Our Week in Pictures

Here is a look into our lives the last few weeks.  All of the pictures are of our animals, because our animals are our life.   And, I'm the photographer 99% of the time so of course I'm left out of the photos.  But, nonetheless, we hope you enjoy them!

Our Jiggs

Little Jakey

Beautiful Sunset I captured last week

This time of year brings beautiful colors around the ranch.  Here's a sampling of the gorgeousness the leaves have on them.

Our resident chickens out & about

Another sunset

Champion

His eyes are mesmerizing

Reno

His eyes are so forgiving

Jakey playing with the ball this morning.  Looking so photogenic.

Jiggs & Jake in action

These next pictures are of Jiggs in action.  He LOVES jumping in the air to catch his ball.  So I figured I'd capture his athletic abilities with some photos.

Weaning & Processing

As another weekend approaches I feel like we are still recovering from last weekend!  Saturday morning started out early for Wesley & I as we had to go to Sheridan, Wyoming to pick up calves for his Mom & Dad.  Wesley took a pickup & trailer, I took a pickup & trailer, and our cattle rep took one as well.  Sheridan is about 2 hours from the ranch and we had to be down there at 8:30 AM, so we were up by 5:30 to get everything ready to go.  We returned with our loads about noon on Saturday, and after telling our cattle rep good-bye & catching a quick bite to eat for lunch, we set out to process the calves.  When you “process” incoming calves you’re doing a bunch of things.  We brand all of them, give them 3 vaccines to keep them healthy throughout the winter, and make sure they aren’t looking a bit sickly from the weaning process since these guys just got weaned from their Momma’s the day before we pick them up.  That in itself can be traumatic on a calf that isn’t feeling the best already.  We had 50 head to work that day, and it took Wesley and I about an hour & a half to work them all.  After we worked them & pitched them up some hay to munch on, we headed home to take showers & attend Jack’s 2^nd birthday party.  First things first, we had to get his birthday present still!  We got him some Dr. Seuss books (the cardboard/thick books) and a nice new ranch play set complete with livestock, an 18 wheeler with a cattle pot, a pickup & trailer, windmill, 2 barns, and panels.  He LOVED it and we were so glad he did!  After he opened our present he didn’t want any other ones, but we showed him that there were fun surprises in all the other presents too.  He also wanted his Tippy & Wes all night long.  He loved showing Wesley everything he got in each present & piling all his goodies in Wesley’s lap.  It was too cute! 

After the birthday cake & present opening festivities took place the adults settled in for a fun game of Cranium.  We.  Had.  A.  BLAST!  The ladies totally dominated & kicked the men’s behinds!  We are such a competitive bunch too…its quite funny what antics we come up with in order for the other to be distracted or trying to secretly cheat.  Good times!

Sunday Wesley & I headed to Billings to do a little Christmas shopping (early) and I needed a new pair of flats to wear to work.  We got everything on our list accomplished & headed out of town just as the rain was coming.  We got home that evening & made sure the calves had hay & water, the chickens were fed & collected the eggs, the horses were turned out, the dogs were fed & put up for the evening, and then finally got back to our house that night.  We had a long day Sunday because we got up early to head to Billings & didn’t get home until late, but we were so thankful we had Monday off to relax & rest.  And that’s exactly what we did!  I was off for Columbus day & Wesley was off because it was raining outside, so we hung out together & made a nice big pot of chili to go with the cold temperatures outside.  It was so nice to hang out with my husband on a “work day”!  We are so looking forward to our mini-vacation coming up for our anniversary weekend in November!  We’re staying 3 nights in a suite (complete with Jacuzzi tub & double fireplace!) in Deadwood, South Dakota!  We need the vacation badly again & can’t wait to just relax!!

Alas, another work week is upon us and we have another busy weekend ahead of us this weekend.  We are starting the weaning process of all our babies around the ranch this weekend (today, in fact) so we will be busy weaning our own calves this weekend.  Then we have to help the neighbor gather & ship his calves on Saturday morning.  Sunday I hope to get a lot of cleaning done around my house.  We are having company come in a few weeks and I have no time between now & then to get my house in order so that is definitely on the agenda for this Sunday!

Finally, I feel like I can “officially” talk about this on my blog – but for those readers who weren’t aware of this until now – my sister & brother-in-law are expecting their first child in April.  I can’t believe I’ll be an Auntie to 2 beautiful children within a year of each other!  We are so excited to meet Kaegan in December (Katy & Jason’s little princess) and can’t wait to find out the gender of our newest niece/nephew in December!!

