"You get a line, I'll get a pole, We'll go fishin' in the crawfish hole"

Yep you guessed it! About a week ago on a Saturday night after a bunch of us were done working, we went craw fishing up to Otter creek! (aka we went fishing for crawdads) The only other times I've done this has been with my cousins in Huntington and we fished off the dock around sunset with raw chicken pieces tied to strings. Then we'd just lower them into the water, wait a minute and then pull it back out and there would be a crawdads on the chicken!

Well this time was for sure different. Instead of chicken on a string we used our hands, instead of sunset we went when it was really dark (like 10:30 dark) and used a spotlight, and instead of throwing them back, we kept them. So this is what we did. We drove out to Otter creek and took some flashlights and a spotlight. Then we waded into the water, shined the lights and looked for crawdads, and once we spotted one, we caught them by just reaching in and grabbing them! Then we threw them into the bucket of water and kept them! We caught about 30 and it was my first time catching them by hand.

This would be me just a little excited about catching a crawdad (:

But it doesn't stop there! On Sunday afternoon, we cooked up those little crawfish whole and then ate them! Now I know that sounds a little sketchy, but just don't think about it too hard and you'll know that it was actually pretty good!

If you're wondering how we ate these, keep reading, otherwise, you might prefer to read ahead… (:

So first, you rip off the tail portion, and then you shell the tail and take off the outside. On the inside of the tiny piece of meat you can manage to get out, there is a little black looking string thing, it's the spine, and you pull it out and rip off the guts and you're good to go! Try it sometime! It's even pretty good if you dip it in a little melted butter. Mmmm good. 

Yummy yummy yummy crawdads… HA! 

A few days after we did this, a few of us decided to go back up to Otter creek and we did a little more crawfishing (: We built a little fire and fished a little bit too. Since we had built the fire, we decided we should see what it would be like to roast a crawfish, so we saved a few that we caught and tried roasting them We named ours Sheldon (;

Our dear poor Sheldon… Lost forever 

Oh, did I mention that I took my gun with me? One of the other kids caught this picture about ten minutes before we left Otter creek.

To top it off, last week we went and did a little bunny blasting and muddin' after all the rain we've had. WAY too much fun for a teenager's own good!

The good ole crew! 

Just a few of the bunnies we blasted. No big deal it's fine (; (If you can't tell, there's three there) 

International Harvester

You may be asking yourself right now what in the sam hill does that have to do with anything?! Well let me tell you. Around here, we really do run the international harvester. Quite literally! In the past week, we have had families from some of the following countries. Try and guess what they are (:

Australia

Belgium

France

Denmark

Netherlands

These are just a few of the countries we've had people from and we continuously have them coming still! They are always a lot of fun and I definitely learn something new each time I have the opportunity to interact with them. Today in fact I did archery with a family from France. I was talking to them and the mom said that we talk so fast! It was kind of interesting to hear their side of being away from home. We get so frustrated with people that don't speak our language, but just think of the people that are trying to understand us and how much harder it would be. Anyway, I have really enjoyed learning new vocabulary and words from each of the countries and the wonderful families I have met. Just the other day on one of the hay rides I took out, the family was from Denmark and we sat and talked most of the time about similarities and differences between here and there. They also taught me a few new Danish words! Who knows, maybe I'll look into some kind of major with linguistics… (;

(Okay, so maybe I was being a little creative with the title, but it worked! Plus it sounded kind of cool, so…. go international! (: )

4th of July Festivities!!

I don't know about all y'all up North, but down South, we love to celebrate the holidays! It started out in the morning with a patriotic breakfast of blue colored eggs, pancakes (normal colored), and red(ish) buttermilk syrup! I wanted to be creative, so I went in the kitchen and asked Adam if  we could make a flag shaped pancake! Well the other Adam was making blue waffled and poured some of the batter onto the pancake for the stars, and then we got red food coloring and made stripes!! It was quite the pancake and completely covered my plate and then some! Talk about celebrating! haha (:

This is the pancake that will leave a legacy and forevermore be remembered, just like the day it was made for! 

For the 4th of July here in Antimony, we had quite the ten minute parade if I ever saw one! Ha! (: It sure wasn't anything like I've ever seen, but it sure was fun! Every year for the parade they pick a theme to ride. This year, I was able to help out - We came up with a wild west theme. We had a sheriff and posse and then some bandits with a damsel in distress. All the wranglers rode in the parade and some of the guests were able to ride on the hay wagon.

This is one of our bandits, Cyrus, with the damsel in distress, Sadie, riding on the Zoro horse, Sadie! (Yes the horse has the same name as the girl. So yeah, maybe they are both in distress. I probably would be too if I had two people on my back wanting me to actually put some effort into it and move! haha (: )

We even hitched up the team! (Speaking of the team, tonight for hay rides we hitched up the team for the first time in awhile! We've been using the tractor mostly, but worked with the team tonight and it went great! I usually do the hayrides and tell all about Antimony and sing and play my guitar while we mosey through town (: ) But let's be honest, we spent an hour painting up horses and getting 'em pretty for a ten minute parade! I'm pretty sure that the Rockin' R Ranch made up almost half of the parade… (;

Here is the trusty team! Penelope is on the left, and Charlotte is on the right.

