Interlopers

It's always fun when the piglets are at that age where they're old enough to be adventurous and small enough to slip through the fences. One evening, as the cows were coming back up from the pasture, they found piglets hanging out on their turf.



Everybody just sort of eyed each other up and down... I was waiting for it to turn into the gang fight scene from West Side Story.



But pretty soon a mama stepped in and put a stop to the shenanigans.



Good thing, or there's no telling what might have happened.

Don't send out the search party just yet

Both girls are playing softball, and this year Rafe gets to play t-ball for the first time.



Rafe & Liv's games are in the evenings, and Madeline's are during the day.



Which adds up to a lot of bleacher time.



And in between the day jobs and the ball games, we somehow manage to do farmers markets, do chores, castrate baby pigs, haul broiler chickens to the processor & pick them up again, and haul home loads of hay.



But why is it that the laundry is always the thing to fall by the wayside? Maybe that's just me.


1 year ago:

This week

It's that time again!

Mama said knock you out

Birdseye view

My cousin had asked if we'd like to have a ride in his helicopter. Um, yes! Yesterday was the day.



Matt and Madeline were totally stoked about it. Me & Olivia & Rafe were a little more on the fence. Rafe thought he might do it if he had "muffins" for his ears, but in the end he decided against it.


Matt getting in

It was a very cute little helicopter, just big enough for the pilot and one passenger.


Matt going up


Madeline coming down

I was on the fence - I hate flying in general - but the photo opportunity was just too much for me to pass up. And I was so glad I went, it was a blast! It wasn't scary, and it didn't make me motion-sick or anything! The view was incredible.

The only time I got a little nervous was when we stopped for fuel. To fuel up, Tim had to land the helicopter on a platform built on a flatbed trailer. Then he started cranking on various knobs and such. Then he looked at me and said, "I've got everything locked down, you shouldn't take off." And then he left me, alone, in the helicopter, perched on a suddenly very small platform on the back of a truck, with the helicopter still running!

Um, shouldn't take off?!?

But all was well. He's a pro.

In this next picture our house is about right in the middle.



Our house again



And our pasture



Cows (& Star) in the pasture



Our house, and garden to the left. The garden has been very slow getting going this cold, wet & busy spring.



House, with the meat wagon parked in front.



My favorite picture of the day...garden, pasture, creek. The broiler chickens are in the upper right.



Olivia going up.



Thanks again, Tim! We enjoyed it so much!


1 year ago:

Checking in

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature

Flood pictures

Itchy and scratchy

The new piglets are as cute as ever, and at that age where they go on little walk-abouts. One day I watched as they scratched their various and sundry itches.



The rooster is wondering just what he's walked into.



All together now!




1 year ago:

Hen and chicks

Summertime

Count 'em

Matt gets some of the credit for the pictures on this blog. Often when he goes out to do chores he'll call back up to the house on his cell phone and tell me to "come quick with the camera, there's a photo opp out here!" One day he came across this mama duck and her new brood, come out from hiding wherever it was she hatched them.

I headed out with the camera and couldn't believe how many ducklings I saw! I counted, and counted again, and came up with 17 ducklings. Seventeen!

After a while I saw mama duck again and this time another duck hen was with her, so I think perhaps the first duck was just doing a little babysitting. Today I saw the two of them together again, this time on the creek. They've lost a few ducklings - I counted 12 today. Little ducklings paddling on the creek are pretty high on my "Cutest Things" list!


1 year ago:

So where were we?

Farm boy