Scrapping the Past Ten Days --- So Relaxing

I've just had to forget the frustrations of the aftermath of Ike. As of today still no adjuster to take a look at the house or office. We could have had it so much worse. I'm just glad we didn't. Mom on the other hand is having to deal with FEMA, the house has been partially gutted. She is taking it so well. Then comes the economics and the election... oh I'm so tired of it all I stay away from the news.

I must say that "Saturday Night Live" is doing the best job on the election spoofs since the days of "The Not Ready for Prime Time Players." Just too funny!

Scrapping has kept me relaxed and focused on what I love, my family and keeping our family history.

I have four sketch or inspiration blogs for scrapping. You'll see links to them on my blog. I hope you'll find inspiration as I have. I decided I'd share my favorite LO's I've done over the past 10 days. This was for week #39 of 52 Sketches...52 Weeks Sketch Challenge Blog.



I loved visiting Rocky Springs United Methodist Church all over again as I scrapped the photos Lynn took. I loved the smell and history of the church. The smell was of a very old building, not musty just old wood. Then to walk through the cemetery was like walking into the past. Lynn and I took the route to Jackson, MS so we could go up the Natchez Trace. Lynn didn't remember any of the Trace from when we took the kids to Dee-Dee's when they were 6 and 5. The only remains of the town of Rocky Springs is a few metal items, markers with the history of the town and the church.





The next LO is for last week for Pink Sketches. This is a wonderful inspiring blog. I've followed the blog since it began, but this past week was the first time I've been able to submit a LO and complete four of the sketches I was behind on. This is my favorite of the four I've done. Week #7 Sketch submission:





A very special relationship with a wonderful classy lady, Edith Buffum Ramsey Collins Merrill, aka "The Lady in the Red Hat." But to her grand-daughter she was lovingly known as my Dee-Dee. Some day I'll just write to my hearts content on Dee-Dee. This LO will be placed in my "About Me" scrapbook. So my descendants will know me as well as my family. Dee-Dee loved to cook and here she is deep in Mom's set of Gourmet by Earle R. Macausland. She loved this set of cookbooks and I'm so thankful I have her set along with all of her notes on her favorite recipes.

This is Week #8 of Pink Sketches and the first LO I've actually been able to submit. I really like how this LO turned out. My girls Que and Paige having some fun with a box. Both keep me company all day while I'm at home. Que will choose to be with James if he would just leave the door to his room open. He is her favorite human. She is also awful finicky as a black cat should be. Paige is always within arms reach and is so tuned in to my moods. She's now been with me almost 18 months and we are always together. The best lap dog in the world.






This LO so appealed to me because of the geometric elements of the Sketch. I had so much fun working on this LO.

It's getting late and I so need sleep.

I leave you with this verse from The Bible:

Psalm 119:2 (New International Version)


Blessed are they who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart.

May He bless you!

Kim

Hurricane Ike

I'm sure there are plenty of bloggers who are writing today who are in the Houston area about the coming storm. So I'll join the group.

An hour ago I made the decision to leave because of my mother's decision to leave her house. If the expected storm surge reaches what is expected she will have a minimum of 4 feet of water in the house. So off to the ranch she goes with horses in tow. Our horse now makes the ranch her permanent residence so all I have to haul out today is the rabbits. There are about 35 to take with me.

So far no Rita type evacuation. That's good! Yet I've provided my Mom and myself with a really good map that shows not just back roads but county roads, too. This should make leaving easier.

I hope we have a home to come home to. We did from Rita, we'll see with this storm. I'm glad Larry decided to leave, he has a host of computers to take with him from our business, since that is how we run our business.

The ranch won't just house our family over the weekend, but will house one to two more families. No enough beds....oh, well.

I've got a lot of work to get done today, I should have a lot of pictures of the house when through if it hits on the current track.

One last item, if you have not said a prayer today, please do for our country, our leaders and the Survivors of the World Trade Center.

Kim

First Ever Star 5 Calf

We waited and what seemed a day that would never arrive at the ranch. It finally did. Our first Lowline Angus and Santa Gertrudis Star 5 calf, she's a heifer and red. What makes this calf unique is she is the very first ever in the US Star 5 calf of this cross. We are very excited to welcome this heifer unnamed as of yet to the ranch. Her sire is Murrumbong LGL Bluey, the first Fullblood Lowline Bull to be exported to the US from Australia and first Fullblood to be registered with the American Lowline Registry. She is out of Bieri 667. We so look forward to great things from this heifer. She will be recorded with SGBI as a Star 5 and registered with ALR as a Half-blood Lowline.

