Busy!

It's been a busy few days.  I took off on Friday for a road trip with my mom, brother and his wife to my other brother's ranch near Pray, MT for his daughter's wedding.  I hadn't been there for five years and every time I go there I think I need to go there more often.  It's a beautiful place and my brother and his wife are some of my favorite people!

My sister and her husband from Arizona were there also and the six of us stayed at a bed and breakfast cabin (no breakfast, though, unfortunately).  We had a great supper that night.  Our sister-in-law (and mother of the bride) seemed a bit hesitant to ask us to help get everything ready saying, "you need to have some fun while you're here."  We assured her that helping with the festivities was fun and that was what we had come for.

We were all busy on Saturday, some helping in the kitchen and some with setting up chairs and stringing lights.  I told my husband I was pretty sure I was better at manual labor than in the kitchen so stuck with setting up and decorating.  It's good to know your strengths and weaknesses.

The weather was perfect, the setting was awesome and the bride was beautiful.  It was so much fun to have four of my siblings and seven nieces and nephews (along with their significant others and kids) all in one place for such a festive occasion, and we partied well into the night--even our 85-year old mom!

Sadly, the trip was too short and we had to head home on Sunday.  I arrived home just in time for a hail storm and a tornado warning.  I didn't want to go home and be by myself but didn't have much choice.  M and J were trying to combine lentils.  We were on the edge of the storm with most of the bad stuff to our north.  They got rained out and headed south and kept cutting.  The lightning was incredible and sparked a few fires--one near where they were combining, one just to the southwest of our house and a hay bale in the neighbor's hay field.  Luckily, the rain took care of most of those.

This morning I went with M on the 4-wheeler to check on the cows and check for crop damage.  We found our three bulls pushing on the fence separating them from the neighbor's cows so ran them out of the pasture until we could get them moved home.  From there we headed north to check crop and found hail damage in the neighbor's wheat and in some of ours.  Another storm was brewing and M was taking us toward the lightning until I made him head west instead of north.  Getting struck by lightning was not in my plans for the day!  We also got rained on but not too much.

I had to get to R's house to help him pack for his move to Rapid City.  I have to say his pickup is stuffed to the rafters.  I feel like I'll be bringing as much stuff home to store as he'll be taking when he leaves.  I will have to go over later as I have time and finish cleaning out his house.  It was a bit of a stressful day for me trying not to cry every minute.  I know he needs to go and that it's the right thing for him, but I am going to miss him SO much!

While I was packing M and Pete went back and moved those three bulls home without too much trouble and then went to combining lentils.  I stopped to see how things were going on my way home.  As I headed up the road I noticed two of our calves out of the pasture and in the ditch.  I managed to run one to the gate and get it back in, but the other one was stubborn (or stupid?) and is probably still out because I couldn't get it in by myself.  I did notice the fence needed some work so I had to go back to Richland to get the fencing box and replace some missing clips and staples.

Cutting lentils

The new combine--that header looks huge!

The new bins

It seemed like I was gone a lot longer than I was since I don't like traveling without M.  The best thing about being gone was that the circus had moved out of my backyard by the time I got back--hooray!