Back to normal

    Thanksgiving is now in the past and all are looking forward to a cold winter and the next holidays. Our week long vacation was a success! The weather was absolutely beautiful, with plenty of sunshine and no rain or snow. The day after the celebration ended, a massive storm system moved in with rain, hail, snow and brrrrr cold weather for three consecutive days! Saturday's carnival- fair was too fun for the kids. They had a ball. Then the live auction raised over five thousand dollars for the new Cultural Art center I'm building next year. Everyone donated an item or two, from pies to grandfather clocks and some even    auctioned off themselves for an eight hour work shift! It was fun. Wednesday's concert was also a success in raising over eleven hundred for the center.  After last thanksgiving, we decided we needed a building dedicated to the arts. The kids love to put on plays and give concerts, so we came up with a plan to give fundraising concerts and auctions and anything to raise money for the cause. It will also be used for weddings and music lessons and art lessons and from now on, our next thanksgiving parties! The government has a program to help promote the arts and will give two dollars to every one that we come up with, so that will help tremendously.
   Now.......all is quite and life goes on and it's back to the grindstone my friends! God bless.
   (Picture is the tail end of the thanksgiving parade)
    

Happy Thanksgiving folks.

Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Freedom of heavy taxation. Freedom of the press. The right to bear arms. The right to a trial by jury. These are the thing our forefathers fought and died for. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence suffered and died for us to have these freedoms! This is what we should be thankful for.....even though most of these freedoms are subtly being taken from us by our liberal government. We are now heavily taxed. Our right to bear arms is all but gone. Some religions are being persecuted. The press is controlled. Our freedom of speech is strictly monitored. But, even with these infringements on our rights, the USA is still the most free country in the world. So let's be grateful and remember what our forefathers gave us!
    Thanksgiving was a blast! There are over three hundred friends and family here to celebrate with. We had the dinner all together and enjoyed the commotion. The kids put on some great plays. Some of them are natural born actors. The quad ride was a winner as usual. Most of the guys had a good time pranking one another. We had a open air concert with several entertainers, Brooke being the grand finale. It was very entertaining and enjoyable, even though it did get quite cold later on at night. Tomorrow is sports day and then there will be a dance in the evening. Saturday is the carnival and live auction. Can't wait!  

What is your favorite "thing" about Thanksgiving?

    Thanksgiving is almost here...yesss!  It's my favorite holiday for sure. There are several things I like about Thanksgiving, but I want to know, what is your favorite part of the holiday? I like visiting with friends and relatives that come...and the food...and the, no I'm kidding. The whole week is a blast, but let's just have your favorite part, ok?

My second Award!

 First I want to thank Bendigo's Rage for giving me this award. I also want to thank him for mentioning my blog and my daughters singing. I want to acknowledge Bendigo's blog here also. I enjoy reading it and it keeps you coming back for more; great blog.
Now for the things my readers don't know about me...hmmmm,
#1 It took me thirty minutes to try and post this award to my sidebar and I still failed...darn!
#2 I only went through 5th grade (home school) dad needed me too much after that...ouch that hurt my ego!
#3 I am highly skilled in several trades....now my ego doesn't hurt so bad.
#4 I make the best coffee...mmm, especially when I roast my own beans in my coffee roaster.
#5 When I was 12 years old, I fell off a horse and broke my wrist...there it goes again.
#6 I have over four hundred books in my shelves and have read most of them, some twice and even thrice.
#7 I took me way too long to think of all this...what a cop out!

    As for the rest of the rules. I will check out the blogs Bendigo mentioned...when time allows...and more then likely follow some of them and then finish what I started here!

  

Tempus Fugit; Time Flies, especially when your busy.

    I've been so busy lately I can't seem to get on here and jog down a few thoughts. Well, at the moment my thoughts just seem to escape me.
    My brothers and I just finished branding another 213 head of cattle we purchased from a rancher up the valley. He had to sell his whole herd to avoid getting his ranch repossessed. He was the ex-mayor of Bavispe who spent a ton of his own money trying to buy votes to get re-elected but lost anyway. During the elections he offered 250 dollars for each  opposing voter card delivered to him, which is a federal crime by the way. 250 dollars is a lot of cash for someone who makes 12 bucks a day. He would keep the voting card until the election was over then give it back to its owner. This would stop the person from voting against him. He managed to buy quite a few cards at considerable personal and "federal" expense. But alas, when no one likes you it is very hard to get voted into public office....unless you have the "media and a LOT of money behind you."  He lost big time and now, three years later is flat broke and on the verge of losing everything. To sum it up; dishonesty does NOT pay. For us, it was just what we were looking for. A complete herd of cows, bulls, heifers and steers at a good price. So, that is what's been happening for the last week..busy..busy...busy.

Winter is right around the corner

Winter is almost here and my favorite time of the year is nearly gone. I love the Autumn when the leaves turn gold and the night gets a slight chill. I have never seen better weather anywhere then right here during September-October with perfect 70 degree days and chilly nights. It seems like only last month we were celebrating thanksgiving and now it's here again! Wow, time sure sails by unnoticed.  Every year family and friends come from all over the states to celebrate here at the ranch. What can I say, it's tradition. There are sports, like baseball, volleyball, and basketball for the teenagers and adults. We have foot races, bike races, sack races and every other race you can think of for the kids. Since quads were invented, we've had a two day quad ride also. The year before last there were 37 quads and several motorbikes on the trail, it was huge! There are old unused roads everywhere up in the mountains, so it gives us plenty of new scenery every time. Of course there's the huge turkey dinner where everyone pigs out and then complains about overeating. Then, there's the program with the kids putting on plays and skits and singing performances which is always fun. And lastly, we have a dance in the gym to close the celebrations. I remember back when I was a teen. I couldn't  wait for thanksgiving every year it took so long to come around. Now, It seems like we just get done  celebrating and boom! Thanksgiving is two weeks away, again!

Here is another one from Brooke. Be careful, you might cry a tear or two!

Brooke Langford Hallelujah 0001

Source: www.youtube.com

The words to this song were changed from the original Shrek theme. This is the Ill Divo version, very beautiful words.

My daughter Brooke singing foolish games.

Amazing voice!!! singing Foolish Games

Source: www.youtube.com

Brooke Langford singing Jewel's Foolish Games

I guess I talked about the art festival so much, I have to post one of the songs she sang there. So enjoy.

Chapter Eighteen. Rambling On.

So now when we wanted to cruise the boulevard with the senoritas, we had our choice of a wrecked '81 ford pickup, or a wrecked '74 ford pickup or an old wrecked ford van. We chose the pickup because there was no way we were gonna cruise chicks in a twelve passenger van.
Winter had come upon us in all its fury and it was mighty chilly that day. Danny, Kenny, Mike, Troy and I wanted to go into Douglas for the weekend to watch a movie and just hang out. We grabbed all the warm gloves, coats, blankets and ski goggles and warm caps we could find. Then, we packed ourselves into the '73 ford pickup as warm as possible. Now this pickup not only didn't have a front end, it didn't have fenders, hood or a windshield either! This is what all the warm gear was for. We spread the blankets  over our legs and put on our ski goggles, gloves and caps and started for town. By the time we arrived in Agua Prieta, even with the heater on full blast, we were freezing cold. Danny was driving and had to face the full thrust of the wind. To combat this, he put two pair of ski goggles on, one over his eyes and the other over his mouth. This was quite a sight, five aliens packed in the front seat of a truck straight out of the junkyard!
    Driving through town was hilarious. People would twist around and stare at us like we were nuts. We would just smile and wave at them. Danny pulled up to the US border checkpoint and stopped. He had icicles clinging to his chin and frozen snot oozing from his nose while his breath fogged up his ski goggles. The customs officer stood there a few moments looking at us in amazement as if we were straight from mars. "Jesus Christ," he said loud enough for the whole department to hear. Then shaking his head to suppress his laughter, he motioned for us to get the hell out of his sight.
    "Se ya later," chortled Danny fogging up his double dose of goggles, and off to the movies we went. There couldn't have been a more desperate bunch of lunatics on earth, but we didn't care, this was just another adventure!