I enjoyed messaging Jamie back and forth on Monday. Mondays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week next to Sunday. I love hearing how she is doing, and her adventures in the mission field. She is growing, and learning, and finding more opportunities to teach. Homesick, and Cache sick, but doing great things.
This week has been so beautiful as far as the weather goes. It has been nice, in the low 80's and upper 70's. I do not think I have ever seen the fields this green. Wildflowers are popping up all over the place. I am loving my morning runs, with the smells and sounds of the Virgin River running swift. Not looking forward to things heating up, but loving every minute of the now.
So, Carol had her mom and sisters down this week. We had the opportunity to have a cook out on the river with them. Lane and Rose actually came down as well, and that has been a ton of fun. I love Rosella Talbot. She is and always has been a true and genuine friend to me, and to Ryan. What you see is what you get with her, and she has so many traits that I wish I could emulate better.
So, Cliven had a project up at Sheep troughs that was needing to be done, and Rose was willing to put her kids to work, even though they were on vacation. Cliven strapped a few old truck seats to a flat bed truck, and he hooked up the trailer to his Ford tractor. He promised the kids a dutch oven dinner on the range when they finished, and sent them toward the mountain with Ryan driving. Lane and Rose even hopped on, and believe me, this family knows how to work. Anyhow, Jerusha, Jasmine, Oak, Chlo, and Mo also hopped on to help, along with Dantley, Noah, and Corban. The Ford Tractor was really not ok with the work though, and kept having various problems. At first the battery kept dying. This had Ryan pretty frustrated. It died at the corral at about sundown. Ryan hates shutting a job down for the day, when he feels like it could have been done in one day. But, the Ford is Cliven's baby, and it is sometimes stubborn for everyone else that tries to operate it.
I drove up and picked them all up. I had opted to help Cliven with his dinner because I had brought part of the food and the dutch ovens. When we returned, they were just getting ready to eat, and Cliven's potatoes did not disappoint. I am kinda impartial to Ryan's dutch oven cooking, because he is just exceptional, but I can tell that he learned it all from his dad. Man...it was just a beautiful night. The wildflowers were sprouting up everywhere, and Dill was busy collecting empty shot gun shells, and shell casings. She also gathered her share of wildflowers. It was a fun night visiting with Lane and Rose under the stars, and watching the kids roast 'shmallows.
The next day, we had to go and finish because people have been purposely sabotaging our water pipes and tractors. We just barely got the Ford going again after someone sabotaged it. So, we actually took Oak on down, and left early Friday morning. We did not make it far before the tractor stalled...again. Ryan stopped to fix it, and I am always impressed with my husband's mechanical abilities. He is amazing. Anyhow, he found a leaf in the fuel system after several hours of trying to figure out why it wasn't getting fuel. Once he cleared that out, we had no problems with it again. And, I was way impressed with Oak and Chlo and their hard work that day. Good little worker bees. Lane and Rose showed up and helped us with the last few piles of pipe, and they did an amazing job of strapping everything down. They only lost a small handful of pieces coming down the mountain.
One bad thing that happened, was that my phone got smooshed under the trailer tire, I did not realize it had come out of my pocket, but it had. It shattered the phone...literally. When I tried to use it, tiny glass shards would poke my fingers. The otter box just wasn't tractor proof I guess. Anyhow, I usually go a few days, shop around, and I just couldn't do it. Not with my missionaries p-day coming up. I ran to Walmart and bought the same phone. I cannot stand the thought of missing any picture sharing or emails from my missionary, and Cache.
So, bedtime is always a fiasco. There is a Netflix series called "Stranger Things" that many people get hooked on. My kids have watched all episodes, and Ryan got kinda hooked this week. Even though Dill has already watched all episodes, she has been extra clingy at night. Mo is awful to watch the episodes with because he basically just gives you a play-by-play of all events, including plot twists, and turns. I finally told him that he just had to keep the series of events to himself, or he couldn't watch with us. He still cannot do it though. He is excited and eager to spoil every episode. I also got an incredible call from Mo's teacher. He was kinda behind and struggling with reading at the first of the year, and at this point, he is all caught up. That makes me incredibly happy.
Pigs have luckily stayed put this week. Jazz is getting her steer tamed down more and more. I am praying fair goes well this year. It is week after next.
No comments:
Post a Comment