It's Plantin Time

Plating time (n):
      1. A period of time where a farmer's wife goes days on end without seeing their husband which usually ends with them eating dinner alone.
      2. A period of time where a large quantity of money is spent on small beans that are supposed to  grow big plants that will make a large amount of money come harvest time.....hopefully!

 Its Planting time!! We are a little delayed this year due to the lack of rain. It has been such a dry year. A severe drought kind of year. Dan has been waiting on some rain to plant his beans to make sure they will grow. Unfortunately, every chance of rain we get usually ends with it falling apart at the river or it just changes route. I never understood why people always discussed rain amounts or why we prayed for rain...I understand clearly now!!! We finally got enough rain for Dan to start drilling this past week and have had another inch since then. God is good!

After watching Dan make a couple rounds in the field I decided to go ride with him one afternoon. It was fun for about the first 10 minutes. Sitting on a tire fender is not the most comfortable place to sit. Our next tractor WILL have a buddy seat. With beans in the ground Dan can now sigh a sign of relief and go right on to praying for rain!


Even Pete is tired of this hott weather. Dan decided to give him a hair cut to try to keep him cool this summer. I thought the plan was to take him to the vet and have him shaved there. Well, Pete was given a sedative at the vet clinic then brought home to be shaved by Dan and a friend. I was pleasantly surprised on how it all turned out! He doesn't look like he is some rabid and diseased dog with mange! All is good in the neighborhood!

Firin Up The Grill

Memorial day has made its debut once again. Barbecuing seems to be the most popular way to celebrate the holiday these days and Dan can now grill with the best of them. He decided he wanted a grill for graduation...not a small Weber grill or even a propane grill, but the Hulk of all grills. This one-of-a-kind grill is a smoker, a charcoal AND a propane grill all in one! A 3 in 1 deal..I like the sounds of that.

With Memorial Day quickly approaching he decided it was time to put this bad boy together. Our first meal off the grill did not include the speciality "Bugg Beef",but the yummy and delicious lil Franks. Thank goodness we have 7 foot of cooking space on this sucker! Hey even Pete was able to taste the grill's cooking ability. If Tim the Toolman Taylor was here, I believe he would give this grill his famous grunt!

As Memorial Day marks the end of May, I am finally able to see what my random flower seeds that I planted in the Spring have produced. You see April showers were not plentiful this year so I was unsure of what type of "May Flowers" I would be left with. To my surprise, I have several plants in bloom. As an amature gardener, I am unaware of what flowers are what, how much sunlight they need, or what kind of flowers they will grow. There is something about planting a small seed into the ground, watering it daily and watching it grow into something amazing! So, does this resemble parenting?!?!?

No, I am not discussing the idea of children just yet although the other day I had a very interesting experience.  I was in the grocery store loading up my buggy (that's another story for another day),  I payed for my groceries and went on home. As I was putting the groceries away I pulled out a container of Gerber's baby formula. Now I know I did not put that in my buggy! I suppose it came from the couple who was in line ahead of me. Or, is this a sign from God....either way I got a good chuckle out of it. I know I should have taken the container back to the store but driving 10 minutes back into town did not sound appealing to me. We now have a container of baby formula sitting in a cabinet for future use. Much in the future! I sure hope this doesn't qualify as stealing..if so....God planted the container in my buggy!

The Runaway Jeep

Well the cows did it again. They managed to find a hole in the fence and sneak out. Seriously, is the grass that much better on the other side?? Darn cows! After scarfing down a quick lunch Dan, Pete and I loaded up in the Jeep to go on another infamous cattle roundup.

Once the hole was found Dan was hard at work fixing the fence. Dan is someone that continues to amaze me daily. I don't think there is anyone out there that works harder than he does. Farming is truly his passion even when his cows continually try to escape and even when he has to fix fences in 100 degree heat. He is one of those that is not happy unless he puts in a hard days work.

Once the fence was fixed we had to move all of the cows together. Of course there was that one cow that happened to be on the wrong side of the fence. Dan jumped out of the Jeep in a mad dash to steer the cow in the right direction. Pete jumped into the front seat like a boss and I was in the passenger seat. We were quite a pair until we realized the Jeep was moving. Moving quickly towards the fence! Apparently as Dan jumped out of the Jeep he thought he put it in gear. WHOOPS! So me in a panic I started yelling at Dan to stop the Jeep. I think I even yelled at Pete to do something. Like a dog could really jump down and press the brake. Needless to say we ran right into the fence. As I was yelling Pete let out a noise that was unmistakably a cry. Once we were at a full stop I began laughing hysterically at Pete. He knew we weren't supposed to be going down hill towards a fence! When I thought all of the excitement was over I looked over my shoulder to see a cow straddling a tree stump to scratch her belly. Wow...never a dull moment

Our days seem to always be filled with some type of excitement. Whether it be chasing cows or fixing fences or even rolling down hills uncontrollably, I wouldn't trade my life as a farmer's wife for anything!

Friday Night Fun

Well I did it. I finally did it. I finally made it to the blogging world. I've been told for several months now that I needed to start a blog. Could my new found life on the farm be that interesting? Is this really something people would enjoy reading? Well I bit the bullet and created my blog. It has taken me a while to decide on what I was going to blog about. I mean what would people truly be interested in reading. I needed a "blog worthy" moment. Well folks, that time has come! I had an epiphany Friday night that could possibly be described as a "blog worthy" moment.

 Friday nights in the Valley are usually compromised of dinning at the local Coon Dog Inn and some front porch sitting...if time allows. Daniel was headed off to the big city to go see the new Tim Burton movie. I decided that it would be wise for me to stay home and save a few extra brain cells. My Friday night was now going to consist of a trip to the good 'ol Cracker Barrel with Daniel's granny.

With dinner plans set I proceeded to clean stalls and feed horses. All chores were done besides the infamous rounding up of my chicks.You see I am new to this whole chicken business. I never knew how difficult it was to round up two chicks when they dart off in opposite direction leaving you to decide which path to take while trying to keep yourself from getting dizzy and falling over. Horses are a breeze to take care of compared to this chicken chasing business. Now I can easily say I am glad I only have two chicks left considering I started out with three. No, the third chick did not cross the road, Lucy (Granny's sassy little dachshund) assisted in the natural selection process. This third chick, named Sunny, was my favorite chick. One that allowed me to hold it like a baby. Long story short I was showing Sunny off  to Granny like a proud parent showing off their new offspring. I held Sunny until she decided to fly out of my hands....right into Lucy's mouth!! Now that was quite a traumatic experience for me as a new mother. I have had time to grieve over this tragedy and I am now left with a rooster named Blackened and a hen named Poach (all named by my dad).

So anyway, I FINALLY corralled my chicks into their pen and was headed inside for a much needed shower until my phone rings. Granny. Cows have happened to get out of the pasture for about the 50th time this month. The problem with cows getting out is that we live off a very busy road. Loose cows + busy road = NO GOOD! So me being the good farmer's wife that I am, I headed right up to Granny's house to help get cows back in to where they belong. Things were going pretty smoothly until Granny's little Ranger truck decides to die...right in the middle of the road. Just great. Could anything else go wrong?

Two hours later cows are up where they belong and the truck is pushed out of the way.  Did I mention it was just Granny and I left to round up the loose herd of cattle with a dead truck? Needless to say our Cracker Barrel date did not happen. Dairy Queen was now our diner of choice at 9:30 pm. I am on my way to learning how a true farmer's wife does it!