A Mule Ride on Turkey Day…

Well I decided two days ago that I was not going to stress out over Thanksgiving and the Dinner. I was going to keep it simple: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach salad, and that’s about it. I was not going to feed an army, nor prepare an army-worth of food just for tons of leftovers. I was going to relax.

And I did.

I threw the bird into the oven around noon and I hopped into the mule to go on the traditional drive through the ranch that we do every year. This year, I refused to worry about how fast/slow the turkey was cooking or if it needed to be basted or not. I just enjoyed the perfect blue sky, the amazing scenery, and good laughs with our company. We spent close to three hours out in the ranch, checking on the angus and the brahman, the horses, and of course, looking for the elusive wild hogs.

We saw their destruction everywhere but did not come upon any ‘little piggies’. Something happens in the male psyche when they go hunting but come up empty. They still need to shoot something, apparently, so we stopped at a random fence for awhile and all of the men, even the littlest one, fired away at different targets. It was quite chilly and when my husband wrapped my purple scarf around his neck, I did my own kind of shooting, with the camera! What a sight!

Here are the highlights of Thanksgiving Day on the ranch.

Awhile back, we lost a cow. When I say ‘lost’, she died. I was devastated. Right after giving birth to her calf, she got up, walked about 10 steps and keeled over dead. It was extremely sad.

Nothing but blue skies…

I guess that a rifle used by special ops agents in Iraq is ‘manly enough’ to be paired with a fuschia women’s scarf and toilet paper stuck out of one’s ear… I don’t even want to know why there was toilet paper with us in the mule…

If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s worn a scarf before! The way he slung it over her shoulder was quite impressive!

My hunters… in all their glory.

About this time, I got bored with shooting. They continued to shoot guns, and I started shooting my camera…

The beautiful Texas sky just looked like it would go on forever and I was enchanted. Some of the angus mama cows and calves showed up to see what all the commotion was about  and I saw some cute babies…

Like this one, though she was awfully far away and my zoom kind of made the shot grainy. Sorry!

Or this cute little brown cow.

What a sweetheart. The angus started to mosey away and so I turned my attention back to the cavemen. That’s exactly what they become as soon as a rifle is put in their hands. The primal need to hunt and gather kicks in and they become crazed. It is the weirdest phenomenon I have ever seen. It starts early, too, check it out!

Pretty soon, we all loaded back into the mule and our tourguide (yes, it is the little one) took us to check on his gelding, Grant, and his brood of yearlings. He and his buddy Payaso (‘Clown’ in spanish, named that because he does tricks!) hang out in the pasture with a crop of beautiful yearlings.

They’ve been imprinted and handled quite a bit in their short lives, but they are still skiddish and afraid of some. Not in the case of little D. All of the horses love to be with this boy and would follow him to the ends of the earth. It is a beautiful sight…

There is one colt in this group that takes my breath away. Wait, that’s not fair. They all have that ability, but one is exceptional. He is a chesnut foal with a flaxen mane and tail. He is just a beauty.

After visiting with Grant and checking him all over and loving the babies for a few minutes, we set out for home. Time to check on the turkey and get the dinner moving… Bye Grant!

Well, we didn’t see any wild hogs, just tons of damage and destruction to pastures. They really are a nuisance. As we drove back through the ranch, we were greeted by some of the Brahman mama cows coming up over the ridge and the photo doesn’t do it justice. It was the most beautiful scene to see those white cows come up over the ridge with the perfect blue sky framing them…

We drove back to the house and I felt recharged and relaxed, ready to tackle dinner and the remainder of the day. I am thankful for this beautiful setting that I call home. It is a magical place.

Happy Thanksgiving.

P.S. I finally found a copy of the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook and will begin my quest to blog my way through her cookbook next week.

P.S.S My instructions to those that are interested in the Blog Experiment II will be coming up either tomorrow or over the weekend! I didn’t forget, I promise!