Snow Trophies

It has been snowing nearly every day for two weeks now and has really dumped a lot on our litle banana belt of Oregon. Jordan has a new pickup which he has just been itching to try out in the snow, so it seemed like the perfect time to see what it could do. He, of course, was alone here on the farm that afternoon when he headed up the canyon behind the house. He followed the Rhino tracks for a ways, but even they soon ran out and still his pickup was plowing forward, albeit, somewhat slower than at the lower elevations. Before he knew it, he was just pushing too much snow and could no longer move forward. So he tried backing up, but, hmmm . . . Too late. He walked back to the house in the dark and the next morning, he and KP headed up to unstick him. KP was able to get him out with his pickup, but in the process, the deep snow pulled off both bumpers. My reaction would have been - OH No, my truck is broken! But the boys see it as an opportunity to make new bumpers!
Until next time, may you be blessed with the ability to see the opportunity in adversity.

Preserves

The knee surgery I had the end of May put me out of commission much longer than I had anticipated, but am slowly regaining my strength and resuming daily activities. Many thanks to all who have faithfully been checking my blog, knowing I would return one day!

Jordan helped me can cherries last week and we put up 14 quarts of cherries and 16 jars of jam. Mmmm, I had to bake bread the next day just so we could have that delicious jam on fresh bread. It was so worth it! These were some of the best cherries I have ever had and came out of Benton City, Washington, which is located about 45 minutes away. I find it extremely satisfying to put up food for the winter this way and love to gaze upon the vibrant colors of the fruit jars lined up on the pantry shelves. As the summer wanes and the nights start to chill, I often feel this strange compulsion to stuff jars full of any produce I can lay my hands on and have experimented with some unusual recipes such as pickled watermelon and corncob jelly.

I have strong memories of my grandmothers putting away food for the cold season and recall the dusty, apple-scented must of the fruit room in the cellar. My little girl eyes would shine with wonder as I contemplated the perfect jar of fruit to choose to accompany us at dinner, or the jar of pickles to take on the family picnic. I would remember the hot, sticky days of laughter as we picked fruit on a family outing, the yellow jackets causing shrieks from us kids as they competed with us for the sweet fruit. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches eaten in the grass of the orchard with cold, fresh water to wash them down. Faces stained with juice as we had eaten enough for a belly ache. Preserving food, preserving tradition, preserving memories. I am proud to carry on this family legacy.

Until next time, may you be blessed with sweet traditions weaving the past with the present and tendriling on into the future.

Bumper-Be-Gone

Last Sunday afternoon started fairly quietly. The sheep had found (or created) a hole in the fence to allow them access to the lovely new wheat. Jordan was away at fire training in Sisters, Oregon, so the rest of the family pitched in and helped chase them into a holding pen until some fence repair could be done.

The guys were itching to go four-wheeling, so as soon as the sheep had been secured, we headed down to the woods. This picture had been preceeded by one of those "should we, or shouldn't we?" moments. The question is answered here- we did, but maybe shouldn't have!

This is what happens when you get stuck as good as we were. Yes, it is the rear bumper off of Mike's little Ranger pickup. KP was making decent, but slow, progress pulling the Ranger out, when suddenly, POP, off came the bumper, flying through the trees like a trout on a line. Tammy is such a sport, enjoying the humor of the situation. Little did she know that when KP and Taylor headed back to get the caterpillar to help out, they would get stuck too and Tammy ended up having to run the come-along to pull the Ranger out. She was not comforatable trying to drive the pickup (and the hip-deep water on the driver's side was also a deterrent), so she stuck with the hard labor. Poor girl, I am sure she had to have someone else comb her hair for her the next morning as she probably could not raise her arms! Mike, good husband that he is though, continually shouted encouraging words through the open window!

Okay, next time we will . . . .

And I wasn't a whole lot of help, stuck inside the truck with a bum leg, either.
But a short three hours after we started on our 30 minute adventure, everyone was safely back up at the house, eating cake and watching the bumper-be-gone video amongst hoots of laughter!!
Until next time, may all your misadventures end in good humor.



