Drought Weather

 

 See the drifts??  Yes, on April 14 it snowed, horizontally, and measured up to no moisture in the rain gauge.  But, what snow stuck to the ground made puddles and proved to have some water in it.  We were very thankful for what we got.

 

 Sadly, our red bud trees were beginning to look wonderful when the snow came and the cold froze the buds. All the pretty parts fell to the ground and now leaves are sprouting out.  At least they were prettier than they were last year, when they didn't even bloom.

I always get a picture like this because I like the layers of trees.  Example: Red bud in front, pine tree in middle, and elm tree in back.  

 Here is another work of taxidermy I set my hand to.  Meet Molly May, my taxidermy parakeet.

 

 I figured the bird would be prettier if it had a touch of real life background to it, so I planted wheat around the base of the perch.  Now, I can say that I was the first one to cut wheat this year. 

 

 Here are the last kids to be born.  Sadly we have lost three kids total this year.  I now milk, with the help of my brother and sometimes Dad.







 





 

 If you look at the picture above this line you will see what kind of view we had on the morning of April 28, at 11:00.  Just below this line is the view we had that same day at 1:22 P.M.
The "clouds" at 1:22 are not rain clouds, though everyone wished they would have been, but was just dirt.

 

Here are two more views, just at different times of the day.

Taken at 11:00 A.M.

Taken at 1:22 P.M.

I wrote about the weather in my journal on the 29th and have decided to share parts of it with you. 

 

"All together, yesterday was anything but settled.  It was drizzly in the early morning, then came those spotty white clouds that are always fun to take photos of.  And then later in the day came one huge dust funnel, but last came a nasty dust storm.  We, at points, couldn't see the east round pen fence in front of our house.  And all that time the wind was puffing."

Excerpt from My Journal

 

The tumbleweeds haven't left and aren't even getting smaller.  The fences are once again filled to the highest wire with weeds.  The wind blows from the north one day, causing them (the tumbleweeds) to stack up on the fence.  Then the next day, it blows from the south, taking the tumbleweeds with it, only to blow in new ones on the other side of the fence.  The fences don't know what way to lean, and we don't know what to do to keep the weeds away.  So, what's a person to do?

 

My answer is just keep trusting God.  : )

 

"In You, O Lord, I put my trust." Psalm 71:1 part A



Branding

Today we went to our second branding this year.  Having gone to one yesterday, we are now very tired, worn out, and sore.

We got up around 6:15 yesterday morning and headed out after saddling the horses and getting ourselves ready.  The first bunch we branded went by really fast and we were off to gather two more bunches.  Once the pairs were gathered and sorted, we began to brand them.  Flankers held down the calves the ropers drug to them, the shots were given, the steers cut and implanted, ear tags were stuck in their ears, next came the brand, and then it was back to the group of calves in the corner.

We went on like that until dinner and after; moving to a different place once.  All the cowboys and cowgirls took a break and had a wonderful dinner provided by the couple in charge of the whole branding.  Afterwards, Dad, Big J., and I (along with others) were instructed to move a few herds of cattle to their pastures, thus, we didn't help with the real branding as much when dinner was finished.  But that was fine.  Our horses got a nice, almost 10 miles, walk pushing the pairs practically all over the county.  Okay, not quite...

There once was a possible problem, but because of intelligent cowboys and older horses, we were able to return one run away heifer back to her pasture.

We got home fairly late because after we finished branding, we had to check my goats.  Sadly, the goat which had only one kid lost it.  Now she needs nursed out by one of the other goat's kids, which we have to help with.  But, if any of you were wondering, Arendelle, the little baby we brought home to feed, is doing fine and is the kid that nurses the one who lost the baby.  My other nanny goat only had one a couple of days after the first ones.  Her bag (utter) is too large for her one baby to keep nursed out so we have to fight her to milk her out. 

But when we finished messing with the goats, we came home, ate supper around eight o'clock, and went to bed for yet another early morning.

Today, we got to sleep in! till 6:30 anyway.  We left the house at 7ish and headed out to the second branding.  Today we only had to work two bunches of calves, all of which were at the same set of pens.  The first bunch was gathered, so we started up right away.  This time Big J. and I flanked as a team for a while.  I gladly did that job.  I don't know how many we flanked but it was a bunch!  We traded partners every so often, not really on purpose but it worked out.  I flanked the most with my dad. 

