Going to Town with Poppa

Yesterday, Carter out-guilt tripped me into staying home with me all day. I had taken her to my Gramma Pat's the day before with Blake, thinking she would have a ball with Blake there. Not as much as I had hoped. Apparently all she wanted to do was come home, and when she got home she was in full rebellion mode. We had a horrible afternoon with her crying, temper tantrums, the works. Even after a nap, she woke up on the fight. Blake had come home with us to spend the night...a huge honor, since Blake normally would rather stay at home. I'm sure by the end of the night she was wishing maybe she had stayed home. The next morning when I woke her up to get ready to go to Landa's, she jumped out of bed like a shot and instantly started a new temper tantrum about wanting to stay home. I spent almost 10 minutes chasing her around the house trying to catch her so I could get her dressed. The dressing part was not pretty. We were both worn out and upset by the time I finally got her in the car. Blake, wisely, just went and sat in the car and waited for us. Carter cried all the way to Wynne's house to drop off Blake. At that point, I realized I had forgot to put gas in the car and might not have enough to get Carter down to Landa's and back. I knew if I went back home to get gas, World War III was going to break out when we turned right back around to go to Landa's. I chickened out and just went home to stay.



Carter's went in phases in the past where she only wanted to stay home, but never this bad. I'd heard several reports from the following week where Carter really had to be convinced to stay with whoever was watching her and that she really wanted to go home. Christy had also mentioned that Cade had a bit of a fever the last day or so, so maybe she was trying to come down with something and just needed some extra TLC. (I'm not convinced this was Carter's problem, but I'm willing to add it to the list to lessen my guilt) So, the heck with it, she stayed home with me yesterday and we had fun!. I still had to do some over the phone training first thing in the morning and warned Carter that if I heard one peep out of her while I was on the phone, I was putting her right back in the car and she was going right down to Landa's. (ooh even better parenting, make it a punishment to leave...sigh.) Would you believe she was dead quiet for over 2 hours? She cut up newspapers, played with play dough, colored, watched a movie, and never bothered me once. Granted I lined up all the activities, but still, she's only 2! The two ladies on the phone that I was training were amazed. We had back up plans in place for when Carter got tired of being quiet, but they couldn't believe (well me neither!) that we got as long as we did. The silence was finally broken by a rather legit potty emergency. And then she was ready to play with mom. The sun came out for the first time in a week, so we went outside and played as much as we could, played with the bunnies, jumped on the trampoline, dug up worms, chased the dog, looked over all of the newly planted trees, and just had a good time. By the time we came back in, she was tired and took a big nap, so I went back to work. Got all my hours in, and just made it work. When she woke up though, she was ready to dad to be home! He didn't get home until after I had put her to bed, with the promise that I would wake her up when he got home. Boy was she ever happy to see him!



Carter was glued to Robert's side this morning from the minute she woke up, watching me very suspiciously, sure that I was going to pack her off to Landa's if she let me get too close. Since he had a slow day, Robert offered to take her to town with him today. Did that ever perk her right up! She was instantly stripped of her pj's (a process that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour) running through the house naked trying to get her clothes gathered up and dressed, terrified Robert would change his mind before she was ready to go. She even let me fix her hair! The only thing she likes more than staying home with mom, is going to town with dad. Naturally she also needed her sticker earrings on, her pink sunglasses (just like dad who always wears sunglasses although they aren't pink) and gathered up her jam crammed purse full of everything she would need in town--chap stick, her latest favorite rock, a book, some gum, skittles, tic-taks, an extra crayon, some paper, etc. It weighed almost as much as she did. Oh, and I wasn't taking a picture of Carter, I was taking a picture of the purse. That was the only way she would agree to stand there once I got the camera out!



So, now I'm not sure if she will go to my mom's on Friday or not, but we'll see--having a tea party at Gramma's is a pretty big draw right now. I'm really not sure what to do, but I can tell you that dragging her kicking and screaming to Landa's or Gramma's every weekday is almost more than I can stand (and yes, I realize she knows this even better than I do). Peeling her off me while she is crying and begging to just go home with me once we get there is even less fun. Not to mention having her coming home mad and on the fight for the rest of the afternoon isn't exactly my idea of a good time either. It just kills me that now whenever we go anywhere, she always looks at me and asks "Please don't leave me, momma!". I have at least 3 more months until maternity leave, and I'm hoping to work another 4 or 5 months after that before I quit my job. That's my optimistic goal, but in toddler time, that's eternity plus infinity and 3 more weeks added in for good measure. I'm not sure if keeping her home more helps or makes the situation worse. Guess I'll find out soon enough. One more reason I need to make me staying home work for awhile. I genuinely think she would rather just stay home (just like her momma!) most the time. So she comes by it naturally and has been like this from the pretty much from beginning.

