Where-for-art-thou Bambii!

Remember Bambii as a child? Oh the thrill of running through the meadow, the newness of being a baby in a wide world? My eldest, Miss Sarah, recieved this wonderful Disney classic for Easter this year and it's already almost worn out. Living on a ranch kind of put some new perspective on some things. First off, anybody know whether or not Bambii's daddy is White Tail, Mule deer, or part Elk? Those antlers throw me off every time! Secondly, looking at those antlers, i'm seeing $80 or so. The perks of working on the ranch is that when the elk and deer shed in the winter and spring, it's finder's keepers around here! We spend pretty much every nice saturday all piled on the 4-wheeler going shed hunting. And there is nothing more satisfying as the nice man (he's like an adult Santa Claus) that comes around Labor Day weekend and buys them all for $8 a pound. To put it in perspective, most elk sheds weight between 8-10lbs a piece! Christmas in May (it might as well be, too due to the amount of snow we got in May!)! Back to Bambii though, Sarah gets very very upset when Bambii's mom dies and i'm not going to lie, it makes me a little mad too! It is very irresponsible hunting seeing a doe with a fawn and shooting her anyway. That's just plain not right! Overall a great kids movie, and from an adult and foody point of view... Venison is so yummy!!!

Onto life in general! How is everyone out there in blog land? We are creeping in on Summer and the warmer weather is definately agreeing with my little family! We all are getting sun tans, and fun new clothes, and babies all around the ranch. On our latest trip to town me and the girls got to see our first baby fawn of the year. He was all wet and slippery and trying to get up for the first time, he was unbelievably precious! Then there are the baby antelope, complete mini-me's of their mamas fluffy butts and all! Then there are the calves all up and down our road running and playing. The biggest excitement baby wise around here is an orphan that in his short week long lifetime has had three mothers! His real mama prolapsed and that took up all her energy so she went bone dry on him, so we brought in a heifer that had lost her calf hoping that she would claim him and she would rather have kicked him in the head (which she did quite a bit). Now he is with another mama who lost her calf to a bear and they are going splendidly. So something good finally came out of something bad! Little tyke was so hungry he just sat under the heifer milk streaming off his little black face.

Food: Huge announcement in this area! I got a pasta maker. I know this may not be a huge development to some people but it is to me! There is nothing in the world like fresh pasta and now I get to make it myself! My husband sat down to homemade raviolis and sauce and said that he will eat anything as long as I am the one making it! Ego boost and 10 points for this wifey! We made homemade fettucini last night with homemade alfredo and again, so yummy! So for whomever may be reading, do you have a favorite pasta recipe? I used to get a garlic and tomato pasta where I used to work but can't find a recipe that comes close! Real quick though, here is the alfredo recipe (You know you want to try it!) It may be a little high in fat but you have to live a little bit right?

2 cups chopped and cooked chicken breasts
2 8oz packages Cream cheese
1 1/2 C Heavy whipping cream (more or less depending on your desire for thick sauce)
1 1/2 Tablespoons minced garlic (I use garlic salt if I don't happen to have any fresh garlic handy)

Melt the cream cheese into the whipping cream over low to medium heat in a skillet of your choice. Add Garlic. When all Cream cheese is melted and your sauce is smooth go ahead and add the chicken. Cook until you have a low simmer (don't forget to stir the sauce frequently so the milk products don't burn to the bottom of your pan). Remove from heat and pour over pasta of your choice! Yum!

My hubby loves this recipe, as do I and with fresh pasta it can only get better! The mountains of laundry and hungry children are calling my name... Have a great Wednesday!!

For the love of the Cowboy!

A trip to town today! Thank goodness because I was honestly getting tired of the dreary, cloudy, not knowing whether it was going to rain or not, ranch life! Today, however, was not a day of pure bliss (as anyone with a hyperactive two year old would know!), it had a purpose. Get Bryce (Hubby) outfitted for the summer. As a loyal patron of Grizzly saddlery, our local saddle maker has been working long and hard to find Bryce a saddle that will fit all of his horses. This is something that I was completely new to when we moved up here. A saddle is not just a saddle! There are SO many measurements that go into one it will almost drive one mad! Not only that, but there are only so many combinations of measurements that will result in a saddle that fits most horses. After our long hard search we found a saddle that was perfect, so today we payed for it. Handing over a rather large wad of cash can be hard for anyone (unless of course you're a millionaire! :) ), but after the exhaustion of bring home what felt like 20,000,000 different saddles with only one working, I was overjoyed to hand it over and be done with it! Long story short, Bryce has a new saddle! Our next stop was boots. Yet another thing I had yet to realize was the difference between how men and women wear out boots. I have had my pair of Ariats for almost four years and have never had to have them re-soled. Bryce, however, has gone through maybe 5... 7... pairs of boots.... and we're off to see the boot store, the wonderful wizards of boots! We finally found a pair just to find out that they were out of size 13. Bryce's shoe size seems to be just like my 7, no one ever seems to have it!! The salesmen that was helping us was superman, so they are ordered and will be here this coming week. Yay! Cowboying may be expensive, and some may wonder if all the money is worth it, but to make sure my hubby is happy in his job... That's priceless!