Happy Halloween!!

Oh Halloween! This is one of my favorite holidays because of all of the fun things to do with the kids! 

The most spectacular event of Halloween that we do every year is pick out our pumpkins. We live a mile from a very popular pumpkin patch that we get to go take a wagon out to the pumpkin patch and find the perfect pumpkins. The only drawback to the picking your own pumpkins with my overzealous children is that they compete with each other on who can find the biggest pumpkins. This wouldn’t be a big deal except that the farm charges by the pound; ouch! And we of course can’t just have one pumpkin for each kid—they have to have at least two. Now mind you, I have four offspring that want colossal pumpkins.

After the drain on the money flow is completed, we then chose a night to have our carving activity. We all do many different designs. Sometimes we carve and other times we paint the pumpkins. Who knew that the ewy gooey guts on the inside of a pumpkin could be so much fun?! It’s amazing the differences between my boys and girl in what they want for a design. This keeps the artistic craftiness highly entertaining and interesting. We have scary monsters to cute princesses. And did I mention the painting?? Painting provides a lot of room for imagination when decorating the plump pumpkins. I forgot to mention that we buy white pumpkins specifically for this purpose. The paint really pops on the white ones!

I hope everyone has a fabulous and safe Halloween tomorrow! 

What is a Barrel Futurity?

I believe that I mentioned that my family and I barrel race. I particularly compete in barrel racing futurities. 

A futurity is a class or show that only allows horses that are either ages four or five to compete against each other. It is their first competition year. It takes a lot of preparation, practice, and hauling to get these young horses ready to begin their career. Did I mention patience? It takes a lot of that as well depending on how quickly your horse learns and can accept new experiences. Every arena provides its own challenges for a young horse. A banner that is hanging in the arena may be its worst nightmare and it just might attack them when he isn't running sideways in the wrong direction away from it! Horses are a flight animal and new surroundings foster this behavior in SO many ways. 

I am attaching an article that covers a lot of the basics of picking a futurity horse to the competition. The article states that a horse's four year old year is the typical but that is for those southern folks that have the ability to ride during our wretched winter months. That is nearly impossible in our neck of the woods so us northern folks typically chose to hold them until they are five years old so they get more time and experience. 

http://www.barrelhorsenews.com/articles/how-to/3949-futurity-101.html

Preparation

I absolutely love fall days like today! The sun was shining, it was blissfully warm, and everything is finally drying up—at least until tonight anyway! These days lead to winterizing the barn, trailers, water tanks, and anything else that can freeze when our deep tundra-like weather is upon us. I dread knowing that these days are numbered and we will soon be in the deep freeze. One would think that a native Minnesotan would be more accustomed to the cold and greet it with open arms. But not this girl; I HATE winter. It makes everything harder and more time consuming. For instance, morning chores normally only take me about fifteen minutes. When winter is upon us, I have to put on 40 layers of clothing in order to just get out the door. That in itself takes about fifteen minutes and I haven’t even made it out of the garage! Then I have to tromp through all of the snow that I will most likely have to shovel too in order to get to the barn. Then I have to get hay out to all of the pastures. Did I mention all of the snow that I have to go through to get the hay to the horses?? Then I have to make sure the waters are all good and don’t have an ice skating rink topping them. I guess the upside is that it makes for great exercise a few times a day! Always look on the bright side of life, right? 

And So It Begins.... Fall Harvest

I did some searching on the internet to find some articles that explain what it's like to be a farmer's wife. Here is one that hits some major points on what it is like. I also help in the field after my day job and the kids come with. We can do homework and read books between loads. It is a lot of family time without a TV, cell phone, or any technology. Just you and your passenger.

http://www.mnfarmliving.com/2016/10/how-do-farm-wives-survive-the-fall.html

Eva's First Day

For all you moms out there, was it hard on you when your son or daughter went to their first day of school? For all of my kids it has been a little different. My first son was of course difficult because I didn't know what to expect and I questioned if he would be OK. As moms, I think that we are genetically engineered to worry about our children even at times when we truly know that it will be alright. And of course, low and behold, Dakota survived his first day and every day thereafter until graduation. 

My following two boys didn't take as much of a toll on me because I was a learned veteran at that point; they go to school, learn, make friends, join sports, and of course there a few excursions along the journey, but they are doing fabulous. I think that it also help because their older brother assured them that school isn't a big, bad, scary place and that they would have fun. Having him has been a blessing with so many "first" obstacles.

Then comes Eva, the youngest. Eva just started school this year. Before she started school, I thought that it would be just like her brothers in that it would be just another step to take in growing up. Well, I thought wrong. As the time grew nearer to her first day, I began thinking about how she was my last one to have a first day of school. I felt that I was losing my baby and that this was the first step in letting go. Then I started thinking about what if she started crying when I took her to school and what I would do if that happened. Oh, the thoughts that were running through my head! I talked to her about it before the big day and she told me that she was excited and that she couldn't wait to go to school all day. She has a lot of friends that she has made in preschool and she couldn't wait to see them again. So needless to say, when we arrived at the school, she was so excited that she almost forgot to tell me goodbye and give me a kiss! I felt abandoned and used! Well, maybe not that but it almost made me sad that I didn't feel as important to her. She is still loving school and I hope that her ambition and drive continue for years to come!