Wild Flowers and prickly pears

The wild flowers are in full force! This spring I have discovered an obsession/ passion for flowers. I have been reading book after book on any flower you can imagine! Every Thursday when I get off work at 2 I had to the flea market and buy new flowers. I try to just get a little each time. I after mannnyyyy trips, I have finally run out of flower beds and pots! Now what? Make more beds! :) oh I also have bought 2 new 15 gallon crepe mertyls!
The prickly pear cactus are also in full bloom!! It amazes my mind that such an ugly painful and annoying plant can make such a pretty flower and so many of them! This year I may try to make a prickly pear jam!





Did you know there is a wild flower perennial version of verbenas? Yup this is it!






The plant this grows on is so ugly, but such a neat flower!






Now these are everyyyyy where!! But the bad storms earlier this week broke away a lot of the petals :(







An orangey pink yellow prickly pear flower




















Kel- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:County Road 223,Stephenville,United States

calving season=working season

we had our first weekend full working calves and pulling off old dry heifers of 2011 last weekend. as usual, it was very exciting and entertaining. i get really excited when we get to do this, because im usually the only girl that goes and the boys are so fun to watch to flank those calves. this time, i was the one to give the vaccines with the vaccination gun, and yes i said gun ;) it has a nice big fat needle on the end. wellll, grant had flanked a calf and was holding it down and i went to give it it's shot and apparently went in too fast and grant didnt have time to move his hand.....so yes  it happened... i stuck the needle through grants finger!!!! OOPS!! he was fine dont worry! but it bled so much u woulda though ti cut off his finger lol!as usual, there were a few kicks and run overs by the calves and many many bouts of laughter. grant, me, wade, and john were horse back to gather the cows 1st, so thats always an interesting task haha!  this 1st rounf of working calves turned out great and i cant wait for the next one!!

i call her cookie(for cookies and cream)

grant countin calves

baby tip, i named him tip because he has white only just on the tip of this tail

wade

crossin the road to the other calves

the boys had to build a pin on this side of the road, we had cows on both sides of the road

we ear mark them once they've been vaccinated and cut, so the next time we work calves we know which ones we have already done

this poor cows eye...

i seeeee youuuuu lol

poor tiny

well, as we all know, another snow shower has come. last night as grant and i were peacefully asleep, i woke up about 230am hearing the dogs bark. they do this sometimes if they see a skunk or coyote or a cow. so i fell back asleep. i woke up again at about 3 hearing one of them howling and whining. they never make these sounds, they only bark, so i thought hm thats weird, but then thought oh , maybe their just cold, we will put them in the barn in the morning. 330 comes and it is stillll going on. so i finally make my self get up at 3:45 and go to the back porch window and look out. (where is grant you? aaaasleep! very hard sleeper that boy!)  the kennals are too far out that my flashlight wouldnt reach that far to see what was going on, but i could hear the tin roof on their kennals was flopping around loose. this happened last week when it was superrrrr windy as well. so i go to grant and say hey baby, i think one of your dogs is out, the roof is loose and one is howling, i think something is wrong. he was noooot very excited but got out of bed, put on all his winter gear and went outside. i of course went back to bed, had to keep it warm ya know ;) so finally at about 4:15 grant comes back inside and said yup, tiny was out, you were right, he jumped out the top, and hung his leg up. i responded quickly with an oh nooooo i should have got up earlier is he ok?! grant ended up putting them in the barn in a stall with saddle blankets and heat lamps. thats the most lush living they've ever had! lol. thye better not get used to it! summer will be here soon enough! anyways, we didnt take tiny to the vet, we just doctor it ourselves. it will heal sooner than later and it will just be added onto his list of scars on his legs! he has many! 

animals in the snow

well, all my life i have gotten so excited for a snow day or 2. these snow/ice days have been extrememly different than the ones in previous years! in snow days before, i lived at mom and dads. we would sleep in and relax by the fireplace and lay on the couch and browse the internet and such. go outside and build a snowman and of course take some snow pics. well......this year, not so much the same. monday night we ran out of propane(that runs our heater for you city folk) and so, we woke up tuesday to 3,000 acres covered in snow and ice, and no heat in the house. the thermostat said it was 29 degrees in our house! BRR! the gas company was supposed to come monday but they never did, therefor leaving us freezing cold on this "SNOW DAY!" that everyone was so excited about. then, to top it off, our small amount of firewood we had cut to get us through the morning was frozen into one block! GR! well u say, why dont u go cut more? the chainsaw was broken at the time!!! so i( kelli) spent tuesday until late afternoon, sitting on the floor infront of my little space heater. i was in such a baking mood, but there was no way i was going into that big freezing kitchen. we got gas that evening and cranked the heater. tuesday we woke to all animal water troughs frozen solid. usually its just the top layer and u can break it and they have water. nope. not this time. we had to get a propane tank and a torch. after about an hour and a half of torching the pipes, still no water. so we had to get the water hose out of the yard, put it in the bathtub with hot water for about 30 minutes. then grant torched on of the house focets and we hooked it up to that and filled about 30 buckets of water for the cows. sooooo i spent allllll day tuesday outdoors with my husband trying to get water to 300 head of cattle. what a job.

the driveway

the unusable fire wood!

seb and a heifer running at each other, hes very brave to be so small!

poor granty's hands were frozen

thirsty cows finally get some water

cold little babies in their 1st snow

 

seb and maybell cuddling, have u ever seen a dog and goat cuddle? hehe



scruffy

well, my sweet kelpie colly :) scruff is getting so big these days!

poor guy, his first time workin calves and he got trampled

this is how big he is at this moment! what a silly face :))

when he was just a couple weeks old

what would life be with out animals?!

Joss

oh jossi, what a cutie you are. Joss is my 3 year old neice and she is a piece of work that girl! she is hillarrrious. she alwaysssss has the funniest most unexpected response to everything, it just cracks me up. One time, keri jo asked joss where she got her good looks from and she said grant. lol we were all like ummm ok hahaha. she also had to have one of her front teeth pulled cuz she hit it and it died, and when she woke up from the surg she was crying- not from the pain-but b/c she missed her tooth. now maybe its just cuz im a dental assistant( and her aunt) but how darn cute is that!? when riley was a baby he couldnt say kelli so he called me lolly, so that is was joss calls me. but now that she is older and "cool" ya know, she calls me loll. its so cute. it makes my heart melt everytime she says it. now, all of you that know me, know that i am nooooot a cuddley person, and joss isnt really either, but sometimesssss if its late enough she'll cuddle in my lap and i just love it. its so heart warming. i neverrrr wanted kids but now that i see joss and how much fun and joy she brings to my life, i kinda want one of my own (and yes ker, i know i see only the fun parts)   ;) who woulda thunk it lol. joss is also a dramaaaaa queen that girl! it is hillarious to watch. sometimes heart breaking, but ker will always be like its ok kel, shes faking it, lol. i always think dang, im a sucker! oh yeah, one time i called her to talk to her,they now live in colorado, and she started crying b/c she wanted to talk to grant not me! it was actually really funny, i told grant its only cuz his sexy accent! anyways.... heres to my little piece  of heaven joss. i love you and miss you!!

our house

oh boy where to start about our house!  the house we live in was empty for 4 years before we moved in. i say empty- only meaning no people living there. the house was filllllllled with so much stuff you couldnt even see the floors. it was rather scary! sooo, beverly and DL ( people who grant works for, reallyyy great people-we love them) rented a huuuuuge dumpster and  them and grant cleaned it out before the wedding!! grant moved in the house in march so i had a little time to semi decorate before i moved in :) it is a 5 bedroom house, but 2 are used for "storage" lol. we've also got a new tin roof since we've moved in as well! we have emptied and cleaned out the hay shed and horse barn and now they are in shape and usable! Here are some before and after pictures! keep in mind we still have lots to do!! it still needs lots of TLC :)

our driveway-no longer has these massive dead oaks

mom and dad helped me paint, couldntve done it w/out them

before the cleaning project started

grant had the flower bed cleaned out and ready for my flowers when i got there one weekend:)

our new tin roof!