Shannon Ranch

Shannon Ranch Goes WordPress

Posted on April 23, 2014 by adminApril 29, 2014

I’ve been working on switching over to a regular blog format for the ShannonRanch news for a while now. There was a pretty significant learning curve and a lot of hair pulling for me in getting it done. I’ve been so used to creating my website with Frontpage software which enables me to do anything, move anything, and change anything so easily, that I’ve really been challenged by the blog-in-a-box structure of wordpress. However, with some research and study, I was able to tweak it enough to add a little personality. It’s still a work in progress, but I hope that by using an existing blog format, I’ll feel a bit more connected to my readers. Now you’ll be able to comment, follow me and even sign up to get an email when I post something new. Let me know what you think and any suggestions that you have. Thanks for reading the news. Windy

Weekend Visit Part 2

Posted on April 23, 2014 by adminMay 1, 2014

We ran into a rattle snake on the way home.

Weekend Visit

Posted on April 23, 2014 by adminApril 23, 2014

Sunday, April 20

The Mars family came down on Sunday and spent the day with us. We had a really fun day that included some people (who were riding in the open air jeep) getting rained and hailed on while on a trip to the river…

Rusty claimed his seat first.

On the way to the river, it started to rain and then hail. The umbrella flipped backwards and wasn’t much help.

Baby Finch Update

Posted on April 23, 2014 by adminApril 23, 2014

Saturday, April 19

The baby finches hardly seem like babies anymore. They’ve all left the nest and several are eating on their own. They will be a month old this friday. We’ve obviously got an over-crowding problem and are looking for a bigger cage. We would also be interested in making several people a good deal on a nice pair of zebra finch.

Horny Toads

Posted on April 23, 2014 by adminMay 8, 2014

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Stockton found the first horny toad of the season. Two actually. One of them is especially large.

Late Night Visitor

Posted on April 23, 2014 by adminApril 23, 2014

Thursday, April 17

Rusty alerted us to some invaders late last night. Some racoons had come up and were sneaking around. We’ve lost quite a bit of poultry to these nocturnal criminals and didn’t want to let them get away. Cim shot this one, but the other escaped into the darkness. The next morning Rusty was interested to see what it was that was growling at him so.

Baby Finches

Posted on April 22, 2014 by adminApril 22, 2014

Monday, April 14

On March 28, our finch pair, Fenton and Creamy, after taking turns sitting on 6 little white “jelly bean” eggs, hatched out a couple of baby birds. The other four followed in the next two days. We’ve been trying to get pictures of them, but it’s such a jumble of feathers in their little dark basket nest that we haven’t really gotten a good shot.

But today, after finally getting big enough, some of the babies have left the nest and began to hop around the cage.

Can you believe there are five more like this in that little basket nest?

Hog Patrol

Posted on April 22, 2014 by adminApril 22, 2014

Saturday, April 12

Nathan found a large group of hogs while feeding cows this morning. He came back and got the boys and they took off to try and find them again.

Hazy Skies

Posted on April 22, 2014 by adminApril 22, 2014

Friday, April 11

Today the skies were so hazy, we knew there must be a fire around somewhere. I got on google earth and checked the current fire overlay and this is what I saw. Lots of wildfires in Kansas and Oklahoma must have been the main cause. If you have google earth installed on your computer (free download, just google it), then you can visit http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/googleearth.php and click on the link labeled: “Fire Detections(MODIS): Current”. When a box comes up, click “browse” then Open with google. Once you’ve done this, then you can check or uncheck the current fire option when you’re using the google software, much the way you can uncheck roads, towns, and other places. It’s pretty helpful if you’re interested in keeping up with wildfire news.

Burned

Posted on April 22, 2014 by adminApril 22, 2014

Thursday, April 10

We had to meet the FEDEX guy down at the Northfield intersection to pick up a package. While there, we took these pictures of some of the leftovers of yesterday’s wildfire.

Goodies from Germany

Posted on April 21, 2014 by adminApril 21, 2014

Wednesday, April 9

We got a package today from my niece, Audrey Hyland and her family who are stationed in Germany. It was full of German food items. Chocolates, cookies, fruit bars and even frankfurters in a jar! The kids had such fun trying everything. What a great gift!

Wildfire!

Posted on April 21, 2014 by adminApril 22, 2014

Wednesday, April 9

This afternoon, amidst high winds, a grass fire got started by someone checking cows in a 4-wheeler. Grant Phipps, who works for Dish Network and happened to be traveling near Northfield, called to see if we were okay. That was the first we knew of it. Luckily, the winds were blowing it in the opposite direction. Still, it’s a good reminder to be watchful this time of year. It’s so dry everywhere. The Matador volunteer fire debt. came within 20 minutes and took advantage of a lull in the wind and the fire reaching the pavement of FM 656 to stop it before it got into rough canyon land across the road.

These shots of the fire were taken on Cim’s phone. They happened to be headed home in the well truck and were almost to Northfield (10 minutes from home) but couldn’t get by because the fire was up to the road. The fireman were turning people back. He took a few pics and then backed up and went back across the river. They had to take a detour which meant that their journey home ended up taking an hour and a half.