Barrel Cactus Blossoms

Barrel cactus seem to always bloom in August in the Sonoran Desert.  We saw these today. 

Chinks

A cowboy's chinks are similar to chaps. Both are leather leg coverings worn by horseback riders as protection against weather, timber, brush, kicks, rope burns, and other hazards.  Both chinks and chaps are buckled around the waist, and are open in the back so a rider’s seat is not covered.  Chaps run the full length of the rider's legs. Chinks are similar to chaps, but are shorter, typically hitting the rider below the knee and above the ankle.  They are fastened around the rider’s legs by snaps or buckles that stop above the back of the knee, allowing the chinks to move freely from that point downward. The fringe on chinks is also usually longer and more prominent than fringe found on chaps.

Papa has been busy in his workshop this week, making chinks for Toby for Christmas.  Toby won't need chinks except when he comes to visit at the ranch, but he will be the "talk of the town" on the playground in NYC when he wears them.  Papa has had a great time making them!

Moroccan Salad

I have always enjoyed having my girls in the kitchen with me, and especially love having little ones in the kitchen. Over the years our palates have become more sophisticated and we have all become more bold in the dishes we are willing to try. One of our family's favorite recipes is Moroccan Salad. On a trip to Morocco, we discovered that our salad wasn't really authentic, but we still call it Moroccan. When we lived on Bay Shore Road in Sarasota, we had citrus fruit trees, grapefruit, naval oranges, and lemons, and we also had a huge mango tree in our yard. I would use either grapefruit or mango in our Moroccan Salad. So here it is!

Moroccan Salad
2 grapefruits or 1 large mango, peeled and sliced thinly
1 head Romaine lettuce
2 apples, thinly sliced
2 pears, thinly sliced, optional
12 dates, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sugared walnuts
low fat oil and balsamic vinaigrette
freshly ground pepper

Wash and break Romaine in a large salad bowl. Lay grapefruit slices or mango slices on top. Layer on the apples, pears, and dates.

Melt 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup walnuts, just as sugar has become liquid. Stir quickly to moisten nuts and pour onto aluminum foil to cool. Break into pieces when cool and sprinkle on top of salad.

Toss salad lightly with dressing, grind fresh pepper over all, and serve. Yum!

National Register of Historic Places

We have been notified that the Schilling Ranch Historic District, also known as Winchester Ranch, was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on August 7, 2009.  The process of nomination took over three years.  I started by sending information about the Rock House to the State Historic Preservation Office.  They recommended that we prepare documentation for an Historic District, as the Rock House, Bunk House, Tack Room, Hay Barn, and Corral are all intact and essentially in the same condition as when they were built, between the late 1920's and early 1950's.  There are very few historic ranch headquarters still intact in Arizona.

Winchester Ranch was part of the Muleshoe Ranch, controlled by cattle baron Henry Clay Hooker from 1886-1906.  It later became known as “Schillings.”  Ernest Schilling homesteaded the ranch around 1906 and his purchase from the United States of America was recorded in 1927.  Ernest Schilling is locally known for taking a bull to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and winning the top prize.  He put the bull on the train and brought him back to the ranch.

There are no definite records of when the Rock House was built, but believed in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s.  The rock veneer on the Rock House appears to have been gathered within sight of the house.  A local family, the Brownings, purchased the ranch in 1948, and with a crew of cowboys
built the Bunk House, Hay Barn, and Tack Room.

After we purchased Winchester Ranch in 2003, we began immediately restoring the historic headquarters.  I lived in the Rock House while I was building our main house compound.  We now use the Rock House as our guesthouse. 

Favorite Collections

Over the years, our family traveled quite a lot. Along the way, we collected things that were easy to put in a suitcase.  I especially love orange seashells, white shells, conchs, pink shells, whelks...  Some beach shelling was better than others.  Upper Captiva off the coast of southwest Florida was one of the best.  Spanish Wells, Bahamas was nice.  Sarasota Bay in front of our home on Bay Shore Road had a long sand bar just full of giant whelks and chunks of dead coral.  Other beaches had great sharks teeth, especially Caspersen Beach south of Venice, and Siesta Beach to the north.  We picked for Apache Tears, round chunks of obsidian, at Picketpost Mountain near Superior, Arizona.  We collected arrowheads on a friend's ranch near Bandera, Texas.  We have collected quartz "eggs" on our ranch.

