Weekend Visitors

Ahh ....weekends. The days that were made for relaxing, playing, yardwork, housecleaning, laundry, etc. Take your pick. But they're also days when visitors may come calling. Except, rather than the occasional neighbor, in-law, or friend dropping by, we seem to attract more, well, unusual guests.

Most of the time, our unwanted guests, such as deer, turkeys, raccoons, and rabbits find themselves running from Gimli, who is convinced he is, among other things, quite ferocious.

There are, however, the occasional visitor who will settle in for a few days and seem to be content to ignore Gimli, and will even from time to time, attempt to chase him.....Such as the bobcat who set up a household in a pile of trees nearby a couple of weeks ago. (Sorry, no pictures. It was more than a little shy)

Todays visitor was more, shall we say, prehisitoric.......

This morning, as I was hurrying to finishing spraying weeds before the wind came up, I turned around to find this snapping turtle basking in the sun on the lane behind our house. I'm sure it was quite surprised to find itself the center of attention.

Chester, was rather content to sit a safe distance away and observe this strange creature.......

Kitty, however, thought it appropriate to circle and stalk......

As entertaining as this was to watch, I decided I didn't really want to end up with a three legged cat. I asked Nick what to do with the snapper. He said "Just pick it up and carry it back to the pond. My response? "You pick it up!" Neither of us really wanting to carry a snapping turtle anywhere, this little exchange continued for a few minutes.

In the end....

Nick and Gimli escorted our visitor back to the fish pond

Winter Wonderland (Despite the Fact It's Spring)

Have you ever read "Little House on the Prairie"? Remember that part where they describe the blizzard. You know, where they had to tie a rope around Pa so he didn't get lost going between the house and barn? I always thought it was just a teensy bit exaggerated.


However recently, I've gained a new respect for spring blizzards. In the last 3 weeks, we've had three. Each one worse than the last. Of course, no one has to tie a rope around themselves (yet), and let's face it, Nick's the only one who spends much time outside. Although I did venture out to scoop snow off the back sidewalk in a feeble attempt to thwart his tendancy to track loads of it into the house. I say feeble because in less than half an hour there was a new snow drift about 3 feet deep (It's now larger). I have not tried again.




The snow is actually clinging to the windows. It's a bit like living in a snow cave. You can't see out. If anyone were stupid enough to stand outside, they couldn't see in. Pretty amazing really. Sometimes I'm a little bit in awe of what it's like to live out here.



Hopefully, the electricity will stay on.....

Holy Cow

As I sat in my living room this Sunday morning, enjoying a cup of coffee, checking my email and facebook page, and daydreaming about starting a landscaping project this spring, a large black cow came wandering into view. Now that wouldn't be all that unsual since there are about 600 of them on the meadow by our house currently, however, this cow was not on the meadow. It was in my yard. Good thing it's too early to start that landscaping.....

Mending Fences

The ever offending gate....

So it occurred to me that it's been several months since I last updated this blog... Almost a year actually. One of my last blogs was about calving season, and guess what, here we are again. Waking up in the middle of the night, wandering out in the cold to drive around and check to see if any heifers are having trouble....day after day and of course, night after night after night...

I have to admit, this is mostly Nick's job. I actually have very little to do with it, other than elbowing him when the alarm goes off at 10, 2, and 6. But last weekend, Nick left me home ALONE to check cows while he went to a bull sale.

Me, alone, to check cows. Let's stop and think about that. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to checking for...other than the obvious nose and legs protruding from the back end of a cow. But it looks terrible to begin with; how in the world would I know if something was actually wrong?? Nick just laughs and heads merrily down the road. Figures.

So dutifully, I go out to check the cows at the appropriate times, in the same way I've watched him do it. First step: Drive the old white pickup. Nevermind the fact it's older than I am, the steering is going out of it, it has no headlights (because Nick "bumped" a cow and broke them) and of course a manual transmission, which I'm only slightly learning to drive. Nevertheless behind the wheel I go and head toward the calving lot. After killing the engine about 5 times, I even make it there. Step one - Check.

Of course the cows have all decided to stand right by the gate. So I do what I can to shoo them away so I can open the gate and drive through. Which miracously I manage to do without a single cow escaping. Point for me! Step two-Check.

