5 February 2026

Moving Cows

It was going to be great! I knew it would be. The kids would love it.

They had been riding out alone to fill the cows tank. They were fine going out alone. So why not add one more challenge, or fun game depending on how you look at it, for them to accomplish?

The cows needed moved to new corn stalks. Yes, it would be easiest to move them with feed. Just call them into the corrals in the morning and lead them over with the tractor. They like food and fully understand following the tractor. But what fun would that be?

Instead we could carefully set it up so the cows would be fed in the morning, wait long enough for them to finish all the hay, then send the kids out to move them! It’s not like they could lose the herd. It’s all safely confined. Worse that could happen is the cows go to the wrong corner of the field.

So off we sent them. My son was in a mood from the beginning. That never bodes well.

Their father and I were working along the edges of the field, repairing wind damage to the parked equipment. We could see them the whole time, make sure nothing was going dreadfully wrong. The cows started off in the right direction. My son was trotting along on the far side of the herd on his little mare. They looked so good, it made me happy. My daughter pushed them down off the hill all by herself. Such good little riders.

Then the cows passed the gate and kept going south. Still no big deal. They were on the proper half of the field. It would just take a bit more riding.

My daughter called. Would I be coming out to help them now? She was not cheerful.

Wonderful mother that I am I said no. Did she feel that they were in danger? No? Alright then. Keep moving the cows.

They got to the far side of the field and stopped. I could see one child off of a horse. They both stood there and just stood. The cows grazed happily.

I called back. What’s up?

Lady, my sons little bay arab, wasn’t cooperating. He had rage quit. They were both very grouchy. Not interested in moving cows.

My plan had failed. Apparently they couldn’t handle it and would not get that huge rush of confidence and satisfaction when they got the cows moved all by themselves.

Oh well. Training children is no different than training horses. I know when we are facing frustration and there is need to step in and offer more support. Out on the 4wheeler anyway we headed that direction. My husband hopped off near the gate to turn them the right way when they got there. I rushed out to the kids. It was easy to see the problem when I got there.

Heifers.

Yearlings are an awful thing. Curious and as stupid as any bunch of teenagers. Every time I would push them forward with the 4wheeler they would turn right around and follow me back. On the 4wheeler I could keep running laps with them. The kids, on horses, unwilling to go much above a walk, it can get to be an endless task.

I finally got the heifers to move. The kids joined back in and brought up the tail while I ran the edge of the herd. The cows went in. The children were done and left as their father and I followed the bunch up the lane in and into their new field. It was done. Maybe not well done. Not the confidence booster I had hopped for. At this point I’m just hoping to be able to get them back on the horses again. Maybe we can try this weekend.

Category: 8, Cows, Goblin Child, Horses | LEAVE A COMMENT
3 January 2026

Filling The Water Trough

The weather was beautiful. It’s almost time for school to start again. I really wanted to get the kids out on the horses!

There wasn’t time or energy to invite friend over for them to ride with. They get along great most of the time. Why couldn’t both children go ride together? Who says they have to have some different friend here to ride with?

So I ordered them outside. One of their morning jobs is to fill the water tank for the cattle. This isn’t a turn on the faucet and wait sort of a tank. It’s on the other side of the pivot and is filled out of the same pipe that supplies water to the pivot. It pumps a LOT of water. The tank is filled in a minute or so. It’s a big and very important job. If somehow the tank doesn’t get shut off thousands of gallons of water will be flooding the field. On the bright side, it would be pretty hard to miss noticing the thunder of water being spewed forth while it runs. Not something you can walk away from.  If it doesn’t get done the cows will die of thirst. Of course they’ll probably complain to us loudly before that happens. But still. It’s a very big job for two kids.

Why not send them out to do the second filling in the afternoon? Even better, why not send them out on horses!

It’s not a long ride out there. Not quite a full mile out and back. But it is a ride with purpose. Having a good reason to do something always makes it more fun. But I didn’t want them rushing out and back. It would be nice if they could do more riding than just out and back. Extra rule; no computers for two hours from the time they get on the horses. There. Now they should want to hang out and  enjoy the ride

My daughter went happily. She would never admit to wanting to go for a ride, but she did seem enthusiastic.

My son did not want to go. He had a whole list of things he would rather do. Not that he had been doing. He had been sitting in front of a computer. A terrible waste of a day like this. He pouted and whined and refused to go.

My daughter, being her usual snarky, sarcastic, brilliant self, said “get his leadrope. If he doesn’t want to go I’ll just pony him.” Of course there was more to it than just that. There were the thoughts of things she could make him do if she was in charge. Where and at what speed she could lead his horse. While he was the helpless passenger.

So I got her the rope. Off they went. Not with ease or speed. She’s never ponied a horse before. Luckily her mare has spent most of her life roping. She was fine with ropes under her tail. We had a talk about never tying the rope anywhere and the wrecks that could cause. It took them many minutes to get out of the yard. Horses going opposite directions. Everyone spinning in circles. Careful and willful malicious compliance on my sons part made life very difficult. He was not going to help himself be lead. He was enjoying the mayhem.

Finally they were off down the driveway. Or somewhere. A large part of them learning about horses this way is me staying out of it. Letting them figure out for themselves how to solve problems and convince the horses to work with them.

Not quite an hour later I stepped out the front door, making sure no loose horses had come back and were standing at the fence line. Nothing there. But through the trees next to the house I spied horses with riders. They were just standing. Talking. Grazing. They had made it back They would want help unsaddling shortly. I wen back inside and got ready. Still no children. I went back out to look again. Now they were sitting on the horses next to the trailer. Not moving. Just sitting there staring into space.

Why, children, why do you sit here doing nothing?

Did I mean that they could get off the horses before the two hours were up?!?! They hadn’t realized that. They thought they had to be on horses for two hours.

Yes, the tank got filled. Yes, they went for a nice ride by themselves. NO, they are not as brilliant as they sometimes think they are. Oh well, it still worked and we’ll have to try it again tomorrow.

Category: 8, Goblin Child, Horses | LEAVE A COMMENT
13 December 2025

I Just Need A Minute

There are so many jokes out there about farm and ranch husbands calling their wives away from cooking or cleaning or whatever horrid house work they’re doing to come help outside for ‘just a minute’. Of course in the joke the minute turns out to be hours. The meal is cold, or burnt. The clean pretty clothes she was wearing are trashed. Se’s grouchy.

Why are there no jokes about the wife doing that?

I believe this is a terrible act of sexism.

Today we lived the joke. But in the proper direction. With the wife as the antagonist.

My children had been working hard all morning. We sent them out into the cold with a list of chores to remember. They called regularly to check in and make sure they were getting everything done and done properly. They did a very good job. Then I gave them permission to go inside where it was warm.

Then, as I continued my work outside, I ran into their father. He had more work for them to do and wanted to know why they were back inside already.

Ooops. My bad. Guess they were carefully checking in with the wrong person. So maybe this does fall a little into the usual trope.

I called my daughter. They had just gotten inside and stripped the layers of warm clothes this weather requires. “could you please come back outside?” I asked.

There were deep sighs and groans from the other end of the line. They had JUST gotten undressed. WHY did I tell them they could go in if I was going to ask for more work of the poor beleaguered souls.

“Get out here” I ordered. “It wont be so bad. We just need you (meaning the younger of them who is willing to drive but the older needs to go too for moral support and because it’s not fair to only make the youngest do the work) to come drive the feed truck. You probably don’t need to put coats back on. You’ll just be sitting in the feed truck.”

So out they came. With very little grumbling which I must give them credit for. I delivered the truck to them then went for the payloader. We got it loaded with very few problems as we all tried to remember from last year how this was done. Chatting back and forth over the radio, they were cheerful and not complaining about the work dropped on them after they had been dismissed. It was warm in there and they were fine in the sweatshirts they had come out in. They parked the feed truck and thought they were done.

Then we found more work for them.

I was taking a bale out to the cows because the cows had heard the equipment running. So they had come running. Now they were plastered up and down the fence line complaining about being starved. They may be slightly spoiled and I hate to see them look sad. So I was getting a bale, but wanted help with gates and twine. My husband was cleaning out the lane of the feedlot and wanted help there too.

