Sunday Afternoon On The Ranch

As we headed off to church this morning The Prairie Daddy didn't like the looks of our heifers and a few bulls pressed up to the fence of the neighbor's fence with cattle on the other side. He declared that we'd have to get them moved in the afternoon.

When we got home from town we got ready and headed out to move them. It was a beautiful day out, although it was breezy and wasn't all that warm.

I haven't helped for awhile. I was a bit nervous. Thankfully, I got the count right (I started gathering on my own) and got them going in the right direction. Unfortunately, at one point I was too busy taking pictures to realize that they started heading off the hill (and they weren't supposed to!) I quickly got the camera pocketed and got back to work. ; ) Here are some of the pics.

Gathering
Out to the road

I really like how this one turned out

Waiting for Dad

Heading into the corrals

Master Sorter...it is awesome to watch him. He got 5 bulls and 1 cow peeled out of this bunch. There were 49 heifers in this bunch too.

Rough view : )

So cute!

Out of the corrals with the heifers

Over the canal

All done!

Family pic with the timer

It was such a treat to get to go help today. I told The Prairie Kid when we got home that he is pretty blessed to get to do this kind of thing...not many kids would ever have the opportunity.

Thank You, Lord, for an amazing blessing of land and life.

Muy Relajante

Before we knew we were expecting The Prairie Kid we took a trip to Mexico. While we there we went on a great adventure tour. We snorkeled into a cenote (underground river/sinkhole),had lunch in a Mayan village, and sea-kayaked. While in the village we bought one of their hand-crafted hammocks.

I found it while doing some cleaning today and put it out on the deck. The Prairie Kid soon found his way into it. We even did his reading today while resting in it.

Rough view, eh?

Very relaxing. I just can't sway in it...I get seasick! One time in college, I was working at a Young Life camp as a wrangler for a month, and we had a hammock. I got so seasick I almost lost my lunch!

The Eye Of The Beholder

Let me introduce you to: Plains Larkspur (Delphinium geyeri Greene)

definition (as known by The Prairie Mama): beautiful purple flowers growing in the field behind the house that would make a beautiful bouquet

definition (as known by The Prairie Daddy): a toxic weed known to kill cattle

I asked The Prairie Daddy the other day if I could cut some of these beautiful flowers for the dining room table. He said yes. Not because he thought they would look beautiful on the dining room table, but because the ones I cut could not reproduce.

So today The Prairie Kid and I went out to cut beautiful flowers.

Yep, these are definitely beautiful flowers!

I understand they can kill cattle BUT look how beautiful they are!

I think even the dog thinks they're beautiful flowers!

The Prairie Daddy was working on irrigation and came by to say "hi"

Now what does this look like to you?

Beautiful flowers or toxic weeds?

Thankfully The Prairie Daddy doesn't mind toxic weeds adorning the dining room table. : ) And boy are they wonderfully fragrant too! (Smelly weeds, sheesh.)

Hindsight

I had a project to do for church this weekend that had a box with Styrofoam boards in it. The Prairie Kid asked if he could play with them. I agreed. Little did I know what would result!

The next thing we knew there were barely any Styrofoam boards left! Oops. But he had a good ol' time and had to help with the clean up.

See how hard he is working to clean up?

He had Styrofoam all over!

The vacuum was the only solution we could figure out to get this stuff off of him!

Eventually it all did get cleaned up but it was quite a feat!

Cowboy'd Up

After returning from Seattle The Prairie Kid decided to dress from head to toe like a cowboy. And he's been dressed like that (minus p.j.s and church pants) ever since. He's all of the sudden a "die hard" cowboy.

He was going to work with The Prairie Daddy the other day and this is what he decided he needed to wear. With this shirt on I thought he looked just like his uncle who runs the ranch with The Prairie Daddy. : )

Blessing Daddy

The Prairie Kid and I are so thankful for The Prairie Daddy. He works so hard and is an INCREDIBLE provider for our family. He loves us so much and shows it in the way he works hard, values our family time, prays for us and SO much more!

We had a great time spoiling Daddy for Father's Day.

We started out by serving Daddy a bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, and blueberry muffin breakfast before church.

Then we showered Daddy with presents.

Dad, we're going mini-golfing!

It's too bad The Prairie Kid doesn't resemble his dad!

He also got some tennis balls, end tables for the family room, a ball pump, Peanut M&M's and The Prairie Kid gave him $0.72. : )

After church we met up with family to have Dairy Queen and then we went to Kung Fu Panda 2. We made Daddy dinner last night and relaxed at home. We also made S'mores!

It was a great day to put extra emphasis on one super-special person in our lives. We love you Prairie Daddy!

In Honor Of My Dad

I've been thinking a lot about my dad today, since Father's Day is tomorrow. He passed away 16 1/2 years ago. It was neat how something happened today the way it did that allowed me to honor him in our home.

I was sitting outside reading and soaking up the sun when a strange truck pulled in the drive this morning. Two guys from out of town that are contractors with the oil field up the road were wondering if they'd be able to fish in our reservoir. We chatted a bit and I called to ask The Prairie Daddy if it was okay. He said yes and the guys went on their way. I did ask them to let me know if they caught anything and with what kind of bait.

This afternoon they stopped back in and brought us this fish. My dad was an AVID, DIE-HARD fisherman. He lived to fish (and eat) : ). I gladly took the fish. I brought it in and told The Prairie Kid to grab a stool so he could watch me gut the fish. Here is a picture of the fish before I "took care" of it.

And for dinner tonight we made the cornmeal-battered trout that my dad used to make. It warmed my heart to get to do this today.
And this week I'm going to buy the same type of flies that the guys caught fish on and go fishing like my dad taught me to do (even though he used a spinning rod only and I will use a fly rod).

I miss you, Dad. Wish we could go fish together.

5 Year Old Phone Call

The Prairie Kid asked me today if he could call his good friend. I said yes. He called and they chatted about toys, sleep overs, etc. And then, for the first time as a parent (and probably not the last!), I said "okay, it's about time to get off the phone!"

I heard my son wrapping up the conversation. He said he had to go. And then he said "I love you."

Silence.

Again, and with more persistence and a bit of questioning, "I love you."

I heard the voice on the other end slowly respond, "Okay."

"Don't you love me too?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Okay, Bye!"

"Bye!"

So sweet. But I don't think that he'll want to keep saying that at the end of all his phone conversations with his elementary school friends. It is bittersweet to see our kids grow up. Maybe he'll have a special resistance to caving to culture. : )

Seattle Fun 4- Alki Again!

On our last full day in Seattle we all got to go to the beach together and enjoy a beautiful day. The boys definitely enjoyed their time in the sand...so much so that they had it EVERYWHERE! : )

Again, I had fun playing around with the new camera. Check out these action shots:

Sandy Somersaults

Jumping Fun

Feeding the Gulls

It looks like it might have been chilly in these pictures, but really it was pretty warm out. I was glad to finish our trip with some time outside.

Uncle buried the boys in the sand

There was some serious sand art taking place

They boys found some beach friends

He loves giving his sister kisses! (I wonder how much sand came out of that head of hair!)