Random Photos

I love flowers and I love to take photos of them. There is just something about the vibrant colors, fragile petals and delicate lines of a flower that makes me smile. I snapped these little beauties at The Bunch Ground in Firth.

Ryder, Kinsley and I decided to take a walk the other day. Ryder took his bike, Kinsley took her doll and stroller and I took my camera. It is a great walk except the tenth of a mile from our driveway to the football field. It takes longer to get through that than the entire walk just because I am so paranoid about the kids and the traffic! The greenbelt along the river and trees is great, so peaceful on a Sunday morning. We met a new friend and her two dogs and they walked all the way home with us. It was nice to get away from the house and the kids loved the adventure.

Grain harvest already, seriously? Guess so. This was the scene on July 26th as I came home from Miner Creek. 2nd crop hay is in full swing, grain harvest is just beginning, potatoes will be next, beets and then the cows will come home and hopefully the snow will fly. It is hard to believe how fast life goes anymore.

So one of the categories in the photography portion of the Eastern Idaho State Fair is "Still Life," and I have asked myself and others each year, what is that? I have entered two or three times with various types of pictures, but have never had any success! It may be that I just take crappy pictures, or it may be I just really don't know what falls in to this category. So I took some time and wandered around over the weekend with "Still Life" on my mind. I saw a lot of rusty stuff in my yard, I saw some moose horns, I saw old toys, I saw dead trees and I saw a clothes line. This is one picture I snapped, this is life standing still for a minute or two. This is great, letting the clothes dry in the ever popular Idaho breeze/wind. This is calmness, stillness and still life at our house on the weekends. Just one example of my "Still Life."

I know they are getting big. I know they are adorable. I know they are amazing. I know I love them more than life itself.

View from my backyard. I love Idaho and my memories that are here.

You know how everyone has a friend or two that they have known a long time? Well, I have two ladies that I may not talk to on a regular basis or go shopping with each weekend, but they both will always have a place on my "friend" tree. That is because I was born in April 1980, one was born in May 1980 and the other was born in August 1980 and that is exactly how long we have known each other, our whole lives. We all three grew up together, played together, went to school together, fought together, played basketball together, drank beer together, and so on and so on. Now we are all grown up, have kids of our own and lives that are speeding by. The one friend basically saved me when I called her for her opinion on some health questions, she referred me to a specialist that got me on the right track and I have never felt better. I will always be thankful that she answered the phone that one day that I called her, when I hadn't called her for several years. The other friend is always good for a laugh. I can still think back to funny things she has said over the years and get a smile on my face. I saw a post from one of these ladies on Facebook (which I am new to and don't really know how to use). She had recently moved to Washington with her son and she was wearing and Idaho necklace. She looked amazing. She looked beautiful. I suddenly realized that friends don't always have to call you, they don't always have to be in touch, they should just always know that they touched your life in some way or another. And those two did.

Our Hearts are Heavy for the Joe Pratt Family today. We wish them all the best and full recoveries. Please keep them in your thoughts.

"Live Life for Today, Because You're Not Guaranteed Tomorrow"
 

Catching Up

So in a recent study I read it said to be a good, active, informative blogger you need to blog 2 times per week. Whoa, I did pretty good at that number during winter, but then I fell off the face of the earth! The last post was from Kinsley's birthday, the last part of March. Let's do a quick catch up, fast forward to get us all on the same page + + + + + + + + +

So after Kinsley's birthday we had Easter, what a great time. We decorated eggs, went to an Easter egg hunt and the kids were spoiled rotten. Oh ya, and I hit the big 34 mark! That's my age, not measurements! April was busy as always, we finished up calving, branded calves and began spring time work around the yard, hay field and pasture.

 A common sight around the branding chute when your processing heifers and steers. We cut out the ear tags from the previous owners and put in our ear tags so we are identified as the owners. This is a small representation of several calves journey's to our branding chute.

Ryder is always interested in helping. He's cutting out the old ear tag in our new replacement heifers and then Wade will put in their new orange tags. We call them "earrings."

 

Then we all start itching to get the cattle turned out on grass and that last month seems like it takes forever. Life at work in April for me is starting to slow down and we are coming up for air. We have most of the farmers and ranchers set up for their new operating year and they are starting to work their fields and some are even planting spuds, yep in April.

 

On to May. More branding at the Christiansen's. It's a family event, most of the grandkids are there (if they are old enough). Whitney is old enough to keep track of the calf numbers, Lauren is insistent on pushing calves, which is crazy. You don't ever want to show an interest in that terrible job! Ryder is pushing cows up the chute with Grandpa. Grandma is organizing tags, vaccines and helping Whit. Tiffany and Todd are in charge of the calf chute crew. Thank goodness for Blackfoot's high school's football coach, Stan Buck, he sent a couple of the football players out to push calves. These boys are lifesavers. Tiffany and I decided not too many years ago that we wanted to retire from our supervisory calf pushing/pee on (literally) positions! And Wade, Dad and I worked the momma cows. It was a great day. Good food, good people, good times.