As the research has shown Half-blood Lowlines have a birth weight of 59 lbs. This girl weighed in at 55 lbs. Lowlines are excellent for first calving heifers. It's so very tough for a heifer to deliver those huge 70+ pound calves. We don't worry about our Santa Gertrudis Heifers delivering this size calf. All of our first calf heifers are bred for Lowline calves unless they are in our show string.


Look for more information on this wonderful addition to our herd on our website.

I love to garden, roses and vegetables are my favorites. I have the front of my house in a rose garden along with a couple of day lilies and a hibiscus. In the backyard I have two citrus trees in raised beds which I planted last year and since they are so young and the beds get full sun I have vegetables growing around them. I have a few more projects to complete yet for the spring. I've always had problems with the corner of the garage and house with drainage. Finally decided to not try any longer to get something to grow there. I'm going to pull the soil out and put pavers in there to have a potting area and keep the drainage in check.

Of all the plants Roses are my passion. I will probably move to the ranch this fall, we'll start on the house there next spring. In the mean time living in the mobile home and sell the house in Angleton. I really want to have a beautiful English style rose garden taking up my front yard. Hmmm....how pretty that would be!

I also keep a scrapbook of my gardening habit. I just thought I'd share a page I've completed.




This is a picture of an African Daisy. I used to have this bed in annuals, but I found the annuals were not something I wanted to keep up with. They have to be planted three times a year where we live. I now have three miniature roses and two day lillies in the bed.

Then a picture of my first Tahitian Sunset this year. I love the varied colors this rose puts out. Just gorgeous!


This shows the bed before I put the mulch down for this year. I took this picture just after finishing up putting down the yearly one to two inches of rabbit manure. I love using this as a mulch, too. I can take it straight from the rabbit barn and put it in all of my beds. By the end of the year it will be gone. My soil in all of my beds is just unbelievable great. Lots of earth worms, and perfect for holding water which keeps the roots cooler in our hot summers.

Gardening is a gentle passion that quenches me physically, spiritually, and emotionally. On my knees I drink up the smell of the fertile ground as I dig holes and plant seeds alive with potential. I am a partner with God/Godess as I nuture my adopted plants and I feel quietly satisfied at the end of my day's work. Christine Albert.... Texas singer, songwriter, performer

Scrapbooking Sketches & Inspiration

I just couldn't resist today, I'm so very excited. Each Sunday is like Christmas morning as I go to my Favorite Scrapbook Challenge Blog. I get so very motivated. I just love Julie's sketches. I feel as if I've graduated to the next level of scrapbooking. I use to try design my own pages with no help. Wrong for a non-creative person. I so wanted to move on and make my pages like those in the magazines Scrapbooks, etc and Creating Keepsakes. So I started to work from the pages I liked the best. I'd look at sketches a this point in my scrapbooking and for the life of me I could not accomplish a LO from a sketch in any shape or form. Then on my favorite forums, Scrapbooks, etc. website, The Scrappin' V mentioned Julie's Bonner's Challenge Blog and how she was participating. I went and looked and for whatever reason I started the next journey in my scrapping. Like I said, it's now like Christmas morning for me. I don't care if I ever win the weekly drawing. It's the CHALLENGE I love. I had finished my LO for the challenge this week and I really liked how it turned out. I was on a roll and moved to my next LO. This past week for the first time I found a LO I loved, and I had a page I wanted to convey my great-niece's fun loving personality. I want the picture to be loud....something so totally outside my box. I didn't see the LO as a total unit. I saw the picture placement, the paper placement, and the embellishment placement. I saw the LO as a sketch. Off I went and the end result to me was so awesome.


The LO I used for inspiration is from Scrapbooks, etc magazine (Aug/Sept '07, page 76) issue.

Then some love to know what one uses on a page to complete it so here's the list:

Paper: P.etc. Flowers Word/Circle, Flowers Plaid/Flowers, CM Green Paradise Photo Mounting Mat; Grommets: We R Memory Keepers; Love Tab: P.etc. I-Kan-dee Market Tags: Chipboard, Brads, Ribbon, Flower: American Crafts; Stickers: Jolee's; Butterflies: Wonderous Scraps; Monogram Alpha Cardstock Stickers: Making Memories; Buttons: Dill Buttons; Quote: CM Expressions of Family & Friends Vellum Quotes.

