Gratitude

Have you ever felt so much love in your heart that it overflowed and caused tears of joy?
I have been feeling that way today. I'm not sure if it is because my grandson got to spend the night and we had hours of snuggle time, or if it is just that I am so happy that Gram doesn't have any major heart issues. 
  I am so blessed that I have a home that keeps me warm in the winter, and cool in the summer.
 Better Homes & Gardens is not going to use my home for a photo shoot any time soon and to me, that doesn't really matter.  The best thing is that my house is my home. I am happy to just be here.
Oh, new carpet wouldn't be a bad thing but if I have my family, I can live with the moss green shag!
  In the last couple of weeks, I have caught glimpses of the men that my boys are becoming. I am so proud that they strive to put others first. If this is the only lesson they ever learn from me, I have done my job.
  I am the luckiest woman in the world, because I am married to my best friend.  Jim would move heaven and earth if I asked him to.  I have figured out to be wealthy has nothing to do with money!
As my grandpa would say
" We are so poor we don't have a pot to piss in or the window to throw it out of!"
  My cupboards are full and I couldn't ask for anything more.
So on this snowy, blustery day I hope that your heart is warmed by loving thoughts of family and friends that would be there on your doorstep with one phone call from you.  Keep in mind the people that you might have been taking for granted. Cherish the things that matter. The most important life lesson was taught to me by a friend that is no longer here on earth.

The most important things in life are not 'things'!

Last Chance Prom

Here is the next little project I am helping put together.
 I think it will be sooooo FUN!!!!
The proceeds go to the scholarship fund so come on out
and support a great cause.
*******Heck, come on out just to laugh at old farts
                       in prom dresses and tuxedos!

Life is a Highway

 Life's like a road you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, Sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind.

There's a world outside every darkened door

Where blues won't haunt you anymore

Where the brave are free and lovers soar

Come ride with me to the distant shore.