Planting Trees

Carter spent most of Memorial Day helping her dad plant trees. Robert planted 52 of them in fact, so she was a pretty busy little helper. In the true spirit of being a little girl, she mostly slowed the process down considerably, but I know she sure had fun with her poppa! However, before she could help him, she HAD to paint her nails first. (Not sure where she is getting all this girly stuff, because I can assure you it doesn't come from mom!) If you look carefully you can see that not only are her nails pink but most of her fingers as well!

Carters favorite part about helping plant trees was finding worms! She had gathered up a whole bucket full by the time I got outside.

Showing mom her 'favorite' worm for the time being! I realize most people like to add worms to their soil to improve it, but Carter seems to be doing an admirable job of digging up most our worms! I guess if she's going to be a bit of a girly girl with all the makeup and finger nail polish, well then digging up worms, collecting bugs and rocks--much of which seem to end up in the washing machine, although I'm getting much better about checking pockets--seems to be a nice balance.

And more new critters

Meet Lucky, the latest of the bottle calves who brings our total up to three. He seems to be recovering quickly from his rough start and we've finally turned him in with the other two. Sprinkles still isn't sure how much she likes all the company but Boo and Lucky seem very glad to have buddies. Sprinkles lack of enthusiasm for her new friends probably stems from the use of her ears as bovine pacifiers when bottles are slow. Roberts started working on bucket training them and has had way more luck them me. I ended up with milk spilt mostly all over me, more slobber than usual and hungry babies. Sigh.

I've always been very partial to ranch dogs...border collies, heelers, Australian Shepperd's, etc. and never really paid much attention to other breeds. So I was a bit surprised when Robert brought Cash home as our replacement for Dixie. He's a black lab/weimaraner cross, so he has a lot of energy, but is pretty darn sweet. He's really good with Carter (the main reason we ended up keeping him) and so far has shown no interest in chasing any of the other critters (a plus!), no mean tendencies, very little barking, doesn't jump up on you, listens pretty well, all in all a good dog. Carter really likes him...but she just seems to like having lots of animals around in general. He's very active, which makes me a bit nervous. Right now, we're outside a lot and will be all summer, but things can get a lot slower in the winter which is what made Dixie so crazy outside by herself. And unless Cash learns in a big hurry not to mark my furniture, he's going to stay an outside dog. His chances of becoming an indoor dog are really pretty slim regardless. I really don't like big dogs in the house as it's really hard to keep your house from smelling like a big dog lives there. He's also not fixed...and although he hasn't acted like he likes to fight or anything, my sister may not be quite so crazy about us visiting any time soon. Her little Cisco dog is naturally just coming into heat, something Cash picked right up on when we were over digging up trees. Rance seems to think that puppies would be just the thing, but I'm less excited. Cisco is pretty small compared to Cash, and having taken two dogs to the vet for emergency c-sections thanks to the puppies being too big for the momma, I don't like the odds. Not to mention how dang expensive it was! It's almost as expensive for a vet to deliver puppies as having a baby in the hospital. Not quite...but pretty close. Anyway, I imagine we will go back to blue heelers again when most of the kids around here are older. I've very partial to them, especially after my Quincy, but they are simply too hard to have around when there are a lot of little kids.

Montana Monsoon

In India, a monsoon is defined as the seasonal wind patterns that bring in 3-4 months of rainy weather. I would think for Montana, four and a half days of solid rain would qualify. My brother had recorded over 5 inches by Saturday afternoon and it didn't really quit raining until sometime Sunday afternoon. Amazing. Plus this was a nice steady rain that allowed the ground to mostly soak up all the moisture...my little garden is looking pretty darn happy. The peas, spinach, lettuce and beets are all up, along with some rogue beans and sunflowers that Carter helped plant, and naturally all the weeds. The garden is chock full of wild oats since a good amount of the soil was scooped out from the corrals to fertilize it. They are going to be a pain to control this year, particularly with my rather relaxed hit or miss weeding style, but hopefully all the nitrogen and compost is worth it. It's still cloudy this morning and they have forecast thunderstorms for the rest of the week. So with any luck, we may get a little more rain before this system moves out.

