Our Great Escape...to Relaxation

What an amazingly fun time we had in Deadwood, SD last weekend!   We had originally planned to leave the ranch early Friday morning, but I got home Thursday from work, and we decided what the heck – we’d go that night!!  So we called the hotel, booked a room, and headed out for Deadwood a day early.  We got there about 10:30 Thursday night, unloaded our bags, and went to do a little gambling.  Neither of us had much luck Thursday night so we called it a night and decided we’d try our luck the next day.  Friday we gambled almost  all day and had a great time doing so!  We would be up, then down, then back up again.  We enjoyed just being with each other, and being able to relax and have a good time.  We ate a nice prime rib steak for supper that evening, then went back for more gambling. 

Saturday was the big concert day…Merle Haggard!  We gambled a little that Saturday, then went to supper and prepared to go see the man himself!  What a legend…that’s all I can say about Merle!  It was one of the best concerts (besides King George Strait) that I’ve ever been to, and Wesley said the same thing.  He sounded just as he ever did, and of course, sang all his greatest hits.   He sang, played the guitar, played the fiddle, carried on a conversation, and still was able to drink beer all in one night.  Now that’s pretty fantastic for a guy as young as he is!  We will forever remember that concert and are so lucky that we got to see him perform!

Sunday we got up and had breakfast on Main street in Deadwood, hit up a few slot machines (and lost), then made the drive back to the ranch.  By the time we got home Sunday afternoon, we were glad to be back.  We picked up our beloved puppy (by puppy I mean Jiggs) from his grandparents’ house, and watched junk TV shows for the rest of the evening. 

We had such a great time in Deadwood, and have already planned to go back in a couple weeks when my parents come to visit!!!  That’s right…my parents are coming to visit us!  We’re all counting down the days until they get here.  There are so many fun things we’re going to do when they come up here…we can’t wait!  And Deadwood, of course, is one of them!  Hopefully the next time, though, Wesley & I will have a little bit better luck than we did last weekend.  OH well…that’s why its called gambling! 

Surprisingly, our week has went by pretty fast this week.  I’ve been doing things around the house in the evenings after work, with Wesley’s help, and we’re getting things prepared for when my Mom & Dad come.  We’re getting ready to start weaning our babies from their moms in the next few weeks.  I can’t believe it’s already that time of year, but it is.  We’re pregnancy testing our heifers the week my parents are here, so we’re excited that they’ll get a good “ranch” experience when they’re up here.  It’ll be a fun day!  We have a roping in Forsyth this Saturday, and we aren’t sure what we’re going to do on Sunday yet.  But, we’re hoping it doesn’t get too hot out there.  The highs are in the upper 90’s so we’ll see if they stay there, or climb into the 100’s like they have been doing.  We still need rain badly, and keep praying that we’ll get some soon.

Have a great weekend!!

Weekend Get-a-way

Our weekend last weekend was eventful and relaxing all at the same time (can it be possible??).  It started off with a call just after midnight about a fire burning in our back pasture.  It turns out that it wasn’t on ours, but on our neighbors pasture that backs up to ours.  Wesley went up to help fight the fire, but thank God it was raining that morning (lightning is what started the blaze) because the rain helped put the fire out.  The county fire truck & CAT bulldozer came out to put a fire line around the fire, so Wesley and I led him thru the pastures up to the best place for him to put up the fire line.  David got the tractor & disk & started disking another fire line just in case it got out of hand.  Luckily for everyone, it didn’t.  We got home early that morning about 4 AM, and tried our best to get some sleep. 

Saturday we went up on the divide at the ranch & checked our pastures to make sure there were no little “hot spots” brewing from all the cloud to ground lightning strikes we had the night before.  Then that afternoon Wesley & I loaded up the horses & steers & headed to town for a roping.  Wesley got 3^rd in the draw pot, and yes, I was very proud again!!  I never get tired of watching him rope and it never gets old being so proud of him!

Sunday we did just as we had planned…N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!  We got up & ate breakfast together, painted a little on the outside of our house, then I came in & cleaned the house and we sat on the couch, took a nap, and watched a movie for the rest of the day.  We roped that evening at the ranch, then called it a night!

