Copper Experiment

It's a experiment! I had copper wire I polished and made into bangle bracelets.It's the wire off the telephone poles! Copper doesn't bend as easy as u think! That's why it's all crooked.  At first I tried SOS pads then polish. Non of it was working to get all the caked up black tarnish off from years of outdoor exposure. I finally got smart went down to the shop and used the wire brush on the grinder. Duh..... 

    They say you wear copper your arthritis doesn't hurt as bad. It's worth a try. It didn't cost me anything.I talked to a bull Dozer man that absolutely swears by it.

I have more wire to play with but I'm gonna have to get better at dealing with it than this!

Love

Ranchmama 

Sunday Roundup!

Looks like a normal move the cow here to there thing doesn't it ?

Ain't no way in heck!

Hubby went out and did a little much needed brush hogging. You know how much fun mowing your yard is? Imagine 800 acres with a little woods and a whole lot of grass! You are never ever done. If you don't keep up with it you get a tremendous amout of weeds! Those weeds will shade out and take all the water away so the grass doesn't grow to feed the cows. We have sprayed for weeds in the past but we really don't like to and it's very exspensive. So driving around brush hogging takes the same amount of time and fuel but is cheaper you would think. The deal is when you spray it is more permanent ! Well anyway he went out and cut the weeds until he was worn out. Coming back over one of the bridges he looked down as we always do to see if the water gap is blocked with fencing. It's one of those things you don't spend a lot of time and money just use old posts and wire to get the job done. The next flood is going to take it all out anyway. It's been out for a while but it had a lot of water that you don't want to work in to fix it. I'm not kidding, it just dried up 1 day and we were going to get the helper to fix it.

    Before the help could get here even hubby notices a whole bunch of cow tracks heading under the bridge to cousin Sam's bunch of land.

   Hubby counted and found we had 11 heifers out in SAMs ! He came back just so steamed! Fussing and cussing about he's too tired, too old and how in the #%^* is gonna get them back??!! Here he is 62 yo with Parkinson's and he is supposed to go chase down cows over on the cousins head high weedy place!

    I tried calling and texting cousin to get the key but no luck. One thing we have learned about that place is as soon as you located them get them out because if they scatter it is almost impossible to get them all or in one day!

   We got lucky and saw them from the road and they were all together. Tried to get them to go back into the creek where they came from and they wouldn't have it! Scared them to death! So he chased them on foot west then chased them back east a long ways. 

     I was on the road in Old Blue honking the horn and calling them an banging on the side of the truck to let them know where to head too. Helper showed up but he had to hide in the bushes because they just get a peek of him and run the other way ! Helper said this is a one man herd for sure !

    Finally heifers stopped at cousins gate waiting to be let out. No keys still so hubby cut the wires next to the gate opening it up to let them through . Nope! Wouldn't have it! Had a bucket with feed to get them to the gate now he put some just outside the fence. Took forever to get one through that gap! Then finally after a while got 3 more out. Couldn't get the others to step out so I headed them down the road. Hubby didn't like that. The other cows that wouldn't come through scattered but we had 4 so I wanted to get them up before our other cows on the other side of the road talking to them found the open creek again! 

     The pictures above is me driving down the road with them up the side against our fence line running with the contained cows . Hubby is walking behind this bunch I am beside in the truck along the road and helper is up hiding by the gate just in case they want to keep going down the road instead of turning into the gate. As soon as we get them in the gate hubby jumps on the tailgate to get a much needed ride down the drive to the pasture gate . Get that bunch in we have to start over again. 

      The other bunch had followed and was just across the road from the house and of course they jus HAD to get hubby to tromp another quarter mile away through all those weeds and the creek down to the same gate they wanted to get out of again! just in time cousin Sam drives up with a key! Holy cow!! It would have been so much easier to have this a few hours ago! Oh well so now we do the same walking, honking , yelling, and banging on the door for the quarter mile road trip back home. This time we have cousin Sam in his truck filling in gaps! 

  It was for sure a process. Took about 4 hrs to get them back! In all that time we only had one truck come by. Cousin Sam  was nice enough to give us a spare key. It don't happen often but maybe next time it will keep hubby from almost dying! Helper fixed the cousins fence we cut and will fix the creek in the morning .  

      Poor Hubby is so miserable! Can't even eat. To much walking too much brush too much heat too much everything !