Saturday was a pretty nice quiet day around here. I mostly worked catching up on some of my computer work that I had been putting off while Robert and Carter helped my cousin Wynne's family with their fridge and plumbing issues. Their fridge dies so Robert helped them load up an extra one of my Aunties, and well, the plumbing...from what I've heard needs to be seen to be believed. Apparently it was all installed without any vents so that when the lift pump (using Robert's explanation here) kicks on, it shoots air up through the toilets--a lot of air with a lot of pressure. They are probably our only neighbors in 100 miles that have their very own bidet, which would be a pretty sweet deal, if they actually wanted one. And I thought this old house had issues. In the afternoon as it was still raining pretty hard, everyone took a nap! Things have been so busy this spring, that it was really nice to have a quiet slow day. Plus Carter's been working pretty hard running around in the rain, bringing in as much mud into the house as possible. There are so few of good rainy days to take advantage off around these parts. Again, another reason why I like rainy days! Carter curled up an took most of her nap on Dad and looked pretty cozy. I didn't waste much time after I saw her sleeping to get in a quick nap of my own. My opportunities for naps don't come often, so I try to take advantage of it when I can. Being pregnant with a very active toddler definitely is much more tiring than being pregnant the first time when you can slow your pace down as needed.

Sunday we loaded up and went to town while it was still raining. Robert needed some stuff to keep working on organizing his shop and I figured I'd come along. Carter was mostly hoping for the french fries I think. I had bought new windshield wipers earlier in the week and spent a half hour in the rain trying to get the dang things on before I gave up in disgust. Robert popped the new ones on in about 2 minutes. I was fairly convinced they needed some special tool after finally reading the directions. Robert decided that special tool must be a penis. Grrr! However, I did get to teach him a thing or two about flat tires. I've been trying to get him to fix the slow leak on my car tire for about a month with out any luck. (then tried to get Walmart to fix it on the first day I've seen them backed up ever...they estimated the wait at 3-4 hours. I decided not to wait) Anyway Robert was just planning to drive into town on this bad tire without airing it up. However my daddy taught me better! I made him stop and check the tire with the pressure gauge and sure enough, no pressure in that tire! Ha! I was feeling a bit better for that after the dang windshield wipers. After finishing up our bit of shopping in town, we stopped at a Burger King with a playground (we had to actually go to two different ones since the first one had the playground closed for repairs. Carter was pretty disappointed, so off we went in search of another one.) I was so impressed with how nice my little girl was trying to play with the other kids. She would say excuse me to get around a kid, help another one get the door open, helped a really little girl up into the playground. It was so sweet. I know I don't get to take full credit for her nice manners--it's truly a community effort around this place with all my family but it really made me feel good about the kind of little girl I'm trying to raise. Naturally though it didn't take long before some bigger kids knocked her over and got her banged up. Robert had to wiggle up through the maze and rescue her. I think her feeling were more hurt than anything.

Sunday afternoon we spent digging up all our baby trees we had planted 2 years ago when we were living up on the hill next to my sister. When we moved over here last July, it would have been easier to chip the trees out of concrete than get them out of that ground up there. So sadly we abandoned them, and just to show us, most of them lived...worse still, some them actually did better once we left them alone. (I might have gotten a bit carried away with over watering them...) We figured that if we were ever going to get them, now was the time after all this rain. Rance was nice enough to come over and help and my sister helped watch Carter to I could also help--mostly just clean up anything that had gotten left when we moved. It was so nice to get that all taken care of. Now of course, we have to hurry and get all the trees planted..."we" mostly meaning Robert of course. Trying to find enough places down here to plant everything is a little trickier since we are down in a coulee and not on an open flat lot like we were before. We spent an hour trying to decide where we wanted to put all the trees. Carter spent that time jumping in mud puddles like a good kid. I still haven't gotten all the mud out of the bathtub or washing machine, but boy did she have fun. We could hear her yelling "Splash" just before she would jump in. The picture I took was too dark, but believe me when I tell you there isn't much on her that isn't covered in mud. All she's missing is the mud beard!

Rain

Three whole days of rain with a forecast of possibly 2 more days at least! How great is that? Dad had just over 2 inches yesterday and it's rained almost all day today. 2 inches doesn't sound like a whole lot unless you consider that the Billings area annual precip is 9-13 inches. My whole drive way is starting to look like a river. Luckily we are in really gravelly soil so it doesn't really get too muddy and most of the water drains right into the spring at the end of the driveway. Carter went over and visited Aunty Wynne today and Robert said when he left, Carter and Blake were outside catching frogs. I'm a little nervous to see how many of them she brings home. My flower bed right in front of the house is completely flooded and I'm pretty sure most of the new seeds I've planted have floated away. Oh well. I can plant those again pretty easy. (and since Robert thought he might have sprayed it with Roundup anyway, it's really not going to matter either way) I'm not sure how some of the new seeds in the garden are going to fair...it mostly looks like it's just soaking in right now. I'm mostly just enjoying all the rain!