He got our son, the one that will drive. I got our daughter, the one who will walk amongst the cows. Neither job was inside. It was cold out. So cold. A bit too cold for even doubled up sweatshirts. And boy was I in trouble. I had TOLD her to only wear a sweatshirt. I TOLD her they would be inside the feed truck. Why would I lie to her like that.

I mentioned that putting on a coat is always a good idea. You never know what you’ll be getting into. I had suggested that they would probably be fine without, ut she is perfectly capable of deciding these things on her own.

No. That was absolutely not true. I had TOLD her to go without. There was no excuse and there would be no forgiveness.

I offered my hat and gloves. They were not appreciated and would not in any way help to keep her warm.

We rushed through getting the cows fed. She told me the whole time how awful I was. She wouldn’t drive the payloader even if it would make the feeding go faster.

With the gate shut behind us we met her brother dashing about on the 4-wheeler. He had been dismissed from his duties. They could go back inside! Finally. The poor mistreated children that I had drug away from their warm place in front of the fire. That I had forced outside without coats. Their computers had missed them and possibly even gone to sleep. How could this damage ever be repaired. Poor, poor mistreated children.

 

Category: 8, Cows, Family, Farming, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
18 November 2025

Gardening Game

For awhile now my husband has been talking about making a game about gardening. Something peaceful and relaxing. No rush and stress, just planting a garden.

Last night he came home and sat down at his computer after supper. He pulled up a screen full of words and told me to play.

Not being a gamer myself I was a bit confused at first. How is this a game. How was I supposed to figure out what all those lines of text meant? There was a spot at the bottom of the page to enter one number. All of that text, and one number to chose.

After stumbling around the first few times I started to get the hang of it. It WAS fun!

All the text was telling me how my garden was doing. What needed watered. What was ready to harvest. what price the crops were selling at. After the first couple harvest cycles I went from broke to actually making a bit of a profit and the lines were making sense and becoming easier to read.

While I played on his computer he sat the kids down on their computers. They had screen with colors and boxes. He explained to them how to draw using pixels.

This is right up my daughters ally. She loves designing minecraft skins and has a pretty good following on one of the skin sites. Her work is gorgeous. She quickly got the idea and created some wonderful vegetable designs for a not completely text version of the game.

My son wasn’t quite as into that art stuff. He came over and took over the game I had started. He’s not overly fond of reading, so there were some doubts about his interest in the screen full of text. He caught on right away and went right to producing crops.

My husband had made his game. Or started on it. He kept coming up with more ideas on improving it and has the not text version to finish still. Hopefully he and the kids can spend many more evenings together refining and completing their gardening game. Everyone was enjoying it immensely and it’s something they can play with fr years into the future. Maybe they can even make more games!

Category: 8, Family, Goblin Child | 1 Comment on Gardening Game
25 October 2025

Halloween Party

It wasn’t planned. Not really.

8 had been promising his good friend a sleepover once his new cabin was finished. So of course we had to have the friends sister over too for 8’s sister. Then a friend texted about doing horse stuff together. Why not do it all at once and make a party of it!

The friend brought along her daughter and the daughters horse. All three girls took off riding. Me and the mom took her big beautiful new horse into the corrals and played.

When the girls got back my son, whose horse had been commandeered by a girl, rejoined them and both of my children managed to get stung by wasps. How in the world they managed that within and hour of each other when they’ve gotten this far in life without ever being stung I don’t know.

We carved pumpkins then roasted marshmallows and even a couple hot dogs for supper over a fire.

The kids didn’t play outside, in the dark, on the hay bales. It was too cold. The wimps.

This morning the boys went off to help dump the load of corn on the semi, help get semis up and running. They helped move them to the places the semis needed to be to dump cor in them. Then they jumped in the combine for a ride. I haven’t had any updates since then, but I’m betting they are spending some time playing in the corn in the grain trailers. Always a great time.

The friends horses both went home with the mom yesterday. So the friend who rode out with her own horse yesterday didn’t have one to ride. Pulling up my big girl pants and trying to be brave I put my daughter on my horse, Rusty. She used to ride him all the time, just never usually off a lead. She’s been riding Jerry lately and her confidence has been growing by leaps and bounds. Having friends there to watch also serves to make you brave, or at least to act that way. They rode around the yard for awhile first to make sure everyone was comfortable. The friend who has her own horse rode Jerry. The friend who comes to ride our horses regularly rode her preferred mount, my son’s horse, Lady.

Then they all headed out.

Rusty is a very good boy, but can be energetic. Lady is wonderful, but was extra zippy on their ride yesterday. Jerry can get really zippy too occasionally but her rider runs barrels and knows how to ride. Surely they’ll be fine. I waited, watching the horizon nervously for awhile. Looking for a horse to come running back without a rider. There was nothing. I finished my outdoor chores and texted my daughter before heading in. They were at the far corner of the property and still heading. I asked her to keep me updated with some idea of where they were please.

Next time I heard from her they were at the other far corner of the property and thinking about going farther. Or coming back. Who knows. Teenagers don’t exactly text clearly. But they made it that far on a cool windy morning. Hopefully the horses will be tired enough to walk home again. Walk being the important part of that. If they were going to act up, hopefully they already would have. I am loving this. We need to have friends over to ride way more often!

Category: 8, Goblin Child, Horses | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 September 2025

First Frost

‘They’ say the full moon has nothing to do with frost.

The old stories say that frost will come with a full moon.

As much as I would like to trust and believe the collection of data, watching as the first frost rolls in every year with a big bright full moon I have to say I have my doubts.

The forecast was for mid to upper 40s. The moon was coming full, but it was going to be warm enough, we’d probably escape frost until late again this year. If we could get past this full moon we should be fine until the next time around.

Without doing any preparations to the garden we went off to do other things. My husband took a tractor over to work the summer fallow. Instead of checking cows earlier in the day, like usual, the kids and I waited until it was time to go pick him up. Get everything done in one trip.

We got to the pasture to find a handful of calves out. They have plenty of grass but have cleaned up the wheat they were grazing and think they are starving. At least that’s my theory. Maybe they sense a bad winter coming and want to com home. Now. I held the gate. The kids took the pickup and chased the calves in, no problem. There was a cow out. I walked her in. The kids took the pickup and went to open the gate. It needed the fence stretcher to get. They managed it all alone. As the cow and I slowly walked the length of the fence towards the gate the whole herd of cows leaped into a gallop alongside up and charged the gate. The kids held it!

The cow and I finally caught up. She turned two fence posts before she got to the gate and plowed through the fence.

The kids and I had the pleasure of fixing fence with the whole herd gathered around to ‘help’. They stoll the hammer from the fencing bucket. They tried to eat everything else, including my daughter as she put on the wire ties.

Finally done there we made it up to check water. Water was good. The herd didn’t come to help us with that.

Leaving, through a different gate, we found wires broke in the gate, wires broke in the fence. This must have been where the calves originally left their pasture for new fields. My son had come along without any shoes. He didn’t know we were going to have to get out of the pickup. Ever. That makes all the trouble obviously his fault. He cursed us.

It was nearly dark when we reached my husband waiting in his tractor at the field. He had been able to get more disking done than anticipated while we fixed cow problems. All squeezed warmly into the cab of the pickup we compared weather forecasts on the drive home. Now they were predicting frost. Not earlier when it would have been easier to do something about it. Once home instead of running to work in the garden we ate a quick late supper and went to bed. The garden would do whatever the garden did.

What the garden did was freeze. With next week predicted to be in the 80s again. As always, an early cold snap followed by warm weather mocking us over the blackened burnt remains of the garden.

But, the frost was kind this time. The garden is only lightly nipped by frost. The pumpkins, of course, and the east side. Why the east side instead of all of it? Looks like we will be roasting and freezing peppers today after all! We should be safe from frost until the next full moon now. Not that that has anything to do with the freezing, not according to ‘them’.

Category: Cows, Family, Garden, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
12 August 2025

School Bus Pickup

It was supposed to be fairly cool. In the mid 80s, that’s fairly cool for August. The kids had declined to ride over the weekend. Si thought fine, we wont ride now, but, if I show up to pick you up from the bus with horses you wont have any choice but to ride! Or to walk home I suppose.

