Since I don't have a lot of time before I leave and am trying to get this done before I might not have internet access for a while, I thought I would do a compilation of some of the happenings on the ranch this summer that I didn't get a chance to blog about. So I won't follow my usual form with a lot of writing, but instead a lot of pictures. Hope your computer is able to load all of them!
You just never know what might show up at this ranch. We have had stray dogs, stray cats, stray people, all kinds of strays, but never before have we had stray sheep show up. Grandma came in one morning and said there were 12 sheep that wandered into the driveway and they looked hot, thirsty and hungry. I took the girls out to see them.
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| Petting the very tired sheep. |
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| Mackenzie inspecting the sheep and the sheep inspecting her. |
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| I'm hot, thirsty, hungry, and tired. Please take care of me. |
We knew where the sheep had come from. The tribe owns some land up the road from us and for the past several years they have had a sheep rancher bring his sheep in to graze off all the toad flax weed. This land is up on the mountain side and is quite dry. The rancher comes all the way from Ohio at the beginning of the summer, drops off his sheep, sheep dogs, horses and sheep herders. Then he comes back at the end of the summer and hauls everything away. The sheep herders stay in a tiny camper trailer and herd the sheep around. This summer was extremely dry and hot, so quite a few of the sheep died of heat exhaustion and the sheep got out quite a bit into the neighbors' land. Apparently the sheep that showed up at Mom and Dad's decided they were tired of the dry dusty ground and headed for greener pasture!
Mom and I took the four wheelers and the girls up to where the sheep herders' camp was to let them know that some of their sheep had escaped.
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The Great Purinese sheep dog checking Marina out. Grandma is talking to the sheep
herders in the right corner. You can see how dry and dusty the ground was. |
The girls had lots of fun in Grandma's garden this summer. After living in Galena where it is VERY expensive and hard to get fresh produce, we have been enjoying the fresh produce from the garden immensely!
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| Helping Grandma and Grandpa pick strawberries |
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| The Chive Monster! This girl loves chives! |
Whenever the girls would write to Grandma during the year last year, they would ask her if they could help her pick raspberries if we came down for the summer. They got plenty of chances to fulfill their wishes this summer!
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| Aubrey is a great raspberry picker |
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| "Yeah, I found some!" |
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| "I can't wait to eat these with a bowl of ice cream!" |
The girls have enjoyed the pond so much this summer!
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| Swimming in the pond with their cousins. |
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| Aubrey loves doing the chores and spending time with the animals. We actually saved this cat (Peaches) from near death. We fed her and took care of her and now she is one of the very few tame barn cats. There are lots of barn cats but most of them are wild. |
Some more garden pictures later on in the summer.
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| That zucchini is this big Mom! |
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| Our bountiful supply of summer squash. |
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| "We're soldiers, Mom and the zucchini makes a good gun!" Wish I could get them to always say, "Yes Mam!" |
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| Such joy! |
The girls have been asking me all summer if they could get their hair cut. Sorry Dad, I know you like long hair, but they requested it. The older two also had to get glasses this summer, so they will have a whole new look!
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| Marina - Before |
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| Marina - After |
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| Mackenzie - Before |
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| Mackenzie - After |
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| Aubrey - Before |
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| Aubrey - After |
We went down to the Hamilton fair to watch the girls' cousin show his pig.
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| Colton did a great job of showing his first pig. |
The girls have enjoyed playing in the same tree house I spent many hours playing in when I was little. I made many concoctions and thought I was quite the homemaker in this tree house.
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| The girls and I enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon. Hanging out by the tree that holds the tree house. |
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| My pride and joy! I love you girls! |
You know fall is near when it is time to wean calves. Since Dad is gone, we all pitched together and helped wean the bull calves. As soon as Dad gets home, he has to haul them to a feed lot where they will be fed together with other bulls who are in a sale together in February. The feed lot has different requirements for shots they have to be given and in order to register them, the weaning weight is gathered for record keeping.
