What a day

Yesterday was a beautiful day to start making hay. We were in LaGrange at the Ward Trenching shop and when this little bit is done we move into Nebraska. Don Richards has been kind enough to let us hay half his circle and try out or ground driven baler.

All My Pretty Horses

Well, some.

Well, I asked for water!

Joe said he would get water to the garden one way or another by tonight. I was sure he was just saying this to keep me happy, kind of like the last dozen times he has said it. But this time him and Mother Nature got in agreement and they gave me water! Way to much water! I'm trying not to complain, rain is always good and we always need more. But this came down so fast it turned the side yard into a river, washing away all the grass seed that I had just planted. And because Joe and I are known for our procrastination we had still to dig the drainage ditch that was to run down the middle of the garden. Yes, the rain came up and the garden washed away. Well, part of it did. I spent the evening picking up onion sets and making rows so I had a place to put them and this morning I gathering up pea seed. The good news is my garden has been watered! The peas I picked up were sprouted and the beans, as far as I know, are save in the ground. The grass seed I am sure will have 100% germination, in the ditch, but any grass is good grass. I love spring rain in Wyoming!
The sounds are the best. This storm had a lot of lighting up in the clouds. The thunder was a soft to strong rolling rumble that never seamed to stop, it just rolled into the next one. I love that sound as it is not the kind that wakes you up in the night but rocks you to sleep along with the rain on the roof. It did stop raining before bed but not before dumping 1 1/2 inches on us. When I went out last night it was still raining lightly. The air had the wonderful clean smell and you could hear toads talking all over the place. I'm not sure where they come from but I remember the first time we got a big rain, it was the first spring we were married, and our front yard was full of toads. The made so much noise you could hear it in the house but the next morning they were gone. Only one or two were still sitting a puddle. Same thing happened again, where do they come from? Where do they go? Who knows.

Cowman saves the day

Yesterday our pony, Dutch, was left out as Joe plowed the garden. He was doing his thing being good until Brody decided that he needed to go back in the pen. The whole thing went something like the following.


Joe and I are at the garden and Dutch comes running by. Then Brody comes running by dragging the rope. "Brody what's going on?" "I'm getting my horse."


I help him get the rope picked up and he tries to do rope tricks.
Or maybe he was just trying to walk and not drop the rope again."Come on Mom, I got to get that horse." He is so cute!
Look he did it! Well Hank caught Dutch by the mane and when Brody came running over yelling at him to let his horse go so HE could catch him Hank put the rope around Dutch's neck.
"He was wild. I got my horse all myself. I a cowman Mom!"

2nd day on the job

The field is about 150' x 200' and Joe got the last of it plowed today. He said he probably should have waited a few more days to let it dry out but rain is in the forecast and time is of the essence. It feels good to have this much done on the garden!

First time behind the plow

Oh what a beautiful morning

Oh what a beautiful day. Today we started to plough the garden. Joe took us on a wagon ride before he got started just to calm the girls down and because we all find it enjoyable. You couldn't have asked for a nicer day or better weather.

Happy Children

Things moving along

We got the plough in working condition today. The kids had fun playing on the equipment as Joe worked. My seedlings are coming along well and the chicks are getting big. We should be able to plough the garden as soon as the ground dries out a little more.

Old iron

Auction

Another auction. This time for farm equipment, horse drawn farm equipment. A fried of Joe's gave him the newspaper clipping. We all looked forward to this for over a week. It's funny haw even the kids count the days to a good farm auction.
We got more then our share at a great price. In fact we should have got more to fix up and sell. We got 3 mowers, a potato digger and planter, cultivator, 2 manure spreaders and a lot more. I had to make two trips to get it all home and even then the trailer was about as full as I have ever seen it. We added 2 more things after this picture.

New babies

Joe let me get a few new chicks today. Nine to be exact and three turkeys. I'm looking forward to seeing how the turkeys will do as they will be living with the chickens. I have read that they can get sick and die from things chickens carry. Also I have all my seeds planted and under lights. My basement is looking a little full with the garden things and now a pen for the chicks. At least it's only temporary.

More Snow

Still only a few inches, not relay as much as it looks like. The snow blew into the basement stairs and was half way up the door. Made it a little hard to go out and feed

eggs

The chicks are staring to lay eggs! Karlee took pictures to try to show the size of the eggs. We are getting about 11 eggs a day out of 14 hens. Not to bad for this time of the year and their age.