Cuteness Overload

Since I have been talking about them this summer, I figured it was probably about time to include a few more pics of the puppies that have taken over our farm this summer.

They are cute as can be and very enthusiastic to greet visitors!

 

It is hard for them to contain all of their wiggles, so a picture of all of them is very difficult to get. I got all but two in this picture. Yep, that's right, there are 10 of them!

 

Hey there cutie!

 

"C'mon guys, don't you wanna come out here and have fun with me?"

Being a pregnant Farmgirl

So, now that the baby is almost here, I'm going to write a few things that I might or might not have known about pregnancy before. And when you are a pregnant farmgirl, well, it just makes it that much more entertaining for some people. This is a bit long and I won't be the least bit offended if you don't read it. I added some pics from the internet to give some illustrations ;-)

#1. The references between you and pregnant farm animals are endless.
I have been known to make a few of these references myself in the past. But when you are surrounded by farmers in a farming community...well, farmers aren't exactly known for handling things in the classiest way sometimes. You have to learn to take it with a grain of salt when someone tells you, "You're starting to look like that ol' gray sway-backed mare!"

#2. You are suddenly not allowed to do things you have done for probably the last 30 years...and will immediately be allowed to do them again as soon as the baby is out of your body.
Suddenly I wasn't supposed to lift more than 20 pounds (and apparently a bowling ball is nearly that much although I swear it felt lighter). I probably also wasn't supposed to be crawling over fences (but that was the best way to get into the barn to see the puppies). I wasn't supposed to push around furniture (hey, they could have done it before I finally did).  I wasn't supposed to use the riding lawnmower either (but I asked the doctor and they said it was fine as long as it wasn't on the side of a huge hill where the mower would roll over.)

#3. When I DID want to use pregnancy as an excuse to get out of something, they weren't having it. 
You know, things like doing the dishes, carrying a huge laundry basket full of clothes, cooking a meal, cleaning up mouse poop, vacuuming, dusting, etc.

#4. I did kind of miss my feet.
I could still see my feet and reach my feet if I needed to. But the summer time is the one time I actually paint my toenails because I wear flip-flops all the time. The last time I was able to paint them was in May before high school graduation...and it involved a lot of grunting and shortness of breath. My husband refused to paint them for me, so I had naked toenails through the summer.

#5. No one tells you that now when your stomach growls, it sounds like it is in your chest. And that is simply because that is pretty much where it is now relocated.
I still can't get over hearing my stomach growl that close to my face. It is just a very weird thing to feel.

#6. Simply getting off the couch is now a very serious accomplishment that I think should be considered a new Olympic event.
I miss the days of not having to find a handhold on the couch to pull myself up with, or using my husband to push off of when I need to get up off of the couch. It isn't pretty folks. And it is a multiple-stage process.

#7. I really, really, really, really miss my jeans.
Spandex or elastic becomes a girl's best friends during pregnancy. You appreciate it much more when you really drag out wearing your regular jeans and pants until the last possible moment before switching to maternity clothing. Wearing the regular pants isn't the most pleasant thing in the world when you feel like your body is being cut into half every time you try to lean over an pick something up. However, wearing non-stop clothing with elastic around the waistband gets a bit tiresome. Especially when those pants stretch out while wearing them and you spend half the time pulling them back up.

#8. The pregnant body and all the awkwardness and uncomfortable things that go with it are an endless source of amusement for my husband and pretty much any man.
Enough said on this one. A man will just never fully be able to understand it.

#9. Going to the county fair while nearly 9 months pregnant means that you will never be able to walk from point A to point B without the following conversation.
Acquaintance: "Hey there! So you still haven't had the baby?"
Me: "Nope"
A: "How are you feeling?"
Me: "Fat" (It just got to where I didn't know what to say)
A: "Oh, you don't look fat. But I feel for you having to be pregnant during the hot summer."
Me: "Thanks"
A: "So have you had any contractions yet?"
Me: "Nope."
A: "When are you due?"
Me: "A week and a half."
A: "Well, next year you will have a little one with you at the fair."
Me: "Yep"
A: "Enjoy this year while you can."
Me: "Thanks."

Then I would walk about 10 steps and repeat the same conversation with someone else.

#10. When you go to a birthing class with your husband, you are already aware of some of the things that come along with pregnancy because of watching cows birth calves for years on end.
At one point the nurses teaching the class discussed that some people want to see the placenta after it has passed and they asked if I would want to do that. I quickly said, "Why would people do that? I'm a farmgirl, I've seen it plenty with cows...so I'm good!"

Well, if you made it to the end of this, CONGRATS! I hope it was at least a little on the entertaining side. Hopefully next time I make a post it will be with a little one napping soundly somewhere close to me.
 

Another Project Completed!

Today I put the finishing touches on the last painting project I have been updating you on. I just had to put another coat of white paint on in a few spots, finish the brown parts and then have dad cut off the top 10 inches of the board.

Here it is before the top 10 inches were cut off:

 During the project, I had quite a bit of company in the big shed. For one thing, the very first day I was in there, at least four or five mice went scurrying away from pretty much right under where my project was situated. I talked to dad and we got that situation remedied as much as we could. We relocated the project away from the seed bags and then he put out some mouse traps.

I think I still heard a few mice today, but at least I had the dogs to keep the mice away...oh wait. This is about as motivated as our dogs get while in the shed. I think my dog did raise her head once when she heard a mouse. I promise they are alive. They really like laying on that cool concrete though. Mom and dad's dog isn't exactly the smartest one once in a while. It cracked me up the day that he moved from his previous spot to under the trailer, that was parked inside the shed...apparently it was cooler in the shade ;-)

 

Anyway, that might be it for big projects for a while. The biggest project of our lives is about start. This week is a when our baby is due! She will probably have a flair for the dramatic though and take her own sweet time making her entrance into the world ;-)

Necessary Vaccinations

I will get to the title subject in just a minute, but wanted to post a fun picture first. I met with my doctor yesterday and, now that I'm less than a week from my due date, her nurse gave me specific instructions to put my feet up and rest. It seems my dog received the same instructions :-)

 

I might not have done exactly what the nurse said, but I did make sure I did the least amount of work today that I could. We have had some calves in our herd getting sick and have actually lost one or two. That is somewhat rare for this time of year. There are a couple more now that are sick. Now, this is where I get fed up with the "Chipoltes" of this world. In their high and mighty view, animals that do not receive any vaccinations or anything of that nature are better for us to eat.

Well, in my rancher view, do I want to see a sick calf and just sit there and stare at it as it suffers and drags through the hot summer days to probably die later from something I could have helped prevent? I don't know about you, but the choice seems fairly obvious and any medications are out of their system LONG before they even approach the time to be sent to the market. Even if the calf would survive without any intervention, during the time it was sick it would drastically lose weight and muscle because of its inability to eat and digest the nutrients it needs to grow. A sickly calf is not a pretty sight and might also fall behind the herd and have to die all alone.

So, this morning we gathered the cattle into the corrals. In order to get them from one pasture to the other and not have them scatter and run through our yards and gardens, we like to implement what my dad refers to as the "Redneck corrals." 

 

They work pretty well and it is much easier to drive multiple vehicles into place than haul panels by hand and possibly take hours to get them set. 

Once we got the cows sorted from the calves, we ran the cows through and gave them a quick dose of fly spray. The flies this summer are horrendous. I would guess each cow carried at least 200-300 flies on its back. Can you imagine having those blood-sucking pests on you day in and day out and not having any way to get them off of you other than a tail that isn't long enough to reach them?

Next we ran the less experienced calves through the alley-way and chute. They had been through the alley only once before and their lack of experience definitely slowed down the process. Once they were each caught in the head gate, they received fly spray, a vaccination for respiratory illness and a shot of vitamins. 

 

As you can see, it takes a few people to make this run smoothly.

