She got the traditional prickly cedar tree (very cute).
Her husband T had gotten himself a 4 wheeler (not for Christmas), and was letting everyone take it for a spin.
V could not keep from grinning for some time after. I think we're in for trouble when she's old enough to drive.
Well, I've quit hanging ornaments on the tree. I was a little more selective this year due to the fact the tree I got seems to have weak branches. Therefore, I limited the number of heavy things.
I usually put out these glass balls from my grandmother in a special spot so they don't get lost among everything else.
This is my favorite nativity. I got it a few years ago at an auction. E likes to arrange the scene in a circle.
J started with V's heifer.
She put up a little fight but by the end of the session V was able to lead her some.
E's steer was next.
He was a little more stubborn than V's. He would just brace himself where J couldn't pull him.
He did stand tied for E to brush and feed.
Sorry for the sporadic posts, like everyone else, we're busy getting ready for Christmas.
They played surprisingly well. Yes, all the children in this picture are in 6th grade. E is in the 2nd row peeking over the stand.
This is the convoy of trailers leaving our farm for a neighbor's who has scales and a place to load a tractor trailer.
This may have been a bad weekend to send them. There were blizzard warnings and the temperature was below zero in Nebraska.
Happy 12th Birthday E!
Then about 30 minutes to run the water into the tire trough.
Then J has to try and empty it completely so there will be nothing to freeze.
These pictures are from "over the hill." You can't see this from the road so it feels very isolated. It's also where most of our Christmas trees in years past came from.
This involved getting 100 calves up, through the chute one at a time, giving 2 vaccinations, and tagging with an EID (electronic identification) tag. 
I had to keep up with the EID tags, record the number and the corresponding calf ear tag.
This is all for the age and source verification program so we get a premium at slaughter.
It's a good thing the score board doesn't show up here well enough to read. Suffice it to say, it's a good thing we even made it into double digits.
J has borrowed a 250 gallon water tank that fits in the back of the pick-up truck to start hauling water to fill the 500+ gallon tire troughs up.
We vaccinated and dewormed the cows,
vaccinated,
implanted,
and castrated the calves.
With V and E's help, we worked 46 cows/heifers, and 35 calves in 3 hours.
At least the girls, plus friend J, were able to enjoy the sleds they got for Christmas last year and never got to use.
The wind is supposed to pick up to >20 mph. I'm glad J has gotten a lot of wood.
I guess it's time to do away with the pumpkins and start on Christmas.
I forgot to take her in yesterday for a bath so I sprayed her with doggy cologne, brushed her well and took hand sanitiser for any of the kids that petted her to use. Of course all 100+ students petted, hugged, and rolled on the floor with her. The nurse sharing the same room requested she not be in with the dog next year because her plastic baby doll wasn't getting the same attention.
By 8:30 they decided to cancel school. Of coarse this was the time that it stopped snowing.
We bought V's from a neighbor and picked him up today. He weighs 700 pounds.
J picked E's out of our herd. He has been feeding him separate from the ones going out west.
They each have a Hereford heifer to show also. The 5th one at the feed trough is a heifer we are feeding for a beef. As you can see we had a little rain. It had been extremely dry lately so we're not complaining about the mud.
Now I need to finish the pathway. I'm thinking about some type of stepping stone path with pea gravel filling in, retained by the plastic landscape edging.
