Happy Birthday Dad

For Dads birthday this year we decided to give him some money and take him out to dinner. I no longer bother with gifts because they either sit their for years and years or they are given away to brother in laws, So money and dinner are perfect for him. We decided to go to Casa Bonita, Brett has never been so I think thats why we choose that restaurant. We had a great time of course everyones favorite was the sopapillas.

Uncle Jerrys

On our way back to Denver we stopped at my Uncle Jerry's and Aunt Laura's. It was great to see them as well. My Dad and him looked at his Birds for quite a while and even thought they aren't chickens it was still fun to learn about them and see. He also made us some of his Chili that's so delicious. I was glad we got to see them.

Last night in Kansas

Our Trip to Kansas was great, it could have been better if Arnold wasn't sick, but oh well we still made the best of it. I don't get down there much anymore so it was just great to see him and see the farm and most of all let Brett see something that was such a part of my growing up life. It was kind of funny when I called my Dad and told him we were going down there he asked "Why" my response was, "Because Arnold is getting old and this may be one of the lasts time to see him" my Dad than said "Ok thats a good reason, cause you know he doesn't have pigs and cows anymore" Thats funny just because he hasn't had pigs in more than 10 years. So yeah of course I wasn't going down for the pigs, my Dad makes me laugh.

Uncle Arnold

It was nice that Arnold got released from the Hospital the last night that we were there so I was at least able to see him in higher spirits. It still was really hard to see him at a nursing home rather than his house but he is still in great health and doing great for 92. I wanted to get some video of him so I can always remember his voice and personality. Not sure if something is wrong with me or what but I don't have the kind of memory I would like. Some of my favorite things about Arnold are... "By Gollie", how he would always name a baby pig after us, My favorite thing about him though would have to be that this guy knows how to keep his cool, I have never seen him be upset EVER, and to me thats pretty amazing. I'm sure he got mad at us kids when we had Track practice on his Hay Bails (Jumping on Hay stacks makes dents in the Hay which water can sit in and ruin the Hay). Or I bet it wasn't his favorite thing when we went down there and rode his pigs making them lose weight right before he wanted to sell them, and I bet he wasn't a huge fan of us kids when we made the cattle stampede over the fence But I, or anyone else would have ever known he was mad, he never uttered a complaint. Brett's favorite thing about him is that he is such a kind and caring person, he doesn't know Brett well but treats him like he has known him forever, Brett also likes how him and my Dad just like to say "Inkie" (I must have heard that name 300 times that trip) Inkie is a car salesman down there, Inkie informed us that Arnold has never bought a car from him. Whats your favorite memory of Arnold?

Baby Turtle

Every time growing up and visiting the farm my Uncle would always ask if I saw the turtle at the bridge. In all those years I never did, however this trip while Brett and I were walking back to the farm house he saw a baby turtle this size but it was dead at the time we really didn't think much of it. Than the next day we saw this one making its long little journey form his nest to the pond. It was the cutest thing to see this long trail of little turtle prints. We helped it out and put him on the bank. We got to thinking about it and think we probably ran over the other one (for some reason these turtles felt the need to make their journeys on the sand, which is the road. We never did find the nest but it was pretty neat to see, and bye the way I never have seen the big turtle but Brett did coming home from the hospital and while going over the Bridge he saw it near a log but it went under by the time I looked.

The Kill ( I would only read this if your a family member, probably borning for anyone else)

Friday morning we got on the tractor and drove out into the pastore not 10 minutes into the ride and we saw a Badger taking its sweet o time along like it knew we didn't have a gun,(Dad had the gun with him in the cab). So he stopped the tractor and gave the gun to Brett (we were ridding in an open cage type thing) Well the rest of the time they didn't see anything. But they were pretty hungry for a kill so after getting back to the farm house Brett went on his own hunt, he ended up finding this huge black snake just North of the farm house. He told me to go get my dad to come out, my dad and Dad came out and said and I quote " This is one pretty stupid snake letting me load all 25 rounds into this clip and not move." Brett's clip had 10 loaded. Well since Brett found the snake my dad said he could have the first shot but watch out after that. Well Brett did get the first shot and the second and third, Why was my Dad not shotting you ask?? Well because he forgot to load the chamber or something like that so by the time my dad figured out what happened to late snake got away. This snake was pretty determined it wasn't going to die, after Brett hit it once the snake collied up ready to attack, Brett shot it again and it than took off. They thought it went into a tree stump but couldn't find it. Well after giving each other crap back and fourth for a while and getting back home from visiting Arnold Brett thought he would look for it again. Sure enough he found it in the tree stump (honestly they are pretty lucky that the snake didn't come out and bite their face when they were digging and kicking that stump trying to find it earlier). Well both "Gunnies" were ready that time and probably put 70 rounds into that snake, it finally died once they finally were able to get head shots. Well family I truly wish you were all there I dont think I do this story justice it was quite entertaining.

Trip to Kansas

Milo, Haystacks, and Wheat. I thought this was such a gorgeous picture. I loved being at the farm during fall and one of my favorite things in life is seeing fields of Milo, wheat, or even just haystacks.
Picture taken just North of the 80. One of the new things I learned from Arnold while I was down there was that Arnold bought the 80 when he was just 18 years old. He had to borrow some of the money from his Dad that he latter paid back, He said "It's just the right thing to do."He bought all 80 acres for $3,000 and recently was offered $80,000 for it.
Brett and my Dad target shooting in the pasture.