What are they up to now?

“What are they up to now?” You might wonder from time to time. Or, maybe not, and that’s just fine too. 😉

Well in any case, I’ll tell ya.

Maverick is a year and a half now, as of June! He is becoming quite the young man. We have loved our journey in parenthood, though I admit, it’s more trying than I once thought. Maverick loves to help mom in practical ways: rinsing and putting away dishes, wiping up messes with a wash cloth, “folding” laundry 😉, feeding the cows, and watering plants. He also loves to play with trucks, chase his puppies, sit on dad’s lap in the driver’s seat, try on people’s glasses, and climb up ladders or any climbable surface he can find. He keeps us very busy and never seems to be bored – that is, unless mom and dad are cuddling each other- then all of a sudden, nothing else is interesting! His current favorite hobby is playing inside a large cardboard box. Endless days of fun have been had so far!

Rex and I made our first real farming investment this spring, with the purchase of 25 young heifers that we will raise up and sell in the coming winter as bred replacement heifers. This entailed bringing home the heifers from the auction, branding and medicating them all, and feeding daily until we were able to move them onto green pasture. Right now they are chowing away on fresh grass in the Meeteetse mountains, getting fat and happy! We have a lot of work to do before bringing them back off the mountain in the fall, including digging a trench for water, building a corral to hold them through the winter, pregnancy checking, and stocking up on hay. We’ll get there though! One thing at a time ☺️

We are awaiting an order of 150 meat chicks that we will grow out and process 8 weeks after they arrive, and hope to have some success with providing farm fresh chicken to our surrounding community and our own family. We’ll also be bringing home about a dozen laying ducklings, who will hopefully begin laying in October or November. I’m excited to have fresh eggs of our own, but I say that now before the work of keeping them has begun!

This past spring I brought home a Jersey cow who we milked by hand March through July. Now she’s taking a break as we wait for her calf to be born in September. Milking a cow sounded dreamy (someone slap me, I have no idea why!) But in reality it took a LOT of work, discipline, time, and energy to keep up with it all. However, I am very proud of what we- Elsie my cow, and I- accomplished these past months. Elsie came to us never having been hand milked before, and not trained to lead on a halter. She now stands so gently for me that Maverick can walk underneath her and brush or pet her while I’m milking, without any worries. We averaged about 2-3 gallons a day, and though I expect her to produce more this next time around, she’ll be nursing a calf as well so we will likely get about the same. I found that there are several people in our community who enjoy raw milk, and thanks to the Food Freedom Act that was passed in Wyoming a few years back, legally I can sell it from the farm. So we built up quite the little base of regular customers who helped pay Elsie’s feed bill!

Our milk cow was joined by two Longhorn cows and their calves a few weeks ago. We don’t really know what we’re doing with them yet, but everything seems to its own adventure. We drove down to Sheridan Wyoming to pick them up, one late night after Rex got off work. It was a 3.5 hour drive one way, so we pulled into a truck stop around 3AM and made up a bed of blankets in the truck. Around 7:30 it was already so warm outside we woke up sweating! After a picnic breakfast we went and picked up our newest additions; one of the cows had a calf at side, and one was about to have her calf any day. We took a scenic route home and saw some parts of Wyoming we’ve never visited before, it was beautiful! Two days after we brought them home, the pregnant cow had her calf, a truly adorable heifer we named Cleo. The Longhorns are gentle enough that we dared to try milking one, and so I once again have fresh cow’s milk in my fridge, thank You Lord!

I’m 6 1/2 months pregnant at the moment, and we praise God that this little baby is healthy, active and growing by the day, as my ever-increasing belly will show! I’m just starting to get into the headspace that we’re actually having a baby…. Go figure 😉 so I’m suddenly thinking more about names, rearranging bedrooms, feeling the baby fever when I see any babies, getting excited about cleaning my bathroom… oh boy. Let’s just say, I’m definitely eager for October and the birth of our second born.

Rex has kept busy between 16-hour days mentoring boys on the ranch, keeping on top of our livestock and outdoor projects here at home, fixing (and re-fixing) vehicles, doing side jobs in construction, and riding horseback in the mountains checking on cattle, fences and watering areas. In his “spare” time he loves on Maverick and I, and once in awhile gets a chance to break out his guitar or the Xbox.

I’ve been doing my best to stay on top of housework, keep up with our growing collection of livestock, and embrace my vocation as mother to a very active toddler. A few days a week Maverick and I spend the afternoon taking care of our elderly neighbor and his wife, and on the other days we stay home and watch the two daughters of our good friends while their parents work. God has (always has and always will!) been so good to provide for us in our every need, we are so appreciative! I have a list of projects I’d like to tackle that include learning to sew, and make cheese, but lately have been getting by just keeping us alive and fed 😉

We don’t have any plans to visit our family and friends in Minnesota at the moment, but we do miss you all and hope to see you again soon! We’ve been so happy to have many of both of our families visit this spring and enjoyed hosting in our little home in the valley.

May God bless you all and your families! ♥️♥️ With love, Rex, Anna, Maverick, and little pea.