Fun and Games

Grant got out his Disney Villians game to play with Clark and Lorna.  It was fun watching them play together.  Grant loves games!  He did really well working with them and teaching them how to play.

 

Escaped!

Sunday the pigs escaped!  It was such a shock as these pigs have never escape before!  It was just Jeff and I and there was no way the pigs were going to go back home with our minimal encouragement.  We called to them, but without treats there was really nothing we could do.  They wandered off south to the small creek.  Ugh!  That meant Monday the kids and I had to try to round up our adult pigs, Hogrid, Harriet, and Arianna.  

Monday, we showed up with apples to get the pigs to follow us back to their home.  First, we found the 2 girls.  We got them to follow us (Mhari and Lorna) back to their home.  Then we went to hunt down Hogrid.  Luckily, we found him pretty quickly.  He wasn't as interested in following us, but he did.  After quite some work we had the 3 pigs home again!  I'm so glad the kids spend as much time as they do with the pigs.  They were much happier following them, than Jeff and me.  I really wondered if we were going to lose the pigs to the wild.  Spraying water at the end really helped get Hogrid back home.  It had really started to warm up.  I think the pigs enjoyed being down in the cool creek!  

We also moved the bison to pasture 7.  They were so happy to have more grass to eat.  With the warm weather, the grasses have been greening up really well.  Hopefully this year the weather cooperates, and the animals do better on pasture!

 

Being a Kid Again

I think Grant will always stay young at heart!  The kids have these little squishy animals they got from a Valentine's party.  They decided to flip them in the air and get them to land on their bottoms.  It became quite the game!  Such fun lunch entertainment!  It was a nice time watching the kids be kids together!  

Exhausted

Sandra has been exhausted.  She has been doing school and working this semester.  Her assignments are usually due on Saturday night, so she tends to stay up late that night.  Sunday is usually a nice day of rest for her.  Even with sleeping in, she can be found napping ;).  This evening Jeff couldn't help but pick at her.  He loves to squish her bottom lip.  He eventually woke her up with all of his messing with her.  Poor girl is just exhausted!

 

Homecoming

It was Grant's homecoming talk today!  He did a nice job talking about his mission and growing closer to Jesus Christ.  Our friend, Steve, came out to hear him speak.  Uncle Joe, Aunt Amanda, Joseph, Beson, and Lorali all came too.  It was nice to have some family be able to come out.  I brought some food, and we visited after church for a few hours until they had to head back home to New Braunfels.  Grant had to meet with the High Council and Jeff had to be in High Council Meeting, so they missed most of the hang out time.  It was a really nice Sunday.  

 

Bonding

Jeff spent some time Sunday morning bonding with Grant.  He cuddled in Clark's bed and hung out with him.  I'm glad Jeff has one of his boys home!  It was cute to see them together!  

 

Walls!

It was a good day at the ranch.  We got some of the interior walls of the house up.  It's so exciting to see it taking shape!

 

He's Home!

2 years is over!  Elder Grant Williams is home!!  He flew into DFW airport and was scheduled to arrive at 12:10 pm.  Jeff set up a time to do temple baptisms with him at 1:30. This would be Lorna's first time getting to do baptisms.  It was going to be an exciting day! 

We left in time to get to the airport around 12 noon as his plane was already set to arrive early (like 11:49).  That would give him time to taxi and deplane.  He still had to make it to the baggage claim to pick up his stuff too.  While driving the arrival time kept getting moved sooner and sooner.  His plane ended up landing a half an hour early, at 11:40 am.  Let's just say that we can't drive that fast to make up that amount of time.  Grant beat us to the airport :(.  He was pretty bummed.  He did have Elder Thompson to hang out with and his family while he waited for us.  We were still in Dallas when he arrived.  Dallas traffic was a nightmare.  Then there was a lane closure on top of traffic.  It was all quite stressful!  Thankfully we finally made it to the airport and met up with Grant!  I got my hug!  Lorna came in with me and she got a hug too.  Then we went out and met up with Clark and Jeff who were still with the truck, curbside.  

We headed off to the temple and grabbed some lunch along the way.  It had been a long night and morning for Grant.  I'm sure he was exhausted.  We had a nice time in the temple.  I'm so happy we got to do that with Lorna.  After the temple it was time to head home.  President Rhodus had a very busy weekend and wasn't able to meet up with Grant to release him until Saturday evening.  Grant was ready to be released and not wait, so we helped make that happen and he got released over the phone on the drive home.  

It was great to meet up with Sandra and Mhari when we got home.  Then it was time for Grant to settle in a little.  Welcome home Grant!  We missed you!

June Bug

We dropped by our friend Steve's place to return an air rifle.  His granddaughter has horses so that means we get to visit June Bug and Bennett.  Lorna loves horses!  It was fun to spend a few minutes bonding with the horses.  This was Mhari's first time meeting them.  So fun!

 

Valentine!

Wednesday was Valentine's Day.  I got treats for the kids and a body pillow for Jeff.  I made steak for dinner too.  It was a nice day showing some extra love to the people I love.  Jeff was going to take me out to dinner, but I told him no.  I already had dinner all set.  Instead, we went out later in the week.  I don't need anything fancy, so we went to Whataburger.  We had a nice evening together.  

Jeff still can't take a normal photo :).  Silly boy!  Love you!!

 

Rest

It's always great to capture a nap photo!  Jeff sure was tired!  

Also, just adding more photos of one of the bison ladies we are going to sell.  Trying to find homes for these ladies before it gets too close to calving season!  Hello, Stacey.  

 

Well, Well, Well

Our well has been having issues.  We didn't even notice though because of our 3,000 gallon tank that holds a reserve.  It was all going great, until the reserve tank ran out of water!  That's when it was time to figure things out.  This all came about on Friday.  We called the well people, and they came out Monday to diagnose the issue.  Yup, the well pump isn't working (way down inside the well).  They didn't have a way to pull the pump that day so they set up to come back out the next day.  

We met up with them that morning and they pulled the pump out and we got chores done.  The pipe that was connected to the pump was broken and it seems like the system froze up.  The pump is dead.  The well guy took the pump and motor back to the office to check it out to see if the motor could be saved.  The next day he installed a whole new well pump and motor.  That got the well working again!  It was a long few days without water.  Fortunately, we have our rainwater collection and were able to use that to take care of the bison, pigs, and dogs.  We even did some pipe work in the well house to connect the pump to the rainwater system. 

The well guy never talked about a price of any of the work he did.  We had the well installed about 2 years ago.  We figured that whatever happened would be covered by the warranty.  Well, Jeff called him, and they chatted about the bill.  He asked if we were going to claim the well repair on insurance.  Um, no?!  Then he was like, oh, it's going to be a big bill.  He explained that since we altered the pipes after he installed them the well wasn't draining properly and when the big freeze came it froze the well pump and it was our fault.  Ugh!  We didn't alter the pipes and he didn't put the air hole in the pipe when he installed the pipes.  Now it's a fight over the bill.  Looks like we will be finding a new well guy for any future issues.  What a disappointment!  We are so grateful to have it working again, but dealing with this guy has been such a pain!