Hay Jumping

Ever Been Hay Jumping??  Last week my MIL had a Roping clinic for kids at the house.  They had a blast on the hay that was just put up... The Chocolate Children had a little fun too...

Don't you wish you still had this much energy??

Banjo and Birdie had so much fun with the kids.  Birdie was really scared of them at first and then they started playing fetch with her and she fell in love.

I love taking photos of my dogs jumping bales...their faces are so funny!

Banjo's always turn out funnier because his jowels are so floppy!

Poor ole Banjo got really tired...

Or he pretended to....   He really liked the attention he got from acting tired anyway.

Then he took a nap...

I want a nap....

Bridges

It is truly amazing what you can find on the internet.....

The movie Slingblade staring Arkansas native Billy Bob Thorton was filmed here in Benton, where I live.  A little while back the newspaper here did a write up on the old Saline River bridge, a rickey old bridge that was featured in a scene in the movie.  The city was trying to restore the  bridge but in my opinion its way past repair.

I'm a huge fan of history and I love seeing history.  I took the Chocolates down town for a walk around the downtown square after work today and decided I would try to find the bridge and take some photos. 

After a few wrong turns we found the bridge and walked down to the river.  There were a lot of people down there fishing, we also saw another chocolate lab who made friends with Banjo.  ha!  I got some good photos of the bridge too.   You can see there on my 365 page.    

I got home and thought I'd look up some stuff on the internet about the bridge.   I found it was built in 1899 and quit being used in the 70's.  Anyway, finding that information led me to find a lot of neat info about the bridge on our farm!!  I was so suprised at how beautiful that massive concrete bridge used to be.  It makes me sad that they tore down a beautiful historical bridge and built this big ugly concrete bridge.  Yeah it's safer and it will last longer but it's plain and ugly...why couldn't they have built it back as pretty as it used to be??

ok here it is now...i've browsed all my photos and this is the only photo I have of the bridge....  can you kind of see it there behind the barn? or kind of see it in the tree line??     It's just a regular old bridge.  I should go out and take a photo of it to show you but I'm too lazy...maybe I'll do it later  :) or not.

Well anyway Look at these photos i found online...this is what it used to look like back before it was rebuilt in the 80's!!!
Isn't it beautiful?!

Oh This makes me sad!  Why tear down such a beautiful structure and build such an eye sore??  why not rebuild something just as beautiful? 

Ugh, I hate change.

Minus One

I have sad news.  Birdie killed BirdieToo.  She just wanted to play and hasn't yet realized that she's bigger than the chickens.  Sean and I went to lunch and I stuipdly left the chickens in the front yard to enjoy the sun and they wondered their way into the Back yard into Birdie's Pen and she played a little to hard with Birdietoo and I guess he was too stupid to run like the others did. 

When I got home Birdie was very proud of her accomplishments..which she should've been, she's a bird dog.  I on the other hand felt awful that I left them unattended and Sean disposed of the dead chicken...and Birdie retrieved it and brought it back...twice.  At least we know she's a good retriever. 

So what else is going on at the Circle T? 

The Trees have leaves..
the grass is green..
Banjo is having hip problems majorly..
Birdie might have to go to a trainer. Sean wants her to be a great hunting dog but I don't want her to go away!
Sean seems to be enjoying his new job..
The 5 chickens are getting a coop..
I planted some snapdragons and they looks great..
Everything is covered with pollen..

Oh Yeah and Friday Night I went to see Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw in concert in Little Rock with the girls.  It was a lot of fun!  I wish I would've brought my Rebel Camera...I instead decided it might be dangerous so I took my point and shoot...it sucked.  I wish I would've had my Rebel so bad...here's proof the point and shoot sucked.

Blurry

This was full zoom..we had good seats be we were still far.  We went down to the bottom row to shoot some good pics and found three vacant seats and sat front row for a little while!! 
This is how close we were after... no zoom.

Then the people who were stitting there finally arrived 30 minutes later and we went back to this:

It was still a blast...and Tim crowd surfed!! 

Have a good monday!