We have a 3 day weekend ahead of us as we are going to Deadwood, South Dakota to do a little gambling and see Merle Haggard in concert!  We can’t wait to get out of town & have a weekend to rest up from all the crazy busy weekends we’ve had these past couple months!  And, we’re pretty darn excited to see Merle Haggard too.  I hope we have some luck gambling, but more importantly, we are very excited to have some Wesley-Tiffany time!

On a side note – I live in Montana.  That’s right, Montana.  It has been averaging 100 degrees every day for the past two weeks…we need a break!  And we need some rain!  I left Texas in a drought, and it seems to have followed me to Montana.  Attention DROUGHT - you may go home at any time now.  Normally, this time of year, we are averaging high’s in the upper 80’s-lower 90’s.  Where are those temperatures??!!  Oh well…at least it feels like home (my Texas home), right? 

Have a great weekend!!!

Heat Wave

Its been quite hot here in Southeastern Montana this past week.  We’ve had high’s in the upper 90’s-lower 100’s, which is about 15 degrees above normal for us.  The evenings aren’t cooling off that much, but when they do it is very pleasant outside.  Last Saturday we attended the wedding of one of Wesley’s friends Cole.  It was a long day for us since Wesley was a groomsman in the wedding, but its ok!  We had a fun time dancing and talking to our friends Clint & Sarah.  Sunday we had another round robin roping in Miles City, and it was so hot & windy again.  On the way home we had a blowout on the trailer (with 3 horses & 6 steers loaded in there) so it took us a little bit to get the trailer jacked up to change the tire.  We made it home fine, but were exhausted by that evening.  This week we didn’t do much since its been so hot in the evenings.  We roped Tuesday night at the house, and will probably rope tonight  some as well.  I'm excited to get Reno back out in the arena and work on barrels with him.  He's been doing so good, and I know he'll become excellent at it.  He's my little partner in crime, besides Wesley, of course :)

Yesterday (the 12^th) was Moo Moo’s birthday so we grilled hamburgers & hot dogs and all had supper together.  It was an enjoyable time talking and eating together since we haven’t done that in quite some time. 

This Saturday we have a roping in Forsyth, and then NOTHING to do on Sunday!!  We are so excited about our Sunday filled with nothing.  I think we’ll go fishing in our fishing hole again, or maybe do a little swimming.  Nonetheless, we will have a relaxing Sunday…and we both need it!

I’ve gotten a few more engagement pictures in so I thought I’d share them!  Hope you enjoy & have a fantastic weekend!!

Fires & the 4th

Sorry it has taken me this long to update the blog, again, but we've been dealing with Fires, fires, fires…that’s what’s been going on for the past week in our lives, and that’s why there’s been a delay in updating on the blog (I apologize for that).  First, let me start where I left off from the last blog post.  June 24^th there was a Wrangler Team Roping in Miles City that David and Wesley entered. Wesley did very well heading, but could not get any of the heelers he drew to catch for him.  That’s the way it goes sometimes, but I was so proud of him & Reno…they did amazing.  David ended up winning the #3 incentive roping (and got a nice new buckle!!) and came back as 3^rd in the finals!  We were so pumped to see him and his partner rope in the finals, and I think I was more nervous than him!  His partner ended up missing the head (David was heeling) so they  didn’t win anything in the finals, but they did win their roping so that was fantastic for him!

Monday afternoon when I came home from work we had to finish the last of our A.I. cows & heifers, and off in the distance about 15-20 miles we could see a small fire burning on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation.  Let me preface this story by saying that there tend to be a few fires on the reservation, and they are all managed & under control.  So, we didn’t really think too much of it.  Tuesday afternoon, after work, I went to get my hair cut in town and in the beauty shop a few of our neighbors (way) up the creek were asking me if I knew where the fire was & if it was close to the ranch (our ranch).  I told them that I didn’t think I was anywhere near us & that all was fine.  At this point I hadn’t been home, nor heard the news about the fire.  As I exited the interstate and turned the corner onto Rosebud Creek I saw the biggest plume of smoke I’d ever seen.  It was then I realized just what they were talking about, and just how severe this fire had become.  I got home as fast as I could so I could talk to Wesley & figure out what was going on.  At this point we had no idea what was happening, but we knew the fire was close, and getting closer to us.  Moo Moo called our house at about 7 that evening to tell us that our neighbors Scott & Audrey had been evacuated from their home (they live about 7 miles from us).  At 8:30 Tuesday evening we lost electricity, and were without it for 5+ hours.  It was at this point that we packed a bag in case we had to be evacuated too.  Since we had no electricity, we decided to take a drive to the closest, highest point on the ranch to get a better view of the fire & to see how close it was.  Wesley and I went high up on a ridge to look down at the fires and started to realize how big it was becoming.  At the time we thought we were about 4 miles from the fire (our far south pasture is where we were overlooking the fire).   Going back to the same spot a few days later we realized that we were really on about a mile and a half from the flames that evening.  One good gust of south wind and our back pasture would have been on fire.   Tuesday evening Wesley and I talked about our fire plan, just in case we needed to have one – move the cattle as far away as we could & open all the gates, load the horses & dogs in the trailers, get his parents, and get the hell out.  Thank God we did not need to have one. 

Wednesday you could see the smoke from miles away again, and you could see the land burned & black from the ranch.  Wesley and his Dad went up the road to our neighbors house that was evacuated, and although the firefighters were able to save their house, they lost every piece of grass they had.  Their cattle have nothing left to eat.  It’s a blessing and a curse…you have your home but the hundreds of cattle you have on the ranch have nothing to eat anymore.  It burned about 15,000 acres of their ranch.  Then our other neighbors on the opposite side of the road also lost about 10,000 acres as well, and a few head of cattle. 

Thursday evening when I got home Wesley and I took a tour of the torched land (we actually cut straight thru where it burned) and it took us 2 hours to get around it.  At that time the fire had burned 100,000 acres.  I have some really good pictures of the burned land.  It is unimaginable to think that much land burned.  You really don’t have a grasp on exactly how big that is until you see it in person, and even then it is very hard to imagine. 

As of today, the fire was up to 245,000 acres burned, and about 55% contained.  This thing is a raging monster and taking everything in its path.  If anyone is interested in reading about it you can go to www.ktvq.com or www.kulr8.com.  Both of those are news stations in Billings, Montana.  I believe its made national news, although it took a while to do so. 

On a lighter note – the 4^th was yesterday!!!  Wesley and I started our 4^th of July by going to a roping in Forsyth on the 3^rd.  Wesley took 1^st place in the draw pot, and 3^rd in the pick & draw!  I was so proud of him!!!  He and Champ did amazing Tuesday night!  Wednesday we went to Miles City to Rib & Chop for lunch, then headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some fishing tackle and bait and we raced home to go fishing in the creek.  We had the best time!  We took Jiggs with us, and him & Wesley went swimming in the creek for a bit.  We didn’t catch anything, and I lost a lure, but we sure had fun trying.  We are going to try our best to make that a Sunday afternoon ritual because we had so much fun together.

Last Friday, the 29^th, Wesley and I got our engagement pictures taken.  Our photographer did a phenomenal job, and we are SO excited for her to photograph our wedding.  You should check her out – www.brittanyputnamphotography.com.  She is so great to work with and made things so fun for Wesley & me!!  I don’t have all of the pictures back yet, but here’s a preview!  I hope you like them…we sure did!!!  I should have a few more to share soon!  Let us know what you think! 

We hope everyone had a safe & Happy 4^th of July!!! 

The Story of the Electric Fence

Last weekend we started Saturday by fixing an electric fence that we put up around a section of the meadow for the cows & heifers that we are going to A.I.  It took Wesley and me about 2 hours to fix the fence and get it in working order, and then we turned it on and trailed the heifers & cows out to the meadow.  David had just gotten back to the ranch from turning some cows out into a different pasture on the ranch, so we all sat down together and had hamburgers for lunch.  After lunch we went to trail our cows out of one pasture and into another to get ready and turn the bulls in with them.  It took a little longer than we thought it was going to take, but it ended up being alright.  That afternoon we came home and roped the dummy steer for a while, then ran the steers thru the chute one time before calling it an evening.

We started to head home about 6:30 or so that evening, only to find that all the cows & heifers we turned out in the meadows had busted thru our electric fence and were everywhere!  So we grabbed the 4-wheeler, David grabbed a horse, and we took off to round them back up.  They tore thru that fence as if it wasn’t there.  And of course, it only takes 1 cow to knock it down & ground it out and then pretty soon all of them are across the electric fence!  After we rounded them up, Wesley and I locked them in another pasture, and went about fixing the electric fence…again.  We basically had to start all over.  We had to re-string, tie, and tighten the entire fence.  It took us about 2 ½ hours to finally finish the fence, and by the time we were done that evening, we were pretty tired and ready to sit down on the couch, have a drink, and eat supper.

Sunday morning Wesley looked out our back window only to find the damn cows out yet again (although this time, they got locked up after they broke out)!  So he went to fix the fence, and I got things ready to go to town to rope that afternoon.  We headed to Forsyth about 11:15 that Sunday morning and got home about 7:00 that evening.  Wesley had a good time roping, and did an awesome job once again.  However, none of his partners caught their end of the steer, so he got some no-times.  It comes with roping, but I was so proud of him and how well he did!  He’s been practicing at home, well we all have, and we have a great time roping together!

This coming weekend, on Saturday, we are bringing in all the cows and heifers we are going to A.I. so we can make sure they are going to be cycling when we A.I. them, then Saturday evening we are going to go to Colstrip to a festival they call “Colstrip Days”.  They have a good band there with a street dance so we are going to enjoy the band and dancing in the street as well!  Sunday we are heading to Miles City for the afternoon so Wesley and his Dad can rope in the Wrangler Team Roping Championship series they have here in Montana.  I wish them LOTS of luck in this roping and can’t wait to see how they do!!

We have our engagement portraits next Friday afternoon and we are so excited about them!  We are going to be taking them at the ranch surrounded by the beautiful mountains, and of course all of our animals.  I’ll definitely share some of them when we get them back!  

Happy Father's Day!

On the verge of another busy weekend of ours, catching up from the last one will be the first thing I update you on!  Last weekend we had to help our neighbors brand their herd.  They had about 185 head to brand, and we had to go thru our pastures to get to their back branding pasture.  Wesley and I got up at 4 AM so we could go saddle horses & get to the branding sight by 5:30.  We were there on time, and soon after 5:30 AM we all dispersed so we could gather the herd.  Wesley’s friends Ab (from high school) and his wife Sarah were at the branding, because we were helping Ab’s parents out.  Sarah doesn’t ride horses much, but wants to learn, so she stuck with me and we took the (semi) easy route while the guys went way back in the hills.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Sarah.  She’s a great person, both her & Ab are.  They live in Wyoming (about 5 hours from us) but we are already trying to plan a weekend to go stay with them and spend time with them.  Wesley and Ab grew up together not only thru school, but because they were next door neighbors.  And, when you’re on ranches as big as the ones up here, neighbors, especially kids your own age, are hard to come by!  Sarah rode a horse named Blue, and she did great!  We talked and laughed and talked of stories the guys told us of them growing up.  She’s a pure delight to be around and we can’t wait to get together with the two of them again soon! 

It took quite a long time to brand this herd because there was a lot of sorting of the cows going on, and a lot of disorganization.  We didn’t get done branding until 3:00 PM, and then had to turn around, change clothes, and head to Billings to get a new TV for our living room.  Side note – our TV went out (it was older anyway) so we planned on going to Billings after the branding, we just thought we’d be done a LOT earlier than we were.  We were able to find the winner at Best Buy, grab a bite to eat, and got home about 10:30 that evening.  We were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home, but we didn’t want to ruin our Sunday by having to spend all day in Billings, which is why we choose to go that Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we slept in before putting our new TV stand together and mounting our TV on to it.  I must say, it looks great!!  We’re pretty happy with it.  It was a windy & cooler day on Sunday, so we stayed indoors most of the day.  We actually got a little shower on Sunday evening, but it wasn’t much, and it didn’t last long.  However, any little bit is better than nothing at all!

Monday & Tuesday evenings we roped in the evenings.  I’m doing a little better, slowly but surely!  Wesley does awesome, but that’s nothing new!  I’m going to start my horse, Reno, on barrels this week.  He’s definitely got the speed, but he is SO big that we weren’t sure if he’d be able to get himself around the barrels good enough.  So Tuesday I spent working with him on turning and we found out that he can!  I’m so very excited about the new discovery!  He’ll be my heading horse roping, and my barrel horse when I want to play around at the house and run some barrels! 

This weekend, on Saturday, we are sorting off some of our yearling heifers to be A.I.’ed, then Sunday we have a roping in Forsyth to go to.  We have another busy weekend but that’s the norm around Diamond Ranch these days.  This weekend is also Father’s Day and I’d like to say Happy Father’s day to my two grandfather’s – Papa and Popo, and to my Dad, Tommie, and Wesley’s dad David.  My Dad as always been there for me; to protect me when I needed protection, a disciplinarian when I was getting out of hand, a friend when no one else was there, setting a great example of what a real man should be like, and loving me thru it all.  It is because of his love and examples growing up that I found the man of my dreams in Wesley.  Thanks, Daddy, for always showing me that family is the most important thing in one’s life, that love is something to be cherished, that good husbands treat their wives as if today was the day they married, and that a Father’s love never, ever dies.  You’re the best and I love you!!  Can’t wait to see you soon! 

And thank you David for showing us the way when it comes to ranching, cattle, and everything in between.  We are so lucky to have two very special father figures in our lives and are so blessed to be a part of their families!

Tiffany and Wesley

The Wedding Week

It seems like it’s been FOR-EV-ER since I’ve posted something on the blog!  We were so busy running around like chickens without heads this last week that I literally didn’t have any time to think!  We had a good Memorial Day weekend.  It was pretty yucky outside on Saturday & Sunday, so we stayed indoors most of those days.  Saturday we went down to Sheridan, Wyoming to go get some new ropes, and do a little shopping and eating out.  We had a great time together.  We got some new ropes from Kings in Sheridan, then went around their downtown in and out of shops, and finished the afternoon with some great food down there as well!  We also got a new game for our Wii (Wipeout…highly recommended by my best friend Katy & her husband Jason), and let me tell you that game is a lot of fun!  We had a great time Saturday evening playing that when we got back from Wyoming.  Sunday was more of the same, except we started to get things together so that we could brand our cattle on Memorial Day Monday.

Of course Monday turned out to be a cold, windy, somewhat wet sort of day…but branding had to get done!  I don’t think the high temperature for that Monday reached 50 degrees…it was cold!!  We started about 6:45 AM, and got done around 12:45.  I was in charge of vaccinating.  Wesley was in charge of cutting.  And David was branding.  Of course we had all the neighbors out helping us so that we could get the herd in and out of there in a reasonable amount of time, and without any disasters!  We all came back to the ranch for a nice lunch that Moo Moo had prepared for us, and then spent that afternoon back in the house because it was just too darn cold to do much else!

Tuesday his sisters flew in to start the wedding festivities, and then Wednesday the groom flew in.  Wedding stuff was in full swing by Thursday, from mowing and staking out the wedding site, to making crosses and candles, everyone was pitching in to pull this wedding off.  Friday the bride wanted for us to brand some cattle so we could show all the people from Iowa (the grooms family) how its done up here.  So we took about 60 head and branded them that afternoon.   It was quite disorganized, and took longer to do those than it did to brand the 350 or so head earlier in the week, but it made her happy and since this was her weekend she got whatever she wished!  Friday evening we all came back and had a nice dinner at the ranch, then sat around until about midnight talking and such.

Saturday started our really early with helping Moe start roasting the hog he was preparing for the wedding.  It was DELICIOUS by the way!  We all toasted that morning to Christi and Clint, then ran around like crazy trying to finish up last minute wedding stuff for Christi and Clint.  Clouds started rolling in later that afternoon, but no rain ever fell on their day…so that was great.  The ceremony started about 4:45 down in the meadows of the ranch, and then the band cranked up about 8:45 PM under the tent!  Wesley and I had a great time catching up with some of his family that lives in Northern Montana that we don’t get to see very often.  And of course we had fun dancing…we danced quite a bit that evening!  Most all of the neighbors that live up & down the road from us came as well, and it was nice to visit with them too.  Even though you might live right up the road from each other, its often you don’t get to sit down & visit since everyone is generally busy this time of year!  So we really enjoyed the evening and the wedding was a success!

Sunday we had dinner with his family, as that was the last day that his sisters would be in town.  Both of them flew out Monday back home.  I was off on Monday also, and it was nice to be able to recuperate from the weekend wedding festivities!  Wesley and I moved some cows together that morning after getting up, then we worked around the house and around the ranch that afternoon.  And now its back to work!

Oh I must add…Sunday we went to a local roping here in Forsyth for our Rodeo club we are a part of (Wesley roped, I handled the books & entries for the club) and I was so proud of Wesley!!!  He pulled a check (placed) in every single roping, and even got a check for 1^st place fast go in the first roping!  I couldn’t have been more excited to see him out there doing so well!  He’s an amazing roper, and he’s a great teacher for me as well!