EXHAUSTED

One word describes how I have been lately....EXHAUSTED!!!

We are trying to get the crops in right now which has been mentally and physically exhausting. We get a few good days of planting and then a few days of rain. Between loading the seed tender, helping to load the planter with seed and liquid fertilizer, running equipment back and forth to the fields, running after chemicals etc., I am trying to take care of the livestock. We are almost done with the calving, which will be a relief this year with all the mud and rain we have had!!!!

Jeremy, Courtney and I have been trying to get the pastures fenced and ready to move cows to. I even hired a few of the kids' friends to come help with that project. With all the snow we had this winter, we have lots of fences down and lots of repairs that needed to be done. Chad has helped on the rainy days when he is not able to be in the field. We have got most of the pastures ready, one more to work on and will start moving cows out tomorrow.

Our pigs are butcher size right now so we have been taking loads of them out as well and getting the hog barns ready to be washed. Jeremy has spent several days washing the barns this week and will wash the last one this coming week as we empty the last barn out at 5am tomorrow.

The garden is not planted yet, am hoping to maybe get that in this week sometime.

And....the house....um yeah, is a disaster right now, but that is the least of my worries.

Spring Work

We are finally in the field and getting some of the crops in!

Please pray for some much needed sunshine! It has been a trying spring with all the moisture and mud and now the rain that keeps coming.

So far I have pulled Chad out 5 times this spring.
I have not had to pull him out in the field yet but where the silage and hay piles were that he fed from all winter and spring....he keeps trying to dig it to dry it out but just keeps getting stuck.
I just hope #5 was the last time for the year and that Mr. Sunshine comes out and dries everything out.

Calving

The cows started calving a few weeks ago.

It has been a really tiring and trying calving season so far!

I am really getting tired of fighting the mud....and my body is feeling the impact of all this mud! Once the cows calve in the lot we have them in, we move the cow/calf onto grass in the pasture (which means having to handle every calf that is born).

Here we are moving a pair to the pasture.

Chad built a calf carrier for the back of the 4-wheeler.
Here is one of the calves on the carrier.





Chad has been stuck 3 times already this year....and I got stuck once.

MUD, MUD....everywhere!

We have about 85 calves so far....almost half done....YEAH!

Flooding

We have had some flooding in our area with all the snow that we have had this winter finally melting.

The creek runs right behind our barn.

We usually drive through the creek to get the the cows to feed them but cannot get the tractors through because of the flooding. So....we are driving the tractors to the half mile line and around. Takes quite a bit more time and requires both of us so it has been an interesting few days for this frazzled farm wife!

The road South of our house we drive on to get to the cows.

The water (and ice) rushing to the culverts under the road south of us.

We are hoping for some nice sunny days to dry some of this "mess" up!

Road Trip

We took a road trip this last weekend to the western part of the state.

We started out in Deadwood and spent the night there Thursday night. Hubby has always wanted to play blackjack at the tables but has never felt comfortable enough. There were so very few people there on Friday morning that we both tried for the first time. Our son was playing too.....he was giving us pointers (does anyone else find that weird?). I enjoyed a few very good bloody mary's while playing black jack that morning! Ahhh...gotta love a mini vacation.

We headed to my moms just outside of Rapid City late Friday afternoon. We enjoyed the evening with her, my stepdad and my brother and future sister-in-law. My hubby talked mom into letting him paint her entryway, hallway and bathroom that she wanted painted so Saturday morning we all headed to Lowes to pick out paint. My mom and Stephanie (Jeremy's girlfriend) and I did a little shopping while Chad headed back to the house to paint. Chad finished up painting the second coat on Sunday and we headed back home.

Was nice to get away before it gets busy here with calving and spring planting!

Spring Break

My college kids are on Spring Break!

Jeremy went to the Black Hills last weekend with some buddies of his but decided

to come help us the rest of the week.

Courtney has been home since the weekend but had to work all weekend and

one day this week (she works at the local Cenex).

They have both been so busy with college and friends that we haven't seen much of them lately so I am happy to have them both home!

We are hoping to get some fun family time in this week!

SNOW!

In one word....SNOW....that is what our last few months have pretty much consisted of!

We have been busy blowing snow, shoveling snow, pushing snow and now...praying for NO MORE SNOW this year. We have survived it pretty well so far with only a few sore muscles, but looking forward to what the spring is going to bring is a little scary. We had some major flooding in the area last year and it looks like it's going to be a repeat, only worse.

So....here's a toast to NO MORE SNOW