What a Week

This past week has been crazy busy and I got lots pics to show for it. My house looks like a tornado went through it so I'm gonna be workin' on getting it back up to snuff. When that happens I will be writing you some more in-depth stories about this past week until then here is some pics from the week and a little run down of what we were doing.

To start the week off I was out cuttin' hay and I really have no idea what Caleb was doin' that day, but we stopped early and headed to KC to see my sister-in-law, Charity's, little boy (who is not so little any more - I'm pretty sure he shot up like a weed since the last time I saw him) graduate from kindergarten.

This kid cracks me up. There are o many more where this one came from!

Here's his little sis who is also getting to be a big girl, and boy is she a lot of fun.

Other than our little adventure to KC, this was my view for all the rest of the week.

I rarely got to see this man. Except for this morning, when he came and greased up all my equipment for me, we would usually go our separate ways until we got home that night and then we would come in side a take a shower and go to bed, just to do it all over again the next day.

I soo just wanted to lay here and not move cause it was such a beautiful day when I took this.

I spent one morning playin' in the corn field. Caleb got in a little trouble on this morning, so stay tuned for that story.

This is what Farmer Caleb was playin' with all week...

...and this is what I was doin' all week.

Whew, I tired just lookin' at all these again; I think I need a nap.

No I must press on, I must clean my house...but oh how I don't want to. O-well it is a job that I must do.

Peace, Love, Dust Bunnies,

Janet

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

We are back in the field, hot and heavy, so I don't really have much time to talk.

I have been designated official hay mower so I will be very busy for the next few days, cause the fescue is ready to knocked to the ground. I promise to play catch-up as soon as I can. Until then, here are a few pics of what I have ahead of me the next few days.

All of it must go! 

This is my chariot from now until forever. So next time we talk I will probably be stiff and sore from all the bumps that I hit along the way.

Peace Out,

J

I Think I Should Just Stay Home!

This is the events that too place this past Tuesday night to Wednesday night. There's a lot here, but there was a lot that happened.

So the crazyness really started Tuesday night after attending a ladies event at church. After the event was over and we had everything cleaned up I headed out to the parking lot and got to visiting with our pastor's wife. Finally we decided we had better head home or we would be there till morning visiting (we're both talkers). Well I climbed into my old GMC Jimmy (same as a Chevy Blazer), our good truck was in the shop getting some warranty work done on it so I was using the back-up. When I went to start it, there was nothing. No juice at all.

So the next morning the day started out by watching it rain all morning long. Finally after there was a break in the weather in the afternoon so Caleb and I loaded the chore truck up with tools and headed down to our Church to try and fix the Jimmy. We thought that the starter might be going out in it so we stopped by one of the local parts stores and picked one up just incase we needed it. Well while we were there the clouds started coming in again and we were afraid that it was gonna let loose again. But once we got down to our church it was a little clearer and we thought that we might not get any of the rain that was moving through.

Once we got there Caleb crawls under the Jimmy to look at what he's gonna need to do. After being there for a few minutes we start to get hit by some big ol' rain drops. Caleb then decides that it would be a better idea to drag the beast back to the shop because we weren't gonna be able to get it goin' again before we got soaked. So we hook the chain up to it and start headin' down the back roads toward home, Caleb drivin' while I'm steering.
 Of course as soon as we get going the skies let loose and since I have no electric current running through my truck that means I have no windshield wipers...so I can't see a lick, so you know this is gonna be good.

Well first things first I call Caleb and tell him to slow down cause he's drivin' way too fast. He then informs me that he's only goin' 25mph. Well since I can't see and I feel like we're flyin' down the highway I hang-up the phone and try to concentrate on what I'm doing.

We make it through the first two stops with out a problem, but when we get to the third one Caleb takes off thinking that there was still tension on the chain, then wham....he yanks the Jimmy forward with a huge jolt. Not realizing what’s really going on, and noticing that he is in the middle of another high traffic road he takes off again and with another yank of the chain I am jolted forward once again. This time I hear this "pop" sound and see this black piece of something go flying through the air.

