The Dog Days of Summer

Ever wonder what DOGS do on the hot, hot days of summer? Well, wonder no more. This last weekend Canyon and Bailey showed us just what they do on a hot summer day in Ioka. Bailey wanted Shaley and I to throw rocks in the creek for her. She would of course then try to retrieve them for us. Slight problem...the creek was muddy cuz several beavers had built two dams and slowed the flow of fresh water AND when the water is muddy, it's kinda impossible to see the bottom of the creek. Bailey is persistent if nothing else! She would go right in after those rocks. She even put her head and almost her whole body underwater trying her dangedest to find those awesome rocks! I kept thinking that I was gonna have to resort to doing mouth to mouth on my dog!! She bobbed up each time--(thankfully since my cpr skills are a little underused and rusty at best!) sometimes even with her prized rock. It was so fun to watch her. Canyon was content swimming around the private swim hole and try her hand (mouth) at catching local bugs. They seriously were such a hoot to watch. They stayed and played for an hour or more. They smelled like wet dog for quite awhile afterwards tho. So, guess the mystery of "dog day summer" afternoons is now not a mystery anymore. Thanks Canyon and Bailey for the info and the amusing time watching you lolligag in the Utah summer sunshine and the hillarity of your private Ioka swim hole for dogs and beavers!

And the Winner is......

Congratulations to Adyson for guessing the closest birthdate and gender of Grandma's latest and last calf born this year! She guessed a girl born on May 18th. The calf was a girl born May 23rd. That's pretty late for a calf to be born. We're glad the calf is here and doing well.
Thanks for voting everyone. I had fun reading your votes.
Paisley won the name suggestion--she suggested "Stella". So, Stella it is. Thanks Puff for a great suggestion.
Grandma will keep everyone posted on "Stella's" growth progress and when she gets on the truck to go over to Piance Creek this summer to be with her other cow friends. Maybe we'll do another contest for something else. I had fun!
By the way Ady, Grandma will give you your prize when she sees you on Friday.

Contest Prize

Okay, thought I would show you a picture of the prize for guessing the gender and birthdate of my latest and last calf this season. Remember to vote only once and make sure you turn your vote in by Sunday. The one that gets CLOSEST to the actual date and gender wins the Webkinz Cow. Grandma will mail it to you as soon as the winner is decided.

Is it a Boy or a Girl??

The last calf was born recently in Ioka. Of course it had to be my cow that waited waaaaay past all the other cows to have her calf! The mom and baby won't be able to go to Colorado until later because the baby is too little to survive the 28,000 acre ranch. I thought that it would be fun for the kiddos to try to guess the calf's gender and birthdate. The one that gets the closest will get a Webkinz Pet from Grandma! So, have fun and try to guess the best you can. Only 6 votes will be counted since that is how many kiddos there are. No cheating! You could suggest a name too if you would like. I'll consider your choices. The guesses will be tallied and analyzed on Sunday, May 31st. Hurry and get your vote in!

Bailey's Contribution This Weekend

Bailey proved to be such a good contributor this weekend! She constantly ran around outside and brought us BIG rocks off the Ioka property. Everytime I turned around there was another boulder in the way! She even dropped a few in her water dish for us. Several times we found rocks in the bathroom by the toilet--ya know how she drinks from the toilet?--well, she must have dropped it to get herself rehydrated and forgot to pick it up again. Not to worry tho, cuz there were PLENTY more where that one came from!! Jared, you need to thank her cuz it's that many LESS rocks we have to pick up later and that many less rocks that Canyon will come dragging home to you!!

The Ioka House

We worked our poor little finger bones almost all the way off this past weekend! By the time Saturday evening rolled around, I could barely make a fist with my right hand as it was sooooooo sore and swollen from holding a paint roller! We had lots of sore muscles in other places as well from crawling around on the floors and climbing up and down on ladders. We took lots of Aleve and Ibuprofen to get us through the nights!! We did however, get LOTS done on the house. All the rooms now have paint on the walls. We got all the painting done except the pantry, the bedroom closets, and the floor boards throughout the house. Sounds like a lot but really the bulk of it is done!!! (By the way, the house DIDN"T have floor boards when we started!) It looks pretty good. I wasn't sure on the color choices but after getting a room or two done, I've decided I really like it. The front and back doors need a color too but haven't decided as yet which color to put on them. The little house is proving to be not so bad! Still need kitchen countertops and flooring in the living room and the two bedrooms yet. At least it feels like we are on the downslide. The living room will have hardwood flooring (which we already bought and took out to the house) and the bedrooms will have carpet. I've started watching the sales for the carpeting. It should end up all looking halfway decent when we're done with her!! The neighbors keep thanking us for cleaning the place up and hauling so much junk off. Guess that gives us an upper edge with them when we finally move out there!! We'll remind ourselves of their gratitide when we're wondering if it was worth all the muscle aches!!

Baby Calves

We were in Ioka this weekend to paint the little house and had to feed the cows for Grandpa Dale while he went out of town for the day. There are sooooooo many new calves this year. I took some pics while driving the hay truck with Dad and John in the back throwing hay bales out in the field for the cows to eat. If you ask Dad, he says I was driving in supersonic speed but really I was in low gear and taking pics as slowly as I could! The calves were running through the field like kids do at lunch recess at school! My camera couldn't focus fast enough to catch all their shinanigans! I thought about slamming on the brakes a time or two to catch some cute calf antics but decided against it. Only because I didn't think I would survive the drive home with John and Dad covered in cow poop from being thrown out of the truck bed into the large piles of poop in the field. Anyway, thought the kiddos would enjoy seeing some of the calves. A couple of the calves have to be bottle fed since their mommas won't feed them. John fed one and I fed the other. They wolf those bottles down in a heartbeat of time! They were so cute.