Family Friday Night

Family Friday nights around here in the summer are not your typical family outings.

Nope, on any Friday night (and really any night of the week) we load up the kids and dog and head out to go check cows, check crops, go do some irrigating or a hundred other things that need to be done.  We take this time to be together as a family, but do get our work done and teach our kids.

T and TC just love going to check cows and helping putting out mineral.  I could say its because they are with mom or dad, or because we are spending time as a family but I would be lieing.   They enjoy putting out mineral so much because 'mixing' and 'stirring' the mineral is just the most fun!  It really is, just ask the two little blondes in the picture!

Putting out mineral is just one of the many things we do together as a family.  We irrigate, we seed, we hay, we move cows, we work cows, we harvest, we play, we fight, we hug and we love.  Its just what we do.

The kids, though they are young, have already learned you can't go check cows, put out mineral without checking on the water!  And maybe so mom can snap some pictures.  

 I just love old windmills.   Our Family Friday nights may not be typical, but they are who and what we are and do!  Pretty sure I wouldn't change a thing!

Tally is her name & Mutton Bustin' is her game!

Besides our weekly summer series, we went to several other kids rodeos this summer. Tally participated in the barrels, sucker plucking, keyhole, barrel crawl and MUTTON BUSTIN'!

Last fall was her debut in the mutton busting' and she took first place. She was all about climbing onto the back of another sheep this summer. The first one she rode this summer I think she was more excited that her Papa was going to be there to help and watch her than she was about riding the sheep. She rode that sheep to the ground literally, and won a squirt gun and candy for her efforts.

My little Mutton Buster!

Way to go!

The second one she rode she was a little more apprehensive. I was not at the chute with her, as she did not need her mom! My dad (papa), our good friend Jason and her auntie were with her. I was across the arena videoing. As it was getting closer to her turn she kept repeating 'papa, seriously I am not sure about this. Seriously papa'. Papa and Jason kept telling her tough, she was riding the sheep. She had signed up for it, she was doing it. The banter between the three of them had the chute help and flagger (family friends) laughing and giggling. My sister was hollering at me from across the arena that she was not going to ride. Being the good mom I am I hollered back 'yes she is. Papa will make her. Just promise her a Mountain Dew!'.

She did it~for a Mountain Dew!

She rode the sheep. And got third place. As she got her award she said 'Boy, I'm glad papa made me ride!'.

Very proud of her duffel bag!

Once Again

Once again I am a bad blogger. My blog has taken back seat to combining, haying, irrigating, cows nd kids. Yep, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it! I have a few blog drafts I am working on, but for tonight I thought I would share a couple of pictures from tonight.

Now no judging my parenting. I admit my kids run around half naked during the summer. Partly because they like to. Partly because we live in the country and partly because they have eczema and the sun helps zap it.

My little goat wranglers!

Checking out the horses!

So, how was your day?

I have several posts written, need to do some editing. So tonight I gonna do something new, if not a little crazy.

When asked the question; 'How was your day?' or 'So, what did you do today?' how do you answer? Wel, I am going to answer that question(s) now.

What did I do today? Well let me tell you.

1. Woke up, got myself ready for the day. Threw a load of laundry in.
2. Snuck out and did chores while girls were still sleeping.
3. Woke girls up, got them ready and made them breakfast.
4. Put roast in crock pot and loaded dishwasher.
5. Packed diaper bag and loaded girls into to take them to babysitter.
6. Forgot to load flat tire so turned around and went home and got it
7. Tire and girls dropped off.
8. Husband had gathered heifers this morning, and it's was my job to haul them to new pasture.
9. Loaded first load onto trailer. Crap, bad tire on trailer.
10. Unloaded heifers. Need to change tire.
11. Can't get all the lug nuts loose on tire. My cousin came and rescue.
12. Ok, new tire on.
13. Load heifers again. Haul them to new pasture and head home for second load.
14. Get second load of heifers loaded. Take second and last load to pasture then head back home.
15. Run into house switch laundry, pack myself lunch, water jug. Oh, can't forget iPod.
16. Head to hay field.
17. Spend next 6 hours making hay! I was round baling which I prefer over baling big square bales.
18. Husband shows up at field to relive me. He picked up the girls on way out to field.
19. Load girls in my pickup and head home dreaming of how good that roast in the crockpot is going to smell and taste.
20. Get home. Don't smell anything. Forgot to plug crockpot in. I hate when I do that. Frozen pizza for supper it is.
21. Girls fed, washed, bedtime stories and in bed.
22. I pour myself a drink and head outside to weed garden, feed dog and take care of bum calves.
23. I make myself another drink!

