Drought Conditions and Buying Hay

There is something fascinating to me about big rigs hauling huge loads. Our hay gets here from North Dakota. Even though we had to pay for the hay and the trucking it ended up being less expensive than buying hay from someone close by. Hay around here is anywhere between $180- $250 a ton.  We were not going to pay that much. It took a lot of looking, but we finally found something to fit our budget.

You can see how dry it really is here. In this part of the country 22" of rainfall a year is average. This year I don't know if we've even had 10". Everyone is feeling it. People are selling cattle and trucks are hauling hay all over the place.

Daniel had fun unloading the hay with our way cool old fashioned tractor with no power steering! Ha ha!

Back to School 2012

August 24 2012 was the first day of school here. We'd had a long hot summer, done lots of fun things and the kids were ready to go back to school. Funny how after school got out in May Kiley asked me when Cailin and Colten were going back to school. I think she missed her time with Daniel and me. Well after we dropped them off Kiley asks when they would be home. You can get used to anything!

 Cutting Cailin's hair has done wonders for her confidence at school. She finally feels like she fits in.

 Colten went through 2 pairs of boots last year from scuffing them up playing in the dirt, so now he brings an extra pair of shoes for that!

 Kiley is our "Linus", she loves her blankie, or Gee Gee as she still calls it.

Clay always has a smile on his face and ready to go anywhere!

Two Buddies Climb Table Rock

Two cousins decided to take on the challenge to climb a mountain: Table Rock. My sister Michelle and I had planned on doing it for a month, and decided to let them come along. It was not easy, but we all made it! Thank goodness for Uncle John who had to help Colten and Kade get to the very top as they both thought they'd come far enough when the fear of heights kicked in!

 Colten and Kade both had moments where they sat down, said they would NOT go on and cried a bit.

 Neither one of them wanted to stand up at the top.

 Yea! We made it!

We went up the face, but came down Huckleberry which takes longer but helps save your knees as the face it steep. It is really pretty up there! I wish this were in my yard.