Work, Work, Work!

This is Pam's sister, Liz. This picture was taken the night we celebrated Lois's birthday. Liz decided to do pedicures for her Mom and for us. She dressed up for the occasion. Scary, isn't she!! We sat still...very still for our pedicures!

It is pouring rain today and a bit of time has come my way so I am catching up with all of you. I have been extra busy getting the Bull Session catalog together. We decided to print it ourselves this year since we have a brand new laser printer. Well...brand new laser decided to print 25 copies every 15 minutes instead of every minute, so I spent alot of time sitting here and babysitting it. Dell has replaced it! After spending hours in front of the computer, designing and printing, it is hard to close your eyes at night and not see screens, numbers, letter, lines etc. One night I think I printed 3 pages alllll night long. I am a little tired and stressed. Once again, I will be so happy when this sale is over. I am looking forward to March 11 in a big way!

We had a whirlwind trip up to Hermiston last week. The weather was fabulous...65 degrees I believe. It was the same here in the valley and it sure made a big difference with green grass and daffodils. Calving is more than half finished, so that is good. Now we have winter again...rain wind and cold!

The other day we were up on the hill and had a new calf to catch in our pen and weigh, etc...I took a video and would like to put it on here...I think I will need help to figure out how to do that. But I can do pictures! These are some of the calves. See the brown calf...he will turn black as he gets older...I call him, Mocchacino. The other calf is a brand new baby!

Julie has been riding her bicycle with some friends and is up to 17 miles a day. Last Saturday she took a bad spill and landed her knee right on a big boulder...she is laid up with a hugely swollen knee. There is no break but it is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. She is on pain pills and crutches and staying with her Mom and Dad. It is ugly!

Today we will be moving some moms-in-waiting from one place to another. We also have to feed everything silage. Pam drives the tractor, and I am the ground crew...cutting open the bags and taking the plastic bag and the netting down so the tractor can grab it with its big "hand" and put it in the feeder. These bales weigh about 2000 pounds. We will feed about 7 to bales every other day. The silage can not too bad...or very very bad! It takes a very sharp knife to open the plastic as there are about 20 layers of thinly stretched plastice. The job is fun with a sharp knife and terrible with a dull knife.

This is Pam's sister Liz. This is our pedicurist. On Friday night, we celebrated Lois's birthday with pedicures for all...except the guys...they wouldn't join in the fun at all! Liz is a little challenged in the seeing department...

Better get to it!

This is the sign that I designed and it was done by a sign man in Junction City!

It is finally up at the driveway entrance...it looks great!

Driving to hermiston tonight to weigh and ultrasound the bulls.

This is a picture of one of the kittens I saved from certain death last year. He is now king of the red barn. Aidan knows him well!

It is late...I have gotten carried away with this whole blogging thing! Goodnight

Beginning!

Welcome to my blog spot!!

This is a huge learning curve for me. I am told it is easy...we will see!! I want to be able to share what I am doing here, as well as pictures of what is happening...and there seems to be alot happening all the time. I have found that I look forward to the time that I spend in your blogs, and I hope you will enjoy mine as well. I am sure this will also encourage me to take pictures!
So here it goes!
Today was a miserable day weatherwise. It rained all day. I usually start my day about 630 am. I do some yoga exercises first to loosen up my stiff joints. It is working so far as I have not had so much trouble with a sore lower back. I subscribed to Prevention magazine...a small monthly mag that has some very interesting articles on health and exercise...short articles that are easy to read before I fall asleep. Pam and I usually head out for morning chores about 7 or 730. This includes checking the cows and calves on the hill...which includes seeing if there are new calves, taking hay out to the new mom and her baby to keep them away from the barn where it is MUDDY and deep, making sure everything is healthy, tagging and weighing the new babies in the newest contraption...a calf capture cage. I wish I had a video of using this the first time...I laughed so hard...it was very funny. I will get a picture of it tomorrow as there is a calf waiting to be weighed...it was born late this afternoon in the rain and the mud...amazingly they can survive some terrible conditions. We also feed at the red barn...a cow and her twins, and another cow with her calf and the cats...then it is out to check on the first calf heifers, then over to the horse barn to clean up after them and feed. We then come home and do office work, and eat breakfast and that is our "regroup" time. We plan our day. I have learnt that this is not a job that you can "plan your work and work your plan"! As soon as you start to do one job you find there are about 3 other smaller jobs in order to get the big job done.
This is my first post. Bear with me...I will get the hang of it!