When It's Springtime in Alberta.....

Well, spring has officially sprung here. The garden is planted, not by me, of course. Biff had that taken care of a week ago. Yesterday he and Kelly spent an hour pot bellied pig proofing it, as I've planted his potatoes three times. They put up a hot wire, so we'll see how that works. It may get the best of the weiner dog before it does the pig.

Branding season is here. All the neighbors are calling, so we have a fun filled week ahead. We start by heading to Nanton in the morning to Keeley's. That is always a fun time. Yes, Jessie is missing school to go to a branding. It is perfectly ok. This time of year, there are many missing from school due to brandings. In a town of 350, they tend to understand. I think branding could even be an "excused" absence in Big Valley.




We cut our beef calves the other day. This only furthered my suspicions of Jessie being Sarah's child. I headed down check out progress and here stands Jessie in the middle of the pen in her Crocs and a skirt holding the "nut" bucket. I started cutting after a while, so Kelly and Rolly could wrestle. Two of them crawled the fence and got in with the cows, so the just roped them and we did them amongst all the cows. I was cutting as fast as I could because the cows were not pleased with the goings on. Rolly and Kelly were getting snot blown all over them, I turn to throw Jessie her treasure, and she is standing right behind me. She had come in the pen with all these mad momma cows to do her duty. My heart skipped a beat or two. She was as proud as punch with her new job and wasn't letting fear nor fashion stand in the way of getting the job done. Afterwards, I cleaned them and we cooked them on the fire for the kids. Jessie and her friend Grady ate most of them by themselves. Be it known, that I did not bother to batter them. They were just cooked. Jessie has been asking lots of questions about heifers, steers, and bulls lately. So, Kelly took the opportunity to explain to her while cutting a calf that this was how a bull becomes a steer. Her reply: "Ohhhh, now I get it!" The kid never ceases to leave me speechless.



Well, I should get outside. I see my horse is saddled, so I must have a job to do. Kelly is out on the new love of his life, Goose, whom he now refers to as "Mine that Goose." He has found his soul mate in a free gray horse. You would know that with Kelly it would have to be free for him to like it.

Have a good one everyone.

Victoria Day!

Today is Queen Victoria's birthday, so we have a holiday. God Bless the Queen, I guess. However, this is the first long weekend of what is supposed to be summer. Campers look forward to this weekend all winter. They pack up their gear, load their trailers and absolutely flood every campground in Alberta. This morning, the joke is on the campers. It is snowing! Yes, I said snow! Not funny.

Yesterday it was about 70 with a wind worthy of Vernon, Texas. This morning it is snowing and the high is in the 30's. I'm glad I'm not a camper.

Kelly has headed back out to his tractor seat. We haven't seen him much. He did come in for supper last night when some friends called and said they were coming over and bringing everything we needed for hamburgers. It was a great supper. I didn't have to cook it. They even brought paper plates and plastic forks.

I plowed for a little bit yesterday. Jessie asked if she was going to get to see her dad in the day anytime soon, so I thought I better get out there for a while so they could play together. Kelly is pulling his hair out going round and round. I think it's therapy for his ADD. He thinks it is a waste of time he could better spend doing something "productive." I informed him that since he was planning on planting a crop in this field, that plowing should probably be considered productive. I hope he has learned his lesson this time and decides to hire a real farmer to do it next time. Jessie said he should have left it in pasture, it looks ugly all plowed up. She doesn't have that farming gene either. I, however, don't mind it. You can sit on the tractor all day and no one bothers you because there isn't a person for 1,000 miles that wants your job. It is actually peaceful.

During the father daughter quality time yesterday, Jessie made Kelly paint her new fort. In hot pink letters he had to paint, JESSIE'S FORT KEEP OUT BEWARE OF DOG. We're not sure if she is warning people of the vicious weiner dog or the three legged dog. Either way, they are warned. I will have to get pictures of this on a nicer day.

Since it's a snow day better spent indoors, Jessie and I are going to Red Deer to see the Hannah Montana movie. I'm quite sure it's an Oscar winner. Jessie has been dying to see it. She already knows all the songs off the soundtrack and can dance to them while singing in front of the mirror with her air mic. It's awesome.

Have a good one.

Hello Again!

Sorry it's been so long. I've been down and out and really busy. We are having our first production sale June 10, so guess who got to build the catalog. You can see it on our website, www.kicknspin.com on the sale page. It came back from the printers today, and it looks good. I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. However, I think I'm just sick of looking at it.

Kelly is out dummying yearling bulls right now. The wind is out of the north. There is no hint of sunshine, and I'm sure the windchill is below zero. They already broke a leg on one. I braved the weather in my North Face down coat and watched them buck two, and I came back to the warmth of the house. It is miserable out there. I'm just not that interested. Besides that, I will get the play by play anyways, whether I want to or not. There are 52 of them, so Kelly was desperately hoping to cut that number down significantly. That is way too many mouths to feed until they are old enough to haul.

Jessie is busy with softball right now. I think it should be mandatory that they all wear helmets, not just the batters. It is a dangerous sport, mostly from lack of eye hand coordination and attention span. She rode her new horse the other day for the first time. He is a hand me down from the cousins. His name is Big Boy. It is definitely for a reason. She looks like a flea on him, but he does whatever she wants and at the turtle speed she likes. He also loves carrots, so she has gone through a bag of carrots this week.

We are getting through calving quite nicely. It will be a good day when they are done and turned out to summer pasture.

Well, I should be on my way. I have a chili order for 10 that needs to be done for supper. I will get some pics on here later and try my best to do a little better job of updating this. Have a good one!