Author Archives: drblmack

The Book!

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Why do I want to write a book? Because I love to write? I am not entirely sure why I wish to write a book. It has always been a dream of mine to tell my story. Maybe it is from my love of reading, or a desire to suck a reader into my story. I feel I have many interesting stories. Some of you, that read my work regularly may agree, or you are thinking she doesn’t even write in her blog regularly, how is she going to write a book? Don’t worry. I have found an accountability partner. My new neighbor and I have jumped from the edge of the swimming pool, right into the cold water, and everyone who knows me knows I cannot swim, but that hasn’t ever stopped me before! (Neither of my children can swim either, but that is another story.)

The outline was already completed, when I was invited to an author luncheon this weekend. It was a wonderful event. I sat with some great ladies from Hondo at lunch. I shared my aspirations with them and they didn’t even laugh. Yes, I am now sharing my aspirations with complete strangers. I even met Charlene Bell Dietz, the author of The Flapper, The Scientist, and The Saboteur. It is a great book, and she is the first author I have ever met in person. She talked a lot about the book, and some of the ins and outs of writing it.

I left there inspired, thinking to myself, I got this. How hard can it be? Well according to my research, most novels are 80,000 words. So if you can hammer out 1500 words a week, you will be done in . . . . a little over 1 year! I am sure I will learn many things on this journey. I have already realized that I like organizing the sticky notes on the outline! I really like the organizing of most projects much better than the actual doing of the projects. I finally had to leave well enough alone and start typing. I didn’t stop until my tendonitis kicked in at 10,674 words! (not including those on this page) Stay tuned! Macklee is in California visiting Aunt Sandie this week, not sure if I would have made 100 words had she have been here!


Tried a recipe for cauliflower crust pizza tonight. Not a do-over. A flour tortilla is a way easier pizza crust and probably just as healthy except for the gluten! It looked pretty though.

Simple Life

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What a wonderful day we had today.  It started with a French press coffee.  (Very fancy cowgirl coffee)

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My favorite mug! 

We were horseback first, before it got too hot!  Then we retired to the house to try
pastaout some new and old recipes.  We made sweet potato salad, pasta salad, homemade granola bars, coffee ice cream. And if that wasn’t enough . . . our speciality oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!  It is a good thing I don’t stay home often, I would weigh 300 pounds.  Macklee gave the pasta salad  “4 thumbs up”!

My biggest worry was making sure that I got my clothes off the line before it rained (don’t laugh, I really thought it might, of course for any of those wondering, it didn’t!)

We checked waters and made crosses! (I thought this would be simple, as that was the theme of the day!)  Surprising more difficult than what my brain had envisioned!  At the end of the day we made time for a rose petal and lavender foot soak.foot bathecross

A beautiful, blessed and most importantly a simple day.

Star Spangled

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The cowboys that watch over America’s rangeland have such a huge responsibility that we take very seriously.  Teddy Roosevelt said it best, ” A ranchman’s life is certainly a very pleasant one, albeit generally varied with plenty of hardship and anxiety.”   While trying to do what is best for the livestock, the land, and our families we find ourselves constantly under attack from ignorance, environmentalists, market fluctuations, and drought. (to name a few)  However, more than most we are blessed to notice our surroundings and strive to appreciate the awe and beauty of America daily, but especially on her birthday.

Today we celebrated America’s birthday by scurrying to Capitan, NM for the Smokey The Bear Stampede Ranch Rodeo. The endless food included ribbon fries, brisket quesadillas, snow cones, and fresh lemonade.

It seems that there is nothing more patriot than a rodeo. The colors are posted horseback as the Star-Spangled banner plays. The prayer is powerful, thanking Him for all our blessings and asking  Him to watch over our cowboys, livestock, land,  politicians, and of course pleading for a little rain.

The celebration continued once we reached the ranch with smores and sparklers!  We sure enjoyed your birthday.

 

Maude Medders

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Today we attended a lecture about an amazing local historical figure named Maude Medders. This was an interesting topic for our family because there is a place on the ranch called Medders place. This belonged to the Medders family until 1942 when David’s grandfather Von Cain purchased it.

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Maude Medders is famous for being abducted by Pancho Villa and his bandits. They stole Maude and her first husband, Ed Wright’s ranch and cattle. The banditos killed her husband and she was forced to leave her two year old son Johnny behind. The ordeal lasted for nine days. Micheal Hays did a wonderful job taking us through those nine days of her captivity.

