TipNut

I found the coolest website today and I thought I would share it with you.

It has everything from growing an Avocado tree (which I am going to try) to make your own oven cleaner, to recipes and DIY projects. Hope you all enjoy!
http://tipnut.com

Santa Claus

Gus got to sit on Santas lap last night at the school Christmas program. He wasn't scared at all. Hope you enjoy!

Moon

Well here is a picture of the the moon the other night. I fell asleep and missed the really cool part of the lunar eclipse. In 350 years when the next one comes along I will try harder to stay awake (: It sure was pretty though.

Beautiful Winter Day

This morning was beautiful outside, so it seemed like a great opportunity to play with the new camera. These are all taken on the ranch. Merry Christmas to all!

Elk

Although I have no pictures of the actual elk (they were only here in the dark) I did take pictures of the chaos they caused. Our first attempt at keeping them out ended like this.




Our last attempt was building an 8 foot tall fence around all the hay with the help of the MT Fish Wildlife & Parks.





This should do the trick.

Sorry for such a long interuption of blogging. I have been busy busy with a 4 month old, housework, and farm chores. But I promise I will try to be better about posting regularly. Gus as we now call Angus, has been growing like wildfire. He is very smiley and happy. He brings more love into our lives than we ever imagined possible. We weighed him on our Wii Fit a couple of weeks ago and he has allready passed the 15 lb mark and outgrown alot of 6 month clothes. He had his first "school" picture taken last month. Grandma Sandy is a school teacher and had me take Gus to school the day that the photographer came. They turned out amazing. School pictures have came a long ways since I was in school. He started eating cereal yesterday and it was hilarious, he loved it. John and I got an early Christmas present this year. We had been looking for a new camera and I finally found one at a price we could live with on Black Friday. We couldn't wait to open it so we have been taking bunches of pictures and video with it. So I now have no excuse to not post pictures regularly.

Carpet

I just realized I never put pictures up after we got the carpet it. Now we have moved upstairs "partially" We still don't have a kitchen or bathroom upstairs but all in good time I suppose.

Halloween

Gus's first Halloween! He was a little monkey with a banana peel on his head. He was so cute. Everyone loved it! We even got to spend the evening with John (We have only been seeing him about 2 nights a week) He really misses his little monkey when he is gone.
Gus got have his picture taken with his cousin Kyla the vampire!

Milk Fever

This is our newest addition. A holstein/red angus cross heifer calf born on the 18th of October. She was born to Dixie, my holstein milk cow. Strangely enough she was even born on her due date. The calf is doing just fine, but Dixie went down with milk fever....again. She went down with milk fever when she had Daisy last year. Luckily I was able to get her an I.V. going with a calcium and electrolyte solution and within about 10 hours she was back on her feet. However this time I thought for sure she was going to die. She was starting to perk up after about 2 hours of IV therapy and then she looked right at me, her eyes rolled all the way back in her head and she flopped on her back. I thought for sure she was having a heart attack. I ran in and called my neighbor (he used to work on a dairy farm and has alot of experience with holsteins) he came right over and I was able to get a hold of my vet. Luckily she shook whatever it was off and started to perk up again. She even started to eat (which is a great sign) however I couldn't get any water in her for a few more hours. So we continued the IV therapy until she started moving around so much that I couldn't keep the IV in her. Then I had to give the poor old girl a bunch of SubQ (under the skin) shots of calcium. These shots absorb slower and give her another steady supply of calcium when IV isn't working. She really hated the shots. I also had to sit on my hands and knees and milk her while she was laying down so I could bottle feed her little calf. Thankfully everything turned out well and Momma and baby are doing fine. Now I will have a winters supply of fresh milk and cream.
I forgot to mention that this is Gus's first calf. I think we will call her Delta. My other milk cows names are Dixie and Daisy, so I wanted to stick with the D girl southern names. The song Delta Dawn came to my head, so there you have it. Little Delta Dawn.

Gus

Gus loves his little exersaucer, he has allready figured out how to roll the little rattle so it rattles.

Yard

So yesterday my dad came up with his skidsteer and leveled out our yard. Yay, now all we have to do is pick some rock and rake it smooth and then start planting. I for sure need to get the grass seed planted this fall, but I would like to get the garden beds built first so I don't have to kill the new grass next year in my gardens. Since there is no shortage of rocks, I think I will build a rock garden in the fenced in part of the yard. This will also be the dog and kid yard (: So whatever I plant here must be very tough and dog and kid resistant. I will save all the fancy flowers and such for the area outside the fence, which I will call "my" yard. No Dogs Allowed! Since the septic system also lays in the fenced in part of the yard, I can't plant any trees and will have to stick with shallow rooted shrubs and flowers. Regardless I am ecstatic to have a yard next summer. Especially since Gus will be running around by then, it will be nice to have the fenced yard so he can't run to far. It will also be nice to be able to let the dogs out at night without worrying about them being snatched by one of the neighborhood coyotes, mountain lion, or bears.



This is the start of my new raised beds for my vegetables. Hopefully I will get them put together so I can start getting dirt hauled in to fill the beds with. One is a good place to start but I want many more eventually.


This is part of "my" yard. There will be a covered porch to the left so the right side is going to be a big flower bed. I am not a huge fan of mowing grass. Since there will be alot of grass in the "dog and kid" yard, I want mostly flowers and not so much grass in "my" yard.





I can't wait to get planting and I will keep you posted on yard details!

A Little of This and A Little of That

Our friends little girl Sydney got to ride Buddy and she is just so darn cute I had to take her picture.


I got to go riding with my dad the other day and Jolene babysat Angus for me. It was a wonderful day. I got some much needed saddle time and dad time.



