Tag Archives: cattle ranch

That’s the Stuff That a Good Life is Made Of

I don‘t know where the time goes – I hardly write one blog, but another is overdue. I swear I don’t know how I ever had the time to run Grapevine! And here it is, time for another spring round up starting Monday, and it seems to me that it was only yesterday that we finished the last one. … Continue reading

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Living in Close Proximity to Animals

Comanche in the Snow

Comanche in the Snow

You are probably all getting fed up with the photographs of snow scenes from sunny Arizona, so I won’t bore you with the latest, excepting the above of Comanche, looking interestingly like a white layered Easter sponge cake. * Since the last blog, we had at least two such surprises, and now I… Continue reading

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Don’t Lose the Purse!

Apparently the less you have to do, the faster the time passes, although I doubt that someone languishing in a prison would feel the same…. Perhaps it’s because my “less to do” is so singularly attractive, after all the years of cramming two week’s activities into one? Whichever way it is, this swift passage of time can be a bit alarming – and it’s not only I who feels this… Continue reading

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Long Winter Nights

You know how you should never congratulate yourself on anything?? And remember how I was crowing about our warm winter? Well, take a look . . .

Please click on the images below to see the full size version.

On Danny’s days here, I help him with the feeding, which is a pretty light job, as it consists of driving the Polaris while he… Continue reading

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Philosophically Taking Life as it Comes

So – I can hardly believe it’s been several months since my last communiqué – and you can probably hardly believe you are even reading one – always supposing that there is still someone out there who will be reading it!!

But, in all seriousness, you would not have wanted to be reading anything I would have written in the last couple of months, seeing as it was definitely… Continue reading

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“Dally up, dally up”!

Before I get too far into this epistle, take a look at the photo of my two starvelings – “Is it feeding time yet??” Doesn’t that break your heart? They remind me of that character in the Dickens novel (Oliver Twist, wasn’t it?) who, at some meal time or other went up to the front of the refectory holding up his Continue reading

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SHADES OF MY BLUE HEIFER…

Having a herd of cows can cause you some worries, like when it doesn’t rain, or when they climb through the fences and take up camping six miles away on the local golf course, or at any one of a million other times – but sometimes they sure give you a good laugh!

Our first time heifers have begun to calve… Continue reading

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Friendship Does Not Wither

A trustworthy horse can provide invaluable therapy for people caught up in a hectic pace. Riding can help a person shed stress and stop the mental conversations that cause it. Few experiences equal a trail ride in the fresh air, especially if there is gorgeous scenery.… There is nothing quite like a rein-swinging walk to lull a person back into natural rhythms; nothing like a brisk trot with its metronome-like… Continue reading

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Games Animals Play

I think I mentioned before that I have now inherited the bookkeeper’s job at Grapevine, as well as doing the books for the cattle ranch, and that sure keeps me busy! I had forgotten just how much fiddling around there is to bookkeeping, and more so since Quick Books had deemed it necessary to make their program more efficient by making it more complicated! At the cattle ranch I have… Continue reading

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Ah, those Indian Cows!

You are likely quite sick of hearing about our green grass, but as a final comment on it, let me just say that we had the summer round up a whole month later than we should have had it because of the muddy corrals, and, because of the delay and the rains, the late calves we branded were probably 100 lbs heavier than we had expected. Not a bad problem to have, of course, except that the little bulls were far too developed to be castrated, and so will have to be sold, when the brands dry up, in October, as bulls instead of steers – so generating a lower price. There is always a drawback, it seems! But even as I sit here writing this, the ones we sent off this week are probably being loaded onto the buyers’ trucks in Willcox, and on Tuesday we will get the check and see just exactly what they brought. Continue reading

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