A "hole" lotta work

Whatever happened to the lovely notion of Sunday being a day of rest?  We did go to church this morning, but as soon as we got home, we worked outside in the blazing sun all afternoon. 

Steve bought this rusty old thing last week.  It is a head chute for cattle, and apparantly, with the exception of the rust, it is in excellent condition.  And apparantly it will eventually work wonders and make our lives much easier.... but not lying on the ground.  We gotta get it properly installed first.

The first step is to dig a big hole using this post hole digger on the back of the tractor.

The hydraulic digger on the tractor made this hole, but then we had to dig it deeper and deeper with the manuel digger. 

Then we had to drag this massive post, drop it in the hole, and pack the dirt all around it. 

The entire process.... the digging, the dragging, the lifting, the packing... was repeated for the second post. 

Steve did some measuring and decided that the first post on which we spent an hour of hard physical labor, was crooked.  It needed to be lined up just so, and we were slightly off.  So, to my dismay, he hooked it to the tractor and pulled it right back out of that hole we had just filled in! Noooooooooo......

I was slightly upset to have to dig the same hole and reset the same post AGAIN!

Eventually we managed to finish.  They were lined up perfectly and ready for the head gate.

This friendly black cow stepped out of the barn to check things out.

She stood there, surveying the situation, and letting us rub her back and belly.  She's a total pet.... she's a holstein cross that we plan to sell eventually. 

We always have fun with her because she's so tame.

She checked everything out, then she started licking Steve's arm. 

Back to work.....

The EXTREMELY heavy head gate is then lifted into an upright position and bolted onto our two posts.

So eventually when we're all finished, we'll be able to herd the cattle from the barn, through this gate, then to the new head gate. 

They'll stick their heads in here, and the gate will close tightly.  Then we'll be able to work on them... vaccinating them, worming them, dehorning, castrating... whatever needs done.  Steve says this system will ultimately save us hours of time in working the cattle.

It was a HARD day's work. 

Road trip to visit family

I just got back from a little road trip.  I went to Hartville, Ohio with my brother, Josh and my mom to visit family.  For whatever the reason, we don't visit often enough.  My mom had 10 brothers and sisters and half of them are now gone.  My mom will be 78 in December.  Life is short.  Why don't we spend more time with those we love?

This is a Nichols family reunion photo which was taken about 6 or 8 years ago.  From left front:  Uncle Kenny;  Uncle Jack (RIP);  Aunt Pat (RIP);  Aunt Evelyn (RIP).  Back row:  Aunt Barbara; Uncle Gary; Aunt Berdeal; Uncle Don; Mom; Dad (RIP); Aunt Lue (RIP);  Uncle Howard;  Aunt Mary;  Uncle Boyd (RIP).

So we took mom to visit her little brother... my Uncle Kenny.  He's been confined to a wheel chair for 20 years from injuries received in a motorcyle accident.  He is paralyzed from the waist down. He is an AWESOME guy! 

I love this picture.... Uncle Kenny is laughing so hard at a comment someone made.  I have no idea what was said, but I love his laugh.  He laughs all over and with so much expression!

Here he is looking at pictures of his only granddaughter.

Here my brother Josh shares funny stories with Uncle Kenny.  

We had a good visit with Uncle Kenny and his wife Connie. 

Pumpkin update

This is our first year growing pumpkins to sell.  When Steve decided to sell all his cows and calves, we wanted to do something different in an effort to MAKE money instead of LOSE money in the farming business.  We plowed up the bottom near the barn and sowed it in pumpins.  Since cows used to be all over this field, and cows used to poop all over this field, we thought it would be nice rich ground in which to grow our new crop. 

Here is an updated pumpkin picture.  The majority of our pumpkins are Jack-O-Lantern type like this one.  They seem to be at various stages of growth, but many of them are soccer ball size and are starting to turn orange like this one. 

Our goal when we planted them at the end of May was to have pumpkins ready in late September for fall decorating.  Then we would still have plenty left for mid to late October for halloween.  Now I worry that maybe they will be ready too soon.  They just kind of look almost ready to me... for some reason I didn't expect them to be orange in July or August.  This is certainly a learning experience for us... we get most of our pumpkin growing information off the internet, and as with anything else we will learn from our mistakes.  Hopefully next year we'll be able to plow more land and plant even more pumpkins.  It would be cool to have the name BOLTE PUMPKINS be a name that everyone recognized! Hey, we gotta dream!

Many of them are still green like this one, so that's probably a good thing.  Isn't this one pretty?

