August 5, 2014

June-July: A Continued List

So, after the fair, we all went home and crashed for a few days. I did, anyway. The farmer never crashes. He drinks 72 cups of coffee a day.

And my daughter has a Red Bull drip somewhere on her person. I’ve yet to find it, but I’m certain it’s there.

3.Once I got over the morning/all day sickness, I started taking a few photos for people this summer, which has been fun.

My cousin and her family

My nephew

My baby brother

That moment right before the wailing begins. Pitifully precious.

4. I’ve been going to doctor’s appointments monthly for pregnancy checkups. Here’s the first belly bump selfie I took at 17 1/2 weeks.

5. My mom met up with Taegan and I in the city one day for lunch. I took them with me to my doctor’s appointment, but first I got this picture that I absolutely treasure.

I didn’t realize until this picture how much Taegan looks like her grandmother!

6. We took a little trip down to the creek and packed a picnic. This was Taegan’s treat for learning her Bible verse and 5 sight words. It was Luke 6:31. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” I got this told to me just last Sunday when I refused to carry her purse at the restaurant we had lunch at.

She loved it.

A better playmate than Daddy can’t be found.

And then Banjo comes in at a close second. We learned that day that Banjo finds skipping rocks very upsetting. Every time the farmer tossed one, he would race down the shore barking and whining. When he got to the water, he would attempt to “rescue” the rock by diving under the water. This is when he realized that there are a multitude of rocks at the bottom of a creek and attempted to bring them all to the surface all the while barking and whining because this was just an impossible task.

A tranquilizer would not have been out of the question.

There are times when his intelligence is very impressive, but then there’s the rest of the time…

Another picture I treasure.

7. On the Fourth of July, we had a family reunion at my aunt’s place. My grandma is one of six children and those six children and their descendants were who comprised this reunion. I had the task of coming up with shirts for the kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids of my grandma. Her name is Betty.

So, naturally…

This was Taegan’s shirt.

That’s pronounced JEE-Jee-ma and that’s what the great grandkids call her. It’s a lot shorter than great-grandma and it just fits her.

Here’s almost everyone (and their spouses) that make up Grandma Betty’s line. My shirt said “Granddaughter 05” because I’m the fifth person that came out of these genetics. The farmer’s shirt read “Married To 05” on the back.

Grandma and her remaining siblings. They lost a beloved sister some years back.

We ate, played games, sang out of the church song books.

This family doesn’t get together and not sing. We’re all singers and singing must be done. If you don’t sing, everyone stares at you like, “Why aren’t you singing??” We’ve all been doing this since we were kids.

My aunt compiled songs that my grandpa wrote along with songs written by grandma’s sister. All the songs were published in church song books over the years, so we each got a little booklet full. They couldn’t be there with us in person, but they were definitely there in song.

While we were sitting there, someone asked Aaron to start telling stories. Aaron’s quite the storyteller and his go-to’s are always the ones about running off one of my great-aunt Sandy’s boyfriends. When Sandy was dating this guy, her nephews were in all in the 16-18 age range, I believe. They set out to run this guy off and totally got it accomplished.

They were just awful to him.

You can tell she’s really torn up about it.

My dad was one of those nephews. Look at him. It was fun watching them all relive it.

Dad and Justin (the oldest of my brothers)

I never get tired of those stories. And Aunt Sandy has no regrets. I would try to tell them, but I could never do them justice. Aaron holds a captive audience by telling and acting them out.

Later that evening, we did some fireworks and everyone said their goodbyes hoping it wouldn’t be so long before we saw each other again. My husband only just met some of my family in July and we’ve been married 10 years.

That’s all I’m going to be able to do for now.

More to come.

Still to be continued,

Breauna

Posted in Banjo, Family, Life on the Farm, Photography
Tagged baby photos, baby portraits, family photography, family portraits, family reunion
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July 30, 2014

June-July: A List

Whew! This summer has been crazier than any other summer I think I’ve experienced. And by crazier, I mean BUSY. And by busy I mean, my poor little blog takes the back burner more than I would like.

Today, I’m going to attempt to squeeze June-July into one post.

1. I’ve been working 2 days a week at the law firm I work for in the city. I love the job, but I do not love the 2.5-3 hours I spend on the road getting there and back. And see, my right foot is kind of on the heavy side and I’m all about efficiency, so I’m waiting for the day when I become both an employee and a client.

2. After returning from Orange Beach, we had the Tri-County Fair to go to. This is Taegan leading her calf, Triumph, into the barn.

She’s looking less and less like a toddler every day, which means I catch myself just staring at her while wave after nostalgic wave rolls through me all the while trying to picture who she’ll be when she grows up…

WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

She had a great time and made new friends. Some human, some bovine.

Naturally, she and Triumph won first place.

(Little secret: It helps when you have absolutely no competition. Zero.)

A blue ribbon, a new lead rope, and a good friend.

Because of Triumph’s star status and her new position as playmate, she gets the privilege of just running free in our yard. I look out the window and there’s Triumph just walking around, picking grass, looking in windows, chasing Banjo, or being led around by Taegan. (She still gets “showed” on a daily basis). Basically, Triumph is now a pet.

She sometimes gets tired of being led around and runs into the brush and weeds. This occurred a few weeks back. Never fear, though. I’m definitely not raising a dummy.

Who does one call when a cow won’t come out of the brush and weeds?

That’s right…Banjo.

I stepped out on the deck and witnessed this: Triumph had made it impossible for Taegan to get to her, so I heard Taegan yell, “Banjo!”

Dun-Dun-DAAAHHH! He really does need a cape.

He runs to her and looks at her like, “What ya want me to do?” She says, “Go get it!” Trust me, you don’t have to tell him twice. He lives for this. He bounds off barking and carrying on, gets behind the calf, and drives her straight to Taegan.

I was totally enthralled. The intelligence of both my daughter and her dog…I couldn’t do anything but laugh and then go call her dad.

Triumph doesn’t run into the brush anymore. And Taegan really doesn’t need a lead strap for Triumph to follow her around now. She just does it.

And Banjo gets to lay in the shade and enjoy some reprieve.

For now.

(Note about Banjo: I mentioned that we were sending him to get trained a few posts back. Weeeeellll, it didn’t go so well. See, we wanted him to learn how to herd. Like, go get the cows and bring them all to the barn for us. Long story short, he got kicked out of herding school. You should have witnessed my husband. The disappointment. The anguish. The embarrassment. Blue Heelers are what the trainer called “drivers.” Border Collie’s are “herders.”She told us up-front that she didn’t know if he would do it, but she’d give it a try. Yeah…no. But you know what? He’s still very useful around here. As a playmate, as entertainment, as a guard dog, and as a helper. Taegan obviously knows what he’s good at and when the farmer is out rounding up the girls to go the barn and he has one that just doesn’t care about going, all he has to say is, “Where’s Banjo?” and she’ll start moving right along. She doesn’t think we really need to go to extremes, now, do we? They’d rather him not be around.)

Getting a picture of all of our kids even looking at the camera is impossible, but they all really enjoy this time of year. It’s a lot of work getting these calves ready and they (and their parents) put a lot of time into preparing. My sister-in-law, Tanna, was the one that really worked hard with Taegan and her kids and we’re glad because Taegan probably wouldn’t show at all if it wasn’t for her. Thank you, Tanna!

There’s a lot more over the last couple of months to tell you about, but I’ve got to take Taegan to swim lessons, so I’ll just have to write more throughout the following days. Stay tuned.

To be continued…

Breauna

Posted in Animals, Banjo, Dairy Farming, Family, Life on the Farm, Peanut
Tagged Australian Cattle Dogs, Banjo, Blue Heeler, cattle dog, country kids, country life, dairy cattle, dairy farm, dairy farming, life in the country, Tri County Fair
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March 5, 2014

Snow Day

Yesterday was another–yet again–snow day and when there is snow, Peanut must play in it.

And when Peanut must play in it, Daddy must play in it, too.

She wanted to make a snowman and as any fun-loving, indulgent father would do, he agreed to it.

See, she has more of a supervisory role.

Observing while the farmer does the laborious part.

She might move to the other side, once in a while.

“Now, Peanut, you must punch the snowball.”

He didn’t really say that; I was just narrating.

Official carrot holder. Somebody’s gotta do it!

I hear it pays really well.

Then, Banjo arrived. He’s kind of a party crasher.

This dog is so weird. Army crawling is his favorite mode of transportation. “Pft-puth-puh! Note to thelf: Don’t uthe your nothe ath a thnow plow…” (He has kind of a low, rather unintelligent voice if you’re trying to hear this in your mind. You’re welcome.)

“I don’t know what that orange thing in her hand ith…but…I want it.”

“Thtealth mode… keep your eye on the target.”

“Doh! I’ve been made! I am up to abthoulutely nuffin.'”

“Thtick your nothe in the thnow…that alwayth confutheth ’em.”

“Then roll around…act like you’re just a dog…playin’ in the thnow.”

“Yawn…look natural.”

Meanwhile, the farmer is putting the finishing touches on the snowman.

All done!

Just your friendly, neighborhood Select Sires snowman. Out here in the cold. Advocating artificial insemination and exemplary genetics.

After that, being the adoring father that he is, the farmer threw a snowball at Peanut. However, Banjo saw this as an opportunity to play, as well. He kind of stole the show, in fact.