Grateful for cows & more....

Ok, so I'm deviating from what the letter game but I've cows on my mind this afternoon.

It's that time of the year where we're being lulled to sleep by bawling calves. I'm loving it. My guy keeps threatening to sell the cows and head to Mexico, leaving me to take care of the dogs for the winter. Dream on Cowboy! Oh, and this is an annual 'threat' that I take so seriously. Every evening it seems like the phone rings and people are wanting to sell their calves. I love it when they deliver .... to watch them unload, sort and weigh. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I'd be living on a cattle ranch. It was a dream of mind to live on a farm, to have the experience my Mom had growing up.

Gratitude -- having my guy in my life. Now that is something I'm seriously grateful for. That man is incredible, although I've decided he is 'bipolar' (meant for fun -- please, not a medical diagnosis of any sort) when he is around cows. Cows bring out a certain 'character' in a grown man or woman for that much. Even I've been known to get a little loco around a cow when they don't listen to me.

I'm getting pretty excited for round-up at the end of the month. Seeing old friends, listening to Calvin's cowboy poetry around the fire or pretty much his BS throughout the round-up is pretty entertaining. A little warm-up from a nip of a flask. I get so hungry, sleep so well and get pretty filthy. I love it! It gets pretty intense and becomes almost a game of hide-and-seek with the cows. The first few are pretty easy to find, but after a few days, I want to yell out 'ollie ollie oxen free' and the idea is they'd come out of hiding, go into the corrals and load up, quietly and in an orderly fashion, onto the cattle truck. Keep on dreaming there Suzy Q.

We rode up at Penewawa this weekend. Pretty steep and quite rocky. I'm still 'test driving' the mare, Tippy, and she didn't 'tip' so I was pretty happy with that. Riding at the top of the hill with the Snake River flowing below us ... incredible.

Fall is definitely here. Harvested the garden this weekend and need to move the squash & a few other veggies into the cellar to keep. A couple more batches of pepper jellies, some more zuchinni bread/muffins to make, and I think I should be just about done with that part of the homemaking. Then it is onto making Christmas gifts. Oops, forgot about the many boxes of apples I've coming in.

Still so much I'd like to fix up in the home. Need to repaint a few areas of the kitchen due to my 'little' grease fire. Decided on a vintage cowgirl look for the 'girls' bathroom. Home is beginning to look like home. I've been living there for over a year now and the girly touch is pretty evident.

I saw on another blog a gal had listed what she loved about Fall, so I'm going to do the same.

• The autumn colors
• Cows (You knew that was coming)
• Being able to wear sweaters & scrafs around my neck
• The cool, crisp air
• Making stews & soups
• Putting flannel sheets on the bed
• The sun not shining in my face at 5 a.m.
• Decorating with pumpkins, strawbales & corn stalks
• Bundling up
• Getting cozy
• Hot Apple Cider
• Hot Cocoa with Peppermint Schnappes (sp?)