Look what we did today

New floor!
New mantle.... Well, not new, we found it laying around the ranch!

A first for everything

You really have a new appreciation for lambs when u see them! Fields of them!

Five more kittens

They waited until Shervelle arrived and we woke up to Smudge's five new kittens, born last night.

One great thing about having a dusty car!

The best dyed egg ever!

A Katie special

Hanging in the dog house

The twins

We wanted to give them all Easter names because they were born on Easter Sunday. I think we are going to name one peeps, like the candy. I said we should name another one Cadbury, but everyone said it would be too hard to remember. I wanted to name these two orange guys scrambled and eggs but no one seems to be going for that!  Our orange cat, Marley, the one we just got fixed, is the father. I guess we were a little late on that! So we thought we should at least name one Ziggy. And Katie would like to name the other one Dandelion.

Easter kittens

We moved one of the cats over to the ranch. Actually we had moved 3, but the male walked back over to our house! Squeak, one of the females we moved, just had kittens on Sunday!

We had not seen her, and when we finally did, Katie went up to her to pet her, and realized she no longer had a fat belly!

Then we got pretty sneaky and pretended like we were not following her, but we were. She had her kittens in buckwheats portable dog house. She made a sweet little nest for all five of the kittens. We are, however, now down to just three kittens. There were two that were pretty small, one in between and then to giant orange ones.  The 2 little ones are the ones that died.

I love how Katie handles that. She has made a good rule for herself that she will not name them until about 1 week. I asked her what she was thinking and how she was feeling about the dead kittens and she just looked at me and said that that was the cycle of life. And that she was glad she had not named him yet.  Then she went on to tell me how she crawled into the dog house, and picked one up and it was all floppy and cold and she realize it was dead. I'm so happy she did not freak out!

Exactly

We always thought things might be a little upside down in the closest town to us! See what I'm talking about!

Anyway this gave us a great laugh!

Dying eggs

The professors

Super pumped!!!!

Drum roll please.....The stone has been chosen! Outside bottom half of house, pillars in the house, area around of the stove top and the fireplace/hearth.
Hoping the guys will start next week!

Hunters tooth

The team

My partner

Ben and I were the leaders. Our job was to get ahead of everyone, the cows included, and hold them until all the cattle were in a tight group. It is much easier to move down when they are all together versus being all spread out and going everywhere! Benny and got an amazing cattle voice! There is something really positive about using your voice and its power. And Benny has got it down!

Moving

It gets a little intense. And extremely loud! It is really hard to move all the cows with their calves. And calves are not really with it when it comes to expectations! So there was a lot of cheese have the round! All the horses were pretty sweaty.

Overall, I think it went really well. I'm glad we had the help and was very grateful for that.

But of course cows will be cows and now that is all Scott thinks about! When he is home, he spends by the window checking to be sure they are still in the same field they are supposed to be in and have not pushed the fence. We had some serious trouble with two of them who kept hopping the fence and crossing the highway and heading back to the ranch! You know it's bad news when you can hear scott swearing out on the highway and we are almost at the ranch. I guess voices carry!

Getting ready for round up

I realize I do not always offer the best advice. But this time, I have to say I think I had pretty good advice when I said to Scott that just the Noll family moving all the cows, calves and heifers by ourselves was not a good idea.

So thank goodness he called in some help! & 3 real cowboys showed up with their horses all tacked up and their lassos ready to go!

It went pretty smooth. It always causes me a bit of anxiety when we have to cross the cattle across the highway, because people are idiots! And for whatever reason, although it is considered an agricultural highway, people just refuse to stop no matter how you flag them down. Of course it makes me want to give them the finger as the speed by weaving through the cattle, but I have three little people watching me so I have to keep my hands in my pockets!

And then there is my girl Katie! What a cowgirl! Riding with these three big Cowboys and holding her own!

Paragliders

I don't really know if I spelled that right! But we were headed out to the ranch, driving along the old highway, and Hunter starts shouting about these two guys who were coming down on our property in parachutes.

So we go pick up Scott and then head back to where we thought they might land. And sure enough, there they are packing up there parachutes.

Come to find out they were a mean to get all the way north. Just ride the wind! But it was too windy and they could not get to where they need it to go so they had to land.

Hunter was absolutely mesmerized and asked a lot of questions! It was pretty cool. We ended up giving them a ride into town where they had a friend waiting for them.

I told them next time they could land right up by the house and stop in for some beers!

What idiot trims the trees?

This is what you get for free!  And now there is absolutely no shade at the park. So stupid!! 

Finally done...

Think how great trim will be!!!

Long lost books

Do you realize most of these books have been in boxes since Katie was born?! And they have all moved from house to house and had a quiet resting place in the basement!
Until yesterday!

We got a smoking deal on this bookshelf! So after the Noll family moved the piano ourselves - oh yes we did- swapped out the rug and moved the shelf in, I spent the day unpacking boxes and totes of books. Ones that have been boxed up since I quit teaching. Ones I've had since college.... Ahhhh, so many were like old friends.

In addition, I realized I have a bit of a book obsession! As many as are one the shelf, I have an equal amount of ones I am selling at our summer garage sale!

But the piano room has turned into a new hangout spot and the kids just lay around on the floor and in the chair and read.

Three baths later!!!!