One Year Check-Up

Hannah's check-up went well today. She weighs 18 pounds 8 ounces and is 28 1/4 inches long. I promise I will get some one year pictures posted soon. We are pretty busy right now irrigating the alfalfa and pasture, feeding cows, getting them bred back and working on planting my specialty grain crop for wreaths. It's just the spring rush but will all become routine before long.

Little Lamb

We got a lamb on Friday. I have been hesitant to mention it here because the one we got about 2 weeks ago didn't last the night. This one is much older and seems to be healthier. Hopefully I don't jinx myself with this post. The lamb's mom died Thursday night so she got to come live with us. It's taking her awhile to learn to transition to the bottle but she's getting it figured out. She is also loving to eat hay and grain so I'm hoping that we won't have to bottle feed her for too much longer. Hannah loves going out to help feed her....for awhile until she wants Mama to hold her, then it's all over. At some point the lamb is going to Grandma and Grandpa's house to eat their pasture so we had better enjoy her while she's here.

Here's Hannah loving to play in the water and then the straw. She was covered in straw from head to toe by the time we left to go into the house. I stripped her down in the lawn to get all the straw out. I can see that this summer is going to bring a lot more laundry my way.

Meet "Debbie". Uncle Jared thought she looked like a "Debbie." I asked her if she wanted to be called Debbie and she didn't complain so I guess Debbie it is. While she's little I guess we will call her "Little Debbie." Her ultimate end is lamb chops and no, naming her won't make that choice any harder. Lambs are cute when they are little but by the time they are big enough to eat we are usually tired of looking at them. Heartless I know!

Hannah and Debbie have not decided to be friends yet. Debbie runs from us when we get into the pen and Hannah tries to pull out her wool while she's taking the bottle. We are working on teaching her how to pet.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Wow it has already been one year that we have had Hannah to enjoy! Time flies when you are having fun. Hannah actually turned one year old on Thursday. We kept it pretty low key. She opened our presents and we had dinner with Grandpa Lee (who she shares a birthday with) and Grandma Mary. Today though was the "big" celebration where more family and friends came.

We kicked the celebration off with dinner. Then we moved right into the cake eating. Hannah got to smash a strawberry cupcake topped with whipped cream. In the picture below she had already tried to play in it before we got to sing her happy birthday.

Here she is enjoying her cake. It did have a candle on it but I guess I didn't get a picture quick enough. Once she figured out that it was good to eat she really got into it. She is very skeptical and is a bit unsure of new things. It takes some convincing sometimes that something is going to be good to eat.

Here's the cake that the rest of us ate. The top layer was strawberry cake with strawberry butter cream filling. The bottom was chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling. We had a bit of a farm theme going for the party. She loves her farm books so I thought we might as well go with what she likes.

Hannah had lots of presents to open. We are blessed to have so many friends and family that are willing to share with us.

Hannah and Daddy playing with their toys. She loves the John Deere Gator that she's playing with (thanks Grandma Bevie CORRECTED: Uncle Luke). Her new favorite toys are anything with wheels. She can entertain herself for quite awhile just pushing a tractor around the house.

She doesn't even look tuckered out after her party. She's playing on the couch with Daddy.

Hannah Updates:

• 1. She has her one year check-up this week so I will let you know soon how big and tall she is.

• 2. Words that she is saying. Keep in mind a translation may be necessary but she knows what she's talking about just ask her.

Dada

Mama

Doggie

Blue

Bull

Duck

Cracker

Tractor

That

Papa

Baby

• 3. She's getting to be quite mobile. She isn't walking by herself but it won't be long. She is definitely a speed crawler. Daddy can barely get out the door before Hannah is outside following him. When he leaves cries of protest usually follow. This morning she learned to stand up in the middle of the room. She has been taking steps but quickly lands on her bottom.

• 4. She loves books, spending time outside, toys with wheels, and Gus (one of our dogs). I think she likes Gus best because he's the only one that tolerates her. Sadie is too much of a princess and can't be bothered with small humans like Hannah. By the way Sadie means "princess". It seems crazy but you may want to the check the meaning of a name before you name your dog. They like humans can live up to the meaning of their name. But I digress.

We have had a great year with Hannah and look forward to all the new things that will be coming our way in the next year! Thank you to everyone that has helped make Hannah's first year special. We are so blessed to have you in our lives.

"Finger Painting"

Maybe it's more like body painting. I mixed up some finger paint for Hannah today by adding food coloring to vanilla yogurt. I taped a piece of butcher paper to the floor. In the end it wasn't really big enough. I gave her the three primary colors to work with. I spooned all three onto the paper and Hannah went to smearing them all over. When she had smeared them to her hearts content she would say "that." "That" is her all encompassing term for, "I want more of that" or "What is that?". She really enjoyed herself. It is pretty obvious that I'm new at the kiddo and mess thing because I didn't plan for what I would do with a little one covered in colored yogurt. When she was done she headed off to the next fun thing. I had to convince her to stay in one spot while I got a towel. I scooped her up and gave her a quick bath. Next time hopefully I will think to plan ahead for the clean up of the kiddo.

Hannah's first piece of artwork. Abstract wouldn't you say? Really the paper is under there somewhere.

