back ends! This is
what sells bulls is this picture |
| November 11 We were really
making hay when my cell phone notified me Chad Jones from New Mexico had
left a message! The message was! We are sitting in your yard
right now! So we stopped haying and headed to the house to
find the whole New Mexico crew! Lee, Chad, Ty, Cheyann and Jaden!
We showed them a few new Fall calves and visited for a little while.
They were stomping to get gone and headed back to New Mexico with their
steers so they didn't get to spend the night. Sure hope they all
made it home okay! I showered and went directly to bed! ha
Wore this old Grandmother out! News from Louisville! TLC
Linda's Lulu won her AOB Class. Ten Classes of AOB and over 80 head
of heifers shown. Not bad for a 25% Angus 25% Braunvieh 50%
Chi/Maine heifer to compete with the big girls under the BIG LIGHTS! ha
TLC Isabella was 4th in her Class! Great job Reighly and Rashele!
Today started out calm but didn't last long! Grandpa
and Grandma Gebhart to be, brought a Hereford heifer over. The
Haney family came with their stock trailer looking for a heifer.
They found Cara in the replacement pasture and she will go to their show
barn! Kylie will have fun with her as she is really broke and
really ready to hit the show road! That will be fun to see them
show! We headed to the hayfield about 1:00 and we rolled up
somewhere around 150 bales. I quite raking so that Abbie could catch
up and came home to feed the critters. I was just finishing up when
he drove in. So now it's time to hit the hay again and it's only
8:00. Wily was doing better yesterday. Sure hope he has
a speedy recovery. Sure miss seeing that Buckskin in the pens!
When I was at the vet clinic I visited with some folks that had a real
pretty palomino gelding there getting his shots. Evidently someone
had just turned him loose. These folks found him and kept him
from hitting traffic on their road! Clint said he was around
15 years old. So now it looks like some people will just turn their
old horses loose for someone else to care for them. Some people
around here dump out their puppies and kittens and now horses? I guess
that happened in California. Some people turned their horses loose
with the wild horses just because they had no other place for them to go
and was tired of feeding and caring for them. Kind of like taking
your kids to an orphanage! huh? |
New Mexico Crew
Tee and Wily
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November 12-15 We
finished haying about noon! We rolled up over 250 bales in a few
days! We packed and loaded the New Jersey and Tennessee bound
cattle and got left about 4:30 in the afternoon. We made it
part way and stopped in Evansville, Indiana about 2:00 in the A. M. on the
way to Louisville, KY for NAILE. (North American International Livestock
Exposition) We got about four hours of sleep before we hit the road
again! We met Sharon and her father Bob from New Jersey at the
Executive West Hotel at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time and we transferred her two
head without any problems. She was happy with her cattle!
They headed back east and we checked into the hotel and caught the shuttle
to the cattle show. We watched the Maintainer and Maine Show most of
the afternoon. We made it to the Broadbent arena to check on the
Braunvieh cattle late in the afternoon. Reighly and I went to the
Banquet and Abbie stayed in and slept! I think all our late nights
finally caught up with him! We made it to the show and are happy to
report Lulu was Grand Percentage Heifer and Heart was Reserve Grand
Heifer. Turk was grand Percentage Bull! We had lunch at the
Freedom Hall Food Court. We cleaned the trailer and loaded
Heart along with three of Roger's cattle to lighten his load! He had
four flat tires on the way! Told Mark he needed to buy into
Good Year Rubber Company! We made it to Rolla and spent the
night and we just got home at noon today! The Flying I crew will
pull in about three hours behind us! They got left early this
morning! So they are all requesting a home cooked meal!
Tiff was happy to see us and had all kinds of wild stories of breaking
calves to lead! Sounded like they led her instead! ha Thank
heavens we made it home! There is no place LIKE HOME!
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TLC Turk Grand
Champion Percentage Bull Judge: Randy Daniels from Georgia |
Ra shele
and Lulu Grand Champion Percentage Heifer |
Heart wins Reserve Grand Champion Heifer |
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Bob and Sharon Duddy from NJ
Kendall and Carla Coleman from TN |
| November 16-17 Friday
was a pretty nice day here! The wind blew 90 miles an hour but it
was still pretty unseasonable warm for the middle of November. I
started the task of washing beds, doing laundry and cleaning the motel
today! I went and picked up Wily from the vets and he is doing
better. Not 100% better but on the road to recovery we hope!
He was happy to get back home to a much bigger pen. He will stay at
the barn with a little shelter at night. My horses always seem to
get the back pasture. They are mostly for my pleasure and not
expected to work for their oats! ha The other morning before we left
for Kentucky I snapped a picture worth a bunch! It kind of makes you
say AH how sweet! Cattle and horses can display an abundance of
kindness towards each other. See the picture to the right! Tee
has an ouch from Wily on their first introduction a bruise on his chest.
