This year has really flown by.....Sawyer is well on her way to being two years old (and should still be a baby), Kade's first school year is nearly half over, and before we know it it will be spring again!
2014 was good for us...and to us. Farming is always stressful, but we came out relatively unscathed. No major disasters, no injuries, the guys didn't maim or kill each other, and we had some fun. Commodity prices are up and down, but we're used to that...or should be. It's all good!
The highlights were the fun trips we took...to Daytona and especially the summer trip to Idaho and my nephew's wedding party....and the time spent with the littles. Sawyer is just a joy, so smart and fun, and Kade is a special bonus. Love that kid and swear that he could really be R's, there are so many similar traits. We're thankful that the boys have good partners in their lives.
My goals for the new year are pretty much the same as always...be a good person, be more organized and ditch the clutter, get in better shape, lose weight, spend more time with family and friends, make more time for fun and keep M from working too hard, etc., etc. I have everything I need and pretty much everything I want. My only wish for 2015 is that we all stay healthy and safe and the world gets a little less crazy!
Wishing all of you a great 2015! Bring it on!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The Holidays
Once again I've been slacking on my blogging. My mom lets me know, so I need to do better! With the holidays pretty much behind us, I think I should have more time.
Since I last blogged we've had more cow stuff to do. We brought our heifers home and ran them through to vaccinate and pour them. It didn't get done when they were preg tested because the vet didn't bring the stuff with him. He thinks we need to go to spring shots,, so I guess he was trying to encourage that. Just made more work for us because we don't want to do spring shots. Now that M and R have figured out a good spot to make the portable tub work, it's a lot easier to work cows and just the three of us handled that chore. We are feeding a pen of heifer calves, and R and M recently separated out some that we won't be keeping. They still need to make another cut to pare down the numbers. We've had the cows still out grazing with a little supplementation to keep them happy, especially when it was super cold. We were anticipating another change in the weather with cold and wind so R and his girlfriend moved them home so they'd have access to the windbreaks, and they'll start feeding in earnest. I haven't had to help much, but R and J are going on a snowmobile trip over the weekend which means I'll have to go help M for a few days. The neighbor's fencer is leaving for a couple of months so we'll have to feed the neighbor's cows until he decides to haul them back home. They didn't have a great hay harvest over there so wants to keep them here as long as he can.
We also got J and K moved into their new (to them) house just before Thanksgiving. They traded houses with K's parents (who owned them both) and will be buying the house from them. K and her mom had been moving slowly for about a month so the crews assembled on "moving day" just had to move furniture, and it went pretty smoothly and didn't take too long. There are several lots so J has room to park his truck off the street if he needs to and hopes to build a shop someday. They've now got a garage so I'm thinking K will be working on more projects. They have some updating that they want to do as time and $$ permit. First thing to do is have the stairway moved and that is slated to happen in January. We're wondering if the bigger house will bring a bigger family!?!? We had a potluck Thanskgiving at the new house with M frying the turkey which he hadn't done in awhile. It was cooked to perfection!
Our holidays were much more quiet than normal since M's sister and family didn't make it here this year, and C's family had their own thing going. We only had 8 for Christmas dinner and could all fit at one table. I'm not sure that has ever happened before. If memory serves, this is only the second time in 27 years that we haven't had Christmas with M's sister, either here or a few times at her house. K decided she wanted to have Christmas Eve at her house and then later panicked that L would be offended that she just took it over. I assured her that she was not going to be upset at all especially since our chef was still in South Dakota. She had a houseful with her family and ours, and it was a lot of fun. Sawyer was kind of over opening gifts before too long....especially after the Elsa doll appeared.
M planned a great gift for Kade. He had been wanting to get him a snowmobile, but decided he was too big for a 120 and not quite ready for something bigger and couldn't find what he wanted. Finally, he decided to get him a 4-wheeler so we made a quick trip to Miles City to look for one. I said it would be a good Santa gift, but M said, "no, it's from me". The deal is that when he grows out of it we'll get him something else and Sawyer can have this one. It was definitely a hit, but I don't know how we'll top it next year! Could get expensive.
Since I last blogged we've had more cow stuff to do. We brought our heifers home and ran them through to vaccinate and pour them. It didn't get done when they were preg tested because the vet didn't bring the stuff with him. He thinks we need to go to spring shots,, so I guess he was trying to encourage that. Just made more work for us because we don't want to do spring shots. Now that M and R have figured out a good spot to make the portable tub work, it's a lot easier to work cows and just the three of us handled that chore. We are feeding a pen of heifer calves, and R and M recently separated out some that we won't be keeping. They still need to make another cut to pare down the numbers. We've had the cows still out grazing with a little supplementation to keep them happy, especially when it was super cold. We were anticipating another change in the weather with cold and wind so R and his girlfriend moved them home so they'd have access to the windbreaks, and they'll start feeding in earnest. I haven't had to help much, but R and J are going on a snowmobile trip over the weekend which means I'll have to go help M for a few days. The neighbor's fencer is leaving for a couple of months so we'll have to feed the neighbor's cows until he decides to haul them back home. They didn't have a great hay harvest over there so wants to keep them here as long as he can.
We also got J and K moved into their new (to them) house just before Thanksgiving. They traded houses with K's parents (who owned them both) and will be buying the house from them. K and her mom had been moving slowly for about a month so the crews assembled on "moving day" just had to move furniture, and it went pretty smoothly and didn't take too long. There are several lots so J has room to park his truck off the street if he needs to and hopes to build a shop someday. They've now got a garage so I'm thinking K will be working on more projects. They have some updating that they want to do as time and $$ permit. First thing to do is have the stairway moved and that is slated to happen in January. We're wondering if the bigger house will bring a bigger family!?!? We had a potluck Thanskgiving at the new house with M frying the turkey which he hadn't done in awhile. It was cooked to perfection!
Our holidays were much more quiet than normal since M's sister and family didn't make it here this year, and C's family had their own thing going. We only had 8 for Christmas dinner and could all fit at one table. I'm not sure that has ever happened before. If memory serves, this is only the second time in 27 years that we haven't had Christmas with M's sister, either here or a few times at her house. K decided she wanted to have Christmas Eve at her house and then later panicked that L would be offended that she just took it over. I assured her that she was not going to be upset at all especially since our chef was still in South Dakota. She had a houseful with her family and ours, and it was a lot of fun. Sawyer was kind of over opening gifts before too long....especially after the Elsa doll appeared.
M planned a great gift for Kade. He had been wanting to get him a snowmobile, but decided he was too big for a 120 and not quite ready for something bigger and couldn't find what he wanted. Finally, he decided to get him a 4-wheeler so we made a quick trip to Miles City to look for one. I said it would be a good Santa gift, but M said, "no, it's from me". The deal is that when he grows out of it we'll get him something else and Sawyer can have this one. It was definitely a hit, but I don't know how we'll top it next year! Could get expensive.
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| Their expressions are priceless, the little diva and the cheeseball. |
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