This little piggy went to Market

 

The day had come to take the pigs to the butcher.  We are keeping Harriet and Hogrid so that we can keep breeding piglets.  That means it was time for Arianna, Bacon, and Bits to go.  It took quite a bit of convincing to get Arianna onto the trailer.  She was not interested at all.  We had the trailer set up in the corner of their pen and with the gate and a pallet we were able to coerce her in.  We are looking forward to the delicious meat that should be done in a couple of weeks!  

Let's Ride

Sandra and Lorna went back to the Bakers to ride horses again.  This time they all got to go out into the pasture and ride!  These girls are doing so well!  Sandra is going to arrange a weekly riding appointment ;).  The Bakers are so nice!!

 

6 Flags Spring Break!

We went to 6 Flags in Arlington with the Cabrera family for Spring Break.  It was so fun to go and spend time with friends.  Grant, Sandra and Mhari ran off to ride the big scary rides!  Lorna and Clark hung out with the Cabrera boys and tried rides.  Lorna got braver, so that was nice.  Clark is still scared, but he had fun.  I even went on El Diablo again and didn't lose my phone :).  This time I didn't even take it on the ride!  It was busy, but not super crazy.  We had a nice day and traffic wasn't even bad heading home.  Happy Spring Break everyone!

 

Trussed

The garage is all trussed!  It was a long day and a lot of hard work, but they're up!  The Elders were supposed to be able to come help us, but they had to cancel.  That left Jeff and Grant to lift all of the trusses.  They did a great job!  Having the eve overhang made it to where the truss could rest on one side while the other side got theirs up into position.  Mhari and Sandra did great work working to secure the bracing on the trusses.  Mhari started the day with us then headed off to work.  Luckily, Sandra got off work early, so she was able to help a lot!  From start to finish it took about 6 hours.  I am very happy with our work!  We got a lot of the bracing done too.  It's not officially done, but it's done enough that it's not going to be blown down in the wind!  

Next step... either finish closing in the garage or do the trusses on the house.  The house will need a lot more manpower and hours to work than the garage took.  I guess we will see when that happens.  Luckily Daylight Savings Time is here so we will have later to keep working.  We also have some experience now so it shouldn't take as long.  It will be a huge step to get the building all closed in!  I'm so thankful for Jeff and our kids for all the work they have done to help us build this house!  

 

Riding

A family in the ward, the Bakers, have horses.  We met them while cleaning the church building last week.  Lorna was so excited to learn that they had horses and that they would love to have her come learn to ride them.  Sandra also loves horses and would love to learn to ride them as well.  I guess, all the kids would love to ride horses.  Lorna started bugging me about planning a time to go over and ride horses the next day.  I caught up with Sister Merrilee Baker at church and tentatively arranged a time for the next week. 

Today we went over after ranch chores and Sandra met up with us after she got off work.  Lorna and Clark learned about brushing the horse and getting it saddled.  The horse that got to be ridden is named Clyde.  We adjusted the stirrups for Lorna's size.  Then she took Clyde into the round pen to work him out before riding him.  Merrilee did great teaching Lorna how to get up on the horse and how to direct Clyde.  Sandra then took her turn.  Merrilee let Sandra take Clyde out of the round pen and walk around a bit.  The girls loved it!  Clark was very interested, but happy to be there and not ride yet too.  

Hopefully this friendship will give all the kids the experience they want with horses.  It seems like this relationship could build into many more weeks spent learning to ride horses!  

 

Sleepy

I just can't resist a good napping photo!  I love having our kids with us... but soon enough they will all be gone.  Until that time, I will continue to take all the photos I can!  Love you, Sandra!

 

Free Ranging

The pigs escaped again!  I wouldn't say that free ranging our pigs was the new pig plan.  They lift their pallet gate and walk on out.  I guess we didn't think they would do it again, but we were wrong.  I kind of didn't think much of it because they would most likely just go back to the creek like they did the last time.  As Jeff and I were driving around checking the other animals Jeff spotted them in the pasture with the bison!  Those troublemakers!  They weren't even going to stay close!  Time to try to get them to come home again!  

Jeff and I called to the pigs... and they came!  I was able to get Arianna to follow me and back into the pig pen.  After a few minutes Hogrid was outside the pig pen.  After a little tempting him with water, he came back inside.  Jeff finally got Harriet to come home.  She laid down in the feed lot and wasn't interested in the long walk home.  I'm so shocked they even followed us.  We had no treats or anything.  These pigs can be stubborn, and we have no way of forcing them to go where we want because they are so big!  It was a crazy Sunday evening!