Big Day for a Little School

A field trip for Cohagen Elementary, where Maggie attends kindergarten, consists of loading all the students in the school on the little bitty yellow bus, with two parents, a teacher and a preschooler and driving 70 miles to town.  We have 9 students, counting the kindergarteners, in the school.  Yes.  That's 9 students TOTAL.

(And we're proud to be one of the bigger country schools in the county!)

First stop was the library! They've completely re-done the children's section and it's in an atrium sort of area and has a humongous mural painted on one wall, which you see here. 

I think it looks like the Cat in the Hat is reading these three a story, but really they are just gazing at the intricacy of the mural. 

Maggie is reading her friend a story.  Truth be told, they were both reading out loud to each other at the same time and not listening one whit to the other.  But they were both pleased to be narrating and I guess that's the whole point.

Celestia (aka Mrs. C.) admiring their book choices. Shortly thereafter, they all heard a story or two and commenced to tour the library. (I missed the tour. Celestia sent Traci and I for coffee. I couldn't tell whether she was giving us a break, or the kids. Either way, it was appreciated!)

 

The library tarantula....Maggie wants one. I vote NO!

From the library, we went on to the Miles City Fire and Rescue Department.  Ooooo! So exciting!

I'm sorry to say we all pretty much failed the pop-quiz, right at the beginning, but we left the building 50 minutes later with WAY more of a clue.  (Turns out, we've been doing Stop-Drop-And-Roll all wrong! Cover the face, folks...)

Maps in the control room....

Answering questions by the light of the firetruck.  Everyone had the opportunity to climb in and look around. Thank goodness they didn't push any buttons or pull any levers!

In the ambulance, the fireman asked if anyone wanted to see their heart monitored on the de-fib machine. Anyone?

"I will!"

Maggie's the littlest one in school, but she was the most excited to experience every little thing.

(Upon reflection, later, I thought that perhaps she was the only one who didn't think the whole thing through and that some caution would be good in a child...)

Ouch! It hurts to pull the stickers off your "bellybutton"...that's where she said they were attached. 

We have the little tape of her heart beat and it's beautifully even; not the least bit nervous.

This is actually the firehat of one of Wayland's friends that he does Search and Rescue with.

It was heavier than she thought!

Down the pole!

She was first in line for that experience, too. 

And then we had pizza at the Airport Inn.

Three cheese pizzas, one taco pizza and one combination....only 3 pieces left over.

It was a great day!

(And no one threw up on the bus...whew.)

Big helps

The best part about growing up on a ranch is how much time kids actually get to spend with their family, at work.  And as the kids get older, they are essential in the operation of the ranch....but it all starts when they are very little.  They watch their parents and grandparents at work and see the rhythm of the seasons and the cycle of the farm. By the time they get big enough to really help, they already know what needs done.

My kids are VERY fortunate, because their dad and grandpa are so patient and willing to take them along. The pictures that follow are from last Monday. Maggie was heartbroken when she'd found out the first calf was born and she hadn't seen it, so when another cow calved, her daddy called me and we went to visit the new baby.

Going with Daddy to have a look....

There he is!

I love this picture, with the shadow of the mama.  She was a little worried about us coming to visit her baby.

Sweet baby! She's a good mama, and right after I took this picture, stepped between her calf and us and that was the end of the photo session.

Checking on a heifer that's in the process of calving.  She was trying to calve on that big manure and dirt pile!

They ended up getting her in and pulling the calf, because he had a front leg back.

Loading cake for the next day's feeding. Isn't that slick? My dad used to shovel cake onto a conveyer that dropped it in the feeder.  It was HARD work. When I was in my early 20's I lived at the ranch for a while and tried to help Dad by shovelling cake for him.  I couldn't ever get big enough shovel loads and so had to add a few to compensate.  It was good exercise, but if you had a bad back it would be excrutiating.

PopPops took us to the house for a little cookie break, after looking at the calf and checking the heifers. That's the good thing about grampas....they are ALWAYS ready to take a cookie break.

This picture has the combine in the background and I like the generations with the setting.  Our countryside is so incredibly dismal this time of year! Any sort of color is embraced; green farm equipment, red stocking caps.

Finally, I have a question for you.  Have any of you ever seen a bird like this? It was perched out on the swingset that afternoon and we have no idea what in the world it might be! Size-wise, it was about the size of my hand...bigger than a sparrow, although it has that sort of look.

Straight Up at Traci's

For those faithful readers who follow along with my reading group....Bookclub report!

Traci chose the book, Straight Up by Lisa Samson for the February read/March meal.  In the middle of the book, somewhere, one of the characters starts going to a little Southern restaurant and eating glorious food. There were other parts to the book, too, like alcoholism, misspent lives, redemption, re-connection, and all that stuff that we had to talk about, but the real focal point for some of us, was the food! (I know. You find that hard to believe, since we are all such deep, philosophical people and generally disdain anything that detracts from the dissection of the story....)

So here's our menu:
Southern fried chicken (recipe by Paula Deen....yes, it was glorious)
Mashed potatos and gravy from the little crunchy bits left in the bottom of the frying pan.
Green beans
Biscuits
Apple-sweet potato bake that's hard to describe...sort of like an apple pie without the crust.
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Moscato wine
Peach cobbler with ice cream
Kafe Utza coffee and cream
Pepsi (it was in the story, too)
No appetizers because that bookclub member was absent, but we managed to make it to the main meal without fainting....but barely. 

