A Little Trip

Last Monday (over a week ago) Hannah and I went with Daddy to Sacramento for some California Farm Bureau meetings. Click here to read about our trip last year. Hannah and I got to do some looking around that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

Tuesday morning we hit the Sacramento Zoo. It was a beautiful day and we got there not long after it opened. I felt like we had it mostly to ourselves for the better part of the couple hours that we were there. Hannah seemed to really like the zoo. She knew some of the animals and tried to say the names of the others. I wasn't sure if she knew that they were real animals but she had fun anyway. After the zoo we had lunch and then went IKEA. I really enjoy IKEA but you need a game plan when you go there. They have so much stuff it is easy to get overwhelmed. I as far as I had gotten was to read through a catalog before going. I knew of some of the things I wanted but would have loved to have taken more home. After about an hour Hannah was approaching meltdown and my pregnant body couldn't go on much more so we got a few things and headed back to the hotel. Hannah and I "rested" in the hotel room until Daddy got out of his meetings.

Hannah enjoying watching the lions.

Orangutan

Hannah riding a salt water crocodile. She calls it an alligator and I couldn't convince her otherwise. They didn't have much in the way of large reptiles at this zoo.

Flamingos

We made a quick trip across the freeway to Sears and then headed for Daddy's Grandparent's house for dinner. We had a delicious dinner prepared by Daddy's Grandma and Aunt. Without a nap that day Hannah proved to be a bit challenging. She refused to eat dinner and just wanted to play with tractors all evening and pour water from one cup to the other. We really enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Wednesday Hannah and I went to Costco to stock up before the baby comes. We got everything that we needed and headed back to the hotel to wait for Daddy's meeting to finish up. When I got back I realized that somewhere between the check stand at Costco and the two miles to the hotel I lost my debit card. Oh joy! Thankfully we have nice gals that work at our bank who took care of me. It's just a hassle that I wasn't planning on. We checked out of the hotel but still had a little bit of time to kill so we ran over to the mall. After a little over an hour of shopping and a lot of walking we had had enough. We were loading up in the pickup when Daddy called and said that he was done. Thank goodness! We were ready to head back home!

How We Spend our Days Part 3

This is admittedly a little late but here is a craft project we worked on for Valentine's Day. I didn't actually get a picture of our finished product but you can go here to see what we were shooting for. I used a potato to make a heart stamp. Hannah hasn't quite figured out how to stamp. It's more of a stamp and smear. Any of the ones on the paper that actually look like hearts, I made. They ended up being flowers in the end. Hannah helped with the assembly by picking out the buttons to go with each one.

Stamping only lasted for so long before she wanted to do finger painting...so we did.

This play doh was made in desperation one day when I for the life of me could not find the store-bought stuff anywhere in the house. It turns out it was in her basket of books. She is pretty particular about putting things back where they belong but I guess she thought the play doh needed a new home. I think I've shared the recipe that I got from Kari before but in case I didn't here goes.

Play Doh

2 1/2-3 c. flour

1/2 c. salt

1 Tbs. alum

2 c. boiling water

2 Tbs. oil

food coloring (I like cake decorating food coloring paste for more vibrant colors)

The last time I made it, it seemed to sticky and I had to add more flour. Add what you have to to make it a nice consistency. This play doh is much softer than the store-bought kind and can be easier for little hands to use.

Hannah likes to pretend to eat it but she has quickly figured out that it does not taste very good!

Library & Park

Yesterday we went to the library and the park. It was a beautiful day by February's standards. Mid fifties, no wind and a little bit cloudy. We thought we were in heaven. The forecast was showing some wet weather coming so we figured we had better get out and enjoy the day.

Hannah loves to go to the library. I'm not sure if it's just that we are going some place or she actually likes checking out the books and bringing them home to read. Nevertheless, if you tell her we are going she talks about it the entire way there.


Over the past year the local park has spent a lot of time and money improving the playground equipment. They put up a large playground structure for kids 5-12 and were working on one for kids 2-5. They got the little one up late last summer and we got too busy and never made it back to play on it.

Enjoying going down the little slide.

She conquered her fear of heights and the big slide by going down backwards. I never could convince her to go down forwards without help. I guess in the world of a toddler, what you can't see can't hurt you.

Hannah has been coordinating our activities lately. In this picture she is telling me to come and sit down next to her. She thinks she's in charge, just ask her.

Hannah loves to swing. We moved our swing set out of our yard when we didn't have kids and haven't moved it back yet. It is several hundred yards from the house and takes a little effort on my part to remember that it's out there. Hopefully we can get it moved back this spring.


Here's one thing I'm working on trying not to take for granted. I saw this bald eagle on our way to the library and actually turned around and went home to get a different lens for my camera to get a better shot. The picture is still not that great but you get the idea. We actually saw two eagles on our short drive. Sometimes I forget how blessed we are to live in an area with wildlife like this.

How We Spend Our Days Part 2

The pellet stove has to be cleaned about one a week. I haven't convinced Hannah to vacuum it out yet but she likes to clean the glass door.

Markers are a big hit. We didn't play with them too much until I took Hannah to Sunday School class and they used them to color with. Ever since she has found crayons, colored pencils, and chalk to be second best. She asks for them by name and rarely accepts a substitute.

How We Spend Our Days Part 1

Here's a little taste of some of the things we do to fill our days when we aren't outside.


