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!