• My uncle in the back of the picture is the one that was responsible for pushing them through the alleyway.
• My cousin in the blue shirt then lifted the gate to let them into the chute area. 
• My little cousin in the orange shirt was in charge of placing the bar behind the back end of the calf so they couldn't back up. Since the calves are so much smaller than the cows, they have a lot more room to move around and get turned around or caught in odd little spaces. So the goal is to eliminate as many options as possible so they go for the option that is the easiest for them and for us. 
• My dad is the one running the head gate. As soon as the shoulders of the calf push it forward, it locks into place and ideally their head will be caught to help hold them somewhat still while we give them shots and whatever else needs to be done.
  
  
• My job was to sit there, be 9 months pregnant and write down the tag numbers of the calves that had been worked so we had an accurate count on how many had gone through.
  
  
  

My other job was to make things more enjoyable for the others ;-) I was pretty proud of myself for this next joke. Once in a while we had a calf decided that going through the chute backwards was a better option. I made the remark that these calves were called "tailgaters." I know, I know...you are laughing as hard as I was ;-)

My little cousin is the next young cowgirl to carry on our family tradition of hard work and spunky-ness. My dad was joking that he was going to catch her in the chute when she had to go in there really quick to retrieve her bar that had fallen down inside. She didn't miss a beat and said something like, "Well, the calves don't punch but I do!"

At some point, my little cousin and I might or might not have gotten distracted by some cute distractions that were in the barn right behind us. Just like there might or might now have been some tag numbers that got missed being written down during this time.

 

Anyway, we did get the job done. We ran 90 some head of cows and about 80 calves through the chute and back out to pasture before lunch. My mom is always the unsung hero on days we work cattle. She effortlessly puts together a meal that more than fills our bellies and tickles our taste buds. It is the best way to end a long morning!

FAIRly wonderful

I spoke in an earlier blog about our fantastic county fair. I never tire of hearing the wonderful things visitors say about our community and the fair that we put on each summer.

We attended the Friday morning beef show. It is about the only place you will see a determined little 2nd grader who weighs about 60 lbs. try to impose her will on 1,315 pounds of muscly steer. It is pretty funny. But don't you dare tell that little girl that she can't do it. She basically leans with her entire body weight and finally the steer might relent. Oh, and that little girl won Grand Champion Market Steer with her animal.

Here is a photo of the division champions being judged. 

 

A livestock show is also probably the only place you will hear the judge say he is now going to "go out and slap our champion." Generally, slapping the winner isn't considered a good thing. But in the world of livestock, it is the ultimate compliment to see the judge head towards you, slap your animal on the rear, then remove their hat and shake your hand. 

When we were in 4-H we didn't spend near as much time handling and taming our animals as some of the competitors...so if the judge ever headed my way, my heart skipped a beat thinking maybe I had won and then it was immediately followed by a fear that my steer would kick the judge if he got slapped on the rump! For the record, I never won and the judge never got kicked ;-)

Saturday was a long day for everyone. It was filled with a 5K run/10K bike ride early in the morning, followed by the parade, then a fundraiser hot dog roast at one of the city parks, the Little Wrangler Rodeo, swimming at the pool, turtle races, a fundraiser BBQ for the Wallace County Ministerial Alliance, the livestock auction, the final night of the carnival and finally the fireworks. And yes, this 9 month pregnant lady went to almost every single one of those events except for the early 5K run/10K bike ride. I was worn out by the end of the night!

However, no matter how worn out I was, waiting around for the fabulous fireworks was so worth it. My poor piddly camera on my phone does the fireworks absolutely no justice. But I was so taken by the sight of the fairgrounds crowded with hundreds of people, and every single person stopped in their tracks with their eyes looking up to the skies, that I had to take a picture to at least attempt to capture the moment.

So, another fair is in the books...and most of the community probably took naps on Sunday ;-)

Just a wee bit stuck

Our small irrigated corn crop is looking pretty good. However, last week the sprinkler wasn't looking so good.

 

The sprinkler goes pretty low in one place to cross a dry creek bed. We had enough rain that it softened up where the sprinkler crosses. It has been stuck before, so my dad and cousin filled it in with some dirt and packed it the best they could. But after the last rain, welp, the pictures speak for themselves.

Auto found himself a mud hole to cool off in right behind one of the sprinkler tires. He was pretty proud of himself.

Have no fear, the sprinkler is unstuck once again...probably until it needs to cross the creek bed again.