 

Ryder also graduated from preschool, what a big day. We are so proud of him. He did a good job and made some great friends. He has a late birthday so he will go one more year of preschool, so he's a little bummed about that.

 

Finally, the snow is melting, it is warming up and the grass is growing. Time to load the cows on the trucks and take them to the hills!! Probably in the top 5 of the best days of the whole year! No more hay, no more standing in the blowing dust, no more worrying about them every single day. Turn them out and for us with our full time, town jobs, see them in a week! Heifers were all turned out in Wapello and Idaho Falls, yippeeeee!

 

We had a rough end to May. Ryder startled his horse and was kicked on a Friday, his horse shook while we were riding and he fell off on Saturday, there was a propane gas leak at Wallace's ranch while they were sleeping on Saturday night and a 2 hour cattle job on Sunday took around 5 or 6 hours! It was a hell of a weekend, but we all survived, we figure Ryder used at least 2 of his lives.

 

And then there came June. School is over. Loan season is over. Cattle are on the range. My goodness, things are looking up. Oh I forgot to mention. I planted a garden this year, about the first of May. I had no idea what I was doing, never grown anything in my life besides cattle and grass! I planted peas, carrots, radishes, onions, potatoes, corn, pumpkins and sunflowers! Thanks to Leslie, the internet and Arlin, my garden jumped of to a good start. I thought my peas were a total crop failure, but turns out they were just late bloomers. Since we live on the river bottoms, I picked rock on my hands and knees and a 5 gallon bucket for 2 weeks! I still have a lot of rock, but now I have veggies. I also attended the Idaho Cattle Convention. I had an excellent time and met a lot of great producers. We went on a range tour to Harriman State Park and Mesa Falls.

 

July has been a whirl wind. We had a great 4th. Bill and Susan bought the kids a trampoline, so we slept on it for the 4th, set off fireworks and went to Bear World. We have been trying to keep track of cows and bulls, seems like one or two of them always seem to wonder to the neighbors! The garden looks amazing, but is sadly slowing down. I got 3 crops of radishes which was really fun for Wade since he is the only one that eats them. We have tons of carrots, onions and finally peas! We also dug red potatoes. We have had a blast digging/picking fresh veggies and taking them right in the house to have dinner. Kinsley is my garden buddy. She rarely misses a chance to go out with me. She picks the weeds and sings most evenings, it is so fun to listen to her. Not many of the peas make it all the way into the house between Kinsley, me and Wade eating them. The carrots just keep coming and coming. I made Grandma Janet a batch of creamed carrots on Sunday with ham. And on Saturday I made peas and potatoes for Grandma June. What a great journey we have had growing a garden, weeding, harvesting, fertilizing, watering, it has been really fun. I have decided that my garden time is my "quiet time." Everyone needs quiet time, that is it for me!

 

 

I also helped with a dinner and presentation for Ag in the Classroom for 25 teachers from across the state of Idaho. They traveled the state in a weeks time to learn more about Idaho Agriculture. I had a great time talking with them and listening to their stories. Something that I think we all forget as Idahoans is that just because we all live or grow up in Idaho doesn't mean we all understand and know everything about agriculture. So don't ever miss an opportunity to educate someone, that wants to be educated, about our great industry and what we have to offer and what we contribute to our world.

 

 

I also had the best time riding with my brother and my dad a week or so ago. I hadn't rode with those two for years. I offered to go with them to get some heifers in that had escaped and it turned in to like a 5 or 6 hour ride. We got  some heifers out of one field and drove them to the one they were supposed to be in, then we rode another 45 minutes to another field to get 8 more heifers out of the neighbors, then while riding back we found 7 more that of course instead of running down the road and through the gate, ran across the road and up the canyon, straight through the trees and to the top of the mountain. My poor horse was exhausted. He is used to flat ground over at Crane's Flat, then I take him to Miner Creek where it is straight up and straight down, he was a trooper. He is such a nice horse. He gets going just a little faster than I like down hill sometimes, but he will go anywhere and do anything, I love that horse! The whole day was like "old times." We used to ride like that every weekend. Like my dad said, "that is why we all had nice horses." Isn't that the truth! It brought back the best memories and I walked away so tired and had such sore knees, but it was stinkin' awesome! I will make more time to do more of that!

 

So this is a very long post and I know I have rambled and rambled till it is a little embarrassing, but I am really trying to decide where to take this blog. I don't have a lot of followers or interested people, but I do have a lot to say. I started the blog in 2009 to show off my baby boy. My baby boy is two weeks from turning 5 and I have realized that so much in my life and my way of thinking has changed. My inspirations and dreams have mutated and I am at a loss for where the blog should go. My family is my pride and joy. My lifestyle (cattle, hay, work, gardening) is a big part of my story. I feel the need to inform those that don't know where their steak, bread and potatoes come from. I have been inspired by several ranching ladies to expand message, but I don't want to venture too far from my family showcase. Bare with me while I try to find the balance between these two worlds. Read, share and give me feed back on what should, should not or could be included.

 

Love to all. Good times. Good friends.