Hello & Welcome to our Diary page. The purpose of this diary is to record our adventures, folks who stop by, travels and events at the Thorne Ranch. It was primarily meant for family and friends in the beginning, but we have grown a large number of faithful readers over the past years. Over 100,000 from all over the world have visited us. We don't intend to offend anyone or to glorify our life here. It's pretty boring most of the time as you will see! We are pretty common folks trying to make a living doing what we love, breeding and raising cattle. Our wish is that someday this Diary will be enjoyed and appreciated by our grandchildren and great grandchildren. In the mean time we hope you get a few good laughs at our expense. "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."
Welcome to the Diary &
"The Adventures of Dear Abbie's Wife"
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD..
Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it! Hebrews 13:2
Copyright © 1998 - 2010 A. W. Thorne Land & Cattle, Inc. All rights reserved.
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3
A.W. Thorne Land & Cattle, Inc.
435707 E370 Rd
Adair, Oklahoma 74330
Office 918.783.5477 Joan 918.284.0175 A.W. 918.527.2002 joan@thornecattle.com
This page was last updated: July 23, 2010
The Best Days
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'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'
There comes a point in your life when you realize: Who matters, Who never did, Who won't anymore...And who always will. So, don't worry about people from your past, There's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.
July 2010
July 1-3 It was hot muggy and cloudy today but we got 40 acres raked and baled up before the festivities start for the 4th of July! Do we celebrate? Not much actually compared to previous years where I used to hook up the old boat and take the kids water skiing at our lake. Growing up next to a big lake was our ticket to entertainment when you lived as far out in the country as we did in Nebraska. Brown Lake was a favorite lake to water ski on and on the 4th there were several boats loads of families that camped there during the 4th. Do I miss that? Absolutely I am a fish. I love water, but Mr. Thorne does not care for h20 only as a drink and for showering off the grease, cow manure, dirt and feed dust. So when you come to our home you will find several water features, fountains and the sound of water somewhere.
We went to the dentist the other day and Abbie dears dentures after only two years are almost worn off to nubbs.. Dr Gruenberg was shocked that he had taken something that is supposed to last 12-15 years and totally wore them down in two? He was amazed and said it had to be the constant chewing he does with his chewing tobacco. So now he has the option to get new teeth at a price of $2500 or leave his present chompers and have them replaced and go without teeth for couple of weeks. Being Abbie dear he said no of course. He would think about it? What is there to think about? You either have teeth or you don't. ha
This heifer is a Typhoon heifer and she was a twin too on a first calf heifer TLCC S6102 out of Wild Turkey and an Angus cow. The middle picture is TLC Anna F6496 our old donor cow that has been around as long as I have. We flushed her again this spring. She has been a good producer. Her Angus half blood heifers have made awesome cows in our club calf program. I showed her in Tyler Texas as a bred heifer and we showed her a couple of times as a cow calf pair. The heifer on the right is a TLCC Hardy heifer out of a Silverwood Dragon daughter TLC Thia J9456.
July 4-8 We have been sweating it up here with 99 percent humidity you can walk out side and be soaked in a minute. I went with Renita to Joplin on Tuesday to celebrate her birthday. I had to go and pick up more parts anyway. So it was nice we could get away for the day. We found all kinds of bargains of course. ha We had lunch at Olive Garden and had soup and salad. We made it home in time to go through downpouring rain on I-44. I picked up Abbie dear an ice cream maker.. Wow that thing is pretty neat. It sure freezes ice cream quick and cheap compared to the multi half gallons of Blue Bell Abbie dear goes through in a week. Check them out made by Cusinart.
Our hayfield projects are going to have to take a rest for a few days.. More rain last night and it was up to the bridge this morning but still passable. Abbie has been spraying more pastures and trying to get ahead of rag weed and cockle burrs that were not up yet when he sprayed early in the spring. I did get the lawn all mowed up again before the down pours.. but it won't last long when the sun comes out. I picked another big bowl of green beans yesterday and blanched them and freezling them in the foodsaver. I have also been spending some time in the pastures taking pictures and got a real pretty sundown picture of the cows the other night so will share that with you and a picture of Vincente (Vinnie our Italian Stallion) with his girl friends. He has really matured into a nice looking big bull. He likes to play games with the mule when he is feeling frisky. Lord help me if he decides to take it on. He could flip it if he wanted to. Kerri Adamson came over yesterday to talk about web site design and think I will end up doing one for them and then turning it over after I get it situated and they have time to keep it up. Like us they have club calves for sale. It's kind of like helping build a furniture store when you already own a furniture store. But if we can work together instead of against each other we can both benefit from prospective customers. So watch soon for new web design. We are having our old lab dog Angel put down late this afternoon. She lies around and cries in pain so it's time to let her go. It's not going to be easy she has been a part of our family for over 13 years. No we are't going to get any new puppies for quite some time. We still have mega kittens.. even though I got two females fixed last week, we still have three more females to fix and then we start on all the babies? You either have too many or not enough!
