Friday Favorites ~ the green, green grass of home

The monsoon season has been good to my patch of the desert. We've gotten about four inches of rain since late May, and the pasture grass grew noticably greener and taller while I was away.


I love to watch the boys graze, and my favorite sound on earth is when they're chewing on grass that is fresh and still wet from an afternoon shower – it squeaks a little when they rip it with their teeth. Behind the din I can hear the cha-ching cha-ching of the cash register, ringing up all the money I'm saving from not having to feed them hay for the next few months.


This desert rangeland is hardly a thick and lush pasture. There are about six different types of grass they can choose from, and the blue grama appears to be their favorite. The grass grows in clumps among all the other green stuff, and the boys have to work a little to find it. This time of year, they can work a lot less, and I find myself wanting to shout "come up for air!" when I watch them graze. It's a non-stop chewfest.


Here's a fun fact: a horse turned out on pasture 24 hours a day will spend about 17 hours of that time grazing and will walk 8 or 9 miles in the process.


I took these pictures last night as baseline evidence for the boys' growing girths. When their sides begin to bulge out in grass-fed happiness, I will have to restrict their turnout time and they will not be pleased. But for now, we'll all just enjoy our green acres.

Wild about Wildrags

Regular people call them scarves, cowboys call ‘em wildrags.
I call them a necessity.



A wildrag is a functional piece of gear for a cowboy. It keeps the trail dust off his face. It can tie down his hat in a storm. It can be used as a towel, a sling, a hobble, a napkin, a water filter, even a disguise should one desire to rob a bank.

Me? I use mine mainly to stay warm, indoors and out.



My favorite wildrags come from a place called Horsewright Clothing & Tack Co. in Tehachapi, California. These swatches of love are 38” square and made of a soft and luxurious sandwashed silk. At this size, there’s enough fabric to style and tie it any way you’d like.



Horsewright also sells wildrag slides, like this hollowed out piece of deer antler. (It’s a safety thing - if you tie a knot in your wildrag and get dumped off your horse, you might hang yourself on the saddle horn on the way down.)

I have two Horsewright wildrags so far, in sage and in sky blue. They come in 22 other colors! And as fate would have it, when I went over to their website to grab a link for this post, I discovered their wildrags are on sale - $25 instead of the regular $29. I’m going to take that as a sign that it’s time to order my spring collection.

Not that it’s spring yet. Spring was last week.
We’re back to winter today.




Of course my wildrag was around my neck keeping me warm while I was outside doing chores. Did I mention that a wildrag also makes a handy camera cover in a storm? And a nifty carryall for a loose flake of hay? And an emergency kleenex? And of course they're washable.

I'm thoroughly hooked on wildrags. To see what other folks are hooked on this week, check out the links at Julia's Hooked on Fridays post.

Simple pleasures from Simply Canvas

I am all about surrounding myself with the things I love. But since bringing the horses and burros into the house might be a bad idea, I can at least hang their pictures on my walls. Awhile back, I showed you how I was hooked on simple glass clip frames to display photographs. Today, I will share another display idea for those extra-special images you might like to hang on your wall forever.

Nothing says "art" quite like canvas, so I picked a few of my wannabe-masterpieces and uploaded them to a place called Simply Canvas. I am in awe of the finished products (and they are not paying me to say that.)



I had Simply Canvas print five photographs, then gallery wrap the canvases on 1.5" deep stretcher bars. Not only is the quality amazing, but they turn these around in no time, and their customer service is extraordinary. And they're funny, too. Here is part of the email they sent to tell me that my canvases had been shipped:

...Please don't tackle the Fed Ex driver when they arrive. You can wait a few extra minutes for them to stop the truck.

Their prices are very reasonable, and they offer great discounts and specials (I got one 16" x 30" and four 10" x 16" for $320, with shipping).

I'm running out of wall space, so I either have to move or stop getting hooked on displaying photographs. To see what other folks are hooked on this week, check out the links at Hooked on Fridays.

