A Day on the Farm

We went to Vernal for the weekend.  What a fun trip, I am so glad that we went.  We stayed at my Grandpa and Grandma Taylor's house (aka the farm/ranch).  My kids always look forward to going to Vernal because it means seeing cousins and riding horses.  Well on this trip, my Grandpa Lyle told my kids that if they wanted to ride horses on Monday they had to earn their rides by "helping out" with the chores, wink wink. You couldn't wipe the grins off their faces (I just wish that they were that excited to do their chores around our house!)  We started out by feeding the cows 

can I just say I don't know who thought that giving a 3, 5 and 11 year old their own pitch forks was a good idea.  Luckily no one got hurt.

I love that Abbie is trying to get the cows to each it right from her hand.  

Then we needed to feed the two bum calves...  both these little gals were twins (two different sets) and the moms could feed both babies so they get special milk in a special bottle.  This means lots of extra work for my Grandma, but she always has a soft spot for the little calves.  

 This one is about a month old.

 Are you sure this is work?

Apparently Abbie has a soft spot for the calves too.  How sweet is that?

And this little gal (the calf, not Lexie) is about a week old.  And Lexie enjoyed it as much as the other kids, but she was sick of my trying to get a good picture in the barn.  At this point the bottle was empty and she had had enough of mom.

After the calves were fed we took a trip to the cemetery to see my sister's grave.  

We spent quite a while there, talking and remembering my sweet sister.  

On the way back to my grandparents house, we passed the horse pasture and had to stop off and feed the horses.  Just feeding them wasn't good enough for my kids, but it was Sunday so there would be no actual riding.  They had to settle for a little bareback standing around while the horses ate. 

Abbie would have crawled right into the tire if we would have let her.

I think that this was Ashton first time ever being on a horse bareback.  I'm not sure he knew what to expect, but he still wanted on the back of both.  

This is my horse, my Grandpa gave him to me when I was 13.  That means he is 22.  That is really old for a horse.  I remember thinking that it was cool that Lexie got to ride "my" horse, but now all of my kids have been able to ride him.  I never dreamed that would happen, horses normally just don't live that long.  Here are pictures from years long gone...

That is me, Bo and his mama.  

And all ready to ride, two years later.  

Not that he is really mine anymore, or for the last 16 years even... since we moved to Salt Lake.  At least my Grandpa has been able to use him on the cattle ranch.  

I am a little sad though, my Grandpa told me that he is officially retiring him with kid horse status.  He has arthritis in his front feet now and can't go on cattle drives on the mountain because he comes up lame the next day, and for many days after that.  Although being deemed "kid horse" is a good thing because it means that he is dependable and trustworthy enough that he can be trusted with little kids, it is still sad that his best days are behind him.  My Grandpa says that he has earned his keep though and will pasture him at the house, no glue factory for him (thank goodness).  Not all horses get to say that.  

When we left after just a few minutes, Abbie was upset she said, "we didn't get to ride around, that wasn't a horse ride."  It was hard to explain to her that we would indeed get to ride. just the next day.  We did get to ride, and do lots of other stuff.  Which will have to wait for another day.  I need my sleep.