New trailer for the four wheeler

Last week Amber and I went hunting for a good quality trailer for our four wheeler. I had the experience of using a variety of trailers a few weeks ago for a service project. I noticed very quickly that there was a large difference in quality between the different types of trailers.

Amber and I found a trailer that we thought would work and be really tough. However, the trailer was not in stock and we had to order it and wait for a week for it to come.

Tonight, Amber and the little ones went to Sears to pick up the trailer. When the older kids and I got home from shooting with our neighbors, we all got together and assembled the trailer.

We are excited to put the kids to work gathering up sticks, logs, and other debris to help clean up our area. I think the best part about it, is the fact that the kids will probably have a good time driving the four wheeler and picking everything up as well. I call that a win-win situation!

New Job

For the summer I wanted Aylee and John to have the opportunity to have a job. I didn't have enough money to pay them for their work, however, we figured out a good way to do this.

They are each required to work for me for about two hours each day. We meet at about 7:30 AM to get their assignments.

They get paid eight dollars an hour which is the going rate for farm hands of high school kids around here.

Instead of getting money directly, their money gets applied directly to the purchase of the calves that we bought earlier this year.

By the time we sell the calves in the fall, they will get a percentage of the profits equivalent to the percentage of ownership that they have in the calves through their work during the summer.

They have done a lot of good work for me so far this first week of this arrangement. Today their job was to paint the cement collars around our buried sprinkler heads in the pasture. I am hoping that we can get our little ranch looking spiffy and organized with their help.

Half Marathon

Yesterday morning, Amber got up bright and early to head up to Idaho Falls to inflict pain on her body.  She and her friend, Tia Rickabaugh, were excited and set to run their very first Half Marathon.  

The race was called the "Personal Best Half Marathon".  The course was near the airport and was sandwiched in between rolling green fields.

Amber and Tia ran the race together most of the way.  Amber finished the race with a great time for her first half marathon:  2 hours 17 minutes and 43 seconds.  Tia was announced as the third place winner. Amber had two runners between her and Tia so it looks like Amber came in 6th place overall for the women runners.

The kids and I waited at the finish line and were excited to see Amber cross over.  She looked strong and had a great time.  She has been worried about IT-Band issues with her knee lately as well as some foot problems, but her body held it together for the race.

Way to go Amber!

Early Mother's Day

We ended up celebrating Mother's Day a week early this year due to the fact that this Sunday afternoon I fly off to New Orleans for our annual conference for ServiceNow.  

We all worked together and created a fun meal Sunday afternoon.  We marinated some steaks for half the day.  They were so tender and delicious.   We also gave Amber her gifts.  It was a Running mother's day as most of Amber's presents were to deal with her new running addiction.

Amber has her half marathon coming up in less than two weeks and already she is starting to study up on running a full marathon.  It is pretty amazing, especially at her age! ;-)

Rube Goldberg Show

Aylee and her lab partner, Mark Crandall, have been spending their time in their GT (Gifted and Talented) Solutions Science class building a Rube Goldberg machine.  These types of machines use gravity and other objects to perform unique functions that all contribute to an end goal.

For their machine, they had a marble roll down a foam tube where it landed on a plane of dominoes.  The dominoes would knock each other over successively until one would fall into a weighted box.  This would cause the box to fall and alternatively raise up the other end of the string that had caused a switch to touch a sprocket.  The switch allowed electricity to flow from a battery that caused the sprocket to turn.  The turning sprocket would light up a small light builb.  She then had part of our NXT (lego robot kit) positioned such that its light sensor would react to the lit light bulb.  The light from the light bulb would signal the NXT to turn on it's motor which then would pull a toy fish out of a small tank of water.  It was a pretty amazing machine!

They had a science fair at the middle school.  We took all of the kids to look at the various booths.  Mom had wanted to come but has been sick for quite some time, so Dad made a special trip up to see the science fair.  We enjoyed all of the booths and cool demonstrations.  Even the youngest of the kids thought it was an amazing event.

New herd of calves

On Thursday, for better or worse, I made some phone calls and ended up purchasing 18 holstein-jersey calves (with a few beef mix as well).  I ended up paying more per calf this year than I did last year, and these calves are a bit smaller as well.   We are getting in earlier than last year, though, so hopefully we can make it up with a couple more months of feeding.

I made a gamble and bought a lot more calves than last year.  We are hoping to fence off a neighbor's 22 acre field for some extra feed this year.  I had hoped to use the pasture on the other side of our property, but the people that kept their horses at our place last year beat us to the punch and got their horses in the other pasture before we approached our neighbors about doing the same.

Aylee and John have the responsibility of keeping the calves watered.  They also work together to grain the calves as well.  They have each put some money into the investment.  We are hoping for a decent return when we sell the small herd this fall/winter.