Upper Table Rock

Yesterday Mom, Hannah and I went to Medford to do a little bit of shopping. Before we came home we decided to go on a "little hike." We hiked up Upper Table Rock outside of Medford. It is rated as easy and I would imagine it is if you don't immediately gain 20 pounds by carrying your child in a backpack. Is this what it's like to be on "The Biggest Looser"? It was a 2.8 miles round trip and we had an elevation gain of 720 feet. Once we got going I was fine but in the first 50 feet I wasn't sure if I could do it. We got warmed up and then it went pretty well. I took my camera so I had the excuse of stopping OFTEN to take pictures of wild flowers or the scenery we overlooked.

Hannah and Mama. Notice Hannah's head is almost laying on my shoulder. She fell asleep about half way up.

The view part way up the trail. Mt. McLoughlin in the background.



Some wild flowers. I tried briefly to find out their names to no avail.

A little wildlife along the way.

Spring Work

Sunday afternoon we got a crew together and worked the cows and calves. Every spring the cows get vaccinated and wormed and the calves get vaccinated, branded and the bull calves get castrated. We did have one lucky purebred bull calf that was fortunate enough to get away with staying a bull that day. The rest are now steers and will be ready to go to the auction in the fall when they are weaned along with a few of the heifers.

We had lots of help. We had my Dad (Lee), Ben's Dad (Randy), Randy's cousin and his son, Lynn, Austin, Ben and myself. My Mom was busy playing with Hannah. Our friend's Carrie and Garret came to watch the excitement.

I do have to admit that we don't really do it in traditional cowboy style. We don't rope or have cow dogs that are trained to help, and there wasn't a horse on the place. We even have a branding iron that plugs in to an extension cord. We have Powder River working facilities with a squeeze chute (for the cows) and a calf table. So really cowboy doesn't describe us...I think we are just people with cows from the looks of it. Would we like some of traditional items? Yes, there are definitely times when they would help. Like when the wild calf escapes out of the calf table and Austin basically has to ride/bulldog the calf back to the alley. Some days I think, "I really should learn how to rope better."

Erika vaccinating a calf.

Erika castrating a bull calf.
Did we have a rocky mountain oyster fry when we were done? NO!! The dogs had some good eats though.

Ben and Garrett (Son of Randy's cousin)

Working with a bull calf in the calf table.

A bull calf that was really glad to get out of there!

(All above photos taken by Mary Cheyne)

Garret and Hannah playing outside.

(Photo courtesy of Carrie Guthrie)

Bunny Love?

A couple of weeks ago I took Hannah up to Grandpa Randy's to see the bunnies that he and Lynn found in the wood pile (I think) and rescued from the dogs. Hannah was not too sure what to think of the bunnies. Even with me holding it and petting it I couldn't get her to touch it. Last night Hannah got to visit the bunnies again and this time she actually touched them. I think she really wanted to grab it and make it squeak but we kept that from happening. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't end up as a birthday present for Hannah. Just what I need, a one year old and two baby bunnies to feed (hint, hint)! :)

Photo courtesy of Lynn

Playing Inside

We are still playing inside trying to get away from the wind, dust, and snow! I hear it's supposed to be warm this weekend but I'm not holding my breath. So moving on from the cornmeal box I thought we would try corn starch. Silly Mommy!! Are you crazy? In my defense I did this right before bath time. Hannah did love playing in it. She took hand fulls and squeezed them. It made funny sounds and shot out all over. This only lasted for a short time. She was tired and jumped into my arms. I was then covered in corn starch! I think we may wait awhile before trying this again, as fun as it was.

We are FINSHED!

Calving that is. We had our last calf today. One of our purebred cows had a heifer a couple of hours ago. Unfortunately for the calf we aren't sure who her Daddy is. We have in narrowed down to two different bulls. Silly cow I wish she could tell us. I'm sure she remembers who the Daddy is. We are working on figuring it out, but in the meantime I hope the calf doesn't develop a complex or a poor self esteem.

So I guess I will sleep easier for the next 10 months without any calves to worry about entering this cold, cold world. Ha ha! For any of you that know how well we sleep around here sometimes, I guess I will sleep with one less thing on my mind but maybe not any better.

The grand total for the year was 7 bull calves and 5 heifer calves. It was an OK year considering we haven't had a winter this bad in quite awhile. We lost one pregnant cow (she tried to die on us before) and two calves. We beat ourselves up over it sometimes but as Ben said, "If you have livestock you're going to have dead-stock." So true. I guess it's just part of life. The joy comes from watching the calves run around and play. We even have one that has befriended the feed wagon. I regularly have to chase him away from it so we can get out of the gate. He's a persistent little guy. Enjoy all of the new life that comes with spring!

This Weekend

This weekend Ben, Hannah and I went to my parent's house to help my Dad build some fence. Grandma and Hannah played in the house which was good because it ended up snowing on us before it was all over. We came in for lunch and Hannah was playing around the table while we ate. Here are a couple of cute pictures that Grandma took of her.

She loves cabinets and drawers and will unload what ever she can out of them.

On a side note Hannah was looking through a book last night that we don't read much. She was going through and pointing out all of the ducks in the book. I had not previously pointed them out to her. Some of them probably were baby chicks but who's going to argue with an 11 month old at that point. Duck is the most clear animal name that she says. She can identify others but if you haven't been in on the translation you wouldn't know what she's talking about.