The good ole team.

I rode on the back of one of the pick-ups and threw water balloons and candy at the six people on the side of the road. (I'm totally kidding there were more than six people on the side of the road! Okay so maybe there were like thirteen… HA! )

This is Courtney and me on the back of the pick-ups driving down the road for the parade. I'd also like to point out my very festive 4th of July shirt. (Thanks mom and dad! It worked out perfectly!! )

It was kind of funny because down here, the people that live in town throw water balloons at the people in the parade! It just ends up in a big water fight between whoever can get their hose out and whoever has balloons.

Here is proof that we like the water. If you look close you can see that these two wranglers both have water guns (partly for show and partly to squirt people) and if you look even closer you can see the water in the air as they were getting hit with a water balloon! You can see it best in between the two horses about the height of the rump and nose. Even better is the looks on the faces of these two ladies as they got sprayed (; 

Later on, we all went down to Ottercreek, which as about five miles up the road, and watched our own version of the Ottercreek display of Fire! Which really means there was one big firework at a time for about a half hour. (: It was way fun though! But hey! At least we were able to celebrate, even if it meant busting my behind to finish housekeeping so I could go to the parade. (;

Here's a couple more pictures from the festivities!

This is Brandon and Brandi, our managers, heading up the rest of the Rockin' R get up for the parade.

On the way back I caught this picture and it totally looked like the sheriff chasing down the bandits, so I played with it a little to give it more of the effect (:

These are some of the wranglers that rode in the parade on a few of our trustiest steeds!

Like I said, we spent quite awhile prettying up the kids (:
From left to right:
Hattie on Dober, Michelle on Slim Jim, Dachelle on Cherry, Wyatt on Zero, Cyrus and Sadie on Sadie, Wyatt (the other one) on Peaches, and Skye on Cashmere

This would be our bandit, Cyrus and our bandit horse, Sadie. Yeah I know she looks really scary… (; 

Hard Work - Good Work

I just want to start out by saying that around here, we do hard work and we do good work! I remember being told once that if you don't have time to do it right the first time, how are you going to have time to do it right the second time? I'd say that's pretty true! About a week ago, it was really windy and a few of us were done with everything for the afternoon for awhile and we were cleaning out some of the pens in the petting barn and pretty much we got a spray tan of poo dust. But it wasn't nearly as clean as a spray tan… ha!

This is a picture I took of me when I came inside from all the wind and the spray poo! It doesn't look that dirty in the picture, but my face was so covered in dust and dirt!! Plus my hair was pretty much a mop, so… you know, I was doing the best I could (; 

So speaking of hard work, not this past Monday, but the Monday before, I was given the honor of employee of the week and received the honorary toilet seat to hang on my door for the week! Now it sounds a little sketchy and gross to hang a toilet seat on your door, but just wait until you see this one of a kind, magnificent toilet seat! If you were me, you would be in cahoots to have this hanging on your door too! (:

This is it! The legendary toilet seat (: 

That would be me, the proud mama of that crazy awesome toilet seat! 

While I'm on the subject of hard work, I'd love to introduce you to some of the hardest workers I know down here! Their names are Adam and Nykele and Adam Shapiro! In fact, they got the toilet seat this week (; Anyway, they've come to be some good friends down here and I appreciate their great example of hard work and service with a smile and a good attitude.

This is the famous Adam and Nykele duo! 

Another good example of hard work - Adam has a metal forge down here and he made this knife on his forge! 

I actually had the chance to accompany them today in Sacrament Meeting. They sang "Because He Lives" arranged by Sally DeFord and I played for them. We just found out last week that they were going to sing and being at the ranch, we have so much spare time to practice (Not EVEN!!) but it ended up great and it was a lot of fun! They both have amazing voices and Nykele is a vocal performance major. So pretty much amazing is the best way to describe it! Ha! (:

So this week I got a package!!! YAY! I would just like to give a shout out to Mama Harper and Papa Harper, but mostly Mama Harper for making my day with some very delectable and tasty peanut butter balls! But there's a twist to that. When I got the package there was a little note saying that since I am now a real authentic cowgirl, that they were horse…. well, you know. (: Well, I didn't want anyone to throw them away, so I labeled them as "Danielle's Horse Turds." Just in case you were wondering, if you ever don't want someone to touch your stuff, just lable it as "(Your Name)'s horse turds." It'll work every time, no fail!

I of course had to do the package selfie (: Thanks mom and dad and mama and papa harper!! 

I couldn't quite get a good picture of me with the package by myself, so I went and posed in the kitchen! 

I know what you're wondering… Yes those are the horse turds. Knuff sed. 

Are these turds sanitary? They look questionable to me!

So this past week, we had a young men's group come through and I was assigned to do archery with them. A few of the leaders brought their own compound bows and they had me try one out. It was flippin' awesome! Although, I should probably do a few more pushups so I can pull that big boy back. (; Anyhow, I tried it out and I am happy to say that on my first two shots, I hit the target dead center! Then on the third shot it went over that white fence you can see in the picture and into the field. Well they went a lookin' for it and couldn't find it, so I went back later with a few other workers and we found that arrow!! It was pretty amazing because they for sure thought they had lost an arrow! Ha!

