Call Geraldo

This is the barn

(Seemingly untouched for decades...gross).

It's where I'm working these days.

(That's my "reclaimed lumber" stacked-up there.)

I'm taking apart all of those pallets and shipping crates.

Then, I'm going to build a few pieces of furniture for the Cottage.

Some of these crates are from World War II and the Korean War.

They are empty now, but were purchased as army surplus decades ago.

They used to contain engine parts.

Ranchers use the engines for their wells.

The wells draw the water (through-out the ranch) for the cattle.

It just so happens that the Waukesha engines that were used during wars can also be used to pump drinking water for the cows.

So that's why there are crates and crates of engine parts stacked in shops around the Ranch Headquarters.

They've been there for decades.

Now the empty crates are being disassembled by yours truly and will sit in my house in the form of an entryway bench, a bunk bed, shelves, and whatever else I decide I need to build to customize and organize The Cottage.

But, let me just tell you:

You should keep up with your Tetnus vaccination.

Or, at least watch your step.

Because if you step on a 70-year old rusty nail, you can expect to get a poke in the arm and terribly sore muscles for 5-7 days.

(...I'm just sayin'....)

(...this is me pretending to be scared of needles.)

* * *

Ben was feeling adventurous this morning and decided to find out what was in the shops behind the barn. (We have never looked inside those stalls.) The only access to these mysterious rooms is from the outside (and under the hive of Africanized Killer Bees living in the tree).

You see, we have adventures like this while Hayden is at school and Ella is napping.

Thankfully, it's still a LITTLE chilly in the morning,
Because I'm SURE there were snakes living somewhere in these creepy rooms we were walking around in. Remember, this is the same barn in which we killed our first Mohave shortly after moving here.


Crates of engine parts (purchased from the militiary 50 years ago)







Look at this cool door and antique door knob! This door is between two interior rooms. I'm not sure what I would ever do with this if I were going to make something out of it, but it's fun just to walk through a door that is who-knows-how-old (with a keyhole you can actually "peek" through).












This might look like a big pile of junk furniture, but not to me. This is actually the exact same dresser my mom painted pink (when I was 4-years old) and put in my room. Talk about Memory Lane! I can remember sitting next to my mom in the driveway as she painted inside those dark crevices.

I walked over to it, stroked the familiar knobs, and thought about how much I miss my mom.
(...and then remembered that Mother's Day is next week.)








Ben and Rich discovering a room full of old furniture:








It looks treacherous, but I feel as though I have uncovered a TREASURE!
Look at all that wood, just waiting to be "reclaimed" and made into something pretty for my home!




Stay-Tuned for MORE on how I'm going to do it!

(I've never done this before, so of course I'm going to take a bunch of pictures of the process and put it on the blog!)

"Climb Every Mountain...."

Sunny and Tank: Enjoying the view and gazing toward Mexico.

I was a little nervous about being able to find a way to effectively drop the baby weight. With the nearest ice rink OVER THREE HOURS away, our Elliptical in "storage" and not a health club in sight, I knew I wouldn't be able to do "the usual" stuff to get my rear in gear.

As usual, however, living a Farm Life brought out the creative side yet again and I suddenly found an opportunity to be blessed by the plainness of the land.

So, every day I take THESE:

...and THIS:

...Filled with THIS:

...To the top of THIS:

It's a four-mile (round-trip) hike.

We start at the Ranch Headquarters and climb all the way to the base of the cell phone tower. You may need to "click to enlarge" in order to see the road (er...rocky GOAT TRAIL is more like it) to the top.

The dogs LOVE it!

We jog it (part of the way)...

...and I am once again reminded of my long ago love affair with hiking.

(I didn't realize I could love hiking in the high-desert just as much as trekking around the wooded Sierras back home in California.)

* * *

But how could you NOT enjoy it if the destination looked like THIS:

Campfire Legends

Future Guest House

(The water tank is to the left and the frame of the windmill is to the right.)

WARNING:  This post contains pictures of one of the "mansions" at the mysterious Ranch Headquarters!  (Tell your friends.)

The Ranch is "mysterious" to most locals.   Before we moved here NOBODY was allowed through the closed gate at the entrance to the long driveway, which follows the land up over and hill and disappears on the other side.  The driveway is almost two miles long.  Some talk about a large Ranch Headquarters with corrals for cattle and horses (true), mature trees (true), barns (true), shops (true) and "huge mansions" (uh...WHAT?).

As we were moving over to the ranch we were approached by one of the younger locals.  "Is it true that there is a big place behind there with fancy houses?  Can I come see it some time?"  You can actually see the cluster of mature trees (barely) from the highway on the other side of the hills, so (of course) the rest of the legend MUST be true.  *wink*

Betty is a beautiful, well-groomed, classy lady with glowing skin and snow-white hair.  One day we saw her at church and she started to talk about the Headquarters.  "You know," she said cheerfully, "my first husband helped build that MAIN house in 1947.  They built the basement first, put that old pool table in there and then built the rest of the house around it.  You couldn't get that pool table out unless you took a chainsaw to it and brought it out in pieces." (chuckling)

Well, the other legend around town is that Wyatt Earp used to play on that pool table at an old bar in Tombstone, so I guess we should leave it.  (Just kidding: I believe THAT one is just as true as the one about "the mansions.")

Betty and I laughed about the stories,

"Have you heard the one about.....?"

There IS a two-bedroom house at the Ranch Headquarters.

We aren't sure how old it is, but if it was built around the same time as the MAIN house (with the pool table), then it is about 6o years old.