This is a picture of Angus hanging out in the horse barn while his mom and grandpa saddled horses.

IF A DOG WERE YOUR TEACHER .... You would learn stuff like this:
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
When it's in your best interest - practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
Take naps and stretch before rising. Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and wiggle your entire body.
No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout - run right back and make friends.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
Stop when you have had enough.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
~Author Unknown~

1 month old

Angus is 2 weeks old

Wow, I can't believe how time flies. Angus is doing really well, he is growing and changing allready. He is the sweetest baby, he sleeps for about 4 hours at a time and hardly ever fusses. Here are a few pictures. I must run and try to clean up my house while he is sleeping, I will write more later.

John Angus

Well the marathon started on Wednesday morning, I was having consistent contractions so we called the doctors office and they told us to come in, only to have us walk around for 4 hours, come back to the office and then get sent home. We went home and I tried to sleep until about midnight when I could no longer get comfortable because the contractions were getting to strong and he apparently had his head on a nerve in my back making everything very uncomfortable.
2:30 AM I woke John up told him we had to go. Contractions in the car were every 4 to 5 minutes making a long car ride. Got to the hospital got hooked up to the monitor, waited forever for the on call dr to look at the read out from the monitor. The minute we got to the hospital the contractions became irregular. Of course it was my doctors day off.
6:30AM on call dr says contractions are strong enough just not consistent enough, go home. I'll admit I almost started crying at the thought of the ride home. Of course the contractions started up as soon as we got in the car. I tried to sleep in the car but was awaken every time I had a contraction.
8:30 AM John decided to go to work and at this point neither of us had any idea of what labor was supposed to be like since nothing was ever consistent enough or strong enough.
All morning I spent trying to get comfortable but NOTHING helped. I used to consider myself a pretty tough person but my back hurt so bad I was rapidly turning into a pansy. I talked to my doctors nurse several times over the course of the morning, she was furious that they made me go home and convinced my doctors partner to see me since I was having back labor so bad because his head hadn't quite turned the right direction. He agreed and told me to come back to town.
2:30 I called John home.
3:00 We depart once again for Helena, making this trip literally Hell, every contraction made me want to cry uncle and get it over with. By the time we got there I would have let them do a c-section just to get rid of the pain.
4:00 Dr Haye sees me, agrees to admit me. Telling me that he would probably start pitocin to make the timing more consistent.
4:30 Nurse gets us settled into room, hooks me up to monitor for 20 minutes, then fills up the "awesome" jacuzzi tub, and tells me to sit in it for an hour. I was thinking it would give me some reprieve from the pain in my back and intensity of the contractions. It did make me feel better but the jets of water kicked it up a notch and made things really kick into gear. Since baby's head still hadn't moved when I got out of the tub I was instantly in pain again. They gave me an IV, started the pitocin on the lowest dose. After maybe a half hour I made them shut it off and call the anesthesiologist. At this moment I officially acknowledged that I was no where near as tough as I thought I was, slapped the pansy sticker on my forehead and begged for drugs.
The anesthesiologist Dr. O'Connor showed up, quickly fixed me up, reassured me of my fears of allergic reactions, with the fact that he had drugs to counteract any reaction I may have had. He was my new best friend. While he waited to monitor me after the epidural was in place he asked where we were from, after finding out we grew up on ranches, he reassured me that he eats beef, and then proceeded to tell me his son is a vegetarian and how disqusted he is with him.
The epidural started to work almost instantly and I tried to sleep. John was finally able to relax and we waited. Several hours pass by, I took several cat naps, John took a long snooze, and we waited. At this point I could only watch the contractions on the screen, as I could not feel them. Around midnight Dr Malaney (the currently on call dr) came into see me and broke the water. Within minutes I entered the transition faze, at which point I started to have feeling again, despite me pushing the button on the pump to deliver more anesthetic, I could still feel the contractions through the drugs. I can't imagine how much worse they would have been without it though.
1:45AM Finally time for the dirty work. The nurse (Tai) calls Dr. Malaney.
2:00AM Dr. Malaney arrives (I will leave the gory part out for those of you who may be weak stomached)
2:43AM John Angus enters the world kicking and screaming. 7 lbs 5.8 oz and 20 inches long. Today is July 16, 2010. 26 hours of labor and I finally got my reward.
He was perfect, John cut the umbilical cord and they placed him on my chest. He instantly stopped crying and curled up on me. A tear dropped from my eye and John hugged us both.

Yes, I am still pregnant!

Well here we are 39 weeks of being pregnant, I am hot, tired, and cranky! Feeling kinda bummed about not making it to the rodeo, this will be the first year I have ever missed a Drummond Rodeo in all the years that my dad has been a part of it. Sorry Dad! But those hard seats and the sun is just to much for me to handle right now. Yesterday my mom and mother in law came up and helped me get all the drywall primed. So now on tuesday I will go buy the paint, however I am praying I will be in the hospital instead of the hardware store. But I guess that is not really my decision. Just thought I would keep you posted. I will keep everyone up to date when he FINALLY decides to make an appearance!

Well I guess it has been a while since I have posted anything. So here is a quick update on the house. Sheetrock is almost done, its waiting on John to finish his plumbing. The trim around all the windows and doors in the log part are done. The trim around the big windows is almost done. Notice the half logs covering up the posts between the windows. We think it looks way cooler than we ever imagined. Things are progressively moving forward as is my belly. Only 4 and a half more weeks. I still don't think the house will get done but at least it is getting closer.








John and I got my greenhouse set up and we now have tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, lots of herbs, and even a watermelon plant in there. I will post pictures as soon as I remember to take some.