Omaha Zoo

Last weekend, one of my best friends from college, Bailey, and her husband and adorable little girl came up to Nebraska to visit us and we took a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha!

Tiffin wasn’t too sure about the zoo when we arrived, but slowly got really excited about seeing all of the animals.

The day started out cool and slowly warmed up, so we started in the Desert Dome.

We also saw wild pigs, monkeys, gorillas, tigers, lions and bears….oh my!

Thanks, Bailey and Michael for coming up to Nebraska to see us and take us to the zoo! It was too much fun playing with Tiffin as well. :)

Trains and fire

When I was home in Colorado a couple of weekends ago, there was quite a bit of excitement. The railroad tracks go right through our ranch and around 11 pm on Friday night, Dad received a call that we had a fire near the tracks East of our house.


It is so dry back home and as soon as he heard fire, he and Joel, who works on the ranch, ran up to the tracks and used shovels and brooms to help put the fire out in several areas.


It was hard to get a picture of the fire, but this is kind of what it looked like from the house.

The next morning, this is what it looked like.

We later found out that the full coal train was dragging something that caught on our road crossing and derailed 21 cars. The BNSF crews came and worked for a 48 hours straight over the weekend moving the wreckage, bringing in pre-maid pieces of rail track, and getting the crossing fixed. 

This was all that was leftover when they got the tracks fixed. 

You've all heard of the scary fires going on in Colorado right now. Just north of the F Cross ranch near Last Chance (where my dad grew up), a fire broke out by a passing motorist driving along Highway 71 after a flat tire sent sparks flying. 


The flames spread fast and it was reported 45,000 acres were scorched in a nine-hour period. Sadly, a couple of homes and a fire truck where engulfed in flames, but no one was hurt. 


Here is a picture my uncle took of the fire, followed by a picture the day after of the black landscape.

We especially need to pray for the rest of Colorado with the High Park fire and the Waldo Canyon fire. I found some eerie, devastating pictures on the Denver Post's blog. Rain (not thunderstorms) would be very much welcome in all of the state and most of the Midwest!

InstaFriday

I’ve been traveling a little bit the last week for a visit home to Colorado for Father’s Day and for Board meetings in Western Nebraska. Here is my collection of Instagram photos from the last couple of weeks!

I made lemon bars for my dad for Fathers Day and guess what I forgot to buy at the store? Yes, a lemon. So yes, I went to the store for one lemon.

Before heading out to Colorado, a nasty storm came through Seward. We had dime and nickel sized hail and Ronny felt compelled to run out in it to get the big pieces. Silly guy.

We ended up getting 4.2” of rain, and no - that is not supposed to be a pond.

Out in Colorado, I had fun playing with Remy – he is such a sophisticated ranch dog!

I got to see all of the pretty Red Angus cattle – the purple tags are my heifers.

We had some excitement on the ranch.  A train going through was dragging something and it caught on the road crossing and derailed over 12 cars full of coal. Did you know each car weighs 100 tons? That’s a lot of metal to stop moving! I have more pictures I’ll blog about later. There was also a fire that my dad help put out – scary being it is so dry out there.

When I got back to the office this week, I had a new chair waiting for me….it is so much easier to sit for longer periods of time with a nice chair. I have named him “Hulk”. :)

 

Nicknames

Some may know this, but the title of my blog was inspired from my nickname, Bird.

Over on my “agvocacy” blog, Ag on the Forefront, I posted yesterday about how I got my nickname and the nicknames that agriculture, food and health issues are sometimes associated with.

I even have a crazy picture. Go check it out here!

DIY | Vertical Pumpkins

My pumpkins are ready to go vertical. This past week they started to grow over the edge of the Purina tubs, so Ronny put up a nice (slightly redneck) chicken wire fence around them. This is in effort for them to grow up and over, like a fountain.

As we don’t have much space in our box garden, we decided to experiment with the Purina tubs that my dad gave me (thanks, Dad!) and grow UP instead of OUT like pumpkins tend to do. And they’ve really been growing fast.

I was inspired to do this from an idea on Pinterest. I’m sure we’ll have to provide more support as the vines grow and the pumpkins develop. I will update on the progress!

In other garden progress news, my broccoli is huge and my cucumber vines are growing like crazy. I’ve put tomato cages around them (since my tomatoes failed last year – I decided not to replant this year) and am training them to grow up and over as well. I also have a zucchini almost ready for harvest. Oh and I’ve been eating lettuce like crazy.

And he is just too cute not to post a picture of. But I couldn’t tell when I took the picture because I was blinded by the sun. :)

Summer food

In the winter, I really am a comfort food type of girl. I like my mac ‘n cheese, grilled cheese, chili & cinnamon rolls, pot pies, etc. But in the summer, it is really hard to stay away from a cool, fresh salad.

That’s one of the main reasons I decided to plant two types of lettuce in my garden this year.


My first lettuce harvest, I loaded my lettuce with protein-packed grilled beef, feta and fresh strawberries. With a few baby carrots on the side and some cool ranch, it was divine.
I recommend a flank steak grilled medium for salads. Here are a bunch of grilled steak salad recipes for your liking.

Even Hank thought my salad looked delish!


What summer foods do you enjoy?