Reflecting on 2013

I'm not sure where 2013 went, but it was a good year for us.  We had so many blessings and so much to be thankful for.

Of course, the biggest event of the year was the birth of our sweet granddaughter.  Who'd have ever thought that J would be a daddy and a hands-on daddy.  He loves his little girl, and I love seeing him with her.  It's a whole different side of him.  Hopefully, she'll help him lighten up some.

Brand new daddy

Another big event was R's graduation from Western Dakota Tech in Fire Science.  He loved what he was doing and did really well.  Toward the end he was complaining about the slackers in the class just doing the minimum to get by and why were they there if they weren't serious about it.  I said, "like you in high school?".  He laughed and admitted that was true.  It was so rewarding to watch him grow into a fine young man and responsible adult. 

I was so sad when R decided to go back to school, although I thought it was the right thing for him to do, because I was pretty sure he'd never come back.  I guess being away for a couple of years made him realize being here wasn't so bad and the "real world" isn't all it's cracked up to be.  We work hard, but we really do have a great lifestyle.  So, we are blessed and happy to have him back along with his girlfriend and her little boy. 

They spent a lot of time crammed into the tractor together during harvest.

Although we were heartbroken when we lost our Pete, we've found a new love with Junior.  He's a bit less highstrung than Pete, which is a good thing, and is turning into an excellent cow dog.  We're trying really hard to raise him right.

We had good crops and big calves and no major catastrophes during the year so we consider it a success.  We had some great trips and family bonding and have more of that planned.  We're looking back on 2013 with gratefulness and forward to 2014 and all it may bring.  Happy New Year!

The Holidays

We had our last cow adventure of the year.  The neighbor's cows finally made their trek home to Harlem.  M hauled a load a couple of weeks ago with a plan for more trucks to come the next day, but the weather didn't cooperate with warming and snow which created ice.  He spun up every hill on the way home so cancelled for the next day and then the holidays came so it was put on hold until yesterday.  M and C each took a load along with a couple of trucks from Harlem.  They are coming back today to take the rest.  The old fencer who was looking after them took on a job helping a friend back in Chinook so we were having to go feed them.  It gets to be a long way around now that we can't go cross country like we usually do.  M said Junior did all the work getting the cows in and only got a little kick in the nose.

R was gone for a week having an early Christmas with his girlfriend's family near Missoula so I had to help with chores.  It was pretty cold during that time so I was very happy to see him come home.  Plus, we had his dog to babysit.  He's no trouble, but he and Junior together can get into some mischief.  One evening I noticed cows along the road north of our house.  I didn't think they could possibly be ours, but I went out to check for sure.  They belonged to the neighbor so I called and told him they were headed south, and he said he'd come and get them.  It was close to dark then so I didn't know if he came for them or not.  The next morning we let the dogs out and when we went out to go do chores couldn't find them.  Then I looked to the west and saw a group of cows and a couple of black specks behind them.  The dogs had the neighbor's cows on the run and had them halfway home by the time we caught up!  Not a good habit for them to get in to, but at least the neighbor's cows went home.

Our holidays were filled with family.  M's sister, her husband, his mother, her two kids and two grandkids were here for a week.  The kids and grandkids have gone home but she and her husband and the mom are still here. Add in our two boys, their significant others and grandkids as well as C and his wife and her three kids and significant others and it gets to be quite a houseful--a noisy houseful!  I don't think everyone was ever there at one time, though. 

Still missing a few, but this is part of our group.  Couldn't resist these shirts.

And throw in two birthdays, my mother-in-law on the 22nd and my nephew on Christmas day.  Of course, our granddaughter was the star of any gathering and got a little spoiled!  I have to say we just can't get enough of her.  Her grandpa thinks she is the most beautiful thing ever and grins from ear to ear when he sees her (I may be guilty of that also).

On the weekend we started a project ripping out carpet and replacing it with wood in the in-law's living room and hallways.  Some of the materials are backordered so we won't be able to finish before they leave so I'm afraid it will be left for us to finish unless they decide to make a trip back here.  We've all got sore knees and have rapidly lost interest in the project.

We've had some more cold weather and now we are getting snow.  The boys both have new snowmobiles so they are happy to get more snow.  Me, not so much.  Maybe that's why I just bought airline tickets to Arizona!

More Cow Adventures

R headed out on a guy adventure with his friend the day before Thanksgiving.  At that time, we still had our heifers out in the fields.  In the days before he left he mentioned that he had seen a couple of our neighbor's cows in with our heifers.  No big deal since half of the heifers belonged to the neighbor, and he was going to take some of them home to Harlem so we had to sort anyway.  After he left and M was checking on things he realized that there were more than a couple of cows in with the heifers.  There was supposed to be a drastic change in the weather with subzero temps so we were going to have to bring them home.  So, the day after Thanksgiving we embarked on that chore.  M told C that he and I would go round up and he could come later and help us sort.  As we were rounding up it was obvious that there were quite a few cows in with the heifers so we were worried that they'd try to head to their home instead of to our place, but they went along pretty well.  We were just getting them to where they had to go through a gate into a lane down to the corral when I thought I saw a flash of orange at the bottom of the lane.  Sure enough, a pickup with hunters was heading up the lane toward the cows.  Thank goodness they weren't five minutes later or they'd have had a herd coming at them.  I am so glad that hunting season is over as the place has been crawling with hunters, thanks in part to all the state land in this part of the world.  We're pretty sure that's how the cows got mixed up, too, with a gate being left open.

We had to move our calves into another corral to get them out of the way and then get all the cows in.  We thought C would have been there by then, but he wasn't so we started sorting.  We had to sort our heifers from the neighbor's heifers and decide which ones of the neighbor's heifers we were going to keep to calve out and which ones we were going to send home and sort out the neighbor's cows.  I had to keep track of numbers and count and run the gate.  It actually went pretty well, but I was getting tired and crabby.  We were close to done by the time C called to see if we were ready yet so we told him not to bother coming.  We were down to the last 25 head or so when I noticed that they were heading out the back gate into the bull pasture.  They managed to push a post out of the ground so the gate came open.  We caught them before they got too far and got them back in.

Turns out there were 40 of the neighbor's cows in with the heifers.  M turned them out along with the 30 heifers we were sending home and trailed them back where they came from.  When he left he told me he would close the gate behind him so I could open the corral gates and let the rest of the heifers out which I did.  It was getting close to dark and I was just puttering around when I noticed the heifers were disappearing up the lane.  M didn't close the gate behind him so they were headed up the lane and could have turned and been in the yard.  I ran and managed to stop half of them and get them turned around.  The rest were following M back up the lane.  Thankfully, he had gotten the other group through the upper gate and had it closed and was coming back.  In the meantime I was trying to drag another gate across the lane so that they couldn't get into the yard, but it is a long, tight gate and I couldn't get it tied up so just held it as tight as I could hoping they wouldn't run through it or over me.  You might imagine I said some not nice words when M got back.  Still, he had the nerve to ask what was for supper when we were in the pickup and on the way home.  I didn't cook.