I do wish I would have paid more attention to the weather reports and stocked more firewood on the porch where it would have stayed dry before this storm hit. Everything is now soaked and it's um, challenging to get a fire started to say the least. We do have our furnaces that we can turn on if we have to, but I just hate using up the propane because I was stupid.

On Thursday I spent the morning trying to train a new employee in the Colorado office over the phone but by 11 am we gave up. They were getting tornado reports all over the area and everyone was glued to the news. Our office in Colorado is about 30-35 miles from Windsor where the worst of the tornadoes hit. Robert was living in Windsor when I met him although I'm not sure how that area fared. My good friend Tenneile's house was only a mile away from a big tornado in Plateville which would have been WAY too close for me. Luckily they only saw some hail and had no damage from the storm. It gave me a good excuse to call her up and chat on the phone for an hour. I really wish I could pack her up and move her closer! We had some other friends whose family suffered some damage but no one was hurt. One more reason I'm glad I moved home!

This last picture was taken on Tuesday just one day before the rain started. It felt so hot that day, that I had Carter running around with a water hose. She that was high entertainment and soaked my car, the cats who were dumb enough to get close, me (probably same principle applies as the cats), and then decided to wash her trampoline. She really liked setting up the sprayer as a sprinkler and jumping in the water. Don't think she would need the sprayer today!

I'm still trying to get a picture of the latest new bottle calf. In the order of "Beware of Brothers Bearing Gifts" my brother found another baby who needed some love and figured he would kindly drop it off at our house along with a good hard luck story. My gramma found this baby while she was out riding and just in time too. He was down in the coulee about to get ate by two coyotes when she rescued him. I figured Clint must have told Robert about the new baby and they had agreed that we would take on another bottle calf. I am such a sucker! When finally started getting a bit suspicious and asked Clint about it, he laughed as said no Robert didn't know yet about the newest member of the Howell Petty Zoo. Gads...three bottle calves are much harder to feed than two. I feel like I'm head to toe slobber by the time everyone has ate. I'm starting to rethink the whole bucket training and it's certainly looking more appealing to just teach them to drink out of a bucket rather than feed bottles. Anyway, the poor little guy! He's all skin and bones, but he's starting to look a bit better if we can just keep him from getting scours now. We named him Lucky since it seems to fit. The other black calf, Carter officially named him Boo so we now have Sprinkles, Boo and Lucky.

Catching up

Last week and this weekend were really really busy. I'm not sure that I've caught my breath yet. I had my followup doctor visit after the ultrasound just so the doctor could confirm that all was well. He's in about the 40th percentile for size and is right on track for the September 13 due date. (Pretty please be just a little early!!! September 1 would be a lovely birthday!) Number 2 also has very firmly decided he DOES NOT like to be poked. The nurse must have spent almost 15 minutes trying to get a count on his heart rate because every time she got the little wand over him, he would completely move over to the other side of my belly. She said it looked hilarious because she could totally see him moving from side to side trying to avoid her. It didn't feel nearly as hilarious!

We also finally found a new home for our little dog Dixie. She was a very sweet little dog that was very bored. With her Border Collie/Blue Heeler heritage, she just needed a job and wasn't getting enough here with me during the day while I was working. The last two weeks she was on a full scale rampage and managed to tear up the safety netting on Carter's trampoline, was caught chasing the horses several times, chewed up a roll of Robert's landscaping fabric, chewed on the bottle calves tails, destroyed two pairs of Carter's shoes, dug up several rows of my garden, and ate the two bitty bitty bunnies. I'm not sure that if I had had time to think about it, that I wouldn't have just let Robert shoot her like he was planning. Luckily Bob stepped in and saved her. He works for Robert and decided that he really liked her and would take her home with him. It's actually been a huge relief with her gone, and I really don't miss her spending all day barking at the cats in the barn. Naturally Robert already been looking for her replacement. I'm hoping for a nice quiet house dog this time.

With all the lovely weather, it just seemed like there were so many projects that have been waiting all winter to finish that now needed immediate attention. Robert got all the fuel tanks painted silver right along with himself. The picture doesn't do him justice. He looked a lot like a cowboy version of the tin man.

Robert did manage to take some time out to go "play" and help my brother tag calves. His horse did manage to buck him off when Robert accidentally jerked his rope up under Slick's tail. Carter, upon hearing the story, put her hands gently on both sides of Robert's face, and very seriously told him, "Papa, you need to hold on." Even better, she later brought him over her stuffed pony and told Robert he could ride her stuffed pony since it wouldn't buck him off. Oh how I love this little girl. I was nearly in tears from laughing so hard. In the picture below, she's showing Robert just how you hold on.

