Farm Update

In my letters to Elder Braeburn I find myself giving him the update on all the farm animals, which he actually seems to enjoy.  It keeps him from feeling homesick I'm sure.  Just imagining throwing hay to the horses with the wind blowing it back in your face can make Yorkshire seem lovely I bet!

So, here is the update - species by species!!

Horses:

Pepper is Nova Spy's new horse.  He got him earlier this summer and the relationship started off a bit rocky.  They are both doing a bit better and I think Pepper will stay the winter, at least, with us.

  Nikita, Prairie Spy's grey mare, is being "marish" right now.  Meaning that she rules the other horses completely, and is just a pill.  She kicked a wall in the barn and bent it all up and is just being a prima donna.  Prairie Spy doesn't mind, though.  He adores her and when she does something dumb he just nods his head and slowly drawls, "well, everybody's entitled to a bad day now and then."

Dancer is a yearling and beautiful and lovely.  She has the most gorgeous face.  She and Pepper band together while Nikita is being a tyrant!

The Dogs:

Jack and Pete are happy and well.  

The Goats and Sheep:

The boys lambs did great this summer.  All 6 survived and thrived.  They are ready to sell now.  We have debated breeding them and keeping them over the winter, but with hay prices so high, I think we will sell them.  Kyra, the one remaining mother goat, is healthy.  Her babies (Felina and Rita)  are fatties because they are still nursing.  We need to separate them.  They are also hellions and wild and won't let us catch them.  They have excellent conformation though!  Maggie's babies are lovely and nice (Robin and Lady).  They are slightly smaller than the other ones because they haven't had milk on demand for 6 full months!

The Chickens:

Our chickens are not pleasing me right now.  We have way too many roosters and none of the hens are laying.  They are kind of welfare birds.  We are going to thin the rooster population shortly.  We do have one fantastic black bantie hen who hatched out a little clutch of eggs.  We tucked her in her own side of the coop and she and the babies are doing great.

The Cats:

Ah, the cats.  It brings a song to mind,  "Now just like everybody, you've got troubles of your own..."  We have lots of cats.  The problem is that all the neighbors cats and strays hang out in the barn and eat all the cat food so the cats that we like prowl around the house and meaow and look hungry and miserable and beg you to feed them.  We've got to do something about that. 

 Alice, the last remaining cat from our original litter (I'm going to have the kids do a kitten history chart some day soon to just keep track of all the cats we've had) anyway, Alice had kittens.  She is a good mom and keeps her babies safe.  She decided the safest place was the window well.  Granny Smith took pity on them one day when it was raining really hard and went out and brought them inside to dry off.

They were very adorable and took a nap in the laundry basket.

And then explored the large "Prairie Spy Mountain".

Stanley Lake

Mr. Bechtel and I escaped for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary.  This is where we went Sunday morning.

Mist!  There was still mist on the water.  My favorite!

It was perfectly still and quiet.  Just so beautiful.  McGown Peak was as amazing as I remembered.

Just to prove I was really there...

Look at that water.  Just look at it!  Liquid gold, or ice or crystal or something.  The water is pristine.

And for the very brave:  a perfect spot to take a dip in the inlet.  (which we did NOT do.)

Happy Anniversary!

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Bechtel and I have been married for 20 years!

Wow, that seems like forever.  Good thing it is still very nice to be married to him.  He is a good catch...

Here we are then....

And now...

It really is not fair the way men age more gracefully than women.  

Powder Puff Football

Miss Golden Delicious is a senior, and she played in the powder puff football game, and she was enormously competitive.  I was hoping the seniors would win because GD said the juniors were waaay too cocky and they needed to lose! 

I am happy to say that the Seniors did win!  It was a terribly physical game though.  Actually much more ugly than when the Spy Twins play for real.  There were so many personal fouls and tackles and holdings and a girl in our ward got a concussion from being tackled so hard.  So, I guess flag football is all relative.   But GD was stoked!  (as you can see from the pictures....!)

And here she is with her biggest fan. 

Good Job Miss Delicious!

Prairie Spy's Eagle Project

Early friday morning... very early.... the boys loaded up the horses, met Barnards at the end of the lane and headed up to Big Elk Creek to do Prairie Spy's eagle project.  Big Elk Creek is a side arm of Palisades Lake.  They decided to take the horses this time and save their legs!

Barnards are old hands at trail riding and brought a pack horse so they could load the digger bar, shovel, and post hole digger.

 

It was very cold all day.  We have got to get us some chaps.  Awesome!

Br. Barnard - digging out huge boulders.

Cordell

Tyrel

Doug and Deb eating lunch.  (notice prone figures in background).

They went a total of about 21 miles and got 3 posts in.  Then the trail kind of dissolved into a steep shale slope.  The horses were pooped and afternoon was going fast.  They ended up coming back down and getting home around 8:30pm.  There are still several more posts.  Whether we finish them this fall or next summer is going to depend on the weather.  When is the snow going to fall?  

Prairie Spy did a great job organizing the horses and people and everyone had a great time.  I could say the same for Nova Spy and his group.  They both did a great job all around.

The Rest of the Project..

There were still several more posts to go.  So early Thursday morning (there was no school) the boys, Mr. Bechtel, Grandpa, and their friends Sam and Kevin headed back to Rainey Creek.

They hiked back into Hunt's Corral where they had cached the tools two days before.  Grandpa was recovering from being sick, but he still did great. 

 

Their friend, Kevin, thought he was going to die.  "Nova Spy told me it was only like 3 miles, with a couple tiny hills!"  He lamented after hours of hiking.  He ended up doing just great, but Mr. Bechtel waited til the end to tell him he'd actually gone 20 miles.  He didn't want him collapsing scoutishly on the the trail.  

They made good time, though, and found all the post drop point just fine.

They also startled two bear cubs who immediately ran over to a tree and climbed it.  They could not find the mom, which made them nervous, but they just kept going.  They never did see her and the cubs were gone when they came back that night.

Taking a well earned break!  They got the whole trail done and Nova Spy's project is complete.

Now onto Prairie Spy....

Nova Spy's Eagle Project

Both the Spy Twins are working on their eagle projects right now.  There are two sections of "The Great Western Trails Project" that needed signs put up along sections of the trail.  The boys decided to do these for their projects.  Nova Spy's project was on Rainey Creek.  The boys had gone up with Mr. Bechtel the Saturday before and hiked in several miles on both trails just to get a feel for where they were and which sections would work with horses, etc. 

Then on Tuesday the boys got done with school at noon.  Granny Smith and I joined Mr. Bechtel and the boys.  The goal was to get at least 2 posts in before dark.  It was a gorgeous day.  Just perfect.

We had a tough time getting really good maps.  One with topo lines would have been helpful.  (Possibly discouraging, but helpful!)

This map at the trail head was the best one.  We started where the sign says trailhead and went 2.5 miles on trail 066.  Then the trail continued on 081 past Hunts Corral past N. Fork of Palisades Creek and down the canyon to the last two sign locations

.

The first post was supposedly dropped at the first bridge.  Everytime we crossed a little bridge like this we would look hopefully for a post, but no luck!  Keep going!

Finally we found the South Fork of Rainey Creek (no bridge).  The boys put the sign on the post and planted it 2 feet in the ground.

One Down.  Six to go.

We pressed on up the pass.  After awhile Granny Smith and I realized we were slowing the boys down so we turned around and headed the 3.5 miles back alone.  The two of us got a bit scared, even though Mr. Bechtel gave me his pistol.  Granny Smith kept asking questions like, "What would happen if we met a bear??"  I tried to be nonchalant and mellow, but I was praying we wouldn't run into anything, because I couldn't see that working out well any way I thought about it.  We sang the whole way back "Teeeeelllll you 'bout them sooobbbbin' women who lived in the roman daaayyys!" I did see fresh bear sign on the trail.  (Which I did not show Granny Smith) and we passed a tree trunk that had just been ripped open.  Fresh wood chips were scattered on the trail.  But I didn't see anything so we just kept singing and made it back to the car just fine.

Meanwhile the boys hiked several more miles to Hunt's Corral and put up the next sign.

Then they sang the whole way out while jogging and trotting in the dark, which takes talent!

Making Sauerkraut

The Relief Society President called and said a lady in the ward had tons of cabbage and she had heard we liked sauerkraut (?!) and did we want some.  We have tried to make sauerkraut unsuccessfully before although I don't know why this is general ward information!  So we decided to try again.

I can't make sauerkraut without Grandpa!  He brought his mandoline over and helped us.

This time I let the cabbage sit longer in the salt before mashing it.  It was much easier because the salt draws water out and starts breaking down the fibers of the cabbage so you don't kill your arm trying to do the same thing.

The boys brought the dogs in when Grandpa and Grandma went home, so they managed to make it into the picture too.  Jack and Pete love the camera.

I let the jars sit on the table for the requisite 3 days at room temperature.   On the second morning Prairie Spy was doing his math at the table and jumped up in alarm.  "The jars are hissing at me!"  They did gurgle and hiss and drip lots of cabbage smelling juice.  (gack).  They they went over to my friends basement, who makes sauerkraut all the time and has a basement that is a steady 60 degrees, which is what sauerkraut needs to be perfect.  We'll check on it in a few weeks and see if we have crunchy tangy sauerkraut, or gooey yucky strands of gross cabbage.  Should be exciting!

Colt Starting Class

Every morning from 7:30 til 9 they worked with the colts.  There were 4 colts.  This is Dave.  His colt was the most flighty and exciting to watch!

This is Ben.  He was an interesting guy.

This is Cory.  He was new at colt starting.  He was a bit nervous so Ricky had Issac work with his horse.  

Here's Issac with the same horse checking things out before he gets on.

And smoothly getting half way on and checking if the horse will stand.

They rode the horses with just a halter and Ricky helped them move around the pen.

Here's Levi, Issac's brother.  He's a saddle maker at Frecker Saddlery.  They all got on at the fence.

Very gently and smoothly!

And then started working to get his horse to bend his neck both directions.  There was no buck, or big drama.  It was impressive!