I bought several jars with lids and have a shelf in our living room at the ranch with my favorite collections.  Sometimes I pull down a jar and just pour it out on a towel on the coffee table. I listen to the sea with my conchs and rearrange my orange clam shells.  I love the ever visible reminder of those wonderful memories made.  My best souvenirs were free!

Dollhouse Redo

Today we redecorated the dollhouse! This dollhouse was built by Papa's Dad, Great Papa,
in 1994 for Claire and Whitney. We have wonderful photos of him while the house was under construction, which lasted several months. He used tweezers to put on the roof shingles. The windows and door really work. It is a treasure! Claire and Whitney saved their allowance for weeks to buy furniture for the dollhouse. They spent hours working and playing. When we moved into the house at the ranch in 2005, the dollhouse landed on the second floor of the tower, where it was not receiving the care it deserved. On Sunday, Papa brought it down and I washed it down with a bleach solution, washed all the furniture, and made repairs. I invited our ranch manager's daughter, Madilyn, age 4, over this morning to redecorate the dollhouse. We had fun!

Sewing Projects

I just finished making a baby nursing cover for Whitney. She found one at http://www.babysteals.com/ on August 18 that she liked. I copied it with fabric I had
on hand, using a contrasting fabric for the adjustable strap.

As I am not a very good seamstress, I try to keep it going once I get started. Audrey asked me to make a pair of curtains for her bathroom, so today was the day! I added a pleated bottom
instead of hemming. I'm pleased with the result. Hope she will be too!

Ranch Art

A local artist painted a 7' x 6' close up of a barrel cactus in bloom, from a photo I took.  It hangs in the living room, across from the front door.  Our son-in-law, Dan, painted Buck Knob, one of our favorite views at the ranch, hangs in our bedroom.  We love it!

Bench

I have been at our Tucson house for four days, doing various chores and finishing a new bench. We had a local Tucson steel fabricator make the steel frame for $60 and my husband used some leftover flooring to make the top. Papa put it together and we have a great place to sit and put on shoes near the door, to set a package on the way in...

Best Friend

Today, my best friend of 20+ years, along with one of her daughters, Lisa, visited Whitney in NYC and baby Toby.  My friend Linda, is like a sister.  We lived within a few blocks of each other in Dallas when our children started kindergarten together.  We would drop the kids at school and walk together every morning.  Our family moved to Sarasota four years later, but Linda and I have continued to talk to each other at least twice a week every week since 1992.  Her two daughters are the same ages as my three daughters, so they have gone through many of the stages of their lives at the same time... awkward puberty, teenage years, high school graduation, college, getting jobs, living on their own, on and on.  Linda and I are near the same age, so we have gone through many of life's changes at about the same time too.  I am grateful for this wonderful friendship! 

Webcam

Talking online, using a webcam is the next best thing to being with Toby, given that we live about 3000 miles apart. I use a Logitech webcam, purchased at Walmart for $37. I want Toby to recognize Papa and me, and it's free to chat, as often as we want!

Becoming Lulu!

On Sunday, June 7, 2009, our first grandson, Toby was born!  I will be known as Lulu.  With Toby's birth, I want to leave a journal of my life  for my grandchildren, children, and friends, every day on Winchester Ranch from now until we no longer live on Winchester Ranch.

I'm a mother, grandmother, wife, daughter, friend... Over the past 40 years, Papa and I have lived in Tucson, Dallas, Sarasota, and back to Arizona because Papa wanted to be a rancher when he retired. We bought Winchester Ranch in September 2003 and moved to the ranch full time in February 2004. We enjoy new adventures every day!