Wordless Wednesday: Home

We moved into our new ranch property this past weekend - here are  few pictures of our slice of paradise.

 



 

In order from top to bottom: us in front of our new house on closing day, the view from our balcony overlooking the turn out pens, a view of the housed and one of the pastures while I was riding, the horse barn with tack room and stalls, a new pasture to explore with Friday, overlooking a pasture, barn and the house, and the sunrise this morning.

We are thrilled to say the least. God is good.

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Goodbye Little Trailer on the Prairie

Life has been happening at breakneck speed in our little slice of Heaven. As a blogger I have failed you, dear readers, by not updating y'all regarding our life changes, issues updates or even pictures of my adorable dog. I apologize.

So I shall start at the beginning, because where else could I start? Here's what's going down with our family and if you make it through this update there is a 101 in 1001 checklist at the bottom.


Bye bye Little Trailer on the Prairie - you've been good to us!

1. We're moving.

Yep - after living in Manhattan for almost a decade we are moving to southeast Kansas to the county where I was born and raised. We are in the final stages of purchasing a small ranch property there and are moving tomorrow. As in, 24 hours from now. Unfortunately, we haven't closed yet on the house so we are living with my dad for a few weeks until the house is ready. Brings back memories of summer breaks from college...

2. The Ninja is almost a PhD. He is wrapping up his doctoral dissertation which he will defend in early September. He has accepted a position with a swine technology and nutrition company and will start shortly after his dissertation. Real world, here he comes!

3. For some time now, this blog has addressed more than just agriculture, K-State and rodeo and it's really weighed on me because I haven't felt like I have been adhering to my rules for blogging or giving my goals any justice. However, I realize that blogging is about life and life is made up of more than advocacy - as it turns out, people like to know what is going on in our personal lives! So, going forward, I will continue to post about marriage, agriculture, rodeo, K-State, running, livestock and other topics I find interesting. In fact, in the next few months I'll even have real life ranch updates. The difference between now and the past is not the content, it's how I feel about my content. I am going to stop being ashamed of talking about the ins and outs of my life that aren't agriculture related. I may even change the blog logo and header, who knows!

And now for the 101 in 1001 update, as promised. These days are just flying by and I am needing to jump on it and get some more things accomplished!

To date, I have completed 30 goals and my challenge ends on October 26, 2016. So not halfway done but I also have a lot of goals that are in progress (21 to be exact) so I am confident I can get that number much higher. A few of the goals I have completed since the last update are below.

- Run 3 - half marathons (yes, you read that correctly) 1 - Glass City Half Marathon 4/27/14; 2 - Sioux Falls Half Marathon 9/7/14 (PR! 1:59:02); 3 - Garmin Wickedly Fast Half Marathon 4/18/15 (2:04:05); 4 - Bill Snyder Highway Half 5/23/15 (2:18:01)
I had no idea that I would complete this goal within a year! But am so glad I did - I feel great!
- Learn basic sewing machine skills
- Make a set of curtains using the sewing machine
I made my dad some curtains so that our dogs can't look in the window and give me sad eyes while we are living at his house.
- Travel internationally - Belize 2015
And we are on track to keep this one going because we are going to spend the month of December abroad!
- Organize and clean office so that it's functional for two people
 Just in time for us to leave, ha!

So there you have it - a mini life update on Buzzard and the Ninja. Anyone have any foolproof packing tips to share with me? I loathe packing, especially kitchen items and things that don't have a specific category!

Oh, and just for good measure, here's a picture of my adorable dog.


Vicious Cricket

Until next time,~ Buzzard ~

Wordless Wednesday - In Love with Baby Calves!

Who doesn't love a baby calf? Several of my friends would attest that baby calves are the cutest baby animals on Earth but I tend to think every baby animal is the cutest so I shouldn't be a judge.

Oops! That's a little border collie - not a little calf. Hi Cricket!

What is your favorite baby animal?

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Earth Day for Ranchers

It's Earth Day so I'm doing Wordless Wednesday a bit early this week, hence the words :)

We produce a lot of beef in the U.S. and we do it through sustainable practices that allow us to pass down farms and ranches from generation to generation. The Ninja's family farm has been in ownership by the same family, on the same ground, for more than 150 years!



Sustainably producing more beef using fewer resources -
 that's the American beef industry on Earth Day and every day!

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Wordless Wednesday: My First Photo with Added Text!

My first edited photo with an ag fact - now I know why people do these; so much fun creating!

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Wordless Wednesday: A Glimpse of Heaven

Gorgeous Kansas sunset astride Rooster

Cancer and Ode to a Cowboy

Some of you may have noticed a Facebook status I posted in late July about cancer and Alzheimer's needing to leave my family the hell alone. Alzheimer's has and continues to take a toll on the Frobose, Buzzard and Baker branches of my family and I don't know many people out there that cancer hasn't touched in some way.

Without delving into too much detail, because I am honestly not fond of sharing intimate minutia of my personal life with the interwebs [or anyone for that matter], my cousin Marty Buzzard quietly lost his long battle with cancer on July 31. I felt, and still feel, like someone jacked me in the aorta with a ton of bricks.

Marty, rest his blessed soul, was a quiet cowboy, however the few words he did offer were heavy with meaning, ultimately consistent with the rest of the Buzzard men. He loved his family and roping, playing basketball and causing a little bit of mischief along the way- an unexpected quality thanks in large part to his calm and reserved demeanor.

A kind and adept horseman, Marty always rode well-broke horses and valued behavior and skill over flash or style. Marty broke colts and rode outside horses for years with unmatched finesse, skill and patience, training his own horses and selling them after he made them into equines of worth. Rare in a multitude of fashions, he was a left-handed heeler and I never tired of watching him deliver a loop. As with all roping, heeling is an art and left-handed heeling is art in motion.

Marty had a horse named Rooster, a champagne amber gelding, who is by our stud Take Care O' Neall [you'll drool]. I liken Rooster and Marty to Doc and I and when Marty was in the later stages of his disease, my father took care of Rooster for long stretches of time so that the horse would remain in capable hands and not be sold during the mires of terminal illness.

You can imagine the shock I felt when I received a phone call from Podge a few weeks ago informing me that I had been given the ultimate gift; Rooster's torch had been handed off to me. The gamut of emotions I've experienced during the past few weeks has been jarring - I'm reeling from the shock of receiving such a special gift, humbled by the trust my cousin, father and grandfather have put in me to take care of Rooster and excitement at owning a son of our stud. Of course, he's not really mine, I'm just watching over him until he meets up with Marty again. However, until that fateful day arrives, I'm going to cherish the runs I'll make and the calves I'll capture on the gorgeous, well-bred, inestimable gelding.


Rooster the rodeo horse with Rooster the rodeo dog making a cameo

 

I'm certain I've never felt more of a higher calling to give an animal supreme care than this very instance and I know that Marty will never be far away.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Wordless Wednesday: I'm Not Bilingual and Little Cowboys Are Cute

Uno, dos, tres - I can't count to 56 in Spanish.

 

Little cowpokes stickhorse race at a memorial team roping

Wordless Wednesday: Checking Cattle and a Video!

The feed rig we use- we didn't have to ride this pasture to count heifers, because they all run to the bunk and we can do it there! The cattle really like the feed mix that we give them - it's stored in the white box on the back of the truck.

Those storm clouds were moving pretty quickly.

We tried awful hard to gather and count all 83 head in this pasture before it started pouring but were unsuccessful - we got soaked from rain that flew in sideways and sometimes rain seemed to come straight up from underneath.

Isn't he just adorable? Rooster is growing up - he's losing his baby teeth and weighs about 55 pounds!

 

I wish I could post Instagram videos on my blog because the one I shot and edited on Sunday would win an award at the Sundance Film Festival. Seriously. If anyone knows how to put Istavideos on a blog, please let me know! If you want to check out the cinematic masterpiece, follow me on Instagram @brandibuzzard.

 

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

My Baby: Semi-Wordless Wednesday

Nope, I'm not pregnant.

Moving on - my children are much more expensive to feed and are considerably larger. My favorite child, my pride and joy, my baby - the superstar athlete, straight A student, cuddly cute one is Doc. You've seen him here.

 And there is the problem child - the one who sneaks out of the house to meet up with the punk rock boyfriend, the child who gets kicked out of prom and the one who doesn't care what I say because I'll never understand how hard her life is (*sigh*). Meet Friday, less affectionately known as HB. I'll let you figure that out for yourself. I bought her from my brother - she is a super nice heel horse and I am adding breakaway roping to her repertoire and she's not doing bad at all.

In all fairness, she isn't really mean or anything. She just isn't finished and I don't devote as much to her as I should. She's also not Doc, which unfortunately makes her #2 in my book even though she can't help it. Favorite child syndrome going on at the FroBuzz Ranch. That said, I have ridden three times this week and things are going well. I anticipate that by next spring, she'll be ready for a summer full of rodeos; once I get her to run through a barrier and some other minor stuff like that.

Sorry for all the words.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~