Baby Cows

We welcomed two new additions to Little Frog Ranch! Two six-month-old Hereford cows.  (technically, Hereford and Angus mix)

Mooving to their new home! Chris got to help with the deworming and ear tagging before they were loaded up into the trailer. 

They need to stay in the corral for 7-10 days so they get comfortable with their new home and learn where their food and water are located.

Aside from grass, they eat hay and supplemental feed.

Next door neighbors wanted to meet their new friends across the fence.

The pond has filled in nicely!

December 2021

Little Frog Ranch update

This view never gets old!

Unfortunately, the pond is in sad shape right now.  Although it will fill up on its own with the spring rains, we need to run a pipe or hose from the water well so it can stay full year round for the animals.  We're not sure if the previous owner intentionally put the plastic chair in the middle of the pond or if it blew in years ago.  But since it's usually covered with water, it gives us an indication of how deep the pond can be.  We will remove the chair...someday...

We walked through the dry pond area to see if there was anything interesting usually covered by water, and came across this animal bone about a foot long.  We haven't discovered all of the wildlife around here yet, but this is probably from a deer.  We have seen deer and coyotes in the wildlife cameras in the past.  

No trip to Little Frog Ranch is complete without a picture of my favorite tree and cactus!

Fence

 For some time now, we've needed a new front fence and gate.  It finally happened!

BEFORE

12 foot gate

AFTER

 16 foot gate, 7 wire fence

We will reuse the old gate for the opening in the middle fence line to separate the front pasture from the back pasture where the main house will be in the future.  

Eventually we will add a Solar-Powered Gate Opener

 

We also discovered something new about the property!  We didn't realize that this was a working gate to the right pasture!  There is a larger gate elsewhere, but this was a surprise to learn that there was a second gate!

Cabin update

 Things are definitely moving along in the cabin!  

Now that the carpet is installed, it's time to add the kitchen and bathroom flooring.

We chose 12x24 peel and stick vinyl tiles.

Kitchen

Bathroom

The bedroom is ready for furniture!

We will build a barn door for the bathroom entrance, but in the meantime, the shower curtain will work.

We have a matching curtain to block off the water heater and storage area in the bathroom.

Trees and carpet

 We worked outside as it was a rare sunny day!  We've had rain for weeks now!  It was nice to be outside for a change!

It was a good day to trim my favorite tree.

Looking better, but still a little more to trim another day.

This is a huge pile of branches that were trimmed off!

Inside, the cabin is coming along nicely!  Next up is flooring!

We decided to put carpet in the living room and bedroom areas.  The Lowes estimate was about $1,000 for the cheapest carpet.  After some research, we found these carpet tiles on Amazon.  The entire space was only $330.  We purchased some extra pieces so we can replaced stained squares as needed in the future.  It's not thick carpet, but for our purposes, it was perfect!  And it was very quick and easy to put down!

After we vacuum a few times, the lines shouldn't be visible.  

Now to find some vinyl flooring for the kitchen and bathroom!

June update

Today we enjoyed eating at the Village Kitchen in Jacksboro.  Great food!  We'll definitely visit there again!

Inside the cabin, we worked on adding trim to the windows.

Bedroom window before trim

Bedroom window with trim, which will be painted white.

Kitchen window before trim

Kitchen window with trim, which will be stained

We also started putting up the shower walls.  We chose waterproof paneling to start with.

So after all the prep and work to get the first piece of waterproof paneling up, we decided that we don't like how it looks.  There are some really cute options with galvanized corrugated sheet metal that will go nicely with the bathroom.  We are looking into that as an option instead of finishing the shower walls with this paneling.  

Outside, the Prickly Pear Cacti are blooming!

Random Things

 Last weekend I took these random pictures to share:

Did you know you can use helicopters as crop dusters?  Neither did we until we saw this over our neighbor's place!

These beautiful white wildflowers have popped up everywhere!  I believe they are called Queen Anne's Lace, but not certain.

I love this view!  The pond is hidden behind the trees to the left.

The tractor got a new, much needed seat and steering wheel!

Now that the walls are painted, I hung our first decoration!  We needed a place to hang the keys!  Never mind that we don't have flooring or furniture yet, this was too cute to wait!

View from the cabin