As R was on his way home from his trip we were heading to Vegas for NASCAR championship week and the NFR.  We missed the bitterly cold weather but had crappy roads to and from Billings. R had some water problems but managed to get it fixed by himself.

This week our friend wanted to pick up the cows that we've been taking care of for him so M and R had to get all the cows in and sort his out.  There should have been 15, but they could only find 11.  The next morning they looked again and still couldn't find the rest so then they went hunting.  M finally found them and another five of ours back in the pasture they had come out of huddled in some trees.  Again, a gate was left open or not closed properly and they got through it.  Have I mentioned I dislike having hunters around?!?  They had good shelter but didn't get fed during the cold snap like the others did.  It's a good thing our friend came to get his or we might not have noticed them missing, although, our only white cow was in that group.  M and R were feeling pretty stupid that they didn't notice she wasn't in the herd at home.  They were pretty happy to be home with the rest of the herd when they finally made it there.

Junior was able to do some work so he was a happy dog, too! 

This Day in History

November 12 has quite a bit of historical significance in my life.  Some happy, some sad.

I woke up this morning with the thought that my good friend, Wanda, passed away on this day 20 years ago at the age of 29.  It seems impossible that she's been gone that long, and I still cry when I think of her but I'm so thankful that she was in my life for the time that she was.  She was a special person and had so many friends.  She was an elementary teacher and touched a lot of lives.  I'll never forget getting the call that she had passed away just before I was on the way out the door to a parent-teacher conference for J who was in the first grade.  I remember driving to the school thinking that maybe I had misunderstood and she wasn't really gone.  Then I got to the school and told J's teacher who was Wanda's coworker and friend.  Even though her death wasn't unexpected, I have to say it was one of the worst times of my life and my heart was broken.  I still regret that I didn't make the trip to see her one last time.

Fast forward to November 12, 2004.....the day we buried my dad.  Another death that wasn't unexpected and was just as heartbreaking.  I will always miss my daddy, too.

On a happier note, my brother got married on this day in 1977 (even though they were practically children), and she's a keeper!  I was 15 at the time and recall having a good time at their wedding dance. 

And.......possibly most important, I got pregnant with J on this day in 1985.  I don't think anyone wants any more detail on that, but it definitely changed my life!

More Cow Stuff

We should be winding down on our cow stuff until we have to start feeding.  Last week R and I moved our heifers one step closer to home.  It was a bit of a cool day so R suggested that we could take a pickup and the Jeep instead of 4-wheelers.  The day before when he had gone to check on them they came running to the pickup, and he had to race them to get to the gate and through before they beat him to it.  I think it's never a good idea to not have at least one 4-wheeler, but I went along with his plan.  We picked up the mineral tubs and put them on the back of the pickup and parked it on a hill and the majority of them gathered around, but there were some stragglers that we had to round up and some that wouldn't cross a coulee.  Eventually, we got them all together and I started off with the pickup.  They followed me to the gate, but once through the gate they started to veer off.  I couldn't see that ten or so had broken away from the group right off the start so R was trying to get them back on track with the Jeep while I was trying to push the group in the right direction and wondering where the heck R was.  Finally, he got them through the gate and tried to push them.  I was caught between trying to lead them and trying to push them because they'd follow for awhile and then pass me.  We eventually let Junior out, and he was helpful in getting them moving for the last mile.  I should know better than to not have a 4-wheeler.  So much easier.

The next day R and I had to load cull cows to take to the neighbor's where he had his so M could pick them up with the semi.  We had to haul two loads over.  We were halfway over with the second load when it occurred to me that I didn't really need to go along, but it was too late to turn back then.  I think R wanted my help so I could open and close the three gates we had to go through.

The neighbor's cows were not cooperative about getting loaded onto the semi, and there was much cursing and gnashing of teeth.  M was having a bad day already because he'd hauled a load of calves for another neighbor, and they were not cooperative either so he was not a happy cowboy.  From there R and I had to go to another neighbor's to take back a heifer.  She had gotten in with our cows this spring, and we told the neighbor that if he didn't come get her before we moved our cows to summer pasture she was going along.  He didn't seem worried about her so we had her all summer.  We cut her out when we pregnancy tested this fall and took her back home, but the next day she was back again.  If she doesn't stay home this time he may have to make us a good deal and we'll keep her.

I was anxious to get home because I was going to get my granddaughter for a few hours while J and K cleaned out their camper for the winter.  I had barely gotten home when they arrived to drop her off.  We had some play time, and then she took a nap.  I love rocking a baby to sleep and don't get near enough grandbaby time.

We have a pen of about 75 heifer calves to feed this winter, and M says they are all calm and nice, even better than last year.  I haven't been out to check them out and pick my favorites so R will probably beat me to the best ones.  There is one I want because I helped save her life when she was born.  I got kind of attached.

We had a blast of winter the past couple of days with lows about 5 degrees and a skiff of snow.  It was nice today at 45 degrees and sunny.  I hope that trend continues for awhile longer so winter will be that much shorter.

Cow Stuff

Again, I'm behind on my blogging.  We've been busy with our usual fall stuff.  M and R built another fence up the hill from our barn so that we'll have another space where we can move cows and calves in the spring.  My job is always the clipping.  I did it in about three hours since I had a date with our accountant later that day.  Think three hours of doing squats.  My thighs were so sore the next day I could hardly walk.  I should do that every day!

Next on our agenda was pregnancy testing our last bunch of cows.  Our friend, Roger, did it for us and the only day he could come was when R was gone.  Not fair!  We had to enlist J to help us run the chute.  We were lucky to have another nice day to get it done.  We had a few more open cows than we would have liked, but the majority were older cows that should probably be retired anyway.

On Wednesday M and R rounded up all the cows and calves to be ready for shipping yesterday.  I missed out on that, but M said that Junior did well helping with the roundup.  He still has a lot to learn, but he's making progress. 

We had a very smooth shipping day and good weather for it.  The cows and calves came in without any problem.  M and R sorted one bunch to separate the calves from the cows while C, his stepson, Jared, and I worked on sorting the big bunch.  When M and R finished sorting their bunch they then started separating the steer calves from the heifer calves while we finished sorting cows from calves.  We also had the open cows to sort out.  Then we loaded calves into our trailers to take across country to the neighbor's where the buyer was to be weighed and loaded on semi trucks.  M was so happy that it all went so well that he celebrated with a beer and a sandwich.  While we were finishing up our neighbor called to see if we were on the way over because we had too much weight and had to decide what to do.  Calves that are too heavy is a good problem to have!  The calves came in quite a bit heavier than last year, so M had one more thing to be happy about.  Maybe that kept him from feeling the pain of getting kicked by calves a few times during the day.

