One Dog, Two Dogs, No Dogs

There's some old saying about having dogs and that if you have one dog, you might have a dog, but if you have two dogs you have no dogs at all.  The gist of it being that two dogs lose all ability to think rationally and instead run away and play.  

And kids.  The same is true with kids.  

This afternoon I found them at the bottom of a hill in a corner of a field playing in these old tires that were previously used to feed silage to cattle in. 

I'm sure she thinks I was joking, but I recently asked a neighbor if I could borrow the GPS collars her husband uses with their coon dogs.  I could fashion them into a neat super-hero type belt and the kids would think they were so cool and never take them off.  Problem solved, right?  

This is a much better suggestion than my husband's.  "Well, I sure hope you don't run over one of the kids' legs so they start staying home."  In my defense, it was an accident, it was ONE TIME and Laurie still looks majestic even with three legs.  

So now I utilize all sorts of master hunter/trapper skills to find my kids each day.  I look for the dogs, as usually they are babysitting the kids.  I watch the cattle as often they are looking at the kids wondering who turned these monkeys loose and why are they swinging from the top of a trailer.  Today I found them because even though I couldn't see them the wind was out of the right direction and I could hear them talking to each other as they crawled around in the spacious old tractor tires.  

I've had Loopie longer than I've had a husband.  When she goes to heaven someday I'm going to need to visit the looney bin for quite a while.  She's pretty wonderful. 

Long story short, if you see one of my feral kiddos running loose, please wipe off their dirty faces, help Kathryn fix her windblown ponytail and send them back home.  Thanks in advance. 

Spring has Sprung

We had a little cold spell come through a few weeks ago and there were nearly two weeks that the temperature never rose above freezing - a rarity for our area.  

The very first day that the mercury rose above 32 in the thermometer my husband turned to me and said that spring had officially sprung.  I replied back that I'd see him in May.  

Neither of us were joking.

Calving has started for us, there is ground to work, cattle to be turned out to pasture, then calves to work, then planting... We are fortunate to be surrounded by men in our lives that put in an honest day's work.  We're in that stage of life where we help out meagerly when and where we can. 

Oftentimes the baby likes to stand at the screen door and watch the world unfold in front of her.  From here she has a perfect view of the chickens, cattle, men driving up and down the road, siblings playing tag in the yard... It's not too shabby of a vantage point. 

Now that the temps are above freezing I can get back to some projects in my wood shop.  Each day I've been sneaking away for 15-20 minutes and applying stain to cabinet doors.  At this rate I'll be done in approximately 20 years. 

BVD snap tests take up the majority of my 'free time'.  I run tests for hours each afternoon while the baby naps for ourselves and several friends.  It's a very cost effective management tool that I wish would catch on for more that run calves.  

On days when the wind is NOT blowing 40+mph we try to walk a few miles.  I love these walks.  This is perfect homeschool time when we cover a plethora of subjects. 

• deer tracks vs. cattle tracks vs. horse tracks vs. raccoon tracks
• pasture management so we don't have invasive weeds like sericia
• how God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh
• genetics and breeding and why some calves are born with a bald face and some are solid colors
• calf life cycles
• rumen nutrition and microbes that live in cattle tummies (we mix and match our scientific levels)

I realize they won't absorb all, or maybe even half, of what we cover during these walks, but it sure is fun to see what their take away message was.  

On ridiculously windy days we often spend some time indoors coloring or creating with Playdough.  This little girl obviously spent more than a few moments in the fresh air that day. 

We divide and conquer when we can with parenting and often times it is not pretty.  This particular day I dropped off kiddo #2 at the side of a field with a sandwich, fresh chocolate chip cookies and a water bottle and wished him the best of luck.  His dad drove by eventually with the tractor, picked him up and they worked ground for several hours while I took everyone else to a 4-H meeting.  We rushed away as soon as the meeting was finished, swung by the field to pick up one of several verrrry sleepy kiddos and tucked them all into bed.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Day after day. 

Spring days are tough for school-aged kiddos.  Our oldest suddenly felt very ill this morning when truck after truck lined up in our yard and made just enough room for the school bus to pull in and pick him up.  He was so happy last year when school was cancelled due to the pandemic and it meant he was able to help work cattle every day.  This year will be rather traumatic for him and probably result in years of therapy.  Poor dear. 

I love this little life.  Glamorous it most certainly is not, but fulfilling it most certainly is.