It was pretty warm by afternoon. I saw 90 showing at home. But I had made plans and we were going to stick to them dang it! I gave myself an hour to get cows here at home checked, saddle horses, and leave with half an hour to get to the highway. Everything took longer than hoped. My dog did not want to be left behind. She had to be caught and forced to wait in the nice cool house, she hates being outside anyway. I saddled the mares and let them loose to graze. Got Rusty saddled and went to catch mares.  Lady let me grab her easily from Rusty’s back, I thought she’d be the hard one. Jerry would not let me near her on Rusty.

She was following nicely though and Rusty and Lady get crazed together when we first start out. I let Jerry follow loose and turned Rusty and Lady loose, in a different way, to use up energy and make up time dashing across the hayfield. They were off. Jerry trailed behind, sometimes falling way back, sometimes passing us. At the road I got off and caught her. Then had to get back on. Then enjoyed ponying two horses the rest of the way to the highway.

We waited in the shade of the neighbors driveway for the bus. We hadn’t beat it there by much.

I could see the delight in my children’s eyes before they ever got off the bus even. Or maybe horror. Why did I have to bring the horses? They didn’t want to ride home. Please never do this again! But, they’re out of luck. Both on that day and in the future. No one died. We’re doing it as often as I can manage.

Lady was perfect. For all the energy she had getting to the bus stop she plodded home barely keeping up with the other two speedy horses. She always goes faster away from home, she seems to enjoy the adventure.

Jerry, our slow lazy one was off. She would have beat all of us home by at least half the time if she’d been allowed to go. And that was mostly at a walk. She got to be ponied instead. That made her and Rusty both mad. Then we had to stop regularly to wait for Lady, that was even worse!

It was hot. The horses were lathered. The kids were mad, one more than the other. Lady’s rider went through a stage there where he wanted nothing to do with her but he is back and riding better than ever. He didn’t mind it at all. Jerry’s person might have been happier about it if they could have plodded slowly like they usually do. I was exhausted and not entirely sure why we think this is fun, but ready to do it again next time it cools down a bit!

 

Category: 8, Goblin Child, Horses | LEAVE A COMMENT
9 August 2025

Flower Garden

My daughter and husband have been watching Gardener’s World, and English gardening show, together. She wanted to make a garden like those.
Of course we can never make something quite like an English garden out here in the hot, dry, windy area where we live, but we can do something.
My husband left a bit of ground when he worked up the rest of the garden. We went to work, me and the kids, transplanting all the little volunteer plants around the garden. Radishes are my favorite this year. Their airy, floaty little flowers that turn to yummy edible seed pods. Dill, cilantro, mustard, the greens that bloom beautifully and also taste good. Cosmos were coming up like crazy in last years garden plot, so was ornamental corn. Those got added in. Marigolds and zinnias were added from seed. We bought a few flowers, some moss rose and petunias.
It was pretty tiny and sparse at first. When the flowers went on sale at the stores in town I bought a bunch to fill in the holes. Then we hit that week in July when everything grows a foot or more a day, or so it seems.
The flowers I added in got dwarfed. The big wide paths we left grew in until we need to squeeze to get through.
I love to stand and stare at the pretty flowers, as I swat mosquitoes. Irrigating the slightly sloped patch is a hobby all on its own. We dig ditches and spread the water across the plot instead of running straight down. Children wander through picking a bit of whatever is growing to snack on as they go. Bees buzz about, spiders catch their prey.

I think we’ll need to do this again next year.

Category: 8, Family, Garden, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
25 May 2025

Summer Time

School is out for the year.

The Goblin Child got to get out a day early. The school tries to do some positive reinforcement, this was part of her reward for good grades and behavior. The school fails in most of their attempts, this is one that was appreciated. She helped feed cows this morning. For some reason she is willing to drive the feed truck, in the rain, with the windows so covered in muck that you can’t see anything, but she wont drive a 4wheeler or a cor. Granted she only drives a few feet, but that’s still more than she will do in other vehicles. She’ll get there eventually.

