See ya when the sun comes up.

As I am sitting here in my living room, drinking my morning brew, watching the beautiful sunrise, my mind wonders back in time.  Memories of my Farmers grandfather, and one of his many saying  "see ya when the sun comes up".  Sitting here in this house that was once his, looking out the very window he did, looking at the same view he did every morning for over 60 years...this morning I think I get it.  I always wondered why he said that instead of goodbye or see ya tomorrow.  Watching the sun rise is magical, its awe-inspiring.  The feeling of greatfulness, the feeling of thanks for life, the feeling of a new beginning, the feeling of peace....these are all the feelings that awaken in me as I sit here and watch this event. I can Imagine him thinking the same when he looked out.  Only I'm sure he wasn't sitting, still in his pj's.  Nope, he'd be standing, dressed, ready to start the day. He didn't just start his day.....he started it watching the sun rise. 

Ok....done dreaming......back to reality.  To be honest, I am not a morning person. My Farmer gets up early and has always told me that morning is the best part of the day.  I argued that night was better.  I am trying to change my ways.  But I am starting to think that I could start to like this morning thing. As long as I can sit here by the window, stay in my pajamas, drink my morning brew and not talk to anyone until I'm ready.  Yep, just maybe I can get use to it.  With that said.....See ya when the sun comes up.

  After all, tomorrow never comes, but the sun does rise.

A Hunting We Will Go.....

Hunting.  I LOVE going on our hunting trips.  This year we were gone for 8 days.  It was Awesome!!
No TV,  no internet, no cell phone, just the wonderful beauty and sound of nature.   Our hunting camp is a little different then most.  (Well, I really don't know that for sure because I haven't been in that many hunting camps, but I am guessing.)  In our camp.... they allow women, which is probably more normal now then it was 30 years ago.   Another difference is years ago, my Farmers dad always took a bottle of whiskey to be opened when someone had a successful hunt.  We take a lot of bottles of whiskey and start happy hour everyday around 5:00 (or earlier).  I think we are successful just being there..... so let's celebrate.....every day.

I think the term "Going Hunting" some times gets a bad rap.  I once overheard some women talking about hunting.  Saying its a good thing those guys can go shoot at a animal or else they would be killing people.  This really made me mad.   I look back now and wish I would have said something.  Most hunters are out there doing the basic skill.....to provide food for their family.  A very important thing.  Not everyone can hunt, it takes very unique skills.  Get up before dawn (right there I'm out),  walk around in the woods (which takes being in shape), without making any noise (which may be why my Farmer does not let me go out with him), and have patience (ummm, out there too!).  Yep, takes skill. (Yes, I stay in camp)  But what I see as the biggest thing with hunting is the camaraderie that takes place. This is the real reason for a hunting trip.  I kind of look at it this way.....say a lady needs a new pair of shoes.  She could just go buy a pair by herself and be happy.  But it would be so much more fun if she invited a few friends, took in lunch, maybe a nice glass of wine, make a whole day of it as they "hunted" for that perfect pair of shoes.  Do you see guys doing this?  No...they hunt for game and make a week of it. 

Now, back to our hunting camp.   Next to our cocktail hour, the next best thing is the food.  And dang do we eat good!  Everything is cooked over the open fire and in Dutch ovens.  This might be one reason no one in our camp is to energetic about hunting.  By the time you eat everything we cook, everyone is too full to do much hiking.  And if you kill something,  the work starts and you might miss happy hour.   Unless the animal walks thru camp.  But chances are he will escape before someone finds their gun.....and loads it. 

Ok, I really have kind of made fun of our guys at hunting camp.  They really do get out of camp and go hunting.  Now as for my Farmer, and hunting for game, I really think he hunts harder for that perfect place, with that perfect view, to sit, eat lunch, and take a nap.  And if you ask him, I am positive he will agree.  To him, that's what it's about.  Its his vacation.  Its what gets him through the long summer days, working sun up to sun down with no days off.  Looking forward to that week in the mountains, sitting around the camp fire, sharing stories of past hunting trips, reconnecting with family and friends...and with nature.....rejuvenating the soul.  Its a wonderful experience.  That, my friends, is an awesome vacation, its our hunting trip.   And its part of how we are Livin' the life....the Farm Life that is....... 