Pick one of our 3/4 Maine Anjou bulls reached through the fence by the
water tank to lick his wound! These two have never been exposed to
each other and Pick was treating his horse friend Tee with kindness!
Who says cattle don't have a heart? ha We are slowly getting
recuperated from our journey! Seems like it takes longer the older
we get to recoup! ha We did have a good time though and were
happy to see several of our cattle friends. Always great to see old
friends. The Braunvieh show had 50 some cattle entered. The
first show at NAILE in 1999 we took 17 head to get it started. Sure
glad we don't have to support it like that these days with diesel prices,
feed costs, and room rent so high. Some people take a real
vacation. We take our vacations at cattle sales and shows!
How stupid is that? ha All tax deductible according to Dear
Abbie! ha Someday I hope we can take one of those real vacations and
sit by the ocean and drink margarita's ! ha I won't hold my
breath for that to happen! ha Knowing Mr. Thorne he would think that
was just plain too boring! ha We are down to a few head left to
calve. So we are winding down on Fall calving, now we can wind up
for breeding season! Sounds like we will have folks drive in from
Georgia this next week. Hope the weather hold for all the
Thanksgiving holiday travelers! Stop back soon for more exciting
times at the Thorne Ranch! Don't eat too much turkey, Beef is better
for you! |
Tee and Pick
Isabella and Reighly Reserve in Division.
Also 4th in class at AOB Junior Show` |
| November 18-22
I made it to Texas and back. I left Sunday afternoon and came back
on Wednesday. I went to baby sit for Logan and Grace for a few days.
I am getting too old for those late night drives in heavy traffic
especially Thanksgiving traffic. It is almost getting ridiculous how
many people are on the road these days. Talk about a population
explosion. When the lights are bumper to bumper on both sides of the
interstate from Oklahoma City to Ft Worth Dallas makes you wonder who
wasn't there or if anyone stayed home for this holiday. It was
bumper to bumper for two hours straight until I got to the Oklahoma state
line. I decided to take the non stop route going home after all the
time lost trying to get out of Texas. I made it about 12:30 and left
at 4:00. So a six hour drive became 8 hours with all the
delays and traffic jams! They were warning folks here at the toll
gate at Vinita to find alternative routes as it was almost a three hour
delay to get through the toll gate. Dad, Mom, Kyleigh,
Shareen, Dalton and Dalya got here on Wednesday before I got home.
Mom and Shareen baked up pies for us and prepared the house for company! J
Fred and Whitney, Ruby and Baby Fred are here. Jeffrey, Diann, Logan and
Grace got here on Friday night. We
are having a great time. Grandbabies are all playing and having a
good time. This house seems big with just us two and then when
everyone comes it seems way too small! It's cold and too cool to
send them outside to play so it will probably get a little wild before its
over! ha Every available bed is being used tonight. Uncle
Elmer and Aunt Dottie from Nebraska stopped by too. We just happened
to have one bed left for them. Congratulations Erica and Matt on your baby
girl named McKenzie Sloan Boyer! Eight pounds and five ounces and 19
inches long! We can't wait to see her! |
Grace and Me
G race and
Logan |
| November 23-26 We
had a great weekend with the family and grandbabies! Six of them
under four years old is almost more than this ole grandmother can handle!
Thank heavens our oldest granddaughter Kyleigh was here to help herd them.
I cooked up a Thanksgiving Ham on Thursday with sweet potatoes and the
trimmings and then BBQ ribs on Friday and Turkey Dinner on Saturday! So I
am all cooked out folks! We are going on a diet! ha I saddled up
Jaycee. Dalton and Ruby were the only one's that were awake so they
got to ride. It's been a long time since Jaycee has had a saddle on.
She didn't exactly like me tightening the cinch! I thought she was
going to bite me! ha She got a warning the second time and she just
laid her ears back. She has never acted that bad before, she is
almost 20 years old though and guess she can grumble a little bit! ha The
kids all got left around noon time on Sunday. The afternoon and
evening was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! Not actually a pin
but another little tree frog was moving around in a fern. So he was
sent on his way outside! ha We enjoyed the peace and quiet and
celebrated Abbie Dear's 64th birthday! He doesn't seem to age or
change much. Men grow old gracefully and us women just get wrinkles!
ha He can still out work younger men twice as young and burn the
candle at both ends still! He is a pretty special guy my husband!
He is really a great grandpa to all our grandchildren too! We were
missing Dani Leigh, Justin, Phillip, Clayton, Olivia and Thomas. We
might have to rent a motel to get them all together next time! ha
Monday was try and get things back to
normal. The roofers came with shingles to unload on the roof early
so our quiet was short lived! ha Laundry was heaped high and I
don't think we had any clean towels left! ha I got some much needed
book work done up and bills paid today while the wash machine groaned and
the dryer worked overtime. The Yarbrough's stopped by for medicine for the
next flush... I went to Pryor to pick up
a hose for the tractor, mineral tubs for the cattle, horse feed, dog food,
fish food and decided we could live on left overs for awhile and didn't go
down the grocery isle! I believe we will live out of a can for a
couple of days! ha Sounds like we will have company from Texas in
the morning! Sure hope it warms up again tomorrow! |
Kyleigh holding Grace, and Fred, Logan,
Dalton, Dalya and Ruby |
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Dalton, Dalya Papa Abbie and Ruby |
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November 27 It was a nice day today.
It was a little windy but still nice and sunny! Roofers came about
8:00 and started ripping off shingles and putting on the new felt and
rubber 50 year shingles. I don't suppose we will be around to see
the next set! ha We saved 20% on our home owners insurance by
putting rubber one's on. Old friend Gary Woodring from East Texas
stopped by and we gave him the tour of the cow herd. He sure liked
some that he saw and would have gladly taken some off our hands. We
went to Luther's for lunch. I took some pictures today of some of
the fall calves and also put out the vita ferm tubs in six pastures.
The cows all went to licking the tubs!
We watched dancing with the stars tonight! What a
great show! Too bad there aren't more good family shows like it on
TV. The CSI and Corpse shows sure don't leave you feeling good about
life! ha Note the bred cows coming on a run when they saw the Feed
Mule! ha Delynn called and they are getting a mini van.
Excited for them and us! Maybe we can get them to come see us now
since they finally have room for their growing family! Olivia went
to the toddler day care room today! It was a big event for her not
be in the baby room! Real toys, chairs her size and activities for a
toddler. Shareen called and said Dalton and Dalya were ready to come
back to Papa and Jo Jo's house when they got to McPherson Kansas the other
day when they left. They must have enjoyed themselves! We sure
enjoyed them! We just wish they all lived closer too. We
miss too many events and it's not going to get much better the older they
get. We will be hauling hay in the next few days! So my
trucker boots better be ready to ride. We will have around 800 bales
to haul! Wily is doing better and almost ready to turn out with his
buddy Tee. Not limping and still a little sore but sure doing
better. Check out the pedigree for TLCC
Hardy and the pictures of his ancestry tree along with a fancy little
heifer calf sired by him. See her below as a baby and a picture taken
today! She has grown and will be a keeper for sure!
Come back soon for more pictures of the roofing project!
Now if we could get the house painted and new flooring in the kitchen and
dining room? What would I want more than that? Oh maybe a
tractor and bush hog! ha
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Meg and Megan only a few hours old in Sept. |
Meg and Megan today in Nov! |
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Bred Cows
New roof! |
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November 28-30 We have been hauling hay every
spare moment. The wind blew like blazes on Wednesday. I don't
know how the roofers stayed on the roof! They finished up yesterday
and it sure does look nice and neat! They will put vinyl trim on the
trim boards and that will save us having to paint those nasty brown
things. If we could afford it we'd have new vinyl siding put on too
but better be happy with a new roof! ha The weather was really
pretty yesterday and today looks to be not bad either for the end of
November. They are getting snow and cold up in Nebraska according to
the family there. I came across an interesting web site that
explains several things to me now. Just south of York NE is a farm
that has been rebuilt. I have been watching their progress for the
past several years. First a house and then a barn were moved in.
Now the Farm is a working memorial to Farm Life called the
Wessels Living History Farm of York Nebraska.
http://livinghistoryfarm.org/index.html Check it out and
enjoy the educational video clips and stories of the trial and
tribulations that Nebraska Farmers and Ranchers encountered homesteading
that great land of dust bowls and grasshopper infestations. Sure
makes you glad you didn't have to try to survive in those hard times.
Makes you appreciate what we have now and what our ancestors did for us
all. Also have you encountered the talking
robot yet? I was getting our late entries for Denver Stock Show
ready to send Fed Ex and called the 1-800 number to get some
instructions.. The robot Lady will ask you questions and give
you specific answers.. Yes or No. I wonder what she or it
would have said if I had asked for a REAL FLESH AND BLOOD PERSON?
NOT A ROBOT? I am sure she or it would have said "I DO NOT
UNDERSTAND! One thing about it you don't feel bad when you
hang up on them! No guilty feelings very sterile friendship!! ha
What are we becoming? Such an impersonal approach to service!
I even hate to leave our answering machine to take missed calls!
When you call Thorne Ranch be assured you will talk to a REAL PERSON ME on
the answering machine! You will wait a long long time before you
hear a hunk of plastic give you options. I promise you won't have to
speak anything but ENGLISH either. Our great senators are
trying to pass a law that English is not the language of America.
Again what are we becoming? Sort of makes you wonder what our
grandchildren will have to put up with doesn't it? I for one
am glad I have lived in this century! |
TLC Dream On in the pasture south of the
house. They were on top shingling the house at the time of this
picture.
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