An early morning jog around the farm............

Or sort of.

Got home last night about 10:30 after Tim's game. Went to bed about 11:30. Last time I looked at the clock was about 11:45. About 12:30 AM I heard cows....... Loud.... which means they are not out in the pasture....... no...... They are right outside the bedroom window!!!! Up we go! Throw on some clothes.... get John up (let Tim sleep)... Out the door we go... John and I with flashlights and Rich jumps on the 4 wheeler. Sure enough....... There they all are (thank God there's only about 30 of them... each with a calf) standing in my back yard and in the Wheat field! Of course the moon is not out so it's pitch black. Here we go....... running through the field and yard trying to get these 4 legged beasts turned around and headed back to the pasture in the dark. It's almost a miracle I didn't run into something (no contacts in just my glasses on and they're not very good). Ok, so they get turned around and of course there's no casual walking to the gate, they take off on a dead run in John's direction. He thought he was a gonner. But... they decide to head for the gate... good cows... except..... they didn't get out through the gate so it wasn't open for them to go through. Again, John has to wade through them, carefully so as not to spook them into another stampede, and open the gate. Ok, gate's open.... Rich and I shoo them through and he closes the gate. Oh no! They're heading back around the barn to the place where they got out in the first place! Rich takes off on the 4 wheeler at Mach 7.... barely misses the dog, who by the way, isn't much of a cow dog when it really matters. Rich gets to the back of the barn just as the ring leader gets to the hole. They had pushed through some panels that were tied shut with the ever indestructable baling twine. Rich was able to keep them from going through again and got the panels closed. All back in, safe and sound....EXCEPT... 2 rogue, naughty calves that decided they didn't want to head back with their mothers. They got stuck, or so they thought, behind a fence and hung out there ALL NIGHT... crying and whining when they realized they were alone. Of course all they had to do was turn around and go back through the yard and over to the gate and they would be fine. But NOOOOOO........... So.... not only were they bawling all night, so were their mothers (trying to get their babies to come to them), and because of all the noise they were making... the dog, who originally didn't even notice the cows were out, decided he needed to bark at them all night, or what was left of it. As it started getting lighter, the birds and quail started making their morning wake up calls. The alarm went off at 5:50 AM. Why even try to hit the snooze. Up and at'em. Short night..... long day...... 20 oz mocha required. Ahhhh....... Life on the farm.

Aaahhh sunshine.........

For a couple of days anyway.

Actually got a bit of a tan line on my arms. Went from watching Babe Ruth baseball Thursday and Friday nights in 35° to watching High School Baseball on Saturday in 73°!

Today has been nice.... or what I've seen of it. Haven't been outside since 7:15 this morning when I went from the house to the car to go to work. Sun is shining, sky is clear and blue, but the wind is blowing - typical spring in the Columbia River Gorge.

Hay truck came in at 6:00 again this morning. Gotta get last years crop out of the barn so we can start on the 2008 crop! Hubby and the driver were done with the first trailer and just starting on the 2nd when I left.

Off to another baseball game tonight - Babe Ruth. Tomorrow is another one - Babe Ruth, but it is at home for a change! This traveling stuff is getting quite expensive what with the price of gas and all! Sheesh!

Better sign off...... Gotta go pay my property taxes!

Global Warming???

Good grief! What happened to spring? We actually had a skiff of snow on the ground. It was 23° when I left for work at 7:00 this morning and the high for today is supposed to be about 50°. This is not good for the crops! Calf crop is good though! Only one left to arrive! No hay truck this morning. Thank goodness! Too cold to load. Rich's new flat bed 5th wheel trailer arrived last week. Since he was at baseball practice, as was DS#1, I was the only one available to meet the guy out on the highway. He arrived amidst multiple sherrif vehicles, state patrol vehicles, and an ambulance flying by. I was getting worried something had happened with the trailer! I was relieved when he actually showed. He unhooked the trailer from his rig and I proceeded to back up to it myself. It only took twice!! After his few instructions on what NOT to do and receiving the paperwork, I was hooked up and on the road in less than 10 minutes. Got home just fine, parked the trailer and headed back into town for practice. Ahhh...... the life of a farm wife.

Hay truck came in at the crack of dawn (well, 6:00 AM anyway). Looks like the one above. Thank goodness hubby is the one that has to load it. Well, he runs the loader anyway, the truck driver is the one that actually handles the bales. Whew..... was it ever windy too! Thought the poor guy was gonna blow clean off the truck! I left for work at 7:15 and they were almost half done! They move fast when it's cold. We had temps in the mid 70's over the weekend. Back to the low to mid 50's today. Sun is shining though and at least it's not raining.....today.

What a gorgeous day! Up at 5:30 to get Tim up and off with a friend for a mini baseball clinic in Yakima. Back to bed. Up at 8:00 to get John up and off to baseball pre-game. Back to bed. Up at 9. No wind this morning so the crop dusters were flying as soon as the frost was off. Our new bull was delivered today. He young so he looks small next to the cows. But he should get the job done! Wind was picking up by 10:00 am. Rich felt better about going to John's game since he wouldn't be able to spray. Went to the Double header vs. Zillah. Our boys won both games. John played well and had a couple of good hits. Was a looooooong couple of games. Some coaches just have a hard time controlling themselves when it comes to calls made by the umpires. Makes you wonder sometimes. Mowed the lawn when we got home this evening. John is working on the Dodge truck he's fixing for his Junior project. It hasn't run in a couple of years and he's bound and determined to drive it to school..... soon! It's a good project for him. He's learning all kinds of stuff about motors and such. Well, suppertime. What to have........ Hmmmmmm.............. why is it always such a chore to figure this out? Maybe grilled burgers.

Day one

Alright, I just signed up. Not sure what I'm doing. Maybe I'll get the hang of this blogging thing someday. Look out........ I may just be back!