Helena's Four Month Check-Up

Helena had her four month check-up today. She weighed in at 14 pounds 6 ounces and was 25.75 inches long. She's still hanging out in the 95th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. She was overall very healthy. She even laughed at the doctor when he did her abdominal exam and "forgot" to cry when she got her first shot. This is a welcome change from all of the doctor visits I have endured with Hannah.

July Happenings...So Far

It has been my goal to get out and do more this summer. I think I'm succeeding at it and I've even been able to drag Ben along with us at times.

Here's Helena and I kayaking on Lake Ewauna.
My Mom, Hannah, Helena, Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt and cousins went for a day of kayaking on Orr Lake.

The view of Mt. Shasta from Orr Lake.

Daddy and Hannah fishing at Little Medicine Lake.

Helena sleeping at Medicine Lake.

Hannah scaring all the fish away at Medicine Lake.

Swimming with Uncle Jared and Cousin Waytt at Medicine Lake.

View from the south end of Surprise Valley (A.K.A God's Country)

Annie Lake where we spent an afternoon fishing.

Hannah sharing her Goldfish with her new friend Ty. These were the only fish to be had at the lake. The were jumping right in front of us but we couldn't catch them...frustrating!

After a Hard Day's Work

I guess we should try to teach her the proper way to care for her hat. A good start might be to wear it frontwards.

Who me? Work? It's my job to eat, sleep, make dirty diapers and give out as many smiles as I can.

Making "Horse"mallow Puffs with Mommy

I just figured out today that Hannah has been calling marshmallows, "horse"mallows. I guess it's all about what you know.

We made these marshmallow puffs today. Ours were definitely not photo worthy so there's no picture of the final product. A word of caution. Watch them very closely at the end. They apparently go perfectly white fluffy marshmallows to toasty little creatures in no time flat.

Here's Hannah smashing the biscuits flat. She started to treat it like play dough and squish them between her fingers. I had to do a bit of reshaping magic before we went on.


After dipping them in butter and rolling them in sugar and cinnamon she put a marshmallow in the center of each one.



I was planning to write about how I thought they were only OK and say that we may not make them again. However, it was a great little cooking project where Hannah could get involved, and I have eaten more than I care to tell you about. Hopefully Ben gets home soon to help eat them.

Feeling Introspective?

Here's a blog that I have been visiting lately for a number of reasons. If you are needing a change of pace you might check it out. We are super busy around here, so the best you are going to get out of me for a few days is this link. Enjoy!

This is Reverb

Alfalfa Field (Part 5)

Now that we are back to irrigating the field I thought I would share with you some of the pictures of what that involves.

This is where our water comes from. OK, that's kind of like saying milk comes from Safeway and not cows, but I think you know what I mean. Our water is delivered by a system that includes storage and delivery canals that was developed in the early 1900s. Virtually all of the farmed land in our area is irrigated either through the system in the link above or by wells.

In the bottom right hand corner of this picture is a head gate. The water flows through the head gate and then into a pipe to get under the road.

Next the water flows into the sump. That's the big shiny, round thing you see. It flows out of the sump and into the pumps. They are a dark blue-green color. We have two 50 hp pumps but only use one of them to irrigate the field right now. By the time the water has gotten to the pumps is has been screened or filtered four times. The water that comes down the ditch is nasty! It is filtered one more time before it is pushed out of the pump and into the reddish colored pipe in the background of the picture.

Here's the pipe up close. We call this the mainline. Right near the pump the mainline goes underground. The water is transported underground 1/4 mile down the field to a valve system that is 1/4 mile long.

I attach the wheel lines to the valves/risers and turn on the pumps. It takes me 5 1/2 days to run the wheel lines all the way across the field. I only had to run them across once before first cutting but I'm going to have to do it two times before we get to cut the hay again.

Hannah and Helena had their maiden voyage in the hay squeeze today...with MOMMY! Ben needed to go directly from raking hay to squeezing hay and had taken his pickup with him. We offered up our services and got his squeeze to him this morning. They weren't sure what to think of it but were very good riders.

Alfalfa Field Part 4

I'm really behind on my updates with the field. I guess that's an indication that we are pretty busy around here. Tuesday they raked the hay and on Wednesday the hay was baled. Then the bale wagons hauled it. They are the machines that pick up the bales and stack them into blocks. Then Ben stacked the blocks in the hay shed.

The girls and I are back to changing wheel lines which we started Thursday morning. We have also been doing lots of cow chasing and fence fixing. We have a few acres of triticale that we raised this year for cow feed. Note: There is so much cow-feed quality (junk) hay around here this year that we don't really need this, but oh well. Anyway, the pasture and triticale field are separated by a one-strand electric fence. The cows got out into the triticale and got a taste of it. Apparently Ben did a good job with it because they are willing to endure the pain of scaling the electric fence to get in to eat it. We have spent way too much time out there trying to keep them where they are supposed to be. I'm crossing my fingers they will have the triticale baled soon and I won't have it to worry about.

I'm sorry this is a boring post with no pictures. When you are part of the action, it's tough to get pictures of what's going on. Sometimes when packing two kids the addition of a camera is just too much to handle. I will do my best to get some pictures up soon.

The Cow With the 'Tude

Here's the "redheaded" cow with attitude that I was telling you about earlier. She had decidedly become the boss cow of the other herd. I think she was trying to convince them all to follow her the 15 miles home by jumping the fence several times a day. Well, we couldn't have that, so I brought her home.