A big thanks to Taylor, who shot most of the pics and got this video, too!

FarmBoy Prom

All dressed up and ready for a night on the town, Jordan's senior prom - Woooo-Hoooo! Jordan looks very handsome and Alex is gorgeous in her ivory gown. It was quite chilly on this evening, but I hear it was warmer inside the dance! The handsome couple had reservations at the Bonefish Grill in Tri-Cities before the festivities.

And they are out of the gate!

Well, he is polite and opens her door for her, but that pickup sure is dirty. Chivalry is still developing!

Oh, no - what is this? Alex waits in the truck while Jordan races to shut the gate before the sheep get out!
Don't worry, they made it to their dinner reservations on time and the night went off without a hitch, despite this minor detour as a country boy tries to get to prom without mussing his clothes, or the lady's! Everyone at dinner was polite and made only small mention to the slight scent of sheep poo wafting up from someone's shiny black shoes!

A Steep Price

The goat brothers, Snickers (above) and Hershey (below), came to live with us last fall after serving a term as therapy goats at Western Trails Therapeutic Riding Center. These guys are two of a set of triplets and were bottle raised. If you know anything about goats, you know they socialize to humans extremely well, so having been raised on bottles and then used as therapy animals for kids with disabilities, they are very people-oriented. They are Nigerian Pygmy goats, so are pretty small. This combination makes them difficult to keep in a pen and impossible to keep out of the yard. They quickly figure out gate latches and only complicated devices requiring thumbs are able to foil these guys. They are seriously like having twin two year olds around. I wouldn't mind them in the yard, except they have a fondness for my roses and other flowers. They also just generally get into stuff and drag it around the yard. Consequently, they have spent much of the winter in a large, hay-filled, chain link dog kennel inside the barn. I let them out every evening and we would go for lenghty walks together. They stay closer to me on walks than the dogs. It is so funny to watch them romp, stand on their hind legs to head butt each other, and just generally enjoy life.

Now that the weather is warming (slowly!) and the green grass is growing, I wanted to put up the electric sheep and goat fence for them. Behind the house looked like a great spot, a steep hill for them to climb and romp on, sagebrush to scratch those itchy backs, four large apricot trees for shade, and best of all, lush green grass to graze on.

Not to mention, the view from up here is spectacular. I especially like how the cow trails all converge at the corral as the cows have come in for water from all parts of the pasture.

Here is Jordan helping out. Notice how far down the trees look, and yes, they are the old apricot trees which are included in the pen also. It was so steep I actually had to crawl on hands and knees with rolls of fence on my shoulder to get up some parts. What a good workout! Well, it turns out old ladies with creaky knees shouldn't be hill crawling so much. I am now in a knee brace and the doc is not allowing any flexion on that leg as we attempt to avoid surgery. Hmmmmm . . . . . Anybody in the market for some really friendly goats?

Until next time, may the hills rise up to meet you . . . gently!

Sebastian's Surgery

"Hey guys, whatcha doin'?"

Sebastian was very curious about this unfamiliar pickup with people getting out of it. Little did he know it was the vet and his crew coming to geld him. I wonder if he will be so friendly to strangers in the future?

What a gorgeous day we had for this surgery, reasonably warm with no wind, yaaay!

For anyone unfamiliar with horse terminology, to geld a horse means to castrate, or neuter, him. Unless you are set up to handle a stallion, male horses should be gelded. Stallions are unpredictable and can be hard to manage, so gelding them makes them much safer and easier to work with. Jordan aquired Sebastian last year and had no plans to use him as breeding stock, so planned to have him gelded from the start.

Jordan steadies Sebastian while Dr. Lincoln inserts the catheter for the anesthesia drip.

And down he goes. Dr. Lincoln steadies his head as Sebastian went to his knees, then over on his side. It was apparent that Sebastian was unsure what was happening and it was a little scary for him, but he was soon sleeping like a baby.

