Busy in the Month of May

Here and There and Everywhere: We have been waitng for summer and it seems like it will never come. We've had more snow and the weather likes to sit in the 50's and even 40's some days. We have had some warm weather but my plants and my attitude are sure ready for the warmth. Here are some snippets from the past couple weeks.

Bug Hunting: Blain has been catching butterflies and bugs all over the yard. He caught a GIANT moth that he kept in a half gallon jar for a couple hours then released. He is also so mad at me for not catching a snake I saw the other day, lol. It's been fun to see how excited he gets over those bugs.

 Cute boy with his "buttamoth" as he would call it because it had butterfly wings and a moth body

 Letting the moth go

 Zeyta watching from afar - with a lovely green mask on that she drew on herself...

Barnyard: The cows are so much trouble these days! Nate finished fencing in the front pasture only to have them scrunch the fence down and hop over to get to the back pasture where apparently the grass is greener. We thought Bella was bagging up but the more I look at her the more I can't tell. Sometimes her belly looks huge and sometimes I think she looks just like Prince Ali in her belly. We are taking her in on Thursday to get preg checked by the vet since clearly we don't know what we're doing, lol. We thought she would calve in March and we are almost in JUNE!!

 The real problem is that we are going out of town so much over the next few weeks and don't want to risk her calving without us home. We need to know if she's pregnant and how long it will be until she calves. If she's not pregnant we are going to eat Prince Ali and sell our sweet Bella, hoping to find a cow calf pair.

 View from the back

 Berries - Nate has since dug a huge trench for the irrigation drip lines right next to the rows of berries and I moved all those rocks to line the rows hoping it will keep the grass at bay.

I moved the chicks into the small side of the big coop today! They are already exploring and already can't figure out how to get back up the ramp... I put water down in the run for those that get lost and I'm sure we'll be putting them in one by one tonight!

Chickies figuring out their new feeder. Blain and I kind of cornered them by the feeder after I put a bit of their food on the lip of the opening. They actually figured it out pretty fast.

Blain with the chicks. He loves playing with them!

Playing with the baby kitties - their momma has now moved them 3 times throughout the coop. They are starting to walk around a bit and open their eyes. It's hard not to get attached to cute baby kittens!

We got pigs over the weekend, pink this time, and they are scared of us still. They also haven't figured out the yummy treats from the pig bucket. The chickens will show them, aka steal their treats;)

Mother's Day: My sweet family was so nice to me on mother's day! I got a yummy french toast breakfast in bed and some really nice cards and pictures. Nate gave me some spending money for backpacking gear, the hard part is deciding what to use it on! I did by a lightweight 2 person cookpot and I have my eye on a couple jackets and vests at Thrift stores. I've also been researching which backpack I want to get for myself and I think I narrowed it down, but want to get fitted at a sporting store first. 

 Me and CHloe before I headed out to work

 sweet Zeyta Z - The only bad part of Mother's day was having to work :( But I still had most of the day to spend with my sweet family

Dance, Gymnastics, and mile by mile marathon: Blain and Chloe are gearing up for their big end of year performance this coming Thursday. Chloe had her first competition at Lagoon on Saturday and Blain has been practicing all week so he can do a kick over on his own on the floor and a handstand into a bridge. 

Cutie Chloe posing in her Troll costume

Finishing pose from her dance! We will find out tomorrow what they place!!

 kick over on the wedge

 pommel horse tricks

 Chloe has been doing a mile every week in school and with soccer and dance counting as a "mile" she was able to complete 25 miles and run her last 1.26 miles at the midway trail and end at the finish line! She got a nice shirt and a medal for all her work!

 Chloe with her medal

 recreating her big finish! There were a ton of kids at the finish line when she finished so we did this little shot after it cleared out some

Fishing: Nate and Blain ready to go out to Strawberry, Nate has promised Chloe a special day of fishing since she wanted to go so bad!!

 Blain and Daddy getting ready to go fishing with Nate's friend from work. They are dressed like they are going ice fishing but really it's May and no longer have a froze lake, just frozen weather. Nate said it was really really cold by the Lake!! Blain stayed warm with his 4 layers on top and 3 on bottom, snow boots, hat with face mask and gloves.