The majority of the calves were contracted and went to South Dakota, but a load went to Billings to be sold today.  We're hoping they sell well there, too.  We were a little concerned about the calves getting to South Dakota in good shape since it appeared that the truck drivers were a bit clueless.  We watched one of them back up to chute and wondered what the heck he was doing.  It's probably not fun having a bunch of people watching you, and when he finally got backed in and got out of the truck he said he hoped we all got a good laugh.  We did.  The neighbor's wife put it best when she said "I shouldn't care because they're not our calves anymore.....but I do care".  Spoken like a true rancher.

When the work was done we had supper and drinks with the neighbors.  They live in Harlem so we don't see them all that often but really enjoy the time we do spend with them.  They are pregnancy testing today so M and R are helping them.  I knew they had a lot of help so I stayed home (and out of the wind) to catch up on things here.

Tonight we get to babysit our granddaughter while J and K go to a Halloween party.  Can't wait to get my hands on that little girl....♥

Fall Chores

I'm a little behind on my blogging.....oops!

We finished our harvest a week ago.  What a good feeling!  The last stuff we cut was hail damaged so everyone kind of lost interest.  J was wondering what happened to all his help as M decided he and R were going to swath and bale some of the hailed wheat that wasn't worth combining.  We ran to Peerless for burgers and beer to celebrate the day we finished up.  It had been a long haul.  J spent most of this week helping a neighbor finish up.  There is still some wheat standing in the area, but harvest is finally winding down.

A couple of weekend ago we pregnancy tested most of our herd.  M scheduled with the vet thinking that if we didn't have rain we'd be done with harvest and if we did have rain the combines would be sitting anyway.  We did have a rain delay so it all worked out, and we're that much ahead of the game now.  We had originally planned to just do the 120 heifers.  Then the vet called and asked if we didn't want to do the cows, too.  As M was saying "I think we can make that work",  I was vigorously shaking my head "no!" because that meant another 120 cows plus vaccinating 120 calves.  I bet him that we'd be finishing up in the dark since the vet is always late and he likes to hear himself talk so gets a bit sidetracked at times.

We worked them at the neighbor's corral which is bigger and a more efficient setup than ours--and closer to our pasture.  We had to round up the day before which went pretty smoothly.  The cow puppy got some more work and now that he has found his calling is a bit overzealous.  R let his puppy have a turn and he was a bit disappointing.  Apparently he's more lab than border collie.

Our preg testing day went well.  The vet was only a little bit late.  We ran through the heifers first, had lunch and then did the cows.  It was almost 5:00 by the time we were done with them so the vet had to leave so he could make the border by 6:00 (he's Canadian).  Then we quickly ran the calves through to vaccinate them and sent them all back to their pastures..  So, I lost the bet because technically we were done before dark although it was pretty dark by the time we got everything loaded up and headed home.  We were a little disappointed in our AI results, but the conditions weren't good when we tried to do it.  On the bright side, the bulls did their job and we didn't have many opens.

Last weekend we went to Scobey for a high school football game to see Jared play, visited M's parents along with J and our granddaughter.  Then we all went out for our annual post-harvest supper--I think there were 14 of us.

We moved a bunch of cows home from our pasture near Richland the other day.  Once in awhile we haul them home, but usually we trail them home, about 5 miles, and that's what we did this time.  The puppy got some more work in although there wasn't much work to do as the cows pretty much moved themselves home.  They've done it before and knew where they were going.  It was good for M and the puppy to learn more about each other, though.  There was one cow that kept turning around and looking at the dog.  Finally she stood there too long with some attitude and the dog let her have it.  That was the last time she turned around.  The cows were used to Pete so have some respect for dogs.  It's just so amazing to see the natural instinct in cow dogs.

M has been busy with his fall plans, mostly fencing.  He fixed the spot that got washed out by the big rain storm this summer.  It was kind of important to get that done before we moved any cows home.  Then he started on the calving pasture.  When a corner post floated out of the ground this spring he decided it might be time to move it and redesign the fence to get it out of the bog.  He also moved the gate.  I helped him the past couple of days.  I was feeling guilty that I'd kind of been on strike since we finished harvesting and trying to get some of my stuff done at home.  One day I unclipped the wires and pulled out a few posts and the next day I clipped the wires back up on the new stretch.  The first day was a beautiful day to be out.  Yesterday, not so much.  Pretty windy!

Next on the agenda is more fence work, moving the cows closer to home, pregnancy testing our last bunch, cleaning corrals in preparation for winter and winterizing things.  I have a "honey-do" list of things around the house, too, but I have to wait for inclement weather before I dare ask him to start on those.  Just hoping we continue to have decent weather because this is time time of year we try to catch up on all the things we didn't have time for during the summer.

COWch Dog?

The puppy has been trying my patience lately.  His newest thing is jumping on the couch and snuggling in and getting comfy.  He's not supposed to be on the couch so I told M that maybe he misunderstood and thinks he's a "couch" dog instead of a "cow" dog.  He hasn't shown too much interest in the cows to this point, but he's been getting a little braver.  I have tried to explain to him that he owns those cows and will be the boss of them someday.

But I'm comfy here.....

Our harvest was delayed by rain again so M decided we needed to move the heifers.  R was busy hauling grain so it was just M and I and Junior.  The heifers are kind of like pets since they were bucket fed all winter.  They were all in a bunch so there wasn't much rounding up to do, and they are a bit hard to chase because they are like pets.  We let Junior out and once he figured out that he could bark and make them move he thought it was kind of fun.  His herding instincts were evident, but we need to work on his listening skills!  M has been a bit afraid that he wasn't going to have any interest, but I kept telling him that it's too early to expect much and dangerous to get him into a situation he can't handle.  He's feeling a bit better now, though, that maybe there's some hope.

Junior has been showing his "puppy-ness" lately.  First, he and Kobe (R's puppy, a border collie/lab mix) got into a mud hole.  I'm sure Kobe pushed him in since he's a bully and Junior definitely got the worst of it.  I couldn't see any white on him at all and then had to figure out how I was going to get him home like that.  Thank goodness they then found a clean waterhole to wash themselves off a bit.  I still had to give two puppies baths when I got them home.

A Muddy Mess!!

A few days later M and R were putting a new propane tank at our house and Kobe and Junior were outside playing and found the sewer outlet.  Again, Junior got the worst of it.  Bath #2 for the week.  Today I was so happy that he was playing well by himself outside.....until he came to the house after finding the sewer outlet again.  Bath #3 for the week. 

Kobe and Junior........trouble times two

We need harvest to be over so he can start going with M and doing fun things outside.  It'll be good for him.....and good for me!

Harvest Update

I was pressed into service on the grain cart  last week.  We were at as place we call the hell hole because it's a long, rough trail for the trucks.  Its also some of our best land so there's usualy a lot of wheat to haul out of there.  We had three trucks and three drivers and just barely kept up.to the combines.  There was rain in the forecast for the weekend so the goal was to get finished and moved out of there on Friday, and we achieved our goal and moved about 4:00.  They cut a field near our house and then made a couple of short moves in the dark and cut late to get as much done as possible before the rain.

