Created a Grandma Ruler

Magpies and coyotes were my alarm clock at 6 a.m.—the magpies tearing up my apples and the coyotes howling like they owned the place. At 1 a.m. they’d sounded practically in the yard, but of course when S went to look, we had no shells handy for a warning shot.

We woke after 8:30, with coffee in bed (Duo for me, X for S), before getting on with the day. I hit publish on another blog post—finally almost catching up!—while S packed his baling-day survival kit: lunch, fuel cans, and all the essentials. I dropped him at the tractor, where he topped up with diesel and hydraulic fluid, then I left him to his bouncy gopher hill fields. On my way home I grabbed a tea, a muffin, and Cooper, plus a few groceries.

By 11:30 I was back at the ranch, publishing my new paint-color media cabinet tutorial and getting it shared everywhere. Outside in the 23° sunshine, I filled a crisper drawer with apples from our old September Ruby tree before moving on to Sharon’s grandma ruler project. Black numbers, sharp and simple—the stencils took longer to scrub clean than the actual painting.

Ruby never lets us down, this is why we did the BTK bug killer this spring to make sure she was healthy

17 miles away at the custom hay project

Roo’s rubber shoes checked out fine, I had a quick pea-snacking session straight off the vines, and the dogs got their daily walk to the pit—half lush and thriving from all the rain, half still a work in progress. Progress, not perfection. 

north end above, south end below

Back home I hopped on the quad, hand-pulled weeds along the paddock fence, and just finished when S rolled down the road at 3:45. He fueled up and I fetched him a cold beer, he was off to baling our field now.

The tally from the custom work: 65 big rounds from the custom deal, 70% his—though of course bale prices have dropped with all the rain. By the time he wrapped up our hay swaths, it was just before 6, with seven more bales from the old hay field.

I squeezed in clear-coating Sharon’s ruler, watering orchids, and blogging before cooking up a goulash with garden veggies and our bison burger. S swung in for a quick horse trailer hookup and to scrub his dusty face and hand before heading back out—ice water bottle in hand I refilled. Once the last bales were tucked away, he came in for supper and a shower, then we loaded Switch for her chiropractor appointment.

There’d been a nasty accident earlier at the Esso corner—semi vs SUV—so traffic was still being rerouted around Highway #1. We made it to Murray’s where Switch was quickly adjusted (just a pinch on her right side) and then spent more time visiting than the actual treatment, since we hadn’t been there since May 2022.

On the way home, we detoured to DQ—600 points scored me a banana split Blizzard while S went for a caramel sundae. Back at the ranch, B was busy with horses and had Switch’s supper ready. She and I chatted about her new horse before she and Cooper headed home.

S wrapped up the night by grading the trailer pad and the front yard, making it look sharp.  We curled up to finish Celebrity Bear Hunt and start a couple of new shows, ending with a live comedy special. A busy, sun-soaked day, capped with laughs.

At the gate he set the rock back in place till we get the cement repairs