Top 5 Things Overheard This Week:

1.  "Mom!  Mom!  Mom!  We are going branding at a farm!"  QT.  Okay, it really wasn't a farm, but made us laugh, because how many buckaroos like to be referred to as farmers?!

2.  "Really?  Who brings a mule to a branding anyway?!"  TR after Ofelia tied her mule up near the branding pen.

3.  "Cause AWESOME boys eat meat."  QT at lunchtime because he is an AWESOME boy!

4.  My niece got a  new saddle.  Trying it out for the first time, she got very upset because it didn't have a rope on it.  She asked her mom "Where's my rope?  I need a rope!  You can't rope cows without a rope!"  She's 3.

5.  "Hey Twain!  Don't you think you ought to bring us some more cattle?  WE NEED MORE COWS!"  TR when noticing the tub was empty while processing yearlings.

I love kids, they say the best things!

A Few of My Favorite Lines

I'm a list maker, and I have hundreds of my "lists" scattered everywhere.  I even have an app on my iPhone for making lists!  Sometimes they are just things that I need to do, like maybe laundry, defrost some meat, refill the propane tank for the bbq.  Other times, my list includes favorite books, songs, or like today, quotes.

1.  "For that pony had got tangled up in the cowboy’s heart strings a heap more than that cowboy wanted to let on even to himself.  He couldn’t get away from how he missed him."  ~ Will James  This is from one of my favorite books, Smokey the Cowhorse.  It speaks to my heart, because I have a pony that has "got tangled up" in my heart strings" too.

2.  "I picked a good one it looked like it could run, up on his back and away I did ride" ~ Marty Robbins  Who doesn't love Marty Robbins's gunfighter ballads, and the tail of the cowboy and "Wicked Falena?"  I have always loved this line.

3.  "I blindfold a bronc then step aboard this life wonderin and life before" ~ Adrian

4.  "And though she be but little, she is fierce"  ~ Shakespear  I first heard this line in the movie Seabiscuit.  While he was a boy, he was little and fierce.  That horse had more heart and try than most twice his size.  We often discount the little guy and think them weak or unworthy, while it is what they have inside that more than makes up for lack in stature.

5.  "Would you like an adventure now, or shall we have our tea first?" ~ Peter Pan

6.  "You don’t need no teeth for kissing gals or smokin cheap cigars" ~ Tom Russell  Tonight We Ride.  Just makes me giggle.

7.  "Don’t you worry your pretty little mind people throw rocks at things that shine" ~ Taylor Swift

8.  "I love you like a fat kid loves cake"  But seriously, who doesn't love cake?

9.  "Not all who wander are lost" ~ JR Tolken

"The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword."

Today while feeding cows, TR informed me he had a pencil in his boot.  Yes, a pencil in his boot.  I asked him, why he had a pencil in his boot.  He told me he had seen an army guy and a knight, and they both kept knives in their boots, so he though he would keep a pencil in his.

I told him that was a good idea because "The pen is mightier than the sword" (Edward Bulwer-Lytton).  Of course he gave me a funny face because really, how can a pen hurt you?  This of course turned into a great teaching opportunity for TR and myself.

I explained to him that history is influenced more by written word than by warfare, and that with a pen, a person can cause people to change their opinions on a large scale whereas a sword can only change a person's opinion by force and then often only results in the person's death.  Of course a lot of it was lost on a 5 year old.

It did get me to thinking a little bit though.  Where did the phrase come from?  So I did a little research.

 "The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. The play was about Cardinal Richelieu, though in the author's words "license with dates and details... has been, though not unsparingly, indulged." The Cardinal's line in Act II, scene II, was more fully:

True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself is nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —States can be saved without it! 

Bulwer-Lytton didn't have the original idea, several men said pretty much the same thing, just worded differently.  He gets the credit for it though. There ya go, a wrinkle in your brain, and honestly, I would much rather TR carry a pencil in his boot than a knife!

Quote of the Week

Wednesday was the day from hell.  I'm not gonna lie, it got me down and stomped all over me.  Literally and  figuratively.  I'm not going to go into details because a bad day cowboying still beats a good day with a town job.

At one point QT and I were trying (emphasis on trying) to bring some heavy cows to the house.  QT doesn't ride much on his own, but was doing his best on TR's  "Only good horse left" Cowboy.  After nearly being brushed off in the willows twice and losing his hat again, I told him to just leave it.  We were almost to the gate and the cows were about to break (again).  I decided it would be in my best interest to just go back and get it later.  The snow was over my knees every time I got off to retrieve the hat, and I was tired of chasing cows through the deep snow and worrying about QT keeping up and not falling off.

Things really fell apart after that.  One heifer went one way, the rest of the cows went another and about the time I had them to the gate, QT was sitting in the gate and wouldn't move.  I finally lost the heifer I needed.  Then I got QT out of the gate and out of the way.  I locked what was left in the corral and went to gather up QT and his hat.

He was sitting on Cowboy and looked just like the end of the trail.  Reins were dropped over the horn, head hanging down.  He looked pretty pitiful.  So I reached over and touched his arm and told him how much I appreciated his help and was glad he was there.  He looked at me and said "I'm just trying to be a cowboy mom and I don't even have a hat!"