The Days are Getting Shorter!

So, Jessie's school year is finally over! Yeah!!! Going to school until June 26th is completely unnecessary. However, no one seems to care what I think. Jessie had her awards day on the 25th. She received the Spanish award for her grade. She loves Spanish.



We are surviving summer so far. The weather has been in the 70's at the warmest and the wind has been blowing every single day. It is so dry here that there are herd dispersals all over the country. Many of those who still have their cows are still feeding. We turned ours out, but the grass is looking grim, so we are praying for rain.

Jessie lost her second tooth. The drama that surrounds losing a tooth here is worthy of an Oscar. It is quite the ordeal. The tooth fairy is not good at staying up late, and the weiner/guard dog who sleeps with Jessie doesn't welcome midnight intruders.

We spent Saturday ear tagging calves and vaccinating cows. I have no pictures because it was just the three of us to gather and do all of this. It was, once again, a run for your life type of scenario. Words can't describe some of the events that take place here. You have to see them to believe them.

The rodeos are in full swing. We had a successful production sale, which is nice to have out of the way. Innisfail is done, Ponoka finishes Wednesday, and then the madness of "Stampede" starts next week. We have bulls out on Sunday and again on Thursday in Calgary. On Wednesday, Jessie and I are taking in the Taylor Swift concert. She is stoked.

After that, we are headed south for a while. Jessie has been wanting to see Mt. Rushmore, so we are headed to Texas via South Dakota. We are taking a well deserved vacation and leaving Kelly home to tend the fort.

Since it has taken me three days to write this, I will post some pics of Jessie from yesterday. We went to a Memorial playday type of thing yesterday. It is an all day affair. They have every event from tiny mite goat tail undecorating to wild cow milking and the hide race. We try and go every year because it is a lot of fun. Jessie entered the barrels and poles yesterday. She wouldn't enter the goat tail untying because her horse is too tall. I entered the breakaway, team penning and team roping. I got third in the breakaway and the rest were a flop. The team roping I can finally blame on the header who missed for me. However, my heeling leaves a lot to be desired. It is more of a close your eyes and throw it under and see what I come up with and then try and get a dally but don't count on it kind of thing. I am learning though. It is my goal to be able to heel in the arena not just in the branding pen where they are standing still.

The Weekend

We spent this last Friday and Saturday at some friend's branding. They live west of Stavely, Alberta in the hills. Willow Creek runs in front of their house and if you ride up the ridge behind the house you can see the Rockies. It is the most beautiful place on earth. We had a great visit with lots of friends we don't get to see on a regular basis and even got 400 calves branded in the meantime. I woke up early Saturday morning hoping to see the black bear that have been roaming through the yard, but they didn't show. Jessie was highly disappointed. Of course, she didn't wake up, she just told me to get pictures. Apparently, they've been showing up early in the morning and wrecking the trees around the houses.

Kelly took his gray up to ride and gather with no intention whatsoever of dragging calves, but of course, all the old buddies were around heckling him so he tried it. He did great. He definitely wasn't bothered by the five wrestling crews and the branding pot he had to walk by. He got a little up in the bits, but it didn't last long. We are quite impressed that he takes everything so well, considering he only got broke when he was five and that was last year.

Anyways, I thought I would share some pics I took. I didn't get to take many as I spent most of the day branding and vaccinating.

As for now, we are off to the neighbors to brand this afternoon. They are short handed since Lori had an emergency appendectomy last week and she is usually a roper, a cutter, and the cook.