REKO Ring

Now that we have bison meat, it's time to get it sold.  I joined a local REKO Ring, like an online farmer's market, and meet up with buyers every Monday.  So far we are selling the bison.  This is the sign I had Shelly Eldredge make for me ;)

 

FSY 2

The youth in our stake are not up to go to FSY again until next year.  However, there were still openings, so we asked the girls if they wanted to go again, and they both said yes!  They got random roommates but ended up in the same company.  They had a great time!  I'm so grateful for these experiences the church is providing!  While waiting for Sandra to open her door I had to take a selfie with McWhisky :). 

PIGLETS!!

Our moms, Harriet and Arianna, had their piglets on the same day!  Monday evening we did a quick ranch check and there they were with piglets everywhere!  They were still having them!  Clark and Lorna got to see a few be born!  They were so small and cute!  So crazy!  The poor moms were so hot and tired.  Luckily, they were separated from Hogrid, our boar, but they were still together in one pen.  That means we really don't know which piglet goes to which mom.  Also, the moms like to lay together and the risk of laying on a piglet is much higher now!  I will say this is quite a crazy situation.  To add to it these moms are both pretty young to have piglets so they may have a harder time making milk.  The extreme heat doesn't help either.  Oh my, there are so many risk factors!  

The first day there were 15 born and by the next day there were 16, but some piglets had died.  After a couple of days we were down to 12.  It was getting kind of serious.  I was getting worried and luckily Nichole Smith was coming over with her kids to check out the piglets.  She helped me work on the moms and make sure that they had milk and work to the get piglets nursing.  It was a very exhausting morning.  We did lose a few more piglets and after a couple of weeks we ended up with just 4 piglets.  It was sad to lose so many, but also more manageable for us.  Hopefully next time we don't have an extreme weather situation! 

 

Pig Pen

It's always fun to feed the buffalo, if they are willing to come up to you that is.  This was Zyler's first time trying, but no luck today.  Pig Pen part 2!  Time to build out some new pig pens!  Really, we are dividing what they have and moving it on the other side of the sidewalk.  I think it's a good plan.  I think it turned out so good!

Luckily Scott and Nichole came to help, and we even ended up with the start of pig huts!  It's been a busy few days, but I think we are going to get it all done before the piglets arrive!

 

While the kids are away...

Our stake youth group went to Nauvoo, leaving us with our little Lorna all alone for a week!  Well, when you are the only ranch kid you invite your other ranch friends over to help!  This was a fun week for Lorna to get Clair and Zyler to come help out at the ranch!  It made chores way easier on me too!  

We've been working on building up this old shed and turning it into a pig hut. My nailer was having issues and I had to stop putting up boards.  

Unfortunately, the next day while working on it, Lorna was taking out nails and fell.  She's fine thankfully.  The shed did look to be leaning a bit so I stopped letting the girls work on it.  I went in to do a bit of work and luckily, got out of the way just in time... as it came crashing down!  I guess we won't be using that as a pig hut after all!  Now we have to go back to the drawing board for the pigs.  They are going to have piglets any day now!

I also got to stack hay for the first time.  Plus, I did the maxi-gain feed bags!  It was a busy tractor day for me. 

 

Dont' Eat Me

What do you do when you cut open a watermelon and it's making a face like, "Don't eat me!"?  Well, we ate it.  It was pretty unique that I had to document it!  Kind of made me laugh... and feel bad all at the same time.

 

Fan Girls!

Time for the 2nd concert of the summer... Louis Tomlinson!  Mhari and Lorna were so excited!  I tried to learn some of his songs too.  His concert was quite the spectacle!  Lots of special effects, lights, fog, and fireworks!  It was so loud!  I think we all lost our voices by the end of the night!  This concert was also much longer!!  We didn't get home til around 1 am.  I'm so glad the girls got to go and have a blast!  I sure was tired by the end of it all!

 

4th of July Fun!

Our ward did a 4th of July breakfast.  It was fun to get together and celebrate with friends!  Jeff got to hold the Pietz's baby, Alice.  He's so cute with Babies!!!  Sandra and I teamed up against Clark and Dad for corn hole.  I think the girls won too!  It was pretty fun!  Then there was a frozen shirt competition that Jeff had to participate in (representing the bishopric).  The first one to get the shirt on won.  Jeff was 2nd. It was super hard to get the frozen shirts unwrapped!  It was a great morning celebrating a great nation!