"Family" Time

Today was a little bit out of the ordinary...in contrast.

After morning chores, I took a four wheeler out to check electric wells. I headed down to the dry cows (a few miles down the road) and then over to the red cows. I found the first one with the dry cows in good condition...but didn't has as much luck with the others. First, I had to (of course) turn around like three times to find the right gate- but I finally did (after following the electic line (duh!) and managed to find the first well. It was running over. It appeared that the float had just jammed so after some tinkering around I think I got that problem solved. I followed the trail to the second well...this was more of an issue. It was leaking - I couldn't tell if the tire itself was leaking or if it was coming out the bottom- but either way it was leaking so fast that it just pumped constantly. I couldn't get ahold of anyone so I just decided to shut it off- that seemed logical. It's pretty close to the full dam anyway in addition to two other wells int he pasture. Then, on to the third well. I had to kill some substantial time (of course) because I couldn't remember where the darn thing was. That well wasn't in too bad of shape- just had the guard knocked down on the other side of the fence where there were no cows so I wasn't too concerned. By this time, it was getting late for me to make the 10:00 Memorial Day Service just south of Martin so I four wheeled my butt home fast.

I quick changed and headed into town. The memorial day celebration is quite the deal here. They had over 40 (I think) full sized flags that commemerate all the vets who haved died within the community. They had a nice presentation with a poem, singing, and a new memorial/honorary wall dedication, etc. It was really nice- and I got to seem some folks that I haven't run into since last summer as well. It's nice to see people actually observing Memorial Day and taking part instead of just treating it as a good day to camp or the first day of summer. Again, I love the sense of community out here that people have- it's really nice.

After the service I tried to kill some time in Martin- which I learned is next to impossible. I went to the new familiy dollar store- but could only kill 15 minutes so I just drove over to Ross and Marva's. I, along with most of their real family, was invited to tag along for dinner. I felt bad because I didn't bring anything (just found out this morning)- but was really glad that Adrienne did- lol! I told her that she could be our regional representative! :) It was great food and good company. We ended up sitting around all afternoon and talking and playing with the kids that were around. There were probably 25 ish family members there- so we had lots to talk about. Harvey's son, Jared flew him and Carol down from Sturgis so Jared ended up giving a ride to three people during the afternoon. All in all, it was fun just to catch up with people and hang out with someone other than myself! I'm super glad they are so nice to me and let me in on their family functions!

Afterward I just headed home and did chores and set out my lawn sprinkler for the summer. WallE (the bucket calf from last year that is now a yearling) was the highlight of chores. He has figured out where the water comes from at the hydrant and wastes most of it playing in it- it's pretty hillarious! Then, I didn't have enough hose for the sprinkler so I had to go down into the crawl space of the house...that was interesting. The hole is in my closet so it was a little weird entering a whole new room from a tiny door in my closet! haha, but I was not attacked by any killer mice or anything and made it out with some hose alive! haha

Since then I've just been getting some odds and ends done. It was really a nice day- but back to work tomorrow. I think we are going to start farming! Off to shower and bed...

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss