This is why God made a farmer… and I married one.
4-H Lambs
January 30, 2013 By 6 Comments
I’ve been hearing for the past 9 years how when “Our kids are old enough, Wendy, they are going to be involved in 4-H!” And my San Francisco self would reply, “Great. What the hell is 4-H?”
Well, I found out this past weekend. We all climbed into Darrin’s truck with two dog kennels loaded in the back. We pulled onto Timothy Lane. Ok side note, moving onto Timothy Lane is now on my bucket list. This street is located in the rural section of Reno called Windy Hill. It’s lined with white horse fences you think of when someone says “Kentucky.” All the homes are on acres of land and off to the left, behind The Skagen Horse Training Center, sits a beautifully manicured ranch that talks. Literally, with the windows down, you can hear the land talking. That’s because dozens of sheep are grazing the pastures. Baaaaa’ing at passers by. And two of them were coming home with us on this day.
Eva and Domi are in the Leg of Lamb, Side of Beef, Slab of Bacon club (again, my San Francisco self is saying they do know there are yacht clubs in this world right???). Today they are picking out the lambs they will raise for 
3 months.
They entered a small corral with about 17 lambs jetting back and forth trying desperately to avoid them. They had to pick their favorite. So how exactly do you pick a lamb? 4-H leaders have taught them to judge a sheep four ways. Their backs should be straight. You want the biggest distance between the last rib and the hip bones because that’s where the loin is. Their backsides (I wanted to say asses but I was afraid you would all think we were now talking about donkeys) need to form a triangle. And their legs should be straight. Apparently bowleggedness runs rampant in lambs!
Domi picked number 13. Eva selected number 17.
Darrin then got the fun job of carrying them to the awaiting dog crates and hauling them home. Hey! I would have helped but I was the photographer at this rodeo!!
4-H is all about teaching kids where their food comes from… among so many other things. They will show the lambs at the Nevada State Junior Livestock Show and sell to the highest bidder. I’m already worried about that day in May!
But for now, it’s all about having 2 lambs that will completely depend on Eva and Domi for everything. As we shut the barn door on them that night, Domi whispered in my ear, “Mom, I FINALLY have responsibility!!!” Well HELL!! Is that what it takes for kids now a days to realize they have responsibilities?? 2 4-H lambs??? Good luck with that everyone!
FEEDING THE COWS
January 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Pictures say a thousand words. So I’m going to let this blog post be told through pictures taken with my iPhone. Of course, you know me, I’ll have to add my two cents here and there!
You’ve all seen how Darrin feeds the cows in the feedlot. We call that date night on the ranch. Well not all of them are in the feedlot . The lucky ones get trucked to warm, green pastures in California while hundreds graze the pastures here at home. And once they’ve mowed down all the natural feed, Darrin and crew have to hand feed them. Today, we were his “crew.”
These are the heifers. Females that haven’t had a calf. However, they are pregant and will start “calving out” in March. There are about 140 heifers in this pasture.
Each animal eats 20 pounds of hay a day just to maintain its weight. These bales weigh about 110 pounds each.
Now we are heading over to the other pasture to feed the cows. We have about 90 cows to feed.
The cows are pregnant too. They will start calving out in February. And apparently, some have already started.
For all you ranchers out there, I figured you’d want to know abut the equipment. This is a 1980′s model Ford tractor 7700. The hay wagon is well, just a hay wagon.
KID FRIENDLY DINNERS… WHEN THEY MAKE THEM
January 22, 2013 By 6 Comments
My phone rang at 4:45 pm. I rarely pick up at that hour since I have to be on set 5 minutes later. But I did today and heard Eva on the other end of the line.
“Hello Mom. This is Palm.”
“Hello Darling. How are you?”
You should know “Palm” is my daughter’s alter ego. She’s called herself this for about a year now. Oh ya, and she’s British. So now re-read the conversation using your best British accent.
“Hello Mum. This is Palm.”
“Hello Darling. How are you?”
“I’d like to know what’s for dinner. Because I certainly don’t want what happened last night to happen again tonight.”
WHOA!!!!!!!!! Back up 24 hours. I rushed home from work, went straight to the kitchen and made Szechuan Beef. I attempted Szechuan Beef!! And it actually tasted like Chinese food!! Darrin and I had extra helpings it was that good. The kids however, went into their typical rants I’ve heard the past 6 months.
“Is this Paleo???”
“Mom, you know we HATE Paleo!!!”
No you little bastards, IT’S CHINESE FOOD! So what if it happens to qualify as Paleo. So what if I tried to slip a Paleo dinner in under the guise of Chinese and got caught. So what if I never ever cook dinner again!
And then she said this:
“So since I don’t want what happened last night to happen again, I was thinking I could cook dinner tonight.” And she had dropped the British accent so I knew she was entirely serious.
Well, hell yes you can I thought to myself. “Absolutely Palm! Knock yourself out!”
After work that night, I walked into the house and actually smelled food cooking. And I hadn’t even stepped in the kitchen!! This is Christmas morning for me. This is the greatest present of all to a working mom! Dinner ready the moment you walk in the door!
I sat at the dinner table and Eva and Domi proudly served me their meal. Chicken breasts, asparagus and edamame. Yep, two greens and a protein! I couldn’t have been prouder. Maybe underneath all their surly talk about how my dinners suck, the kids are learning a few things about good nutrition. And may I point out that, minus the edamame, this dinner IS TOTALLY PALEO!!
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SNOW ON THE RANCH
December 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
I came home tonight to two glaring headlights flying across the field in front of our house. This usually isn’t a good thing. It means Darrin is on the quad. And that means a cow is sick or a bull got loose or a beaver dammed up the creek and flooded our road. Either way, I’m coming home to a grumpy husband and a late dinner. But tonight was different.
Tonight there were two flashing headlamps about 20 yards behind the quad. Aaaahhhhh!!!! Sledding season at the Damontes!
The field that surrounds our house has been laser leveled so there’s 50 sections that are perfectly level. Each section is divided by burms called checks. In the sumertime these checks keep the water flowing within that section. But in the wintertime that watering system means sweet jumps on a sled! Even when there’s just a dusting of snow the kids beg to go quad sledding. Finally, Reno got dumped on enough the new non chloric silicon base kitchen lubricant was brought out (I assume you’ve all watched Christmas Vacation as many times as we have this past week!!) They had a BLAST! It still meant a late dinner but every family member was happy. Well, all but one. Donner was running along side the sled and Darrin forgot to put her snow boots on. Ha! Just kidding! She doesn’t have snow boots!! So when she came inside she was a covered mess of snow dingleberries. And there is only one way to get those off.
So I dragged her to the shower and melted them off with hot water. Needless to say, everyone will be sleeping soundly at the Damonte household tonight… Including me. While they all played in the snow, I enjoyed a quiet glass of wine to myself.
(personal note: I would like to personally thank all of you for your amazing messages and prayers following my mom’s story. And most importantly, I would like to thank those of you who took action and made an appointment for a mammogram or linked my mom’s story onto your Facebook pages and emails. My mom and I truly believe the more people who see it, the more lives will be saved. If you haven’t seen it, here’s my mom’s story.)
LIFE MOVES ON WHILE CERTAIN THINGS STAY THE SAME
September 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
12 years ago my husband and I stayed with his family in Italy during our honeymoon. This summer, we went back to the same house. Funny how some things have changed and others (the wall) are exactly the same!
