Time Marches On

Summer commenced.  

We blinked.

Summer came to an end. 

Captivating material, right?  I'm renowned for my creative writing skills.  

I've heard people exclaim 'I have no idea where the time went!', and while I understand the phrase I can assure you we know exactly where the time has gone around here.  

Our time this summer was spent in the hay fields, the ball fields, the bean fields, the corn fields - any type of field you can imagine - we were there.  

And then there were the chores.  The kids were very faithful in taking care of their animals.  Each morning they walked their hogs as well as fed and watered everything.  In the evenings, provided they didn't have ball games to play, they walked their calves and then fed and watered all their hogs, calves, horses, chickens and dogs again.  We were very proud of their work ethic.  Don't get me wrong, they grumbled on many of those hot days, but they understood the importance of their duties.  

On the weekends we'd have some quality, family bonding time while we processed calves together.  For the most part, the boys are becoming pretty decent help.  Kathryn fills in where she can and is learning the ropes... and little Reese does what most supervisors do and barks nonsensical orders that benefit absolutely no one.  

I always enjoy when someone asks if we enjoy the sunrises from our home.  
Yes, yes we do.

The kids and I try to sneak in a few walks each week before the heat gets too terrible.  They subscribe to the Robert Frost school of thought and enjoy choosing the 'road less traveled'.

Find a better babysitter.  I dare you.
Loopie is the best of the best.

6am and ready to head out the door to load cattle.  
Pink, sparkly shirt?  Check.
Pink, sparkly belt?  Check

Fishing has become much more enjoyable for all as now 75% of the kids can cast out the lines themselves.  It makes a world of difference to the parent(s). 

Reese has a pretty tough life I tell ya'.

6:30am and we were watching a concrete mixer unload into the forms for a loading chute.

It was really interesting for all of us to watch that process.

This day was absolutely awful.  The kids were fighting and screaming and I nearly lost my mind.  The next thing I know, the house is silent, save for the gently voice of Kenyon reading Bible stories to his sisters. 

Yes, Mom forgot to pack the lawn chairs one day.

Yes, the all survived eating on the ground.

Silage chopping was less than stellar this year.  

Thankful to have that one checked off the list.

A low quality photo, but I do enjoy watching the kids help us work calves.

After the fair we had the chance to go into the meat locker and see the kids' calves and hogs hanging.  It was such a great learning experience.

We are very fortunate to have many great mentors in our lives. 
(Bonus points if they are super pretty high school girls.)

The girls thoroughly enjoy oiling anything with leather.  
Halters, boots, saddles, purses, diaper bags... If you bring it, they will condition it.

They often move as a whole and I love to watch this little tribe and all their antics.  They have inside jokes, inside arguments, inside super-secret plans.  They are close and it is wonderful. 

This photo will never get old.  8am and running your hogs while topless in your socks and jelly sandals.  Life is good for R.E.C.

Kathryn touched her brother's welding project and burned a finger.  While icing it down she also passed out from sheer exhaustion.  This accurately captures the essence of our summer.  
Sheer exhaustion.

Cooking class with Grandma can be rather chaotic but the end result was oh-so-worth it.
Raisin bars with Grandma Kate for the mouth-watering win!
It was a nice change from boring ol' mom's endless pans of chocolate chip cookies.
I'm a bit of a one trick pony with baking and not afraid to admit it.

...And Just Like That

And just like that, we blinked and summer was over.  We played our hearts out in baseball, had weeks of swimming lessons and vacation bible school, survived the fair, sold our animals, spent countless hours in the hayfield and one day in town buying school supplies.  

That is a completely accurate recap of our summer.  

It was exhausting, but we seemed to manage very well.  The kids were up and out the door early each morning to walk their animals or ship cattle and then spent their afternoons in a myriad of activities - swathing, raking, baling or hauling hay mostly, and then we'd eat a light supper and head to the ball fields or work with animals again.  We had three children on two different baseball teams this year and it went pretty smoothly.  Everything this summer seemed to go smoothly even though it was incredibly busy.  Last summer each breath and each activity seemed to be a torturous struggle but that weight was somehow lifted and things were rather delightful these past few months.  

After spending so many years at home with small children I am now meeting more parents through all these activities and truly loving this little tribe we've created.  It is refreshing to find another soul that shares similar values and standards, not only in child rearing but their own work ethic and mannerisms.  Conversations are easier when you don't want to beat your head on a wall.  

The kids are getting older and starting to be really helpful with activities.  Some of them can even read, so now I can leave for short periods of time and leave them notes with instructions or lists of chores to accomplish.  (Funny, the first few times I left chore lists they always seemed to mysteriously blow away.  Hmmmm.)  

It's an exciting new phase of life, one where I can walk away from children, take a deep breath and be fairly confident they'll survive for a few moments.  We can skip naptime and the entire world does not end.  (Close, but not quite.)  And we are thisclose to being done with diapers FOREVER.  It's a thrilling time around here, let me tell you.  

John found a shell with the live snail inside.  He was so proud.  This was our exciting Father's Day.  The girls rode in the air conditioned tractor with Wesley to bale hay and the boys and I picked up logs from the edges of fields since a recent flood had carried them in. 