And rain it did!  We woke up rain Saturday morning and had two inches in two hours with a total through the weekend of 2.5 inches.  North of here there was up to 5 inches.  The coulee to our west looked like a river and our neighbor's yard looked like a lake.  The rain came so fast that there was water over roads.  We were so glad we got out of the hell hole.

We had four days off from cutting and started back up yesterday afternoon.  In the downtime the guys hauled a lot of grain to the elevator to make room in the air bins.  The aeration allows us to cut grain that is a little wetter.

Today seemed to be a day of bad decisions.  This morning M said that they'd be finishing up around Richland and moving up to our neighbor's.  I asked why he'd do that since it is hail damaged and not a good crop.  When I took lunch out everyone thought it was a bad plan to go cut that when we have good wheat still standing that we should cut first.  M had his mind made up so off we went up the hill.  I was giving C a ride back to get another truck when he got the call that J was stuck.  He made the bad decision to try to cross a coulee.  That didn't take long!  We went to get a tow rope while R unhooked the tractor from the grain cart.  After several unsuccessful attempts to pull the combine out from several different angles, J decided to go get the big tractor and another tow rope.  On the first try  all 12 tires on the tractor were spinning.  Ugly sight.  R moved over and tried again and finally had success.  There are quite the craters left behind.  By that time M had made a round with the other combine and determined it was too green, and we were moving out again.  That met with frustrated groans from the crew.  We only wasted a couple of hours and now are headed west again.  Hopefully, M and J will make better decisions from here on out.

Holy Lentils!

The guys finished up the lentils Friday afternoon (except for a wet patch that won't be ready for quite awhile) and we made the big move back home.  There's always a bit of a sigh of relief when they switch over to wheat since it's easier to cut, but M was wishing they had another thousand acres of lentils to cut the way they were running.  They averaged over 40 bushels/acre across the board.  The cool, damp July was just what they needed.

I hate to say very loudly that I have had a pretty easy harvest so far.  They must have been listening when I said I was retiring from my grain cart duties because I haven't been called into service yet.  Thank goodness R is back and taking over there.  There's a new tractor hooked up to the gran cart, and they keep tellimg me how nice it is.  I'm hard to impress, though, and would have to learn how to run it.  J had made a deal with a friend over the winter (I think there was a snowmobile involved) to help so we've had him in a truck this week. He has a lot of irons in the fire, though, so he might not be consistent help.  M woke up with the stomach flu on Friday so I was prepared to take my turn on the grain cart so R could run the combine.  M threw up and felt better so we headed to the field.  R got his 20 minutes in the combine, but that was it.  He told his girlfriend that his dad would rather poop himself in the combine than let someone else run it. He also said lentils aren't that fun to cut, so he wasn't too disappointed.

 I haven't even had to do lunches for the past four days.  My mother-in-law has been out staying in the camper and making lunch.  She wants to be involved which is great.  I missed the big move west since I was at my job that day.  K was wishing she had a picture of the pickup on the way home with five adults, one baby and three dogs.  The baby is 3 months old already and has had her first ride in the combine.  Never too young to start, I guess.  She's going to have to get used to it if she ever wants to see her daddy!

I'm not really feeling too guilty about my lack of participation so far.  I gave birth to and raised the work force so I think that should give me a pass for life.

And We're Off.....Sort of

Our harvest began about ten days ago (time flies), but it's been a bit hit and miss.  The pea harvest took about a day since most of our peas are rolled up in bales or pulverized from the hail.  So then they waited for some lentils to be ready cutting a hundred acres every couple of days.  Not good for the bottom line when we have a rental combine sitting idle.  On the bright side, the lentils are thick and tall (for lentils which don't get tall) and running well.  We've had so much rain and higher humidity than we're used to that there is some mold on the plants. Yesterday we finally got a good day of cutting in so maybe we'll be on a run from here.

I've been on lunch duty except for the day I was at work when K took over.  She and the baby have moved to their camper so they can see J once in awhile and he won't have to drive those extra miles home.  I'm excited that I can see the baby every day.  I had to laugh when I was helping her unload the pickup into the camper because her camper is better stocked than my house has ever been.  I think the guys were pretty excited to have her do lunch.  They know I'm not into it.  I can't even plan, I don't have the gene.

Yesterday she and the baby rode out to the field with me when I was taking lunch out.  She got to go home, but I had to stay to help them make a move down the road.  I was happy to get some reading time in.  I was riding back to town with C in a truck.  There's this monstrous hill to climb to get to the highway.  C has spun out on it before, and I think it makes him nervous.  It makes me nervous!  We made it up the hill fine and had just turned onto the highway when there was a funny noise and then an alarm that the engine had no oil pressure.  He turned it off right away and went out to investigate.  There was no oil leaking anywhere, and ultimately I think they determined it was the oil pump.  Not good since the engine had just been overhauled.

Anyway, C called J who was going to get another truck to pull the disabled one into Richland and get the load off.  In the meantime, we're sitting on the highway and C decided to see if it will coast so we can get it to a better spot.  He took the brakes off to see if it would roll.  At first it didn't seem like it was going to, but then it slowly started inching forward, and we were off....one mile, up a little rise, two miles, down a hill, three miles, then a hill and a curve.  We didn't think we'd make it up the last small hill, but we did, made the curve and had Richland in our sights.  He finally had to use the brakes to make the turn into Richland, with no power steering, and we finally came to a stop about a block from where our bins are, close to five miles from where we started.  About that time J called to see where the heck we were.

Never a dull moment here...and, now, if anyone asks, I can assure them that it's all downhill from Glentana to Richland.

My Legacy

As I mentioned in my last post, we lost a neighbor and friend last week and M's aunt the week before that.  Two funerals in ten days kind of gets a person thinking about their own mortality.  It does me, anyway.  Maybe that's part of why I hate funerals.  Like most people, I don't want to think about that stuff.  And my husband REALLY doesn't want to think about that stuff.  We're both pretty lucky that longevity runs in our genes.

Our neighbor had had a bout with cancer a few years ago and some other health issues at times so he and his wife had discussed what kind of funeral they wanted.  I always tell M that if he's having a funeral I'm not going, and I'm afraid no one would come to mine!  We are very private (borderline antisocial?) people and the thought of a big to-do just freaks us out.  After the last funeral I told M that I just couldn't imagine myself in my friend's position, losing a husband.  He said maybe I won't because he'll take me with him.  That would be okay with me.  His usual answer about what he'd want is, "I don't care.  You just handle it."  So, then I told him I hope I go first so he'd have to deal with something on his own for a change!

At our neighbor's vigil someone commented that sometimes you'll read a glowing obituary and think "that's not the person I knew", but our neighbor really was that nice.  I don't think anyone ever had anything bad to say about him.  He was kind, honorable, involved in the community, just an all-around great guy. 

