Sunday, March 7, 2010

Oh, the Lovely Color of Green

Lovely, lovely green. Our pastures are the first thing that we notice in the spring. Several in the family commented on them today. Bruce put the llamas out on them temporarily, because the dry pasture was a mucky, muddy mess. I love seeing the llamas graze on pasture.

The other farm news is that we traded Gussie for Millie. My Mom's gonna be sad about that because she thought Gussie was so cute, and she actually named her. I'll miss Gussie too (as much as I miss animals, which is actually not very much). Gussie was a black/red angus mix. We traded her to someone on craigslist who had a seven-month old jersey heifer. This is a really good trade for us, because we've been wanting another jersey cow for milking. We still have Buttercup, but we need another one to trade off with when they dry up and calve. I named her Millie, and the name stuck.

Bruce also bought two new calves that he named Toodles and Toodleloo. Toodles
Toodleloo
We are bottle-feeding them right now. He bought them for $25 each, and in a few months, we'll be able to sell them for about $200 each. Since we get the milk from Buttercup, it's no cost to us, except for the time it takes to milk her (which we do anyway) and the time it takes to feed the calves (10 min max) . When we spread it out between 8 of us, it's not so bad.
Libby got put on the milking schedule for the first time. She now has a turn with Joseph and me.
She also gets to feed Toodles and Toodleloo.Mary had a choir concert, and she did a great job. See if you can pick her out in this crowd of brightly colored 7th graders!
Bruce and Peter had to round up our horses for Libby's birthday party. This is a great shot of father and son on the horses. Peter is getting really good at riding. He is the one that most asks to ride out of all the kids.Libby turned eight years old in March!We had a fun birthday party for her. The night before she asked me if I would wake her up right when she was born, which was 2:00 am. I said no. Even then, at 6:00 am when we sang Las Mananitas to her, she was wide awake. Happy Birthday Libby!

Josh was in the first musical that Middleton High School has ever done. He was the evil dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. If you don't recognize him from this picture, join the crowd. Even close friends here didn't know who he was at the beginning of the play! Josh said they kept telling him, "You've got to be more mean!" He had to be cruel to one of the female characters. Afterward, he told me that he didn't like how that felt, and didn't want to ever do that again (not the acting - but the being cruel to a female part).

One evening in March we went over to our friends' work, which is a warehouse where they package nutritional supplements, and played hiding go seek. This is Joseph and Jesse hanging out with one of their best friends, Erica.This is Libby and Elysia.It was fun because Craig came to stay with us for two nights. He came to the warehouse with us, and got the nickname of "Mountain Man".

Jesse posted this on her Facebook profile.She spends every spare second with this piano.

For Spring Break, we went to Island Park to a condo. Bruce had to stay home and work, which was a bummer, but the rest of us went for five days. We had a most relaxing time, not being hurried by anything. On our way home, we went by Hebegon Lake, which was totally frozen over. The kids got these pictures:
On March 27th, Libby got baptized!She chose Joseph to perform the ordinance. She was SO excited for her baptism. She counted the weeks and days down, and absolutely loved the whole occasion. I was asked to give the prayer at the baptism, and as I sat on the stand and looked down at Joseph and Libby sitting on the front row dressed in white, it was one of the moments of pure joy in life that make all the others worth it. Grandma and Grandpa from Idaho came,as well as Grandma and Grandpa from Colorado, as well as Bruce's brothers - Gary and Stephen, and families. Thank you to everyone who attended!

Peter came in 4th on the Pinewood Derby. He had the green car below. (That is John Deere green, by the way).Mary had a Beehive activity where they carved ice cream. She has wonderful Beehive leaders.
Coming soon: Pictures of Josh's prom date!