We are a filthy little family.  But I'm proud that they spend so much time outdoors on adventures.

Kenyon designed a replica of Big Brutus and took it to the fair.

Again with the filthy kids!

Oftentimes it feels like we eat as many meals in the shop as we do around our kitchen table.

Horrible picture?  Undoubtedly.
But this was my view repeatedly this summer -
three kids running out the door long before the sun came up.

She loves to drive the dozer, dinosaurs and the color pink.  Such a funny little one.

Everything can be made into an obstacle course, especially pallets of mineral.

She's kinda like her momma and has a soft spot for sweet little old men.

Reese is an excellent cattle counter, just like her dad.

She does a nice job of keeping herself entertained in the tractor while we move hay together.  
Also, I highly recommend the $11 writing tablet she's holding.  She can draw for hours with her finger and be perfectly content.  

*I should have mentioned that she enjoys almost all reptiles (like turtles) and not just dinosaurs.  My apologies. 

Sugar and Spice and...

 

Now that the boys have gone back to school it's just the girls and I at the house.  People often fawn over the idea of two girls in the house.  Oh, you can teach them to cook and clean and you'll just have so much fun! 

Yes, they will know how to cook and clean, but so will our boys.  I'm not a huge feminist; rather, I'm a huge advocate for knowing a bit of everything to be self sustaining.  I don't do the damsel in distress bullshit and I don't have much tolerance for boys claiming ignorance in the house either (just ask my husband).  

So.... long story short.... even though there are only two girls left in our house right now, life hasn't changed much.  Most of our conversations still revolve around dinosaurs and cattle, we still enjoy wrestling, running, dirt and all things outdoors.  

I'm thankful that all the older kids are such good sports and allow Reese to continually body slam them.

It's been oh-so-hot this week while we've been taking lunch to the silo.

The girls ran up and down the hill time and again yesterday and had the best time.

This evening Kathryn ran down this same hill at a slightly higher rate of speed, tripped and busted her face open.  Her lips are now as swollen as Lisa Rinna's.  (If you don't know you must google.)

It's been so odd this year to have such a small group for our picnics. 
Not entirely sure I'm comfortable with it yet.

She loves to watch the bulldozer, just like the rest of her siblings.

No one wants an unsightly tan line, am I right?!

There Goes the Neighborhood

Imagine being a good farm wife and having a perfect little tidy farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and enjoying quiet evenings with cattle bawling and occasionally the hum of a tractor working ground in the distance.  

Then imagine a couple, her grandson and new wife, building a house just down the road and upending everything.  Great grandchild after great grandchild after great grandchild after great grandchild being born and learning to adjust over the years to a steady stream of curious, filthy and often hungry neighbors landing on your porch any time between sunrise and sunset.  

I will miss the way morning chores that should have taken 30 minutes turned into hours as 'Can we just stop by Grandma Curry's?' each day.  I will miss the phone calls each evening 'Well, what do you know, dear?' .

I will miss some of those ridiculous things that once made me want to tear my hair out, like when she taught Kathryn that bonks and scrapes on her body would feel better if you rubbed Suave's wild cherry blossom scented lotion on them.  Kathryn would come inside from playing and absolutely REEK of the wild cherry blossom scent.  'Momma, I got a little bonk.  But it's okay because Grandma Curry put some medicine on it.' 

I will miss how each time I made cookies, or cheesy biscuits, or a host of other things the kids would fight over who got to carry the container over and who got to knock on the door and who got to actually hand the container to her.  Like mobsters, we felt obligated to give a cut of our sweets as tribute to our elders.  

I will miss her quizzing the kids about their livestock and listening to them answer her like the little 70 year old men that they are.  

I will miss dragging her out of the house and taking drives on backroads, listening to the stories of who used to live at each old homestead and who that person married and just how good of a basketball player their son was. 

I will miss hearing the same old stories that I've heard hundreds of times.  Thankfully I can almost recite most of them from memory at this point.  Ask me about the time Stanley had a procedure done and the doctor told him to take it easy so he went out on the dozer to do some dirt work and didn't come home until after dark.  Do it, I dare ya'.  I'll tell it to you just like I was there, because I've lived similar stories right alongside her, just 60 years apart.  I couldn't hardly tell her a story about my husband without watching her throw her hands up in the air and roll her eyes stating 'oh, yes, I know all about that.  Stanley used to be just like that, dear'. 

I now tear up each time I open the refrigerator and a cascade of these damn juice boxes she had delivered from the senior center come tumbling out.  I don't know what she really ate from those senior center meals because she was always calling to warn me 'I just sent home a little something with the kids, dear'.

I won't try to flatter myself and say we were best friends; she had a lady or two in town and they truly were joined at the hip most of their lives.  But I will miss my battle buddy, my comrade-in-arms, my confidant for over a decade that knew the sheer hell it can be at times to love a stubborn ass Curry man.  

I'm thankful our children had a home away from home and someone to dote on them when their mother didn't take their injuries or injustices seriously enough.  

And I'm most thankful we never said goodbye.  Every conversation ended with 'Well, talk to you tomorrow' or 'see you later'.  So when things were going downhill and she was leaving our house I made sure to tell her one last time we'll see you later.