We love building things out of Lincoln Logs and alphabet blocks and then setting up various animals, people, and tractors around our creations. Actually the things in this picture provide hours of entertainment for Hannah. They have been money well spent. Hannah tries to escape from the picture with a naked bottom and a flag from the Lincoln Logs in her mouth.

It Has Started

The calves are here! We had our first calf on Thursday so I'm a little bit slow with this post. I have been busy chasing Hannah and watching the cows. Just like a watched pot never boils I think that a watched cow never calves. Sometimes I have to tell myself to put the binoculars down and get back to work. We have had two more calves since the one in this picture and as I type this there's one on its way.

I have put a calf count on the left side of the blog at the top in case you are wondering how things are going. I can't promise to keep it really current but I will do my best. We don't really have that many cows so the counts won't go too high. Our herd size is confined by the very limited supply of pasture for rent in our area. My goal is to exclusively have a registered herd in hopes of maximizing the amount of money that can be made off of such a small group of animals. We baby them so we might as well reap a few of the rewards for our efforts. Right now we have a mixed herd of commercial and registered cows.

For any of you that might have been worried about me checking the cows in the middle of the night there's no need. All that I really do it get in the pickup, drive out into the pen, and use the spot light to check the cow's status. If a calf needs to come in or a cow is having trouble I have been made to promise that I will get help. Trust me this pregnant lady is not walking around in the dark in a herd of cows. I can't move fast enough for that right now!

I've Been Tagged

Kari tagged me. I have been tagged before and I don't often participate but this seemed simple enough.

Post the 6th picture in the 6th folder.

I looked on our computer and it was a picture of a potato field after a freak storm...not terribly interesting. I then went to the external hard drive to see what was there. Here's the picture. Strangely enough I had already posted this picture of us working cows and calves this spring.


I'm supposed to tag 6 more people. I'm going to skip that part so if you want to participate post it on your blog and leave me a comment so I can go and see your picture. Thanks.

Finally and Thankfully

That lack of clarity I was talking about in the last post? Apparently clarity finally strikes this pregnant lady in the middle of the night when she has just returned in from checking the cows in her pajamas, her rear end is wet and cold from sitting in the snow that ended up on the seat and she's hungry because all she at for dinner was oatmeal, by choice. You might ask why Ben isn't out checking the cows so that I can sleep? Aside from the fact that pregnant ladies just don't sleep well at this stage and Hannah is teething and keeping me awake, the cows are one thing that I don't let go of easily. Filling the pellet stove or moving things that might be a little too heavy, those are no big deal. It's a good thing I'm not on bed rest! I tend to the be animal person in the group and I insist on feeding (with "adult supervision" as Ben says) and watching them for signs of calving. I'm not sure the degree in Animal Sciences really makes me that much more qualified, it's just important to me and most everyone has realized that. Whether I have a newborn (which I generally leave in the house) or am pregnant I'm going out to check on the cows! :)

One thing that sparked the beginning of this need to check the cows in the middle of the night was a pretty good snowfall in the last 12 hours. I don't know if you can tell in the last pictures of Hannah but it has been really dry here. So dry the water supply for our irrigation season is/was looking scary and each day Ben checked the snow pack report it was shrinking with our warm days. The roads were dusty and we were burning weeds around the place on Saturday. Those are definitely things that shouldn't be happening in February. The snowfall means that Ben doesn't have much work later this morning but we are very thankful for the precipitation nonetheless. The hay trucks he loads can be a little apprehensive to come in the snow.

As a result of the several inches of snow we got last night my midnight ride was beautiful. There is something peaceful about being the first one out to disturb the new blanket of snow. I think it was close to a full moon too. The black cows are striking on the background of new snow. And the one cow that I was sure was standing along the fence line licking a calf...there was no calf. When I bombardiered out there to see what was going on she looked up from her snack of tumble weeds and said "Of course I'm eating tumbleweeds. What did you think I was doing?" I was again thankful that I didn't have to drag a cold calf into the house for a warm up and a bottle. I do plan on going back to sleep at some point soon.

So maybe this late night post qualifies as rummy more than clear, coherent thoughts but that's what we've been up to on this little piece of dirt. When the sun comes up I will stick a few pictures in this post.

Short on Words Long on Pictures

That's how I'm feeling these days. Right now Hannah is taking a rare nap and I have a moment of free time. Either there is so much running around in my brain to think straight or it seems too tired to put together a coherent thought. So, like the last post I give you mostly pictures and a few words.

Hannah washing the wheels on Daddy's hay squeeze. The wheels on everything within reach of the hose got washed too.

Counting water bottles. These are a favorite toy. They are even more fun if the label is still on them and can be peeled off.

Monkey see, monkey do. I was bending down to take her picture so she bends down too. Now when the camera comes out she squats.

On Friday I had a heifer that needed to be weighed. Hannah quickly adopted the paddle that I use to "persuade" the cattle to move. She thinks it's a great toy since it rattles and she can push hay around with it.

It's been quite awhile since you have seen Emma. She is just a big puppy these days and is still learning about how to be a big girl.

Pictoral Update

Here's a couple of pictures to update you about what we've been up to.

More finger painting. In true artist style Hannah was really getting into her work! When she got bored with the paint I sprayed some shaving cream on her paper. That went well until she got it in her eyes.

"Two hats." That's what she said. Normally nakedness is a prerequisite to watching TV. Today the reverse was true and more clothes seemed to be better.