That started me thinking about what people would say about me when I'm gone, and I felt kind of sad because I don't think anyone knows the real me.  Sometimes I even feel a bit invisible.  Could anyone write an accurate obituary or give a good eulogy?  Will my boys remember me as a great mom or just a mediocre one?  Will my grandchild(ren)have learned something from me?  Did I touch someone's life somehow?  Was I the perfect wife?  I can answer that one, no!  Was I a good friend?  I tried to be, I meant to be, but it's hard to put myself out there, and I'm not much fun.  They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  I'm full of good intentions, but I don't think hell is where I'm headed.  Did I make good use of my talents?  Again, I can answer that one, no!  Hopefully, I have lots of years ahead of me to work on a few things.

I've told my boys that they can put me in a pine box and save the money for a big monument on the hill behind my house (lighted, of course, and with a fence around it so the cows can't rub on it).  I may not have been noticed while alive, but I'll be noticed when I'm dead.  I also told them that I want my headstone to say "she just wanted things to make sense", and I want to be buried in my Steelers gear because no one else will want it.  I may have made a mistake, though, when I told them that if I ever have to go to a nursing home just run me over with a truck.  One of the boys seemed a little overeager.

See why I hate funerals.....they make me think too much.

What I Learned on My Vacation

We finally managed to get a few days away last week. We left last Thursday and had to be home Monday. Sadly, we first attended the funeral for M's aunt, his dad's sister, so we got a late start. We knew that would happen so made a reservation to stay in Hulett, Wyoming that night. Hulett is a small town, but it was the start of the motorcycle rally week so it was gearing up for the bikers. When we went to eat we were pretty sure they had pulled out the "rally menu". Prices were a bit steep for a little hole-in-wall bar/restaurant. Food was good, tho.

So, this is what I learned on our trip:

1) M is not big on hiking. Actually, I already knew that. Devils Tower is just south of Hulett. We've been there before but had never actually gone into the park and up to the visitor's center. It was about 110 degrees the last time we were there. It might have been 60 degrees this time. Devils Tower has always fascinated me the way it just rises up out of the prairie. So, I got him to go through the gate (and pay) and up to the visitor's center. Then I gave him no choice but to hike around the base. It was a beautiful hike and only 1.3 miles. Didn't think I'd push for the 8-mile loop.

2) Next I learned that golf is sort of like riding a bike. It just comes back to you. We didn't golf at all last summer and probably only once the summer before that so we thought we'd be a little rusty. We went to the course in Sundance, Wyoming. It's a nice, little course, our speed, and we'd been there before. I was worried about how my back would feel and M worried about his elbow, but we did fine. We opted to do nine holes since it was cool and cloudy, and we weren't sure of the weather or our abilities. By the time we finished it was turning into a beautiful day, and we were wishing we'd done 18 holes. We score a little differently than most people. A good day is when we find more balls than we lose. That day we were a +3--we lost one and found four!

 From there we went to Spearfish, South Dakota for lunch and then on to Rapid City. We had a little shopping to do with birthdays coming up and baby gifts to look for so we went to the mall until M's sister was done with work. We met her at their bar and tested our bowling skills. The last couple of times we've been in Denver for baseball we went to an Irish bar, Delaney's, and they have mini bowling lanes. M's sister, Pam, is a bowling fanatic so of course we had to try them out. Pam's husband, Ray, decided to put some into their bar, and we tried them out.


 3) One good round of golf does not necessarily translate into a second good round. On Saturday we went to the Elks course in Rapid City with Pam and Ray. It's a tougher course with more obstacles....and more people. M golfed a good round, but I didn't have a great day. And, we were -6--lost six balls and found none! We had hoped to go up to the Tomahawk course near Deadwood, but Ray didn't have time before he had to go to work. There are some beautiful views up there.

 4) Sturgis during the motorcycle rally is not the place for me. We took a little trip up to Sturgis on Saturday night to see the sights, and oh, the sights we saw. At the first bar we went to the waitresses looked like they were in their underwear. Bet their moms were proud that they had a summer job! The number of bikes in town was staggering, and the rally had just started. I wonder how many tattoo artists and T-shirt vendors were there. We were happy when we ran out of motorcycle traffic on our way home. They make for an interesting driving experience.

5) It is important to check Facebook wherever you are. We have friends that live in Minnesota but have family in Rapid City. I'm always telling them that we need to coordinate our South Dakota trips so we can see each other once in awhile. I knew they had been there around July 4 so didn't check to see if they'd be there when we were. By chance, I saw a post on Facebook (which I wouldn't have seen if I didn't have my IPad along since I can't get it on my phone when I'm out of area) saying they were on their way to South Dakota. I immediately texted them to see if we could get together. They arrived in town on Saturday and were leaving on Sunday so we met for breakfast on Sunday morning. I'm so glad we were able to connect since it had been three years since we'd seen each other. We need more than an hour every three years, though.

6) Life is short and uncertain. I've really always known that, and I didn't learn it on my vacation, but it was definitely reinforced when we suddenly lost a neighbor who was the husband of my good friend and the father of R's best friend. They were married just a week before we were and have kids the same age as ours, so it was quite the wake-up call and devastating for the whole community. Made me hold my husband a little tighter for sure.

Our trip was good but too short, and it's been a busy week since we got back. If the weather ever straightens out we'll be full steam ahead into harvest.

Oh, Hail!

The nasty stuff finally hit us on Saturday. It was a bit of a deceiving storm. I was home in the afternoon mowing and noticed that the sky was getting dark so I finished up, took my laundry off the clothesline and went inside. J called awhile later to see if it was raining here. The wind had come up and the way the sky looked I thought it should be pouring, but it only sprinkled here. I watched a nasty cloud that was headed to the southeast so thought the heavy stuff had missed us. Wrong!

It appeared that the storm hit about at the barn at R's. There must have been a raging river through the yard there that took out this brace. Notice the tree branch stuck in the brace that washed down from the house. There are branches and leaves everywhere! R's girlfriend was here for the weekend and her car was covered in leaves and grass when they got home. When she got it cleaned off she discovered lots of hail damage.

We took a little farm tour on Sunday morning. Talk about depressing. Almost all our peas are wiped out as well as the neigbor's who we farm for. These pictures were taken about 18 hours after the storm and look at this bank of hail.

This used to be a field of peas.

And a wheat field.

Not only is there the financial loss, but it creates a mess and changes plans for next year. We don't want it to be a weedy mess so will have to spray it all again, and it is pretty sandy soil so we're worried about it blowing if it gets dry (which is always does here at some point). We still have lots of good crops out there, so we hope any future storms don't bring hail to any of that. I'm trying to look on the bright side...a shorter harvest. Maybe we'll be able to make the race in Kansas this fall.

Long Weekend....and Week

Our weekend was a little crazy because we were the only members of the whole family that were home. R was in a wedding near Helena and left Wednesday night leaving his puppy with us. C headed to Canada on Friday while J left on Wednesday to see an orthopedic doctor (more on that later) and a reunion of K's family on the weekend. Thankfully, Jared came to help us instead of going to the lake with his parents. That was, however, a bit of a mixed blessing. M had Jared on the swather while he was trying to bale, but the swather was having some issues that Jared wasn't able to deal with. M is used to calling J or C to figure out what could be wrong and fixing it so he could continue with his baling while conditions were right. He was feeling very alone with no backup. Add to that the fact that he was baling about 30 miles from where Jared was swathing.

