River Floating

On Friday, I went to go and mow at the rental house.  Did I mention I REALLY miss the boys?  Also, I am terrible at starting lawn mowers.  I may or may not have had to google: “How do you start a lawn mower?”  The only way I could start it was to have it on “choke” and then I had to put the handle down on the ground, step on it with my foot, and pull up really hard on the string.  And I ran it on choke the whole entire time.  And, no, I do not know what choke means.

And then I had an inner struggle.  I was hot and sweaty and tired.  I wanted to just put the grass clippings in the trash at the rental, but then I thought about my husband and how much he would appreciate me bringing the dang grass clippings home for our herd, so I did, because I am amazing.

David and his cracked rib came and gratefully unloaded the grass clippings for me and dumped them into the cow pen.  The horses are the world’s biggest bullies and they wouldn’t let my cow friends have any.

Any time the cows would lower their heads, the horses would attack.

Then, David and his cracked rib, and Hadley went to go and pick up a load of hay from the field.  And when they returned, David and his cracked rib, Hadley, and the boys, unloaded the hay into the hay barn.

And I would like to announce that we are done with the small bales of hay.

On Saturday, we woke up and had a few things to do around the house before we were going to join my parents up at our river property.

David:  It is going to be great leaving the trailer up at the property.  We won’t ever take the truck and we will save on gas.

Also David: Ok, I got the truck and goose neck ready to go.

Fun Fact:  He calls it the goose neck, for reasons that are unbeknownst to me, but I call it Big Tex, because I feel that adds a bit more pizzazz.  Also, it is labeled as such.

We were completely loaded and ready to go and LD ran into the house to get something, looked out the window, and informed us that a cow was out.

So, David and his cracked rib, HD, and I go and try to assess the situation.  The cow that is out is Elusive without a Tag.  Please remember that she wishes death upon all humans at all times.  Anyways, we had a plan to guide her down the fence line.  I had opened the gate and everyone was standing strategically placed to help guide her back safely into the pen.

Elusive without a Tag decided to break through the fence right next to the open gate.

So, David and his cracked rib had to go and repair the fence.  I decided to go back into the house and work on Mount Laundry.  I tried to coax our dog, Abbie, out of the truck, but she would not budge.

Here is a list of everything Abbie loves:

1.  David
2. Going anywhere with David
3. Going to the river property with David
4. Going in David’s truck
5. David

David was able to repair the fence and we went and met up with my parents.  We decided to go on a river float.  We have floated a lot this year.  River floating is a top notch plan, in my opinion.

Hadley agrees.

It was a gorgeous weekend.  Plus, we live in the most beautiful area in the continental U.S.

Here is L.D. and his kayak.  The boys bought kayaks last year with their own money.  They love them and they love floating down the river with fishing poles.  They don’t catch anything, but it is still super cool.

I took a selfie of myself!

This was right before we saw THE CALVES.

There are people out there living on my dream property.  They have river property AND cows.  So as we were floating down the river, we floated by these two calves:

The one of the left was a bull Charolais and the one on the right was a heifer angus.

Can we stop for a moment and admire how much I sound like I know what I am talking about?

Me:  Ok, David.  I changed my mind.  Remember how I said I wanted a Charolais heifer bottle calf and I would name her Opal and I would keep her forever and ever but then Matilda’s calf died and I said never mind because my heart was broken?

David:  Yup.

Me:  I do want a Charolais heifer bottle calf.  And I want to name her Opal.

David:  Sounds good.

And are not those calves living their best life, I ask you?  Just chilling by the river bank without a care in the world.

We finished our float.  Hadley spent some time snuggling her cute puppy, Charlie.

HD got right to work on mowing.  He decided to try to pretend he was going to run into me, hence the smile:

As soon as he saw me take a pic, he went into DavidNoSmile mode.

LD and David took turns with the bulldozer.  They are trying to make us a beach!

That’s LD in the dozer.

The next morning, my parents had to leave early, but David and I took the kids on a kayak float.  And here is a picture of my view:

I mean.  Come on.  Gorgeous.

We came home.  I checked on the cows.  No one has had a new calf.  We bought Miss America at an auction around April 10th.  She was vet checked and we were told she was 8 months pregnant.  Cow pregnancies last about 9 months.

I snapped this photo of her coming down the way to get a tasty sip of water.  In my head, I sang:

Here she is . . .

Miss America.

Because I am clever and fun.

These are the cows that have not birthed.  Pray for them to birth or David might sell them as hamburger.

Gasp.

Babs, Hildy, Maisy, and Miss America.

David is hurting, I can tell, but he won’t speak of it.  I am worried about him, but he refuses to seek help.  Hopefully he will feel better soon.

Alright.  Toodle-oo.