Thorne Ranch cows and sundown..
Purebred Cow and TLCC Vincente (Cowan's Ali x Veronica H3)
July 9-15 We took a quick mini vacation and helped granddaughter Ruby celebrate her 5th birthday in Clovis New Mexico. We surprised everyone when we came bearing presents. We got to see six of the grandchildren too. They had a blow up water slide and spent the entire day up and down. By nightfall they were exhausted. We spent the night there and then packed up and headed to Santa Fe to see Paula Poo. She knew we were coming, as I was afraid she might make other plans if we didn't notify her of our plans. We spent Sunday afternoon at the Santa Fe Plaza and came away with no new jewelry. ha Amazing place though and the shops were very expensive. Some of those paitings they had were priced at $35,000 and I could paint that in my sleep. Very ridiculous the way some people would think it was the thing to have hanging on their walls.
We left New Mexico and headed back to Amarillo to spend the night with Brian, Patricia Thomas and Lilly. Sure wish we lived closer so we could spoil the daylights out of them. We made it back home by 4:00 ready to see home! Hally was happy to see us too, as she spent her vacation at the vets boarding with other mutts. It is just too hot to drag a dog along. We have been trying to catch up on mowing, spraying, garden, websites and bookwork. Yesterday I picked about 2 bushel of peaches off our tree. So I spent most of the day at the sink and stove. Today we pick up grandson Phillip in Tulsa. He is flying in for the summer. He is almost as excited as Papa and Jo Jo. ha We are waiting for the weather to stabilize before we start haying again. While we were gone, Adrienne, Tasha and Bryce hauled all the hay home from lease. Nice to come home to work done! Thanks Bryce for taking care of the place and herd! We had a good trip knowing that everything was being taken care of.
Ruby and Thomas at the cake.
Peaches anyone? Last I knew Oklahoma was not called the peach state? ha
Jo Jo and Papa Abbie July 2010.
July 16-22 We are almost catching up with the hayfield. We worked until dark last night and ran out of fuel otherwise we would have finished up about 60 some acres we had down. Making good hay though and can't complain about having some this year. Phillip is getting to do various jobs! He isn't real sure about being turned loose on the tractor yet and I'm not that brave yet either! ha He does pretty well with me in the side seat! ha
The squash bugs about took over my squash so we pulled them up this morning and dowsed them again with seven. The okra is kicking in now though and we picked a big bowl full this morning and we cooked some and froze the rest. When I can find time I have been working on my creative memories picture files! Sorting and getting several folders created so we can find a picture if we need to use it somewhere. Wow I didn't realize how many pictures I take of the cattle. We have a history book of aniamls! ha This picture of Fran taken in 1996 has been around the block or two! We found where someone had used it on their ad once and of course they didn't ask for permission. ha Fran was the full sister to Anna and I had the chocie between the two. I halter broke them and Fran was a little flighty and Anna was not so that determined who we were going to keep in herd. Fran brought $15,000 that year and I cried when she went on a pot load to Kentucky. We saw her a year or so later and she was skin and bones. Pretty sad huh? Her picture was used to represent the Braunvieh breed of "Breeds of Cattle" Updated and Revised 2nd Edition book by Herman R Purdy, R. John Dawes and Dr. Robert Hough.
Congratulations Roxanne on being selected Reserve Champion Senior Showman at the 2010 Hereford Junior Nationals this month in Indianapolis! We are extremely happy for you and proud of you of course! Rox has been one of our cattle kids for a long time. She started showing our black purebreds way back when black Braunvieh cattle wasn't cool! ha TLC Black Suede a Black Icon daughter was shown at the 2001 1st Braunvieh Junior Naitonals in Stillwater, Oklahoma as Division Winner.
