Tippets Nitty Gritty

Then the fun started. Our friend, J, wanted to give the boys a job. He suggested the jobs: one could hold the branding iron and the other hold the "bucket of nuts."  Huh? was the faces of our boys.

 J said to me, "You might be able to explain it a little nicer than I will.." so he left and we had a quick discussion of difference between bulls and steers, definition of castration and what all that entails. We didn't even make it halfway through the conversation when Carter decided he was out and would have no part...he decided he'd rather throw rocks in the creek than hang around and witness any of that.

 Where I come from, they call these Rocky Mountain Oysters. and there is no way in heck any of us would eat them.  J called them Calf Fries and he said they donate them to some big fundraising dinner for hunters/sportsmen where they savor this delicacy. And, you may already have guessed, Bridger decided he would hold the branding iron. So, I that left me in charge of the "bucket." 

They had three horsemen in the pen, each would rope a calf by the hooves and drag them out to a trap that would hold the head. Obviously you want the calf to hold still while everything is being done. 

Ben was asked to "run a needle" knowing that he had medical experience and what not. 

I don't think they realized he doesn't "run a needle" often.....or not at all... at least not at all in the last six years. It came back fast and he ran it like a pro.

And since it aint everyday you get to harvest Calf Fries, I thought I'd give 'er a try. 

This was the approximate teaching I got:

J: grab and cut about halfway down. ( the testicles, and just using his pocket knife, mind you) Don't be shy, you aint gonna hurt 'im.

Me: What?! (pausing ) why do you think this won't hurt?

J- (I think more annoyed at my pausing than the question) Just carry on and be quick

So, I grabbed and cut.

J: Now, take your hands like a C and scrape down the belly til you see 'em shoot out, grab and split the two with yer finger. (Showing me and then made me do it.)

J; Now that you have 'em, pull hard, go up and down (the ducts) and scrape the membrane off with yer finger nail til you hear a pop. Once you hear the pop, you know you got it. Then, take the knife and scrape up and down til their cut. Spray and yer done. 

J told me you're supposed to hold the pocket knife in your mouth in between the steps so it doesn't get dirty.  (K, wait, WHAT?! You want me to hold THAT knife in my mouth? First of all, who knows where that knife has been and second,  I KNOW WHERE that knife has been today and who has been holding it and with what hands and what those hands have been doing! You mean that knife?! Yep. That knife.) That sounded like a BAD idea, so I slowly and meticulously laid it on my knee and balanced it as careful as I could. It laid there perfectly for about one second  and it immediately fell on the ground. J: " And that's why you hold it in your mouth." Uuhh.
So he picked it up and sprayed it with the antiseptic/anti-insect spray to clean it. 

So on the next bull, guess where I put THAT knife in between steps. Yep. My mouth. 

The morning went quick. When it was over, the women folk threw a sheet over the flat bed truck as a table cloth, put out lasagna and bread, fried chicken, potato salad and slaw, soda and cookies.  Some cleaned up, And I scraped vas deferens from under my finger nails. We rinsed our hands (some in the creek.. one was nice enough to share a water bottle with me for rinsing.) and with those hands (what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?) we enjoyed a great lunch in the pasture while talking farm.  Some of the kids threw dried cow pies at each other, not mine of course. 

The girls even bummed a horse ride

Kids played with the puppy and played fetch with the farm dogs

I was asking J who all these people were as we were setting up. He said, "family, friends, its all the same to us." And that is what I love about country folk.  Everyone is family and we were treated that way. We bought our farm to give our children experiences that would build character, expose them to things they otherwise wouldn't have chances to do and to teach them the value of hard work. So far, I think it's going as planned. Thanks J and M for a day of Branding and Calf Fries. 

Today is Bridger's 8th Birthday. 

 I asked him if he wanted to go out to eat tonight or tomorrow night. 

He said, "I don't want to go out at all! It's a waste of your money and too unhealthy!" 

Looks like as he is turning 8, he's turning into his mother. 

My baby is growing and changing every day. She is sweet and tender and I just love her to pieces.

Lately she loves:

MOM. She does not like to see me and not have me hold her. I am the nursery leader at church and she does not like to share me with anyone or see me leave the room. She screams and screams.

When I drop her off to be watched by someone else, they always say she screams for about 30 seconds and then is fine until she sees me again and starts to cry.

- She loves to dance in a circle and sing, "Let it go." It is her favorite song and she can't really say the words, but she knows the notes and sounds that it is obvious what she is singing. She loves Frozen

- She loves to give big hugs to everyone and licks for kisses.
From Afton's example, she has learned to have her hair combed. She climbs onto the stool, looks into the mirror and starts saying, "Ouwww. Oouuuwww. OUCH!" And apparently, that is the sign that she is ready to go. There is never a need to even touch her with a comb or a brush...she just thinks that is the normal routine of getting hair combed. 

She loves to play with Carter. Those two have a special bond and he knows how to make her laugh like nobody else can. It is so fun to watch and makes me smile. 

She loves to talk on the phone to dada and just loves my phone. She really likes to try to bite off the cover and I have several pictures of her selfies that are just her mouth.
Her speech has just started taking off, her words include:

 puppy, more, hi, bye, mama, dada, ouww, please, cheese, hot, eyes, door, mine, hat, banana, 

She loves to be thrown into the air and her sign to do that is raising her hands high above her head with a big smile. Since she is so light, it is easy to do for more than a few seconds.

She enjoys picking raspberries and strawberries and taking one or two bites out of as many apples as she can get her hands on.

Boots AND princess slippers- why not?

Eden's teeth -just one of the 206 pics I have- biting my phone

These next few of Eden are from April 20th- around Easter, just after she turned one. I followed her around the yard and she just would not hold still for a picture. 

These were taken July 20th, only three months later. 

What happened to that little girl?!
Two more facts: She too, is beautiful and growing up the fastest.

This is her newest smile that cracks me up:

The other fact is that my boys are growing up so that they absolutely don't like their picture taken and think that it is crazy to take them for no reason, so this is what I got from Carter and Bridger: