Miracles in progress

Not just my brave hat, but my boots too. 

Climbing up into that loft is not one of my favorite things to do.  Turns out my fear of heights is nothing compared to my fear of walking through the pasture with a bale of hay in my hands.  The animals know what hay looks like.  They know it is their food during the winter months.  They love to walk beside the hay as the farmhand (that would be me today), finds the best place to serve the meal in the pasture.  We have a bale ring we can put the hay in, but right now we prefer to put several small patches of hay out in the pasture to give equal eating opportunities and to minimize "the drop zone" effect (you know one massive area of future compost material).  We have a few animals that think they should eat until they are personally stuffed, before anyone else should be able to enjoy even a morsel.  Making these small piles really helps everyone to get a fair share of hay.

Today I hadn't even walked through the gate to the pasture where the animals were mingling when I was spotted by Gypsy.

Gypsy is Rodi's horse and she loves that man.  She will follow him anywhere.  She terrifies me, and she knows it.

I took a deep breath and kept walking.  I walked as if I wasn't scared.  I walked as if I didn't have a care in the world.  I was just there to put out the hay and that is a simple thing to do (in my dreams).  Gypsy tried to take a sample of the hay as I passed by.  I just told her "no", and kept walking.  Soon all the animals were coming towards me.  My herd of cows looked ready to pounce.  Tonka with his bullish ways started using his horns to push the other cows out of his way and to the back of the line.  Even with all this commotion going on all I could think about were Gypsy and Rosebud and how they were following closely behind.  Gypsy snorted and I swear I almost lost my breakfast.  I put the hay down and began to break it apart into sections. I grabbed the first section and walked it across the pasture a bit.  When I looked to see who was following me I was dismayed but not surprised, to find all the animals over munching on the main block that was still waiting for me to distribute it into several areas.  This would mean I was going to have to go back over there, bend down to pick up more hay, and not be trampled by the cows and most importantly the horses.  In their minds I would be stealing their food, I am quite sure.  Certain death was in store for me, I just knew it.  I remembered I had on my brave hat and confidently went in for the hay.

SUCCESS!

I didn't die, and I even found it easier to breathe than I had expected.  I was able to go back to the now smaller original bale several times.  I was almost giddy looking at the animals as they all found their way to their own little piles of hay.  I did that.  I made them happy.  Way to go me!  

As I started to walk away I noticed Gypsy was following me.  Eeeekkkk!  Was she ushering me out of her pasture?  I turned around, tried my best to wipe the fear out of my eyes, and asked her what she wanted.  Then.... she brushed her nose on my jacket.  I wasn't sure what to do so I gave her nose a little rub.  Turns out she was okay with that.  She turned and went back to her pile of hay.  I started to walk back to the barn when I noticed Carley J in the yard no longer tending to the bunnies and chickens.  She had stopped in her tracks to watch such a rare sight, her mother in the pasture with the horses.  So excited about what had just happened, she actually told me she was proud.  My heart melted just a little.  Okay a lot.

I decided we needed proof of my adventures.  I handed her my phone and told her to snap a few pictures.  Then I did the unthinkable... I walked back towards the pasture, back towards Gypsy.  Gypsy saw me and decided to meet me halfway. 

I am still fearful of these beautiful creatures, so it is not yet a miracle.

More like a miracle in progress.

Daily Rodeo Round-up

No, I haven't been missing, nor has Rodi whisked me off to some exotic location.  I have been here, doing my everyday stuff.  It seems like my days have become busier and busier.  In reality I think I am just getting slower.  Slower at getting out of the gate in the morning, slower when it comes to getting the kids going, slower, just slower.

I think Jack has noticed this, and is doing his part to keep me on my toes.

See that twinkle in his eyes?  Okay maybe that was just the camera's doing.  Still he has been hard at work this week keeping me on the go. The picture was taken this morning.  That is my bull.  That is not our field.  This is however the same place that Rodi and I found him at 8:30pm last night as we were returning home.

This is me, sporting my oh so lovely morning look.  Jack doesn't care what I look like, he just wants the tiny bit of sweet feed that is in the bucket.  Of course I will just tease him with it all the way back to the gate.

My plan was working great until we arrived at the gate and were greeted by....

Tonka!

He had that "let me at him" attitude going on.  He was snorting and making all kinds of noises.  One second of eye-contact and our big baby (a.k.a. Jack) took off running.  I didn't know who to be more upset with, Jack or Tonka.  

At this point I became so frustrated I had to call in the big guns.

Mr. Rodeo himself.

It didn't take him long and he had all the animals where they belonged, no sweet feed needed.  He fed them all some hay, gave them a rub or two behind their ears, and reminded them it wasn't nice to play games with his mama like that.  

Thanks, son!

Tricky, tricky

If there is an animal bound and determined to escape, it is Jack.  He is 16 months old and is currently for sale.  I think maybe he knows he is for sale.