Then I want to include the links to the blogs or website which so inspire me:

Scrapbooks, etc.
52 Sketches...52 Weeks
Sisterhood of Scrap
Pencil Lines

I'm off to do my LO for Julie's sketch this week.

Enjoy the sites!

Musings on the Cattle

I've not posted in a while. After Dixie Nationals in Jackson, AL I was concentrating on Houston Livestock Show. I'm glad the winter show season is over. I needed to take a break. I'm looking forward to the spring sales just to go and see the cattle. Then it's on to thinking about a busy time for the first of June.

I like the idea of blogging. I'm somewhat of a sap at times. Especially when it comes to the animals. I have my favorites, I get attached to them. All of a sudden I'm acting like a mother watching her kids go off to college. Already did that with my human children. But tomorrow or the next day I'm sending Peyton and Dill off to the ranch. We have purchased two show quality Lowlines over the past three weeks. When EZ 61T arrives next week she's just a tad to young to breed to Peyton. She will need halter breaking anyway, and another new friend to make. The other is EZ Tillie 78T. She'll be lonely for a while, but being alone will really make her dependent on me and draw her closer to me. It's still tough to send the boys to the ranch. I'll really miss them both. At least tomorrow I'll make Peyton a really happy boy, a bath as the temperture hits 80 degrees and then blow him dry. What he will really like is he then get's a shave, all of his hair. Taking off the rest of his winter coat, so he'll be happier as the tempertures begin to climb and get his new coat in for the summer show season if we decide to hit the road north. It's next year when I really look forward to the winter show season when we might have some of our own Lowlines to show.

The Santa Gertrudis girls did very well the rest of the winter season. The lowest Jillian placed was a 6th. Angelica would make the ribbons half of the time. They'll be put on the bull next month. We also started having calves. Angelica's dame Wendt 7855 gave us her third calf and third heifer. Lynn is thrilled. But what she is really thrilled about is Jillian's half brother. Angelica's father Double TT 31 delivered a beautiful jaw dropping bull calf. Lynn and I are holding our breath in hopes he continues to improve. Now almost two months old he has continued to improve....lets just hold our breath until weaning. If he is as good as we think he is, he'll be shown next winter. I love his attitude, he just knows he's something else. Good ones always do.

Then back to Peyton. I thought I'd post his picture of his win at Brazoria County Fair last year, Reserve Champion English and Exotic Bull. It is a layout I scrapped for our ranch scrapbook. Peyton was Champion Senior Lowline Bull Calf at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. When we get that picture I'll post it. My boy!

Until next time, Kim

San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo

Hmm, morning after, very tired!! The San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo started this past weekend and will run through the Feb. 17th. The whole city is geared to their celebration of Texas' Agriculture Industry. This was our fourth or fifth time to have entries at San Antonio and I must admit one show we will remember for a long time.

First, I have to thank our fitters Darrell and Shana Pitchford for a job well done. Our assoication with a wonderful couple I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

Once again we showed the two heifers, Jillian and Angelica. The depth of their class was amazing once again. My knees gave me fits over the weekend and Angelica although calmer then Nationals was still not the animal I need to be on the lead with. So I showed Jillian and Lynn was on Angelica's lead. I suppose I have no confidence in our animals and how good they really are. I suppose too, I keep my expectations low so I'm thrilled when they prove to me how good they really are. In my eyes I think Angelica is better. Now two judges think Jillian is better. That's ok, just the difference in opinion. I think, at least for me it is what draws me to showing. It is the opinions of the different judges that helps reaffirm we are headed in the right direction with our breeding program.

As a mother and really prefering to be a "Show Mom" I was so thrilled for Lynn. Jillian was pulled first for her class and Angelica pulled fourth. Now for the Division Championship Class for Heifer Calves I could be the "Show Mom." I held my breath. Lynn took her calf to Reserve Champion Heifer Calf. Wow!!!! As I said I keep my expectations low, so I was so thrilled for my daughter. Even Larry was excited when we talked to him on the phone. He was unable to attend because he had Jury Duty. We caught him during a break in what he described to be a very dull day.

Gee, I wish one of us had taken a camera. Well at least we have her Divison Reserve Championship Picture if it came out. In the middle of the Grand Championship Class, Jillian had had it. She decided she was done for the day! She became fidgetty and refused to stand still for me. Lynn was on the lead of a calf for a cow/calf pair in the Grand Championship Class so I had Jillian's lead. So that is why the picture may come out.