Summer work and play

We received a phone call seeking help for an elderly one-legged farmer north of town bringing in his hay. It was hot, we  wanted to serve, so why not? K11 is the guy in green shirt on top of hay. I was driving a 2nd truck with K10 and the girl crew.

Our large guard dog Dinah with her sheep (kids picked her name Dinah, as in Wonder Woman). Will breed her this Christmas and keep 3 of her pups to keep her company and guard flock. We will need more LGD's as we increase size of our flock. Coyotes have been a major problem the past year.

K11 and K10 are replacing the big boys as my main helpers.

Cleaning up after our big 4th of July fireworks show.

After dropping the giant oak tree, it took us a few weeks to cut, split and haul away. K2 and K4 loading truck while K4's hubbie Ryan and our youngest K12 split.

K2 cutting, K11 and Ryan splitting. Notice the barn swallow just to the left of K2. I was on the upper deck looking down when it flew past.

Some days it was the little crew loading.

This is just a start on the amount that K4's family will need to heat their house this coming winter. We will be cutting, splitting and hauling many more loads of wood the next few months. All offers of help will be accepted!

The pond brings joy to many of us in different ways. Danny is the main fisherman, but he teaches little people.

In the Spring we bought more black crappie to add to the pond.

They were little, but...

...they do grow. This is K6 and Danny with a large mouthed bass, which make good eating, but they are the main predator in pond, eating many of the other fish and all the baby ducks! I have declared war on the bass and want them caught and eaten.

Had 10 calves so far with a few more due in August and September. Have sold 2 and need to sell more.

Finally decided to get Fluffy a haircut and so glad we did. Her shedding was causing us to sweep floors twice a day.

K12 pretty and pretty happy about her haircut.

Hollie had a tiny little red girl.

K9 is learning to be a ranch hand.

K7 worked as an EFY counselor all summer on college campuses in Arizona and Utah. One of his students did this pencil drawing of him and his female co-counselor. Wow!

K1 visited with her 3 children. It was a great week. Everyone was busy having fun. No shortage off playmates. The canoe was popular.

K12 and Lydia rode on the tractor and were my helpers with opening gates. We always stop to visit Grandma and Grandpa White in the family cemetery.

Twin fawns standing above top red fence bar, just up and left of center. We see deer frequently around the property.

Lots of great sunsets.

Wanch Update, lots of pics

K10's birthday party at local pottery painting shop was creatively fun...

...followed by cup cakes and ice cream.

We never miss the Annual Baker Creek Seed Festival...

...which added a new high tech sanitation gizmo this year. Took K11 a few minutes to figure out how to operate it (big Sister gave him hint - foot pedal).

K9 with his favorite k9 - Bill, the Great Pyrenees

K10 with new jewelry...

...expensive day, since K12 also got some shiny stuff.

Jonsey the cat proving that Bill the alpha dog can be patient. But pity the stranger who comes over our fence at night.

K10 digging thorny thistles out of a hay field.

K11 digging thistles out of a grazing pasture - this weed is not welcome anywhere on the Wanch.

K2 waiting his turn at the family barber shop.

First over night camp out for K10 and K9 at our annual church Father and Son's outing. Fortunately we had cabins with canvas curtains to cover the screen windows, because we had a thunder storm. Boys eating bananas for late night snack.

Loading half empty feed barrels of grain left over from winter time. Not sure what the story is with K12's fashion statement (on far left).

Took team work.

Putting up fence line also requires team work, the more the merrier. 

Splicing two sections of field fence.

Danny caught this large mouth bass from our pond last Sunday, and threw it on the grill. Good eating.

Converted a few of our pastures into new hay fields this Spring to help reduce the high cost of feeding the herd and flock this coming winter.

With a second cutting later this Fall, we should have just enough hay to make it through winter at a new cost of $15 per bale instead of last year's drought driven high of $55 (and some places were charging as much as $80 per bale!). 

Hi ho, it's off to work we go! Our Wanch is full of Princesses, little people, music, and fun.

Visited Portland, Oregon, for grand daughter Lydia's 8th Birthday and...

...her Baptism!

K10 getting her first pair of ballet point shoes.

New sheep handling equipment made it much easier to band and tag lambs this year.

We are seeing a lot of water snakes in the stream this year.

These two snakes wrapped themselves on the water gap fence - they looked like sticks.

We had a lot of strong storms this Spring. No serious damage, but lots of limbs down.

Some limbs on top of fences.

Kept us busy cutting and building burn piles.

Lots of burn piles.

Starting to open up the west side of hill above stream in order to add more grazing pastures. We will keep a lot of the big shade trees, but will be cutting firewood for months this summer and fall.

After having a rare tornado pass just a little over a mile to our east last month, I decided to take down the giant oak tree next to my bed room. Our son-in-law, Ryan, fortunately has a hobby of tree climbing and trimming. This is him starting up the tree, with rain clouds moving across the sky above.

He is about 50 feet up, and only got a little sprinkling of rain.

Lots of cutting, with hand saw and chain saw.

"Timber!"

Crash!

It was grueling and exhausting work - I should know, because I sat on an ammo can and watched Ryan for 3 hours! Sending up the occasional cold water bottle to keep him hydrated.

We then spent a few days cleaning up - cutting branches, building burn piles and loading firewood.

See the green barrel? The one with dent on top? It saved our fence line from getting crushed.

Little kids needed team work to load this long feed trough.

Then I told them to load a 2nd one. They said it was impossible. They learned to stop telling me things are impossible.

All American boys defending our part of the world from scary, mindless, destructive creatures that begin with the letter "D". Team work. They were hooting, hollering, laughing, and screaming. They had a blast...literally. "Move, shoot, communicate".