She's got attitude. See here she's trying to come after me for taking her picture. Just kidding! She just wants to walk through the gate where I'm standing.

I will however take some responsibility for giving her some attitude. We purchased 8 heifers when we got married and she is out of our first crop of calves. When she was a yearling I was walking around in the corrals and she started to come after me. Just in case you didn't know, yearlings are like junior highers. Maybe this is the teacher in me talking, but junior highers can be squirrely. No offense to any junior highers out there. So back to yearlings. They run around the corrals like crazies that aren't sure what they are supposed to be doing. Hardcore animal lovers please stop reading here.

Well, on this particular day she came after me, and to keep from losing life or limb, I kicked her in the jaw. I kicked her hard in people terms but in cattle terms it was just a little love tap. In no way did I really hurt her, but she hasn't been the same since. So here's to a little spunk from one redhead to another.

This here is the progeny of the redhead cow with attitude. In case you couldn't read it. On the side of this little guy it says "Dinner." Actually the brand is a rocking lazy "D." That's not exactly how you say it in real brand language but I've forgotten the right way. He's one of only two steers that we had this year and we will be raising them up and butchering them in about a year and a half.

Dinner Tonight

It's finally warming up around here and it was probably too warm to make what I made, but I did it anyway. Tonight I made Crockpot Ravioli, which was super easy and quite tasty. Ben is a lover of all things meat and potatoes, so I always try to appease him a bit with homemade bread if I'm going to throw a pasta dish at him. Tonight it was Challah. I was glad to make two new recipes that turned out well. I'm thinking that the ravioli might even go over well at a potluck.

You Might Be a Farmer If...

Here's a list of things that probably came off of an email forward somewhere. I really don't like stereotypes but they wouldn't be stereotypes if they weren't mostly true. We are stereotypically farmers. If it is, or has been true for Ben (to the best of my knowledge ) or I it is listed in orange. I'm not going extend this to immediate family members but it would allow me to highlight a few more. Have fun seeing how "farmer" we really are.

Your dog rides in the truck more than your wife

You have driven off the road while examining your neighbor's crops

You have used a chainsaw to remodel your house (I promised I wouldn't extend my list to family members, but my house has been remodeled with a chain saw, just not by me. You know who you are!) ;)

You have buried a dog and cried like a baby

You have borrowed gravel from the county road to fill potholes in your driveway

You always look when a vehicle passes your house, even at night

You have used something other than paper as toilet paper

You have animals living in buildings more expensive than your house

Your family instantly becomes silent when the weather comes on the news

You don't bother to clean up the dog's mess because it's just fertilizer, and the dog knows to stay out of your way

Your husband drives a friend home from the bar when he only lives 3 houses away

You'll skip your own cousin's funeral for the first day of deer season ( and you know he would approve and would do the same if you died )

You have enough ball caps to match every shirt you own, but you only wear one so you don't get the others dirty

You convince your wife that an overnight, out of State trip for parts (or a Farm Bureau conference) is a vacation

You've never thrown away a 5 gallon bucket

You have ever had to wash off in the backyard with a garden hose before your wife would let you in the house

You have used baling wire to attach a license plate

You can remember the fertilizer rate, seed population, herbicide rate, and yields on a farm you rented 10 years ago, but cannot recall your wife's birthday

You have used a tractor with a loader as scaffolding for painting or roof repairs (on more than one occasion)

You have fibbed to a mechanic about how often you greased a piece of equipment

You've used the same knife to make bull calves into steers and peel apples

You wave at every vehicle whether you know them or not

Your wife agrees to observe Mother's Day after the beans are planted (some other sacrifice for the farm)

Over 50% of your clothing came from feed or seed dealers (easily)

You give directions to your farm by using area landmarks, not road names or number
You refer to farms by who owned them 50 or more years ago

You've been stopped by the deputy sheriff for a cluttered dashboard

Family weddings and special events are planned around spring planting and fall harvest (Ben raked hay the morning of ours)

Your know that checkoff is not a Russian diplomat

The rusted out areas of your truck are sealed off with old tee-shirts or duck tape

You can eat an ear of sweet corn with no utensils in under 20 seconds

You pick up all the free stuff at the State Fair

It takes 30 seconds to reach your destination and it's clear across town

You can tell the difference between the smell of a skunk and the smell of a feedlot

The meaning of true love is that you'll pose for a picture with both him and his favorite tractor (or hay squeeze)

The meaning of true love is that you'll ride in the tractor (or hay squeeze) with him

You consider a building a mall if it's bigger than the local Wal-Mart

You know you should listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit

You know cow pies aren't made of beef

Your excuse for getting out of school is that the cows got out

Your early morning prayer covers rain, cattle, and pigs

You consider a romantic evening driving through Hardees and renting a hunting instructional video

You can tell it's a farmer working late in the field, know who it is, what they're doing, and not think it's a UFO

You listen to "Paul Harvey" every day at noon and never get tired of him saying, "Gooooood day"

Your nearest neighbor is in the next section, and you know what a section is

You actually understand the geographical necessity of correction lines

When you were little, you "beat-up" another kid on school bus arguing over the color of tractors

Your other vehicle is a tractor (or hay squeeze)

You know enough to get your driving done on Sundays before the "Sunday drivers" come out

If you were given $1,000,000.00 you would keep right on farming. You'd farm differently, but you'd keep farming because that is who and what you are