Well, we've gotten the State Fair behind us now and we started school this week. I guess summer must be almost over. I think I'm glad that fall is approaching. Don't get me wrong; I love the laid back days of summer and the fun we have at all the shows and fairs, but I despise the heat we've had this year. I enjoy not having sweat pour off of me as I sit in a cattle barn or even in our living room and am I ever looking forward to some lower electric bills!!

The boys had an awesome State Fair this year. I'm gonna take just a minute to brag on them. Chris showed a December calf in the crossbred junior show and in the open Mainetainer show. In the crossbred show, she was the division champion! He also showed his March yearling heifer in the Chi show. In the 4-H division he was a division champ. Jesse showed his February yearling heifer in the crossbred jr show and the Mainetainer open show. In the crossbred show she won her class! He also showed his December baby in the Chi show and she won her division and was reserve in her division in those shows. We got to the State fair early on a Sunday morning and spent that day getting everything set up and ready for the rest of our time there. Monday we had the two junior shows and the boys ended up participating the in crossbred heifer and all steer showmanship contest. There were 130 kids signed up! Both boys made it to the top 5 of their age division! We were so excited for them. The shows started at 9 am that day and they didn't finish showmanship until 8:30 or 8:45. We still had to feed all the calves and get them bedded down for the night. A little after 9 we tried to get into the Beef House for supper but they had just closed. We finally found a place to eat about 9:45. Those poor boys were exhausted. Tuesday was steer day and the boys had a job for another 4-H family fitting their 5 steers. They must have done a good job, because one of the steers won its division. They had to refit him because of the amount of time between times in the ring. That steer was the reserve champion 4-H steer!!! Wednesday was open show day. We had a little March heifer to show in the Chi show and she not only won her class but was reserve in her division. We got through the shows that day and then had to take care of some business. We ordered our pictures from the official photographer, met with the Beef and Livestock superintendents and paid the bill at the grooming supply trailer. Chris and I headed out for home with the cattle about 8pm and Jesse and Mike came with the camper about 8:30 pm.

The Friday after we got home, the guys started chopping silage at Grandpa Bastian's house. The boys had to leave for a youth retreat that evening so they had a short day of work. Saturday found Mike and I back in the silage and the boys at their retreat with the youth group from church. Saturday, I also had a bridal shower to attend for a future niece. She's marrying my brother's oldest step-son. Mike and I went out to a local pizza place and went up to thier loft and enjoyed a movie and pizza at the same time. So nice.

The boys spent the next week chopping silage with Grandpa. Mike worked on our car trying to get it in shape again. I worked at catching up with laundry and the house and working on lesson plans. My niece also had her first baby this week. Brock David came into the world on Wednesday weighing 7 pounds and measuring 20 inches long. He seems so little. People ask if I remember the boys being that little, but they never were.

And that brings us to this week. We started school yesterday. The boys are in 8th and 9th grades this year. Chris's quote of the week so far is, "Man, there's a lot of reading in highschool." Jesse's is, "How could he be such a grumpy man and be a man of God?" By the way, Jesse was writing his profile on John Adams when he made that comment. LOL

We're working on trying to figure out a way for our homeschool ag classes to count for FFA participation. I've also begun to work on ideas for Christmas gifts. Someone pointed out that it's now less than 4 months away!

July 23 update

It's been a bit of a busy week since I last posted. Last Wednesday through Friday Mike and I worked with the boys to get their projects finished for the 4-H fair. Jesse made a really neat and rustic cabinet for our game room out of old barnwood. Chris made a cart to hold our cattle blowers. They also completed several projects for beef, vet science, foods and livestock judging. It was a very busy week to say the least. All of their hard work paid off as they both recieved all blue ribbons on their projects. Saturday was the beef show at the fair. Chris showed a March 06 Chi heifer and a December 06 Simmental heifer and was champion in each of those breeds. Jesse showed a December 06 Chi heifer who was reserve champion to Chris and a February 06 Maine heifer who was champion of that breed. We sold a little February 07 heifer to a young girl and she won the crossbred heifer show and ended up being the reserve champion overall. All in all it was a very successful day.

Today we had to take Mike's truck in to the shop. Not sure what's wrong with it, but hopefully they can figure it out this week for us. We don't have any shows until a week from Friday.

This Sunday we're going to host a bridal shower for Mike's niece. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and hopefully we can get some work done on wedding stuff for her.

I think I'm going to sign off now as I'm battling a sinus infection and need some rest.

Welcome!

With the speed of our life, I thought doing a blog might be the easiest way keep our families up to date. This summer has been a wild and crazy ride.

I think I'll do a person by person update to kick us off.

Mike and Melinda - It's been a busy summer for us. We AI'ed between 60 an 75 cows this spring with probably 1/2 of them neeing to be bred around midnight. All of the first cuttings of hay are done. Unfortunately, with the dry weather, we don't have as much as usual. We have also done some embryo transplant work this summer. We have about 6 heifer calves broke for sale for this fall and have gotten up about 7 steers to work with. This definately puts us ahead of schedule for the fall. In late June we took a weekend off and went to OK. It was nice to have some time away an just enjoy ourselves. We went to a cattle sale and ended up buying a cow/calf pair. Thankfully we had a friend who hauled her home for us. We told people we bought her as an anniversary gift. Yes, we got some strange looks over that. LOL. On the 4th of July we installed a new floor in our kitchen. We actually finished it on the 5th and have been enjoying it ever since.

Chris - On May 25th Chris had an emergency appendectomy. After several complications, he finally got back to normal about a month later. While he was down, he was able to complete a unit of his Excel computer class. Since the doctor released him, he has been to 4 cattle shows an has won 2 of them with his heifer, Sadie. The picture of her is from the first weekend of June. Jesse showed her for Chris that weekend as he was just about a week post op then.

Jesse has been a busy young man this summer. Jesse spent the time while Chris was in the hospital helping Mike's dad put up silage. After that, he spent the next month helping one grandpa or the other in the hay fields. While he has a thicker wallet, he was a busy young man. Now he's showing his own little heifer, Sage, along with his yearling heifer, Pattie. Jesse did all the work to break Sage for showing. He's quite proud of her and rightly so.

And lastly, here's the newest pictures of our baby girl, Abby. We got her in March and she has quickly learned that she goes with us anytime we have the trailer hooked onto the truck.

I think that's about it for this opening post. Will update this more next week.