See him just pretending I am not there.

So cute, but so ornery!

It really isn't his fault.  We need another line of electric fencing just a bit lower.  

Still he is the only one who goes through the barbed wire to get out.  

Does that make him brave?

He gave KC a quick run through the neighbors pasture.

KC is a good cattle herder though, he quickly had Jack headed back across the road.

Soon he was back where he belongs, sharing a mid-day snack (the bait) with Gypsy, and telling the tales of his fun on "the outside".  

I tried to tell them it wasn't polite to talk with their mouths full, but they live in a barnyard, pretty sure those rules don't apply.

I will miss my Jack when he finds his new home.  

He really can be the life of the party.

BUSTED!

Who says the grass is greener on the other side?

JACK DOES!!!

Looking at Tonka in the background, he thinks it looks pretty lip smacking good.  

Dodge (Mr. Innocent) is trying to tell Jack that he is busted. Jack is too "bull-headed" to care.

At least he didn't crawl all the way through, as he has in the past.  I didn't feel like a round-up today.  Bless his heart, he wanted to be nice to me today.

Oh Those Boys...

Something must have been in the air today...

Tonka, our handsome Zebu, decided he wanted to rumble

And rumble he did.

Jack didn't seem to mind.  It must be a boy thing.

Then there is Bogart, king of hide and seek.  Yes, he is back.   His fun little game was over at about 5:30am when is inner desire to crow beat his desire to hide from the people.

He is quite handsome so I didn't scold him too much.

What I didn't expect, was that he was going to invite the "Hen Squad" over for a party in the limo!

The "Hen Squad" apparently doesn't love Bogart's mini-harem.  I had to be the mean parent and put an end to the "party" before someone got hurt.

I think I hurt Bogart's feelings.  When I booted the big girls out, Bogart left the limo too.  I let him wander for a bit but soon his fun was over and I needed to get him back to the limo.  This little guy is FAST!  My sweet little Kate took a picture of me chasing him... no you will not be privy to such a horrifying sight. 

Even the "Hen Squad" ran for cover, or maybe they were just racing for the best seats in the house to watch "the game".

 Kate did take a nice picture of Bogart and me. His hair looked much better after all that running than mine did.  I declared him the winner.

 It could be the beginning of a great friendship.

Year 5 of a life sentence

For those of you who don’t know, I grounded Rodi from playing basketball when we were living in Germany.  It was early in 2005 when the grounding took place.  The reason at the time was due to the fact that he had to cut his wedding band off his finger.  He had been getting some injury or another every time he played the silly game and the cutting of the wedding band was my last straw.  I grounded him, simple as that.

A few weeks later while he was doing an exercise with his unit I received a call from the medical officer of his unit.  This is something a wife never wants to get after 10 at night, well at anytime.  I was told he had badly injured his leg and was in an ambulance on his way to the Emergency room.  My heart sank.  I was VERY pregnant which didn’t help, as my emotions were all over the place. I was imagining the worst.   Towards the end of the phone call I hear the Dr. say  “he was playing basketball when the injury happened.”  BASKETBALL!  Oooh I went from being scared for my husband,  to being extremely mad.  Then the Dr. told me he knew about the grounding, he (the Dr.) had assured Rodi that the grounding didn’t apply once you crossed a country border.  HA!

Now fast-forward 5 years and stop when you get to Monday, September 27, 2010.  You would think that we would be done with that knee injury, instead we found ourselves in the hospital getting Rodi prepped  for surgery.  Apparently when he had surgery in 2005 the tear in his ACL had not been repaired.  (go ahead and say it... ouch!)  So my superhero, my rock, my Mr. Everything, has been walking around in pain for 5 years with a torn ACL.  He has only played basketball once (that I know of) since that injury, and he hurt his foot.  I made him go to the hospital for x-rays, he wasn't happy with me.  My theory - commit the crime, do the time.  I am serious about this grounding thing.  His is a life sentence.

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  I can't stand to see him in pain, and he was in plenty of it. 

There was one bright spot in our day....

Bertie Mae!

No, we didn't take her with us to the hospital.  I think they frown upon things like that.  The nurse was checking Rodi in and when she got to the part where she had to check his feet for swelling she noticed his black toenail.  She asked if he had dropped something on his foot.  We couldn't help it, we both started to giggle.  She looked at us oddly.  We then proceeded to tell her that our cow had stepped on his foot.  The expression on her face was priceless.  I guess not that many patients at the military hospital have cows at home.  We almost busted out laughing when she asked us how we got the cow's foot off of Rodi's foot.  Poor Bertie Mae she didn't mean to step on his foot, she removed her foot just as fast as she put it down.  Why the nurse thought Bertie Mae would just stand there with her foot like a brick on Rodi's foot is a mystery to me.  It did make me smile though.  Smiling is a good thing when the rest of your day is going to be full of stress.