At one point around the table (after we had eaten all we possibly could) there were 4 conversations going, loudly, to where I could hardly hear the person I was trying to talk to....it was glorious! We're all so happy to see one another and we have a lot of life to catch up on: What are the baby's milestones? Are you done calving your heifers? Can I get this recipe? How's the new house coming? Where's Thelma tonight? Would you please pass that fried chicken back this way? And the cobbler?

The actual discussion of the story was lively and interesting, with points and insights that I had completely missed, having been so focused on the Southern cooking.  We almost always go away from bookclub thinking a little differently about some things and I usually end up revisiting the book, thinking "HOW did she get THAT parallel? I thought he was just the eccentric uncle, not the foil for her percieved helplessness. What's a foil?" (I know what a foil is.  But you get the idea.)

I'm not sure but what we'd still be sitting there around the table, candles burned down to big blue puddles, if Scott and crew hadn't shown back up.  No one was inclined to move.  No one COULD move. 

Next bookclub selection is Anne's and we are reading The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, by Susan
Orlean.

*I did take pictures, and will add them to the post this evening.  Today is Maggie's first field trip, and I'm chaperoning, so instead of posting pics this morning, I'll be showering.  Yeah, I thought it was a good idea, too.   

True Confession #369

Every attempt I have ever made to dye my own hair has ended in dismal failure.

There was the time a Cohagen Play called for a Norma Desmond type character, an aging actress who was fighting the good fight and losing.  I was 30 and decided to dye my hair auburn for the part.

The box said, "Temporary color! Washes out in 30 washes!"

They lied.

I washed my hair twice a day for 45 days and still had the most magenta hair you've ever seen. It was not a good color for me. Shoot, it wouldn't have been a good color for Dame Edna!

Still.....it could've been a fluke, right?

Wrong.

There was the time Traci and Beth and I were supposed to go to Billings for a girls weekend, but Beth begged out saying her babies were too young and Traci's husband Scott faked a heart attack (another blog post, another time) and she decided she'd better stay home, and I wasn't bright enough to see the great neon signs God put in front of me, so I went ahead for the Girl Weekend.

And it was wretched, because I don't shop. (That's what everyone in Eastern Montana goes to Billings for.)

So, sitting in the motel room alone, after having scrolled through all 219 channels of nothing on, it occurred to me that I had at my disposal, an endless supply of clean towels and a noon checkout the next day.

What to do, what to do?

I'll dye my hair!

(At this point, if you can imagine guardian angels banging their blessed heads against the motel wall, you'd have it right.  I thought it was just noisy neighbors.)

The kit said, "If your hair is THIS color (lightish brownish blonde) then the effects you will achieve will be THIS (lightish brownish blonde with slightly lighter highlights)!"

They lied.

6 bathtowels, 2 hand towels, 3 washcloths and 45 minutes later, my hair was (and I'm NOT kidding you) a rather purplish tone, with orange-ish highlights. It was not a good color for me.

I ended up calling my regular stylist and confessing the whole thing, begging for an appointment as soon as possible. No problem! She had an opening in....9 days.

I'll TAKE it!

(I'm SURE she hung up the phone laughing. I would, if I was her. And it was funny!)

Good thing I live on a ranch, 25 miles from the nearest gathering of 20 or more people.

So.....

I haven't seen my stylist (yes! same one) since November.  And it's to the point of really ugly, where the seam of grey hair is concerned.  So ugly that I bought a box of dye that absolutely guarantees it will cover the grey in such a natural way that not even my mother would be able to tell.  I would just make an appointment, but as you may have noticed, we're in the throes of calving and that's just not going to work.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

I'm too chicken.

Last night, after I got home from Miles, I decided I was too tired.

This morning, I had to bake a pie.

This afternoon, while the kids were napping, I dealt with laundry and packed a care package.

This evening, we had family movie night.

Now that I'm done with the blog post, it will be too late to start a project of this magnitude.

I set the alarm clock for 5:00 a.m.

Stay tuned.....

*******************Die Job (sic)***********************

They lied.

My hair is now a dark, mahogany brown, instead of the gentle, blondish color that was advertised. 

Drats.

And a little tip for those of you who are contemplating a coloring-at-home: It's not Nice and it's not Easy.  If you have any klutzy tendencies, whatsoever, leave it to a professional! You have to mix potions.  You have to apply the potions in a scientific way and time the activation precisely.  You have to be able to put goop on your hair without gooping everything around you! (I cannot.) You have to keep your wadded up, gooped up hair from touching anything else for 20 minutes!  Which means you cannot attend to your offspring's every whim for nearly 3/4's of an hour!

But, on the sunny side, you can't notice the grey anymore!

Now....where DID I put that fedora?

Why I own an SUV....

This is my driveway, in March.

(See all the snow in the tree row, yet to melt?)

It will look like this for at LEAST another week.

Then it will firm up ever so slightly. Inevitably, a big, sloppy, gloppy 8 inch snow will plod in from the West and it will look like that for another 10-20 days.

I'll take the Trailblazer out of 4wheel drive in May, maybe....JUST for the driveway!

Stompie McStomps-a-lot....in his natural habitat.

(We had just been to see the first calf at PopPops. He wore this for the occasion. And I had to talk him into the shirt....)