In the midst of that I did the unthinkable. He asked if I would come help him get his tractor unstuck and I said I was too busy, which I was. My nephew was going to come the next day to do some trim work for me so I was trying to get some stain and varnish on the trim and later was headed to town for a massage and couldn't reschedule it. I was sure he was somewhere where he shouldn't have gone so didn't feel very sorry for him. A few days before he had sent me to get Jared unstuck and all I did was get myself stuck so I didn't want to go there again.

While R was gone I had to deal with the DirecTV installation at his house. That was interesting considering the technician looked like he (and I use that term loosely) was in the middle of a sex change. Josie (Joseph) had some manly features but had a ponytail and was wearing a cap that said "Cowgirl" with bling, women's jeans, eye makeup and I'm pretty sure a bra. Hard not to stare, I'll tell you. I was disappointed that no one saw him/her but me. He was from Miles City and had an 8-year-old son. None of that computes in my mind!

R and J were home by Sunday night but that didn't improve things much. J has a separated shoulder from tipping over his side-by-side while chasing the neighbor's cows out of our lentil field. You can imagine how happy that whole situation made him. The doctor is recommending that he just wait and see how it feels in a month or so and then determine if he needs surgery. Of course, it's his right shoulder so that makes it even more disabling. Jared will have to be his right hand man for awhile. Hopefully, he won't try to do too much too soon. We were really feeling sorry for K putting up with him while in pain and crabby plus a baby and a dog and several days in Billings. She was happy to see him head to the farm on Monday.

R moved the swather to Opheim but continued to have problems and ended up making two parts runs to Glasgow. Then he smacked a deer on the way home. Not a good day! The next day we had rain so they spent more time working on the swather but had to wait for a part to come in. Hopefully, it is rolling now.

While they were waiting for the parts to come in they did some fencing so that we can move our big bunch of cows when we get some time. We've had some bull trouble in one of our other pastures. The neighbor has 150 heifers that aren't to be bred but aren't spayed next to our pasture so the bull wanted to go visiting. They moved our herd back across the road a week or two ago so that four fences and a road might keep him with the herd he was supposed to be with long enough to get them bred. R moved the cows back yesterday and brought the bull home. The only traveling he'll be doing now will be to the sales ring.

M says we are going to disappear for a week but I'm not holding my breath. He still has a lot of haying left to do.

50 Shades of Green

Everyone comments on how green it is here this year, but as I was looking across the fields the other day it occurred to me that there are so many shades of green. From the mint green of the pea fields to the kelly green of the wheat to the olive green of the grass hills. Throw in the white flowers on the peas, the yellow flowers on the mustard and the purple alfalfa flowers in the hay fields and there is a riot of color. Then add the smells; of the mint in the bogs, the sweet clover and now the alfalfa. I walked out my front door this morning and was assaulted by the beautiful smell of alfalfa. I could go on about the numerous wildflowers, most of which are past their prime by now. One day when they were at their peak we were moving cows and I spent more time looking at the ground to see what was growing than I did watching where I was going!

Some years by this time the dog days of summer have arrived and everything is turning brown, but thankfully, we have had some July rains (affectionately known as "money makers") this year. I had lots of opportunities to gaze across the prairie today as first I made the trek to check on the solar pump. That's about 8 miles of prairie trail (and 3 gates) to the east and takes about an hour to get there and back. Then later I took backroads to pick up M who was baling even farther east. I enjoy the sight of what some people may call nothingness, just wide open prairie under the big sky.

Peas flowering

Peas, wheat, lentils and mustard

Peas, wheat and grass hills

Haying (There Goes July)

It's official, haying has begun. R started the season off by swathing the highway ditches and then moved to some leased land early last week. M gave him some days off so that he wouldn't get too far ahead of the baler which wasn't even out of the shed yet, and then we had rain so they're not making fast progress. M raked some this morning and did finally make some bales this afternoon, but there is more rain in the forecast for the next few days so he's not sure he wants to lay any more on the ground right now. Last year it seemed like the haying season went on forever. R tells me it won't be so bad this year since he's here to help. I hope he's right. I'm still holding out a small glimmer of hope that we'll have time to do something fun before we get into harvest. Even M took the 4th off and we took in the festivities for the Scobey Centennial celebration. The high point of my day was babysitting my granddaughter for a couple of hours and getting some smiles from her.

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Here Comes The Sun

The newest project around the ranch has been the installation of a solar pump for a stock well.  One of the pastures that we lease doesn't have any natural water, just a well.  Last year we had to run up there every day and start a generator to pump water.  It's about 8 miles through the prairie from our house to the well so it got old before long.  M had done some research on solar systems and talked to a lady at a booth at the MATE show in Billings in February.  They determined what we'd need based on the depth of the well, flow rate, etc. and shipped us everything we'd need.

They had to build a small corral for the solar panel assembly so that the cows couldn't rub on it.  M told R what needed to be done and R did most of it by himself.  Actually, he didn't do it exactly like M had told him because he saw that it wasn't going to be big enough that way.  M was pretty impressed with his work.  R was gone for the weekend so on Sunday M enlisted me to help him put the solar panels up.  Not sure why he decided to have me help him do a job that required lifting and working over my head other than he thought I'd be good at reading the instructions.  We managed to get the two solar panels up on the pole and then added the tracker system.  That allows the panels to follow the sun so you get more bang for your buck. 

The hard part came on Monday when they had to pull the old pump and put the solar pump down and then hook up the electronics.  They seem to have forgotten to send the instructions for that part.  The guys had some trouble getting the old pump pulled out but eventually got it, put the new one in, hooked it up and voila, it works!

M showing our neighbor how the solar system works.

Yesterday M and R moved the heifers up to that pasture and on Monday they moved another group of cows and calves near Richland.  Just one more group to move, but we have more fence repair to do before we can do that.

R was gone over the weekend and left Kobe with us.  Talk about busy with two puppies in the house!  They played well together, but it was a bit exhausting.  Good thing we bought paper towels by the case!  R is a little worried about the payback when he has them both for awhile.

Junior and Kobe taking a break.

 C and J are busy spraying, and they can see the end.  R is gearing up to start cutting hay.  We've had rain showers every few days so the grass is looking great.  Keeping our fingers crossed that we get some sprinkles in July.

Making Babies (we hope)

We continued the breeding process last week. We left the CIDR devices in for ten days and then had the fun job of pulling them out again.  At that time we gave them a shot of hormone and applied heat detection patches to their backs.  The ones we had last year were self-adhesive, but we had the vet order them in for us this year and they were different.  When I opened the box and discovered tubes of adhesive I groaned thinking they were really going to be a pain in my butt to apply.  Luckily, M's sister and our niece arrived just in time to take over that job.  And, an excellent job they did!  Our 15-year-old cousin was helping us again.  He was helping work the chute and R was pushing so the three of us shared the job of pulling out the CIDRs.  Our niece has a 5-year-old daughter who was asking R all kinds of questions about what we were doing.  His response was "I just don't know how to explain it to you".

