My attempt to catch up

I'm going to stop saying my life is busy, because then it seems to prove me wrong and I just get even busier.  Idle hands are the devil's workshop, right?  So I guess being busy is good :)  Since I haven't blogged in over a month, and we've had a lot going on, here are some bits and pieces in an attempt to catch up:  

Our move went well, and we are really liking it here...ok, maybe even loving it :) 

Everyone's question seems to be why we moved and how we found this job.  Here's the answer:  

We had been feeling a little unsettled where we were living, mainly because neither of us felt like that was where we were supposed to be permanently, nor was it where we were really going to set down roots.  It's a hard emotion to explain, because in a way life was comfortable.  We had a good job, we had our own home, we'd made friends, but it just didn't feel like home to either of us.  We knew we definitely wanted to move before Maggie started kindergarten, which gave us a few years to figure something it.  So we were looking on and off for a new job in a new location; I guess waiting for the right opportunity to come along.  We found quite a few that were enticing, but again, there was no major rush and we were comfortable so we never pursued any of them. Then randomly, out of the blue, I had the thought to check the Western Livestock Journal's classifieds online.  Jonathan's paper subscription had expired and it wasn't a site I checked often, even though they usually have ranch positions posted.  

Looking back now, I realize that "thought" was actually a prompting from the Spirit.  

There was a job listing for a ranch in Colorado, and a ranch in Utah.  Both seemed to be a good fit, so I showed them to Jonathan when he got home that night and we talked them over.  Jonathan's resume wasn't up to date and he decided he'd work on it so that he could send it in, but for the most part I think we both kind of shrugged it off because it was a very very busy time of the year for Jonathan (getting ready for the bull sale) and I think we both knew in the back of our minds that he wasn't going to have time to put together a resume and get it sent in while the position was open.

The next day I could not get this Utah job out of my mind though.  The ad didn't give very many details; it basically just said, "ranch manager position available on northern Utah ranch" but it was all I could think about.  So, completely uncharacteristic of me, I called the number on the ad myself to get more details so I'd know if it was something we'd even want to pursue.  I explained that my husband was very busy getting ready for the annual bull sale on the purebred ranch he was working on and typically I wouldn't be the one to call, but we had seen his ad and wanted more details to know if it was something we were interested in.  Everything he explained seemed to be exactly what we'd been looking for, plus, geographically it would put us closer to both of our families.  

So we applied.  And 100 other people did as well, but Jonathan seemed to be in the running every time he talked to the owner on the phone.  Then the owner invited us to see the ranch and decide if we were really interested, so we made a quick trip down.  The job was ours if we wanted it, and suddenly we had to decide if it was really what we wanted to do.  Mind you, this was still during the bull sale time, calving and getting ready for the breeding season and we started to have doubts because of the timing and everything.  But after some prayer, and weighing the pros and cons we decided to do it. In our month and a half here I feel like this is really where we're meant to be, which is big because I've never had this feeling this strong after we've moved somewhere. Our new ward is very welcoming and friendly, and strong.  I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows us personally and what we need.    

That's the scoop, here are the pictures that highlight everything that's happened in the last two months :)        

The Monday before we moved, Lane climbed up on a kitchen chair, held onto the back of it, and leaned forward; the chair tipped over and pinched his finger between it and the tile floor.  He had to get two stitches, which of course was great timing since I was trying to pack the house.

I asked Jonathan to bring me home some baling twine so that I could use it to tie blankets around furniture, etc.  I had to laugh when he showed up with about 3,000 feet :)

Thank you, thank you to everyone who helped us move!  And sorry for packing you in the trailer, Don :)  Thank you Stephen for letting us use your trailer (again!).

Goodbye first home.  Thanks for all the memories!  Hopefully someone buys you soon and you can create lots of memories for them too :)

It's funny how many new words are suddenly a part of Maggie's vocabulary since we moved here: Devil's Slide, Knucklehead (one of the horse's names), box elder bugs, etc.  This is Devil's Slide, a rock formation near our house.  Maggie loves driving by it.

I love this picture of Lane watching Jonathan riding Dunny.

Lucky kids :)

All of the trees here have a lot of character; and each seems to have some sort of metal item growing out of it.  This one's my favorite; that's half of a horseshoe poking out of the trunk.  It reminds me of Spencer W. Kimball's "Hidden Wedges" talk.

