The C & A Daily

This morning we were playing outside....blowing bubbles, chasing balls, chasing cats, cleaning the flower bed, and.......?

The kids got tired of blowing bubbles, so they ran off.  I was working in my flower bed pulling the weeds that have popped up before the actual plants...grrr!  Once I was close to finishing, I noticed Clarence and Adina were yelling "ha, ha, ha...".  I thought nothing of it.  They're fine...just being themselves.  Once I'd finished, I wandered over by the chicken barn.  They were on the outside of the horse fence, the side they're not supposed to be on, because there's a bunch of trees, then a really steep drop off, then the river. 

Me: Kids, you need to get away from there.

C & A: (no response)

Me: Kids, come out from there. What are you doing anyway? 

C:  I feeding the horses.  (he's feeding them chick starter...I'm not real sure if it's safe for horses, but they're still alive....let's hope it stays that way.)

Me: Honey, you can't feed that to the horses.  They'll get sick.

C: (puts down the sour cream container he was feeding them from and starts chasing the chickens again) Ha, Ha, Ha!

Me: Clarence, don't chase the chickens, that's mean.  And don't go over on that side of the fence, or I'll give you a spanking.

C: (oblivious to the fact that I said anything)  Ha, Ha, Ha!

Me: Clarence!  Leave the chickens alone.  You aren't supposed to go over by the fence!  Enough!

C: Mom, I sorting those.  (duh, Mom!  He's talking about the chickens.  Do you sort chickens?)

Me: (I started laughing....and tried to get them to find another activity away from the river....we looked for eggs and went to feed the heifers)

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Adina's in love with our little baby kitties...we have four.  Did you know gray cats  can have four black baby kitties?  We're still a little confused by it, but whatever, I guess. We were hoping for a little more color. 

Anyway, Adina loves them.  I think she'll be a cat farmer when she grows up.  I can see it now - Adina's Cat Ranch...

No, not really.  She's more into makeup than cats, but when she's outside, the kitties sure hold her attention. 

I was wandering around the yard gathering eggs and picking up garbage (I hate the after-winter garbage that seems to land all over the yard!).  I came back up to the deck and here's Adina, one tiny, newborn kitten in her hand, trying quickly to get away from me in case I try to take it away. 

I try to explain gently that she can't play with the kitties yet.  She doesn't really understand.  Then, I look over on one of the deck chairs, and she's put the other three in a little pile on the chair. 

The mother cat, Rocks, seems oblivious.  She's just laying in the box beside Regan, our other fully-grown cat who's now decided she'd like to be foster-mom to the babies.  (The box is like a large computer-paper box - hardly big enough for two grown cats and four newborns.)  I tell Adina we need to put the babies back with their mommy. 

Then, to divert her attention, we run in the house quick and blow her nose.  She blows it and heads straight back out to pet the kitties. 

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We've been staying close to home lately, enjoying the beautiful weather, feeding cows, etc.

Yesterday, the kids and I fed cows while Matt worked fields to get them ready for seeding. I was trying to be nice - sometimes thats' more work than it's worth!  We were going through the gate with a load of bales, and cows sneak past my gate man (Clarence), who's not quick enough to stop them...then, some other cows by the fence saw that a few had escaped, so like 7 more  jumped the fence. 

I was angry.  Really angry.  At the cows. 

We finished feeding, then tried for about an hour to get the cows in by ourselves with the 4-wheeler.  That didn't work.  Meanwhile, the whole time we were doing this, a cow was calving.  I kept watching her, expecting any moment for the baby to pop out...but I was worried, too.  The momma kept laying on her side, rocking back and forth and kicking, then got up and walked around, then layed down and did it all over again.  I thought she was having trouble.

So, I walked up to her thinking I was brave enough and good enough to chase her up to the calving pen. 

She looked at me, then came towards me a little.

I walked quickly to the fence and left her alone. 

I'm a chicken.  I know it. 

I called Matt and told him that I thought a cow was having trouble calving.  We went down to pick him up at the field and brought him home.  As we drove up to the gate out back, Matt and I both noticed the cow was up and licking her calf.  Good one, Jacki!  I felt foolish.

Matt didn't think I was foolish, though - he said he'd rather have me be safe than sorry. 

Anyway, that's how much fun it is feeding cows by myself with the kids - I enjoy it a lot, but I hate when cows sneak past me/Clarence, or decide they can jump the fence. 

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Have a super day!  Please pray it'll rain a little here soon to get the pastures growing...it's time to start hauling cows out, but the grass is coming very slowly.