All this time I am yelling all sorts of things that I can't remember and even if I could remember them I wouldn't dare repeat them. Once we get through the intersection Caleb stops the truck and gets out to se what in the world was going on.

Once we get out to look things over I go see what it was that I saw flying through the air, only to discover that it was one of the tow hooks from the front of the Jimmy and it had been snapped off and tossed through the air about 30 feet.

At this time Caleb and I were having a nice light hearted conversations about how we love to go for drives down the country roads and how beautiful the weather was today and how pretty all the wild flowers were. Ok maybe that's now exactly how it went but anyways we fix the chains and get to going again. This time I call him up again and tell him that he has to stay on the phone with me so he can tell me when we are going to stop or turn, or when there is a hill coming up, cause I'm not at all familiar with any of these roads and we will like each other a lot more when it's all said and done if we can communicate with each other on this drive.

So with my cell phone on speaker and layin' in my lap we head down the road towards the shop. Occasionally I make Caleb stop so I can wipe my windshield off.

This is what my view was most of the way back.

The rain slowed down some as we drove along, or should I say as I was pulled along.

When we were about four or so miles away I hear Caleb say, "Oh no."

"Oh, no what?" I ask.

Because of all the rain we had gotten that day there was a lot of water over the road. I think it stretched for well over a 100 ft. Soo....this meant that we had to turn around.

Oh joy.

Turning around is not a very easy task when you are pulling a vehicle. So we ended up pulling the Jimmy backwards well over a half a mile so that we could take another route. Well as we were heading up this other road, we once again come across a lot of water over the road.

You know the saying "Turn around, Don't drown." Well that idea just went flyin' out the window cause we already had to do it once, and Caleb wasn't about to do it again. So this time Caleb just go plowin' through the water and me well I really didn't have a choice since my vehicle was chained to his. Caleb didn't think we would have any problems, and I am very happy to say that we both made it through just fine.

Finally after that was all said and done we made it back to the shop.

Once at the shop we had to try and figure out how to get the Jimmy into the shop cause there wasn't really any way that the truck was gonna be able to pull it in there. There wasn't the room.

Well, Caleb and Jeff (the hired man) decide that the 4-wheeler would probably do the job. While they were figuring that out I went around the corner and started playin' with some cute puppies that Caleb's grandparents were raising. In the mean time the guys had already tried pulling it in once, but didn't have any luck cause they were needing someone to steer the truck and well I was playing with puppies. (Like I said before I am very easily distracted and they were really cute puppies!) So finally I get back into the Jimmy and steer the beat while Caleb drives the 4-wheeler and Jeff pushes and we successfully make it into the shop.

We figure out the reason we couldn't get the beast started was because of corroded battery cables and after a little cleaning the Jimmy starts right up.

An unknown fact to most, but if you hold your tongue just right, it helps you to concentrate and you can do anything.

Well as we're cleaning up our mess and putting the tools back where they go, Pop comes in and tells us that there is a heifer down below the shop that is tryin’ to have a calf, and he thinks that it might be having some trouble. So we decide to give her about 30 minutes and if she hasn't made any progress in having it by then, then we will have to pull it.

Well ya'll can probably guess how that went. 30 minutes went by and she still looked the same. So we get everything ready. All the gates opened and all the equipment that we will need and we head out to get her in. She was kinda crazy acting, but ya know I might be crazy actin’ too if I had a big ol' calf tryin' to come out of me!

So by God's grace we got her up and into the alleyway without any real problems.

While pushin' her up into the pen that Caleb notices that this wasn't just any heifer, this was the really young heifer, or in today’s terms this was a teenage pregnancy. To add insult to injury she was probably bread by her daddy. The poor girl she will never be able to show her face in that herd again.

Ok back to the story. With her being a younger heifer she doesn't have the size that the older girls have and it makes it sometimes harder for them to have calves which means we have to help and pull them.

FYI: I am going to be showing ya'll some pics of the calf being pulled. I think it's really cool but not everyone may share in my enthusiasm so if you don't then ya might want to close your eyes now

Do I Have to Share...