The Circle T Version of Twas the Night Before Christmas
By Jenna Thomas


'Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring,
because I'd already trapped the mouse;


The stockings were hung on the TV stand with tape,

Because we don't have a chimney for our stockings to drape.
The Chocolate children were curled up at the foot of our bed,

While visions of beggin strips danced in their heads;


Sean was in is recliner and I was on the laptop,

I was blogging, He was a snoring, and just wouldn't stop.
When running and barking the dogs came with a bounce

Letting me know a stranger had arrived unannounced.


Away to the porch I ran with my broom

Ready to swing if a burgler did loom.
The moon cast bright light on the Circle T Ranch

And scary shadows were cast from a nearby branch


"Sean, come look,  I'm scared!"  I yelled in his ear

And he jumped up and looked outside to see 8 buck deer!
He ran to get his gun so fast and so quick,

He didn't notice it was really reindeer pulling St Nick!

I tried to warn Santa, "Get away! Sean will shoot!

And he hollered at his reindeer, "Let's get outta Here, Scoot!"

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!
Dash away quick or you'll be on Sean's Wall!"

Sean appeared in the doorway ready to Kill,
But Santa's team had already flown over the hill.
But I heard him exclaim, as he flew out of sight,

Merry Christmas to you, but NO presents tonight!

Arkansas Longhorns?

Today's post is a Not me monday with a few cows at the end. 



This weekend I did NOT eat three bags of cotton candy, a pound of nachos, a large bilizzard from Dairy Queen, and I did NOT drink like 78 cokes :)  I would never be that much of a pig.

I also Did not wear my boots (covered in cow crap) into the movie theater to watch New Moon at 9:30 immediately after Sean ran his steer, and did not, secretly wish that Jacob was my boyfriend....eight pack abs and all. 

And now to the cows...

Today At Lunch I went home to see if Sean wanted some lunch because today they were Working Cows, separating the momma's from the babies. Of course I had my camera and thought I'd take a few shots

Can I share a few? Ok Good.

Some of our cows have Long horns...they are called "longhorns" pretty creative huh?

Some of them have shorter horns, they are Corrientes from Mexico.  I think this one's horns were victim of a Steer wrestling match gone wrong. 

They come in all shapes and sizes and colors.  My favorite are these white and red ones.   I don't really know why...

Actually to be honest...these are my favorites

Look at all these cows...
Hey, wait a minute...that's not a cow.

That's just Mr. Key, Don Key. He keeps the coyotes away, supposedly.

Oh, excuse me, I didn't realize this stall was taken....





There...that's better.

There's my cowboy, in his cowboy hat and shirt and...well never mind.


Here's his ranch hands.. I hear the one on the right is really lazy and the one on the left begs for food a lot.

Oh how sweet it is to live on a farm.  Have a good Monday!!

Oh Deer

I'm feeling a little better and since I slept all day long, I can't seem to go back to sleep now. I'm still achy and stuffy but the coughing has postponed itself until the cough medicine wears off and the fever has broken hopefully for good. I'm currently day four of the flu, which is hopefully the beginning of the end.

So now that I'm up I wanted to get a story off my chest before I forget. So it was just recently muzzle loading season here in Central Arkansas (deer hunting with a certain type of gun) Sean went hunting almost every morning/evening of the season and saw a few deer. Sunday was the last day and he and his friend Jaret went out into the hay meadow to sit upon the stands they have so carefully placed in front of the food plot they have so carefully planted, to kill us some deer meet.

Let me pause here to explain that the hay meadow at the Circle T ranch is across the river and though the forest from my house...between a huge cliff like hill, and the river. Upon the cliff is a subdivision called Hidden Valley...the Circle T's few hundred acres of hay meadows being that valley. Sean's Aunt and Cousins live right on the edge of the cliff and their back porch view is right over the hay meadow (it's quite beautiful.)

Anyway let me just give you a run down of what happened Sunday Morning. Sean was sitting on one end of the field, Jaret on the other. A doe jumped out of the field in front of Jaret's stand and walked about halfway into the meadow. Because it was late in the morning and they were getting hungry for breakfast at the Waffle House, Jaret called Sean on his phone and started harassing him about not being able to hit the doe with his muzzle loader, which was about 250 yards away.