   Got him cleaned up, Rhus tox for poison Ivy in him, medicine on his toe blister,  1 mist to drink,  gave him a mini rub down. Trying to feed Him but won't eat. Yet. I finally got him to eat a tiny bit about midnight when he woke up 

     So it took me at least till noon to feel like I was going to recuperate and I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies for everyone to say thank you.

  So I made 3.5 dozen which I see isn't enough. I doubled the recipe. Daughter Nikki got me these cool stackable cooling  racks! I need more cookies to fill up the last rack though !

   Well so far we all survived ! We now know we have diva cows that although there is plenty of nice grass here it is always greener through the creek on the other side and they MUST have the gate opened to come back home ! Lol

Love

Ranchmama

Sssss..... 3 AM Surprise

I had a video but haven't figured out how to up load it.

4 am Wednesday bathroom run and look what my left big toe touched in the floor. I thought it was trash until I turned to look. Then I thought man that's a big worm... No that's a snake! !!!

I hollered at hubby and was really lucky to wake him up. He was asleep in the living room recliner . I yelled his name a few times. He finally said what ? I told him there's a snake in here!!! Either he couldn't hear me well or it just didn't make sense. LOL it took several times to get through to him it was a snake and to get something so we could kill it! I couldn't open the door or it would get away. Still it was so skinny ( about as big around as U'r little finger) he was about to sneak out under ther door.

     He finally got a broom and I told him to stand back away from the door since it was right at it. We opened the door and I  held it squished down with the broom while he got the trash can. I got lucky it held on to the broom and I shook it off into the can.

It got bagged up put into the big trash can and tied up in it. 

Dang! Whew! I have no clue how it got into the house! We keep everything closed all the time!!!  Not only that this is a tight house. We are thinking maybe it got through the a/c pipe that allows the wiring to come in from outside. It's plugged up good now! 

Even if it might have been as big around as my pinky and a foot long or so.

Pigmy Rattler can be deadly I bet!

    Both my daughters said I need a cat if Heidi Ho wouldn't eat it! 

   It's funny in the video hubby was slightly excited and saying a few wordy dirds telling me not to get so ##%**# close or I would get bit! I thought it was funny because I could hear myself laughing about it. Even funnier when I saw that brown band aid stuck to the bag! Fat lot of good that did there.

    Another thing.... I wasn't screaming and hollering like panic come save me ! I don't know why I stay calm usually during that kind of thing . I just wanted to keep it from getting away !

     Still it's like finding 1 tick on u. You find one and you feel more. I can't help but wonder if there is a mate or nest under the cement somewhere ! Lol

Love

Ranchmama 

( wishing I could have gone back to sleep after snake wrangling this morning! )

Arthritis and Doorknobs

Age seems to be catching up with my husband. With the issue of Parkinson's it has made stiffness and arthritis a problem some days. 

    To help make life a little easier I went all around the house and replaced these ugly doorknobs ....

 

With something not only much easier to use but a heck of a lot prettier! 

    4 outside locking doorknobs and 7 indoor locking knobs tore the heck up out of $300 . I think I wiped out Lowes current supply of this style. I had to return one that was defective but it's all done now.

      I was even able to key all the outside locks alike so we only have to use one key! Yippee  ! Smaller keychains are always nice.

Love

Ranchmama

( dealing with older age is for sure not easy ) 

India Market Fun

                               

                                                              Rose Matta Rice

Last Wednesday I was in OKC and went to a grocery store named Taste of India. I like to go to ethnic stores. It's almost like going to a whole new world! 

     It was so fun! Of course hubby stayed in the truck but he had A/C so I wasn't worried . 

      It was a lot like the other stores clean but plain. The first thing I saw was a hip high stack if pressure cookers! Weird ! They had little ones that were as big around as your hand spread out and big ones big enough for canning. There were all kinds of different flours to cook with I had never heard of before. In small 1 pounders to 20 pounds or more. Then I saw isles of different kinds of dried peas, lentils and beans. Which explained the pressure cookers! None of these kinds of foods grace my table enough to purchase. 

      The one thing I did see I recognized how to cook was rice ! They had so many different kinds! I saw one or two I had seen in Sams but most was a stranger to me. The one I have pictured above was a interesting color and flavor. It was rose colored but had a very slight nutmeg flavor. Fun and interesting served with chicken breast. I would do it again some day . 

 Take a look at the others I will be trying again soon! Jasmine rice and brown sona rice . Oh yes I found some sanwa millet and toasted vermicelli to learn how to fix some day to. 