Shop Talk with Brew

I think I am really enjoying having the shop at my house.  It use to be at my in-laws house but when we put the pivot in, as those that had been following me know, we had to tear down the old shop, which actually was an old potato cellar before that.  So then my garage became the shop.....kind of.  The garage is a lot smaller so not everything out of the shop got moved here.  There is a lot of cussing sometimes when my Farmer is looking for something that use to be in the old shop.  Because now if it is not in the "new" shop, there is only like 5 other places it could be stashed.  Some times it takes all day or even months to find it.  Well, there is still one item we are still trying to find that he knows exactly where it was in the old shop and remembers taking it off the wall and moving it to a place where he could find it.  A safe place....evidently...... in a very secret place.  Haha.  It'll turn up some day.  And I know this from experience.  After we buy a new one.  HA!  So anyways, back to why I am liking it here at my house.  Even though my car has to sit outside 60 percent of the time,  the driveway is always full of equipment, and my yard under the shade tree becomes the work area, it does have its perks.  I can just step out my door (in my pajamas if i want) and visit with my Farmer when hes working, while drinking my morning brew or in the evenings having my cocktail.  That I am liking.  Yep...one more good thing about Livin' the life......the Farm life that is.

We are now Bonding in a Two Seater

I learned a long time ago that if I wanted to be with my Farmer, or rather see very much of him, I had to go where he was.  Whether it was working on equipment, irrigating, or planting or harvesting a crop, I learned to just "hang out" with him while he did whatever it was he was doing.  I turned it into "bonding" time, which is very important for a marriage.  We have spent many hours "bonding" in a tractor.  And for those of you that have ever ridin with someone in a tractor, there is not a whole lot of room.  In our younger years, it was no big deal....I just kind of sat on the edge of the seat and it was fun.  As we have gotten older, it has become a lot more "less appealing" to ride with my Farmer in the tractor.  It could be because we are both a tab bit wider, or maybe "bonding time" is not quite as important in our older years.....I think the latter.  Haha.  A couple of times I took a stool to sit on, but then it would be in the way when my Farmer had to get out of the tractor and that seemed to make the "bonding" not so good. (Anger does not help bonding time)  So the tractor "bonding" time was becoming less and less.  BUT..... Low and behold......We purchased a new tractor and guess what!  It has an extra seat!! It is so cool!!  I now have my own seat and we are back to enjoying the "bonding" tractor time.  Now our "date night" of baling hay under a full moon is way more enjoyable.
FYI....for those tractor manufacturing people.....that safety sticker that I stare at as I am riding along..... I realize that it does state that the seat is not intended for passengers, it is for training personal only.  Well, believe me, I am in training.  Always.  Cuz that's what happens when you are "Livin' the life.......the Farm Life that is".  

A Girls gotta do what a Girls gotta do...

This afternoons job for me is guarding the gate.  MY FARMER is picking up hay and has to travel though the pasture that the cows are in.  Its a pain to open and close the gate every trip so I graciously volunteered to guard the gate.  Lucky for me I have my cell phone and there is a ditch.  so I am soaking my feet, predending that I am on the beach at the lake.  The smell is a little different.   Instead of a fishing smell it's a cow shitty smell...but I can live with it.  Ive been wanting to go play in the water and maybe even let my legs see the sun.  So here I am doing it all while working.  I'm even getting in some networking.  Hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.  Haha.....this is sooo livin the life......the farm life that is.

The Year of Twins

  We just had another set of twins born.  I am happy to report both are alive, standing, and have eaten.  That's our third set this year!  Evidently it's the year of the twins.  Its like its in the air or something.  And its not just the air in our area.....its all around.  We've seen this before.  It seems that when one ranch is having a lot of twins, most others are too.  (I haven't actually done a scientific survey across the whole country, we just ask the ranchers we know).  And its not just with twins.  Some years its the year of the backward calves.  And believe me, those years are NOT fun years.   My Farmer is sure there is something to this......some unknown factor of the universe that effects things here on earth in ways we can't explain.  I don't known about that, but I do find it very interesting.  What I do know is now we have added to our work load, bottle feeding two calves.  But that's all part of Livin' the life, the Farm Life that is, and I'm ok with that. 

