This is January?!?

My mom informed me that I'd been slacking on my blogging so here I am again (she didn't really use those words, but I got the drift).  Nothing terribly fun or exciting has been happening here.  R has gone back to school (sad face) and we are just back to the grind.  We have our routine of cow chores in the morning.  M, J and C have been hauling grain but it's very hit and miss when the elevator can take it.  They were closed for several weeks due to railroad track repairs, then the holidays, so the guys are trying to get as much hauled in as they can before they get shut down again while the elevator is loading a train.

M made a road trip to Conrad and back on Friday (700 miles roundtrip) to pick up a header he had bought months ago online.  He thought he'd better go get it while the roads and weather were good.  I think he spends too much time at online equipment sites because he and J also purchased a telehandler.  I'll post pictures when that arrives.  J has been wanting one for years and finally convinced his dad it would be a good thing.

All anyone can talk about around here is the unusual January weather.  We had temps in the 40's several days and last week the temperature hit 50 degrees.  It felt like spring, and we had water running like crazy.  It cooled off a bit the next day, though. so now we have lots of ice.  Not good for the cows...or me.  I'm constantly afraid that I'm going to fall and bust my butt!  Not sure that would help my back problem.  Our relatives in Florida are wanting their weather back and think that they got ours.  It was actually colder there than it was here last week.
 

We have a busy week ahead.  They are still trying to haul grain and M has to take two cows to the butcher tomorrow--one is R's open heifer that we are selling to friends and one is a cow that was open last year, got a reprieve and was open again.  You can imagine that she is nice and fat and should keep us in hamburger for quite awhile.  Then on Tuesday we head to Billings for an appointment with my back doctor.  Really hoping I won't have to have surgery again, but I'm betting that I will.  C sees the doctor on Thursday to schedule surgery on his shoulder, and J and K head to the Bahamas for a two-week honeymoon.  Sounds like it's going to be hard to get any work out of anyone for awhile.

Water running in January

M's new trailer--he's never had a new one before so he deserved it