The Steady Stream of Summer Activities

Looking at my calendar from this past week, I realized that the steady stream of summer activities has begun. Birthdays, short trips to visit family, camp, vacations, VBS, etc. Was your last week as busy as mine?

Here's a rundown of our last week.....

My daughter, Elizabeth, turned 15 last Thursday (May 21st) so we celebrated by inviting six friends to spend the night on Friday. Only four could come so we picked them up and we all went out to dinner. Then the fun started.

They hung out and talked for a while (this was a staged photo, lol)....

We play flashlight tag for two hours. We had intended on playing some other nighttime games, but one team had a hard time finding the other cheating team on 17 acres. Go figure.

Three of us in the household (Wade, Andrew, and I) were asleep by midnight but I think the girls were up to almost three a.m. so that made for a late morning for them. They skipped breakfast and waited until our family came at lunch for the party.

My girl is fifteen. Boohoo! This is her smirking while we were singing the birthday song.

She has always had a "I really don't want to hear you singing this song" reaction. Age four.

About the staying up so late. I told them they could stay up as late as they wanted AS LONG AS I did NOT hear them. Last year, when they all spent the night I was telling them to be quiet at 12:00 a.m., 1:00 a.m., and 2:00 a.m. You can bet that by 2:00 a.m., I was not a happy camper (no pun intended).

Walking down to the den where they all had their sleeping bags laid out, I still had my mouth guard in as I yelled, "Goeth to sleepth now! Elizabethth, you willth noth have anyone spendth the nighth again if youth cannot obey!" (Remember, I had my mouth guard in which makes me sound like I have three pieces of Hubba Bubba in my mouth.) Yes, it was my daughter I had heard cackling the loudest. I don't know where she gets it.....

The party and guests were all gone by about 1:30. The rest of the day was very relaxing since my house was clean! Yay for a clean house on the weekend!

That evening, Jax, our dog, and I took a walk. (He made his debut here when I shared one of his favorite homemade dog treats.) As I was trying to snap a picture of this large branch that had fallen from a tree a couple nights prior, we happened upon a turkey. Doesn't it look cool?

However, after the turkey flew off, he started going wild in the brush where the turkey had been hiding. With all his doggy hysterics, I realized the turkey must have had a nest. Going in to get Jax out of the way, I discovered nine eggs. There had been ten but he had already got one and broke it open before I realized what was happening. This was exciting for me to discover. We have had baby turkey poults on our farm before and they are fun to watch.

Wade, my husband, is a big Vanderbilt fan, so he watched the SEC Championship baseball game that afternoon they were playing in. Oh, and he also checked on his "boys."

Meet 172, 176, 289, 219.....

And meet "Eyebrows." I promised I wouldn't name the steers but....can you say you blame me??

This is not the best photo because I had zoomed in with my phone.
I haven't been able to get him to eat out of my hand yet like some of the others.
We're getting there though.

By that evening, Wade had told me he wanted to drive down to Alabama the next morning to watch Vanderbilt in the playoff game. In our 19 years of marriage, my man has not asked for much. Granted, when he does ask for something it has a pretty high price tag (Scag mower, tractor, ten head of cattle....).

Wade and Andrew were on the road by 7:30 Sunday morning for the game. Elizabeth and I left that afternoon heading toward middle Tennessee to visit Wade's family. See, we had plans to work cattle on Monday. The boys got there late that night (after Vanderbilt had lost but isn't that how it always goes?).

Monday, May 25th was our 19th anniversary! And as I mentioned, guess what we did to celebrate?

We worked cattle at the family farm starting at 6 a.m.! I told him he must have married a good woman who will spend her anniversary doctoring cattle. Thankfully, we only had about 60 cows to come through the head catch so it was an easy morning. In fact, we were done by lunch. An easy day of working cattle for sure. Plus, we had a couple extra guys working with us this year. Plus, the weather was amazing with a constant breeze, overcast, and mild temperatures.

This was the first lucky cow. Really, it IS best to be first and get it over!

A bit about the family farm....it's in the Sequatchie Valley and is about 320 acres. It's a beautiful piece of property. There are two old homesites on the farm as well as an old family cemetery where Wade's three times great grandfather is buried. His family has been farming there for 175 years, possibly longer but I have his great-great-great grandfather living there as early as 1840.

I think the old head catch is almost as old as the family farm. I jest. BUT as you can see above, we got a new one for the farm. Well, Wade wanted the old one to take back home to our farm. Can you tell I was none too thrilled? He thinks it'll be just fine for our small operation.

After cooking out that evening with the family we decided the traffic would be easier at night than in the morning so we headed back home. It took just a bit longer since Wade was pulling a trailer with the heavy head catch. It weighs about a ton. I followed far behind in case it decided to jump off the trailer. ;)

He and I unloaded it the next day. You see it took about five the day before. But alas, when a woman is involved, she can do the work of four. Ha ha ha. Just kidding, to all my men readers.

This week has been fairly low key. I put on makeup for the first time since Monday. To me that is an awesome week. On a walk with Gaby and Dory today (the cats), I went to check on the turkey nest and found all the eggs had been broken. :( I was wondering if it would make it with all the opossums and raccoons we have. The mama in me makes me sad for the hen. Who even knows if the eggs were fertilized though? I told Wade I should have taken them while they were available for some omelets. He made a funny "yuck" face, and I told him, "What you don't know, won't hurt you!"

If you have read this far, I thank you. I thought I would take the week "off" and do what I'm thinking of as a "personality" post. It's a chance for you to get to know us better. If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen some of these photos.

Next week we'll resume some type of informational something or other so that maybe I can show you something I made (food or DIY) or something I discovered that I hope you like.

How was your past week? Do you have any plans for the weekend? Life is getting busied back up tomorrow after a few days of rest. I will have to put on makeup again tomorrow. *sigh*