She was known as a horse woman and even took care of Pancho Villa’s remuda when he organized his raid on Columbus, New Mexico in March of 1916. When the raid was over she asked Pancho Villa’s permission to leave. He only asked what direction. She replied Norte and was allowed to head out.

She eventually married Will Medders and settled outside of Mountainair, in the little house we call the Medders place. After the presentation we gained a ton more interesting information from Maude’s grandson Bill Luther. His mother was Ruth Medders. David has known Bill for a very long time but never knew Bill was Maude’s grandson. He told us Maude had 8 kids one of which is still living. (Johnny,Pearl, Ruth, Bill, Harold, Lulu are the ones I can remember!). Maude’s son Harold Medders was a great friend of the Cain family. David has tons of memories from his childhood involving Harold!

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Bill told us that Maude was named Maude S, after her parents best mule. We learned Harold and Bill Luther married sisters. We also learned that Betty Lovato was Pearl Medders daughter. All people that mean very little to most of you reading this but I needed to write it down so I could recall it at some future date!

Maude’s motto was complaining doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

We painted a beautiful picture with the rest of our day as we saddled up and rode our horses. We went and showed the kids where Harold had told us there once was a full size baseball diamond. No complaining here.

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Snow Day

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The weather persons have named this storm “Goliath”.  We weren’t too concerned as they are often wrong.  However, this time,  it did start snowing yesterday at 9:30 a.m. and 36 hours later hasn’t quit.  I had just finished my workout and decided to brave the blizzard to go to town for milk (without any makeup and in sweats!) I could think of nothing worse than being snowed in for days without milk.  DSC_0014The horses are wishing they were somewhere in a stall with blankets on them . . . . or not?DSC_0070The storm delivered. It continues to snow as I write this at 6 p.m. December 27, 2015.  So far, we have around 18 inches on the level.  The problem however, is the drifts many are greater than 5 foot high.  The entire sorting alley is snowed in to the top pipe!DSC_0078The real snow hero is my husband.  He has piloted the blade or the bobcat ALL day.  He has delivered feed to all the animals and cleared the roads and the pens.  He has not stopped since early this morning.  We have had some water problems.  It started out as snow waiting down floats, and has progressed to pump house leaks and smoking pumps. He has just left again to recheck the red tank, he hopes be be back by 8:30 p.m.  I guess this why he doesn’t want to move to Alaska, where much like today, I would do my part . . . bake and keep the fire going!

Minnie Mouse Mania

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The mania has begun at our house. We are so excited about our trip to visit with some mice. I once read somewhere that sometimes the anticipation is as fun as the event itself. So, today, we are building some amazing excitement with the countdown we created.

2015/11/img_5481.jpg The above picture is very unusual, as I generally do not allow things on my fridge.

The next step to get us “rolling” was to deal with the change we have been savings for our Disney get away. Our family has been savings our change since our last Disney trip, patiently awaiting another go around.

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This was a family project, and the truth is it is probably worth the money the coin machine charges! Once the shoebox was loaded, I couldn’t lift it! We have saved $577.00 in pennies, nickels,dimes, and quarters. Not to shabby.

Halloween over!

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The weekend has flown past again, while we wondered what happened to it. We were suppose to go to a kids rodeo, but it was canceled due to rain. We received 1.1 inches of rain in the last week. (This did make it interesting getting up my dirt road). We decided to use Saturday, to get some groceries and visit our beloved neighbor GG.

We drove to Albuquerque to see GG, she had a stroke a couple of months ago and has been in and out of the hospital ever since. She is so tough and fighting to get better, it is very difficult to see her body failing when her mind is still so sharp. It is so depressing to think she will never come back here and we will never have her as a neighbor again. We snatched groceries, and high tailed it home to get ready for trick or treating.

Dalli was Cleopatra originally, but changed to a bat. MJ was Cinderella and changed to Carrie Ingalls! We made quick work of Limit street, in the town of Mountainair. The kids rode on a trailer filled with hay, and hopped on and off to gather sweets. The kids faded rapidly, complaining they were tired, cold, and their bags were too heavy! MJ was super excited to get to trick or treat at two of her teachers houses!

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Sunday brought some much needed rest and relaxation. A nice chat with my dad who wanted to make sure we bet on the Denver/Green Bay game. We decided on $20 as he didn’t want me to have to go into debt defending my Broncos!

