Thanksgiving Business

This is Dusty's first blog, so go easy on him, please.


Hello, so it's been awhile since we started this blog, and I haven't made a post yet, so here it goes. We've been really busy the past few weeks and have much to share with you. Look for another post by my beautiful wife later in the week.

I was lucky enough to be able to get the whole week of Thanksgiving off from school and research, except for giving a short presentation Monday morning. It worked out really well because I had a big project to get done back home on the farm.

My high school 4-H project cow herd has gotten a little out of hand over the years and has grown from 7 head to 20 cow-calf pairs, a bull, and 8 steers, that's 49 animals all together. As anyone who has dealt with cows knows, their destructive capacity is unrivaled except by a bulldozer. Lately the cows have been taking their aggression out on my feeders, which means I needed to build another feeder for winter.

Tuesday Erin and I picked up steel in town then Dad and I started construction. With all the other activities around Thanksgiving we had to be quick at building the feeder. We made pretty good progress by Wednesday night we had the frame together and painted. Then Erin and I went out to dinner with friends and played games.
Thanksgiving day was a great day of good smells, good tastes, and good times. Erin cooked a great turkey and some awesome pies, and we had both of our families over to the farm for dinner. It was really great to get everybody together.
Friday was back to the feeder and we got all the wood in the feeder and attached it to the barn.

Said and done the feeder has 24 head stalls, is 16' x 5', and weighs in at 1,400lbs. The outside frame is made of 2"x3"x1/4" angle iron. The head dividers are made of 2"x2"x1/4" angle iron. Hopefully it will keep the bulldoze... I mean bovines, at bay for awhile.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with Erin's family to celebrate Kim's birthday at Prospector's. It is always fun to have dinner with my new sisters.Then on Sunday, Erin and I helped my grandparents decorate their house for Christmas. Christmas is my grandma Lois' favorite time of the year and it is always great to see her light up when we decorate for the holidays. Once the tree was trimmed and the stockings hung it was back to Pullman to decorate our own house, but I'll save that for Erin.

Overall it was a very productive break filled with lots of time with friends and family, and for that I am Thankful.