I was in a big hurry to get all the garden finished and planted. Carter's help slows down the process a fair amount, but she's so dang excited to help and well, that's the only way they learn. Besides, when I just quit worrying about how it's going to turn out and that fact that it's supposed to be fun, it is fun. Carter has lots of interesting ideas about how to plant gardens. Although it sounds like all I do is work on the garden, it actually is a rather small garden. It just has lots of rocks, and needs lots of work in order to get each row of seeds in. While it's not exactly the ideal garden, it produced pretty fair last year, and with any luck will again this year. Carter did manage to pull up my peony that I had managed to save from the horses. I had been so excited that it had survived the move over here and had came back up this spring. I just about cried when I saw the carnage. Deep breath. She really thought she was helping since I'd spent most of the afternoon carefully weeding it around it, that well, she wanted to get the one I missed. Robert managed to spray around my main flower bed with Round-up, and Rance had drove over all the irises I had gotten planted on the edge of the garden last fall when he came over to help Robert work on the corrals and was dumping "compost" from the corrals on the garden. I was feeling rather abused. So if you don't see any flowers around this outfit this summer, it's not because I didn't try really hard! I'm praying the irises in front of the house and a few of the hollyhocks will survive. Always next year.

Last night Robert and I were out late last night trying to beat the rain. He was reseeding the lawn, then came and helped me with the garden. We didn't get everything planted, but got pretty close. The rest, well, it will wait. Today, I just enjoyed the rain. It started around 8 am this morning and has been a wonderfully wet day. I love the rainy weather. Must the the ranch kid in me, but the rain just makes my soul happy. It says rest and enjoy the break, curl up and read good books in bed and snuggle with your sweetheart. With little kids, it also means jumping in mud puddles, making mud pies and bringing just as much mud into the house as you possibly can.

Working on the Garden

Gardening with a toddler is a lesson in patience. It took us nearly 2 hours to plant 8 more rows but we mostly had a great time. Carter loves helping and planting potatoes was right up her alley. Carrots and beets weren't so good since the seeds are so small and the beans she kept trying to eat or hide. It was really windy on Sunday, so I wrapped a bandana around her head to keep her hair off her face and surprisingly she wore it most all the morning. Her very favorite part about gardening (besides running off with the seeds and planting or hiding them, depending on how you look at it) was finding worms! She brought a whole pocket full of them into the house on Friday and I only have found 2 so far. I'm hoping they just got ate in the washing machine.

Carter gathered up a bucket full of worms and was washing them off and giving them a 'drink' in the mud puddles. She carried one around in her pocket for an hour before noticing that it went to umm, sleep, and needed to go home. I realize one of the goals of gardening is to get more worms IN your garden, but she was really enjoying digging them up.

Graduation Party

On Saturday, Christy and I bravely trooped off to Barkemeyer Park with all three kids in tow for Kelsy's graduation party. Carter even let me fix her hair so she could come! Kelsy's older sister Janna was a good friend of ours during high school and college and we thought it would be fun to see her and her family. The weather couldn't be nicer and it was a trick to get the kids all covered in sunblock. I really would love to hug the person who came up with spray on sunblock. Carter had a great time once she got a hold of the balloons. There were a couple other little girls there, so sharing was an issue. Once they left, though, Carter was reasonable happy to share balloons with Cade--until he popped all his and wanted hers!

As you can imagine, it didn't take these two long to find the dessert and cake table! The watermelon and pop were also a big hit.

Cade thought it was much more fun to feed mom while her hands were somewhat tied up with feeding Avery. She had almost as much powered sugar on her as Cade did.

Unfortunately the park didn't really have any good playground equipment for really little kids and the slide was way too hot to use. So after visiting for an hour, everyone was hot, tired and sticky and the moms were more than ready to go home. I can't believe how tiring it was trying to ride herd on just three kids...and only two of them running around! We could just fit 3 car seats in my car, so we are not sure what we're going to do when my Number 2 shows up. Someone needs to get a minivan!

Fixing the corrals

Roberts big project this spring (well, one of the big projects on HIS list) has been to fix the corrals or at least get a large portion on them fixed. I can't argue that they desperately needed some love. This winter, between the wind and the snow, two sections completely fell over and broke off the posts. It looked pretty shabby and they were pretty much unusable.

This is a picture of the corrals last spring before any improvements. You can see the real obvious lean in the wind break on the right (that completely fell over this winter) and part of the fence right by the gate also fell over. There was junk, old board, weeds everywhere.

