Grandpa | Midwestern At Heart

A Fairing we will go…

If there’s one thing I did when I was growing up, it was growing up at the county fair (and the district fair and the state fair….). I started showing sheep the summer I turned 15 and ended my showing career when I was 21, the oldest you can be (in FFA it is 4 Novembers after you graduate).

This last week was our county fair. On Thursday Abug and I met up with a friend for lunch and some other friends stopped by to talk to us. They asked if I had been to the fair yet and I told them no. I think it shocked everyone. Hubby and I did have plans to go, just haying season took over as did life and so our plans were to go out Friday night. And that’s just what we did.

Last year Abug was able to experience the fair at like 2 weeks old. Everyone thought we were crazy for having her out there, but like I said, I grew up in these show barns so it didn’t seem all that crazy to me. I was a fair kid.

I’m not going to lie, I sure hope she’s involved in showing and continuing the 6th generation farmer and on to future generations. I guess only time will tell.

These two girls are roughly 4 months apart with Abug the oldest. The last time they were together PN was a few weeks old and both girls were sacked out experiencing their first “Play date” ha! And now, good luck getting them to both look at the camera, little lone smile!

(more…)

Farm Shows & Fried Chicken

You would think I might do these posts in a specific order… you know by given date or whatever, but that’s just not my style. So yesterday you learned what a Thursday evening looks like for us, then I promised you Friday evening but instead let’s jump forward to Sunday shall we? It only sounds fitting… I don’t know why, ask me later why it sounds fitting but for now just go with it.

Sunday we made plans to go to the Four State Farm Show with my dad. It’s a yearly farm show that is held over in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Last year Abug was only a couple weeks old so she wasn’t able to join us, but this year, this year she’s a year old so that didn’t stop her or us! I have started making it a point to get pictures of her “driving” all these different things… I think it started with my dad’s new truck back the end of May. So we had to climb all over all the new farm machinery. We “drove” tractors, combines, sprayers, lawnmowers. There was nothing off limits.

(more…)

Dad, Why Gerts?: Our Families Cattle Story

Growing up I just knew we had red cows. As I got older I knew they were Santa Gertrudis cattle. But from there I got to wondering how my family decided upon this breed. There are lots of breeds of cows out there, the most popular that most people know is Angus because you’ll see a lot of restaurants and fast food joints promoting 100% Angus Beef.

But we have Santa Gertrudis. The other night dad and I were sitting in the truck waiting for hubby to finish up baling the last row of hay up so we could move on to the next pasture and I thought, I wonder why Gerts. In fact, the fields we were baling, the guy is trying to get in the Gert business so it was a good opportunity to strike up a conversation on why we had Gerts. So this is my dad’s response to my question, Why Gerts (Santa Gertrudis)?

In 7th grade our family was going on a trip to Gulf Port, MS and we stopped in Morrilton, AR at Winthrop Rockerfeller’s house. He was the governor of Arkansas at the time and owned quite a few acres of land (read quite a few as A LOT). He had Santa Gertrudis cattle from the actual King Ranch line in Texas and grandma had read an article that they were going to be on exhibit.

(more…)

Christmas Day

So I feel like Christmas (Christmas Eve) was a whirlwind this year. Not only did it cyclone in but dang, it went away as fast as it came in :(. That makes me sad. I was a bit of a scrooge this year and I don’t really know why. Anyway we woke up at 7am to start opening presents. So Brittin sent me this picture and said her husband caught Santa making an appearance at their house…

He made an appearance at our house too though. There were 3 cookies on that plate when we went to bed and half a cup of milk. (more…)

Our First Night Apart

This blog is for a lot of things and one thing is to document our life together. My husband and I have experienced a lot of things together and it is so much fun to sit down and take a gander back. Now obviously not everything is on here because with every blog, there is a certain part of your life you don’t share… But here’s a sharing moment.

Monday night was hubby and my first night away from Baby Squirrel (or baby girl, whichever). Here’s how it started:

A week ago Tuesday I turned in a rough draft on one of my papers for Research Methods. It’s about The Rape of the Lock, a poem by Alexander Pope, but that’s beside the point (one last point… I’m not crazy about that poem.. okay done now). I had to go into the school early on Tuesday, earlier than normal for a conference on my paper so I made arrangements for my mom to take baby girl a bit earlier so that I could make it to the school on time.

So Monday when I picked baby girl up from my grandma (her great grandma) hubby and I had plans to meet up at my parents when he got off work. We had discussed it the night before about seeing if mom and dad wanted a sleep over with baby girl, so that I could have Tuesday to work on some homework. He didn’t think I could do it…

So I walked into my parent’s house on Monday and asked my mom to tell me if she didn’t want to, but would she be able to have a sleep over with baby girl and hubby would pick her up on Tuesday night like normal.

You’d have thought I gave my mom a million dollars. She told me she thought wouldn’t get the option until baby girl was in high school and could make her own decisions.

Before hubby and I left my parents house I hugged and kissed and hugged and kissed baby girl. Mom said she felt like she was prying baby girl away from me. Then I handed her to my mom, one last kiss and left for the evening. Told my parents if they needed anything to holler, I’d be over in a heart beat and I don’t speed. lol. Then I left.

