Spring in Pony Creek

Sometimes we'll get a random snowstorm and it has been rainy this week. But Spring is definitely here. We took a day off and just played in the dirt. I loved watching the little kids. They were completely caked from head to foot without a care in the world. They seem to know that someone is going to clean their clothes and give them baths and feed them and tuck them in a warm soft bed when playtime is all over. How nice to be so carefree. 

Last week we went to Aunt Rylee's family farm that sits in a little valley surrounded on one side by a ravine with trees and the other side is green fields covered in dandelions. They raise cattle and they invited us to come witness the branding, castration and debudding routine with the calves. I was a little nervous and I'm glad we missed most of it. We got there at the tail end and the calves didn't seem to know that anything had happened, they just wanted their moms. 

The big boys also got the interesting experience of watching them check a mama cow for pregnancy. I certainly felt for her! I think they were a little disturbed, and it led to a great conversation later on!

Watching the Uterus Check

I wasn't sure why he looked so melancholy. When I asked he said,
"I'm just thinking how much a hot dog sounds good right now!"

This was at the end of the day...a very long day. She was so tired
and does not like being away from home or her nest for very long.
She laid in her bed like this for 30 minutes without moving
and didn't want to be touched. Then she finally fell asleep
and slept the rest of the evening away. 

Learning to Work

It has been a challenge to find ways to teach the kids about work. There is only so much to do in a little house with a yard in the city. They helped with dishes, housework and yard work, but sometimes they want to save for something and eventually they will need real jobs to save for missions and college. 

This week they worked in the greenhouses with Grandpa, picking delicious hydroponic tomatoes.

We also helped Grandma with the hot springs wash. They have an old washing machine and wringer from the early 1900's...they used these somewhere between the metal wash boards and the closed, electric washing machines we have had for decades. 

First, we filled the washer with soap and hot water from the hose. The hot water is straight from a natural hot spring.

Then we filled two rinse pans with more hot water. Warren put the clothes in the washer and turned it on. The kids helped swish the clothes around. Then Warren fed them through the wringer and we guided them into the first rinse pan. Then it's through the wringer again and into the second rinse pan with fabric softener. Then a third time through the wringer and into a clean laundry basket, then out onto the clothes lines to dry in the sunshine. 

Warren and Shad learned to drive the ranger around the grounds and we drove the laundry baskets up and back from the clothes lines. 

And the excavating is FINALLY DONE! Yay! James and his brother have been out digging and tamping for days now. It's time for planting to start, and they are glad to be finished with one of our big projects. The concrete guys come next week to pour the footings. Then we'll back to fill and tamp around the walls. 

We love being up on our land. The kids love to explore and run around in all the grass and climb on big rocks that James excavated. The most fun part of being there right now though, is climbing on the huge dirt mounds. Aunt Rylee is about to have her fourth, so I took her big girls one afternoon and we spent it playing on the dirt pile. 

I love seeing how carefree the little kids are. They get dirt in their ears, under nails, inside pants and all over their faces and arms. They don't care! Someone will wash their clothes and scrub their bodies and dump out dirty shoes and then feed and put them to bed. They don't have a care in the world. Everything is taken care of and they can enjoy every sensation and smell and taste of their fun without worry. I stood their smiling and watching them, but in the back of my head I was counting nine showers, nine pairs of dirty shoes, nine outfits to be washed, and nine seats in my car that would be covered in dirt. 

Thank you Warren for vacuuming my car at the shop today!

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FINIS!

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