Thursday, March 27, 2014

Spring in Oklahoma

There are some things in a Oklahoma spring I really enjoy.
      The yellow forsythia is always one of my favorites.

Then there is our beautiful lilac bushes on the west side of the old settlement house that may very well be knocking on 100 years old. 

Then as we drive the country roads or drive around our pastures looking for a new calf I see all the gorgeous red bud trees just on the edge of the woods and streams and scattered here and there deep inside the bushes.
     When my mother was alive I loved to get together with her and go drive and enjoy all the redbuds.

Then in the yard and out in the newly greening pastures we see clumps of 
Clover

We also have our annual spring geese out in the pasture that nest down by the east pond. Funny thing is I have never seen the babies. This is as close as I could get to them without Heidi Ho scaring them or them just flying off

Here are the turkeys down on one of the bottom ground areas. Sometimes we count over 40 . I just wish the pic could be expanded so you could see them good.


    Now anyone that knows me knows I don't hide anything. There is always good with the not so good right beside it.
      Of course with each spring you get a new set a young wildlife. 
Which Heidi Ho promptly caught a baby squirrel and decided to turn it into a squeak toy! I finally got close enough to her when she quit bouncing away and convinced her the beef soup bones was a lot tastier than spitting out squirrel fur!! Lol regretfully it wasn't in time to save the squirrel . 
     Another Oklahoma spring thing is Tornadoes and earthquakes! So far both have skirted around us this year. 
This is a good pic from Texas A & M

Well that is a lot of the things in our part of Oklahoma that we call spring!!
    Hope you enjoyed the pics

Ranchmama 

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Cookies all dressed up and ready to go!




Here's the recipe, it makes a bunch so be ready for a place to store them.

Mrs K's Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe  (Mrs. K is my Mother in Law)
Bake at 375* 10 - 12 min or until brown

Cream Together
4 - Cups Sugar
2 - Cups Short. or (1 c Short + 1 c. Butter)

Add and cream together once more
2 - Cups Peanut Butter

Slowly add or it will be all over the place
1/2 - Milk
4 - t. Vanilla

Add these one at a time until light creamy and almost fluffy
4 - eggs 

In a seperate bowl mix these dry ingredients
7 - Cups AP/ Flour
2 - Teaspoons Salt
4- Teaspoons Soda

Now  add all the dry ingredients a big spoonful at a time and watch out once again or you will look like the Pillsbury dough boy all nice and white. Mix well.
    Once everything is mixed well I like to use a small ice cream scoop it makes a cookie drop about the size of a ping pong ball maybe. 
   I do grease the cookie sheet. They don't spread much but I only put them about 3 across the narrow side of the pan. I them press them down slightly. ( My mother in law used to dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and press them down then ) I like to use a old fashioned potato masher that has wire squares. When I press down the squares pop up and it gives the cookie nice texture and crispyness. Looks good too.
   When they come out they are soft so let them cool a little before putting them on cooling racks to finish out.

**** You can add any kind of choc chip or chunk, butterscotch chips, dip in chocolate or just drizzle. You can also put 2 cookies together with choc fudge frosting in the middle to make it just dangerous to eat!

Ranchmama 

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Peanut Butter Cookies

It's 9 pm and look what I have been doing ..... 
       When I make cookies I don't mess around with a couple dozen. I figure it's the same mess so might as well do 6-7 dozen and share. These are Hubbies favorite cookies. I got the recipe from his mother. I had to tweek it a little bit to make it more crunchie to his liking but it is the house peanut butter cookie recipe . Comes out almost perfect most times. This time I added some chocolate chunk to the last batch. He won't eat them but others will. 
      He got a warm cookie and a glass of milk out of the first batch delivered to him in the living room! Made him feel all loved an all that mushy stuff! Lol
    Warning ... It could make you drool. :-)  
















I made the first batch a little large. I wish I had done chocolate to drizzle over them !


Ahhhh don't know if you can see the chocolate chunks but they taste good 
      Ok so you've seen my mess.... Now I have to get it cleaned up and the gifts wrapped for delivery. 

Ranchmama 

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Quiet


9:30 pm Wednesday night. R we doing anything exciting? Maybe even constructive? Hmmm.... I think we did that earlier in the day all the way to the city today did business, some shopping for needful things, a little looking around.
      We get back and Hubby unloads feed and later we go pick Old Blue. Old blue is the old 1985 pick'em up war horse of a pick up we use on the ranch. We found someone just down the road from us that can recover the seats and fix other pretty things on trucks. My Oh My ! Wow! Made a huge difference! I will post pics soon and show u. 
    We r now being such lazy bones. After supper Hubby didn't last long in the recliner since he started his day before 5 am and being busy all day with travel then catching up on work when we got home. So while he snoozed Heidi Ho finished off his steak bone in the garage and now in the house on her pillow covered up with her blankie. An I watched a movie all tucked in with a blankie on with my feet up listening to the quiet drizzle of a gentle rain outside. So nice and peaceful feeling. 

   No more demands on me to take care of almost 17 yo Sassy dog since we had to let her go last Wednesday . I have been 2 yrs straight taking care of old doggies with Petey dog the year before needing so much time an extra loving. 

Sometimes I forget to enjoy the peace. 

I miss my big kids not being around and especially my Jon not being here with us. But this is the place for this age of life. Every now and then I just need to remember sometimes this kind of quiet is a good healing thing .

Ranchmama 
( just sitting back in the quiet ) 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

What a Prince !

I have always said I am a Princess. I am so spoiled every day. 
   Here we are having such strange Oklahoma weather with single digits in early March with frozen sleet and snow on the ground .....
    Today as we were both leaving in different auto's I was still doing hair and getting ready to go out the door and he was outside warming up my Chevy crew cab and he even turned on the leather seats so when I finally got out the door and landed in the truck it was so nice and warm. Even the toosh was warm!! 
     Now that is just one of the things my Prince does for me. It is sure nice being a Princess! 

Ranchmama