This is me with the compound bow and in the background you can kind of see a little black and green spotted box right next to that first tree up in the lefthand corner. That was the target that we shot at with the crossbows. But holy cow, what fun!!

I'd just like to add here on a tangent, that I can actually say that I am a real authentic cowgirl because I can rope! Well, more like I know how to pretty well, I'm still working on the making it every time part. But, I must say that I have learned how to heel and I have quite the knack for it! I can walk behind someone as they're walking and rope them! Or in this case, "heel" them!

Alright, so a few posts ago, I put a picture of our resident ranch dog's new pup! Well it's sure gotten big and is the cutest little thing around and also of course a common attraction for guests! One of the staff is taking her home when she leaves and named her Zoe! She's flipping' adorable and so playful! It's fun to have a little pup around! Mom and Dad??….. (;

Mama Bella and Pup Zoe playing around

I just can't get over this pup! She and her mama are both so dang cute! 

Hidden Springs, Old Mines, and a Full Moon

Saturday, June 14, 2014
Today (and yesterday actually) we were all given an extra day off because the schedule hasn't been very full. So, I took advantage of the time I had and made the most of it! There was only one other wrangler off today, so we took out a couple of horses for a few hours in the morning and rode up into the mountains behind the ranch. We took some of the trails and went out to Hidden Springs, which is one of the trail rides we do here where guests ride out and they take sack lunches and spend some time at the spring before coming back to the ranch. We wandered around getting there and tied up the horses and went exploring a little bit too. There was a little cave at the top of the mountain that we hiked up to that was pretty cool too!

This is me and the sweet mare I took out, Cricket.

This is right above the spring. When I climbed up there, I got caught in a whole bunch of dry branches, but luckily made it out! haha (:

This is the view from where we climbed up to the little cave at the top of the mountain. If you look close, right in the middle you can see Cricket and Spider down by the trees. The next two pictures show it zoomed in a little closer each time.

This is zoomed in a little closer, the horses are in the upper right hand corner in the shade of the trees.

This is Cricket and Spider. I took the picture while clear up on the top of the mountain. I'd say the zoom was pretty good!

Another picture from the top of the mountain

This was on the way back to the ranch

I love this picture! This has got to be one of my very favorite viewpoints in life, from in between my horse's ears.

We ate lunch after we got back and then went shooting. I brought my pellet gun down with me and tried it out with the bb's. (It doubles as a BB Pellet gun) Later we went up Antimony canyon to find an old mine that used to be up there. Dude, the road up that canyon is like the dirt roads that are turnoffs up AF canyon. It was SOO bumpy! Thank goodness for pick-ups! After awhile it got so rough that we had to get out and walk the rest of the way up the road to get to the turnoff for the mine. We finally found it and hiked up and looked around a little bit inside. There are some really cool old shafts still inside. We didn't go in them, but did shine a flashlight down them!

On the Way up to the mine, we passed Cowboy Rock, which is a destination for one of the trail rides we also do up Antimony Canyon. On that ride, we also bring sack lunches and it takes about half the day for the whole thing. We stopped and took some pictures while we were up there. It's really a neat place!

This pictures is a little further away, but you can see the rock right in the middle of it.

Here it is, Cowboy Rock in all it's glory!

Okay, one more of the same picture, but with me in it (: 

This is up on top of the mountain we hiked up to get to the old mine

Let's face it, I had to take a selfie from up top at the mine (;

This is back down on the road when we were walking back to the pick-up! The road here doesn't look as bad, but we had to stop at one point because there was a huge, deep wash. There was no way we could have made it through so we parked and got out and walked probably about two miles up to the mine altogether, plus another two back, so… Anyway, on the left side, there is a river you can't see, it's pretty far down and tucked back kind of below the trees. I thought this was a really neat view.

Saturday was quite eventful! It didn't end after the mine. Usually when we have bigger groups, we have a live band come in a play. We do country swing and line dancing and it's a blast! But there's more! Around here, we do what we call "night rides" when there is a full moon. Guests can come on night rides as well if they schedule for it. We didn't take any guests out, but about seven of us took some horses out and went for a night ride. We left at about 10:30 Saturday night and got back around 12:30 am. Riding at night is one of the coolest feelings ever, especially when you run. (I wouldn't advise a night ride around American Fork haha) The horses can see better than you can and that night they had a lot of get-up-and-go! It's amazing what kind of energy the night can give to a horse! I really wanted to take pictures, but it was so dark still even with the moon and I didn't want to freak out the horses with a flash, so I decided to forego the pictures. But if you can imagine riding at night up in the mountains with a full moon, stars, coyotes in the distance, jack rabbits, and all sorts of other critters, you would just about have the right idea. It was super neat because when we headed out, the moon was mostly hidden behind some clouds and then when it came out, it was amazing!! I don't even have words to describe it. It felt like flying through the night. I'm in a living dream. That's all I can say!