Moving On.

I've been gone for a while.  So much has happened over the past months, I'm not sure where to begin!  I have laid a quick summary out for you below.

First, I'm sad to say that we no longer live in New Mexico.  We packed up our little ranch house, livestock, and kiddos and drove halfway across the country to Washington State.  It was a bit of a sudden decision, but here we are.  If you have been following me for a while, you know that all of our family live here in Washington, and it was just time to be closer to them.

My little ones have never seen the ocean, or any kind of large body of water before.  Now that we are in Washington, we thought it necessary.  So, one day we bundled up and took a ferry boat trip to Vashon Island.  It was wet and cold, but absolutely wonderful!

Our heifer we brought along with us from New Mexico, had a little heifer of her own.  She is a couple of hours old in this photo and has already grown so much since then! 

I ran the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon - photo taken at the start line.

I reopened Fresh Picked Patchwork here in Washington and survived my first craft show!  I will be at the Puyallup Farmers Market this Fall - so if you're from the area stop by!



 

 I will have more on sewing and other matters, but for now thank you.  I appreciate all of you readers and have truly missed this aspect of the sewing community. 

 

Summer Days

These lazy summer days are going by way to fast!  Okay, so ours aren't really lazy.  We've just finished up artificial inseminating 50+ head of cattle, transferred roughly 25 embryos into our recipient cows, I ultra sounded 20+ head of cattle, and have had 66 calves born thus far.

Both kiddos are in the preschool summer school program and are having a blast.  Yesterday they "visited" Italy on their train tour of Europe.  It's exciting to hear what they learn and eat at each stop.  The teachers joke that they are "eating their way through Europe" as at each "stop" they make a food from that place.  In Wales they had welsh cake, in Italy pasta, etc.

Since Aslyn is going much more regularly now, I made her  a lunchbox just like her brothers.  Instead of trains, I used a couple of the Puppy Park prints I had won at Sewing Summit last year, as well as pieces from my stash.

Finished these kitchen towels from Patchwork, Please! 

Well, I'm off to chaufer kids to school!  Have a happy Thursday!

Photo Friday - 2012

Busy Little Bees

Things have been pretty crazy around here.  School started back up,  Logan is now in Pre-K.  We are just getting used to the school year schedule again.

My little Aslyn turned 2 years old!  Where does the time go?  Since one of Logan's teacher's birthday is the day before Aslyn's, we all took the tram in Albuquerque up to the top of the Sandia Mountains and had dinner.

 

 

Lots and lots of cattle work being done.  Ultra sounding (I am the ultrasound tech), breeding, embryo flush and transferring. 

We spent most of Labor Day weekend working, but managed to get away on Monday.  We drove up to Nambe and played in the water holes.

 

I did manage to squeeze in one little project.  After being asked for a business card and not having any on me, I decided I needed a business card holder.  After searching the web for a few tutorials, I got the general gist of it and put this one together.  This little project is great for those lingering scraps.

Lastly, my iron died on me.  Luckily, I had just finished reading the iron reviews in the debut issue of Generation Q magazine.  An order to Amazon and now I am impatiently waiting for my new iron to arrive.

Hope all has been well with you!

Photo Friday

Photo Friday

2012 Preschool Field Trip

Well, I said I would post a little bit  about the field trip we had out here at Lone Mountain Ranch.  As I mentioned last year, my son's preschool and us decided to make this field trip an annual event.

We were told that this years field trip topped 2011's.  Most of everything was similar, first a walking tour of the shop, working facility, observatory, and the old jail out here. 

Then onto a hay ride where we drove the kids to the hay barn, calving barn and up to the bull pens.  However, this year we had a newly born calf that the kids got to pet, Logan not only led his horse Rocket around for everyone to see, this time (with the parent's permission) Logan led Rocket around with his classmates taking turns riding him.  Instead of pouring grain out of the grain truck into a bucket for them to see, we let them climb the ladder to the grain trailer and peek inside (20 tons of grain!) 

Another new addition this year, we actually made it out to the farm portion of the ranch. 

Unfortunatley, this is the only photo I got!  You can view more of last year's field trip here.

It had snowed a few days before the field trip, but luckily the New Mexico sun dried everything up just in time!

Now, how to outdo 2013?!

New Arrivals

Over the last few days, the ranch has been excitedly welcoming a few new Spring arrivals.  First, this guy was born...

Next, this little one joined the world...

Then...Hey how did she get in here?

My silly girl.

Field Trip to LMR

On Friday, Lone Mountain Ranch had their very first group of kids come out for a field trip. Logan's preschool, Cibola House, came out - roughly 11 kids and 10 adults.

Having snack before setting off to tour the ranch.

After snack and bathroom breaks, we headed to the shop, working facility, jail, observatory, and since the kids requested to see horses, JP had locked them all up.  Boy were they putting on a show for the kids.  AHAB (our horse) was sticking his head out anywhere he could to smell the kids and get them to pet him.  Some kids ran along the fence line and the horses would "chase" them.  Separately, sat Rocket waiting for Logan...

Logan leading Rocket for his class to see.  Look at that smile!!



We attached a trailer to one of the trucks and set small hay bails along the edges for everyone to sit.  Our little hayride around brought us to the haybarn where all the kids got to see our huge hay bails, and the tractor we use to load them onto the trucks (several of the kids are into heavy machinery equipment and requested to see the ranch's and know what they do.)  We pulled out grain and gave handfuls to each kid to see and feel.  After they haybarn, onto the calving barn.  Everyone was so excited to see all the baby calves (there were 12 calves born - some only a day old.)

Calving Barn



From the calving barn, down to the sale arena and up to the bulls (big daddy cows) as the kids call them.  We were going to go see the farm as well, but the irrigation guy was out there working that day and we didn't want to disturb him.

I was so excited to have all these kids out here!  I made these cupcakes to pass out at lunch time.

After lunch and another bathroom break, everyone just kind of hung around and talked (two kids left - Emma and a little Japanese boy who is actually starting in May but came on the field trip.)  I was standing in my yard talking to a few parents and watching.

All the kids were in my yard playing.  Logan, Thora, and Aryn were taking turns pulling each other in the wagon, Eric loved Logan's excavator and spent his time driving it around and digging, Maizy and Natalie  (twin sisters) were arguing over whose turn it was on Logan's blue horse.  Josiah, Eloise, and Ella were all in my garden area with shovels, rakes, buckets and a few of Logan's toy diggers and loaders moving dirt around and digging holes.  You can just imagine how tickled pink I was with all of this!!!

When parents tried gathering their kids up to leave, there was much, "I don't want to go" and some pouting.  One Dad tried the, "Fine, I'll leave you here and you can stay all of Spring Break."  His daughter said, "OKAY!!"  

We received an e-mail from Miss Allison and Miss Debbie (the teachers) saying thank you and the two kids they drove in were saying "bye" to every cow, horse, tree, and rock on the way out.  Josiah told his mom that, "the longer we drove on the hayride the bigger the ranch got until it was HUGE."

It was settled that as long as one of our kids are at the preschool, there will be a field trip to Lone Mountain Ranch.

**Note: I didn't get to take as many pictures since I was answering questions and such.  I know the teachers and a few of the parents were snapping away so if I can, I'll try to get some of their pictures and post those.