Crazy Crazy day when my Farmers away

Talk about a crazy day yesterday.  In the past I have tried to stay away from just jabbering about my day.  I try to focus on my Farmer and crazy stuff that happens.  But yesterday was at wow day and it just feels like I need to blog about it. 
The day started out on a complete high.  My Farmer left early in the morning, before the sun was up, so I was in charge of the chores.  And no that is not why it started out on a high....well maybe a little, but not it.  haha   I checked the heifers first, nothing going on, so I went out challenging people.  I love challenging people to join me on project 10 kids.  If you haven't been invited to join project 10.....well consider this your invite.  Check it out.  Anyways, I got 3 people to accept my challenge, so I was excited.  Next I went and picked my mom up for her doctors appointment.  No biggy, just a routine check up then we would have a nice lunch.  WRONG.  We ended up being sent over to the ER to have a whole bunch of tests run.  Our appointment was at 11 and I believe we left there around 4.  About the time the doctors were trying to decide whether to keep her or let her go, I received a text for our wonderful helper friends, who happened to drive by and check on the cows.  Crap, I had forgotten I was on cow checking duty.  Well the text said a cow was calving.  That's OK, it'll be fine. The next text said it was prolapsing.  WHAT!  Stress level just went from elevated to extreme high.  Crap, now what do I do.  My Farmer is out of town, my mom is in the ER and I need to be both places.  Our friends are very helpful so I knew they could handle anything, but she was smart enough to send  me a picture.  Love technology.  Stress level down a bit.  No calf, no prolapse.  She was able to get the cow up, and everything went back in. (if you don't know what that means, that can be another blog....hehe) Whew!  They released mom right about then, so we hurried home to check things.  First thing I notice as I come around the corner, are buzzards.  Not a good thing.  Sure sign something is dead.  The cow they had been watching was doing ok, but as I looked further out in a different part of the field,  I could see a cow, a small brown bump, a bunch of birds, and a coyote.  Crap!  So I park the car, mom says she is fine, I leave her there and I hop on the atv to go check things out......fast.  What I find is the cow had twins, one was alive the other dead.  So now I am sad.  I am in charge, and it is not fun to have an animal die on your watch.  Totally a downer.  I know I have to separate the dead animal from the alive one, so the birds and coyote will leave the alive on alone.   Totally not a fun job, but I got it done.  Then I remember mom in the car, so I drive back and check on her.  She is fine she says, doesn't want to go home yet, so I leave her and go back out to the cow and calf to make sure he gets up and eats.  Cant do either.  Very stubborn and he will not stand.  I think he had already eaten but not sure.  Back to mom, I finally take her back to my house.  Thankfully, now my Farmer is home.  We feed, he gets the calf up, and off momma and baby go.  We are still not sure if the baby had eaten, and he was shaking, so we gave him a bottle and put him in the warm calf house.  By the time I hit my pillow, I was so ready for the day to be done.  My Farmer promised me he would not leave me again until calving slows down.  Haha.....we'll see.   But you know, thats Livin' the life.....The FARM life that is..  :)    
Thank you for letting me vent to ya all..........

Farming can be "Slicker then Sh**!"

You know the saying...."slicker then shit".  Well I learned the other day what is slicker then shit.  "Ice" covered with shit.  Yep that's me.  I was helping my Farmer in the corral putting in a head catch, preparing for calving season.  I knew it was slick so I was being very careful, but then just like that I went down.  And luckily, my Farmer just got a new "smart phone" and has figured out how to use the camera on it.  This picture is now his screen saver.  Nice huh.  I actually landed very gracefully.  As you can see, I didn't even get my pink hat dirty.  (Very flattering picture of me....but my Farmer keeps asking me if I have posted it yet.) (He thought it was way funnier that it was in my opinion)

And the calving has begun.  This year we decided to calve the heifers before the cows.  It has been going very smoothly.   We have them seperated from the cows, in a pen close to the road so we can keep a close eye on them.  So far, they have all calved on their own with no problems.  Of course,  thats how it works since we have the head catch in and all ready to help those that need it.  But we are not complaining.

And that is sooo  Livin' the life.......the FARM life that it.......

And you do WHAT in the winter??

The #1 question this time of year is....."What do you guys do during the winter?"  As I think about it, what do we do.  We always start out with a list of things to do, mostly mechanic, maintenance, that sort of stuff,  but as spring comes along, there is very few items checked off.   So I sat down to figure out what my Farmer really does with his time in the winter and why he gets less done in the winter verses the summer.  I know why I don't get as much done.......cuz I don't like the cold, but this isn't about me it's about him...hehe.

His day starts as the sun comes up, in the summer time that's about 6, in the winter its 9. ( Now remember, this is my Farmers schedule, not mine......i DO NOT get up early.)  The day ends as the sun is setting low in the sky, summer days around 8, winter days around 5 (or earlier).  At this point, my Farmers work day has gone from a 14 hour day in the summer to, approximately 8 hours in the winter.   His main chore in the winter is tending to the cattle.   Between morning and night, this usually takes about 3 hours a day.  Except every 4th day it takes an extra hour or so to load up the wagons with hay.  So that takes us down to 5 hours of daylight, except every fourth day its 4 hours left.  Then there's lunch.  Since he doesn't always get much of a lunch break in the summer, he makes sure he takes at least an hour for lunch in the winter.  I think something about hibernation comes into play.  So now let's say we are down to 3 to 4 hours of the work day left, let's say 3 cuz hibernation happens more often then not theses days.  Then there's the "honey do" stuff.  Keeping me, I mean the house, stocked with firewood.  A very important job and we will give it a half hour.   Now I have never timed him, but I am sure it takes him at least 1\2 hour every day just to put on and take off his winter gear.  I know it takes me twice that long.....because he tells me!   Evidently he has timed me.  So by my calculation, he has 2 hours left in the day to do mechanicing.  Oh wait, I didn't take into account his daily "meetings" or "conference calls" with his Farmer Friends.  Ok, so that takes the rest of the daylight hours that were left!  No wonder by the time spring comes there isn't anything on the "to do list" marked off!  Oh well, there's always next winter.

Now after doing this, I realize that that leaves way more down time, or in the house time, or together time.   No wonder we feel lucky when we both survive the winter.  But ya know, that's livin' the life......the Farm Life that it. 

Life Thru a Lady's Purse......

FYI...…contents of this blog may not be of interest to my male blog followers.  But by all means, totally feel free to read!  (Yes, I am smiling...)

Have you ever thought about the life of a ladies purse?  Or what a purse says about that Lady?  Ya, me neither..........until the other day.  I was helping my mom switch to a new purse and it got me thinking about all the different purses she has had in her life time and how the contents change through the years.  So this is how I picture her purses through out her 85 years.

Her first purse when she was a little girl, was probably just for church or perhaps Easter.  It was small and in it I'm thinking was a tissue and if she was lucky a penny or two. 
Her next purse was maybe when she was a teenager. It would have been a little bigger but yet still small. The contents were probably tissue, money, comb, and "female item".   
As a young adult, the contents grew, to include tissue, money, brush,"female item", gum, makeup, a wallet, and pictures.
Then as a mother, the size more then doubled to hold tissue, money, hair brush, "female item", cheerios, snacks, credit cards, toys, and wet wipes. 
As a grandmother, the contents included tissue, money, wallet, credit cards, lipstick, gum, candy, lots of pictures, an address book and pen/paper.....and maybe some snacks. 
Now to the preset purse.  I'm not sure what we would call these years, the elder years?  Whatever they are, what's in her purse now is a wallet, credit cards, pictures, tissue, a pad for "leakage", and an extra change of underwear.  (and DO NOT tell her I said this!)
So if you want to know what stage of life a lady is in, just check her purse.  And a little advice......make sure your purse in your "elder"
stage of life is a stylish one cuz the contents are not that flattering. 

Baby it's cold outside......but the shipping must go on.....

I sure did want to call in sick today.  6 degrees out side and I did not want to go out in the freezing elements and work.  But couldn't do that......no one to call when you are your own boss and/or are living with the boss.  Today was shipping day for the yearlings and of course I am my Farmers number one helper (ya right, like he says, I have to be there to make sure he does it right) so I had to be there.
Fortunately, I got a new pair of Carhartt overalls for Christmas, to keep me warm and looking good.  My old pair were mens and were really big and baggy on me.  These are still big, but they are womens and they are purple. (and yes I am smiling)  I still look like a blimp with them on, but I'm a stylin' blimp. 
Loading the yearlings (calves that are about a year old) can be interesting, but my Farmer has developed a pretty good system.  He sorts off about 3 at a time and runs them up into the trailer.  My job is to stand inside the trailer and keep the loaded ones from coming back off and then getting out of the way when more come on.  Oh ya, plus to count them, which seems to be hard for me.  You'd think loading three at a time it'd be easy to keep count, but it's not, for me anyways.  I forget easily.  As far as standing in the trailer as the critters load, I try to be brave as I do this......but really I am not.  This morning I told myself, be brave they are just yearlings and they are not gonna hurt you.  Then I over hear my Farmer telling a new helper that if the animal comes toward you to turn your body so your back is toward it so if and when it kicks, your knees will bend in the right direction.  WHAT!! Have I been told this before?  I know it's very good advice, but now I am spooked.  However I am totally stylin' in my new overalls, so why would one try and kick at me.  Right?  And I was right.  Not one tried to get me....I mean kick me.  Everything went smoothly,  and now they are off  to market which means pay day for us.  Yeappy! 

As I said it was 6 degrees when we left the house, but by the time we were done, the sun was shining, it had warmed up to about 12 degrees and it was a beautiful morning......still cold, but beautiful.   Turns out I am glad I couldn't call in sick.   I really did enjoy the morning.....but DO NOT tell my Farmer.  I can't let him know I enjoyed getting up early with him.....it would totally ruin my image.