500th Blog Post

Today marks my 500th blog post!!!  I thought it would be fun to do a contest!! For everyone who comments on this post I will enter your name in a draw to win a dozen cupcakes of your choice!!!

With calving upon us there is not much to report other than calving!!  For the 8-10 year olds at church they have activity days once a month.  This month their leader wondered if they could come out and look at the new calves and learn about what it takes to look after them!  Calum was excited to have the boys come out, and I even thought he'd be braver around the cows because of the boys coming.  But alas, he stayed in the Jimmy and watched from the open window!!

When Vance and Sister Jackson got to our house Jared told them he would go ahead and catch a calf, hopefully a new one, in the calf catcher and we would ride behind in the Jimmy and get out into the calf catcher once the little guy was inside!  All went according to plan and we were able to tag a new little calf!  A cute little heifer!!  Vance was even able to have her suck on his thumb.  They pet her all while Jared tagged and recorded in the book!!  The mother was nice and calm and would come up the cage every so often to make sure all was well with her baby!  It went over really well with the boys, and they were able to learn lots and see what it's like to be on a farm!  They even saw a dead calf who had for some unknown reason died earlier that day.  Janice was able to tie in a message and a scripture about being kind to animals.  We had Popsicles on the front porch before they had to leave!  A great learning experience for them.

I was able to get a great picture one windy day of one of our cows who has horns!  She is so funny looking she's actually cute!!! 

We are in full spring mode now that the snow has finally melted.  Calves are coming, grass is greening up and the days are longer!!  With these longer days Jared and I and sometimes Armin and Emry have been walking at night!  Just as the sun sets!!  Makes for some gorgeous pictures!  Jared has been carrying his .22 on our walks because we came across a skunk one night!  Sadly, no sign of it since that one night!!  Or maybe it's thankfully!!!  Jared really wants to shoot it though, he shot one already this year, we seem to be over run with them in our area!

The kids are getting ready to start coach pitch and golf.  And they are all excited!  There are only 2 months of school left, it goes so fast, faster now that they are all in school full time!!  But I wouldn't change this time of my life for anything!  Well, maybe the state of my house, but that will change all too soon!  Emry turns 14 next week and is studying like mad for her learner's license!  She'll be able to go to the Church Youth Conference next month too.  How did my precious little girl get so big?

Life isn't slowing down at all.  I'm enjoying every minute and savoring the time I have with my kids while it lasts!

First Calf and Favorite Cow

We started calving last Friday, a little early but only by about a week!  She's a cute little thing, so tiny!  I look forward to this time of year, though it is a bit more stressful, I love seeing the new life moving around out in the field, even though it means more frequent checks which is not always fun especially through this rotten mud!!

We had to sell my favorite cow this year.  I was pretty sad about that, Jared hung onto her for a number of years for me because I liked her so much.  But this was her final straw.  She was a wonderful mom, though a little aggressive and she always jumped when she was in the chute.  She was either going to hurt someone or herself or even another cow.  So he made the decision to let her go this year.  I wasn't even consulted!!  But I knew it was her time.  She was my favorite because she was part Galloway and part Red Angus.  The Galloway gave her a very distinctive look, her tail was red and black with ringlets and around her head she had black fur around the edges of her eyes and framing her face!  She was beautiful!!  So we still have one cow that has similar features to my Number 2, her name is Date Night!!!  The reason behind her name, Jared and I had to pull her calf a couple of years ago the same night we had planned on going out!  She didn't ruin our date completely, we did still get to spend time with each other which is always a plus no matter how we get it!!  And her calf lived, so added bonus!!

Calving brings new life to the farm!  I love it!!!

Easter 2018

Our annual General Conference fell on Easter weekend this year.  Conference was so wonderful, I enjoyed all the talks so much.  It was so nice to be able to stand and sustain our new Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson!  He will be a wonderful prophet to lead and guide us!  There were also many changes and new temples announced at conference.  A temple will be built in Russia, so cool.

We were able to celebrate Easter with my Mom and Owen.  Mom made a yummy turkey with all the trimmings and I made a fancy cheesecake for dessert!  We watched some movies, hung out, and visited.  It was very quiet but so nice to be with family!

Easter Monday, our Easter bunny came and delivered some goodies for the kids!  First they had to follow the clues that led them around the house to a their basket!  They had fun looking for the clues.  Later that day we had my Dad, Arren and Buck and Gil and Lily over for a yummy Easter feast!  I put a ham in the slow cooker and had planned on making whipping cream scalloped potatoes but Arren had a whole pan of garlic mashed potatoes leftover from her dinner the day before so she brought those, she also brought Calum's favorite jello pretzel salad!! I put together a tray of veggies in the shape of a carrot, which no one touched except Armin!!! Him and his veggies!!!  It was nice to be able to entertain family and spend time together!!!

Wednesday our family left for a mini vacation before things get really crazy with calving on the farm!  We headed out at 9am and made our way to Radium for a couple of days!  We made our first stop in Fernie where we had lunch.  Our next stop wasn't until Fairmont, where we went to the Hot Springs for the afternoon!  Our third stop was in Invermere where we stocked up on groceries for the next couple of days at the condo we would be staying at!  Finally getting to our condo we unloaded groceries and started supper!  Our condo was cute.  It slept us all comfortably with two bathrooms, a kitchen and a livingroom!  After a yummy supper of steak, baked potatoes and Caesar Salad we went for a walk around Radium, what we were really looking for was some ice cream! 

The next morning we leisurely got up, the kids and Jared went for another walk, making it almost to the hot springs when I got a text to pick up Armin!  It was a little far for his spindly little legs!  They walked a total of 4km!!  They saw some Bighorn sheep, and some deer!  After their walk we headed into Invermere again to look around!  And the afternoon was again spent in the Hot Springs!  We finished our day off with another yummy steak dinner at Back Country Jacks, a place Jared and I had gone to years and years earlier!!!

Our drive home was fairly uneventful!!  We went home through Canmore, where we stopped at a yummy pizza place for lunch!  Jared and I had also eaten there years earlier.  It was so good!!  They fire cook the flatbread pizza in a kiln!!  So good!!!!!

It was a wonderful little holiday. A great Easter and a super General Conference!!  Just what I needed to reset for the last little bit of school and work before summer hits!!