Busy Summer

Seems like summer just flew by. My yard, as usual has gotten away from me weeds in the flowers however I had the best flower year ever.
Crystal (granddaughter) helped me plant a couple tiny packets of seeds that were from magazines or free from some mailing two said red poppies 2 said old fashioned mix. The poppies have been very showy There are pink and white ones, pink ones, orange and red ones. The latest ones to bloom are a very ruffled red.

The heirloom tomatoes did well after a slow start and some early damage when they got stepped on. Will have to pick and let ripen indoors I think the Romas are very green hope they get a bit more outdoor time.

Pay it forward

Pay It Forward

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.


2. Winners must post this challenge on their own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!


3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!


4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.

Same thing another year

As you can see I am not very good at this blog thing.

So if you want to find out what I have been up to this spring just read what I wrote last year and change the date to 2009

Calves

We are about half done calving I think we have 12 now.
There is a hill in the middle of the corral and it is a favorite place. They play king of the hill, race around and over the hill and I think they hide from their moms on the back side.

Spunky, the little one that I had to help eat for a week, came up to the fence where I was standing. He was very open to a scratch on the head and just being friendly. His Mom, T-Bone, didn't think that was good calf behavior. She came and made him move back. After she went back to eating he came back lol. She came and got him again and took him clear across the corral. Basically he had to stand in the corner.

We lost one of the cows. Don't really know what happened. I think she was a few days off calving and had been eating like normal. She was a younger cow and it hurts to loose both her and her calf. We will probably keep a few of the heifers from last year, we are down 4 cows now sold 2 for meat last fall, and had to put down another really old one, no 182. She was really old for a cow and had lots of calves. We will keep the heifer she had last year to replace her in the herd.

Wind never blows in Terreton

Yes it does. In fact this week has been all about WIND. We did get a little bit of rain, more at the house than the farm where we needed it, but any moisture right now is good.

A lot of real estate is changing hands daily. Some days, like yesterday, the wind was blowing dirt hard across the road from the South when we went to Rexburg to have lunch at Moms. When we came home the wind was blowing just as hard but it was coming from the North.

New calves, snow and sprinklers

Lillys from a few years ago hoping for flowers soon.

We now have 8 baby calves. They are so cute racing around. I have had to help a few learn how to drink, or a better wording would be where to drink, they know how (usually) just not getting the location right.

Spunky, they usually get names if I have to work with them, is a nice bull calf. His mom has a couple of problems. We didn't intend for her to be in the cow herd but she ended up there and has a good calf so she got to stay. The 1st and most obvious problem is that she is mostly blind in one eye. She was born that way, you can just see the white of her eye she has to tip her head way up for the iris to show. This makes it harder to handle her, you have to let her know where you are and let her work her way slowly where you are going. The 2nd problem is her udder, it isn't a nice neat one. There is no way her calf can suck the first few days unless he has the mouth of a hippopotamus! So we have to get her in the chute several times a day and get Spunky something to eat. Now Spunky isn't stupid (for a cow that is) he quickly figures out that if I open the gate to the chute that lunch is being delivered. He would run up to the chute and look for mom, when she was slow going in he would run around the other side and check to see if she was there lol but you could see his thought process, as after he drinks on the one side I take him around to the other. Tonight when I went to feed he was already eating dinner, yea the self feeding variety, my favorite kind.
The other cow and calf we were working with is an older cow that always has a good calf, the one this year just didn't get the location part down for some reason. She would eat good after I pointed her in the right direction. Mom was a little crabby about having to get in the chute several times a day. It didn't help that everytime you touched the calf she would squeal like a piggy. So mom was being a pain wouldn't get in the chute, Jon comes over to help and she cowkicks him. Cows can kick way more sideways than you would think they can and this is cowkicking. She got him right at the top of his leg, probably will have a nice bruise. I was glad to see that her calf was the self feeding variety tonight as well.

It snowed a couple of times today. Not a lot but enough to add some needed moisture to the wheat we planted. It is starting to sprout so moisture will be good, so would warm weather but doesn't look like we will get that until net week.

We fixed one wheelline and then rolled it over to where it will be ready when we start sprinklers. With the weather that is a few days off. This is good as pumping water is expensive.

My baby turned 18

Not sure how that is possible He was a little boy just the other day. So I was talking to a friend about our kids and she ask if it makes me sad that Tony has autism and epilepsy. No it really doesn't. This seems odd to people. I don't remember ever hitting the real "Why him" type of reaction to the diagnosis. Tony is just Tony. Oh there were bad days, days when it was just easier to go home or not go somewhere. My issues were (are) mainly with his super busy and noisy activity level. I am very blessed to have family and friends that understand Tony.

I do try, not always successfully, to not take Tony places that he won't be comfortable or where I know that he won't be able to behave in an acceptable way. If he goes to visit in a home he feels that he can make himself right at home, raid the fridge, sort all the toys, stuff like that. If he will have to sit still and visit, it isn't going to happen and I know this, so I just don't do stuff like that when Tony is with me. In stores he is pretty good, except he knows which stores have snacks he likes and it will be a much better shopping trip if we just get some tater wedges first. I look at it like most kids get a snack-treat at the checkout he just gets his first.

He is a happy young man. In his world most things are good. He doesn't have a car, girlfriend, cellphone or surf the internet this is good for me I have enough grey hair as it is with out these things.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures I don't have many on this computer so the choice was limited. The one with the Tonka truck was taken in Salt Lake City when we were staying with Uncle Mike and Aunt Glenda while Primary Childrens Hospital was trying to find out why he had started to have seizures and which meds would help control them. The other pictures are last year mostly.