Thursday, April 8 –
Cattle are always up for a little evening treat. Large bags of feed pellets, called “Cake” are full of protein and help supplement lacking pastures in the winter months. This spring, wild rye grass has made its appearance, but these recently calved mothers will still come running for a taste of cake. Aren’t the babies sweet? Many of them have a Charolais sire and are sporting his color or some version of it.
Thursday, September 20 –
We wanted to get to the mountains as a family before it became too cold to go. We headed to the Cloudcroft area of New Mexico. It was a short trip but very enjoyable. We took a tent to sleep in and a few other things for cooking, but traveled pretty light. We just about had the place to ourselves although quite a few people came in Friday night and Saturday as we were leaving.
On the drive over the scenery was so pretty.
We were delayed setting up our camp because it began raining about the time we got to Cloudcroft. But we shopped around in town and waited for it to clear. When we finally pulled into this camping spot, we were surprised to see a few elk grazing peacefully.
It didn’t take long for the guys to set up camp. It did take a while to get the campfire going since the wood was wet, but they did it.
You gotta have bacon for breakfast when you’re in the mountains, right?
It was so nice to be in the mountains again. It smelled so good.
We managed to work in a couple of nice hikes on Friday.
This old train trestle bridge was at the end of our first hike. It was very impressive and dated back to the late 1800’s.
This scenic view shows the white sands near Alamogordo in the distance.
Besides deer and elk, apparently there were bear roaming about as well judging by the tracks we found.
When we returned to camp, the elk were back. I managed to sneak around and get a few closer shots.
Stockton and I had to make a run into town to pick up something at Allsups. The sky was so pretty we snapped these shots.
Saturday, November 11 –
Nathan’s best friend from high school, Steve Johnson, and his son, Luke, stopped by for a visit today. He and Nathan swapped stories about their high school days and caught up on the latest family news. Most of the stories were well-loved re-tellings, but there were a few new ones that we hadn’t already heard.
Here’s how they looked in 1983 after a successful game playing with the New Deal High School Lions
Sunday, July 9 –
We got up early and traveled to Midland in order to attend a baby shower for Courtney that the Fairmont Park church of Christ was giving her for her expected baby boy in September. After the shower we got to visit with both our Midland grand babies and then attend church with them on Sunday night before returning home.
The first thing we did was meet for lunch at Cracker Barrel.
Then it was on to the shower for the girls. The Fairmont ladies really outdid themselves with a darling outdoorsy hunting theme for the decor.
Courtney got so many cute and useful things at the shower.
Afterwards, we went back to Cim and Courtney’s and played with the grand babies again.
Cim gave us a demonstration of lifting using his homemade atlas stone.
The evening brought another fine sermon from Laredo at Fairmont Park church of Christ. It also gave us a little more time to spoil Callahan and Bella.
Tuesday, April 19 –
We had a nice shower today which followed on the heels of some earlier rain on the weekend. We didn’t get as much as Cim and Courtney did at Afton, but this will certainly help grow some summer grass. The clouds were so colorful and interesting all afternoon and as the evening progressed, they became more and more dramatic and unusual. Stockton and Nathan were also working on some things around the pens and I was able to snap a few pictures of them, too.
Nathan spots a coyote out on the first wheat terrace. Stockton takes a long shot at it.
Clouds in the east and a rainbow.
The horses are curious.
Stockton is hiding under the empty lick tub to try and aggravate his dog, Steel.
Stockton gets Steel to demonstrate his jumping skills.
Friday, September 4 –
Nathan and his brother Chris went looking for Elk in Colorado again this year. As you can see, they didn’t spend an enormous amount of time taking pictures.
Chris took these two pictures of Nathan. In the background are two black bears.
Sunday, June 21 –
Georgia and Courtney put together a wonderful meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad, bread and chocolate cupcakes.
Friday, June 12 –
Nathan and his mom were able to pick apricots from a tree in Matador. It had been pretty well picked over, but with a tall ladder, Nathan was able to reach some real beauties near the top limbs. He and Carolina made quick work of halving them and getting them in the freezer.
Sunday, May 31 –
Nathan, Stockton and Carolina went riding this afternoon. It had been a while since they had all gotten to go together. Nathan said his horse especially needed a lot of “schooling”.
These pictures were taken when they returned.
