Another mouth to feed...

Our little farm is growing... What could it be this time???




Wait for it...

This is Gilly the Billy Goat (he came with that name - Gilly doesn't fit our Dukes of Hazzard theme).  The kids would like a couple more - after all there were three billy goat Gruffs.

Back to school

Wow - this summer really went by fast. I have a lot of pics to post and things to write about.  First things first though - today is the 1st day back to school.

Jake is now in 6th grade at the Middle School.  He was excited about school and didn't seem to understand what the fuss was about. He decided to go out for Cross Country this year. 6th grade boys only have the choice of swimming or cross country through the school. (Football is through the town Rec Center)

MaKenna is in 4th grade and is one of the bigger kids. 4th and 5th graders "get to do everything". She was excited to have one of her best friends in her class.  She is going to be a big help to Kyler this year and make sure he is where he needs to be.

Kyler is in 1st grade. Boy time flies... He's excited about going back to school, but does not like the newness and uncertainty that comes with being in a new class of kids and having a new teacher. It will take him a couple days to get use to things. We're going to make it as fun as possible. He'll do awesome and love it when he gets use to things. His teacher is super nice and understands that he is shy.

MaKenna is 9!

Miracles happen everyday...

2 weeks old

1 Year

2 Years

3 Years

4 Years

5 Years

6 years

7 Years

8 Years

9 Years

Eleven - Really?

Wow, time goes fast. Jake is 11 today!

2 Months

1 Year

2 years

3 years

4 Years

5 Years

6 Years

7 Years

8 Years

9 Years

10 Years

11 Years

Just Livin' the Dream

Someone asked MaKenna one time what she had been up to. Her response "Just livin' the dream".  Well, that is pretty much what we've doing.

 This past weekend Steve decided to cut and bale the top 20 acres.  I was rather impressed when we got 70 small bales. I was expecting 10 or something.

As for the calf... we still don't know his name. Its between Pecos Bill and Crazy Cooter. Pecos Bill because he was born the night after all the Tornado warnings and watches. Pecos Bill would be followed by other Folk Tale and historic names such as Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Paul Bunyan, etc.

Crazy Cooter because Steve loves Dukes of Hazzard. We've had a Basset Hound named Flash, black and white cat named Roscoe, another cow named Daisy. This would mean that the next calf (girl) would be Lulu.

Even though Colorado is on fire - both figuratively and literally - I love it here. It has been hot the past couple weeks, mix that with an occasional lightning storm and you've got a crazy fire season. We know some folks that have been evacuated and some who have lost their homes. It's sad and makes me so thankful for my safety and what I have - a home, family, friends, health, etc.

Our Fire Pit at the property. Yes it was so big Shawn could stand in it.

Kyler headed to church

Another fire in the mountains...

Here is a link to a forest fire up Rist Canyon / Buckhorn.  It was 2 acres this AM and then grew fast today to about 5000 acres.

http://www.coloradoan.com/viewart/20120609/NEWS01/306090010/Fast-growing-wildfire-burning-northwest-Fort-Collins

Here are a couple pictures I took this afternoon from the back yard.

 

It's a boy!

Get your attention - ours too.  Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time in a land far far away (called Pueblo) we bought 2 cows - Copper and Moon. Copper is Moon's mother. Copper had recently had a miscarriage (or still born calf), and Moon had recently been exposed (to a bull). We were told that Moon would most likely be pregnant and in a few months, Copper would be ready to try again (to get pregnant).

Fast Forward a few months - we took the cows in to have halters put on them since we don't have a squeeze chute. We also wanted a preg check on Moon. There was no need to check Copper, she had just lost a calf when we bought her.  We were disappointed when our vet told us Moon wasn't pregnant. We eventually decided that was fine and we could try to get Moon and Copper both pregnant in July / August sometime so they would calve early summer (not in the middle of Winter).

Skip ahead to today... Steve went to check the cows, give them water and hay and was surprised to find this....

Copper was pregnant. Guess I should have listen when MaKenna mentioned a couple days earlier that Copper had udders and she hadn't had them showing before.

He had one leg stuck in a prairie dog hole for a couple hours and got pretty hot in the sun. We called our awesome vet and he came and checked the calf out, fed him a bag of milk and gave him some meds for his fever. We watched him today, didn't see him eat anything and he wouldn't take a bottle... so I got nervous and called out vet back out tonight and he fed him again. Hopefully in the morning the calf is sucking and eating from Copper.

Kids are arguing over names... what do you think???

Blackjack
McBean (Sneetches)
Sunny Jim (Too Many Daves)
Puddles (Oregon Ducks)
Lightening (big storm on Thursday night)
Twister (Tornado warning Thursday night)
Tornado  (Tornado warning Thursday night)
Pacos Bill (Tall Tale - Roped a Tornado)
Twilight (born at night)
Double Stuff (Oreo)
and a few others...