                                  We wont hesitate   Break down the garden gate    There's not much left today

Life is a Highway

I want to ride it all night long

If you're going my way

I want to drive it all night long

There's no load I can't hold

Road so rough this I know

I'll be there when the light comes in

Tell'em we're survivors

~~~   Tom Cochrane

Cattle Sale

Cody was up and out the door by 7:00am with a load of cattle, headed to the sales yard.
 Jim & I had a few steers and heifers to sell but the main reason to go was to sell Cody's steer.  He had picked out a steer, last fall, for the Palouse Empire Fair. He had fed it, halter broke it, and been his buddy since last November.  Last month, when fair time came, Cody decided that the steer was not quite finished yet. He weighed enough to make the cut but he didn't have quite enough fat to make a good steak! So instead of just taking him to the fair and selling an inferior product into our food system, my boy did the right thing and held him back to finish out. Cody missed out on showing and competing but like he said, "This is what producing cattle has taught me. Your name is only as good as the finished product."

Cody sat at that sale and patiently waited for his steer to come through the sales ring. And he waited, and waited...........and waited. He waited for 7  1/2 hours and still no steer. He could see the steer in the pen, RIGHT NEXT TO THE SALE RING GATE but still it didn't come through! Finally, Harold Johnson (thank you, thank you!) hollered at the chute guys

 " Hey! Get that boys steer in here! He has been waiting 8 hours!!"

The steer came into the ring as calm as could be. Remember this steer was halter broke and loved people! He didn't come in all wild eyed and try to eat the ring men, or scale over the ring like most do. He sauntered in and stood there. When the ring man paddled him to get him to move around he just looked at him.
I think the steer finally saw Cody and just stood there and looked at him with bewilderment.

All the cattle buyers took this as a sign that the steer might be injured or sick. He just stood there and looked at Cody. The bidding started and the final price was .51 cents a pound. Thank you Grandma Elaine for hollering "Owner NO-SALE! We are taking him home!!"  At that price Cody realized he couldn't have even paid for the grain he had fed him!   So we loaded him up and headed home. After we feed him for a few weeks,

to get back the weight he lost while standing in a pen for 9 hours,

we will have a beef available if anyone needs one for their freezer!

Cody asked me, " If you can't even break even, why would anyone raise cattle?!

Son, that is the eternal question that ALL cattlemen ask themselves!!






Driving home tonight, I was trying to think of what 'life lesson' this might of taught Cody.

The only thing I can figure was ---

                1- Don't show up too early

                2- Don't sell too late

                3- Every once in awhile, even if you did the right thing,......

                                LIFE MIGHT JUST SCREW YA IN THE POOT!

Grandma Dorothy

My grandma Dorothy is the most beautiful woman in the world. I am not just saying that just because I kinda look like her! Her beauty is inside and out.  Her life ambition is to make the world a better place for everyone no matter their background, race, income or social standing.

She had a tough life starting out. As one of the only German families to settle in Steptoe, they were very discriminated against. She soon found out it was the wrong thing to tell her mother that the other kids called her 'the dirty dutchman' because that just caused her mother to use more soap and scrub her harder on bath night! Her mother, Emily, didn't understand that dirty dutch man didn't have anything to do with soil and she would exclaim to Gram "but WHY- we are not Dutch!"

One of her great honors, that she talks about, was being crowned The May Queen. She finally felt that she was starting to be accepted.  Gram was very skilled in sports. I might have got her looks but I sure didn't pick up her athletic ability.

She was kind of a hellion.

 THAT I might have got from her!

Gram's teenage years were ones of turmoil. At 17, one of her teachers noticed she was putting on weight.  The teacher brought Gram home to have a talk with her parents. After a heated discussion it was discovered that Gram was 8 1/2 months pregnant! She had no idea because female matters and sex were never discussed in the home.  When she began menstruating at 16 she was convinced she was dying and confided in a teacher that she didn't need to finish her school work because she soon would be dead.

Imagine the teachers surprise when she had to give THAT lesson!

Grams father refused to allow her to stay so it was off to 'the unwed mother's home' in Spokane.

 It was here that she finished school and received her diploma.

It was also where she learned she truly loved 'the icky neighbor boy'.

My grandpa, Cloy Harvey, grew up near Gram.

  His grandmother, Maggie Jackson, was the midwife that delivered Gram!

But growing up, he was just the icky neighbor boy.

In one of Grams autograph books, Cloy wrote the poem

"Roses are red, Violets are blue, Piggies stink and so do......".

I know he was 10 years old at the time, but that's just mean!! 

  When Gram was at the unwed mothers home, It was Cloy who came to visit and check on her.

 It was Cloy that never shunned her.

 It was Cloy that offered to marry her, even though the child was not his.

Gram grew to love him so much that she told him that she could not

start out a life together with him having to bear her burdens.

 So on December 7th 1941 (Yes, the day of Pearl Harbor) Gram gave birth to a little girl that she called Linda Louise. She was born 11 days after everyone (and Gram) realized she was pregnant!
She had decided to give the baby up for adoption knowing she would never

 be able to protect her from small town slings and arrows.

She raised her for six weeks and with heartfelt sorrow, handed her over to a childless family.

 One baby picture, that Gram has clung to for many years, is that of Linda Louise.

Skip ahead many years, after she married Cloy, after she gave birth to my dad-

 Richard and the girls, Marie and Susie.

Skip ahead to one day, five years or so ago, and the phone rings and the voice on the other end says

 "Are you Dorothy Suess? I think you might be my mother."

Grams heart swelled with joy. Linda had found her!!

Linda was now almost 60 and her adopted parents had passed away

and she had learned the truth about her birth.

 So with open arms we have welcomed Linda into the family.

 It makes me so happy that Linda is able to know the most beautiful woman in the world, like I do.

