Mother Love
Just thought I’d share some of my favorite loving mother images from the past.
Hope you lovely mothers all have a wonderful day. Wishing you all the best. xoxo
Every Mother’s Day I like to reflect back on this post from a couple of years ago, Remembering Mom.
a Friday Chuckle
Sometimes getting a proper portrait of a colt is simply out of the question. You’ve just got to go with what they give you and have a nice chuckle. Happy Friday everyone!
He Spies with a Big Brown Eye
In a barn built in 1881 made of limestone and mule shoes, a peeping pony asked to be petted.
(I had title block so today’s title credit goes to my dear friend Jessica W in my hometown of Macon,GA. Thank you friend. Your print is in the mail. xoxo)
Snowglow
The weatherman threatened a massive blizzard this past weekend and nothing happened. Zilch. Nada. But two nights ago it finally snowed and we had about an inch on the ground yesterday morning. It melted by mid-morning down low but yesterday evening, Squaw Mountain still beamed with a bright snow glow.
My, How You’ve Grown
Remember her?
And her?
Poco’s baby (top) and Kate’s baby (above) were both born a little over a year ago.
I thought you might like to see them now.
Here is Kate’s baby girl all grown up.
Poco’s baby is on the far right and they both were weaned off mama late last year. They were eventually put out in the meadows with our lead mare, Paddy’s Frost aka Rat. They went off with her to keep calm and be “supervised”.
Rat took right to her babysitting duties and takes great pride in showing the girls the way.
In fact, now that the other ranch horses have joined them in the meadows, Rat continues to lead the way.
Best friends forever.
from pink sunsets to gray snowstorms
We had a heckuva snowfall Saturday night. We’re hoping that the wind lays down so we can absorb the moisture. Looks to me like the horses are plotting against working for a living and are going to break into the hay stack.
Watering Holes
I finally got to walk on water.
Well, actually, we walked across the frozen river. Patrick went to crank up the tractor and while it was warming up, we walked over to the river. Notice the deer tracks on the frost on top of the ice.
I mentioned in Below Zero about the deer having to break ice to get a chilly sip. Well by golly, they busted through and have a hole to drink from.
At a different part of the river where the horses and some cattle are grazing, Patrick had to drive over the river a couple times with the tractor to get it busted out. It didn’t break close enough to the edge and I watched while the younger horses tried to walk on the ice to that hole. It was a funny sight watching them slip and slide but they finally gave up and waited for the tractor to go over it again. Rat found a little hole to sip out of in the meantime.
In With a Kick
Live…
…like someone left the gate wide open.
I hope you are running through the gate this New Years Day without fear or hesitation. Kick up your heels, laugh out loud and move forward with purpose and your own personal vision. I love it when a new door, er um gate, opens up. I look forward to see what 2013 has in store.
Yeehaw Y’all!
Bring on the Mistletoe!
Merry Kissmas everyone!
We wish you peace, joy and love and lots of kisses this holiday season. 
Comic Relief
Let’s have a laugh during election day shall we?
This young stud colt has no patience to walk to the creek behind the house to get a drink of water. Instead, he stands over the lawn sprinkler to let little splashes of well water hit his lips before continuing on to a new part of the yard to graze. Silly guy.
Spaz and Red Cat
Hi guys! My calendar is full of shoots and projects for clients last week and this week. I’m not complaining, in fact I’m celebrating, but unfortunately it causes me to neglect this blog. So I wanted to check in this morning and show you this fun little outtake from a shoot for a client selling one of their horses. Spaz the cow herding dog checked in with Red Cat to make sure we were having a good shoot and were showing off his best side.
Hope you are having a good start to your week. Happy shooting!
At Sunset
It’s hard to be outside in the middle of the day because the heat is high and the air is so dry. But I do enjoy a good hike while the sun goes down. Here are some captures of my wanders.
The turkey hens and their chicks are still hanging in there.
We don’t have as many sunflowers this summer like we usually do but a couple have popped up along the road.
There’s a storm rollin’ in.
Patrick is now riding Crazy Alice. After working with her in the round pen during his down time, putting shoes on her fresh hooves, and working her a little around cows and other horses, we feel she’s coming along quite well.
Notice the rain in the left of the image and a partial rainbow, we call a sundog, in the right of the image. But because we are in such a drought, the rain evaporates before making it to down to the ground.
Antelope ran from me and the sound of thunder.
I hope you have a great week. My thoughts today are with the folks along the gulf coast. If I could, I’d take all that rain from you in a heartbeat.
Chasing Butterflies
We have a crew coming out for a branding soon so Patrick is getting rides in on the horses after their long winter of staying in the corral and pigging out on yummy hay. They need the exercise and he likes to get them a little tired out before he puts shoes on them. Horses can be a little ornery when told what to do after months of doing what they want.