This is what Robert has gotten completed so far this year. It looks SO much nicer. It's all steel so it should last a lot longer (hopefully our lifetime!). The next project for the corrals then is the left side along the steep hill which is just going to be barb wire and steel posts for now and then the wooden pen in the back will probably transformed into a nice round pen for horses. He also has steel to side most of the barn and get it fixed up this year before it falls over too. Again, he has big plans to fix up the inside with nice horse stalls, wash rack, etc. but that will have to wait another year or 10.

Looking in the steel wind break...so much nicer than what was there. Again, this is just the beginning. Robert has all kinds of nice big plans to make it into more like a pole barn with a roof in the future. My job is to try to keep him on budget! Wish me luck!

At any rate I was excited to see that this project is almost finished so that I can get him started on some of MY projects such as fixing the yard (it got all tore up this winter due to Carter plugging up the septic tank), and some minor landscaping. This house and all the buildings down here all need so much love and attention that sometimes it's hard to know where to start (and even harder to know when to stop and get working on another project!). But, luckily Robert is very handy and can do so much of the repairs, maintenance, new projects, etc. himself. And even luckier, he likes to do this kind of stuff. He really seems to enjoy working on this place.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies...of kids, dogs, and any other critter that makes you a mommy! (I'm darn near the little old lady who lived in a shoe if you count all the animals currently under foot around this outfit!) I've tried to get caught up on a bunch of my posts this weekend but they managed to get out of order, so you may need to poke around a bit to see them all. My branding pictures from last Tuesday are all scattered around. Oh well. You get the idea! May has started out very busy.


My dad has a tradition of branding on Mother's Day and this weekend was no different. My sister Christy was on call and needed someone to be available to watch her kids in case she got called in, so I volunteered for part of the morning. Mom was taking on the bulk of the watch, but wanted to go up to the branding for a bit in the morning. Christy didn't get called in, so we actually had a pretty nice peaceful morning. Carter and Cade rode up with Gramma to the branding to watch for a bit, Avery promptly took a nap and we had the whole house to ourselves...nice and quiet. Didn't last long but was nice while it lasted. We even got to take to Jess in Kyiv, Ukraine on the webcam. Pretty amazing technology. There was a bit of a delay, but not bad considering how far away she is.


After mom got back from the branding, the kids all wanted to play outside. It was really lovely weather, if a bit windy (big shocker there...much more shocking to find a non-windy day around here). Carter and Riley Jo had fun playing on the trikes. When the branding crew had finished up and came down for lunch, Aunty Gwynny gave all the kids a four-wheeler ride...all at once. Notice Carter has her sunglasses on and is all set for the ride.

Sterling has really taken to Carter and treats her just like a little sister...much better than most big brothers. I'm always amazed at how good he is with her. You wouldn't think he was only 7. In the picture below, he's leading her into the house to get her shoes so she can go down with him and all the other kids to play in the creek.

After the branding, I snuck home for a nap. Robert and Carter were working outside, although it didn't take Carter long to fall asleep either. She woke up just in time to head down to Gretchen's house (our neighbor who gave us Sprinkles) for a birthday party for her daughter Adrianna and my cousin Wynne. My great aunt Ginny and Uncle Jim were just in from California for the summer so it was nice to see them, and one more pot-luck dinner meant I didn't have to cook! It was a pretty good mother's day all in all, especially considering all the yard work Robert managed to get done outside in between riding and branding.

And the Petting Zoo grows...

In the space of a week, we've managed to pick up three more critters. I should have known that once I let Robert bring home one, I was only opening the flood gates. However, Carter is in heaven and just loves have all the animals around. Luckily I missed out on the goats. He almost had some guy give him 13 stray goats but Thank Heavens, they got claimed just in the nick of time! I wouldn't mind 1 but 13 is just WAY too many. I grew up with lots of animals around too, so I am glad that Carter is getting the opportunity as well. I will however be glad when she can start helping with all the chores of taking care of this petting zoo we seem to be running. She does try to help all she can now and is very good about feeding the two bunnies in the house every night. (In fact when we took back Purple Carrots, the guy mentioned that she looked like she had been fed very well!) Bottle feeding the calves however is a bit much right now although she really would like to help.

Sprinkles finally got a friend. We've been looking for a goat or something to keep her company since cattle are very much social animals and don't fare well when kept alone. My brother finally came up with a solution. He had found this little calf out wandering around alone in the pasture and figured it was probably a twin that got abandoned. They didn't have a cow who needed a baby, so he sent her up to us. I figure it's just about the same amount of work to feed one bottle baby as it is to feed two, so here she is. Plus it's a pretty nice deal since my brother takes care of the cost of the milk replacer and will just take the calf back when she's old enough. Robert still thinks we'll need one more friend for Sprinkles for when this calf (as of yet unnamed...) goes back, but now we have more time to find one. She is pretty feisty, especially compared to Sprinkles and I'm not sure that Sprinkles is too excited about the company just yet--both her ears were soaked in slobber this morning from where this new baby had been trying to nurse off them.