Those were just the ones around the edges.  Most of them are lost out there.  We really have no idea what 95 percent of our pumpkins look like since it's impossible to wade through them without breaking them.  It's hard to tell what's out there!  There could be an entire pumpkin city with little garden fairies living among them and we would never know! 

The garden fairies could have built homes, factories, and schools by now... they could have an underground subway system.....

These are the jumbo pumpkins.  We planted only a handful of these because we won't know what to do with them if they grow like they're supposed to.  These are the BIG BIG fellows that you have to roll across the field and use a crane to lift them onto a truck to haul out of here.  Actually I don't know how big they'll get, but they are certainly not your typical jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds, so we might as well dream big and shoot for the record.  If it happens, you'll be the first to know!

The jumbo pumpkins looked different from the beginning.  They started off with a yellowish color and they are now turning orange.  They're about the size of basketballs right now, and they have a pretty smooth surface.

Then we have a few of these guys here.  They are called cushaw green pumpkins, and I planted them solely because I thought the picture looked cool on the package of seeds.  I looked them up on the internet, and apparantly they are fabulous to eat, but I thought they would look pretty for decoration beside the typical orange pumpkins. 

I love these!

We also planted a few hills of wee-be-littles.  They are little tiny pumpkins used for indoor decorating on tables and in baskets.  Even though I know they're in there somewhere, I can't find them right now in all those vines.  Maybe the garden fairies know....

We'll keep you posted on the pumpkin progress!

In with the new....

New cows!  They just arrived today.  The idea is to fatten them up on our lush green pastures and then sell them in a few months. 

New high school marching season!  Since our school is very small and very rural, we have only ONE middle school and ONE high school in the entire county.... and they are actually in the same building which forms the Calhoun County Middle / High School.  We have about 650 kids in the entire building.  Our little marching band is called a high school band, but since our school is a middle/high school, students are allowed to join marching band in the 7th grade instead of having to wait until 9th.  My son Alec is going to be a freshman this year, but this is his third year in the marching band. 

Practicing the new field show! 

New mouth contraption!  We had to leave band practice early today to drive to the orthodontist to get this thing... ugh!  Apparantly Alec's jaw is not lined up exactly right, and this thing is supposed to help!

New way of fixing corn.  Because of Alec's new mouth contraption, I had to cut the corn off the cob for him.

New purse in a new pattern called Julia Barcelona!  I got this in Charleston after the orthodontist appointment.  I got a special deal in honor of Vera Bradley's birthday.  Happy Birthday Vera! :)

New job!  I've been teaching 7th and 8th grades for ten years, but I just found out yesterday I'll be teaching 6th grade this year.  I'll be moving to a new bigger and better classroom. I'm excited about the change!

New pretty things!  I made a quick trip to my favorite primitive shop last week and purchased this little basket for our closet door knob.

More new pretty things from the primitive shop!  I love these little wooden pears and apples.

New pets!  Alec got new gerbils Saturday.  He named them Ricky Bobby and Texas Ranger. 

Out with the old... in with the new!  I love new!

Bye Bye Calves

This marked our final year of our cow/calf operation.  Instead we opted to try some new avenues in hopes of actually farming to MAKE money.  So this spring we bought 28 baby calves.... the idea being to let them grow on our pasture, and then sell them in the fall.  Well, even though fall is not here, we got a buyer and decided to load 'em up and move em' out. 

The first step was to do some rearranging in the barn situation.  Lewis' FFA steer (on the left) and a holstein cross (on the right) had to be moved to the other end of the barn to make room for the calves. 

First stop was a nice cool drink from the water trough...

Then Lewis used a bucket of grain to coax them into the back section of the barn.

This is Lewis' FFA steer that he will be showing at the Black Walnut Festival 4H and FFA Livestock Show and Sale in October.  Lewis has been showing calves at the BWF show since he was nine years old and first started in 4H.  Since he's been in high school he's been showing for the FFA.  Lewis is a senior this year, so this will be his final time showing a calf. 

Then the calves to be sold are herded and coaxed into the barn lot.  We have 24 calves to load up today.  We started with 28 in the spring.... two died, and we are keeping two milk-stock calves to sell later. 

Steve named this little guy 7UP (due to his poor quality).... he says, " just like 7UP, he never had it and never will."

The truck and cattle trailer backed up to the loading chute.

Lewis is considering poking Steve in the butt with a cattle prod.... bad idea!

There they go.... down the chute and into the trailer.

Loaded up and ready to go to Lexington, Kentucky.

Bye calves!  Hope you make us some money!