This picture makes me look like a bad mom, but his little legs can move incredibly fast :) (I suppose mine can too if I need them to.)

We were inundated with boxelder bugs.  Thankfully my brother who does pest control has since sprayed them, but they were out of control.  Maggie wasn't sleeping well at night because we were finding so many in her room.  I convinced Jonathan that we could use a few chickens (or chicks to grow into chickens) to help keep the bugs at bay  That's a BIG deal because Jonathan really does not like chickens--that tells you how bad our bug problem was :)  I let my nephew's help pick them out.  There's Red Jacket, Hopper, Dodo Head, Rose, and Goldie.  Any guesses which ones my nephews named and which names Maggie came up with?

My cousin's came up one evening for supper.  They brought a yummy Oreo concoction, which Lane devoured, and then some.  We all laughed when he picked his plate up and licked it and smeared it all over his face.

Three generations at the Salt Lake Temple :)

My cousin that I'm closest to in age, friendship, and geographically speaking got married and I was so happy to be able to attend her sealing.  It was a beautiful sealing and a beautiful day. We ate at Tucano's for the luncheon (yum!) and their reception was a lot of fun, complete with a candy bar and a photo booth.

Maggie and Grandfather were having fun playing together with their eating utensils :)

Lane has this little toy tractor and it cracks me up how he "rides" around on it :)

The kids have really blossomed into the art of being a kid.  They love playing in the yard and finding anything to get their clothes dirty. Mud seems to be their specialty lately.  (The soil here has a lot more clay in it than I'm used to, especially in contrast to the soil in potato country.  I did dig out a spot for a garden, it gets more shade then it should, but it was probably the best option in a yard surrounded by huge aged trees.  We'll see how it does with the shade and clay soil.)

The chick's first time outside.

Lane got into my makeup...I guess he thinks concealer is chapstick?

Here's some proof of the nasty box elder bug problem.  These are all babies.  The leaves never got raked last fall and slowly I'm getting the yard back in shape.  I went out to rake one morning and the ground was absolutely crawling with box elder bugs.  The problem is the trees surrounding the house are mostly all female box elder trees...

"Hi Baby, do you like my horse?"

Speaking of horses, we left our two mares with our vet back in Idaho so they could be bred.  We have a free breeding from about four years ago to our friend's stud that we both really like and felt would be the perfect cross with my mare Sally.  Each year we breed Sally, she gets pregnant, and then aborts not too long after that.  Since we have a live foal guarantee, we just kept breeding her hoping that she would stay pregnant (the vet never found anything wrong with her, and last time we gave her extra progesterone to keep her pregnant, which did keep her pregnant for longer than previous). Anyway, this year we decided we would breed her, then flush her embryo and put it in our other mare for her to carry, hence why we left them both up there.  Anyway, the vet called one night and said Sally had badly injured her leg (she always was a little accident prone).  She was bucking around the pasture as a storm was rolling in and her leg came down on a wood post and it tore her leg open.  He had done everything he could to make sure she recovered from the injury.  They were checking her vitals, doctoring her, etc. and everything was going well.  He checked her one morning before he went to church, she was eating, she looked well, and her vitals were normal, but when he got back from church, she was dead.  It was a freak accident and we don't blame the vet at all.  I was pretty crushed though.  She was my first horse to call my own, something I'd dreamed about my whole life, and we had a special bond.  Despite a few annoying vices, her nearly killing me once, and the fact that she could be a bossy nag and required that all the attention be on her, I still loved her. Losing her was so unexpected.  I never told her goodbye before we moved because I was so busy packing and I expected to see her again in a few months. The vet had flushed her embryo the day before and the stars seemed to be lining up as far as the timing of everything went so that we would at least get her baby, so we were optimistic.  We found out the other day that the embryo died as well though.  So we ended up breeding our other mare to the stud.  They'll be a good cross as well and I guess if all goes well we'll finally have a foal next spring.  I'm sick of hoping when it comes to horses though :)

I read this in a book just a few days after the news of the embryo dying, my last hope of a piece of Sally living on. I thought it applied nicely to the situation.


