"Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at." - Goethe
2006 Journal Archive

December 2006
Saturday 12/30 – Holiday clean-up is done, David came to take down the outside lights today. Rox called from her trip to Seattle – having a great time. Erica is working on cattle records and getting some cows bred for one of our clients. Matt came to town today to paint his office in the Ag building. Earline came over for dinner tonight and we had a good visit.

Wednesday 12/27 – Lord only knows what I have done to my knee but it’s sure gone round the bend this week – swollen, stiff etc. First it was short term memory, then the reading glasses, then hot flashes, now my knee – Oh my, it’s just great to get on in years !  

Tuesday 12/26 – Undecorated the house except for the Christmas tree and “worked puppies” with the girls. We set up an assembly line and weighed each one, then checked to see if stitches from tail docking needed to be removed and wormed them all.All have gained lots of weight since the last check – they range from 2 lbs 2 ounces up to 2lbs 6 ounces.


Monday 12/25 Christmas Day - One of the wonders of having older children is being able to start Christmas morning at a later hour. We gathered about 10:30 and passed round the Santa buckets (our version of stockings). The dogs got theirs too and Ginger and Bella immediately ended up under the tree with one of their new toys. After all the gifts were opened and surprises revealed we cleaned up and started preparations for the Hillbilly Christmas Feast. Erica, Rox and I had to laugh when we all showed up Christmas morning in lime green sweaters – no planning ahead on that, I swear! A fun day and good to be together !!

Sunday 12/24- Christmas Eve – Wrapped all my gifts this morning. We’re babysitting Bella while the kids are in Hunter – Bella has been having fun with the packages under the tree – in fact she’s rendered sneak peak assistance on several gifts. Went to see Grandma at the nursing home this afternoon – a sad point in the day in many respects, but glad we were able to see and spend time with her. She liked the cards she received from many of her old friends and we read them aloud to her.

Saturday 12/23 – Spent the morning working on written content for a web site for one of the organizations I volunteer for. Melissa and I worked out the graphic design last weekend and will soon have it all put together. Lots of cooking, final shopping and getting the house ready for Christmas today… a trip to the grocery store and checking my recipes for what we are affectionately calling our Hillbilly Christmas Buffet…..a menu in which all dishes must contain one of our old favorite Hillbilly ingredients….mayonnaise (Hellman’s of course), cool whip, co-cola, white bread, fried onions etc you get the point. We were joking about all the old favorites handed down from Grandma, Aunts and assorted other relatives and realized our Southern and Ozark American heritage has provided us with quite the repertoire of dishes for the holidays so a theme dinner seemed like fun.

Friday 12/22 – Richard called from the farm to say one of the neighbors had found a brand new Hereford calf in his pasture. For the life of me, I could not imagine which of ours it was – but knew it had to belong to us as we are the only Herefords in the area. Turns out it was Erica’s embryo baby she bought in Kansas City – seems he came a few weeks early, but is healthy and fine. I figure his recip mom is one of those cows that likes to hide their calves down in the woods – seems she hid this one too well!

Thursday 12/21 – The puppies are two weeks old today and growing like weeds. Erica and Matt are headed out to Hunter tomorrow for Christmas with his family. I’ve been working to finish the last of my shopping. Roxane and the barn crew (Bryce and Crystal) have been working with all the calves in the show barn. Bryce and Crystal’s steers are looking good and the new Hereford heifers are coming along well. Looks like Taffy (Syrah), Brody’s heifer Lexi and Rox’s new heifer Mimi (Moler x Dee Dee) will be making the trip to Denver.

Tuesday 12/19- Had lunch with Erica, Rox, Melissa and Larry today at El Azteca – always a good time. Rox found all of her grades posted today and confirmed that she made a 4.0 her first semester in college! I posted my first puppy announcement on www.puppyfind.com today. Took a cute photo of the litter last night. Our friend Jeremy Church called to get Rox to help him transport some embryos for implanting. Among others, he is going to implant a couple of Matilda x 19D embryos he got from us. Those will be full sibs to Rox Cowboy and we wish him luck with them.

Monday 12/18 - Got home to find the puppies have grown a bunch. They are more mobile now and once Ginger is in feeding mode it looks like a scene from Gulliver’s Travels. I put them in a 50 gallon low sided water trough in the corner of the bedroom. Ginger loves the security of the trough and seems happy to come and go. Matt caught Bella in the trough with them Saturday and she seems very curious but is only allowed close
if Ginger is otherwise occupied. George is still not allowed in the room with the puppies and grumbles about it every time Ginger escorts him from the room.

Sunday 12/17- Got back from Austin today. Little Rox flew down Friday after her finals and joined us for the weekend at Big Rox’s house aka Buttermilk’s Bluff – we had dinner at our friend Will Packwood’s new restaurant – Cibo in Austin – very nice and great food, shopped IKEA and the new outlet mall at Round Rock then went to see the movie Holiday. Great movie - had a blast at IKEA too. Erica is dreaming up her new kitchen….the kids are planning to build a new house at Langley so Erica was soaking up ideas and looking into prices. I bet we end up driving a truck and trailer to the Dallas store to get things once the house project is underway.

Wednesday 12/13- Busy getting ready for a trip to Austin – business meetings and the weekend at Big Roxane’s (BR). Erica and I had lunch with Rox aka Little Roxane (LR) on the way to the airport. The girls had just signed the paperwork to join the Oklahoma Air Force National Guard. Looks like Erica and her long-time friend Alyssa will be welcoming Rox and her long-time friend Kalley into their unit. Rox and Kalley will be off the basic training late next summer.

