The Cycle of Life on a Ranch

It’s been a time of comings and goings on the ranch this week.   

Now deep in the middle of calving season, we’re watching and welcoming new life in our pastures.

Each day and each evening, we travel out into our pastures and check on the progression of pregnancy of our cows and try to determine if any of the girls are in any danger.   

For us this means eye-balling the growth of her udders, watch for dilatation in her rear, and see if anyone is fence-lining, acting uncomfortable in the fields, off by themselves, or laying down and stretching unnaturally.

This is always an exciting period as we stay on alert for problems, then celebrate the successes of new life on the ranch.  And this year is no different.

But as we’re said hello to the newcomers in our large animal community, we also were saying a goodbye in our small animal family.   

“Midnight,” the last of our family of rabbits, died Friday evening.   

 He succumbed to a short, but serious viral infection which took him very quickly.

We never chose to keep rabbits, actually.   

I was talked into taking Midnight’s mother, “Blue”.  Blue had been an “Easter Bunny” for a friend’s family who didn’t want her much after the holiday.   

We had a covered pen available, and it seemed like a good idea.  Our ranch visitors would love to see a rabbit up close.  So I agreed to make the acquisition.

Two weeks after I got Blue, I noticed little pockets of fur all over her bedding.  She must have fleas, I thought, so I bathed her and applied a tube of Advantage. 

But it wasn’t fleas.  It was nesting.  A few days later, I came out to find my Blue Bunny with what would become a rainbow of babies attached to her teats.   We built additional housing and gained more pets.  Rest assured, we made sure the males and female rabbits were safely segregated.

Rabbits live a long time.  Ours saw children grow and leave home, and others return in their place.  Midnight, who had been the runt of Blue’s litter, was to live the longest. 

He was a sweet soul and will be missed.

 

- Sanne Collins

   From the Ranch in Florida

 

What’s Been Keeping Me Busy Lately

Love Those Wide Open Spaces is a blog designed to follow my daily life as a freelance writer and rancher.  It’s a life full of constant change and a wide scope of interests.

Freelance writing, by its definition, requires the ability to write on a variety of subjects, to juggle many assignments during the times of plenty, and to fill the void when checks are slow.   That said, I’m always writing.

Much of my work is done for others such as corporations, websites, or articles penned under another’s name.  I’ve sold the rights to these works, so they can’t be shared. 

However, many of my projects are available under my own name and can be read right here on the web.    

 You can click on either the site or the story below to see them.

Check out what’s been keeping me busy lately!

Rural Florida Living 
The Florida Wild or Osceola Turkey - Found Nowhere in the World but Florida  
The Yearling - A Florida Treatsure Turns 75 
Florida Outdoors: What You Can See in March  
The Florida Azalea Festival - The Pride of Palatka  
Famous Floridian Friday: Tom Petty, Rock Legend and Florida Native 
The Alligator Snapping Turtle - Florida's Largest Freshwater Turtle  
Fort Mose in St. Augustine, Florida - The First Free African Settlement in the US 

City to Country - A Rural Florida Adventure     
We Learn What to Look for When Buying Hay  

A Field Full of Babies

Love Those Wide Open Spaces 

Revisiting a Florida Classic 
The Snow Birds Begin Migrating 
Citrus Season Recipes from Florida  
Gleaning in the Groves 
This is My Brain on Writing 
Mudfest in Okeechobee 
Trading Treasures - Pepper Jam

Florida: Just For Fun!
Things to Do This Weekend in Florida - Friday, March 22nd thru Sunday, March 24th, 2013 
Things to Do This Weekend in Florida - Friday, March 15th thru Sunday, March 17th
Things to Do This Weekend in Florida - Friday, March 8th thru Sunday, March 10th  

Sanne On Squidoo Blog 
Ping Your Squidoo Lens 
How to Publish Your First Article on Squidoo  
Publishing on Squidoo - Design Your Profile 
How to Write for Squidoo - How to Prepare an Article for Online Publishing on Squidoo 
Write Biographies on Squidoo 
Looking for a Subject? Ideas for Writing Online  
How to Tailor Your Squidoo Article to Your Audience  
How to Get Traffic to New Articles on Squidoo
What Can I Write About on Squidoo?
Have You Squidoo'ed? 

@SanneCollins 2013

Revisiting a Florida Classic

I’ve been spending some quality with an old friend this weekend, author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.  

March marks the 75th anniversary of her classic story The Yearling, and I went back to re-read it again.  It was time well spent.

The Yearling, in case you don’t remember, is a coming of age story about a young boy growing up in the backwoods of Florida in the late 19^th Century.  The child adopts a young fawn after its mother is killed. 

Love, loneliness, life, death, and survival are all themes of the novel.

Kinnan Rawlings won a Pulitzer Prize for her book.  MGM bought the rights and made her book into a movie, which starred Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, and Claude Jarman, Jr and is a classic. 

