Rain Maker

We’re having a good grass year thanks to all the rain we’ve had so far. I don’t ever get tired of the storms we experience in Nebraska. Of course I may think differently if we ever have anything too damaging. The other day I made Jason and the kids come out with me to watch this storm roll in. When you ask Kache what he wants to be when he grows up, he is torn between ranching and meteorology. Two great choices I think.

Announcing

I’m finally getting around to announcing that we are expecting our fourth baby on August 29.  Of course anyone who reads my blog is family and already knows that we are expecting, but I wanted to have pictures blogged for posterity.  This has been an interesting pregnancy – much different than the others.  The first five months I didn’t feel well (never morning sickness, just lack of appetite and overall not feeling so good) and had no ambition at all.  But since then it’s been a great pregnancy.  I’m going to the Scottsbluff doctors again, so that means a 2-hour drive every 6 weeks.  We have always found out the sex of our babies, so this time we decided to have it be a surprise.  I’m kind of thinking it’s a girl, Jason has no opinion, the kids all think it’s a little sister, and all the primary kids at church think it’s a girl too (there are 9 babies due in our branch this year and most are boys, so the primary kids are hoping I have a girl).  So we’ll find out in 2 months, right when school is starting again. 

More Branding

Tis the branding season, therefore, I have a lot of branding pictures to post. The kids and I have been to more brandings this year than usual and have had a good time. Since Rex Ranch moved its calving date back a lot of the ranch kids get to go to most the brandings now because school’s out. We’re definitely raising the next generation of ranchers on Rex Ranch.

Myron and Jason. These two have become best buds. Most of the guys on the ranch spend their free time roping or going to rodeos, while these two don’t fit the buckaroo mold. They’d rather talk about football than how well their horses did in the roping pen when they get together. This year they’ve also spent more time wrestling at brandings than ever before because their boys have been going with them.

Entertained

Dallie found this bunny costume in a box of clothes from Claire the other day. It was way too small and hot, but she didn’t want to take it off.

The boys had a fun time trying to escape from the monster bunny.

Before and After

It’s always a little scary when the sky turns the color in the picture below.  I learned in a storm spotter class this spring that the change in color is the sun shining through the hail causing a prism-effect.  So if a storm is producing large hail the clouds might turn blue or green.  And if the storm is producing large enough hail to turn the clouds a different color it could also produce a tornado.  So anyhow, it’s always a little scary when the sky turns this color.  Especially since Jason had the boys out checking cows with him on the Honda.  They made it to the shop just as the hail started falling. 

I didn’t get any pictures of the “during”, but this is the damage to our garden after. 

Potatoes.

Corn.

Onions.

How tall the onions were before the storm.

Pretty sorry looking garden now.  I was so amazed at how the potatoes and onions were doing and now I just hope some of them recover. 

This picture is to show how horseweeds have adapted to this country where potatoes have not.  This was after the hail storm (and before we weeded the garden).  The potatoes (in the middle) look terrible and the horseweeds (on the left) look like they’ve hardly been touched. 

The funny thing is that the hail and wind don’t frustrate me too bad.  There’s nothing we can do about it.  It will keep coming and we can only hope something will survive.  The thing that bothers me most are these:

The grasshoppers are a bit later this year than they were last year, but their motto seems to be “better late than never.”  I hadn’t noticed many before our storm this week, but the day after I could see these tiny things everywhere.  Some of the bushes they ate last year didn’t survive.  So we bought supposedly the best insect spray (or at least the most expensive) and put this snow fence up in hopes of protecting our garden.  I miss our guineas so badly!  We didn’t have any grasshoppers in our yard at the McGinley although they were in the pastures around the house.  I’ve been trying to get some more guineas, but no luck yet.   

So between the severe weather and the grasshopper plague, all my efforts to plant a garden this year may be pointless and very frustrating.

JCH3 Branding

We had a really successful branding this year. I think this year was our best yet. Our herd wasn’t as big as normal (about 700 head), we had a good crew (about 40 adults + kids), and the round up went smoothly (which only happens about half the time).

Dallie had a good time playing with her little friends.

One of our herd markers. This year we have two of these white calves with red heads.

Kyle and Kache. These boys have been going to lots of brandings this year and learning to be like their dads.

Kache, Kyle, Luke and Ryder. Kyle was acting like a big brother and Ryder was trying to get Luke out of a head lock.

This is better.

The boys and Riata sending Gatorade bottles down the drain. Later they got them stuck and didn’t tell Jason. He found out a few days later when his tank was overflowing had to spend a half hour fixing it. They know now not to do that again.

My meal went just as well as the branding. I had just enough food and the weather was perfect. My friend Caroline spent the day with me so it wasn’t stressful at all.