Such is a day in my life as a ranch woman, farm wife, mama, woman!

This mam is going to bed!

Fort Peck 2011

*This is another post I found in my draft folder from May 2011 that did not publish*

This winter and spring have been crazy with moisture.  We had record snowfall, and there was snow on the ground for 9 straight months!! And now this spring it's raining.  And raining.  Between the record snowfall and amazing amount of rain we are experiencing a quite a bit of flooding on the Missouri River.

A good portion of our farm ground is on the river bottom.  A good portion of that is flooded, totally underwater.  A neighbor pivot is close to falling into the river.  The river is cutting new channels through our fields.  The Big Missouri has no friends right now.  

Alone the Missouri would have been out of its banks this spring.  That we could have handled.  But we live down stream from Fort Peck Dam.  And they have the spillway opened wide letting water out of the dam to keep from flooding there. It's kind of a bad situation.  

One day last week we took a little road trip to check out the river and see for ourselves how crazy Fort Peck Dam was.  

On our way to Fort Peck, we had to stop and take a picture at the Flowing Wells sign.  This is where my dad grew up.

A view of the water coming out of the gates.

Looking down onto the gates.  The noise was incredible!

The water hitting the Missouri River.  You could just feel the force

Grandma and Daddy with the girls checking out the water. 

Looking straight down to the gates.

Water coming out of the gates and into the channel.  

 I am trying to play catch up here.  And of course brag a little bit.  It's my blog, I get to brag all I want!!!

Last September I loaded Tally and Baby TC up and good ol' Fred and headed down the highway about 50 miles to take T to a little kids rodeo.  Her first rodeo, besides the fun nights we have at home.  For several weeks I had been building up to her about riding a sheep.

*Ride a sheep, all the cool kids do it.

* Did you know your mom used to be a heck of a mutton buster.

*Honey, it runs in the family your auntie has a buckle or twos he won from riding a sheep.

And so my 4 year old agreed to try and ride a sheep.  But of course I knew nothing about riding a sheep, and she needed Handsome Larry (family friend) to take her to the bucking chutes and help her.  I was ok with that, because then this mommy got to take pictures and video of her little cowgirl riding a sheep.  

And ride a sheep she did!! My 4 year old cowgirl won the 8 and under sheep riding for the 2011 Go Getters Rodeo!!  I was so damn happy and proud I cried!  That's right, I cried and I am not ashamed to admit it!  But not only did she win the sheep riding that day, she also for the first time off her horse by herself  to do the goat tail tying, which was also a first for her.   She met some new people, as did I.  She did her events all by herself, some successfully and some not, but she did them.  And most importantly she had fun!!

A shot of the sheep riding.

Getting of her horse by herself for the first time!

Trying and trying to tie that ribbon on the goats tail.

And we are still trying, but she ran out of time.  

Walking up to accept our sheep riding winnings.

A great bunch of young cowgirls and cowboys! 

My cowgirl didn't want the day to end.  She rode ol' Fred over to the corral to give him his grain.

Tally and Fred posing.  She wanted me to take a picture of her and her horse and her rodoe winnings so her Papa knew that she had 'done really good and was taking care of her horse'.


Yep, that's my bragging post!  That horse is worth at least a million bucks in my mind!  He makes Tally smile, and she has so much fun with him and wants to take care of him!  Every kid should be so lucky.

Strawberry Jam!

I love Strawberry Jam!  And this years batch of strawberries have been excellent!  No, I didn't grow them, I stole them from my friends strawberry patch!  Well, I mean, I have a friend with a strawberry patch, and she graciously and willingly gave me strawberries!  

Don't they look beautiful!

I had a little help when it came to smashing the strawberries up!

She was a great helper!

Cooking the jam before putting into jars.

This Is How We Have Fun In Montana

A couple of weekends ago it was our county fair, and our saddle club holds the annual Ranch rodeo.  Last year we had our 1st Annual Women's Calf Dressing, and it was such a hit, we had it again.  The object of the three woman team is to take the calf, put the calf's head through the head of the t-shirt, and then put the calf's legs through the arm holes of the t-shirt and be the first team to get him across the finish line.  

We had five teams this year.  I did not participate last year, as I was pregnant and was not planning on this year, as I was busy helping with the rodeo.  But there was a mother/daughter duo that were there visiting from Idaho, that couldn't find a third member, so at the last minute I joined them.  Enjoy the video.  

OH!  And yes, I am the one in the turquoise t-shirt that trips over her own two feet while headed for the line.  But like any good team member that you just meet they just kept pulling the calf over top me while yelling 'We're Not Stopping!'.  It was a blast!

Missouri River Flooding 2011

The flooding this year is just unbelievable.  To the person who didn't understand the damage the river is causing due to new channels being made, crops being lost and houses floating away, it would be a magnificent sight.  

To me, it's amazing, sad, and devastating.

There should be no water to the right of Tally.  The river cut a new channel through that field.

Landslides.

The river is so wide.

Water is so wide it won't fit in a picture.

There should be no water in those trees!

Or in these trees.

See that water!  Under that water is a lentil field. 

More lentils; gone.

It's hard to tell, but the bank was starting to sluff off.  

More crops under water.

That water channel should not be there.  That channel showed up in a matter of hours. 

Another view of the new channel.  The water was just rushing through that field.

A lot of our crops are gone.  A lot of hay ground is gone.  The river will never be the same.  And no one really knows how long its going to take for the river to recede bank into its banks.  I am guessing when the river does decide to recede, we will be spending a lot of time moving debris and garbage from the fields we will still be able to farm in the future.

It's Raining, It's Pouring........

.....the old man is snoring.  He went to bed with a bump on his head and won't wake up this morning! 

It started raining sometime after midnight last night and it hasn't quit yet.  And it's a beautiful rain.  When I left for town at about 7:30, we had a little over an inch of rain.  In July!!  A couple of farmers were talking about starting to combine come Monday, that maybe pushed back a few days.  For all the moisture we have had this year, we were needing another little drink.  Here are a couple of pictures from this morning.  Not the best, as I still haven't found my camera, and these are off my phone. 

I am not going to lie, I really want to go out and run through the rain and jump in the mud puddles! 

Heat Killing Kansas Cattle

Man oh Man, the summer heat can be brutual, but this is just plain awful.  I read this on the Northern Ag Network website.  Makes my heart ache for those producers. 


Heat in Kansas Kills 2000 Cattle
The intense heat and humidity that blanketed central Kansas since late last week have killed more than 2,000 cattle and one state official called the heat-related losses the worst in his 17 years on the job.


However, conditions for the cattle improved somewhat on Tuesday as the humidity has decreased and the wind has picked up, state and feedlot sources said.


Kansas is the third largest cattle state with more than 2 million cattle in feedlots.


"It is all cattle in feedlots. It is more the humidity than the heat," Ken Powell, environmental scientist with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said of the more than 2,000 cattle deaths.


The cattle deaths have overwhelmed rendering plants and some feedlots are burying the carcasses in accordance with state regulations, said Powell.


"From the standpoint of dealing with the disposal of animals, this is the worst I have seen in the almost 17 years I've been here," he said.


The death losses helped guide Chicago cattle futures higher on Monday, but on Tuesday the futures were near unchanged as traders awaited Friday's release of a USDA cattle supply report.


Temperatures reached 101 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) at Garden City in southwest Kansas on Monday, and highs in the region were expected to reach the upper 90s to low 100s F (upper 30s C) through Friday, said Joel Burgio, meteorologist at Telvent DTN.