His surgery was the longest three hours, but he came out just fine and I can breathe again.  He thinks it is silly for me to be worried about a simple knee surgery.  Like I said he is my superhero, my rock, and my Mr. Everything, even a simple surgery puts him at risk, therefore I WILL worry.

Now we move on to recovery... I am sure there will be tales to tell in the coming days.

Little Jack is Growing Up!

 Found this baby picture of Jack.  Wasn't he such a sweet little bull calf?

Just a short year later he seems so big, for something miniature anyway.

A Little Pick-Me-Up

Sharing is good, at least that is what I keep trying to teach the kids.  This morning however, I am reminded that some types of sharing are not so good.  For instance, germ sharing... yeah, not so good.

I am miserable.  My head is stuffy, my throat is scratchy, and I just wanna stay in bed all day.

I did make it a point to go out this morning and enjoy the animals and this beautiful preview of fall weather.  The sun was shining and the breeze was gently blowing my hair, reminding me how desperately in need I am for a cut and style.  

Rosebud looks like she needs a good combing of the wild mane too.  

 I can just hear the thoughts running through her head... "People, do you not understand the importance of looking your best for photos?"

Sorry Rosebud.  We will make sure your next photo shoot isn't so "candid"

Gypsy looks like she is a tad irritated with the impromptu photo shoot too.  Oh well, even with a messy mop they are both still beautiful in this morning light.

I interrupted Jack's breakfast.  Where are my manners this morning?   I can't help it, my head is stuffy and I am not thinking straight.  I do hope the animals are forgiving.

 I think Tonka is giving me the cold shoulder.  What do you think?

The animals seem to be less than thrilled with my morning invasion with the camera.  For me, it was fun.  I love watching them through the lens and seeing bits and pieces of their personalities come out.  They are all very aware of me and my camera.  

While I was off having fun, pretending to not be sick.  The "boys" were doing this...

We still have round bales to pick up, but the square ones are now nicely tucked away.  

On my way back to the house I stopped by the garden area to see if our late season surprise was getting any bigger.  This year's garden has been full of surprises.

We didn't get one melon all summer long.  Now that we are in September... the vine is full of blooms and this melon just gets bigger and bigger.  We also have bell peppers and jalapeños popping up left and right.  It is a mystery to me but one that made me smile this morning.  Anything that can make me forget for just a minute that I am not feeling well is a good thing.

Saying Farewell and Welcome Home

Yesterday Rodi and I (wearing our most photographed t-shirts) drove about 3 hours up the road to meet up with his dad, Jim.  Jim had driven to Virginia from Iowa and needed to be a passenger for a bit.  Rodi took over the helm behind the wheel of the '85 Dodge pulling the stock trailer with our Zebu who had been on an extended vacation in Iowa.  Jim found his spot in the passenger seat of the mini-van while I acted as a personal driver navigating the way back to our place.

                         

We took the two younger ones with us for the drive and riveting conversation.  Did you know that an eight year old and a five year old can fill 6 hours with all kinds of interesting facts?  One right after another, without pausing to take a breath.  Oh it is true, it just might be why we love them so much. *smile*

If you read my previous post... you know that this trip didn't end as planned.  Nope, not at all.  Just a good half an hour from our place the '85 Dodge DIED!  Jim and I had to head home retrieve our truck, and drive back to Rodi and the Zebu.  We left the dead truck for the night, hooked the stock trailer up to our truck and headed home.

There was no rest for the weary today.  There was much to be done.  The truck had to be rescued from the side of the road and brought back to our place to rest in peace.  There was also the building of panels on our truck that needed to be done.  Jim would be driving away at some point in the day in his new truck (my truck o' memories) with 2 of our Dexter cows, Bertie Mae and Miracle.

Build it, and build it well boys!

Grandpa gives KC a hand

Well done... Almost finished

This picture cracks me up.  It would appear Koen is saying a little prayer as he sits on the chute. Something like "Heavenly Father, please let this work"

Here we go... Load 'em up!

SUCCESS!!!

One last family picture in front of our truck.

The new owner is heading off into the sunset and looking forward to a smooth travels on this leg of the journey.  Bye Jim, thanks for all your help this weekend!!!

Jack our one remaining dexter (brother to Bertie Mae, son of Miracle) would like to remind you to ....

Always be on the lookout!  

He is sensing something is up...

and it was!

OH MY!  What a meet and greet this was.

Tonka and Jack had a VERY SHORT battle to prove who was boss of the barnyard.

Jack is now sulking, stomping around, and trying to still look like the king of the hill...

but the title belongs to 

 

TONKA

I have tried to explain to Jack that Tonka is three years older making it a seniority thing, but I don't think Jack cares much about seniority.