Dyeing Eggs

This morning Hannah and I dyed Easter eggs. I wasn't planning on doing it until my friend Brooke emailed me a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients. We put on old clothes and got to it. Hannah enjoyed herself. She threw eggs on the table. Luckily they were hard boiled! And played in the dye. When we got done we had very little dye on us and only two eggs were cracked (one from Hannah and one from Mommy).

Mommy's Helper is Getting Bigger

We are still feeding cows in this neck of the woods. The grass appears to have begun to green up in the last week but we are still a long way from turning them out to pasture. My little helper now hangs out in the pickup while I feed the cows. She is too adventurous right now to be trusted on the feed wagon when it is really full of hay.

She would like to be on the feed wagon however. Here are the tears of disappointment. We normally include the "Happy Hannah" pictures and I just wanted to assure you that like every baby she cries too!

Sorry about the really dirty windows. It's just the feed pickup so who cares?!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here's a rainbow that was out this morning. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Probably not, I think just the town of Newell.

Here's my first attempt at a fondant cake. Like I needed something else to do! Hey, a mind that continues to learn stays young. And I learned a lot. It didn't turn out too bad for having done it on a day when Hannah was a bit under the weather.

Screeching Halt

I came to a screeching hault today when I saw this in a field. I'm working on a grant for Ben's friend Luke and we were out taking pictures of some irrigation equipment. We were toodling down the road when I slammed on the brakes and said, "Luke did you see that?" No, he hadn't so I backed up and since I had camera I took some pictures. This poor cat was wandering around in a field with a tin can stuck on its head. I took the pictures and thought about letting the story stop here, but do not dismay animal lovers I saved the cat. It took some doin' though. I tried to gently as I could remove the can. In the end I had the cat by the scruff of the neck and wiggled and pulled, and wiggle and pulled until the can finally came off. The cat seemed to be in good shape and trotted off toward it's apparent home to hunt down another can with a tasty morsel in it. Sorry folks that's about as exciting as it gets around here today!

She Waited

I was in a quandary as to whether or not I should go on our trip to Sacramento. We had a couple of cows that were about ready to calve and I was sure that if I left they would calve and if I stayed home they wouldn't. We had our friends Bernie, Carrie, and Garret feed the cows for us while we were gone. I knew they were going to be checked once a day by them and the we had Ben's Dad check them in the morning. The weather was terrible for calving when we left on Sunday and thought for sure she would have it in the snow just as we left. Nobody did anything the whole time we were gone. This morning I got up and saw that she was in labor and she had a healthy calf just as the sun was coming up. Perfect timing!

Whirl Wind Trip

We just got home last night from a whirl wind trip to Chico and Sacramento. We left Sunday morning and headed to Chico. We stopped at Ben's aunt and uncle's to drop off out things and visit for awhile. Then we headed to Paradise to visit Ben's Grandpa and his wife. We spent several hours with them. They really enjoyed getting to see their great-granddaughter. We headed back to Chico in time to eat dinner and see a new cousin.

We got up early Monday morning and headed to Sacramento. We stopped on our way in to see Ben's other Grandpa and Grandma. They too loved the surprise visit of their grand kids and great-granddaughter. We spent a couple of hours with them and then headed into Sacramento for the purpose of our trip.

Ben attended the California Farm Bureau Leadership Conference where he served as a representative for Modoc County on the Wheat and Feed Grains committee. He was in committee meetings all afternoon so Hannah and I did some shopping. Really we only made it to two places before I was worn out and got tired of driving around in circles trying to get to places. For some reason in big cities I have a hard time driving directly to places I want to go.

We made it back to our room and rested for awhile. When Ben got out of his meeting we went to dinner and then came back and headed to bed.

Tuesday morning Ben went down to listen to guest speakers and Hannah and I went and visited my aunt. Again I couldn't drive straight there! We had a good visit with her and then we headed back to the hotel room to check out. We had lunch with Ben and other people from Modoc County and then headed back home.

Hannah slept from just outside Sacramento until about Shasta Lake. She decided it was time to get out the of the pickup. We took the next exit and happened upon a little campground and day use area called Bailey Cove. It was a beautiful day. It was about 65 degrees out, calm and sunny. It really made me want to go camping there but I knew it would get cold at night. Hannah was ready to get out and stretch her legs so we let her crawl around the day use area for awhile.

Hannah is now convinced that pine needles are not an approved part of a baby girl's diet!

Reading Time

Every night that Daddy is home at bedtime he reads a couple of books to Hannah. As a matter of fact when I read to Hannah before bed time she turns around several times to try to figure out why I'm reading and Daddy isn't. Here they are reading Hannah's favorite book "Guess Who Farm Friends." She has enjoyed it since she was a couple of months old and therefore it has already seen a lot of repairs. It has a pop-up at the end she just can't keep her hands off of. The little lamb has been ripped out several times now and has forever lost one of his ears.

Weight Check

Hannah had a weight check one week ago. She weighed 16 pounds 9 ounces. She had gained 8 ounces in 4 weeks. The doctor seems to be pleased with her progress. She is beginning to climb back up the percentiles as she recovers from having had the flu about 5 weeks ago. She remains on the "weight gainer" diet and loves all the good food she gets to eat.

Happy Valentine's Day

What Were You Doing at 4:15 This Morning?

Sleeping I hope! However, I'm thankful that Hannah decided it was time to eat at 4:00 this morning. We are calving and have already lost one calf to the nasty weather we have been having and I'm determined not to let it happen again. Even if I have to let cleaning the house go (OH, DARN) to make sure I get enough sleep. So, I fed Hannah and drug myself out of bed and into the cold. I had some good motivation since I had checked at 10:30 last night and one cow looked like she was going to calve very soon.

I wheeled out there and sure enough there was a furry black thing laying in the snow very still. I negotiated the drifts (which I have already been stuck in) and got to the calf. I thought for sure it was dead but it kicked a leg and bawled. I immediately jumped into action and threw the calf on the floor board of the pickup while watching Mama Cow to make sure she wasn't going to eat me.

I raced back to the house and drug the calf inside. One of my earliest memories of living on my Grandpa's ranch was when my Dad was helping calve and brought one into the house one cold winter night. He got the bright yellow hair dryer (think early 80s) out and began to warm the calf up. If it worked then it will probably work now. I got my blankets, towels, hair dryer, bottle and milk replacer and went to work. Daddy's job meantime was to keep Hannah asleep as long as possible while I worked on the calf. The news finally came on and I learned that it was 1 degree outside. No wonder he was cold and nearly dead! With the shock of an over 90 degree temperature difference who can blame him for wanting to give up!


They got up about 6:00 and came out to join the excitement. Hannah loved it! She was watching me work and then would venture up to pet the calf. She was fascinated by the mooing. Ben had trucks to load so it was left to Hannah and I to get the calf to stand and nurse, and then get him his shots and eartag before taking him back to Mama.


Finally about 8:15 we got him back to Mama Cow. I was driving out of the pasture when I noticed that another cow's water had broken. I thought here we go! This may be "one of those days." It seems every year we have a really cold day when calves keep dropping and we are doing good to keep up with getting them warm and fed. Today being "Super Tuesday" I thought I had better go vote in between calves or I may never get the chance. We drove the 2.5 miles to vote, got back to the pasture and the new calf was already on the ground. I drove to the house and by then it was already up and nursing. What a difference a few degrees and some sunshine can make!

Have a warm day!