I love you Gram and hope I can be half the wife, sister, mother and grandma that you are.

Almota River Ranch: Keno 'Reeds Parr Scamp'

www.hoopercrossingranch.com

Keno 'Reeds Parr Scamp'

My buddy was born two days after my birthday on June 4th 2003. He is from the Charley Reed herd from Rosalia. Keith Danielson is the one that introduced us and many others have helped me get to know him.

The first time I picked him up, we headed straight for a Cowboy Up competition! We did obstacles that would make your knees shake! I knew he was looking out for me when we were doing a straight up hill climb and he stopped half way up to stomp on and kill a snake!

We jumped creeks, drug a calf dummy, hobbled, roped, backed down banks through barrels, went through an under the road 40 foot long culvert, and anything else that was asked of us. Well there was that one thing he refused and that was load into a trailer but it wasn't ours and it was full of cow poop so I couldn't blame him!

When I told Keith how great we did, he was kind of surprised. He said " I don't think I have showed him half of that stuff."  I just assumed he had.

Trial by fire and we kicked butt!!

  When it came time to do the Grand Entry at the Palouse Empire Fair and Rodeo, I didn't think he was quite ready so I borrowed horses a couple of years. The night before the rodeo, it didn't work out with the horse I borrowed and I was told "Go get that dun horse and use him for the rodeo tomorrow!"  So with no practice, Keno did the Grand Entry of the Rodeo!

Trial by fire, we kicked butt!

Now... we have had our moments!! When he decided to be a bucking bronc at our posse trail ride! After the 4th or 5th jump and we were headed for the rocks, I decided to bail! When I landed I refused to open my eyes because I hate the sight of blood.  When Kim made it to my side I said

 " Where am I bleeding from? Is it bad?" She was laughing so hard and said

 "You Dork!  That's not blood, it's water!You landed on your water bottle!"

On another posse ride ( I am beginning to see a pattern here!) We were kinda truckin along and tried to pass along a bank that was not as firm as it looked! He slipped and landed right on my leg! The best part was there was a photo of it for all to see, right when it happened !  Then there was the after!

 God I love facebook!!

The latest whoopsy doodle was the funniest one!

I was at a Scott Seeklander Reining clinic with my friends Judy and Amber.  They let me hang out and play in the arena when they are getting their lessons. Judy and I were standing there,on our horses, watching Amber. All was silent, and Keno dropped his head down and was sound asleep!  He did a kind of cough sputter but did it so hard he FARTED really loud! Farted so loud that he took off bucking like one of Sonny Reilly's bucking broncs!!! Scared the bejesus out of me. I would like to say what a horse person I have become and rode that buck till the end...but you should know me better than that!! I dove like Gregg Louganis in the Olympics! I don't know what was funnier--That he actually scared himself with a fart or the looks on every ones faces!! I think everyone came away with tear streaks on our dirty faces!

Trial by fart, he kicked MY butt!

Now Id like to tell you he is a perfect horse and I am a perfect rider.  I didn't think you would buy that!! But we are doing our best. Riding makes me happy and I think that is the most important fact that I seem to have strayed away from lately. It's not the competitions, or the latest tack or new fangled training tool. It comes to one thing.   You+ Horse= Happy :)

Joy

Want to know the meaning of JOY? True love? I never really knew this until today --when I held my grandson in my arms, for the first time.

I know all mothers feel an undying connection to their child but this is so different. As a mother, you have the power or control to mold and shape your child's future. As a grandmother you can only suggest or guide. It also seems as a mother you see the future as lessons that need to be taught and to resolve any conflicts that might surround your precious one. As a grandparent you realize these facts but are able to be there in a supporting role.... But get to spoil him rotten!!

You have done your best as a parent and all the hard work and happy times are now a living proof that is placed into your arms and is called 'grandchild'

It is so strange to see the similarity between YOUR child, and HIS child.

Jamisen 8-30-10

Devin
1-29-91

Devin & Jamisen

I was given a gift today.
 Thank you so much to my son, Devin and his beautiful soul mate, Jessica.

Jessica, who loves my son just as much as she loves her own. I love you!!

Let's go for a drive

This evening Jim said something that I used to hear my Grandpa say to my Grandma every Sunday...

....Let's go for a drive. 

I have to admit I had ulterior motives for going as I jumped up and said "let's go"! The light and colors were absolutely beautiful tonight and was anxious to see if I could capture them with my camera. Bouncing along on the dusty roads, we visited and joked with each other, in only a way that true friends who have been together for 15 years, could. My man had to confess he had ulterior motives too as he pulled out the binoculars.  I should have known! Deer hunting is just around the corner and we were scouting for a big'en.

We chatted about the farmers in the fields, and even the birds. And sometimes we didn't talk at all. There is a silence between us but not an uncomfortable one. The kind were you can think random thoughts and be at peace with it because at that moment, all is right with the world. How could it not be? I was with my best friend, bouncing down a dusty dirt road.

Old Photos

I have been doing a lot of posting on my www.ancestry.com tree and have been scouring the photo albums to match the peoples profile with a picture. Some are funny, historic, and awe inspiring and some are just amazing so I will post a few here.  They are all family photos. Some of them I not sure of names but they are family.

 I am noticing in my tree there are a few nuts!!  

Here is my great grandma, Emily Suess, holding my grandma, Dorothy Harvey.

Headed to town.

Oooops! Didnt make it!! 

And there is something about putting babies on chairs!?

Posing with produce was very popular!

And some are crazy!

Look close and you will see that's my Great Uncle, Karl Suess, In a baby buggy -

behind those  horses!!

I like the silly ones that show smiles and laughter!

Oh, for SHAME!! Women wearing PANTS!

Those are my relatives..... you rebels!!

Photos that take my breath away.

I hope in my collection of photos, my kids will find the ones someday

 that take their breath away, too!!