The next day we started looking for the heat detection patches.  They were white when they went on and I thought the black cows looked like walking wounded, all with a white patch on their backs.  The cows "ride" each other when in heat and when they do that the patches turn color.  The next day we started to see red ones, like they were bleeding through their bandages.  Those with red bandages were separated and put in pens to be bred in a few hours.

We had a half-inch of rain that night so on Friday we were working in muck again.  We bred some early in the morning and then took a break and then we had a big bunch to do Friday afternoon.  Our AI person had another friend come help him so that it would go faster and he wouldn't get so worn out.  By Friday afternoon (the third time through the chute in ten days) the cows were as tired of us as we were of them and weren't as easy to work with.  Plus, the hotshot ran out of battery.  Not good.  We left a gate open so that once they were bred they could go out of the corral into a holding area before being sent out to pasture.  M told me that if he missed catching one in the head gate to run and close that gate.  Unfortunately, that either meant crossing quicksand in the corral or taking a longer way around.  I said I would run like the wind.  M said it would be okay if I didn't get there in time as long as I did a face plant in the mud and he got to see it.  Nice guy.  I did have to make that run a couple of times, especially toward the end when everyone was getting tired.  I was never so glad to see a cattle oiler salesman as I was that day because I had to run home and write him a check so I missed out on the last few.  I'm still wondering who thought it was a good idea to do 120 head.  We were all pooped.

We took it a little easier over the weekend although R and M put some bulls out on Saturday morning.  M has the scar to show he was working.  They had a bull loaded in the trailer and were going to gate it in the front of the trailer.  When M went to close the gate it kicked the gate which came back and whacked him and give him a nice gash in his forehead.  I tell everyone that he mouthed off one too many times and I let him have it.

It was a pretty laid back weekend, though.  J and K and the baby went camping at the lake, C and his wife went out of town for a wedding, R went to Glasgow to a demolition derby and we went to see M's parents, sister and her family for the evening.  Sunday we had a bit of a come-and-go family day at the parents' house for Father's Day.

Today M and R moved the heifers to their summer pasture.  We have a couple more groups of cows to move and a couple more bulls to put out and then we feel like we can take a breath before haying starts and hope we made a bunch of babies.

Hey, Could You......?

My day....

"Hey, could you watch my dog?  I'm fencing at the river and don't want to take him".  Sure, two puppies will be no trouble at all.  R's puppy (Kobe) is half border collie and have lab and is about 10 weeks old, I think.  Ours (Junior) is full border collie and 7 weeks old.  We haven't had a full-time puppy since 1995 so it's a bit of an adjustment for us.  Kobe is growing by leaps and bounds and looks so huge compared to Junior.  Junior was a bit intimidated at first, but he definitely held his own and let Kobe know when he'd had enough.  It was nonstop motion here for a few hours.  I did have to try to mow my lawn, though, so they went to puppy jail for a little while.

"Hey, could you take lunch to J, C and Jared?"  Uh, sure, but I have two puppies and no ideas for lunch.  No problem, sandwiches all around and Kobe in the dog crate while Junior made the trip to the field.  I think Kobe wore him out because he had a nap in the pickup.

"Hey, could you help us move and give us a ride back to town since it looks like it's going to rain?"  Sure, I have nothing else to do.  That plan changed when a wheel bearing went out of the roller so I just had to flag J to Richland.

"Hey, could you come help me fence?  I need one more hand."  Sure, who needs more than ten minutes at home?  This time Junior went to the crate and Kobe went fencing.  R was stringing out a new wire and needed some help.  I thought I'd just be there for a minute but then he wanted me to start clipping the wire to the posts at one end while he started on the other.  Then it started to rain a little, then harder.  Then we ran out of clips and came home. 

Kobe went home, Junior is taking another nap, and I am having some tea to warm up.  Tomorrow we get to pull things out of cow vaginas (probably in the rain) so stay tuned!

Head 'Em up, Moooove 'Em Out!

We had 2 !/2 inches of rain through Thursday and Friday and that meant no farming.  No farming meant cow work all weekend.  The first order of business was moving our bulls (again) to make room for our replacement heifers.  I swear those poor bulls are going to get dizzy, but at least they know where they're going.  Next up was moving the heifers home to start our synchronization process to get them ready to AI.  We had to move them a couple of miles and it went really smoothly with M and R on the 4-wheelers and me in the Jeep watching gates.

We had a quick lunch at R's house and then had to move our cows and calves from home east to near where the heifers had been.  Usually the hardest part of that move is right at the start and through the first gate, but that went just fine.  We normally try to stop them there and let them pair up some before we continue on.  M was opening and closing gates and didn't get there fast enough and the lead pairs were in a hurry.  We ended up with some calves at the back who couldn't find their mamas and kept turning back until M couldn't hold them by himself.  I went to tell R to close the next gate so that they could group up, but I was too late as the lead bunch was already a quarter mile past the gate.  We were having no luck with the calves so had to bring the whole bunch back and try again.  Some of those calves we had to chase back three times and were really afraid of getting them too played out.  There was still one holdout by the first gate and Bob the fencer, who had come along to help, thought it would be a good idea to try to rope it.  R got it by a leg while Bob tried to rope it and R somehow got a good kick to the man parts and went down.  He probably didn't appreciate the rest of us laughing at him.  That was the end of that and we finally managed to chase the calf to the rest of the herd and got them all moving again and to their final destination.  M stayed there for awhile to move mineral tubs and keep an eye on the calves while R and his girlfriend and I went to R's house to make supper.  R swears it was the worst move ever, but M says he has a short memory.

After supper M and I went to take a grain truck to J who was seeding north of where we had moved the cows.  He and C had picked up a demo tractor and drill to finish the last 900 acres of seeding.  There were still some lone calves when we went by on the way up to the field, but only one or two when we came back.  Sadly, they'll only stay there for a few days before we'll move them again.

I woke up Sunday morning thinking of a lazy Sunday then realized that wasn't going to happen.  We had to bring in the heifers and give them shots and insert a CIDR device into their vaginas.  Yep, all sorts of fun in the cow business!  The device is silicone impregnated with progesterone.  In ten days we have to run them all through again and pull them out.  We enlisted R's girlfriend to help, and she did great.  She works as a medical assistant in a clinic so isn't fazed by this stuff.  She has a 4-year-old boy and we also had our 15-year-old cousin helping.  We're thinking they got quite the education, and we're interested to find out what the 4-year-old has to say about his weekend when he goes back to daycare today!  He was just in his glory playing in the mud and water in the corral.  I bet he smelled good by the time we were done!

