Water Issues.....

  This summer, I thought it was my good fortune to be put in charge of checking the cows here at the home place.  We have 250 head of pairs at home for the summer and normally we check them every other day.  I take them salt & mineral, check water, pasture conditions and then monitor the cattle for any sickness.  However, what I didn't know was that the wind wasn't going to fully cooperate for me this summer and keep our tanks full. 

Out of water - time to move them!

  I have spent the majority of my time this summer moving cattle from one pasture to the next and then back again when the tanks were full.  It's been 'special' to say the least!  But, it's also been job security as well.  Mr T has been helping me recently and he can yell at the cattle with the best of them to get them moving. 

Strung out and heading towards the gate.

This little calf was sick this spring, nearly died but looks good now!

Boss Man helped me on this move, he got to herd his Buffalo.

  These pictures are from July, things are not quite as green around since the temps have been in the 90s with no rain for about 10 days now.  I can not complain too much with the cooler temps and timely rains, we haven't had to doctor anything at the home place for sickness (knock on wood) which is huge!  I am looking forward to things cooling off so we can start working the calves thru the chutes for their shots to help keep sickness at minimum and to get ready for weaning!  Fall is on my mind but summer is in the air!

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Orange Beers

A Little Background -

   I went to college saw a lot of interesting things, met a lot of awesome people (and some not so awesome), traveled most of the US and was introduced to Orange Beers.  I feel like I had a pretty well-rounded college experience during my 5 years.  I started out at the young age of 17 as a Freshmen at Laramie County Community College....I turned 18 that Oct.  I went to LCCC for 2.5 years before transferring to Dickinson State University and went there for 2.5 years.   While I was at LCCC, I was introduced to Orange Beers and fell in love!  I later took my love with me and introduced Orange Beer to DSU fellow students.  It was my way of contributing back, lol! 

  Basically, an Orange Beer is just orange juice mixed with beer in a glass.  Some folks like Red Beers, I prefer Orange ones.  It seems like from my experience that folks that really like their Red beers don't like the Orange ones and vice versa.  I was not paid for my research and I donated my time. 

  Here is a sample of what an Orange Beer looks like.

  Hubby even likes them!  It's the only way that I can talk him into drinking Budlight.  We don't drink a lot but we do like a nice cold one on a hot day or when we are having 'one of those' kinds of days.  I usually feel that I am getting my Vitamin C thru drinking these so it's not all harmful to my body. 

  Try them sometime - it will change your life!
 

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Finished Stairway Railing

  Friday while I was away at a Funeral, the Hubby finished up the stair way railing on the upstairs level.  We still have to finish staining it but it's up!  You can now reach the upper level of the house thru the stairs in the house which is a HUGE change. 

Mr T enjoys peeking thru the railing at us or else just throwing toys overboard....working on that!

All up!

  It's nice to have a 'finished' product in the house finally.  We are going to have a built in gate at the top of the stairs.  The idea stems from my grandparent's house where they have a built in gate at the top of their stairs.  You see, right after they bought their retirement house and moved in, Gma got up in the middle of the night, took a wrong turn and fell down the stairs.  Lots of surgeries and prayers later, Gma got better but they put a gate up so this wouldn't happen to anyone again. 

Have a blessed day!
~C~

Making a Little Progress

 Don't usually post on Saturday night's but its been one of 'those weeks' and I thought I should post before I get one of those friendly Facebook reminders!  The week started off with  rain, haying, then a wedding on Thursday and is ending with painting the upstairs.  Hubby graciously finished up priming the remainder of the upstairs while I hauled bales with Boss Man.  Since the priming was done, it was time to get busy on painting the ceiling.  UGH!  I hate ceilings! 

  However we did find a product to help out with those nasty streaks from the rollers.

  You add 8 ounces to 1 gallon of paint and I do have to say that it helps a bunch!

  Doesn't the ceiling look nice so far!  I have two gallons up so far and my neck has a nasty kink in it already.  My mom is coming tomorrow to play with Mr T while I paint and Hubs works on his projects (more on that later). 

  Today, Mr T got his exercise after his afternoon nap by climbing the stairs with two cars in his hand at a time. 

  We opened up a tiny section of the stairwell so we can go up and down stairs inside the house! It's kinda exciting :).  Anyway, here is what Mr T was up with his many trips up and down those stairs.

All lined up in a VERY straight line!

  And I sign off this week with a sneak peak of colors!

  Have a Blessed Weekend!
  ~C~

In the Hayfield

   Hubby cuts the hay down in the hayfield with our Bi-Directional tractor with a header on it. 

 
Boss Man drives the baling tractor.

