Prairie Peace

 When we are low God gives us a glimpse of beautiful moments.

    I was up early gathering water samples. I stopped the quad by a slough and was hit by how much sound there was. Birds chirping back and forth, the cows peacefully grazing, the sound of the water, and the beauty of the fog rising from it. There was noise all around but it is the most peaceful place I have been in a while! It does my heart good to be in the country. I have dark moments where I feel like I can't handle what has been placed in front of me but moments like this... I know God brought me right here to see all this when I needed it most! 

    I wrote those words back in July of 2018. In the last 4 years of married life, we have lived in two small towns and on three farmyards. I find that farms are always more peaceful. No car doors or squealing tires. Just the birds, gophers, coyotes, cows, and the humming of farm equipment in the distance. 

    

    However, the yard in the pictures above was the quietest of all and I feel so blessed to have spent over a year on that property. There was no other farm for miles and all you heard was nature. I am very happy where we live now and this new house fits our family needs much better. However, I do find myself thinking fondly of those early sunrises and late sunsets, standing and listening to God's creation chattering all around.

God Made The Sunset

    The wind was strong all day which makes spraying the crops difficult. It wastes liquid and we would never want to damage another crop by letting it drift on the wind. There was no plan to spray and I was secretly hoping Carrington would be home a little early so I could shower. My momma friends know how it is hehe. But, when the wind dies down suddenly you go go go. 

    Talk about perfect timing. Rhett had been in bed for over an hour but woke up just as I got the spraying update. Since he was up I decided it would be supper in the field. I snapped this as we headed for home. God's paint strokes were stunning tonight!

Stay safe to all the farmers pulling these long hours.

You Are Unique

    I love the beautiful depth of colour in our eggs. 

No two are the same. 

   They are different eggs from different chickens who ate different combinations of feed. They are complex and simple all at the same time. 

    It reminds me that God makes us all different on purpose! Some of us are lighter and some are darker. Some are tall and others short. Each of us is unique and important. 

Today God taught me a lesson with the help of Chickens...

and they don't even know it! 

   

Chicken Run

Late evening joy ride!

Rhett has a funny way of going to sleep. He often goes down and after only an hour wakes again. Well, tonight he got to stay up and go on a chicken run. The extended family already has a few chickens that lay eggs, called layers, but we would like to get a few more to better supply the three families connected with the farm. Carrington and I also wanted to get some cute Americana chicks that will one day lay blue eggs. Right now we do not have any animals on our yard and I have really missed seeing them every day. I am hoping to put the chicks on our yard soon.

Oh my son, you make my heart so happy when I see you look at your Daddy. You already look up to him so much and have him wrapped around your little finger. You want to be everywhere he is, doing whatever he is doing, eating whatever he is eating... and oh the laughs you two already share.

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Side Note: For those who may have been concerned.... this is Carrington's small Ranger truck (not Rhett's normal vehicle) with no proper back seat for a car-seat. There are no airbags on the passenger side and his car-seat was fully strapped in for the 10 miles or so of grid road driving.

Makings of a farm boy?

Carrington had to leave by 6 and Rhett woke at 5:45, just in time to say good-bye. I am starting to seriously wonder if this boy somehow knows when his daddy is leaving, or coming home for that matter.

Now it is 6:30am and he has been sitting at this window listening to the tractor on the other side of the bushes for almost 10 minutes straight. He doesn't often sit still but when it involves a tractor or other loud machinery he makes an exception.

It isn't daddy's tractor otherwise he could go for a ride. Our landlord has been spraying the organic land and baby Rhett has loved the hustle and bustle of it all the last few days. The tractor comes and goes and he almost always crawls to the window to listen in. I hope you never lose your sense of curiosity and discovery!

Day's End

The sights and sounds of my country life...

The end of another long hot day. The chores are done. The cows are moved. The laundry is folded, ready to be used. The lunch box is bare soon to be filled. The dust washes off those tired hands.

'Why do you stay?' We hear the people say. Well, most days it isn't for the pay!

This is our job. This is our calling.

This is our life.

Let's Surprise the Cows

    If you didn't know yet that farming is full of surprises... well today I am telling you it is! Part of it is lack of good communication and part of it is the unpredictability of animals and the weather. If it rains and stops seeding, haying, or harvest you move on to the next job on the list. If something brakes you do another job while someone goes for parts. Or if the weather is mild and the animals are in good humor you go tagging hahaha

    At breakfast, Carrington surprised me by mentioning that they wanted to do some tagging today. That is when we run the cow and the calves through our squeeze chute to put ear tags in the baby calves and castrate the bull-calves so they grow up as steers. The ear tags help keep track of which farmer/rancher owns that particular animal and also helps us identify them if one needs to be separated from the herd because they are hurt or sick.