Somewhere in time's Own Space
There must be some sweet pastured place
Where creeks sing on and tall trees grow
Some paradise where horses go,
For by the love that guides my pen
I know great horses live again.
-Stanley Harrison

This little bugger somehow got in my pant leg while I was working in the yard, and by the time I realized it and got it out, I had been stung eight times.  I only really felt two of the stings, but I had eight definite swollen bumps on my leg.  Jonathan just got stung by a bee last night while he was driving the four wheeler.  His arm looks really nasty and I'm wondering at what point do you see a doctor for a bee sting?  We tried all of the recommended home remedies and his arm is still red, swollen, and tender.

Maggie's face cracks me up in this picture.  This was my Memorial Day weekend watermelon creation :)  Yes, sometimes I have too much fun, but it's the simple things in life, right?

Here's some landscape shots of the ranch.

We went along with Jonathan to change water and Maggie tripped in the mud.  Did I mention the kids are really good at getting muddy?

The kid's love riding with Daddy in the tractor to bring water to the cows.

Guest bathroom :)

There's something about old rusty horseshoes hanging on a fence rail that makes my heart sing.

Peek-a-boo

Jonathan's had to get used to flood irrigating, that has been his only complaint.

My family came up to visit one evening and we went fishing.  I love fly fishing, but it has been a very long time since I've gone.  None of us were having any luck and I was a little rusty, but I was finally getting a hang of the timing of casting and everything by the time everyone was ready to call it quits. I wanted to make the money I spent on a day license worth it so my dad and I decided to fish a little longer while everyone came back to the house to eat. I was fishing next to the road, just before a sharp turn.  I watched my strike indicator on my line, and suddenly I had a bite. Finally!  In my haste to set the hook in the fish's mouth, I lifted my fly rod with a little (ok, a lot) too much vigor, just as three cars were slowing down to go around the corner (which is probably the most traffic that road has seen at any given time).  Flying out of the river came a dinky six inch rainbow trout, connected to my line.  Somewhere mid-flight the trout and my line disconnected.  My line dropped, but the fish kept flying. And flying. And flying.  It was apparently quite the sight to see, because the cars driving by slowed down even more than normal, as this little fish went flying through the air, and I kid you not, landed at least twenty feet downstream.  One car had their windows down.  I was cracking up and embarrassed at the same time knowing everyone driving by had just witnessed this.  One car of two guys yelled, "YEAH!!!" out their window, in an energetic that-was-totally-awesome tone of voice and gave me thumbs up, which only added to the humor of the moment.  So I guess that's my story of the one that got away, since every fisherman seems to have one.  And, in case you wondered, even though that was the only fish I "caught" my $12 day license was worth every cent.  It gives new perspective to the name "fly" fishing.

After I got back from fishing, I looked out the window and noticed that the neighbor's eight horses were out on the road.  Jonathan went to get them back through the gate, but they had just been moved to that pasture a few days before and decided to run up the road toward their permanent home.  It made for a bit of an adventure, but Jonathan and I corralled them in someone's fenced driveway while the owners came to catch them.
  

The Sword in the Stone, I mean, The Horseshoe in the Tree.

I found this antler in the horse pasture.  We see A LOT of deer, and other wildlife.  We've see a big fox, deer, elk, moose, and I saw a mountain lion on the hill behind the house, though no one seems to believe me.

Maybe this is inappropriate to include, but when Maggie sees boxelder bugs like this, she calls them "boxelder bugs like a train."  Her little mind comes up with such silly explanations.  Too bad the trains multiply like crazy!   And since I'm already being inappropriate, the other night she made a stinker and Jonathan said, "what was that?" (in a tone of voice to get her to say "excuse me") and her reply was, "there's a kitty in here."

We have plenty of birds and nests in our yard.  Early one morning we heard a cat and an owl fighting.  That was interesting!

The outside of the house.  When the house is all clean at the same time (if that ever happens ha ha) I'll take some pictures of the inside and post them :)  It's a fun house and we have a lot of room now!

Duke loves having more room/freedom.  He just needs to work on his listening and obedience skills a little (ok, maybe a lot) He has very selective hearing lately.

A few days ago I was cleaning up some change I had lying around and noticed a wheat penny.  I picked it up, expecting it to be from the 40s or 50s. Nope. It was from 1912!  I was pretty excited to find it; just think how much more a penny could buy 100 years ago!  I researched to see what it might be worth and in my research I found out that another wheat penny that I've had for a long time is actually worth quite a bit of money because the Denver mint didn't produce very many pennies that year. I have an affinity for old things.