And one last note, please keep all the ranchers in South Dakota in your prayers.  The snow storm that hit that state a couple weeks ago has had devastating effects on their herd numbers & we are only now starting to get preliminary estimates on the amount of cattle lost in that storm due to snow drifts being 20-30 feet high or more.  Some estimates are as high as 100,000 head lost.  One rancher lost half of his herd, and someone else had 30 head of horses before the storm & only 6 survived.  There are many ways to help these communities both in prayer & monetarily.  To read more about the losses please visit www.northernag.net and scroll thru their articles on the left of their page.  To donate to their relief fund please go to www.giveblackhills.org and type in “Rancher Relief Fund”.  

Happy Birthday Jake!

Happy Birthday Jakey D!  Our precious Jake turned 1 on October 8th and we celebrated in style.  Jake got to blow out his birthday candle, and indulge in some delicious cake (dog friendly, of course).  We all sang happy birthday to our little dog as he was the center of attention for just a minute.  His brother Jiggs had to be sure to get in on the cake action too, so Jake shared his treasures with him.  I can't believe Jake is already a year old.  It seems like yesterday was the day we picked him up & now he's been in our family for a year!  Time really flies.  Happy Birthday little Jakey D!  

Happy Fall Y'all

I can’t believe we’re in the second week of October already.  Where is the time going??  Before we know it we will be enjoying Thanksgiving deliciousness and trimming trees again! 

Last weekend was such a fun weekend for us.  Friday night we had the Boucher’s over for supper & games.  We enjoyed hamburgers & sides, then played a couple games together.  It was great fun for all of us!  And, for the record, the ladies totally beat the gentleman in a new game we purchased called “Word On The Street”!  Saturday morning started early for us as we set out to move the rest of our steer & spay heifer herd closer to home so they could be hauled to town on Monday.  Upon completing that task, we headed home to shower & get over to the Boucher’s to watch Jack & Hayes as Sarah & Clint were going to a wedding that day.  We had such a good time with the kiddos.  They are SO well behaved and Jack is at such a fun stage now that he was adorable.  He’d call out for his “Tippy & Ves” every time he needed something, or just wanted our attention.  It was adorable.  Of course Hayes is a dream to keep as well.  He’s only 4 months old but he is such a content & happy baby.  He never cries, like ever.  The only time I heard him start to whimper was when he was hungry for his nighttime bottle.  Then he started to stir & fuss a bit.  Other than that they were both troopers.  We had to take them on a few errands with us in Miles City that afternoon, and I got my first taste of what it will feel like when we have kids one day & we have to take them out in public.  I was constantly washing Jack’s hands & keeping Hayes in his car seat covered with a blanket so no one would touch him/them or even come near them, and they aren’t even MINE!!  I can only imagine how I’ll be with my own.  Sunday afternoon we hosted a Round Robin Roping at the ranch followed by a BBQ.  We had about 20 of our closest roping friends out to the ranch for a fun afternoon of roping & socializing.  Of course the Boucher’s were there and Jack was adorably saying both my name and Wesley’s all afternoon.  He also had to sit at the same table as us when we all sat down to eat after the roping.  He knows how to melt hearts that’s for sure!

This past weekend we had another busy weekend, but it was a good one.  Friday afternoon our hot water heater went out (GREAT!) so Wesley and I spent Friday evening working on it.  By Saturday morning it still wasn’t working, so we decided it was best to just get a new hot water heater.  After some effort, Wesley, his dad, his mom, and I were able to get the old water heater out & all the plumbing evaluated and then Wesley and I were off to get a new hot water heater.  We were able to get it installed by 5 that evening which meant hot showers for everyone!  Sunday morning we got up early & headed to Billings so Wesley could participate in the Wrangler Team Roping Championship Finals.  Remember the video I posted about his roping back in June?  Well this was the finals for that series.  Wesley & his Dad both roped very well.  Unfortunately, their partners missed which meant they didn’t advance to the short go.  However, they had lots of fun & Wesley & I even scored a new roping dummy while there!  We’re pretty excited about it! 

This weekend will be a long one for me.  I’m off next Monday for Columbus Day (woo hoo)!  Saturday we are getting  up early & smoking some ribs for Jack’s 2^nd birthday party that afternoon.  I can’t believe the little guy is turning 2!  He was only 5 weeks old when I moved up to Montana and now he’s going to be 2!  So Wesley & I volunteered to smoke the ribs since we enjoy Bar-B-Queuing so much!  So we’ll be attending the birthday boy’s party on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we might run to Billings to do a little shopping, but that’s tentative as of now.  We’re just going to relax & see how our weekend goes!

The weather has been so nice here lately.  It did get cold & we got just a touch of snow last Friday morning (I know…already!) but the highs have been in the 60’s with lows in the 30’s…perfect fall weather.  We are so looking forward to stews, soups, chili’s, football, and all the beautiful colors fall has to bring!! 

Have a great week!!!