    It can be done with two people, my husband, and his father, but often my mother-in-law helps load the taggers and mark the details in our book. Today she was busy off-farm and that meant I got to step up and help... if I could get myself and the little one ready and to the farm in time.

    

    I always leave the main diaper bag packed as well as another farm bag and a city bag. I take two bags with me most places and that may seem like overload but I have found with being a new mom being prepared makes for better days. Each bag has different essentials... extra diapers, toys and CD songs for the long trips in the city bag. Extra-extra wipes, mommy's toilet paper, and a mosquito net in the farm bag.

    

    We made it just in time to get the stroller positioned and the tagger loaded before the guys started with the first calf. I would call it a success!

Pray for Rain

    The sun is setting with orange and yellow hues. The purple clouds rolling in overhead promising rain. As the lightening scurries across the sky you can see the last few cows slowly making their way towards the herd. A smile crosses my face as I listen to the birds calling to one another.

    My prayer tonight is that the heavens will open and bless this land with the moisture we desperately need. The farmers have prepared their fields in great expectation. Now let it rain down on us!

Picture from 2020

    The text above was written in 2019 but my hopes and prayers are still the same! We need rain so badly. The crops need it, the pastures need it and selfishly my heart yearns to jump in a puddle and smell the freshness rain brings. We have been on the edge of a few showers but have not yet had anything substantial.

Lord, we have prepared the fields and taken the animals out to their pastures. Please send down rain upon this dry and dusty land. Please bring up new life from the dust.

You Tagged How Many Calves?

My Snugglesaures and I are off to help Carrington tag up our calves!

    

    His tooth is far enough up I can officially say he has cut his 6th tooth AND did a little crawling on Monday and Tuesday without his belly on the ground so I figured he is ready for working with the big boys. 

    I ended up having one of 'those' days. A day of unexpected changes, learning, disappointment, and thankfulness. All the emotions rolled into one! 

   

    I have always enjoyed helping with the animals and learning all I can about their behaviors and care. Today was no different. Tagging and castrating calves are some of the things I helped with every year since I married Carrington and moved to the farm. Even last year while pregnant I traveled to the farm to help with tagging the bison. 

    However, this year everything is different with a child along... as it should be. My son is my priority. In this stage of life, of being a new mom, I have accepted that caring for Rhett is my job and I love that. The thing is,  some days my heart and my mind are still playing catch up with one another. My mind wants to help on the farm. Some days it is for my own selfish desire of wanting a physical, measurable purpose. A job with a start and an end. Something I can look back on at day's end and say 'that was done well. That will help with X or Y down the road'. Such as building a fence. Thankfully my heart speaks up and I realize that some days my new role is not to help with the crop or the animals but rather to keep our son safe, happy, and (once he starts walking) out of the way of the big people's work so that they can be productive with their work. Of course, I will work to include my son in the goings-on of the farm but it will look different for myself from years past. 

    Today I helped tag 3 calves out of 46.

    I felt accomplished when I remembered everything Rhett might need. I had packed a lot of toys and took the time to put strings on them. I took one of his tethers and put a carabiner on it so that I could quickly change his toys for him when he got bored. I remembered the bug screen and the wind cover for the stroller, his sweater, and his blanket. 

    I arrived just as the work was to get started. We tagged up 2 calves and then Carrington and his dad took a small load to a nearby pasture. Something I had not calculated into my time. That was a miscommunication on my part. They returned and we tagged up another calf. Then they took a second small load to the same pasture. By this time I had used up all our time. Rhett was hungry and tired. We had to return home as he was too distracted to feed and sleep but too exhausted to enjoy himself. 

    I promised myself that as soon as his nap was over we would return and I could step back into helping them tag up. Rhett slept longer than expected and as we pulled onto the yard for the second time that day they were tagging up the last calf. Haha what timing! 


    I was initially quite disappointed. I had wanted so badly to help with the work. Thankfully God blessed me with a wonderful husband. He greeted me and could see my disappointment. He hugged me tight and said I had done a good job today. He is a man of few words but I understood what he was getting at. I had done a good job overall, tagging, or taking care of our son, it was all good and helpful.  


    
    Why do I share all of this? I want to be real with myself and with others. Writing helps me to slow down and reflect on life and what I am learning. It helps me to focus on the good and not the bad. Plus with how poor my memory is, if I tell myself it was a good day tagging, and write it down, in a week's time I will likely forget all the emotions other then the fact that it was a good day of tagging... no matter how many I did. Today was a success and that is all I need to remember. 
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. edit: I should also mention it was not all on my shoulders. My mother-in-law was there to help with Rhett and took him on a walk when the wind was so intense. Family can be a wonderful thing. I am also learning to relinquish control. It is not all dependent on me all the time.