"For three or four more days, it's still pretty stressful," Burgio said. "There is a chance you may see a few showers this weekend, which would help ease stress on the livestock.




Source: Yahoo! News


Posted by Kaci Switzer

I'm hear to tellya....

.....ain't nothing much getting accomplished in the lines of work, blogging, or any other aspect of my usual schedule. 

Why?

You. Mean. You. Hafta. Ask?

Fine....I"ll tell ya.

There are only 2 days until I get to head to Miles City to Bucking Horse Sale! 

First One Of The Season

We are headed to our first branding this morning.  We are hoping calves are dry enough and we don't get rained out.  Safe to say kids and wrestlers will be mud from head to toe! 

Good Times.  Good Times.

Did I mention we are headed to Iversons & Dick brews his own beer?

Good Times.  Good Times.

Very Merry Month of May

May typically is a busy month around here.  Spring is thinking about arriving, calving is going full swing or about over.  People are thinking about branding, and going around fences in summer pasture.  School graduations, track meets, anticipation of backyard barbeques and summer fun and the Kentucky Derby.  But did you know that May is also:
*National Beef Month
*National Hamburger Month
*National Barbeque Month
*National Asparagus Month

So, in honor of all that above below is some of my favorite ways to beef and aparagus using my grill.  *note to reader, I am a simple cook, so don't be expecting anything to over the top, but do expect over the top flavor and goodness*

*Ribs Take 1*
Take ribs and rub yellow mustard or spicey brown mustard on both sides of ribs.
Take and sprinkle choice of seasoning onto mustard covered ribs.  I enjoy Johnny's Season Salt or Lawry's Season Salt.  Big D leans more towards Slap Yo' Mama seasoning.
Place ribs on preheated grill, on low.  The trick (we have found) is to cook them low and slow. 

*Ribs Take 2*
Take ribs and rub choice of seasoning on both sides of ribs.
Place ribs on preheated grill and cook on low. 
Pour apple juice, apple cider or apple vinegar into spray bottle.  Every half hour or so, spray the ribs generously to keep them from drying out.  Remember, low and slow.

*My Kinda Steak*
I prefer my steak grilled to medium rare.  Yummo! Take your choice of steak and if you so choose, sprinkle seasoning onto steak.  Sometimes I do.  Sometimes I don't.  Just depends on my mood (according to Big D)! Place beautiful steak on grill and cook 5-6 minutes on first side.  Then flip and cook 3-4 minutes.  Of course the cooking times all depends on how you prefer your steak to be cooked.  If you are not sure how hot or fast your grill is cooking, start with shorter times, and increase until desired doneness is acheived. 

*Grilled Asparagus*
Snap off ends of aparagus and wash.  Coat asparagus in olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Place right onto grill or into grilling basket.  3-4 minutes and asapragus should be done.  It cooks really fast, so don't allow it to burn, unless you like burnt asparagus.

Like I mentioned above, I am just a simple cook, that likes to experiment.  Ribs have been at the top of our experimenting list, and are trying all sorts of new techniques and seasoning methods.  Any tips you would like to share?

Learn something new....

..everyday. Did you know they (USDA) has a map to predict Grasshopper Hazard. Well, I sure as heck didn't. Crazy.


Curious to see what the predicted grasshopper hazard looks like where you live? Click here.

Impatiently Waiting

I am impatiently waiting for days like this. Days when we know there is no chance of snow. Which, given where I live, is at least 6 weeks off. Days of being outside enjoying the day. Days of impromtu wagon rides after days of branding. Team roping after a long day of swathing. Cold beer after day of baling hay. Going down to the river and throwing the fishing pole in. BBQing and sitting outside with a bunch of friends. Picking fresh tomatoes from the garden. I. Can't. Wait.

Good Times. Good Friends.

Bringing the steers up.

Barrel Crawl. Tally's Favorite.

Watching the Team Roping and Playing in the Dirt.

A trip to the Zoo.