We think SOMEBODY put new maple cabinets in the kitchen (and tile in the bathroom shower), but besides that it is up to us to renovate this classic Arizona Ranch-style house.

What are WE going to do with it?

It is going to become a Guest House for visitors of the Ranch.

This is officially my project, so I decided to take some pictures before we start ripping stuff out and putting stuff in.  I will keep you posted on the progress of the process.

Looking at the front door in the common area.

Standing at the front door looking into the room.

The kitchen is on the other end of that doorway.

Look at the difference in color between the rock-work on the wall and the rock-work on the floor.  Ewwww.

I have some good ideas for this hallway.

The two bedrooms are at the end of the hall.

The bathroom.

The laundry closet and water heater corner of the kitchen area.

The kitchen with the stinkiest fridge.

Right now I have been using the kitchen window as my greenhouse.  My geraniums are lining the other countertop.

One of two bedrooms.

*By The Way:  Today is the 8th anniversary that I MET my husband.

"I love you."

"BOO!"

Like dogs, there are different breeds of cattle.

Make a comment about a German Shepherd or Black Lab, and pretty much EVERYONE knows what you're talking about.

Here are a few visual aids when it comes to SOME cow breeds:

BEEF MASTER

BLACK ANGUS

(Oops! I mean....)

BLACK ANGUS

BELTED GALLOWAY

HERFORD

HOLSTEIN

I'm not so sure the BLACK BALDY is a breed as much as it is just a nickname for its appearance. Either way, I think I saw one the other night actually make a facial expression.

Can animals HAVE facial expressions? I think THIS one did....

As Ben and I dozed off to sleep with the window open (enjoying the fall air) we suddenly heard very loud and very heavy footprints. Then, "munch, munch, munch."

We peeked out the window to see a very young Black Baldy grazing within a few feet of our window. The outside light illuminated the cow's white face, but made it to where the cow couldn't see US (hiding behind the dark screen).

I couldn't help myself, "Pssssst!" The cow FROZE and looked straight at the screen motionless. "Psssst!" I did it again right before Ben whispered, "Hey cow."

If I didn't know better, I would SWEAR her eyes got bigger. She started to back-up slowwww-ly and stealthy, with all the grace of a hunting kitty-cat. (I didn't know cows could be that gentle and graceful.) After a few feet of tip-toeing, she turned on a dime and took-off running. We laughed heartily as we listened to her hooves disappearing into the darkness.

BLACK BALDY

"TRICK OR TREAT!"

King Ranch Edition

~Photo by Nancy

Lunch Interrupted

~Photo by Nancy (click to enlarge)

Is There A "Baby-Sitter" Instinct?

~Photo by Nancy

Did you know that cows get babysitters?

Well, it's true.

New (cow) moms usually hang out with other new moms and their babies.  Once in a while, though, you will see one momma cow and a bunch of babies together.

Where are the other moms?

I learned from the Ranchers that the cows will actually leave their babies with the one "sitter" cow, while they wander off for a little "alone time".  I didn't believe it at first.  Could the need to get a little "Me Time" be a part of Mother Nature's way of keeping a good balance?

Could following the example of a COW make us better moms?  It sounds funny, but it's something to consider, don't you think?

*     *     *

Okay, so here's another funny thing that cow moms do...

When the calves are still tiny, the momma cow will plop the baby under a bush or some scrub brush and walk away.  The funny thing is that the baby will not move....no matter what...until momma gets back.

One day, while Ben was out helping a Rancher check his cows, his job was to find the new babies that had been born that week;  Just to make sure they were all accounted for.  Counting over and over he just couldn't seem to find the newest baby of them all.  The mom was grazing, so he was confused.  "Could the baby have been taken by a pack of Coyotes during the night?" he wondered.

After wandering around for a while he finally stopped, put his hands on his hips and looked around.  As his head dropped down before taking another step, he noticed the teeny-tiny calf under his foot.  He had to stumble in order to avoid STEPPING on the baby calf, who stared up at him with big glistening black eyes.

*Photo by www.idahofair.com*

The Pied Pizza Piper of The West

~Photo by Nancy

I'm scared of big animals.

Except for the time that I rode on the back of an elephant when I was 13 years old, but she was a sweetheart! She appeared in the first Star Wars movie: Remember the big wolley mamouth-like Bantha on the desert planet Tatouine? (I asked Ben for that Star Wars trivia.) Well, that was an elephant in a costume. Anyway.....

The other day Ben and I were driving around a farm that we're thinking of buying. It's not a farm YET, though, it's a RANCH....big difference:

A FARM grows PLANTS to eat,
A RANCH grows MEAT to eat.

So as we drove around the "outback" we came across a water hole where a bunch of Black Angus cows were hanging out. The water hole is a "happening place," you know; a watering hole to a cow is like a pizza joint for a teenager.

As we came closer to the area, all the cows turned around and started heading toward us. Soon they were completely surrounding the SUV and WOULD NOT MOVE. They literally "stopped us in our tracks". We realized our sudden popularity was due to the fact that they thought we were bringing them food.

The hovering group seemed intent on stopping our vehicle, so we had to start nudging them with the front of our grill. Soon we broke through the sea of cattle and continued on our way with them following behind us. When we drove forward, they followed and when we stopped, they stopped and waited. Since I was too much of a chicken to get out of the car and mingle amongst them, I stuck my head out the window and snapped a picture (above). Then I snapped another picture as we continued to "herd" a few more in front of us (below). (Look at the snow on the mountains in the background....pretty.)

And suddenly, I found myself craving a pizza.

~Photo by Nancy

The End.