One of the funny things of the day was when a young man tried (a couple of times) to flank an un-roped calf all by himself.  It was comical, but it only got better.  Dad and I decided we should try our hand at flanking an un-roped calf.  After a little tugging and pulling, the calf plopped down on to the sandy ground.  Everyone who saw it laughed and cheered us on.  But I personally think the best part was the young man's facial expression when he heard what happened and saw us sitting on the calf. 
He did try one last time on the last calf and succeeded, though now every one kidded that he should have asked for our help.

We headed in for dinner and what a great meal that was!  We talked a few moments afterwards, but folks filed out pretty quick to get back to their own work or house. 

On our way home, we again checked the goats, this time finding my one last nanny with her babies.  Triplet black and white ones!  So cute!  Sorry, no pictures yet.  But there is a pure black one while the others are black and white.  We are done kidding now for this year.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  : )

Sunrise taken 3-11-14.

        

Baby Critters

Well, two pairs of pigeons hatched two babies each this last week, but sadly I only have one left.  The others died for all different reasons.  The last survivor was "kicked out of the nest" so to speak and I am now its care taker. 

We went riding on the 4th and while doing so, I spotted a baby jackrabbit.  After dismounting and chasing it for a while, I successfully caught it.  It screamed like crazy for a long time, then calmed down.  When we got home we put it in my dog carrier, and named it Harley.  The cute thing is so fun to feed and watch as it runs about the house when permitted by everyone involved.

Then yesterday (Mon.) two of our goats had kids!  One had triplets and the other had only one.  One of the triplets wasn't drinking her milk and was quickly losing energy; we brought her to the house and shot a few syringes of her mother's milk down her throat.  In just a few hours, the little girl, Arendelle, was up and ready to nurse from a bottle!  That was so encouraging.  She roamed about our kitchen and drank half of her bottle of milk.  By evening, we knew that she could go back to her mom. 



Timber

Harley

Arendelle

 

But, what a sight, sound, and thought of having a pigeon, rabbit, and goat all staying in our house!  Oh, what fun it was though!  I went from one animal to the next, feeding each one.  Our family is great about letting all sorts of animals in the house.  I like that about them.    

Arendelle (middle) and her brothers

The other baby goat

Thank you for taking the time for reading and looking at my blog.  : )

April Fool's Day

Happy April Fool's Day everyone!  Are any of you in the mood for worms?  That's right, I made edible worms. 

A few weeks ago I told some of the "head women" of our church's pot luck dinners on Sunday my idea to have an April Fool themed meal.  They seemed to like the idea and we picked out the closest Sunday to April 1st.  So, on March 30th, whoever wanted to, brought something that looked sweet but wasn't or something that looked salty and wasn't.  We had "cup cakes" (really made out of meatloaf and frosted with mashed potatoes, the worms of course, and mini hamburgers made from vanilla wafers and frosting.  It was a great idea and a lot of fun.

 

I also put an upside-down cup full of water right in the middle of our counter.  It wasn't too surprising that no one wanted to clean it up.  (Finally Mom cleaned it up and the fun ended.)



 

We got a little trace of rain the other day; a wonderful air freshener.  Wow, it smelled so, so good!  And after the shower passed, we enjoyed a rainbow.

 

The red buds are blooming, there are green leaves appearing, green grass is poking out of the ground, the sagebrush is showing green/blue leaves, and the wild green onions are blooming.  It's a wonderful sight to see in the pastures a hint of green.  

 



 

 

The ants are out, as are the lizards, bugs, and birds such as curlews.

 

 

 

Yesterday we all went out to move our calves.  It was perfect weather, the horses worked well, the calves weren't too hard to gather, and it only took a couple hours.

 

Note the dark spot on my jeans.  That's how deep my leg went.

We rode through tamarisks and crossed the river a few times...while crossing the river one of those times, my dear horse decided she needed to splash around.  She laid down in the middle of the river!  My left boot filled with water, my pant leg was soaked, part of the saddle was wet, and of course my horse was dripping!  I quickly slapped Paradise on the neck, she stood, and I rode her at a trot to the shore.  It was quite comical afterwards.  We even got to literally pour water out of my boot.  Just making memories.  : )