Lucy Stinker Bell

About six or seven years ago, we got a puppy.  We named her Lucy.  She had quite the attitude and personality but we still loved her.  She wasn't the smartest dog in the world, always getting run over by the 4-wheeler and other vehicles.  She liked to chase the cows who would turn around and chase her.  She wasn't very good at killing the mice in the haystacks like our old dog, Molly.  Lucy liked to kill our chickens just for fun so one time my dad tied the chicken that she had killed around her neck to see if it would cure her of her chicken killing... it did.  She liked to chase cars, no matter how many times she had seen them, she liked to jump up on people, she loved chasing the sprinklers and biting at the water until she would swallow so much she would puke.  She liked to ride in the loader of the tractor, she hated other dogs.  She loved to stalk our 4-H pigs, she loved to play tug-o-war.  She loved to play fetch, but she wasn't very good at returning the stick that had been thrown.  She liked to roll in dead things so that she would stink for days.  She hated baths so she really always smelled disgusting.  She liked to steal gophers out of my moms gopher traps.  She liked to do a lot of things that she knew she wasn't supposed to.  She loved to ride on the 4-wheeler.  She also loved to race with it.  She also loved to bark at imaginary things in the middle of the night and wake everyone up.  I love you Lucy Poo!!  I'll miss you stinky dog!!

Saying bye to Lucy before moving to Utah.  I didn't know it would be the last time I saw her.

The Country Life is the Life For Me!

I feel like I have been posting a lot lately, but I saw this blog post on Facebook this morning and it inspired me to write one about my growing up years living on a farm/ranch.  This will probably be a little picture heavy and really long,  but just bear with me!  :)  The post was called,  Farms: The Abuse of Children and I loved it!!
     Anyways, about my life.  I have lived in the same house my entire life on a ranch outside of a little town called Weiser, Idaho.  My great grandparents and my grandfather and all of his siblings actually built the house that I live in and story has it that the reason our basement has such short ceilings is because they all got tired of digging :)

This house has been in my family for over fifty years and for some, that doesn't sound that long but for others, it sounds like forever.  All of my siblings and I went to school, K-12 in Weiser, and both of my grandparents, (my dad's mom and dad) also graduated from Weiser High School!  My mom grew up, mainly in Missouri, but moved around a lot because of my grandfather's job.  In one place I think they had a dairy for awhile but I'm not sure.  I know that my great grandparents on my mom's side, as well were mostly farmers and ranchers.  So, I am from a LONG line of people who raised animals and worked the land.  

    From the time I could walk, and even before, I have been involved in everything that takes place on a ranch.  I never wanted to be left out of anything so if my mom, dad, and older brothers were going to do something with the cows, I wanted to be right in the middle of it.  I did go through phases growing up where I didn't want to have anything to do with the cows but I, thankfully, grew out of them!  I even have some cows of my own now so I can earn money for college.  There are still times when it gets frustrating when we have to miss out on things because, say, the cows got out and we have to get them back in and fix the fence but I still love being outside and working with them, especially in the spring when there are new calves EVERYWHERE!!

Branding is always a busy time of the year!  A lot of my extended family comes to help then we have a big lunch afterwards so there is a lot of preparation that goes into it, foodwise and getting all of the vaccinations, tags, and branding irons ready.  My family usually brands the end of April. All of my extended family members are also trying to get their calves branded around the same time so we have to work it out so that we all do it on different weekends so that we can all get the help that we need. We all go around to the different brandings to help each other out.  It is really one of my favorite times of year!

This cow had a huge abscess on her cheek earlier in the spring so we roped her to pop it but when she was down, we realized it had popped and drained on its own and was mostly healed. 

My family doesn't have enough property around our house to feed our cows during the summer so we have to bring them to a pasture that we have in the mountains.  Before we can bring them up there, we always have to walk the miles of fence to make sure that none of the wires are broken from either snow, elk, or from the cows the previous year.  I can remember fixing fence from the time I was super young.  I used to HATE it but as I got older, I started to enjoy it a little more. 

 It wasn't all work :)  We always took time to play around on the huge rocks that are everywhere or to play in the little streams that run all over the place or to play in the huge trees that are everywhere.  We always managed to have fun and get super dirty and work really hard!

At the beginning of June every year, we bring our cows up to the mountain pasture.  This is another huge family event.  We start early in the morning separating the cows, calves and bulls to load on the semis.  The trucks usually come around 8:00 am so we have to have the cows all sorted before then.  We haul the cows about 6 miles to a corral then we trail them the rest of the way (about another 7 or 8 miles or more, I'm not sure :))  until we make it to our pasture.  Then we all gather in the shade by a cute little pond and eat lunch.  Then we head home.  

Sorting in the early morning.

  

We made it!  

     After the cows are all gone for the summer, our main focus becomes irrigating our fields of alfalfa (and some weeds) so that we have feed for the cows during the summer.  Once again, for as long as I can remember, this has just been something that my whole family helps with.  There was no way to get out of it!  There were rarely days when there wasn't a big fight or argument because someone (usually me) didn't want to be out in the hot, humid, wet, mosquito infested fields moving pipe, but, I still did it.  After the hay got tall enough, my dad or one of my brothers would mow it with the swather(?).  Then it would dry for several days then it would be baled then it would be hauled stacked.  Then the cycle would begin again...  Irrigate, mow, bale, haul, stack.  We usually get three cuttings of hay each year, sometimes four when we have a wet year.  Depending on the year and how much water is in the reservoirs, we stop irrigating in August or September.  The hay may get cut one or two more times but toward the end of September to the middle of October, we just let it grow so that the cows have food when we bring them home at the end of October.  This is the final big family event of the year.  We have another cattle drive and this time, we trail the cows all the way home.  There is no loading them in the semis.  Because of this, the fall cattle drive usually takes two days.  The first day consists of gathering the cows and driving them halfway.  This part is usually done on a Friday, then on Saturday, we bring them the rest of the way.  on the second day, a large portion of the way home is on a somewhat busy road so there are always cars driving through our herd of cows. We get some funny looks from the people who drive by but they are usually patient and wait for the cows to get around them.  After we get the cows home, we usually gather everyone in our back yard and have lunch together before everyone heads their separate ways.  

     In the fall, we stay busy moving the cows around to all of the different pastures, trying to stretch the feed out as long as we can.  When we have absolutely no more grass left, we start to feed the cows the hay that we grew during the summer.  We usually don't start feeding twice a day everyday until there is snow on the ground but when it freezes, we start to feed the cows straw with a little bit of hay to supplement the dry grass that they had been getting.  I love this time of year.  I love the cold weather, the snow, and the fact the it starts getting dark earlier.  Some of my fondest memories are of coming in the house at night after feeding the cows with my whole family and taking care of the other animals.  All of the windows are fogged up because it;s cold outside and there is delicious food cooking on the stove.  Those are the days I look forward to during the heat of the summer.  I love sitting in front of the fireplace and listening to the wood cracking and popping as it burns to heat our house.  The worst thing about this time of year is having to go to school!  Now that I have graduated, I will always be at college from September to April, my favorite months of the year.  I know that leaving home and having new adventures is just a part of growing up, but it really stinks sometimes.   

     All of these events and times of year are just the big things.  There are so many other things that have to be done to keep everything running smoothly.  There is always some piece of equipment broken during the summer that has to be fixed or some cow or calf during the winter that needs a shot or a fence that's broken or some other thing.  There is always work that needs to be done!  We rarely go on trips, and when we do, someone always has to be home to take care of everything.  