                   

        Something else that was interesting was the spices ! Oh now I would say they were running neck and neck with the Mexican market on variety but this was different. This store had more whole seeds that were tempting to take home and plant I mean big 8 ounce looking bags! 

      I also found some curcurmin roots to learn how to grow. What fun!! 

                     

     

    Ugly little things and about as big around as your index finger. A lot smaller than I thought.

     Now if I can just get the ginger to grow I will have some really potent medicine available. It was strange to go to the store and not see a meat department. Many of the people in India are vegetarian so that explained that.

     Well that's all about my fun for the weekly outing. If anyone has some good recipes using some of these things send them to me to look at.

Love

Ranchmama 

Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookie

I know there a millions of all time best chocolate chip cookie recipes out there but this is my new really good one I have found. It reminds me the flavor of a Chips Ahoy cookie when I put the extra cocoa powder in. The cookie dipper or the measurement they use of rounded teaspoons makes a small bite size cookie which a different for me since I like a much larger cookie but it was still hard to resist when you walk buy a stack of them. Hubby really liked them a lot and also had a hard time resisting. 

Love
Ranchmama

Another Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe -- All Butter
http://www.cookiemadness.net/2008/05/another-crunchy-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe-all-butter/

 

Cook time 12 mins

 

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups (220 grams), stir and aerate flour before measuring
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate cocoa  (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment.
2. Sift or thoroughly whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and both sugars with an electric mixer;
4. Add egg and vanilla and beat until egg is mixed in.
5. Add flour mixture and stir until incorporated.
6. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto the parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes (or longer) or until the edges start to brown.

**** NOTES ****
ADD about 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate cocoa to the dry flour to give it all a really good taste boost.
I cook them the 12 min time in my oven because if you go longer when they cool they really get a little too hard.
I also like to use the small to medium small cookie / ice cream scoop to measure out the dough for cooking.
If you have a scale it doesn't matter, but if you are measuring by volume, make sure to really stir and aerate the flour thoroughly before measuring.
The baking powder prevents the cookies from browning quickly, so it seems the cookies can bake a longer time and becoming crunchier without burning or getting overly brown. I baked mine on an insulated cookie sheet, so if you notice your bottoms are browning too fast, switch to an insulated cookie sheet or stack you cookie sheet on top of another one to make your own insulated sheet.

The Voice

Is such a powerful yet sometimes soothing sound. One of the things when you meet a person you analyze subconsciously is a persons face and overall appearance the next is usually the voice. 

   There are so many voices in our lives daily. They portray authority figures in our public service people. Maybe that authority person is your boss, teacher, parent, or in some cases a significant other. ( Doesn't that sound generic?!) let's say something more specific a husband or wife, yes there is always someone in the family that wears the pants it usually works better that way.

     We also have the sound of the voice coming to us in music. Music can have so many effects on a person. I think and hope it does more good than harm. I am amazed though at how many people have nonstop music hourly and daily bombarding their consciousness. Some folks have so much music voices preoccupying their brain I sometimes wonder what they are hiding/running from that they have to take up all their thought space with music to push out anything else. 

    Now we come down to our electronic voices . I don't mean the ones you hear  I am talking about text messaging and emails. These things sometimes take over our daily time.  

    So what is this long post all about?? I'm not really sure. Maybe it all depends on you and how the voices in your life rule your life. Maybe it depends on your age and what generation you belong to. I am from a time when we worried about our long distance bill on the hard line. Then there was the cell phone where we worried about our minutes and being out of our zone / range costing too much money to call family out of town or state. Many of us developed habits of saving money / minutes and only visited our people we love and care about on the phone on special occasions losing some of the closeness we need and crave that we once had. 

      It dawned on me that with all the phone package deals there is no reason not to hear someone I care about anywhere in the country and now with some companies anywhere in North America on a daily basis. 

   I don't need a music voice or a voice of authority or any voice other than someone I care about in my head or ears. If I can do it in person all the better. 

   The Voice ---  it's becoming a lost art. To use the proper tone to even have a suitable vocabulary to be able to express yourself properly without expletives or to have a vocabulary with words longer than five letters.

    Your Voice use it or lose the people close to you maybe. 

   Call them up and say "I haven't heard your voice lately" and hear their smile and maybe even their surprise.

Love

Ranchmama 

Home is sometimes where that familiar voice is for some of us.