Stick-to-your-ribs sauce

It's supposed to snow more tonight and tomorrow. (Will it ever stop?) Lacking a nice thick bison steak, I opted to make good cold-weather, meaty spaghetti sauce. I use Mark Bittman's basic recipe for Bolognese, but with double the meat, pretty much. Packaged, ground beef and pork at Safeway is a pound per package, and I don't feel like messing around with repackaging leftover raw meat just to use the 1/2 pound of each that Bittman calls for.

My house smells divine.

Bison auction video

Yakkety Yak

I'm sorry this first photo is blurry. Nice yaks.
Awwww, baby yak.
Just look at those eyelashes!
This is Shirley.
Shirley likes me.

Buffaloed

A lot of people are interested in the bison auction. First the winning meat bison are sold off. These are animals that were raised for meat, brought to the slaughterhouse at Greeley, and had their carcasses judged for qualities such as fat color, muscle and size of ribeye. The "gold medal" carcass, all 760 pounds of it, went for $10 a pound to Ted's (as in Turner) Montana Grill. That doesn't include processing and packaging.

Some of these folks are bidding on meat. Others are waiting for the live auction.These guys are also waiting for the live auction. They send the bison through a series of chutes, one at a time.
The bison end up in the auction ring, and they're none too happy about it. Everyone's careful to stay behind the reinforced gates or up on the podium (it's higher than it looks).
The champion bull and champion cow (pregnant) each went for $14,000.

I shot some video, too. I'll post that later.

These dogs have drive

I always do go the last weekend of the National Western Stock Show to catch the stock dog trials. Usually I watch the sheepdogs, but managed to catch the cattle dogs this year.

The dog has to take three (mutually unacquainted) steers between two barrels to his owner, then away from his owner through a chute, then into a pen at the far end of the arena, then get the steers into a trailer. The owner has to stay right by the trailer the whole time, either whistling or shouting commands.

Taking stock

Welcome to the National Western Stock Show. You can see mules on parade:
Take pictures of the kidlets on a steer:
Let them pet exotic critters such as piglets, goatlets and Labrador retrievers:
See the culmination of countless 4-H projects:
Or buy everything you need to kill things:

More photos to come. Next year I really must get to the show sooner to do a comprehensive survey, instead of waiting until the last weekend.

Picture-perfect day

Some photos from Friday's skiing. (The previous two posts were sent from my phone.) Next up: National Wesern Stock Show.

Wanna buy a bison?

This pregnant lady went for $14,000!

No Jane, no pain

Another excellent day of skiing.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer

There was some serious giggling going on behind me at work. I turned around.

"Go look in the third drawer in the kitchen," I was told.

For a "Made in U.S.A." knife, I have to wonder about the marketing decisions that went into naming this one. What's more, it's got "SofGrip"!

It's good to embrace your inner adolescent once in a while.

Nose, bone

"Colonics for everyone!"

I know, I know, it's not spelled the same. But still.

Bonus points if you can name the movie the title quote is from.

More dogs, less blood

If it's Wednesday, I must be dogsitting. Leo does a fine W.C. Fields impression. What a goof. After the dog park (sorry, no pics) they got to hang out in the car while I donated a pint. I can fill up bag in no time. This is probably not something to brag about.

Inner beauty

It may be friggin' freezing outside with mountains of snow, but the water iris I brought in for the winter has decided it's spring.
Gotta love that macro lens (click on the photo to see it big).

Mothers of invention

I've decided I'm going to start collecting examples of "repurposing." Now, ordinarily I might think that the fishing pole used to hold a flag is kind of clever, maybe a little cutesy, but within the realm of OK-ness. But the folding table used as a dog/baby gate cancels that right out. (It's been there for months, in case you're thinking it's a temporary thing.)And when those pesky dogs and toddlers threaten to get out the back way, plywood springs to mind. And shoe racks.