As if there weren't enough animals running around this outfit, Robert managed to bring home 3 baby wild bunnies. One escaped, so we just have the three. Carter calls them the "bitty bitty bunnies". They are very small. I was pretty sure they were just going to die...that's basically what I found on the websites when I looked up care for bunnies this small. However, they are wild, and so far seem to be managing fine with fresh grass and water. I was afraid they were going to need bottle feed and I just wasn't having any luck getting them to take any milk. We luckily have a very nice warming room built into the barn and it's working great for a nice warm OUTSIDE home for these bitty bitty bunnies.

Carter really likes to go visit and play with the new babies...although I doubt they share the sentiment. I have to watch her pretty careful, these guys are so dang small and could get hurt so easily. (The bottle babies really are a much better size for her...they can take a lot more mauling by an over eager toddler) But the bunnies are slowly taming down some and aren't so frantic when you come it to bring them fresh grass.

More branding pictures

...and it's a boy!

Naturally since I was pretty sure that I wanted a girl....I thought it would be fun to have two little girls. I also figured with only 1 kid bedroom right now in our house, we could get along with out a major remodel longer with another girl, but no such luck. Oh well, it's going to be fun regardless and interesting as usual! This ultrasound wasn't nearly as much fun as Carter's. The tech was grouchy and pushed really hard with the wand so it REALLY hurt. She also wasn't very good about explaining what she was doing or trying to get pictures where we could just look at the baby. However, I got to find out what I wanted to know. It's very healthy and it's a boy. The picture below shows him with his hand in front of his face.

The doctor who came in after to let me know that everything looked fine, said he weighed about a pound right now. (Hmmm, so how come I've managed to gain 17? ...right on schedule for my 40 pounds gain by September. Sigh) Robert came in with Carter who fell asleep during the exam, so she was a very good little girl! My mom and Gramma Betty also came. Gramma Betty had never seen an ultrasound before and was very excited to come so I was sorry that the tech wasn't better for her. Robert took Carter home after the appointment while I quick ran some errands. I was almost surprised that Robert hadn't already starting cutting off the top of the house by the time I got home from the appointment to start on the remodel to add another bedroom. He's pretty sure he wants to add another story to the house for two kid bedrooms and a bathroom...I'm trying not to faint when I think of the mess! He did have a whole page of names written down already that he liked. I think he might be just a little excited. Below is a picture of Number 2's foot digging into momma--looking for a good kicking spot I'm sure.

Anyway, just wanted to get this posted. I do have the picture that proves it's a boy but I figured everyone out there reading this probably already knows what a little boy looks like and it's not terribly clear in the picture. I also have a bunch of back posts just waiting to be finished from branding, my new garden and oh yes, more damn bunnies!

Branding: Part II

Carter finally got her ride after all the cattle were penned. She was so excited! She had to wear her hat just like her dad, and was upset that I couldn't find her sunglasses--that I think got left at my moms. Regardless, the horse ride made up for it all.

Carter and Sterling guarding the pop and mostly staying out of the way. Carter wasn't real crazy about all the noise and the smell of branding smoke, but for the most part she was content to watch all the commotion, especially once I got her up wind. It didn't hurt to have Sterling around for entertainment either. Sterling was mostly excited about getting his chance to rope. We left before he had his opportunity, but he was sure to tell us first thing at dinner after the branding that he had caught two calves. Not bad for a first grader!

I just really liked this picture of my brother and my dad. My brother is expecting a little boy in July and I just can't wait to meet him.

Robert helping hold down a calf for branding and below, him and Picky hauling in a calf he roped. It was such a perfect day--not too hot, not too cold, just right. Carter and I only stayed for about half of the branding then headed home. I have lots more pictures and I'm hoping to get them posted somewhere online with a link.

The trip out of the pasture was a bit hairy. We borrowed my brother's truck to get back to my car. The road winded up and around some pretty steep hills and his driver side door wouldn't shut! I was trying to drive a manual transmission truck, hold on to the door and drive. I was just very glad to get back to my car. (We were however grateful that Clint did lend us the truck so we could leave early!) Carter was completely worn out. She fell asleep in the car before we got home and took a nice nap. Mom promptly followed suit! Later we went down to my mom's house to eat dinner with the branding crew. I really didn't want to go, but if I didn't we would be eating macaroni salad for the next month since I got a little carried away when I made it. Plus my mom had made pie and there was fresh watermelon--Carter's favorite right now. She had a big time playing with Sterling and Chance until the two boys got a bit carried away and flipped her over her little trike pushing her down the hill. However, no blood and she was mostly mad at being "bucked" off her trike.

