Hunting and then some...

I just realized that our Ranch blog has turned into Jones' blog!  So lets change it up a bit:)

We had our first large group of hunter's come out this week for a very successful hunt!  11 to be exact plus 5 guides.  All the guys were great, very nice and a pleasure to be around!  We hope they come back!  I was very busy cooking and catering to them and got in on some of the action!  Kristen came down to stay with us to tend to Jones while I was back and forth from our house and the lodge.  I just assumed I would make breakfast at a certain time, be done, cook dinner at a certain time and be done.  It didn't quite go that way.  I started breakfast each morning around 9:30. A few hunters would come in want breakfast then head out to see their animals being cleaned and meat being packed in their coolers.  Another group would come in, I would cook for them, they would head out to see their animal being cleaned and meat being packed in their coolers, then the guides would come in wanting to eat.  Then I would have to clean up and sometime in the middle of all that I would have to run home and feed Jones. I would get home about 12:30, feed Jones, head to the lodge to do laundry, head home to feed Jones, chill out for an hour and head back over to the lodge to start dinner at 7:30, head home at 8:30, feed Jones and put him to bed, head back to lodge to feed round one of hunters at 9:15, feed another group at 10:00 and finally sit down with the guides at about 10:30 to eat, clean the kitchen, set out donuts, cereals, bowls etc, for early hunters in the morning, home at 12:30, bed by 1:00! Then somewhere in the middle of all that taking pictures..Whooo, I am tired!

All the hunters were very impressed with all the facilities and all the guides did a great job!  At the end of the hunt they were pros at cleaning an animal!

All the guys had exciting hunts and meat packed in their coolers to last a year!

They were supposed to stay till Sunday but got everything they came to get and left yesterday (Friday) We were exhausted yesterday and was in bed by 9.  This has not ever happened! Ever!  It was so nice!

 I definitely spent more time at the lodge helping than I planned on but had a great time.  I couldn't have done all this without Kristen!  Jones had a great time with her and whined anytime she left the room!  He even gave her a couple of explosions up his back that she had to change! lol.  He has been looking around the house for her today and even crawling to her room a couple of times:(

All-in-all it was a great few days at O Bar Ranch!

I am left now with 17 sets of sheets to wash, 17 beds to make, a lodge to clean, upstairs and down, and a house of my own to clean that I have neglected this week.  All this can wait till Monday!

They call me Big Poppa...

We got a new addition to the family here on the ranch today. It is almost time for the rut and since we lost all our breeder bucks this year, it was time to get another. I think by the end of the month we will have 4 more breeder bucks and 20-25 more breeder doe. This big guy came from a guy down the road and scores around 190. Since he is from around here he will have an easier time surviving the heat next summer and we will keep him in the breeder pens. The other 4 bucks are coming from Minnesota. I think the plan with those will be to breed the doe in the breeder pens and then we will set them out in the high fence. Since their northern deer they will have a better chance surviving next summer in the high fence than in the breeder pens. I think they are gonna pull straws from them too, so we will have backup if they don't make it.

Summer is officially over up here! It has been so nice this week. Everyday has been in the 70's and humidity free, so it feels like it's 68 and perfect. Last night I had to turn the air conditioner off because it was so chilly and I was able to cuddle up with a sweatshirt! Last night was a GREAT night because it was the start of comfy sweatshirt season, I picked up a pizza (and it didn't make me deathly sick), read my weekly magazines, and Cody got to do a little dove hunting. He took Louis and Fransisco with him because they were curious about how that worked. Last week we invited them over and we cooked dove for them. They asked about a million questions from how many can you shoot with one bullet to how does a dove look. They loved the dove and told us we had to try tongue since we made them try something new. So last night they decided to bring some over for us. Luckily they brought it over and left. I just couldn't eat tongue, no thanks! They invited us over this afternoon for a fiesta. They received a phone call this morning at 4.00 a.m and their friends were in Woodward and that they came to visit. This is hilarious to me, they didn't call first and they drove all night with like 12 people scrunched in a car. To Funny! So they had a fiesta today and had normal fajitas and it was yummy! Louis, Fransisco and Gizella amaze me sometimes. It is refreshing to know that there are still people out there who are committed to family, who are honest, and who would give you the clothes off their back if they thought you needed them. ALso, I noticed they had a table outside that all the food was sitting on. It was so cute. I kept staring at it and it finally dawned on me that it was the same wood that they made our deck with. They had taken all the scrap pieces and made the cutest wooden table ever! If I knew they were that good I wouldn't have spent money on a table and just bought chairs and had them make us one. It was that CUTE!