Last spring I planted a strawberry bed. I got a few berries from it last year but not a ton. This spring my plants took off like a wild fire, and are fully loaded with berries.....nice big green berries, yum-yum.

I have been chompin' at the bit waitin' for the berries to ripen up so I can gobble them down. When we left for my grandma's funeral this is what I saw....lots of green berries, but....

...when we got back look what I found. Some deliciously yummy red berries.

Maybe Caleb won't see them...

...cause if he doesn't see them, then I won't have to share them!

Blogger Debut

Making his bloging debut is the newest member of the family...

Lincoln Lang. He is two weeks old today.

Look at our new happy family. Just kidding. If all babies were as good as this little man was then sign me up for a dozen of them! I don't know that Caleb would share in my enthusiasm!

He was just a good little boy the whole time we were up there.

We haven't figured out which brother he looks like but either way he's a cutie with a lot of blond hair.

Here's his real momma, lookin' great after just havin' a baby...

...and here's the proud daddy.

Grandma and Papa hogged the little man most of the time.

Great-Grandma also got to hold the little man.

Look at this guy. He looks like a natural there. Good practice for us....someday down the line!! First I want to see Caleb have some diaper duty!

His older cousin Alex stole him away from Grandma and did a great job holdin' him.

Like I said, I think I'm gonna steal the little guy cause he's just soo sweet and soo good!

Him - Me...There's a Little Difference

So a little over a week ago Caleb and I headed out to build a gate in one of our newest pastures. We were needing to 'work' (vaccinate and tag) our newest group of ladies and the best place to do this was in our pasture that was across the road.

So we needed to get from here....

...to here. One problem...

....there is no gate for the cows to go through on this side. So...

...we built this, a super-freeway of a gate to get the cattle from one side of the road to the other.

To get this project started we first need to get a couple of huge monster corner post. The only king of tree that we ever use for a post around here is hedge. Ya know those 'devil trees' that I fought and won against. Luckily for me Caleb had already spotted some monster trees that would work great for posts and he had already done all the cutting on them. So all we had to do was drag all the trash away and get the post.

This is where the story begins; the difference between me and him.

Caleb is a very focused person. When he's in the middle of doing a job he's very hard to talk to. He has a one track mind and only thinks about the job. Which most of the time I love this about him. Unless I am trying to ask him a question about something that does not involve the farm. It's like pullin' teeth to get an answer sometimes.

Me on the other hand, I am very easily distracted. I'm like Dory from “Finding Nemo,” I see anything shinny and I totally forget what I'm doin'. Ok it doesn't have to be shinny, all it has to do is move. I'll go chasin' after any little (or big) critter I see even if I'm suppose to be workin'. You can ask my folks, I've been doin' this since I was old enough to walk.

 So, while Caleb was pullin' brush away I was....

...chasin' after turtles.

While he was workin', I was...

...spyin' frogs in the grass.

He was doin' this and...

...I was playin' with this.

Him

Me

I don't know what it is, but if I see something go movin' through the grass, I just have to go and see what it is. And if it's a frog, turtle, snake, or any other reptile or amphibian then boy am I in trouble. I just have to chase after it an catch it.

Why you may ask?

That's a good question, and I have no idea what the answer is. I just have to catch the little guy. It doesn't matter what I am doin'. Once I catch it and show some one my latest catch...

I then release it and get back to work.

After being home this past weekend for my grandma's funeral I did hear some stories about my dad that may explain why I am the way I am.

One of my cousins said that you would often see my dad out there rakin' hay on one of his old cabless Allis tractors and then all of a sudden it would come to a screeching halt and dad would go barreling off the tractor chasin' after some little critter.....but usually he would have a hammer in his hand and would be trying to get a groundhog that kept diggin' holes in his field. I can't say that I am totally different, I have been known to go chain' after anything that I see movin' on the ground when I'm rakin' hay as well. I guess 'the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!"

That's all for now,

Jan