8 had a playday at the park for his last day instead of the usual field day. He enjoyed it quite a bit. The he brought a couple of friends home with him. They played all afternoon then helped bring a cow and calf in for an attempted adoption. One went home, the other stayed the night. They started out the evening sleeping in the tent but got rained out and blown away so came in around midnight.

The next day we put everyone to work helping brand calves. Along with the neighbor kids who came over to help. Everyone worked vary hard. The neighbor kids got all grown up since I saw them last!

After the hot dry dust storm of the winter it is raining! We got rain a week ago. Once it got all soaked in it is raining again. It is supposed to be rainy and cold for the next week. I’m loving it. This will be wonderful for the grass. We should be able to get the cows through the summer with these couple inches of rain we’ve gotten. My darling husband is not as thrilled. He just got corn planted, in the fields and in the garden. All the wet without any warmth and sunshine will rot the seed. My pumpkins, recently planted, could well rot too. Droughts never break easy, there always has to be something that pays the price.

We didn’t get the terrible hail storm that went by just to the south of us at least. It destroyed everything in its path. Any corn that had already come up, cars, the poor cows. There were drifts of hail and fog afterwards.

Just before school got over, I was picking the kids up at their bus stop. The neighbor boy, not the one who helped brand, came over to say hi. He told me how one of the boys on the bus didn’t know Jesus loves me! He was horrified. I thought at first he meant that the boy didn’t know that Jesus loved him, personally. Then he made it clear me meant the song. We were all horrified and burst into a rendition of the song right there. This is the reason we don’t home school. There is still good in this little local school.

 

 

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31 March 2025

Calving Season

What a season it has been. Now that we are all of one week in.

The Goblin Child has somehow managed a one day calving season with her whole herd calving today. Her heifer calved this morning. I saw a single hoof and went to check on her. She was a bottle calf. I do love very tame heifers like that. I was able to ‘check’ for a second hoof while she stood there quietly out in the pen. It was there. The calf was big. I went back for supplies. She laid there, not terribly concerned about me while I helped her deliver the calf laying out in the pen. A pretty, not little, red heifer.

Her cow had a darling little black white face calf this evening. I think it might be a heifer too. She was brand new when I was out last, I didn’t want to bother them enough to look. That cow was NOT a bottle calf.

Over the weekend one of the cows presented a single large red hoof. The kids were with me walking through the herd. They helped bring her up. Or one of them did. 8 got in there and tried. He was too scared to actually try to stop her when she wanted past him, but he tried. His sister cowered outside the fence. We managed to get her brought up to the front. They were much better help getting her into the chute. Beg safely on the other side of a fence gave them great courage.

Once in the chute they got together and managed to get the puller down off the wall. It took some team work and they didn’t drop it on their heads. I checked the cow and found the second hoof, thankfully, and the head. The calf was all there, just big. She gloved up and helped me pull while he held the tail out of the way. We ended up not not needing the puller after all. Between us and the cow we managed to deliver a BIG bull calf.

With him moved into the barn where his mom could clean him both children who had been wonderful up until then broke down. She had gotten some on her arm. A remarkably small amount all things considered. She needed a shower immediately. And could I please do a load of laundry. He had seen more than he could handle. I thought he had helped with this before. Maybe just not as closely? It was more than he could handle. He didn’t quite empty his belly but it was close. He was rather traumatized. I felt awful. Tried to huge him, but I had more than a small smear on my arm.

He seems to have recovered nicely.

Both kids have been coming with for the night check. They bounce all over the place having fun scaring each other in the dark and generally raising quit the ruckus.

Ghost and her calf got cold in the rain and snow the day after the calf was born. I was going to bring them up to the barn to get warm and dry. The calf didn’t want to get up and moving. It occurred to me that they were laying in the straw that had been put out for them to keep warm in. I covered the calk with straw. He was toasty warm in his blanket so I went to rubbing Ghost down. Trying to get her dry so she could be warm. Then I decided to give her a blanket too. She seemed to like it. She didn’t shake it off immediately.

Category: 8, Cows, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT