Jan 2007

Sherry, Julie, Cathy and Rita

January 1 - 5 Happy New Year and welcome to our New Diary for 2007. We will keep 2006 around for a little longer just so you have a variety. The new year looks great so far! We have received some much needed rain in the New Year and the ponds are full and over flowing again! We started off the new year with, Ya Ya Horse Sisters, Sherry Barstow, Cathy Orban, Rita Glenn and Julie Williams here for a very nice day to ride the south pasture. We couldn't have asked for a prettier day to ride! No accidents to start the new year too! Julie's horse had never seen a cow so that was traumatic for a little while. Burk, Anita and Megan came by with some heifers to leave to breed so they volunteered to help Abbie run some cows through the chute. Sure do appreciate those fine folks! I had stirred up some chili so we had a warm bowl of chili after we returned from the ride! Bryce and Crystal made it out one day to help and that was very much appreciated. He got one of the salt and mineral feeders fixed too! I finally removed and packed some of the Christmas decorations. I kind of went over board this year on decorating. It was pretty while it was up though! The real tree was still in good shape if you can believe that. I set it outside for the birds to huddle in for awhile!

It's cloudy here today and dreary looking out but up in the high 50's for temperature. So not a bad day at all! I am working on a short story for you, that I think you will find amusing. My characters are real folks I have met in my career associated with cattle, livestock auctions, and club calf, and registered cattle folks!

Dani Boy and Lauren

January 6-11 Sunday, Lauren and Debbie stopped by with her Dani Boy steer they had gotten from us fo a visit! They had been to cattle camp at McPeeks. She is enjoying the steer! He has all kinds of hair to clip on! He is out of a Black Icon daughter and High Definition. Megan called and she had taken Wonder and Faline to the camp. Her Dad went too and they had a good time. They have a winter and summer show camp for kids and families each year.

A busy week of preparation for the flush on Tuesday. All went well and we had a good day of Embryology. Dwight came the night before and spent the night helping Abbie watch the foot ball game that was a big disappointment! Between Florida and Ohio State. The game between OU and Boise Idaho was the game to watch! That was exciting!

Today was sort cows and move cows! We brought in the bred cows and sorted for thin, needing more feed and close up cows. It's not been an easy winter on cattle. It's hot one week and cold the next! Our hay supply is getting low too! I cleaned the show box and brought in all the freezable show stuff to the barn. I then took down the Christmas lights out side before the predicted ice storm hits! We are suppose to get bad weather before the weekend. There goes our plans for Ft. Worth Stock Show. We are working on the cattle inventory and pasture reports. A never ending project as you just get them all situated in one pasture and accounted for and it's time to move them again! It's time to turn out the bulls again! Gun our Angus bull got several girlfriends as did Bud and Hardy! You all have a safe weekend! We hope our friends make it home from Denver Stock Show safely!

January 12-14 We got blasted on Friday with Rain, Ice and Sleet! All the trees and every fence line and gate is covered with an inch and half of ice! I had to break ice off several chains to get into pens the past couple of days. We got everything hayed up yesterday finally and we bucketed feed to every group of cattle too. I lost count on buckets after a while. The old dodge is helpless on this coat of ice. The power steering doesn't work and it's not a four wheel drive either. Do I need to say more? ha I have been after Abbie to get a new feed truck for months and of course he is taking his own sweet time to decide on what. We have the green one ton truck sitting out there depreciating daily that we need to just trade it in on something, but it's not his idea. You know how that goes! ha I spent most of my time on the mule opening gates and hauling buckets while Abbie put out hay. It was sweet to come in for lunch. I am not your love the cold weather person. I think climate control is a pretty highly rated condition in my book. Last night the water went off from the rural water district so we are without water, but we still have electricity. Good thing I saved some pitchers of water! We are in better condition than some folks in our region. It's going to be a real mess tonight if we get that other storm from the west with wind and more moisture. They were showing Muskogee area on t v and it's a terrible mess with trees down everywhere. The storm of the century they are calling it! Sure glad we didn't venture to Denver this year. I have been working on another web site at nights while the lights stay on. One for the Diamonds in the Rough crew of Oologah. It's coming along and will be helpful to their line of business. I have two Cornish hens in the oven and a pot roast so I am getting prepared for the worst in case the lights go out! Abbie has requested a treat so guess I will bake up an Italian Cream cake with Cream Cheese Frosting! I baked him up Poor Devil Pudding last week . ha That should have held him over for awhile but it didn't ha! Have a safe Sunday and a good week! Let's hope I will have electricity so I can vent on the computer.. I am still working on my Memoirs of the Auction Ring. I read some of it to Abbie last night and he chuckled a few times.. ha Especially the part about a Banker named Mr. Nefsy who drove a white banged up Cadilac!

January 15-17 Three and half days of non electrical stimulation. No TV, no remote, no computer, no lights, no stove, no heat, no water, the list goes on and on. It's amazing how addicted and dependent upon electricity our society is these modern times. Thanks to our friends the LaRue family for bringing over a portable generator and a propane heater. We could water the cattle and flush the toilets with well water with your help! Yep it smelled like rotten eggs from that sulphur water in the house for a few days but we were happy to get even that drop of smelly water after a couple of days with out. The rural water finally came back on yesterday so we hurried and changed the house water. Megan and I went to the Schultz' farm over west of the turnpike to pick up a rick of wood. That was an adventure in it's self! Our silver truck is covered with ice so they sent us with Burk's red flat bed dually Dodge truck! The guys were busy putting out hay and feed so them sent us girls to do a man's job! We made it down and up some slick spots and we didn't even notice that we didn't have it in four wheel drive until we got home. That was a blessing in disguise! We got the wood unloaded too. It's a little too long for the stove but we will make it work somehow! ha We had not been off the place in days so we took Burk and Megan to the truck stop for a late lunch! We sure do appreciate the extra help folks! We are truly blessed with good and faithful friends. Thanks Burk, Anita and Megan for being there for us! We only hope someday we can repay your kindness! Well the lights came on about 10:30 this morning and I have been shuffling frozen food back into the freezers, washing clothes, washing dishes, cooking and trying to catch up on a magnitude of things. We have been living in the living room, dining room and kitchen. So it kind of looked like the bed room too! Good thing the couch made out into a hide a bed beside the pot belly stove! We had one new calf born the other night and it's doing okay so far. It's so icy out that we should be wearing ice skates to even walk anywhere. We took a few pictures the other day just so you could see the intense ice we accumulated on everything. The black bull below about says it all! ha We are suppose to get snow now so we hope and pray that we can keep the lights on and the home fires burning through the next ordeal in northeast Oklahoma! We had good news the other day to keep us smiling though. TLC Bud's Star won Ft. Worth Monday morning. Her 6th Grand Championship! So we are extremely proud of her and happy for our partners. They said she out walked and out shined everything there. Congratulations Ivey crew! Great job of presenting one of our babies! Wish we could have been there to witness the event, but all our other babies needed us here at the time! We have another Star on the way too! Only this one is going to be called TLC Bud's Starlett. Keep smilin folks it's one day less of winter! If you all want to work off those extra inches put on at Christmas time come on over it looks like we will be picking up branches for many days after this all thaws!

January 21 Sunday was a peaceful day here! We enjoyed the day and company in the afternoon. The Larue family came to pick up some of their heifers we have been breeding. I worked on various web sites. The Aschermann's are having their spring bull sale on the 24th of March so updated their information on their web site! The Angus bull Gun made a mess of a bale of hay and rolled it under the fence in the drive way. Guess he wasn't that hungry to destroy a bale of expensive hay. We have lots of fence to fix when it warms up! Several pastures and electric fences have been totally destroyed! We ended up with all the bred cows mixed up after the fence just evaporated in one section. That ice destroyed a lot of things besides trees! It's got to get better right? Lets hope that our winter is over and nice weather will prevail.

January 22 23 It's thawing some but not near enough. We at least have sunshine. That in it's self is a big blessing! Have had several calls this week from folks interested in bulls and club calves. So at least the world hasn't completely stopped after this bad weather. We had a call from www.cattlenetwork.com They will be featuring our site sometime this week. Great news! Free advertising! ha My experience with paid advertising usually brings in someone else wanting you to put your ad on their advertising. Or else they spell your name wrong! ha We have been called the Throne Ranch more times than I care for! ha Maybe we should change our name. It holds some distinction don't you think? ha

Doesn't look like I will make it to OK City for the State Fair Superintendent meeting this Friday. We had a call from folks in Talahina and they are making the trip up to look at heifers and bulls in the afternoon. I can have them mail what ever I need from them anyway. Last year we had some Braunvieh cattle there for the OYE and they didn't have a superintendent so they showed as AOB. So I volunteered so we could at least have a breed class. We hope that several show up! I do know of some going as Braunvieh. We heard from the Overby family this morning and their steer they got from us was Champion English steer at their County show in Mississippi. They will head to Districts in a couple of weeks and then to State if they make it. There were five steers in his heavy weight class and five steers in the light weight division. So a total of 10 steers in the contest. Scott said they were having a hard time keeping him under 1400#. He thought maybe they would slick shear him for the next show to define all his muscle. I guess he got really tall. They are planning on sending a picture soon. He said that the Irish Whiskey x Braunvieh heifer was looking simply awesome and they are really happy with her. Always great to hear from the customers with something positive! ha

I have been working on brother Bill's web site. Herrington Ranch. Cleaning it up and updating! It's a full time job to keep everyone running smoothly and updated. Sure wish I did this for a living instead of a hobby! ha But the friendship rewards are worth all the time and effort.

Sad news today, our neighbor and friend Neldina Mathison and Mrs. Price were killed at the crossing in Big Cabin yesterday. A truck ran into them. Our prayers go out to the families. We have lost two very special ladies in the community. Those ladies baked pies for our sale one year! Best pies you ever did eat! We will miss them and their wonderful personalities! Please always take a second glance before crossing any road! I myself have caught that second glance to be life saving several times.

January 24-26 We have been preg checking cattle and moving cattle back into their designated pens after the ice storm! When the electricity went off so did our fence power. They sure do know when it's hot and when it's not! ha Clint came and we got the last ET's and AI breeding checked and it looks like it turned out better than we thought it might with the bad weather that hit us right then. I almost lost my boots in the mud a couple of times and I did a dance or two on the ice.

Justin came early and we got all four of the horses feet trimmed. It's starting to get expensive keeping those guys all foot ready! ha They all behaved well though and they were just happy to get some attention. This cold weather has kept me off their backs, that is for sure. We had company today from southeast OK. Floyd and Phylis Davis. They said that they have bear and mountain lions down there in their area. That wouldn't be my cup of tea! Really nice folks that we sure enjoyed their visit! It was up in the high 50's today and we enjoyed the ride around looking at the cattle. Looks like we will be pouring everything early this year! First it's warm and then it's extremely cold! Goes from one extreme to the other. We got an email that sure gave us a chuckle! It's about all the Texas towns. I think you all will enjoy it too!

How great is Texas?

Need to be cheered up? Happy, Texas 79042   Pep, Texas 79353   Smiley, Texas 78159   Paradise, Texas 76073 Rainbow, Texas 76077   Sweet Home, Texas 77987 Comfort, Texas 78013 Friendship, Texas 76530

Love the Sun? Sun City, Texas 78628 Sunrise, Texas 76661 Sunset, Texas 76270 Sundown, Texas 79372   Sunray, Texas 79086 Sunny Side, Texas 77423

Want something to eat?   Bacon, Texas 76301   Noodle, Texas 79536 Oatmeal, Texas 78605   Turkey, Texas 79261 Trout, Texas 75789   Sugar Land,Texas 77479   Salty, Texas 76567   Rice, Texas 75155   And top it off with: Sweetwater, Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!   Detroit , Texas 75436   Colorado City, Texas 79512 Denver City, Texas 79323   Nevada, Texas 75173 Memphis, Texas 79245   Miami, Texas 79059   Boston, Texas 75570   Santa Fe, Texas 77517   Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861    Reno, Texas 75462