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Dad, is the check in the mail?

Hang on Tight

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hang on

It has been one of those whirl wind weeks, where all you can do sometimes is hang on.  The clinic was extremely busy for late October.  I also had to incorporate parent teacher conferences into the week.  We were able to easily clear that hurdle.  So, my much deserved relaxing weekend was in view, until we sold the calves on Wednesday with a delivery clause!  There went my weekend.  So Friday night, my dad showed up with a trailer and we were set to head north in the morning.

David and I saddled up, and headed out at sunset, to gather the calves.  We were able to gather them successfully, with no drama from us or the cattle.  We must be maturing, we usually don’t get along that well working cattle.  (maybe he was nicer cause I was all he had)  All went well and they were sexed and weighed, and we were ready and waiting when the brand inspector arrived.  I was a little worried when my dad was working the steer gate, he doesn’t move like he use to, and I was so nervous that he wouldn’t get that gate opened in time, and we would be back to square one.  But he didn’t miss even one!

So it was off to God’s country to deliver our beautiful calves to Folsom, New Mexico.  Up early this morning to power wash trailer and head back home to start another crazy week tomorrow.IMG_1644

Drama Mamas

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For the most part, living on the ranch is hard satisfying work but bearable, much like breaking in a new pair of adorable shoes, painful but worth it. There are those times however, when the bliss of entering a grocery store and not knowing or caring how that package of hamburger got there seems like a welcome alternative.

This is that time of year. We have been calving heifers for what seems like eternity, but is actually a couple of weeks. This consists of rising in the night to make sure none of these first time moms is having any difficulty delivering there babies. If they are, we help, usually at some God awful time of night, in the frigid cold.

It is generally acknowledged that the female is the brightest in most species, cats,dogs,horses,humans, etc. This rule of thumb, unfortunately doesn’t apply to the female first time cow. These heifers are so silly, snorty, relatively uncooraporative, and unappreciative of the help we are bestowing upon them. Then, when you do provide them with assistance, you sit huddled and praying that she will begin to accept (read lick and clean here) her baby, not walk off and abandon it, leave it to freeze, or stomp on it.

So, I am off to pull the covers over my head, and hope that unlike last night, tonight will bring no drama from the soon to be mamas!

Romance Ranch Style

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It’s Valentine’s Day, yeah! You know chocolates, flowers, jewelry and love letters . . . or not! Nope our first order of business was a trip to the Surratt Ranch to buy a new high dollar bull. The last high dollar bull we have is currently in our freezer.

Then the Valentine’s Day fun really began. My gift was the opportunity to take a one hour nap before we went to find and move some of our heavy (ready to calve) heifers close to house where we can monitor them and intervene if necessary.

At 3:30 David and I embarked on our journey. First stop was to locate 6 missing heifers. After they were found, the next step, was for me to drive the truck and trailer to a different location and gather up some more heifers, and my husband would bring his bunch to meet mine. Here is where the problems could arise.

You see this is a new pasture to me, and my husband was giving orders like I knew where I was headed. The problem with most Cowboys ( I might have to go out on a limb here and just say men) is they don’t take the necessary time to explain the commands that they bark. However, the more time you take, to make sure you fully savy the instructions, the more impatient they become, and consequently, the worse the instructions become.

David took the first group we came across, and Magic (my caballo) and I, jumped in the truck and set off praying as we bounced across the rutty ranch road, that we were going to end up where we were suppose to end up. Don’t tell me I am alone in this, wives and daughters have been doing this for years, taking mediocre directions, and crossing our fingers that it all works out like it is suppose to!

Through some divine intervention I arrived and got my bunch before David arrived. (Just barely). Then the real fun began as we pushed these girls 3 miles to a new smaller pasture we call the Medders Trap. These heifers were in no hurry, even with David serenading them periodically with “it’s beginning to look a lot like Spring!”

At dusk we reached our destination, I took off to get the gates and David went to fetch the pickup. It was after dark, cold and scary by the time my husband made it back with the truck and trailer. But, at the end of the night, my valentine told me how much I was needed today. (That’s close to a thank you and better than chocolate!)

We snuck away Sunday morning to take the girls skiing, morning only because, of course, we had to get home and check those heifers! The reality of ranch life is romance happens daily it just doesn’t come in the form of red heart shaped boxes!