Emma

We lost Emma this weekend from a sudden illness.  We don't know how old she was but this was her home for almost 10 years.  I had almost fallen into the trap of getting the children a puppy for Christmas.  But at the last minute I came to my senses and decided to just wait.  The right dog would come along I thought. 

 Emma showed up at the clinic as a humane society spay.  I didn't even see her until she was on the table ready for surgery.  Then, when I did the post op check the next morning I thought, "wow, this is a sweet dog and about the size and type of dog we were wanting."  I took her home to try her out and she was perfect.

She was a beautiful dog inside and out. 

She was a perfect angel whenever I took her to career day. 

She was the official greeter for anything that showed up on a trailer. 

 She loved meeting everyone.

 She made friends with all the animals on the farm both big

and small.

She didn't fetch or herd but she was a terrific doorbell and she never dug a hole or chewed on anything she wasn't suppose to. 

She played with everyone. 

When Bumble and Bea showed up she was an instant friend.

 Even when they were triple her size she was still the boss. 

 And when Kit Kat arrived he had a guardian,

 playmate,

 and companion.

 

We have talked a little bit about getting another dog. 

But J said, "you only get one good one." 

  Emma shows up in the corner of a lot of my photos,

but she made it into my favorite family photo,

 And she is center stage in our hearts. 

The Back 40

I think it has been a day or two since I have talked about the awesomeness of Otoelene.  

 She is my go to horse in any cattle moving situation.   She will go anywhere and never get too upset or excited about anything the cattle are doing.

 Monday, we had to head to the back 40 the gather the 9 head back there so J could sort out a cow/calf pair to move to another farm.

 Of course the cattle were not in a cooperative mood.  They went up the hill to start but then cut back down to the bottom.  I had to drive them along the creek and back up the hill on the other end.

 By this point I was really hoping that J was in position to keep them from cutting back down the hill again.

 And yes, J was right where he needed to be.

 Job well done Otoelene.

 Then Tuesday, we headed out to move the rest of the herd into the back 40.

 This time it was just me and Otoelene.  There was an awful lot of back and forth, and back and forth to get everyone moving the same way.

 But after lots of trips up and down and back and forth we finally got everyone moving in the right direction.

 This was the reason for the move out of the hollow.  It has been so dry that the springs aren't  keeping up with the needs of the cattle.  There is a big creek in the back 40 that they can go to but they just don't like going down the hill to it unless they have to.

Second job well done.  This cow is doing a great job with her set of twins.

Good Help

It's that time of year again when we work our fall calving cows.  They are done calving and getting ready to be bred back.  So the cows get a "breed back" vaccine and deworming and the calves get a 7 way vaccine and the bulls are castrated.  

 But first we had to get them in and sorted.  This is always pretty easy because J has done all the preliminaries the day before and had the cattle already in the smaller lot next to the working pens.

 And he could smile because V and Mike came to help.  J said he felt like he was on vacation with Mike doing all of the heavy lifting.

 He helped pack the cattle into the chute.

 He did the deworming and releasing.

 He brought the calves up the chute one at a time and held them for vaccinating and castrating.

 Everything when smooth as silk.

Thanks V and Mike for such good help.

Just Kit Sunday #111

Just Kit, what else do you need?

A Lot Of Work There

Cracking walnuts by the wood stove in my grandfather's shop is a precious memory to me.  

 Grandpa would drive the tractor pulling a little 2 wheel cart with us grand kids in it up a narrow treacherous road to the walnut trees.

 There we would fill burlap sacks with unhulled American Black Walnuts.

 My modern version is my 4 wheeler and handy cart.

 Then the walnuts were pored out in the driveway and run over several times to crush the hulls.  Then they would lay there for a few days to dry.  Next, grandma would give us gloves so we could pick out the walnuts and hopefully, not stain our hands too badly.

 My little cart load netted about 15 gallons of walnuts.

 Now the really hard part, cracking the nuts with a hammer.

 We use to have grand plans of cracking them and saving the nuts for a snack during a long car trip.  I don't think I was ever able to save more than a small handful.  They were just too good and had to be eaten as soon as I was able to dig a little nugget out.

My will power is a little better now and I am usually able to save enough to top a sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving.

Another Tease

Still no official announcement, just a video for your enjoyment.

In Bloom at the 4R's

Even though our ground is dry as a bone (having a very bad drought here) the continued warm weather has allowed some of my flowers to keep blooming. 

 Despite a couple of frosts my hydrangea still has some pretty blooms.

 E's mum she planted several years ago is still going strong.

And my spirea that I had to prune back in order to paint the deck this summer has shot back up with new blooms.