Our yard cow...?

Yes it is true, if you drive by our house you can see a cow in our yard. No, we haven't totally lost our minds and mixed up our "vastly spacious" yard with the cow's pasture. We did have a mama cow that wouldn't "take" her calf after it was born. Why would that happen? Well, to make a long story short, their was a boy calf (a bull) a while ago that was slightly resistant to the banding that should have turned him into a steer. So while this bull calf no longer has "a pair" he did manage to sneak by with one dangler. Which is where the problem started with the calf in our yard. That lucky little not-so-fixed steer was let out with all the cows and hefers (young female cows) and managed to do the job of a big bull. Not only that but since our lucky fellow was still small in stature thought he would be best suited for the young lady cows in the bunch. That's right he is a craddle robber! This lead to Mr. Lucky fathering a calf with a VERY young hefer. In our culture this is commonly refered to as a teenage pregnancy! When that poor hefer become a mother she entered cow-hood not near mature enough to have the instincts to take care of her baby when it was born, meaning we had to do the mothering for her. So that is why we now have that baby cow in our yard. Well, I guess that wasn't such a short story afterall, but just incase it wasnt enough wordage here are a few more in picture form.

 This is our "yard cow," Gertrude. We call her Gerty for short.

Gerty follows Dusty EVERYWHERE

Ahhhh, Vacation

What do you do your husband is working too many hours go on vacation? Just write about when he wasn’t so busy!


Just before the end of the school year our friends Craig and Michelle invited us to come on a fun trip with them and some other college buddies to the Washington coast. Craig’s family has a great cabin right on the beach with a large section of waterfront. Even better, it is on a sweet island, Harstine Island to be exact!

Even though there was a sizeable cabin, Dusty and I opted to take our fifth wheel camper for our sleeping quarters since there were quite a few people already bunking in the cabin. As if we needed another excuse to use our new toy!

It was a wonderful long weekend full of exploring the sea life at low tide, biking, good food, kayaking, bonfires, racquet sports on a real court, reading, ladder ball, and lots playing with the dogs. There were plenty of dogs on the trip too; thankfully they even managed to get along most of the time. Our Moosey loved playing fetch on the beach, even though the shells made her paws sore at times. Dusty and I loved having other people who didn’t mind taking a turn at throwing the ball for her so our arms could have a break. Here are some pictures showing all our fun!

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

Here are a sampling of pictures from our camping trip earlier this year. It was a great trip and we loved hanging out in our camper in the evenings when the spring air made it a bit chilly out and the damp surroundings from recent storms made conditions for starting a fire less than than ideal. Despite the rains before we arrived, a sprinkle on the way there and a warning of precip from every weather website, we had glorious weather! It was sunny and warmer than any days in our recent memory.Unfortunately most of our friends we scared off by the weather mans doom and gloom forecast. As it turned out there was just three of us on this trip, yes that does include Dusty and me too! Otto, our one guest, was very disappointed he didn't even get to test out his new hiking tent and rain fly seeing as we did not get a drop of rain after setting up camp. Every one had their own reasons for missing, all sicere and understandable. The sad part is when friends tell us they will go "next time." Why is that sad, doesn't it sound like a good thing? In a perfect world I would be thrilled to hear that and look forward to then. However, in reality, since I know my farmer husband will now be working his tail off till next fall, that "next time trip" isn't likely anytime soon. Yes, we may sneak in a overnight in the camper here or there but since we typically don't have more than a days notice when the stars align for such an event, which means most friends schedule is not flexible enough to come along. Oh well, we had tons of fun and we can cross our fingers and pray for another shot later in the summer! Hope you enjoy the pictures!