Horse showin'!

We had the opportunity to take Calvin to an open horse show so he could compete in leadline. For those that aren't familiar, it's when an adult leads the little one around the ring. Cuteness factor is through the roof. It was a little slow for Cal's taste but he still enjoyed it. Especially when Pa was doing the leading.

Loved the ribbons.

That little number is so stinkin' cute.

Grammy got to sub in for one class.

Pa is still the best though.

We're building a house/lodge!

After a lot of soul searching and calculating and praying and talking and... well you get the point -- we decided to build a home in Kansas for us to live in during the winter months and to house bird and deer hunters.

We are expected to be able to move in this fall! We will still graze cattle and spend the summers in Texas. We so love our ranching lifestyle in Texas, but for a lot of reasons we want to keep offering hunts in Kansas and have our own place to do so. We also look forward to Calvin going to school in Lakin, the same school system from which Jeremy graduated. He will get to spend more time with friends and cousins while we're up there as well.

It's not always easy moving back and forth, but we hope this will make it a little simpler and still allow us to live our gypsy lifestyle. We will continue to offer prairie dog and antelope hunts in Texas, and deer and (assuming it rains again someday) bird hunts in Kansas.

We want to thank all of our hunting clients for allowing us to make this possible! We so appreciate the fact that guiding hunts has allowed us to meet so many interesting people from all around the country. It truly has enriched our lives in so many ways.

Here's the progress as of this morning. Walls are finally going up!

One of those nights

Jeremy returned yesterday after being gone for several days and today we got some things done but mostly spent time enjoying each other's company. After supper we all played soccer in the yard and it was one of those moments I've looked forward to since moving here. When we built the fence and planted the yard and planted the trees I always thought this would be a great place to play with a little one. And it really was.

Nope it still hasn't rained. But that's OK. And he's the reason why.

Staying busy

Here lately, Jeremy's been helping some neighbors brand calves. It's a great way to work horses, meet and visit with people, get dirty and sweaty and put a little money in his pocket.

But that means he's been gone all day which isn't something we're exactly used to. Yesterday Calvin and I went on a not-so-fun trip to the big city for a dentist appointment. It ended with bad news and another appointment made. Today, though, we got in a little fence fixing. Calvin was real helpful. He's actually only pretending to sleep. He spent plenty of time getting too close to tumbleweed-infested fence, all while assuring me, "There's no rattlesnakes in this neighborhood!" Here's hoping he's right!

It's almost SUMMER!

You have to sing  the word "summer" the same way Olaf from Frozen sings it. Really, belt it out.  It will warm you up. And if you haven't seen that movie, please do. It's for all ages. Jeremy, the "I don't watch comics" hater even found Frozen amusing.

Anyway, chilly day today dealing with this:

And makes me wish it were more of a day to do this:

I'm back. It's windy!

I have been on a blogging hiatus of sorts. Sure, we've been posting a few hunting pics but that's it. I apologize. Mostly to myself because I read back through my old blogs and remembered I so enjoyed it.

Reading those also reminded me how enamoured I used to be with ranching and hunting and living on the prairie. But something changed. Yeah, I had an amazing little boy and got busy with that. And sure my freelance career has, well happened, I guess. And that means more writing for money and less time for myself.

But truly the thing that changed was it stopped raining. We haven't had a good year since 2010 and that takes its toll. On everything. If your income isn't directly related to the weather you can't understand but believe me when I say looking out your window for nearly four years and seeing brown, dead and dying grass makes you a little crazy. Or it does me anyway.

And it makes me grumpy and irritable and whiny and just plain no fun. But ya know what that doesn't do? Make it rain.

Being miserable doesn't seem to change anything at all about the weather no matter how much I wish it were that easy to change. So today, a day where the wind has blown dirt at a steady 35 miles per hour with gusts around 50 the ENTIRE day, I vow to continue blogging. I mean it's  bad out. Watch the dust bowl documentary and it's just like that. Seriously nasty.

No matter how depressing it is living on this droughty prairie right now, I'm going to write something. Because ranching isn't all sunny skies and cowboying.