Let's break from that part of the story and go over to the top of the cliff where Sean's Aunt and Cousins are getting ready for Church. Emily was sitting on the back porch enjoying her breakfast when she spotted far away a sweet little doe leap into the field and start to graze along. Now Emily is not part of the family, she's married into it like I am, but unlike me, she wasn't Raised around deer hunters and has not one inkling about deer hunting. I see a deer and I think, "shoot. Kill. eat." She sees deer she thinks " Aw, Bambi." So Emily sees this doe and cries "Oh Come here everyone!! Look at the Deer! How sweet! The sweet Little Deer!"

OK lets take the story back to Sean and Jaret below in the meadow (figured out what happens yet??) Jaret keeps on with Sean, "Dude you suck, there is NO way you can hit that deer from where you are!" Sean says "Oh yes I can watch this!" BAAANNGG

*deer falls, blood exits wound profusely*

Emily screams..
Sean's Aunt called me tonight to tell me all about Emily's experience. I've never laughed so hard in my life... I found if funny...sorry... Bless Emily's Heart...I would hate for a non-hunter to have to witness that early in the morning before Church...she's probably scarred for life now... But at least we have some Deer meet for the next Few months!!!

Happy Hunting!
sorry PETA

Man Hunt!

Hey Everyone...Say a little prayer for me!


They are having a man hunt AS WE SPEAK for a fugitive in my pasture! I repeat..POLICE ARE SEARCHING FOR A FUGITIVE BEHIND MY HOUSE..DIRECTLY BEHIND MY HOUSE. 10 FEET BEHIND MY HOUSE. I'M GOING TO DIE.

Ok sorry...

I'm not sure what he did but the US Marshals are out there so it's got to be a federal offense. There are about 10 cop cars in my driveway, and 10 or so more surrounding half of our ranch. They think he's swam up river so they are tracking him with dogs also! There is a helicopter flying around out here too. I hope pass-er by-ers don't think our house is the headquarters of a major drug ring and we are being busted, or think we are having a domestic disturbance that requires a helicopter...or I dunno something else bad.


Apparently these two "fugitives" (innocent until proven guilty) lost control of their vehicle while being chased by police and ran through our fence into the pasture and just kept on trucking until they reached the river. The police have the woman in custody, she had Neon pink hair so it was hard for her to hide :) She was really mouthy, and cried a lot. She was standing outside when I drove up. They man is still MIA.

Sean is having the best time with all of this, which is a little disturbing. He wanted to help them look for the guy but thank goodness they said no. He had a lot of fence to repair though!

So anyway pray that we stay safe tonight, because he could be hiding very near my house and that scares me a little bit. This kind of thing NEVER happens around here so I'm not used to this!!

P.s. On a lighter note I'm getting my hair "did" tonight so at least if I am murdered tonight in my sleep my roots will look great!

Mini Tour

It's Tuesday! Three more days until the weekend! (four if you count today) Lately I've had the best time playing with my new camera! I'm learning all about how to focus and all about lighting and I'm also learning that I need to save up some money for new lenses!

Yesterday afternoon, I went on a walk around part of the Circle T and thought I would show you a few of the shots in a little piece I'd like to call....
Circle T Tuesday Tour! Say that five times fast.


These are all photos of my "back yard." Can you see my shadow across the ravine??
And of course my Chocolate Children came along with me! They swam in the river until I made them leave. I was being carried away my mosquito's and gnats.
I don't know why I took this picture but it turned out kind of cool. When the river floods like it did last week, it brings up all kinds of things, logs are one of them. They are scattered all along the river bank.

We also have an abundance of bones laying around. Remember the Steer head Sean found? Usually we just find random bones laying around like these. I think this cow as struck by lighting...


I took this picture to practice on my focusing skills. I didn't realize the dogs were in the picture..so it turned out pretty neat.

I took a ton more but I'll spare you. If you have any suggestions on how to take better pictures let me know!! I'm dying for advice!
And just because that was such a boring post, check out the sweet Halloween Decor you can score at Pier One! I bought the candles and the wreath! I couldn't find the candy basket, but how cute would that be to serve candy to all the little trick-or-treaters?? Pretty sure we won't have
any of those this year... oh well Happy Tuesday!