 We are cross-trained as well!  Hubby helps rake if needed - like when we first moved and I couldn't help out.  If needed I can fill in on the baling however I haven't run this new John Deere baler much.  I had spent a fair amount of time running our Vermeer baler.  Boss Man has to fill in on the swather when we have to help out Hubby since I hate cutting.  When we used to use bar mowers, I would help out during the lunch hour but cutting isn't my thing! 

  The Swather has to run longer hours since it only cuts a 16 ft swath so Hubby stays rather busy during the haying season.  That leaves me time to do the raking, check cows and try to keep Mr T happy.  This year, he has had to go the hayfield which he does enjoy for the first couple of hours.

 Mr T usually rides in the rake tractor with me.

  Mr T either tries to lay down and sleep or sits next to me on this bench and plays with some toys.  We drive the tractor without air-conditioning and at times it is a little on the warm side. But, he has been a trooper so far.  I can't send him in the swather with Hubby since the only place for him to sit is on Hubby's lap and that only works for a short time.  The baling tractor is too loud for him to ride in (I worry about damaging his ears) and that tractor is pretty much limited to standing for him since the only place for him to sit is right by the door and we worry about it coming open.  We have good reason to worry about that since I fell out of the baling tractor (the rake tractor when it was the baling tractor 30 years ago!), the door came open and I fell out.  Scared Boss Man due to the fact that he did not know if he drove over me or not since he couldn't see me after I tumbled out.  Luckily, the tires missed me since I fell far enough away but now we are a little more cautious about letting toddlers sit near a door. 

 

  Anyways, I drive the rake tractor....

 



 

...when it's not stuck.  I tried to go between the fence and the lake which I just barely fit however Hubby had left some tracks which my rake dropped down into.  I didn't have enough traction to pull the rake back up out of the ruts and pull the heavy rushes into a windrow.  Lucky for me though, I had cell service where I was (doesn't happen...cell service that is....on this ranch much) and called Boss Man who called Hubby to come rescue me.  I just needed more muscle power to get the rake closed up and a little pull to get out of the ruts. 

  Needless to say, I don't mind haying but I enjoy seeing a field looking like this....

 

and knowing that we are done with it!

It's back to the hayfield for me again today.  I seen a lot of tracks from Hubby around the soft ground - let's hope that I don't wind up in the same predicament today :)

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Replacement Fridge!

  Almost a month ago after returning from a trip to ND, we came home to our not quite a year old fridge not functioning and all of the food in it, was spoiled.  Not something that I wanted to deal with at 8:30pm after being gone for 5 days.  We have had ongoing troubles with our fridge since we first got it.  First, it was the ice maker that never worked right, so repair man came out and tinkered with it.  Then he ordered a whole new ice maker on the next trip which would not even make ice, that time, he found out the circuit board wasn't functioning proper.  And the troubles just went on from there. 

  We tried to be patient and let warranty do it's job however we were not getting the results we felt like we deserved.  But, there wasn't anything that we could really do on our end but keep talking to the local hardware store that we bought it from to update "G" on our fridge issues.  We had bought all 5 of our appliances from G's store and they were all Whirlpool. 

  When we discovered the fridge had just quit working and placed a phone call the next AM to G to see what our options were.  We each decided to call Whirlpool and see what they had to say.  G got nowhere which was what he expected to happen.   All I got was 9 months of extended warranty and an "sorry about your food spoiling" from Whirlpool....I was not a happy consumer no more! 

  However, G stepped in and offered to help us get a replacement fridge if we took a different model and if I paid the difference in the two models (we wanted to go a smidgen bigger in size) and we paid a small fee for the use of the original fridge for a year.  I thought that was a heck of a better deal than what Whirlpool would do and we took G's offer.

  Last Wednesday, G delivered our new monster of a fridge!  It is a nicer model with better features.  I realize now that I didn't take any pictures of the old fridge to compare but here is the new fridge in all of it's glory! 

Upgraded model with the stainless steel (look-a-like) handles.

Look at all of that fun electronics!

It's dark but that is 29 cu ft of space!!!  Loving it!  The ice maker is entirely in the door which gives me more room.  Also the door storage is deeper which means that the shelves are not as deep.  I think that once I get it organized that I will really like that as well. 

 

Bottom mount freezer storage.  Notice the wording on the bottom middle...In Door Pizza Storage...right up Hubby's alley!!!  I have more dividers in this freezer and I am 'lovin' that as well!!!

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I was using my little point and shoot camera.  I plan on getting pictures of the organized fridge one of these days....when it get's organized and when I actually get to town to get food to put in it! 

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~