Lots to be thankful for . . .

Hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, food and lots of fun! We had an unusual Thanksgiving. R's kids went to their mom's house, so we went to the ranch--lots to do. The cattle trampled down the hay barn and destroyed the hay they didn't eat, and we had sausage to stuff so it's ready by Christmas, along with all the other tasks associated with cattle country.

R cooked the Thanksgiving turkey at home (don't trust the jurassic oven at the cabin), we fed the home livestock (Tahoe, Sam and the fishies) and headed for the hills of Fredericksburg to get some work done, and of course, check on the newest addition to our family, baby Butterscotch. Now I just ask you, how much cuteness is that?

Of course, R hunted while I slept in, then we went to town to get hay and find some sort of gate (on Thanksgiving day--good luck!) to keep the bovine brats from destroying the rest of their winter store.

I distracted the heifers as R stacked hay, and I "helped" fix the gate, which is to say, R did most of it and I tried to hold things, push things and stay out of the way :)

R caught two bucks *I know, I know, he didn't "catch" anything, but that's the way I like to think of it* and we made sausage. Again, R did the heavy lifting, I helped, lent moral support and tried not to chop off my fingers in the grinder *g*. It is true what they say . . . that everyone loves sausage, but no one wants to know how it's made. I'd like to amend that. Everyone loves sausage, but no one wants to help make it . . . and there's a good reason why. I've discovered writing is a lot like making sausage. You have to hunt down the meat, grind it with things that make it more than just meat, risk life and limb to stuff it into something that looks edible, let it smoke for just the right amount of time, cross your fingers, and hope the ends justify the means. As Tom Hanks once said, "If it was easy, everyone would do it!"

Here's hoping your Thanksgiving was full of wonder,
Kit