Never a Dull Moment

Last night's events are just too exciting not to share on the blog!

It started out rather uneventful. I got home from St. Louis and after dinner, Rachel and I headed to the fair so I could see Nick. I hadn't seen him for 3 days and I didn't want to wait until 9pm. Rachel LOVED the fair...there was lots to look at, puppies to squeal at, and random cars to wave at. I kept her out a little later than I had planned so when I pulled onto our street at 7:30pm, I was explaining the short bath and bed plan that I had to Rachel. Then I noticed Nancy standing in the road...with a stick. I thought it was kind of odd and it wasn't until I was going up the driveway that I noticed Mel in the corn field attempting to coral 3 steers. NOT GOOD. Not good at all. As it would turn out- they had been trying to do this on their own for quite some time. I didn't even take a minute to change my shoes and just headed out to try to be of some help... in hindsight, my sandels were not the best choice for steer wrangling.

After about 20 minutes, I had named the steers. We had the Wild One, the Follower, and Fat Albert. The Wild One spooked easily and was determined to run off on his own any chance he got. The Follower, of course, followed the Wild One, and Fat Albert...well he was in steer heaven with an all you can eat buffet of new corn plants and the johnsongrass that grows in the ditch. I'm not sure how long Mel and I worked on it before I asked Nancy if we maybe shouldn't have one or two more people...and could we call MaryAnn and Larry. Larry wasn't home, but MaryAnn came right down and we called Nick to ask that he please join us. It got really interesting when Wild One made it over to the neighbors corn field and decided to cross the road in front of a truck (by this time it was dark). Nick sprinted (at least I assume he did based on how fast he made it down the field edge), to keep Wild One from getting to 245. That would have been very, very bad. By this time Fat Albert and the Follower had been coraled. Tracking a black steer in the dark becomes challenging. When I could no longer see Nick and Wild One, I made my way across the neighbors yard- following the steer tracks in their manicured lawn- and found Nick in his parents backyard with Wild One. Slowly, Nick opened the gate and Wild One trotted back into familiar territory. After the initial relief came the realization that the main gate was still open! A quick yell to "SHUT THE GATE!!" solved the problem.
Yep...never a dull moment around here. I know that Mel probably isn't ready to laugh about it yet. The nightmare every livestock owner has and hopes never to live is their animals trotting up and down the countryside...but maybe, just maybe he'll be able to chuckle about it in a few years.

Until then, I'm very much looking forward to a Wild One ribeye..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACHEL!

Happy Birthday, Rachel Leone!!

Dog Dishes

I believe that I have posted before about Rachel's love of the dog dishes. Since most people she knows and spends time with have dogs, I'm sure she thinks that everyone's home has a bowl of water on the floor. We've used various methods to keep her out of the dog bowls... At some point, I'm sure she'll finally be able to understand that they're not really playthings. Until that day comes, we'll have scenes like this:

This was yesterday. Nick came home from work and was hoping for a few quiet moments before he went out into the heat to mow our lawn. Rachel felt it was a good time to use the dog dishes like cymbals and go in to see Daddy. Good thing she's cute. ;)

This morning, she found the dog dishes before I had a chance to put them behind the gate. The look of sheer joy on her face is priceless. Tuesday I scrubbed and scrubbed on my hands and knees to get all the grime from strawberry season off the floor. Yesterday, Rachel must have thought I missed a spot and dumped the water dish all over the floor. She's so helpful.

And through all this...there is my sweet dog, who I am certain, remembers fondly the days before Rachel when her world was quiet and her water bowl was full. To me, it looks as if she's saying... "Hey Kid! Can you at least put something in it if you're going to carry it all over the house?"

Naptime

Rachel has had a very busy social calendar this week! We're making up for several weeks suring berry season where we barely had time for trips to the grocery store. Today, all the socializing wore her right out! She took close to a 3 hour afternoon nap. Rather than work on laundry and a whole host of other things I should have been doing...I finished reading the Book Club book for this month- "Saving CeeCee Honeycut". It was so good!! I HIGHLY recommend you put it on your summer reading list. But I digress...

As I walked into my quiet kitchen... I was greeted with this sight of my beloved dog, Pepper. (She's so ladylike!)
She was taking the advice to "sleep when the baby sleeps". I guess it was just one of those kind of afternoons!

Happy Birthday, Nancy!!

So, this morning as I dropped Rachel off in a rush, I completely forgot to wish Nancy a Happy Birthday!! I do hope she'll forgive me! Either way, I'm sure Rachel will make up for my

lack of birthday wishes!!

Farming

Due to some less than ideal conditions this spring (lets see...torrential rains, check; freezing cold followed by blazing hot back to bone chilling cold, check, check, check) everyone in the tri-state area is a bit behind on their spring farming activities. So when the water spigot finally turned off and things dried out, the hum of tractor engines has filled the air. The Held Farm is no exception.

Melvin worked on baling wheat for the cattle.

They were very grateful.

Nick worked on disking in the fields where the sudan grass will be planted for the cattle.

Even the neighbors were out working.

After Rachel and I were done watching everyone else work, we headed out to the garden to get to work on our own project...the much overdue planting of the tomato plants. These tomato plants have weathered it all...the USPS shipping where they arrived in a jumbled heap. About half of them we really aren't sure what kind they are...it'll just be a surprise. The night they arrived, Nick planted them into cups and we set them on the deck. That night, a "patchy" frost settled over our deck and we really thought we'd lost them all. Surprisingly, many of them powered back only to be forgotten (by me) for several days with no water in warmer temps...yet they survived. The test for tonight will be Peter Rabbit and friends...

But, despite all this, we loaded up Rachel's trusty wagon and out to the garden we went. Let me just tell you, the girl is a natural! Watching me use the shovel for one tomato, and she had it figured out...

"I think this looks like a good spot, Mama... I'll dig the hole."

Good help is the starting point to success for any business.

Thanks, Rach!! Love, Mama

Bust a Move

Rachel gets her awesome dancing skills from me! :)