The Ranch Life

It’s been a very different summer here at the L&L house.

So much of our time was consumed by our kitchen remodel we didn’t have time to think about much else.  We did, however, spend some time away from the dust and disarray.  One trip was a visit my husband’s uncle’s ranch near the Texas/Mexico border.  

I don’t want to bore you with a family vacation slide show, but I thought you might like to get a glimpse in to the “Longhorns” side of this blog.  Visiting this ranch gives you a look in to my husband’s affinity for the rugged side of home life.

His uncle and aunt no longer live on this ranch.  Unfortunately, the home that was on this land now belongs to another relative so I have no photos of a residence for you to see.  They now live in town — about a 15 minute drive — and Uncle Larry commutes to the property each day.

As the ranch gets passed along to the generations, the land was portioned out and they lost the house where they raised their son and where my husband has a million memories of his childhood.  He and his cousin are 6 months apart so they spent many days roaming this property together.

I can see why my husband loves it.

It is rugged, yet beautiful.  And, it is filled with so many little treasures and life lessons if you take the time to look around and explore.

There is life and death. Dusty trails and surprising beauty tucked among the thorns and desert.

The livestock roams about wandering and nibbling on whatever foliage it finds.

And the new calves were a sight!  However, the adult females were not shy about being very protective of their young.   This female led the crowd in making sure we had no ideas about getting close to the calves.  Every time we stopped to see them she made a bee-line for us letting us know that she wasn’t having it!

It was funny how all the adult females joined together in solidarity to make sure no harm came to their young.  It was the same thing every time…a few stayed back with the young and a few others came right up to us and gave us a big, intimidating stare-down!

Seeing life on the ranch is so good for my kids.  They get to explore on their own, follow their great uncle (the rancher) around as he teaches them about the livestock and things that happen on the ranch.  

Uncle Larry has a place he calls “the junk pile” — I would argue that it’s more of an outdoor ranch “museum.”  It’s the place where all the old ranch vehicles and other old ranch “treasures” go.

It’s where I snapped these pictures:

These vehicles and ranch “tools” date back to the 40s and 50s.  They were a lot of fun to see!

We found so many other fun little treasures we were able to take home with us.  I’ll be sharing those soon.

I’m also in the process of getting the kitchen pictures taken so I will be sharing the big kitchen reveal soon too!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the last days of summer!  Thanks so much for joining me today!