What do you see first in the picture?

What do you see first in this picture of the sky this morning?  Did you see the white or the dark storm clouds first.  If you saw the white your cup is half full...the dark its half empty.  Think about this going into the New Year.  My mother use to say when I would complain about something or someone,
think of 3 positive things about the situation, or what can you do to change the situation.

Just a thought.  But think about it next time you look into the sky....are you seeing the Light or the darkness.

Happy New Years!

May God Bless you and your family this coming year!  Keep checking back for more stories of The Ranch and natural ideas for your family.

Mark your calendars for April.  That is when the first foals are due!  It will be spring before we know it.

Running out of time for Christmas cookies...Try my cheater version!

Years ago I made the homemade sugar cookies.  Which involved making the dough, refrigerating the dough and than hopefully at the right time rolling out the dough!  My family loves sugar cookies, so this year I took the cheaters way out.  I bought the cookie dough in the refrigerated section, baked and than I made my frosting.  (I think they just like the frosting!)  A little red sprinkles and wala sugar cookies.

Here is the recipe for the frosting:  1/2cup softened butter, 2 tsp of vanilla, approximately 2 cups of powdered sugar and add milk for the right consistency.  Make sure you mix this until it is smooth and delicious.  Frost and decorate cookies!

Honey for Coughs

Its the time of the year for those nagging coughs!  You have tried everything and it is just irritating.

Try a little honey.  It coats the throat and is soothing for a temporary fix to that cough!  The plus side is honey tastes good and you can repeat this as necessary.

Pics of Tree

Jessica after putting Rossi's ornament up

Travis getting the last part of the tree up with the Star!

Trying to get part 1 back to the bottom and part three back to its place!

The tree, kids and me

Pic of tree

Christmas at the Ranch!

Take a 14 foot ceiling, 12 foot tree, 10 foot ladder, tons of ornaments and add 4 kids! You have the start of Christmas. The preparations start with getting two huge boxes, 6 totes and assorted items up the stairs. Getting this done before the UFC Fight was on (so we had men carry them) and dinner cooked so the crew was fed all before any of this could start was like running a small country!

The girls (women) finally wrestled the tree into the stand and added the 4 parts to make the 12 foot high tree, only to find that part number 1 was where part number 3 should have been. The tree looked like someone had chopped the bottom off. My son came in as the tree was toppling over on the girls and with a lot of laughter and cussing part one was put in its place!

The star is a big part of our tree. However, I need a new one but the tree got up before I could replace it. So the old one will do.

The boxes containing the ornaments were opened and so were the memories of the heart. Every year since the kids were little (30 years plus) everyone in the family received a personal ornament. I try to make it reflect what was going on that year in their life. But in addition if you are part of our life that year and around at Christmas you get a special ornament with your name, and the year. You have to leave it here and it goes on the tree.

This year my daughter Jessica had to put her dog of 13 years down, Rossi. The vet did a paw print ornament for her. I had put it away earlier this year and brought it out and gave it to her. She cried and put it on the tree along with the one I gave her the year she got Rossi.

So our tree is more than a Christmas Tree it is a Memory Tree a diary of our lives.

Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever you celebrate!

PS Picture of me and grandkids with a done tree!

An amazing true story of a horse.

You all know that I LOVE HORSES! So much so that when Secretariat came out my grandson Jonathon went to it and called me immediately on the phone to tell be about it. He was 6 at the time and knew I would love to hear about it. This is an email that I received about the new movie "War Horse" which will be out in December. I loved it. It truly is remarkable that an animal would have that much heart and compassion to do what she did. Please read it and let me know what you think.

In light of the movie War Horse which is coming out Christmas, I thought you all would appreciate reading about this War Horse Hero named Reckless. What a story-and true. She was an amazing little horse!
This horse is a hero . . . don't know if you have seen this, but it is truly amazing

This horse was a pack horse during the Korean War; she carried recoilless rifles, ammunition and supplies to Marines. Nothing too unusual about that, lots of animals got pressed into doing pack chores in many wars.

But this horse did something more . . . during the battle for a location called Outpost Vegas, this mare made fifty one (51) trips up and down the hill—on the way up she carried ammunition and on the way down she carried wounded Marines.

What was so amazing?

She made every one (1) of those trips without anyone leading her.

I can't imagine a horse carrying a wounded Marine, being smacked on the rump at the top of the hill and heading back to the "safety" of the rear. But to imagine the same horse, loaded with ammunition and trudging back to the battle where artillery is going off, without anyone leading her is unbelievable.

To know that she would make fifty one (51) of those trips is unheard of. Hell, how many horses would even make it back to the barn once, let alone return to you in the field one (1) single time.

So here is a clip of her story and photos to prove where she was and what she did .
. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIo3ZfA9da0

She was retired to the Marine Corps Base @ Camp Pendleton, California where a General issued the following order . . . she was never to carry any more weight on her back except her own blankets. She died in 1968 at the age of twenty (20).

P.S.: Just how bad was the battle for Outpost Vegas? Artillery rounds impacted at the rate of five hundred (500) per hour and only two (2) men made it out alive without wounds—just two (2) . . . and a horse and she was wounded twice.

Horse Shots

Will continue this weekend. Sorry for the delay but my camera battery went dead. It is now charging.

Thank you for your patience!

Lost Creek Ranch 4"How do you give a horse a shot?"

Hey, had a lot of inquires into "How do you give a horse a shot?" They are a big animal and that's a needle in the rear end. Don't they kick?

Well tomorrow morning when we are doing the shot I will do a play by play. Its not fun, and it helps if the horse is a willing participant. I don't know its a big needle!

Check in tomorrow and see how we give a shot! Oh this is a picture of the area it goes in.

Stay warm!

Life on the Ranch 3 "Cold and Snowy Days!

Really...it was 62 yesterday and the high today has already come and gone. Its not even noon.

The high today is 28. When it changes that drastically it is hard on all the animals. Except of course Kia(the Alaskan Malmute) whe loves it. Yesterday Tysen(the Black Friesian Stallion) had the start of a cold. So he is locked inside, dry and warm and he gets a shot of penicillin once a day. We will do this for 3 days and see how he feels. The two babies(foals) are also locked in to keep them dry and warm. They are doing great!

I can't wait to see the sun, warm and thaw again. Thank heavens in Colorado that could be hours, or days. But never months like Minnesota.

Stay warm!