Ants, ants and more ants!

So more raining has led to more grouchiness on Matt's part because he can't be in the field getting the stuff down that needs done this time of year. Knowing that it will someday dry I've been trying to get my projects that I would like to get done before starting summer field work. However, Matt has been keeping me busy and there is always work to do on the farm. 

I've been doing a lot of spraying. There are always trees and thistles to be sprayed. We like to spot spray rather than spraying the whole pasture and potentially killing some good stuff like red clover. Matt has set up a sprayer to be in the back of the gator. That's normally what we take to check cows so we can spray while checking cows. With the rotational grazing we like to do, I like to wait until the cattle have been on the certain paddock for a while and have the grass ate off around the bottom of the trees. That way I can get better spray coverage on the tree using less spray and get a better kill. We are very careful about using the spray for only the purpose it is supposed to be used for. If we don't control the trees and noxious weeds, they will overtake the land-making it impossible to raise grass which the cattle eat to grow. 

On another spraying note, our house has been overtaken by ants. We've been battling them for a while now, but kind of thought we had it taken care of. This morning when Matt went into the kitchen, there were ants all over. It was like a four lane highway for them going back and forth Matt said. Well, after an intense day of cleaning and spraying and mowing and weed eating, we're all set tomorrow to do a ant bugger while we're gone and hopefully they will be gone. I've heard ants have been worse than normal this year. If anybody has suggestions of how to get rid of them, please let me know!

As for a positive note...I've been getting some of my wish list projects done. Don't make fun of my wish list items, they may be small and you do them all the time, but to me they are projects that I don't get to do very often. 

The first...planting flowers! And I only got that done because Margaret gave me some flowers. Normally anything I touch in terms of plants die so hopefully this will make it. I thought it turned out well and adds a nice touch to our front deck! 

I bought some tomato plants at the JH FFA plant sale. They went through quite a bit before I got them in the ground. I've been pleasantly surprised that Abilene has left them alone and not dug them up. Maybe it's only her, but she's been doing more digging. I think it's because of the cicadas. They say those go into the ground. I'm pretty sure she can smell them or hear them and is trying to get to them. So far the tomatoes are still living. I finally put the cages around them. I wasn't going to worry about it, but the things are still going so thought I should put the cages around them. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes, but Matt loves them. So if they make it, I get a good wife point, maybe two for planting and taking care of them for him. 

Project number three...a towel rack. My dear Forever and I have been married for a year and three quarters or so and we've been using a bathroom that has one towel rack. It's been something that I've been nagging Matt about since we got married. There are two people living in this house, there should be two towel racks in our bathroom. But not just any towel rack...a horse shoe towel rack that he made for me. After one of our major fights a couple weeks ago, brought a couple home to me. After some grinding, painting and touching up...one of them got hung today! Super excited! It's the little things in life that make me happy! 

I believe last week I forgot to mention that one of my best friends from high school got married lat Saturday...however, I didn't get a picture with the beautiful bride. This is some more of my classmates though! It was such a beautiful wedding and Janae was such a beautiful bride! May her and Greg have many many many years of happiness and love!

Well, that's about all I've got for this week. Time for bed...hopefully tomorrow it will dry a little so we can get some outside work done. Have a great week and let me know any advice on getting rid of ants!

Grandma's Big Move

This week has been another interesting week in our lives. First, my 102 year old Grandma has becoming increasingly weak. While Kayla and Garett have been living there since they got married to help her, both of them are working really hard and are rarely home. My parents lived with my Grandma when they were first married, so now my parents are returning the favor. Hopefully, the arrangement will work out and Mom won't get too stressed.

This is a picture of my Grandma, mom and a fellow church goer of Mom who happens to be Grandma's doctor praying after Grandma took her first communion. She told my mom after one of the nightly chats that they've been having since she moved in that she had never taken communion. Mom asked at church and there was communion delivered the same day. Dr. Allen did such a beautiful job and prayed a wonderfully heartfelt sincere prayer. I had to take a picture, bad though it may be, so that I can remember that moment. The moment that my Grandma at 102 took her first communion, served by the doctor that has been taking care of her medical needs for a long time. It's the little moments in life that you will remember when your final day arrives, and this will be one of the moments I remember. I want to thank Dr. Allen and his daughter Annalyse (sorry if I spelled that wrong) for taking time out of their lives to come give my Grandma (and everyone else they go to) communion. There are still good people in the world and Dr. Allen and Annalyse reminded me of that this afternoon. 

Dad has started having headaches and has been sleeping a lot. Mom took him back to the doctor and they think he is having some post concussion symptoms. Hopefully, the medicine will help and getting some more rest can't hurt either.

For some new farm news...it's been raining so much it's hard to get anything done in the fields. There is more to drill and triticale to bale and wrap,  crops to spray and much much more, but we can't get in the fields due to it being too muddy. A lot of farmers are going stir crazy right now. It's hard not to be able to get their work done and knowing they can't do anything about it. When it dries out, they will all hit the ground running and won't stop until they are done. I hope for safety for everyone when that time comes and nobody is getting enough sleep. Matt has been doing a lot of work in the shop getting all the equipment ready and checking cows.

WIth so much water and mud everywhere it's easy to get stuck. This happened to be my sister Kayla that did it. Mostly because I never have time to take a picture of me when I get stuck. So I'll put hers in my blog for the world to see. 

I love storm pictures. Here's a few of my favorites.

Beautiful blue clear skies in front of me...intense storm coming fast from behind. I was trying to capture that with the mirror of the pickup. 

Good thing we've got patient horses. After working cattle and unsaddling the horses, Matt hopped up flat footed from the ground to make Red carry him over to their pen, rather than Matt leading him over there. It was like Matt had been the one doing all the work getting the cattle in rather than the horse. 

So we believe in rotational grazing. It's great for the grass to get the rest in between grazings. We also believe that it's incredibly important for the cattle to have mineral. So that means when we move the cattle, the mineral feeders have to be moved as well. Matt is strong enough to lift them up into the back of the Gator. I, however, am not. So I have to be creative about how to do it. I use a strap down to wrap around the feeder and pull it with the gator, no lifting involved! It makes me happy because I don't have to lift anything, Matt's happy because he doesn't have to come do it.  

This past weekend was our 5th annual Jackson Heights FFA Alumni Tractor Drive. Yes, you read that correctly tractor drive. People bring their tractors and drive roughly a 30 mile route all in a line like a parade. Why farmers that spend a lot of time driving tractors want to come drive their tractor which means their diesel and tires and wear on the tractor and pay an additional fee for the opportunity to drive is beyond me. Other than they want to support the local students. It was a huge success with 38 tractors! That's really exciting for us! 

This is my dad outside his tractor ready to head off for the drive. 

This is Garett, my brother-in-law, in his tractor in the drive. 

And my Uncle Lester in his Gator. 

 I hope you have a great week and maybe it will clear enough to get some field work done sometime. Have a great week!