Life on the Ranch

It's that wonderful time of year when gardens start producing their bountiful harvest. But suddenly there are many zucchinis! What to do with a pile like this? When I have extra produce available to me, I usually go looking for either a salsa recipe or a jam recipe. I have been known to make red tomato salsa, green tomato salsa, blueberry salsa and even banana salsa! It would only seem fitting to have a zucchini salsa recipe to turn to when the zukes pile up. This has got to be one of the best salsas I have made. It is yummy with chips, with crackers, with veggies and, it is even yummy on top of cottage cheese!! It can be eaten raw after all the ingredients have been mixed up or it can be brought to a boil and canned for later use. No matter which way you choose to eat it, it is good. I had some of the kids asking me if I had another batch done yesterday, so I was up at 1 in the morning finishing a batch of it up! Ingredients: 10 cups zucchini, p...

    What a way to start a beautiful, cold morning at the ranch. The long-awaited, big & fat doe finally had her babies. All theories that she just had a tumor went out the door! Three little girls to our happiness - although my 8-year-old son was trying to convince us that boys are better. Here are some pictures of the excitement. We should have a youtube video up about it also sometime soon. Our youtube channel is  http://www.youtube.com/oklahomaranchlife - come see our videos and subscribe to stay in the loop of ranch life with us!

Just a quick update from around the ranch. Things have been busy around here with auctions, listing things on Ebay, soccer practices and games and just everyday life around the ranch. Here are a few pics one of the kids got the other day of some of the animals. See the picture blow of the VERY large goat . . . the debate is whether she is pregnant or has a tumor (haha! Just kidding on that). We are awaiting her  "popping". Jewels, the resident French Black Copper Maran roo: Peek-a-boo sheep! Two of last year's kids fighting for control of the little house. This little rooster is the coolest little guy around. Small but MIGHTY! :) There was an unexpected event the other day with a BIG wild hog - but I'll save that for later as I am running late right now on getting the chores done!

   We brought in a new Livestock Guardian dog just today. She is 7 weeks old and we are hoping she will grow up to be a good guardian for our animals. She is out in the goat and sheep pen with our other LGD. Hopefully she will learn from him as she grows up.

 It's that time of the year when it starts to get cold. I had 4 layers of sweatshirts on and my jacket this morning. I like to layer so that I can strip the sweatshirts off one-by-one as I go about feeding all the critters in the morning. Usually by the time I get back to the milking barn I have taken several layers off. the only problem with this plan of action is that I have sweatshirts all over the yard on various fenceposts and other places! Thankfully, I have a big pile of sweatshirts I have collected from all of the auctions we have gone to!!      The first water buckets had to have ice broke out of them!

31 for 21: The "R" Word Controversy Being in the special needs community for almost 8 years now, I am fully aware of all the 'Politically Correct' lingo that should be used. You know, you say "a child with Down syndrome", not a "Down syndrome child." And there are also certain words which just are not supposed to be said, the word "retard" being at the top of the list. It took some getting used to for me, because my family has never been very "politically correct" :). Over the years I've seen the issues that come up when certain popular individuals use the "R" word, when someone who has a child with DS has a friend say this word in a conversation, or when it's use is discussed on a forum. I've never said much about it, because I think a lot of people will have a problem with my view on it. Last week though, Ann Coulter called President Obama a "retard" on Twitter. There has been a ton o...