And behind the wheel of the little white pickup again....and I kill the engine half way through the gate....Oye. But finally, I get through. Now I'm sweating bullets because I know I have to actually shut the gate. This is a new gate. It's recently been rebuilt which means one thing, it's a bear to shut. Really, really tight and requires a professional weight lifter to close. Which of course I'm not. But miracles of miracles, I get it shut. I manage to check all the cows too. Twice in one day. With no problems other than killing the transmission on the pickup repeatedly. Step three-Check.

On my last trip through, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. There I am patting myself on the back, feeling like a real cowgirl when I drive out the gate for the last time knowing Nick will be home before the next round, and won't he be so proud! Whistling, and a I dare say a little bit cocky, I saunter over to the gate, pick it up and try to close it. Apparently, I was a bit over confident. The lever won't shut. No problem, I'll just try again. I take the post out, pull on the gate and try again. Nope, not even close. I lean on the lever with all my weight. Still no good.

Half an hour later, I'm still there. The gate still won't close. Cows are crowded around the gate, watching (and likely laughing as best cows can). One actually try to "help" by resting her head on the gate. Our dog Gimli, who has previously sat patiently watching starts to whine, as if it to say "Come on already - Nick can shut the gate in 10 seconds, what's taking so long?"

Sweat running down my back, cussing like a sailor, and stamping my feet like a petulant child, I somehow manage to win the battle with the gate. The cows applaud, Gimli happily runs toward home, I get in the pickup and promptly kill the engine. And wouldn't you know it, not a single calf was born the whole damn day!

A Tale of Two Veterinarians

Gimli went to work with me a couple of weeks ago. Since he seems to enjoy chasing and fighting with racoons and skunks (or really just whatever he can find) Nick and I figure we need to be certain all his shots are always up to date.

It's hard for us to go to Valentine during business hours this time of year, so I decided to take Gimli with me to work in Rushville. I could leave him at the vet while I went to work then could pick him up afterward. Unfortunately, the vet I'd taken him to in Rushville previously (that has a nice outdoor area to keeps dogs in) was on vacation, so I went to the other vet in town. They only had kennels. Picture a huge, eighty-something pound lab locking his legs and and whining pitifully as we pushed him into the tiny kennel for the day.

I felt so bad all day that I left work around 3:00 so I could take the poor thing home. When we got home, I thought it'd be nice for the two us to go for a walk since we'd both been couped up all day - me, in my office and Gimli in the kennel. So off we went. Gimli of course took off exploring the hills as I walked. He disappeared over the top of hill as I turned to go home. I walked for awhile, but he wasn't catching up, so I decided to go see what he'd found. Just as I was walking up to the hill he'd disappeared over, Gimli came flying up over the ridge.....with a face full of porcupine quills, and I do mean FULL of quills!

The poor dog was whining, pawing at his face, and trying to roll in sand, ponds, tall weeds, and basically whatever we could find as we ran for home - just to get the quills out. Nick, of course was not home when we arrived since it is haying season. I knew I'd never be able to pull all the quills out (as he let me pull one, and then wouldn't really let me near him again!) So we loaded back in the car and headed to our usual vet in Valentine. About an hour and a half later Dr. Butler carried a very groggy, huge mass of a dog to my car. After getting him settled, Dr. Butler grinned at me and said "He'll be all right, just, you know, don't let him drive." I laughed, Gimli wimpered and fell off the car seat onto the floor, and we drove for home. One day, two trips to veterinarians over 120 miles apart, and a week later, we were still finding porqupine quills surfacing!

A Family Affair

June 26, 2008, my great-grandmother, Ruth Krajeski turned 98 years old! Her whole family was there to help her celebrate - about 30 of us in all. Between all of us, it was kind of a mad house, but very fun evening. I thought I'd share some photos of the night.
My cousin Mark and his girlfriend Janelle hosted the barbeque we all spent the evening hanging out in the backyard. Mark has been quite busy building himself a fountain and stream bed - it's impressive

Great-Grandma K with her oldest child, my grandma Jean
Grandma and her in-laws
Grandma has 14 great-grandchildren. The oldest, Scott is turning 30. The youngest is about 10 weeks old!

Grandma K with her children, Jim, Jean, and Susan.
Grandma with all her grandchildren - Bill, Randy, J.P., Mark, Cindy, Katie, and Chris.
All of us great-grandkids

running and bucking

It's kind of nice this time of year to look out the window and see the meadows covered with momma cows and their babies wandering about. The calves all run and play together while the cows stand in groups and munch away on the tender new leaves of green grass. Come to think of it, it's not all that different from your typical city park....except for the part about the moms eating the grass...