Everyone was played out by the time we ran 121 head through, but our day was far from over.  Jared, R, J and I headed to Opheim so J could finish seeding there and move his tractor home while Jared and R brought trucks and I pulled an auger back.  M was seeding here while we were doing that.

When I got back I went to check the heifers and found one out.  She was right by the gate wanting back in so I opened it and she was just about through when she spooked and ran the other way.  I made one attempt to get her back in and then gave up.  R got her in when he got back.

There was rain in the forecast so J was going to seed into the night and M was up at 4:00 am to go out.  He got a few hours in before the rain set in.  It should be a lazy Monday since it is raining, but I have to catch up on laundry and bills.  Sigh........

Riding the Range

We've had a few days of rain so the farming duties are put on hold for the time being.  That means it's time to catch up on our ranching duties.  It was high time to get the few stragglers out of the calving pasture, especially since they weren't staying in very well.  Most of them belong to a friend so we got them all in and had him come and check them and decide what he wanted to do with them.  We had a few that were good at preg checking time but had apparently lost their calves somewhere along the line.  Some of those we decided to keep so hauled them to pasture.  Our friend had eleven left to calve and four of those were open.  M and R hauled the other seven over to Opheim where he has some of his other cows.  They will be calving on their own, whenever and however.  We've run out of time and interest.

It was interesting getting the trailer to the barn and back out again with the mud.  I was having flashbacks to the days when we were trying to haul out pairs this spring.  It would be nice to do it on a dry day!  We had to use the tractor to pull the pickup and trailer away from the barn, but after getting out of the yard it was smooth sailing.

This morning R was over early to get the good trailer to take a load of cows to Glasgow to the sale.  I went along to double check the numbers of the cows he was taking.  It took some maneuvering again to get the trailer to the barn, and the tractor was again required to get out of the yard.

I've been determined to get my mower out of storage and back to my house so I can cut my grass before it requires a swather so M said he'd get it loaded up today.  First we had to replace the battery and then he suggested that we ride out on the 4-wheelers and check the cows and take mineral out.  As we were heading to the first pasture I noticed some animals in our neighbor's adjoining pasture.  We weren't sure if they were the neighbor's or if some of ours had jumped the fence.  We delivered our mineral and found a neighbor's heifer in with our cows so from there we went to check out the other animals we could see.  There were nine more of the neighbor's heifers running the fence line between their pasture and ours.  Since there were only nine we were pretty sure they weren't supposed to be there.  M called the neighbor and sure enough they weren't supposed to be there.  But, all the gates were open between that pasture and their place because "I didn't think they'd go that far".  Really?!?  And, he'd maybe find time tomorrow to get them out.  We know how that goes because he had two pair in another of our pastures for at least three days; until we opened the gate and they walked out onto the road.  He was going to get them out when he had time, but he hasn't fixed his side of the fence in two years so we weren't holding our breath that he'd get to it.

We delivered more mineral and filled up the cattle oiler.  While M was doing that I was watching the calves.  I saw one of my cows, and her baby looked good and healthy.  There was one curious calf that was checking out the 4-wheeler and then came up to me and was licking and biting at my pants.  Not sure what that was about, but it was pretty funny.  From there we checked more fence, and I found two of our cows and their calves out.  I met up with M and we went back to get them in, and they were nowhere to be found.  M thinks I was hallucinating, but apparently we have a couple of fence crawlers.  Actually, he could see where they had been bedded down on the wrong side of the fence, and we found the loose wires in a coulee where they probably got out.

M was worried about the neighbor's heifers jumping in with our cows so I suggested that we give them a little chase so we did.  We chased them to the first gate on their way back home and closed it so hopefully, they won't be back too soon.  It just gets so frustrating when your range management depends on your neighbor's or your neighbor's lack of management.  I always tell M that he's too nice when dealing with the irresponsibility of others.  The old saying is "good fences make good neighbors". 

By the time we got back home R was already back from Glasgow.  I finally got my mower home and M mowed the backyard while I made lunch, and then I mowed the front this afternoon.  There is more rain in the forecast so I was really hoping I could get it done today.

I did enjoy riding the range with the sweet peas in bloom and the bluebells starting to show up.  I think I spent more time looking at the flowers than the cows.

Time Out!

Time out, your work has been interrupted.......for life.  It's been a bit crazy around here, but we took some time out for some important life events.  R graduated from Western Dakota Technical Institute in Fire Science last Saturday in Rapid City.  Every few days he'd ask if his dad was going to come so I knew how important it was to him.  M wouldn't commit for the longest time until some unfortunate events occurred, and we were physically and mentally exhausted.  I finally told him he had to go if only to get some rest and relaxation.  It helped that we had a rain shower the night before we were planning to leave.  We did our cow chores and hit the road on Friday morning, graduation was Saturday, and he headed home on Sunday.

When R started his program there were 36 in his class.  By the beginning of the second year there were 14.  At the beginning of the last semester there were 12 and only 6 graduated.  Some failed a class during the last semester and some didn't take a required class.  How do you let that happen?  We were very proud of how R applied himself and excelled.  We could see how he had grown up every time he came home.

While M was on his way home, M's aunt, uncle, cousins, girlfriend and I were busy cleaning his apartment and moving him out.  It wasn't as bad as it could have been and didn't take as long as I thought it might when I first walked in.  He had two roommates but one was one of those who had failed a class and didn't graduate so had left town on Friday.  The other was on his way to a job in Idaho.  At least for now, R is ready to be back to his cows, and we are very happy to have him back!  His auntie might be in deep depression without him, however.

We headed home on Monday morning hoping to make it back for the other big event in our lives....the birth of our first grandchild.  K was scheduled to be induced that morning.  We thought about going home by way of Glasgow, but when we got to the point where we had to decide which way we were going, nothing much was happening so we came home.  R wanted to get the trailer home so he could start to unload his stuff.  We got home about 6, and I headed to Glasgow about 8 so I wouldn't have to drive in the dark.

Sawyer Grace made her appearance at 1:56 am on May 21 to a welcoming party of K's parents and sister, her best friend and me.  We were all on pins and needles when we knew her arrival was imminent.   I cried when I heard her first cry and found out that she was a she!  It seemed like forever until we got to see her, and she was so delicate and beautiful.

Sawyer, about an hour old

J had a motel room but stayed at the hospital, but I went there and went to bed about 4:20 am, 22 hours after I had gotten up.  I started getting texts and calls about 6:30 so didn't get much sleep.  I went back to the hospital to see the new family before I came home.  I was hoping to get a nap, but that didn't happen.

Such a little angel!

J took the day off and then brought K and the baby home on Wednesday before heading back to the field.  He has been seeding at the place that is the fartherest away, unfortunately, so spent a couple of nights in the tractor, poor guy.  We can see the end so it can't come soon enough.  We had rain again last night and tonight so everyone can take a breath.  I really don't know how the guys do what they do day after day with little rest.  I don't go as hard or fast as they do, and I'm exhausted.  I'm hoping that one of these days the dark circles under my eyes will disappear!