Feel like traveling outside the country? Don't bother buying a plane ticket!   Athens , Texas 75751 Canadian , Texas 79014 China , Texas 77613   Egypt , Texas 77436   Turkey , Texas 79261   London , Texas 76854   New London , Texas 75682 Paris , Texas 75460

No need to travel to Washington D.C.    Whitehouse, Texas 75791

We even have a city named after our planet!    Earth , Texas 79031

And a city named after our State!    Texas City , Texas 77590

Exhausted?   Energy , Texas 76452

Cold? Blanket, Texas 76432

Need Office Supplies? Staples , Texas 78670

Men are from Mars, woman are from   Venus , Texas 76084

You guessed it..it's on the state line..   Texline , Texas 79087

For the kids.. Kermit , Texas 79745    Elmo , Texas 75118   Nemo , Texas 76070   Tarzan , Texas 79783    Winnie , Texas 77665   Sylvester, Texas 79560

Other funny city names in Texas : Frognot, Texas 75424    Bigfoot, Texas 78005 Hogeye, Texas 75423   Cactus, Texas 79013 Notrees, Texas 79759   Best, Texas 76932 Veribest, Texas 76886    Kickapoo, Texas 75763   Dime Box, Texas   Telephone, Texas 75488   Telegraph, Texas 76883    Whiteface, Texas 79379   Twitty, Texas 79079

And last but not least. The Anti-Al Gore City    Kilgore , Texas 75662

Have a Good Day! P.S. Whoops, left out   Cut n Shoot,   Gun Barrell City, Hoop And Holler, and Ding Dong.

January 27-29 Crystal and Bryce came out early Saturday morning and Abbie put them to work! I made it to town early to the post office and the bank and back in time to stir up dinner. They enjoyed the chicken fried steaks I served them too, I think? ha There wasn't much left for left overs! ha Thank you Bryce and Crystal! Your good kids, and welcome at our homestead anytime! Doug, Joyce, Carson and Brett stopped by in the afternoon and we had a fun time with the kids. They were quite comical to watch when we went to see the cows. Brett was not sure about those big bovine's coming up to his window. ha

We had a nice quiet Sunday. I have been picking up and piling tree branches when I find time and I almost have them all ready to haul out. Found out that cousin Jeanette is also searching for the relatives in the family tree. So we have been exchanging information. Always great when you can have more than one searching and then comparing notes. It's amazing how many notes you get in a pile! ha I have a family tree program that keep most of my notes.

Monday, I headed to Pryor to WW and that was fun! Step up on the scale please! It's back to diet food! If I didn't have to cook it would help some. ha But the other half requires lots of special meals. I think exercise is the most important diet food! Wish it would warm up some, and then I could keep pretty busy outside. I hate the cold! I met Carol for lunch in Claremore and we had a great visit as usual. Two crazy women talking about cows! I bet if the average Joe heard us he'd have to shake his head and wonder...ha I made it to Stillwater Milling, Lowe's and O'Reilly's for parts. Made it home in time to help sort off a couple of cows to AI breed. It was a nice day and guess we best enjoy it as it's suppose to get might chilly again tomorrow. Man do I hate those brown Car hart coveralls! The Davis' are coming tomorrow to pick up the bull. We hope the bears and mountain lions don't get him before he gets to breed cows! ha They live in the Kiamichi area close to Potato Hills Mountains. It's where they have steep mountains that are the shape of potatoes. I will have to do some research on the area. We have been down there and it's amazing the big hilly mountains they have there in south east OK! A far cry from northeast OK and even stranger when you get to the far western part of OK to the flat lands.

January 30 Another cold blustery day. It also snowed and gave us white ground cover again! It amounted to about 3 inches total. Just what we really didn't order. We don't have control of the weather yet. ha I made it to town for parts. Karen and Bob came by yesterday and we enjoyed their visit! They are as tired of winter as we are! They really got the ice on all their trees and they said that the pecan groves are demolished. Guess we shouldn't complain but it sure gets old this winter thing! ha If any of you know of any hay for sale give us a call. We are almost out again! We have some being trucked in this week from Iowa. It will cost more for trucking than the hay! Does that make sense? We have used more hay than we have ever used. I know what we will be doing as soon as grass is tall enough to cut this spring and summer.