Don’t worry, I cried pretty much all the way home and even once I got home.

(more…)

How to: Haul Cattle to the Sale barn

If you were raised on a farm or are a transplant to a farm, you know there are many reasons to take cattle to the sale barn. But if you weren’t raised up around cattle productions, let me tell you some of the reasons that you might take them to the sale barn…

Drought – There’s no grass for them to eat and you don’t want them to starve.
Money – Sometimes you need the money so you sell what you have.
Culling – Sometimes you have an animal that doesn’t fit your bovine (technical) program so you get rid of it to replace it with another animal that suits your program.
Mean – Sometimes cows can be mean. Why keep them if they are? My grandpa had one break his hip once, that cow left so she didn’t hurt any one else.
You want out of the Cow business – Self explanatory.

And there are many other reasons, these are just a few.

One misconception about cattle breeders. Yes, there are a few lemons out there; meaning there are people who don’t take care of their animals, but most people take better care of their animals than they do themselves. Our animals eat before we do. They rely on us so obviously we take excellent care of them. And yes there are those who don’t take care of their animals but there are many more who do than don’t. You just hear about those who don’t in the media. They try to promote that more than the happy animals! Just saying!

So here’s your how to on hauling cattle to the sale barn:

(more…)

OMG I’m turning into my parents

It’s funny… the chain of events that happen in your life. The way that the world goes round. Evolution if you want to go there… whatever you want to call it, life is weird!

You are a baby and a young kiddo and you think your parents are the grandest. Then you get pre-teens through your teenage years and you start looking at your parents like they are crazy and aliens and everything else.

Then you get into your 20’s and your parents are your friends and become cool again…

dun dun dun…

Then you have your own family and you turn into your parents.

I realized this tonight when I was repeating “sleep sack” in a funny voice saying how much baby girl loves to sleep in her sleep sack. (I don’t know what else to call them… they are fleece things with arms and the bottom is like a sack and they zip in them). That’s when I had one of those ho crap moments and thought I’m turning into my mother, or what I can only imagine my mother like at my age (maybe not age… maybe point in life).

Now if only I could be the size my mother was at my age! She wore a size 4. I’m not sure I’ve ever worn a 4, not even in my skinny years… ha!

But that’s neither here nor there. Just know, I’m turning into both of my parents in different ways. I guess my parents really are cool. But don’t tell them I said that… lol… we’ll keep that our little secret :).

Happy Friday!

The Horse Chiropractor

If there’s one thing anyone should know, we take excellent care of our horses (and all the other critters too!!). A few years ago KG to majorly hurt. We took him to a vet down in Oklahoma and a few hundred dollar later he was on the road to recovery. Now, KG is 19 years old so he’s starting to push it in horse years, but that still doesn’t mean we can’t/shouldn’t take care of him!

This week dad made an appointment to take him to a Horse Chiropractor/Acupuncturist to see if maybe that was what was making the old man ache so terribly. Friday night was our appointment so we loaded him up in the trailer and headed to the Vet.

When we got there, dad and hubby unloaded KG. Tbug and I walked off just to the side to stay out of the way and this huge fat cat came to greet us. At one point the cat bit me which made me jump and laugh, apparently we weren’t paying enough attention to him… lol.

If you see the lines on KG right around his ribs, that was the acupuncture point. The vet was drawing all the lines to make sure everything lined up where it belonged.

(more…)

Rib Crib – Stillwater, OK

If you remember back last fall, my parents made a middle of the night trip to Stillwater with Squirty and then 2 days later dad, hubby and I made a mad dash back to Stillwater with Mini Me trying to save him. We were able to save Mini Me, especially since the few days prior with Squirty, we knew the warning signs.

There’s still no sign as to what caused that to happen, however there were apparently other cases of the same thing happening to other horses near the Stillwater area. (not sure the distance)

Anyway one of the vets at OSU called my dad and asked how Mini Me was doing and if dad would be willing to bring him back down for a follow up visit. Dad said he would so last Wednesday dad and hubby took off work and headed for Stillwater.

They were running ahead of schedule when they got to Stillwater so they decided to grab a bite to eat before they had Mini Me’s appointment with the Vet School. They chose to eat at Rib Crib.

Knowing that I love my restaurant reviews (which I haven’t really done much of lately) they were soo kind to take photos for me. Although I got some smart alic photos as well… but I won’t share and bore you with those :). Ok maybe just one 🙂

The Rib Crib sauces. There is Hot Sauce, Mild sauce and a Carolina Mustard Sauce. Ahhh I just love Rib Crib and haven’t actually eaten at one in a while. Looking at these pictures I sooo want to go ASAP! 🙂

(more…)

Outback Steakhouse – Joplin, MO

Sunday morning when we got up, Tbug, hubby and I decided to go over to my parents to ride horses. A lovely crisp Sunday morning….

Let’s just say my feet got a little LOT cold. In fact, I was sitting on the fence for a little bit and when I got down to jump on the back of a horse I about fell because I couldn’t feel my feet. So after horses were unsaddled and put away Tbug and I went and laid on the floor with our feet next to the fire place.

When we got done riding we decided that it was lunch time and Tbug we were all hungry. After debating for a while we decided upon Outback Steakhouse. So we all loaded up and headed for Outback.

(more…)