Wheat Field Farmers

We just finished silage and will get a good start on wet corn and beans soon, very soon. 

 I thought it fitting to share a few photos of...WHEAT harvest.

 

Only a month behind.

 

These are a few of my favorite things (Sound of Music voice, please)...

 

{The colors}

 

 {My husband and his big, green tractor (sing-song voice again, please)}

{My son and the confidence he gains when he gets to run the grain cart (the machine in the next pic)}

 

 

{Don't know why I love this pic...just do}

{Dirty faces}

{Kids running for a ride in the combine...and the conversations shared that won't be forgotten}

 

 

{The beautiful, blue sky that shows us just how small we are in this world}

 

 

Gosh darn we're blessed.

-Becky

Timber.

 We had our ladies lunch last week at church.  I had the SIMPLE task of adding a little something to the tables.  I went to town, bought a bunch of crap ( in my mind it was going to be beautiful).  Put it on the tables.  Stepped back and thought to myself - YUK!

 

I then removed the failed vision from the tables.  Called Mike and asked if he had time to meet me at home with his chainsaw.  I think he said "sure!"...maybe not.

 

He cut down a tree {it needed to go anyway - two birds} and then cut twenty "disks" from the trunk.  We gathered all the Mason jars we could find.  Added a candle and ribbon to the small ones and flowers to the larger.

 

SO MUCH BETTER....and FREE!

 

 

The dining hall in our church doesn't have much ambience.  We do what we can.

 

For the flowers we used fern leaves, hosta leaves, coneflowers, daisies, purple salvia, sprigs of thyme, and some snow-on-the-mountain...all from our yard.  There was room for more greens in each jar but I was getting stingy with my flowers.  Last year was so dry that I didn't have many...this year I'm appreciating them as they should be appreciated.

...cards out of scrapbook paper with friendship/sister/girly quotes and a copy of

some old pictures we had.

 

We also used 3 yard lengths of 12inch wide burlap for table runners.  Add a funky green napkin, tableware, and the program and it looked complete...as opposed to the first mess-up.

 {I cannot show anyone my first attempt - it was much too sad - you'll have to trust me.} 

 

The kids said that they weren't surprised when I changed everything last minute. Hmmm.

 

Becky

The Answer is Fishing

This past weekend was a test. 

 #5 turned the big 0-4 on Sunday. 

It rained so we made a trip to the big city... Famous Dave's, THE MALL, Barnes & Noble, etc to celebrate.  Everyone had a good time seeing all the fun things to buy {they don't get out much}!!!

On Monday, Memorial Day, we took a fishing trip to a quiet little lake. 

 

Dad spent most of his time tending to poles.

The girls worked together...and they baited their OWN hooks.

 This guy caught a few fish {bullheads}.

  

This guy put the fishing plans into motion and was the only one who didn't catch a thing.

He kept a great attitude.

 

 

His sister was there for comfort.

 

So, the test for the children was-

 

"Which day was your favorite?"

 

Bet you already knew the answer.

 

Monday - the most perfect day.

 

Becky

Working Cattle

It's been a while since I've been inspired to share anything on this forum.  Then many wonderful and surprisingly entertaining thoughts/ideas popped into my head.  The first of these was a photo journal of our family "working" a pen of cattle.  Ya don't just see that everyday...or do you? 

It was then that I chose to check in on my Bestie in Nebraska to see what she had been talking about...you guessed, didn't you?  Working THEIR calves!  Ugh.  I thought I had an original idea.  Not sa much.

I will give J. credit for being first but I have to share our side of the coin since I edited all of those stinkin' pictures.

Here we go-

 Prop open the gate to desired pen of cattle in a mechanical engineering kinda way...

...with a stick.

Hide behind the tractor until they start to come out of the pen.

Wait for the cattle to come out of their pen.

The arrow points to where the photographer (me) was... then they needed my professional help to chase the rest of 'em out.

Now it's time to get these boys moving in the same direction towards the alley and working chutes {up between those two silos, in other words}.  I often times find myself talking to them like Babe talked to the ewes, "Now, if you fine gentleman would kindly walk up the alley in an orderly fashion, I would be forever grateful."  This dialogue is happening in my head.  My fellow cowboys would look at me with disgust if I actually said it out loud.  That's ok.  The cattle KNOW ME.

They are in the alley ready for their tiny little shot to keep them healthy, make them strong, and most importantly, TASTE GOOD. 

 That was cold.

Keep in mind, they haven't been fed yet and it's almost 9:00am. 

Most of them are as pissed off as #1088 here. 

 "They move better if they are hungry."  Tell him that when you're down in the alley with all 1100# of him.  Oh no. Wait.  It's ME that's down in the alley with him.

Oh look...the princesses have arrived...apparently, there was a uniform today.

AND we mustn't forget the basketball.

Pregame talk with Dad.

Thoughts here:

a. No, he didn't go to the "Final Four".  We shop at Goodwill.

b. The kid with the stick has no idea what his dad is saying at this point.

c. The ladies are thinking about doughnuts and how much longer 'til we can go make sumthin' outta duct tape.

Getting the job done.

Fast forward 90 minutes.  Done.  Cattle are back in their pen eating their breakfast. 

Another Saturday morning.

The next three photos are what you get when you hand the 6 year old the camera when you are busy and say, "Put this in the pick-up for me."

Happy trails-

Becky

Opie

It's calving season - my favorite time of the year. 

Some years can be extremely difficult - mostly weather related. Others are as smooth as chocolate pudding and entice you to buy MORE cows for next year!  This is one of those years. 

 Thank Goodness.

However, when Dad comes in and says we had twins, it isn't said with enthusiasm but with some disdain.  One would think that, hellooo, you get TWO calves.  Isn't that better than one?  Not really.  We usually take the weakest of the two away from mama so that she can raise

ONE BIG STRONG HEALTHY BEEF WAGON

and we keep junior as a "bottle calf" until we can find him a new mama.

Here's the only "weakest one" we've had this year (so far).

Opie...

Just born...kids are drying him off and I'm trying to get him to stand up on his own. 

 He weighed in around 80 pounds.  Hard on this chick's back.

Me covered in birthing goo. 

 I didn't even touch my own babies until they'd had a bath. 

Kidding.

The reason I don't get manicures.

My sister calls my hands "man hands".  It took a lot for me to show you these meat hooks.

After he sucked, he was sent to the nursery pen for some toddler TLC.  Works every time. 

Keeps the toddler busy, too.  Win, win.

He gets three of these everyday for awhile.

Then he becomes a playmate for some...acting like the family dog at times...well, except for the fact that this dog likes to suck on everything. 

 NEVER, EVER, EVER wear clean clothes when feeding a bottle calf.

A neighbor lady once told me that no matter how hard we try, "when us farm women go to town we're always gonna have s*#t on us somewhere".  True story.

Opie.

ahhh...farmlife.

Becky

Centerpiece

Oh my goodness I have SO patted myself on the back for the creation of this centerpiece for our Christmas Day celebration.  Forgive me if I seem to be bragging, but honestly, I am.

Our dining table extends to 10 feet long and I wanted something to completely fill the space...well, leave a little room for eating.  I was checking in on Donna at Funky Junk during a mind-numbing blog surf and found her centerpiece.  It was perfect!  I changed the theme a bit for my vision.  Check it out!

 Obviously, I went with the baking thing.  I had a few of these things but a stop at one of my favorite antique stores filled in the gaps.  By the way... this "favorite antique store" of mine sent me an actual "thank you for the business this year" Christmas card.  Can you guess who opened it before I got to it?  That's right.  It was Mike.  Now can you imagine what may have been running through his head when he figured out who it was from?  Trouble right here in River City.  Actually, he just laughed because someone ratted me out about my shopping adventures.

I had to give the owner some grief about letting my husband in on my shopping habits.  I warned Mr. Shop Owner Man that he had better keep our antique/junk dealing relationship on the down low or he may never see me again.  He of course realized that was on empty threat but smiled and gave me 20% off my purchase.  I guess I'll go back. 

Most of the greenery is real.  Just went out and snipped off some branches from the shelter-belt.  Don't really know why I haven't done that before.  Real stuff gets thrown away and you don't have to STORE it!  Brilliant!  It smells good too.

I set the whole thing up on a muslin table runner.  It really cannot be moved with ease.  If I would have planned better I would have set up a little wooden number of some kind to assemble everything on top of...next year.

The cookbook page was added later.  It was a sign.  I was cleaning out a bunch of books and the page fell on the floor.  Check out the recipes.  {A bit blurry - sorry}  If that doesn't say Christmas, I don't know what does!

Becky

Poinsettias

Merry Twelve Days of Christmas.  I feel like I'm kinda back to my normal self.  As Mike said last night..."Do you feel free from the bonds of St. Nicholas?"  Getting there.  Does anyone else freak out, stress out, worry yourself sick, etc. about not disappointing your kids for Christmas and making sure everything is fair??!!  IT. HAS. CONSUMED. ME.  Things have to change next year.  {I say that every year.}

On a more relaxed note, I'd like to share a couple of my Christmas decorations over the next few days.  Hope you're not all tired of the season yet.  If so, maybe wait to read this week's stuff until next year.

My husband buys me poinsettias at the local farm store every year in December.  This year they were absolutely beautiful.  Obviously, one or two could not, would not be enough.  SO I bought a few more and here's where I put them...

 Old Bread Box

Old Not-Really-Copper Boiler

Old Cooler

Finally, an Old Locker Basket.

{Extra photo of the tree in the entry...because I heart it}

Simple. 
Elegant.
 Not too expensive
{no guilt when you throw em out with the trash}.
 Lasts the entire season.
{if you wan them to}

Becky