It's 8 a.m. and the temperature is 41 degrees!!!
Kids and I will be wearing flip-flops and shorts today, because that's what Montana people do when the temperature hits 40+ in the spring. We may even eat ice cream bars this afternoon, to be able to bear the heat better.
We've had a week, folks.
Sunday, the kids and I raced to Billings to swim at the Reef with B.J.'s kids and celebrate two cussin birthdays: Bailey and Hesston are both April Fool's Day babies! It was hot and happily loud, which was perfect because outside the rain was coming down in torrents. We got to see Grammy Karen, Cowboy PopPops, Auntie Cari, cussins, new friends, eat pizza and cake, then drive right home in that rain all the way which turned to snow.
Rain and snow and cold winds kill calves, you know.
So, the next day when the kids went to school, us grownups spent the morning gathering up chilled down babies from the pasture and warming them with the pickup heaters and hot boxes in the shop. We didn't save all of them, sadly, but we saved more than we lost.
Repeat the next day.
Repeat the next day.
Thursday was the Academic Fair in Jordan, which is Garfield County's version of a science fair, except that it's not limited to science projects. For instance, I judged a family history project, a medieval weapons project, a history-of-dance project, a varmint snaring project, a tooth staining project....it was fascinating and fun! (It's only fun for the judges. It's not fun for the teachers, especially those who teach 5 grades in the country schools. Academic Fair has turned more than one country school teacher into a twitching, alcoholic shadow of a person for three days after the event. Even as I type this, some readers are having flashbacks...) Maggie did a project on meteorology and Angus's project was on pinhole photography this year. Maggie got a blue ribbon while Angus merely got a green participation ribbon, simply because ALL the first graders got a green participation ribbon. The newspaper took a picture of him with his project, though, and we're hoping it will appear in next week's edition.
Yesterday, Maggie had the stomach flu, so everything else stopped in this house.
Hoping, hoping no one else gets the bug...
This morning, I woke up to find (via Facebook) that Jamie Jo Baker was crowned Prom Queen last night! COHAGEN QUEEN!!! I think I'll wear my tiara today in empathetic celebration...
Also, my sister-friend Sue and her family said a sad goodbye to their dog Gus yesterday. When I was with them in Massachusetts in 2012, Gus was such a pal and slept on my bed a couple nights...I think he knew I was lonesome for Molly. I loved that funny faced boy! And I know how hard this was for the whole family. Wish we could wrinkle up the states between us so I could hug them and bring them a casserole/cake to help fill up the empty.
And we have one new kitten, here, named Trinket.
WHEW!
Now you're all caught up!
Here are some pictures from the week:
They're pals.
And it cracks me up that they have the same lips...
We're DYING for some baseball!
Our television is broken, so we can't watch it, and all the local college teams have been snowed out the last few weekends.
We don't feed them in an expedient manner, so they're forced to snitch as many loose cake pellets as their long tongues can ease out of the cake feeder.
I've been trying for years to get a picture of a bucking calf!
This little heifer was just full of the beans that morning and just HAD to bounce.
It always looks like a nest of calves.
Coming in to feed...
And that's the end of it.
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