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| Uncle Shannon, weighing a bull on the scale. |
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| Our Record Keeper. |
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| Aubrey's record keeping of some of the bulls. |
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| Cousin Tyler entertained the younger ones by having them pound nails into the ground. |
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| Crowding the bulls up the shoot so we can give them their shots. |
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| Aunt Jeannette relaxing while she waits and Cousin Blaine practicing his balancing skills. |
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| Uncle Shannon and Myself giving shots. |
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| "Well hello there! What do you think you are doing? So you think you want out of here do ya?" |
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| "Not before I give you a shot!" |
Last Sunday we had a little time to relax. We had a picnic at a lake with my brother and his family after church and watched the movie Planes with some friends in the town of Plains!
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| This curved tree makes a perfect seat! |
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| Or something to climb on! |
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| Marina, enjoying the rocks and the lake. |
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| My handsome brother, Shannon. |
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| Blaine, Aunt Jeannette, Tyler, and Uncle Shannon |
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| My Mom looks so happy in this picture! |
When I was in high school I helped Dad build an elk fence along the mountain side and hay pasture. Deer and elk have been crashing into it and putting their horns into it so much that it is time to build a new one. Only this one is bigger, better and stronger. There have been about 150 to 200 head of elk spotted at one time this summer. Take that many elk and let them graze on all your hay ground and soon you will not have any feed left for your own cows, so that is why we are building another elk fence. Hopefully this will keep them up on the mountain and off the hay field. This year there is even an elk calf that many have spotted that is all white. I have yet to see the albino elk calf. Because the ranch is on the reservation, we are unable to hunt the elk even though Mom and Dad own the land and it has been in the family for over 100 years. One of my brother in-laws is native so he brought a few hunters with him and got a few elk the other day. There are still a lot more from where they came from, so time to get that fence done!
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| Grandma working hard at putting clips on the woven wire. |
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| Me putting wire clips around the strong steel pipe posts that should last much longer than wood posts. |
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| My tools! |
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| The girls had a blast playing hide n seek in the haystack while we were working! |
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| Uncle Shannon drilling holes in the steel pipe posts to attach an insulator for the electric wire. |
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| Part of the fence that is all done. It has barb wire, woven wire, more barb wire on top, and then 3 strands of electric wire. Think that will keep the elk and deer out? |
We had the pleasure of one last visit from Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Benni! We will miss you. Thanks for taking the time to come down and say good bye! We enjoyed the evening with you!
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| The girls with Grandma Benni and Grandpa Bruce |
Just a quick story about the cat Aubrey is holding. We had a stray cat show up this summer at the ranch. He was really tame and friendly and stuck around so we adopted him. The girls got really attached to him since most of the barn cats are wild around here and he was one of the few tame ones. He was black with white paws so the girls named him Mittens. The night that we dropped Grandpa off at the airport to fly up to Galena, we came home and found him dead on the county road right in front of the house. The girls were so sad and cried and cried. A few days later here comes the cat that Aubrey is holding who looks like he could be a brother of Mittens but is all black. He is super friendly and the girls loved him immediately! They named him Midnight. Aubrey said, "It is like God knew Mittens got ran over so he sent us Midnight! Thank you God!"
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| Aubrey showing Maggie off to Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Benni. |
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| Geese are starting to flock and fly South. Fall has definitely begun! |
We are going to be the odd balls. While most people go South for the Winter and birds fly South to get away from the cold, we are heading North instead. Right into Winter I am afraid. In fact I had a friend tell me it snowed in Galena today. Most likely it melted right away, but still SNOW! Ugh, I don't think I am ready for snow yet. Good thing I love my husband so much and the people of Galena! We fly out today and will be in Galena tomorrow afternoon. I have mixed feelings. Sad to leave family and the ranch, but excited to see everyone in Galena, especially the Love of My Life!
Signing off for a while as we don't have internet hooked up yet in Galena and I am sure I won't have time to write a blog for a while. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!
Please Pray For:
Safe travels both for the girls and I as we travel North and my Dad as he travels South
That we would have...
Endurance!
Patience!
LOVE!
That moose would be provided, especially for those who lost all their meat supply because of the flood. A few moose have been shot but not a lot as of yet.