Jordan offers a soothing touch and comforting words as the anesthesia takes effect.

Dr. Rademacher gets down to business as Dr. Lincoln monitors vitals and Jordan holds a leg out of the way.

Joni takes over holding the leg for Jordan as Dr. Rademacher takes the time to explain part of the procedure to Jordan.

Jordan mentioned Sebastian seems to drool a lot, so his teeth were checked and floated as he had some sharp hooks on several of them. The guys took care of that little job while the anesthesia was still working. He should be able to chew better now.

And the big guy is back up! He is still pretty unsteady, but is attempting to creep closer to people for comfort. He especially wants to be as close as possible to Jordan. I am a little worried that he wants Jordan to hold him on his lap!

Oh, man, Jordan, just stop this world from spinning and I will do anything for you!

A big thanks goes out to the vet team who came out and took such good care of Sebastian, allowed me to take pictures, and who went over and above the call of duty to take the time to explain to Jordan what they were doing and why during every phase of this procedure.

Just in case anyone is wondering, Sebastian still loves all people just as much as he used to! He is much calmer now, though, and safer to work with. Jordan walked him quite a bit during that first week to help with swelling and soreness. Sebastian followed everywhere as meek as a puppy on a string.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our farm seasons. Until next time, be careful if the world starts spinning, who knows what might come next!!!

Spring Sunshine and Showers

I must beg forgiveness for my long absence. So many things have taken place since I last posted, I will touch on several today, then plan to post often until I get caught up. As the weather improves and outdoor work increases, it may become much harder to keep up with the posts, but I promisse to do my best!

Spring has certainly sprung, although the weather has turned off cold again. I took this picture of a daffodil out in the front yard this afternoon, hoping it would show the snowflakes falling down, but none of the snow stuck and the focus didn't allow for the falling flakes. I wasn't able to get outside during the heavy part of the snow flurry, but according to the forecast, I may still have another chance! We have had a chilly spring, but it is very unusual for us to get snow at this time of the year.

The cows returned to the high pasture this week and this calf didn't waste any time rubbing his head on one of the dirt banks. I am not sure why the cows seem to get such a lot of pleasure from beating up the hillsides. I used to think it was to keep the bugs off, but there aren't any flies out yet, so there went that theory. Cattle behavior can be quite interesting. Whenever the cows are in the low pasture which is a large, flat pasture with few hiding places, they tend to take turns babysitting, and seem to be comforatable leaving their calves behind while they go off to feed or water. One cow will stay with a group of calves and I have seen them babysitting up to 10 calves at a time. This behavior occurs much less frequently in the high pasture which is a maze of canyons and plateaus. The cows tend to keep each of their own calves by their sides and are more watchful for dangers when they are amongst these wilder places.

The sheep are anxious to head toward the high pasture every morning also. There is still one ewe left to lamb. I thought she would be one of the first to lamb as Jim was terribly interested in her right after he joined the girls, and she has always been a reliable early lamber, so I am not sure what happened. She was Jordan's first ewe and a bummer lamb, so even if she doesn't lamb, we will keep her, but we will be culling a couple of the ewes this year and replacing them with some of the nice ewe lambs. We actually had a very nice crop of lambs this year and will be keeping most of the ewe lambs in order to increase the flock.















It is fun to watch the woolies climb this hill, but even more of a kick to watch them barrel down it in the evening on the way back to the safety of the sheep pen. I really love watching the lambs jump and frolic and butt each other as they tumble over the hillsides.






The feed is good up here on top. This is a former wheat field left fallow for this year and the volunteer wheat makes for nutritious spring feed. This field has a double track running through it deep enough that all the years of plowing and working the field has not removed the road. It is probably a wagon track and may be an offshoot of the Oregon Trail as the house and barn were built around 1865. It is fun to walk it and imagine what it must have felt like to have followed the Umatilla River up on the dry bluffs for miles and finally be dropping down into a green valley with access to the good, sweet water and plenty of room to make camp.

Until next time, Happy Trails to you and may the spring sun shine warm upon your face.