Returning to blogger-land!

The days just fly by!

It's late already, but I really want to get my blog updated, so I shall share some pictures and brief descriptions of some of what we've all been up to....

Saturday afternoon found us at my/our friend, Emmy T's high school graduation celebration. :) My dad stayed home to keep an eye on the possibly-calving cows, but the rest of us really enjoyed our time there. It was the first time most of us had been to their home. Michael met up with us there too, so what could be better? ;)  We played a lot of volleyball and visited with friends, old and new. 

 Not the best picture of the smiling graduate (blurry), but it is the best I have sadly. We got a picture taken together, but it is on Emmy's camera. :)

 My brothers spent the night at the T. family's house and left from there the next morning to go meet up with someone north of Minneapolis to buy a large lawn-mower. Meanwhile, my mom and I rode the 3+ hours to our home with Michael and had some good talking time.

The next day, the F. family came over to join us in celebrating my dad's birthday. My mom had invited them secretly, so my dad was surprised when they pulled in the muddy yard. Some extended family members were invited as well, but for various reasons, couldn't make it. 

 We played games and ate a lot of food and visited. My brothers got home in time for a late supper, just as the F. family was leaving in the sleet/snow.

It froze pretty hard the past two nights, which did some damage to crops and gardens/flowers.

The rain/snow did stop eventually and the sun made a short appearance on Monday. My dad, brothers, Michael & I fixed up some fence to make a couple pens to sort and "store" cows in. We did some other odd jobs around the place too, and then Michael had to leave again. :(  It's getting harder and harder to say goodbye. I am very grateful for the times that it does work out for us to be together though!  

Oh, and Michael brought along some of his gopher traps and caught the naughty gopher who has been digging up our flower beds!  He also brought me wildflowers from MN... He's so thoughtful!

 This morning, we tagged about a dozen calves who needed ear-piercings, then we sorted off cow/calf pairs. Praising God for safety once again, as there is always a certain amount of danger when working with so many large animals that don't exactly want to cooperate.

 The job was accomplished shortly before noon, at which time I cleaned up and hopped in my car to go babysit the Littles for the afternoon and part of the evening. 

While I was gone, a rancher came with 3 trailers to load up 33 cow/calf pairs and to take them to their new home about an hour NE of here. It's sad to see them go, but it's needful.

Later, my brothers went and helped a neighbor work his cows and calves. 

They came home with quite the sunburns.

 It was sunny out today, so we spent a couple hours out of doors.

This picture is of a babysitter, smiling at the camera while the baby decides he wants to eat a dandelion. Actually, "She" is holding onto the stem of the dandelion so that said baby could NOT eat said dandelion.

 Our "Skunk heifer" had a skunk baby today.  :) I wonder if anyone will want to buy these two??  

 Andrew has been giving this calf of his some TLC for the past week at least. Tonight he thought he'd try to feed it some milk from a bottle, in case the mother doesn't have enough milk, but the baby refused to drink. The mama was more interested than he was. She used to be a bottle calf herself.

Tomorrow, it's back to babysitting for me. I don't know what the others will be up to, but I'm sure they'll find plenty to do, as they usually do.

This song was playing on the radio on my way home tonight and I hope you enjoy it too.. :)

Now, I'd best get some rest.