Garden!

I've been really excited to get my garden started this year. I enjoyed the little garden we had last year and have been anxiously waiting to get started again. It was actually pretty relaxing to me to go out and work in the garden for a little bit each night. It didn't really seem like much work as long as I kept up with it. Robert rented a really nice rototiller last weekend, so I promptly got 7 rows planted. I'm actually a bit late for the carrots, peas, lettuce, and beets, but not bad. The rest of the stuff needs another week or so since it's been a pretty cool spring. It snowed a couple days--just a little, but enough. I put a tarp over some of the ground to help warm it up some for the corn and beans and will move it over to the squash patch next. (Yep, probably getting a little carried away since I'll be extremely pregnant when most of this stuff is ready to can--if not already hatched.)

The rows looked so nice once I got them all planted. Naturally the dog (and a cat or two) have already dug up part of my beets. Grrrr! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Robert will get around to my fence pretty quick. He's been super busy trying to get his corrals finished, so I can't really complain. Last year I had the seeds ordered in March and started quite a few in peat pots in the house, but I didn't have very good results. I may try that again in the future, but for now, I'm really just concentrating on getting the easy stuff to grow. I think I may buy a couple starter tomatoes and peppers, but other wise, I think I have more seeds than I have garden. We'll just have to see. The first year Robert planted pumpkins in our tiny garden in Colorado, he got a bit carried away. I think he planed 10 or 12 pumpkins where we probably had room for 2 or 3. Our neighbors on all three sides had pumpkins coming under and over their fences. (He had also started 12 zucchini plants but I managed to convince him !thankfully! that 2 would more than feed us and the whole neighborhood. )

The wild plums have started blooming. Nothing says spring to me more than the wild plums. It's one of my very favorite flowering trees. They are very much an optimist...one of the first flowers in the spring, which also means that a late frost will hit them pretty hard and you don't get them to fruit every year. (Which is OK too since I haven't figured out my wild plum jam recipe just yet...I invariably add way too much pectin and you have to chop it out of the jar with a knife) They also smell so sweet. I just love driving down past our one neighbor's coulee, which is chock full of wild plums, with my windows down and my car just fills up with that smell. I had to stop and pick a few from one of my dad's pasture as I was driving past.

Branding: Bringing in the Cows

On Tuesday, my dad branded a bunch of calves. I didn't realize they were just going to get started around 1, so I showed up with Carter and my Aunty Linda a tad early. They had just started to gather the pasture. When we showed up to the spot where everyone was leaving the horse trailers, Carter took one look at all the horses saddled up and wanted to know which one was hers to ride. She was one disappointed little girl to learn that she had to ride in the truck down to the corrals where they were actually branding.





We drove down to where the corral was set up and actually didn't have to wait very long before we started seeing riders and cows heading up the hill. Carter rode on the water tank in the absence of a pony. While we were watching the cows come up, Carter decided she needed a pop that was in the cooler. Aunty Linda was sitting on the cooler and told Carter she needed to say the magic word first before Aunty would move. Carter looked at her for a minute then said, "You need some money?".


You can see Robert on Picky below...I really wish I could have been riding too. Carter wasn't the only one who felt like she was missing out. Early spring is one of my favorite times to ride, next to riding in the Fall after the first big frost when all the dang bugs die. Oh well. My time is coming! Patience...


Here at the very end, everyone gathers up tight to get all the cows and calves into the corral. Generally a few calves try to run back, sure their mom is somewhere over the next hill and not in the bunch somewhere. Today however, everything went really smooth and no calves escaped. There was a good crowd of cowboys...most of it family. In fact I think only 3 of the cowboys riding were not relatives of one sort or another.

What's better than one bunny?

So the answer to that question would be 2 bunnies! Robert and Carter took Purple Carrots into town to exchange her for two male rabbits. (Two male rabbits that can go outside without becoming 800 bunnies!) Hopefully the guy we got the bunnies from sexed them correctly! The guy who had all the bunnies really did want the female we had back since she was a registered breeding doe (exactly what I really didn't want...) but had sold her since he didn't have any other rabbits ready to go at the time and Carter was really wanting to bring one home. Very nice of him really. These two are quite a bit smaller than our last bunny and a fair amount friendlier. I'm hoping to only have them in the house for a week or so before we can fix up a nice OUTSIDE house. I'm pretty tired of cleaning up sawdust and bunny poop all over the house.

Carter thoughts these bunnies were just the right size to go for a ride in her wagon. Not sure how the bunnies felt about it though!