Those Jolly Holles: pasture

Summertime is here!!!! I love summer, being outside and working in the yard. Not that I have a perfect yard, I have a very large yard that sometimes gets invaded by farm equipment!

Back to sweet, sweet summer! This summer I put our usual baby wading pool up on our cement slab. It was banished in a few days by the H-O-R-S-E basketball players, our two college boys for summer help and my husband. In consolation Orrin suggested we use a stock tank in the pasture across the way. He filled a 18 ft tank! I did have to empty it again, using the whirlpool method (walking around and around and AROUND), making the dirt and rocks and algae go down the drain in the middle of the tank.

We love it! We follow cow paths over there or ride a 4-wheeler.

Our country pool!

Everyone having fun!

A good-sized float even fits comfortably. We even play in the dirt around the tank. It has a nice cement edge, similar to a sidewalk around the whole edge so we don't track in a ton of mud! The concrete was poured by my husband and his brother in 1995 see...

Ever have one of those days that makes you smile? I had one today. I guess the main ingredient anymore to having a great day is spending the day as a family. Add that we tagged along with Orrin as he worked, riding 4-wheelers, beautiful day to be outside, and pastures and it gets even better! Ended with a B-E-A-utiful sunset!

The boys new obsession is following cow paths in the pastures, which turns out to be a favorite thing Orrin and I both did as children too! We found a huge tree that had split making it perfect to climb on. The actual trunk was hollowed out and I made all my boys get in it for a picture! All around this big tree were turkey feathers. I excitedly told the boys that turkeys must come here to roost at night! When Orrin came over to see, he informed them a coyote or bobcat must have killed and eaten a turkey here. I was relieved they didn't burst into tears after hearing that happy ending:)

Orrin had to go around checking fence and he brought an extra 4-wheeler for me and the little ones. He also changed the oil in the windmill heads of two of the windmills. I admit that I was a little nervous with the kids there ready to watch their father fall to his death or dismemberment. I especially wasn't pleased when he TOOK a PHONE CALL on the top! I did not take a picture as I could just see the flash making him stumble or loose his grip. Ranchers risk their life just providing water to their livestock. Maybe I should have taken a picture and the caption would be "What have you done to put food on the plate of others?" He did tell the boys that until he says they are big enough to climb up the windmill....they can't. I sure hoped they listened! Notice in some of the pictures how dirty he was from all the oil! As ranchers in Northwest Kansas it is possible for the wind not to blow and pump water for cattle. Orrin and his father Kevin have been putting more and more submersible pumps in that eliminates wind issues. However floats still can be broken by cows that prefer to swim instead of drink so checking cattle out to pasture is a mandatory once a week but better it be twice a week chore in the summertime. People have lost whole herds by assuming everything was going right and it wasn't. Being good stewards is important to us as we also are very conscious of over grazing and stocking rates(how many cattle are in a pasture per acre, we try for 11 acres per cow). We also rotate cattle into different connected, smaller pastures to control the quality of forage or grass. It also helps to keeps tabs on the cattle, looking for any sickness, lameness etc.