After unsaddling a couple horses the other evening, I walked out of the tack room and was swarmed by butterflies and moths. It was unreal, they must have hatched at the very moment I was unsaddling.
So I put the tired horses back in the corral and ran around for an hour with my camera.
They were exploring every bush and every flower and they wouldn’t stay still long enough to be photographed. But I like these two, hope you do too!
Saltin’ the Cows
Patrick is working with Crazy Alice these days. She’s a two year old filly here on the ranch.
He loaded a pack saddle with two hundred pounds of salt and led her out to the cattle. Cows need iodine in their diet just like we do.
We walked her through the cattle, tagged calves, and made small commotions to get her used to the real world.
Putting weight on her and walking her through the cows is a way to get her warmed up to an eventual ride. Stay tuned for that. I’ll be standing on the outside of the pen to tell Patrick what happened when he gets bucked off!
What a Week!
The last few days have been utterly amazing, very busy and extremely heartwarming. Three of my most favorite friends came out for a visit and we had a blast. While they were here we worked on a video shoot for a client of theirs, a photo shoot for a client of mine, Uprooted Magnolia was featured on the WordPress list of “8 Gorgeous Nature Blogs for Earth Day”, and I received a call from an ad agency here in Wyoming for several photo shoots for this upcoming summer. Wow, it’s been a whirlwind! I now call this trio my good luck charms. I did put them to work on the ranch however. We moved some cows and brought Poco and Kate and their colts to new pasture. They watched a calf being born from a distance, viewed several turkey struts, and we even stumbled on a snake or two. Yikes!
I’ve got to get back to work on processing the images from my shoot this past weekend but I wanted to check in with you and say THANK YOU. Thank you to my now 510! followers, new and old. You all have been a great support and inspiration. I love hearing from you and am flattered beyond words that WordPress would feature my images for the community to see. I am truly grateful.
I’ll see you soon.
L♥ve,
Leah
Foggy Monday
The Cooney Hills through a blanket of fog.
It’s a beautiful morning here on the ranch. I love when there is a blanket of fog through the meadows. The damp air is a nice change from the dry temps we have experienced these last few weeks.
I captured this image on the way to feed the little bum calf this morning. He’s a little spitfire y’all!
Hog Pigs
Musical meadows continues. Patrick moved the ladies even closer and they are eating it right up.
This meadow flooded when the river was so high and he couldn’t put it up for hay. So let the grazing begin!
They also like dips and sips in the river. That water is a little too chilly for me but more power to you girlfriend.
Oh…and one more thing.
At sundown yesterday, we put Kate and her filly in with the others. As you can probably imagine by the picture above, there was a lot of rootin’ and a-tootin’! She tricked them by going through the open gate to the neighboring meadow and Pepper, Alice, and Poco were running wild trying to get to them. It’ll be interesting to see if they’ve figured out they don’t have to be separated. In the meantime, don’t get kicked!
Whiskers
“This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine.” (name that movie)
Alice is always up in my business. Whenever I pass through the meadow she’s comes right up to see what I’m up to… and apparently to see what I smell like. ‘Cause when I turn around, I get this:
*sniff sniff snort*
It’s a good thing we’re not dance partners.
Speaking of up close and personal,
Kate’s baby is so cute. Just check out her whiskers!
The snow is gone but we are still dealing with high winds. Yesterday was warm but springtime really doesn’t kick in until June so…I guess I’ll take the tossed in warm days between snow days any time they want to appear.
Happy Monday my friends!
Live…
..like somebody left the gate open.
I saw that phrase on the internet captioning a picture of a dog running it’s little heart out with a smile on his face across a meadow. I immediately thought of it when we brought Poco and her filly out of her corral and into the wide open meadows.
This little tike ran…
and ran…
and ran. She made about 5 circles around Poco and I while we waited for Patrick to get all the gates.
Then she’d check in with her mom….and start it all over again.
Happiness is running like the Wyoming wind in wide open spaces. Happy Friday everyone!
A Weekend of Firsts
Phew! This was a very eventful and COLD weekend. Like 10 degrees and below cold.
We got our first calf. Ironically from heifer #1, a first time mother on Saturday.
Poco’s filly started eating hay. She would eat a few bites, and then go suckle. So cute!
Yep. Those are icicles on her little ears. It’s THAT cold!
Kate and family had “no comment” and went on to find a spot to lay down.
As if we weren’t cold enough and covered in 5 inches of snow already, we woke up to a our first deep frost of the year on Sunday morning.
So we moved the cows from the pasture across the river…
…to our backyard.
Then Patrick went to feed the bulls a couple pastures over and the tractor broke down.
So we had to tow it back home. Him driving backwards in the working tractor and me steering the broken down tractor. Not easy. And not my favorite adventure thus far.
We walked into the house just before dark. I put a couple more logs on the fire, wrapped up in fleece head to toe, opened a bottle of Chianti, and enjoyed my couch and the Grammy’s.
6 comments