Google Earth, the ultimate neighborhood tour

I don't know where I was when the memo came out on Google Earth, because I just learned about it. If you haven't downloaded this free application to your computer, you must do it...now. It is THE coolest thing on the internet. It will break your addiction to blogging because you will instead become addicted to traveling the world, right from the comfort of your chair.

Now don't mistake Google Earth for the maps you can look at on regular Google. Google Earth is like being a bird and flying over your house, then flying over your neighbor's house to see what they might be grilling on their backyard barbeque. And therein lies the creepy part. This whole thing is a pretty big invasion of privacy.

But Google Earth also allows you to visit the houses where you used to live, the places you went on vacation, or the gated estate that you covet, without getting arrested for stalking.

I can fly over the 7MSN and count my trees or map out a new trail ride. And when I point my mouse over the roof, Google Earth tells me my exact altitude and latitude and longitude. I'm a modern-day Magellan, discovering new worlds...where all the roads are clearly marked and there are close-up photographs of the intersections.



I am totally hooked on Google Earth. Check out Hooked On Fridays over at Julia's place to see what other folks are hooked on this week.

There's a new sheriff in town

Smooch's new badge arrived in the mail this week from fetching tags. And she is ever so proud to wear it.



These dog tags are off-the-charts cool, and I am totally hooked on them, which is a good thing, since it's Hooked on Fridays over at Julia's place. Go over there to see what everybody else is hooked on.

And go over to the fetching tags website to see what all the fashionable dogs are wearing these days. They are hand made, will last forever, and you can have your own tag line stamped on the back.



Smooch's tag arrived just in the nick of time. The coyotes I showed you a few days ago seem to have taken up permanent residence, and we see them every day.




I've told Smooch to keep flashing her new tag and maybe they'll take her seriously when she barks out, "No trespassing!"

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

...Audiobooks on ipods and warm woolen mittens.

Yes, this is what I am hooked on today, well except for the roses, whiskers and mittens part. We’re here to talk about downloadable audiobooks, my new favorite thing, and that which I am hooked on this Friday for Julia’s Hooked on Fridays party. Head on over there to see everybody else’s current obsession.



I love to read and always wish I had more time to curl up with a good book. When I discovered audiobooks that I could listen to on my ipod, my world became a better place – my reading time has increased exponentially. I read while I drive, I read while I clean, I read while I walk the dog. Come on, Smooch, one more chapter and then we’ll turn around and head for home. We’re both getting alot more exercise these days.

Downloadable audiobooks are available from many places; I like the prices and features at audible.com. It’s set up similarly to Netflix, with a searchable database and user reviews and ratings.



The production values of the audiobooks astonish me; the readers don’t simply read - they become the characters.

When Smooch and I return from our evening constitutional, the boys are always interested in what I’m listening to, and I’m only too happy to share. I’m currently about half way through the epic World Without End, by Ken Follett, the sequel to his best-selling Pillars of the Earth, which kept me entertained most of December.



George can’t seem to grasp my recent fascination with
the middle ages.

My rogues' gallery

Julia from Hooked on Houses is hosting Hooked on Fridays today.
Head on over to see what other folks are hooked on.

In the last year, I'd venture to guess that I've taken over ten thousand photographs. Some of them have turned out pretty nice, and it's been fun to share them with you on this blog. A few of them have popped out as favorites, and I've been looking for an economical way to frame them and have a little gallery wall in my dining room.

So today I'm hooked on glass clip frames.



I ordered these from amazon.com. They come in all sizes, and I've lined up five 16" x 20" frames along my wall. The tiny silver clips tightly sandwich the photograph between the glass and a thin masonite board. There is no need to dry mount the photograph or use any sort of mat, and it's very easy to change out the photos whenever the mood strikes.

I used myphotopipe to print the photographs. They do an incredible job, and they're fast, too. I sized the images at 11" x 15" with a 2.5" white border to give the effect of a mat.

For a very small investment, my dining room wall is now filled with art, albeit homegrown.