Ranch Tour

Last week I pulled a muscle in my lower back, so I was still feeling a bit sore over the weekend. It also didn't help that Ranchman John and the terrific twins were in Maryland so John could serve as Best Man in his friend's wedding. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad because I had three less mouths to feed and clean up after.

So, I laid low all weekend, just going through the odd and extra photos that I've collected over the past few months. I thought it would be fun to do a ranch tour post, showing things that I typically see while spending time here on Laughing Orca Ranch.

So come take a walk with me, and see what I see.

I see Luna relaxing on the paddock picnic table, with Blanca the Churro sheep below.I see Pepper, the Boer Goat, looking for some lovin'.I see my painted horse following me wherever I go.And I see Barred Rock Betty peeking out of the henhouse.And I see a tuxedo cat named Oreo smiling at me.And I see a cat with a chicken, one of our Silver-Laced Wyandotte Sisters.I see more chickens like this favorite of my 5 yr old daughter, an Ameracauna named Angelina Ballerina. She lays pretty green eggs.And this special hen, Kipper, a Speckled Sussex, also named by my daughter.I sometimes see sad things, too, like this dead baby barn swallow.I also see our home-away-from-home, our little pop-up camper.On the back of our pop-up camper, I see the USA sticker that Ranchman John placed here to show which states we have camped in our pop-up. We've camped in many other states, in a plain old tent, as well, but the stickers are just for those states that our pop-up has been camped in. And beside the grill I see the tool rack that I bought for Ranchman John to keep stuff organized. I like that there are 5 birdies, just like there are 5 of us in our human family.And nearby I see one of the fish in our pond. There used to be 6 fish, but 3 have died. These fish came with the house and were kept in a large stock tank, until we moved them to this pond next to the house.Walking back up to the barn, I see the back of our horse trailer. The trailer already came with the sticker when we bought it. Cute, eh?Underneath the horse trailer I see some wildflowers blooming. Rancher Woman over at the 7MSN calls them 4'O-Clocks, I think. They are very pretty and we have them growing on several areas in our yard and pastures.We have quite a few flowers growing around here, most of them wild with no maintenance. I see this lovely flower growing on long stalks. Isn't it pretty? These aren't considered flowers, but they are kind of neat. I see these cones growing in our pinon trees. When mature they produce tasty pinon nuts, or what some call pine nuts.And this dainty yellow flower bunch I see is called Snake Weed. It's toxic to horses, but they don't try to eat it. It must taste bad. I see them growing over most of our land. Sometimes I feel guilty about pulling them up because they add such a nice punch of free color to our landscape.I often see these lovely tufts of white that remind me of Baby's Breath flowers. They look delicate but are tough wildflowers here in the mountains.Nearer to our house I see many pretty wildfowers growing, like these beautiful purple blooms.Not really a flower, I sometimes see these interesting and pretty cactus growing in the field beside our house. Don't they sort of remind you of snowballs?Before the monsoon rains arrive, I see these odd circular grassy shapes, called Bunch Grass, that will be tall and thick after the rain soaks the ground in July and August.All around the mountains, including on our land, I see these yellow flowers that remind me of black-eyed susans. I'm not exactly sure what they are, though. Anyone know?I see a sunflower getting ready to bloom. My daughter and I planted this one beside the chicken coop.These are just the same yellow flowers from the previous post, that grow wild all around our mountains. I see that this bunch happily decided to grow right beside our chicken coop. Look how tall they get. This bunch were well over 7 feet.Here is a nice surprise. We didn't plant any sunflower seeds beside our pond, but maybe a seed might have fallen and gotten lost somehow? I see that it's joyfully sprung forth from the gravel and seems to be enjoying the view of the pond.I see that it is full of growing sunflower seeds, too. The kids and I are excited about harvesting these seeds to snack on. Don't you just love Volunteer Plants?I see another sunflower beside the chicken coop. This is the same one that we saw earlier, the one that hadn't bloomed yet. It's as big as a dinner plate and packed full of maturing seeds. These sunflowers are called Mammoth for a reason.Here is a baby Caladium popping up out of the ground. I planted 8 of them as bulbs.My daughter calls them heart plants. All I know is that when I see them they add some pretty color and they make me smile.I can see our peach tree in front of our house. Sadly not one peach grew there this year. We had a late May freeze, followed by two terrible hail storms in June. The peaches didn't stand a chance.I see one of our apple trees, too. Same sad story. Not one apple for Fall. When we bought this house last year, right before Fall, both apple trees were covered heavily in apples. We ate apples all day for our first month in our new home. This year....nothing. It's enough to make a person cry.From this angle I can see our apricot tree on the left and the same apple tree on the right. Our chicken coop is behind. Yes, that's right. No apricots either.Over the weekend I saw a truck and a trailer stacked high with hay, pull into my neighbor friend, Val's arena.
You can read more about her hay experience on her blog Fantastyk Voyage. If you have grass eating critters, buying hay before Autumn is a tradition that heralds the end of summer. It's not easy and it's not cheap, but it sure feels good when that hay is stacked and stocked in your barn.I saw my horse, Baby Doll looking longingly towards all that hay.
I hope you've enjoyed taking a walk around Laughing Orca Ranch with me.