Eggcited!

Cogburn would like to announce that we are back in the Egg business!  Between the chickens and the ducks (yes, we are getting duck eggs - and they taste fine!) we get about 5 eggs a day.  Yesterday we got 5 chicken eggs (ALL of our girls laid - we are so proud) and 2 duck eggs!  It was a record!

Wyatt is our egg collector.  That is one of his ranch chores.  Little did we know how much he would enjoy it.  The chickens will lay in the coop, but the ducks like to hide their eggs.  Wyatt makes it his personal mission to hunt them out and find the eggs.  It's like Easter every day here!

V-Day Flip Book

Below is a picture by picture description of Valentine's Day on the ranch this year.  The story pretty much tells itself...

Warning:  these images may be too graphic for some viewers!

Neighbor informed us

Wait it isn't' dead.  Free it!

Next idea: avoid the weapons charge

For a softer, gentler version of this same day click here

New Front Door!

I've been on a door kick lately.  The drafts and the bugs drove me to it.  But I love love love the changes!  Not only the back door - but the new front door!

Weatherstripping coming off.  This was probably the third strip that had come off like this.

Gaps in the door.  This wasn't as bad as the back door - but still bad.

Old door - front of the house

Old door - front walk

Old door - porch view

Old door - inside

Install!  (Big Wy could not help himself - he just had to fake hammer right along with the guys!)

New door - front of the house.  I love how it added instant contrast

So much better!

I love it!!

James' Room - Makeover

A long time ago in a ranch house far, far away a little boy dreamed of a Star Wars room.  Enter a Grammy (pre-baby trip) and a gander through Home Depot and an idea was born!

Too bad it took the pregnant lady a few months post delivery to make things happen.  But it has all been well worth the wait!  The room turned out better than either I or James imagined.  It is super cool!  

Furniture, but no fun.

The beginnings of something cool!  (The Light Saber Wall!)

He helped me choose what light saber should be which color.

Tape off - now time to edger and finish her off.

This baby looks so much cooler in real life!

After the painting was done - it was time to get decorating!  We had got some Star Wars wall decals FOREVER ago.  Finally James was able to get them out and put them up!  Wyatt and Isabel helped too! 

I painted some ordinary white frames with the red I used for the light sabers.  Then I framed some of James' latest art work.  I am a huge fan of his "Angry Birds Star Wars" drawing!

Vader - the new Fish

Hoop, there it is

Do you know what a Ferrier is?  It's a person who trims the toenails of horses and shoes them.  No joke.  Well, ours ran into our basketball hoop a few months back and nearly toppled it over.  

JL and a friend were able to push it back straight, and we have been using it, but it was just a matter of time before it blew down.  We weren't too broke up about having to replace the old one - it was super tall.  James nor Wyatt could really use it, so we decided the new one would have to be adjustable.

Random picture of Big Wy trying out his new golashes.

Callie - the hay haulin', truck ridin', wonder doggy!

So what was to become of the old hoop?  One tug from the big truck and that baby fell right over.  And after that?  A tractor pull, of course.  JL hooked it up and James drove it out to the burnin' pile.

It currently rests in the woods near the burn pile.  James is using it for target practice.  ;-)

We inherited a new hoop sorta by luck.  James and JL were helping a fellow ward member move and stumbled across his that he no longer wanted.  It's much better!  It's adjustable and is now sitting in the spot of our old one.  The boys love it!

The New Back Door!

Two weeks ago we had the back door to the ranch replaced.  Can I just say - it couldn't have happened soon enough!!  

The old back door was ... well ... OLD!  And all the weatherstripping was missing and torn away.  And the door was warped and wouldn't close properly.  And the drafts were coming in.  And the bugs were coming in (that was really the last straw!).  

So I had it replaced - and it has changed that side of the house tremendously!  Not only does the new one look 100% better - but the drafts are gone and the bugs are less!

See those nasty 1980's blinds?  They were always breaking!  No amount of super glue could save them from the in and out traffic and slamming that is my kids.

Then there is the lovely 1.5 inch gap that lets in the air and those bugs I was mentioning.  Do you need a reminder what kind of bugs we have out here?  

And I just didn't like the way it looked.  Besides all that.  The word was BORING.

And cracked and OLD

Make-shift weatherstripping.  Yeah - you know who loves to peel that stuff off?  Kids and dogs and kids.

New shiney door!!

New shiney door with some spiffy paint on it!  Yay!  

The Take Back

This is the story of a girl who asked for a take back.  A re-do.  A what was I thinking - I made a mistake.  She's a sweet girl who really only thought she had her family's best intentions in mind.

Picture it - the ranch, early December of 2012.  A wife and mother decides to sell the family horses.  The reasons are still unknown.  Being the saleswoman that she is - she sells June Bug for a hefty profit and is quite pleased with herself.  That is, until they load her up in the horse trailer and drive off with her.

Then the tears begin.  And they go on for a while.  When they are still going on by the next day, she begins to wonder if she has perhaps made a great mistake!  What can she do?  Is the horse lost forever? No, the horse is not lost - one quick text and things are in motion to get the horse back!

Turns out the gentleman that bought June Bug got a call on a different horse not 2 hours after making the purchase.  Said other horse was the one of his dreams!  So when the beautiful wife and mother contacted him to see if it would even be remotely possible to get her horse back, the gentleman was more than happy to oblige.

But he kept her saddle.  No worries - it was an awful heavy thing anyway.  Or so the pretty woman in the story has said.  ;-)

Safe and sound - right where she belongs!