     So, going back to that post that I read this morning, I agree completely with what the author said.  Being raised on a farm is one of the best ways for children to be raised.  It can be frustrating at times, but you learn from a very early age that hard work will always pay off.  Whether immediately or in the future, it will always be worth it.  Working hard is NOT abuse!  Looking back now, I wish I would have enjoyed it more as a kid.  While I am going to miss out on a lot of things in the net years of my life, I hope to one day have a family and raise them in the same way that I was raised.  Because living in the country on a ranch is the BEST way to live!  

For anyone who actually made it to the very end, Good job :)  Now you know more about my life than you probably ever wanted to :)

It Is Worth It!

Yesterday, one of my best friends in the entire word started a blog!  Here's a link to  Maddie's Blog !  It looked sooo stinking cute so I was trying to change the background on mine.  I really am not very tech savvy and needless to say, my bog looks the same :)  I did find out how to get links to my Facebook and Pinterest accounts but that is the only change.  Anyways, this summer has been full of firsts for me.  My first real job, my first time being away from my family for an extended period of time, my first time babysitting all day, everyday, my first time living somewhere other than Weiser, my first real time going to a singles ward, my first time missing our cattle drive, my first time not having to fix fence in our mountain pasture, my first time not being in Weiser for the Fiddle Festival (thank goodness!), my first time missing the Washington County fair(not by choice), my first time registering for college classes, my first time eating at like seven different restaurants and there are more that I can't think of right now!  I'm so thankful for the opportunity that I have had thus far to experience so many new things and to learn how to deal with missing things that I am so familiar with.  I am not for a second going to say that it has been easy, because this has probably been one of the hardest things in my entire life!  But I wouldn't change a minute of it!  Not a minute of blown out diapers, or spit-up encrusted clothes, or a fussy baby.  Not a minute of nasty dry skin because of how hard the water is here.  All of those things are worth it because I get to see this adorable face EVERYDAY!

And because I get to spend time with my incredible sister-in-law!  I'm glad that I had the circumstances necessary for me to be able to move 3 days after graduation!  This is probably an experience that I will not have again, and I'm just sooo glad that I was able to have it this summer!

The 4th of July and the importance of SUNSCREEN!!

I have reached the halfway mark of living in Provo for the summer!!  I cannot believe how fast the past six weeks have gone!!  I started going to a singles ward with one of Emily friends and it has been awesome!!  Funny side note, So this guy in my ward is actually the one who made this video!!

How General Authorities Eat their Reeses Peanut Butter Cups :)

Anyways, Everyone that I've met in this ward have been super awesome!! 

Last Saturday, Emily, Keith and I went to Thanksgiving Point and looked at the farm animals :)  Haha :)  It was nice to go out and do something and most of the animals there aren't animals that we have on our farm at home so it was still pretty fun!  

A super awesome bench that was outside the door.

Keith is getting sooo big!!  I can't believe how much he has grown in the month and a half since I have been here!!  He is soo adorable!!!

On Wednesday, Emily made some DELICIOUS cupcakes for work and for the 4th of July.  

Finally, on the 4th of July, my brother Cliff and his wife Nancy who have been in Korea for a year, came down to Provo after being in Weiser for a few days, so I spent a large part of the day with them.  We went to a reservoir, i think it's called Deer Creek Reservoir, and went swimming.  It was a lot of fun to get to spend time with them since I hadn't seen them in over a year!

Before I left, Emily made sure that I had a bunch of sunscreen so that I wouldn't get sunburned but I didn't actually put any on except for on my face and in the part of my hair. Biggest mistake of my life!!  I have had some REALLY bad sunburns in my life but this one is worse or equal to one that I had last summer.  I was thinking, oh, I'm so pasty white, I won't get sunburned that bad......  um, whatever!  

My back is even worse!  Needless to say, I haven't slept very well the past two nights!!  

Clay also came home for the long weekend so that has been great!!  On Friday night, we had a barbecue at Nancy's sister's house which was great.  Anyways, this last week has been a loooonnnggg one!  Not bad though!  I'm so thankful that we have the privilege to live in America and that the founding fathers had the courage to stand up for what they believed in!