Monday 12/11- First Vet appointment with the puppies – everything is good to go – got tails and dewclaws done and had them all checked out.

Sunday 12/10 – Still finishing up the Christmas décor; the cats haveleft the tree decorations unharmed….amazing. Fun weekend – the tree that Melissa, Erica and I decorated for the Safenet fundraiser did well and the event was nice. Rox and friend Kalley came to Claremore for a quick visit and went to Guard Drill with Erica and Alyssa – taking a look to see if they want to sign up.

Thursday 12/7- Ginger started the night in the bed with us last night but became restless around 2 am. By 4 am I made her go to her spot in the corner of the bedroom - she was not a happy camper about that but soon gave in and settled down to have puppies. By 8 am we had 7 puppies, everything went very well and they all seem healthy and fine. Ginger is a good mom for sure.

Tuesday 12/5 – Ginger looks as though she will burst and is moving very slowly these days. Dr. Clint said he thought he counted 5 or 6 puppies and she is looking the part. Bella is astounded that we have a tree in the house.

Sunday 12/3 – As predicted the Christmas decorating process began and Richard kept me updated on all sporting events of note. Our black cats (sisters) named Thing One and Thing Two have taken on the task of testing the structural integrity of the Christmas tree. I have decided to hold on adding decorations until they have completed the process (two or three days).

Saturday 12/2 – David brought all of the Christmas stuff down from the attic last week and the garage looks like Holiday Central so I believe today will be the day to decorate. Richard will help too – although his idea of helping is to stay clear of the decorating zone then walk through periodically, update me on the status of today’s sporting events, hand me a diet Pepsi and say, “Looks nice when we are going to have (breakfast, lunch, dinner as appropriate)”. That’s fine though as there is this rumor that I do not let others decorate the tree – something having to do with balance symmetry and artistic expression – can you imagine? Rox is tree lighting certified though and has been taught the secret to properly lighting a tree.

Friday 12/1 – A beautiful morning – sunny and 11 inches of snow on the ground. Weather men all say we broke records for most snow in one day, most snow in Nov and a first for this area – officially a Blizzard. Ginger looks like she will explode at any minute. Made her a place in the corner of the bedroom and hope she will agree that it is her spot. I am pretty sure she had been planning on having puppies on my bed.

November 2006
Thursday 11/30 – As we expected it sleeted all night – things were a mess on the roads, so
everyone was home for the day. By mid afternoon the sleet turned to snow which actually made
it better in many respects. Erica called to say she and Matt had found the herd in the hollow of the woods pasture and took their hay to them there – also rolled out a bale for the young ones to sleep on. Much to our surprise Bryce and Crystal made it over to take care of the show barn – dedicated kids to drive in that weather to care for their cattle!

Wednesday 11/27 – Started my day in flip flops as it was 69 degrees outside, then the cold front passed through and the temperature dropped nearly 30 degrees in the space of 2 hours. Next came rain which we sure needed and then came the sleet. I had been decorating a Christmas tree for the Safenet Festival of Trees with Melissa, finished up about 9pm and got Richard to take me to the grocery store as it had just started to sleet (I’m a driving wimp on sleet/ice). By the time we came out of the store 25 minutes later there was ¼ inch of sleet on the road.

Friday – Sunday 11/24-11/26 – Cooking, eating and shopping. Great Thanksgiving, got all the Christmas shopping finished up and saw Santa Claus 3 with the girls. The Blacks called from Wilburton – Reserve Champion Hereford Steer and Heifer – congrats to them on a great day with BHR calves Nugget and Lexi.

Thursday 11/23 - Rox arrived home from Stillwater last night and we went to see Casino Royale – like the new James Bond! Kind of quiet day today, went to see Grandma at the nursing home and cooking for tomorrow when we will have our Thanksgiving meal.

Wednesday 11/22 – Joan sent a funny today that is so appropriate for those of us who attended the U of A – “Due to the climate of political correctness now pervading America, those of us in Arkansas, Missouri and parts of Oklahoma will no longer be referred to as "HILLBILLIES." You must now refer to us as: OZARK-AMERICANS. Thank you!”

Tuesday 11/21 – Getting ready for Thanksgiving and collecting the recipes I want to use. Plan to try out a new one from Paula Deen’s Thanksgiving TV Special for Bacon Wrapped Breadsticks. Rox is planning to make the Hot Cranberry Cider. I spoke to our neighbor, Susan Haggard, today. They have an aluminum trailer, show equipment and a spring born Mossy Oak steer for sale – their number is 918-343-0011. Sent my Treo off with Matt today – despite my best intentions, I never got into the habit of using it. I guess I’m old fashioned enough that sticky notes and little spiral notebooks are more my style.  Wouldn’t give up my Outlook at home though !!  

Monday 11/20 - A trip to the vet for an ultrasound puppy count today. Dr. Clint says 5 or 6 – can’t tell for sure because Ginger was wiggling too much – but sure enough there is a belly full of puppies in there! More good news today Beacon Hill Fiona 439P is safe in calf to Moler. My last straw at the $50 price….Happy Thanksgiving to me!!  

Sunday 11/19/06 - After months of saying, “We really need a web site” we finally took our notes, photos and thoughts to Melissa (Dick) Herriman. Melissa listened to what we described and came back to us with a web site design that was exactly what we had in mind. I spent the time on the road to and from Sulphur writing the text for the site as Richard, Rox and I drove to the state Hereford sale. We also attended the Annual meeting. It was a good sale and we were glad to have the chance to visit with everyone.