The studio took the time to do the film right, purchasing land in Florida’s Big Scrub, building accurate sets, and filming on location.  National Public Radio (NPR) did a fantastically fun story about the making of The Yearling I’ll link to HERE.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an interesting woman herself.  She came to Florida after receiving a small inheritance and used her funds to purchase an orange grove.  She stayed and lived off the land and her writing for 25 years. 

Rawlings had two other books that did quite well, Cross Creek and Cross Creek Cookery, which documented the tales and the lifestyle of 1930’s Florida.  She continued to write and publish, but none of works did as well as The Yearling and the Cross Creek series.   

While celebrity brought fame and good fortune to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, it also made it increasingly harder for her to live among the Cracker neighbors she wrote about since they began to view her as a “cash cow”.    She had to eventually sell home and move.  She lived only a short while after leaving her farm, dying at age 59 of a brain hemorrhage.

You can visit the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings refurbished home and farm, located southeast of Gainesville, Florida in the Ocala National Forest.  The State purchased her land and dedicated it as a Florida State Park in her name.  It’s a wonderful place to stop and tour.  Visit the homestead, and you’ll come to understand her connection to the place. 

It’s time for me to get back to the work of writing now. Wishing everyone here a good and productive week.

 

- Sanne Collins

   From the Ranch in Florida

 

What’s Been Keeping Me Busy Lately

Love Those Wide Open Spaces is a blog designed to follow my daily life as a freelance writer and rancher.  It’s a life full of constant change and a wide scope of interests.

Freelance writing, by its definition, requires the ability to write on a variety of subjects, to juggle many assignments during the times of plenty, and to fill the void when checks are slow.   That said, I’m always writing.

Much of my work is done for others such as corporations, websites, or articles penned under another’s name.  I’ve sold the rights to these works, so they can’t be shared. 

However, many of my projects are available under my own name and can be read right here on the web.    

 You can click on either the site or the story below to see them.

Check out what’s been keeping me busy lately!

Rural Florida Living  
The Yearling - A Florida Treatsure Turns 75 
Florida Outdoors: What You Can See in March  
The Florida Azalea Festival - The Pride of Palatka  
Famous Floridian Friday: Tom Petty, Rock Legend and Florida Native 
The Alligator Snapping Turtle - Florida's Largest Freshwater Turtle  
Fort Mose in St. Augustine, Florida - The First Free African Settlement in the US 

City to Country - A Rural Florida Adventure     
We Learn What to Look for When Buying Hay  

A Field Full of Babies

Love Those Wide Open Spaces 
Citrus Season Recipes from Florida  
Gleaning in the Groves 
This is My Brain on Writing 
Mudfest in Okeechobee 
Trading Treasures - Pepper Jam

Florida: Just For Fun!

Things to Do This Weekend in Florida - Friday, March 8th thru Sunday, March 10th  

Sanne On Squidoo Blog 
How to Write for Squidoo - How to Prepare an Article for Online Publishing on Squidoo 
Write Biographies on Squidoo 
Looking for a Subject? Ideas for Writing Online  
How to Tailor Your Squidoo Article to Your Audience  
How to Get Traffic to New Articles on Squidoo
What Can I Write About on Squidoo?
Have You Squidoo'ed? 

@SanneCollins 2013

 

   

The Snow Birds Begin Migrating

The seasons are changing in my part of the world, and March is the month of transition.   

Many of our water birds are nesting this month, returning back to the locations they've always called home.  

March is transition month for Florida snowbirds too, with winter residents busily preparing to travel to their own nests back home. Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is subsiding.

We have a healthy contingent of seasonal  visitors in this little town, and I have a lot of friends within our migrating community.   So, come March, even after all these years, I still fret a bit when its time for the first of those friends to leave. 

So when Josie Baker announced an early leave date, I quickly organized a goodbye luncheon here at the ranch for Josie and all the other girls who would be following the sun and heading northward.

These final get-togethers of the winter season are always warm occasions. Before long, many of the guests will be scattering to homes across the globe.   Some will go to Germany, a few to homes in Britain, and many go back to the natural beauty of Canada for the next many months.  Florida’s like that, you know.  It seems like someone’s always packing or unpacking.

Rarely do we locals remember that the retiree pedaling down our shoreline pathways or the vacationers filling up our roads and restaurants are really world travelers.  But indeed, that's what they are.  

And as a group, our winter visitors have a good amount of both travel stories and travel expertise that they’re willing to share.

This is what makes the snowbirds so interesting to me.  They’re coming, they’re going, they’re taking tours, they’re seeing shows.  They’re in and out of town so often its dizzying.

You probably know that I’ve been contemplating spending a week by the sea in the warm and sunny Caribbean soon.  So I, too, have been browsing the travel sites.   And I can now fully appreciate the ability that my migrating friends have to shop fares and plan their departure dates. 

