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.

Family Activity - Rhett's perspective on Gopher Hunting

Heidi: Awe, that's so nice! I saw the pictures. Your family went for a picnic and your kid ate an ice-cream. 

..........

Heidi: Oh...uh what did we do?? Well, my son ate dead flies out of the patio door track today. We also went and dispatched some gophers as our family activity.

....…..

Heidi: Yes, he is in his PJ's already... Daddy came home early but that still means after bath time for our family.

He looks serious but that is
because he took his job as a
gopher spotter seriously.
Check out those teething cheeks.

Rhett's perspective...

I don't fully understand what just happened this evening but it was fun for me to watch. I hope it was fun for mommy and daddy too. Like most good farm stories it started with a twinkle in Daddy's eye and mom not wanting to miss out. 

    It was the end of a long workday and mom was trying to get me to sleep. I didn't want to and tried to tell her as much. I don't know why she keeps trying so hard. I needed to wait up for daddy to get home... she knows that... not sure why she thinks I could go to sleep without seeing him. She can be so stubborn when it comes to bedtime. I usually win but I try not to rub it in her face too much. 

    Anyways, Mom said she had all these projects on the go and a few things she wanted help with. When daddy came home he simply said, "I am going out to get those gophers." And just like that, he walked back out the door. As I see it mom had 2 choices; she could be grumpy and complain that he wasn't prioritizing house stuff 0r she could seize the opportunity, ignore her rumbling belly, and go do something she had never done before. 

    I am glad we went out with daddy. We would have missed out on so much fun if she would have been grumbling.

    I had already had a bath but that was fine because I did the spotting/supervising and they did the running around. Mom held the hose and filled the buckets with water. Sometimes she would even walk around with the hose filling/hanging out of a bucket in one hand and push the stroller with the other hand to get us to the next target location.

Daddy showing me how to drive the tractors.

    It wasn't a very smooth ride. I may need to check the shocks on that stroller. Dad has been letting me play with his 1/64 scale tractors and teaching me to look at all our equipment. If he takes care of those little tractors so well from when he was a boy he must take really good care of the big ones on the farm too. I am not allowed to inspect the big equipment yet but I am sure he wouldn't mind if I did some minor repairs on the stroller wheels. So far with most new things my favorite approach is the observe... gentle touch... hard grasp... tongue taste then full-on soaker hose suck and chew. I hear it is a different approach to most inspections that are done but it is working for me. 

    Anyways, back to the gophers. Mom was filling the buckets and dad was whizzing around from hole to hole with his buckets and shovel. And that is saying something because not much gets him running these days haha. I plan to change that and it was good to see what his endurance level was like. I think we can improve upon it just a bit. I may warm him up with a few bathrooms runs. I have been helping my mom get extra exercise by opening the bathroom door and making my way over to suck on the toilet. That always gets her moving hehe

    We worked until I was exhausted from watching and all the remaining gophers had gone to bed. It was a pretty exciting night. Mom thinks she played me out with all this fresh air and excitement. I am really tired and was thinking of going straight to bed. On the other hand, I am always up for a good cuddle and my teeth are hurting. I have decided to see if I can convince her to go to bed with me for a little while. Crying so hard I start hyperventilating and chocking on snot so that I throw up seemed to work well last time. I think I will give that a try and see how it goes. 

Gopher hunting is great fun. 

I hope we do it again as a family real soon. 

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.