How do these folks do this so often and so effectively?  Well, this came up in discussion today.

When planning my travel, I always use a flight comparison website to purchase airline tickets, accommodations and even tour packages whenever possible.  I like the ability it gives me to keep my travel budget under my control.  

So do my wandering girlfriends, it turns out.  They do this and more. 

This travel savvy group suggested that I use a good flight comparison site the does more than give me the best deal.  I should choose a site that provides buyers with a price drop guarantee.  This is news to me.  I didn't even know this kind of thing existed.

I like it!  This would free me up from pricing worries, and I might actually stop waffling over departure dates.  

So where do I start then? FlightNetwork.com is a site that’s popular with this group, so this is the site I wrote down in my notes.  The girls said if I use a site such as this, if the price of my ticket goes down before I use it, the company guarantees that I will pay the lower price. 

Who knew?  I always thought that once I bought at a published price, it was set in stone. 

That’s what I love about these lunches—you always learn something new and useful.  It’s like having a roomful of big sisters.  I always come away a little smarter.

Well, it’s time to finish up my writing projects for today.   

You know, I’m feeling a travel commitment coming on. 

  

- Sanne Collins

   From the Ranch in Florida

Here’s the link to the site that was the group favorite:  www.flightnetwork.com

It’s a flight comparison site that offers a price drop guarantee.

 From Today’s Luncheon Menu - Look What I Made for Dessert!

Yes, with old grove Oranges!

Orange Fluff Chiffon Cake

Cake Ingredients

    3 oranges

    2 egg whites

    1 ½  cups sugar

    2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

    2 teaspoons baking powder

    1 teaspoon salt

    ½ cup milk

    1/3 cup cooking oil

    2 egg yolks

 

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Grease and flour two 9x1-1/2-inch round cake pans; set aside. Finely shred 1 tablespoon of peel from 1 orange. Squeeze juice from 2 oranges to measure 1/2 cup juice. Section remaining orange. In a large mixing bowl beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, beating to stiff peaks. In another large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1 cup sugar.

Add milk and oil. Beat on low speed of an electric mixer until combined. Add orange juice and egg yolks; beat 1 minute. Gently fold in egg white mixture until combined. Fold in orange peel. Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks; remove from pans. Frost with Orange Fluff Frosting. Top with reserved orange sections.

Makes 12 servings.

 Orange Fluff Frosting  Ingredients

    1/3 cup sugar

    4 teaspoons cornstarch

    2 tablespoons finely shredded orange peel (set aside)

    ½ cup orange juice

    2 cups whipping cream

In a small saucepan stir together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in orange juice. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until mixture is thickened.

Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in orange peel.

Cover and chill for 1 hour.

In a large bowl beat cream with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Gently fold in orange juice mixture.

 
*This is a Better Homes and Gardens Recipe - and is delicious beyond belief!

What’s Been Keeping Me Busy Lately

Love Those Wide Open Spaces is a blog designed to follow my daily life as a freelance writer and rancher.  It’s a life full of constant change and a wide scope of interests.

Freelance writing, by its definition, requires the ability to write on a variety of subjects, to juggle many assignments during the times of plenty, and to fill the void when checks are slow.   That said, I’m always writing.

Much of my work is done for others such as corporations, websites, or articles penned under another’s name.  I’ve sold the rights to these works, so they can’t be shared. 

However, many of my projects are available under my own name and can be read right here on the web.    

 You can click on either the site or the story below to see them.

Check out what’s been keeping me busy lately!

Rural Florida Living  
Florida Outdoors: What You Can See in March  
The Florida Azalea Festival - The Pride of Palatka  
Famous Floridian Friday: Tom Petty, Rock Legend and Florida Native 
The Alligator Snapping Turtle - Florida's Largest Freshwater Turtle  
Fort Mose in St. Augustine, Florida - The First Free African Settlement in the US 

City to Country - A Rural Florida Adventure     
We Learn What to Look for When Buying Hay  

A Field Full of Babies

Love Those Wide Open Spaces 
Citrus Season Recipes from Florida  
Gleaning in the Groves 
This is My Brain on Writing 
Mudfest in Okeechobee 
Trading Treasures - Pepper Jam
Super Bowl Party 

Winter Weather 
The Project's Over 

Florida: Just For Fun!
Things to Do in Florida This Weekend - Friday, March 1st thru Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 
Things to Do in Florida This Weekend - Friday, February 22nd thru Sunday, February 24th, 2013 

Sanne On Squidoo Blog 
How to Write for Squidoo - How to Prepare an Article for Online Publishing on Squidoo 
Write Biographies on Squidoo 
Looking for a Subject? Ideas for Writing Online  
How to Tailor Your Squidoo Article to Your Audience  
How to Get Traffic to New Articles on Squidoo
What Can I Write About on Squidoo?
Have You Squidoo'ed? 

@SanneCollins 2013