Somebody's Hamburger

"You do realize that she's gonna be somebody's hamburger by the time you come up with a name, right?"

That's what Jared just said about this little girl:

Heartless.

Soooo very very heartless.

He even suggested that we name her "Hammie" the other day. Short for hamburger. It was at that moment that I decided I needed to train her to charge on command.

Don't tell Jared, though. I want it to be a surprise...

I don't know what my deal is but I've had the hardest time naming this calf. We've had her just ten days and she's already gone through at least ten names. My sister suggested we name her Penny last week and I loved it. Penny it was! For approximately 2.5 days. Then I decided that it didn't really fit. Tonight I came up with Mylee and thought it was soooo cute, but then Jared had to ruin it for me by reminding me of Miley Cyrus. Annoyingness.

So I guess I'd better just stick with Penny since I'm apparently the most indecisive person in the whole entire universe. At least when it comes to calf names. And dog names now that I think about it. Poor Jessie had serious identity issues the first few days I had her in Utah. She was called all sorts of names before I finally settled on Jessie.

Jessie and Penny are still trying to figure each other out. Penny has kicked Jessie a few times and Jessie has snapped at Penny for every kick she's received. They just don't understand how the other one likes to play. They had a good stare-down the other day that I think helped their relationship a little bit.

They sat like this for a good 15 minutes. Just staring. And staring. And staring. Then they both just kind of walked away. Jessie never had a problem with the other calves we had back in April.

Our first calf was Joey.

His mom died shortly after he was born. Thankfully Jared and I happened to find her about a day after she died. As Jared was checking her tag, I noticed some ears poking out of a hole about 30 feet away. I thought it was a deer at first, but it was Joey. We weren't sure if he belonged to the cow we'd come across or if he belonged to another cow, so we left him for a day and checked on him again the next afternoon. He was still laying in the same hole so we brought him home.

I immediately fell in love with him and would usually spend a good 30-45 extra minutes with him every time I went out to feed. He was so big and awkward and playful and friendly and I felt bad that he was alone most of the day...so staying and playing whenever I could made me feel a little better about him being all alone.

A few days after we got Joey, Jared's brother, Parker, brought us another calf.

Meet Mister.

Mister's mom was alive and well, but she showed no interested in being a mom despite the time that Parker spent working with the pair. I was thrilled to get another calf cause that meant that Joey would have a friend to play with all day! I was worried that Joey would be a bully to Mister cause he was so much bigger, but it ended up being the other way around. Mister was a bully to Joey...and to me! He was always nice to Jessie, though, and didn't seem to mind when Jessie would start licking the calf poo off of him. Gross, I know. Jessie loves that stuff, unfortunately. And no matter how much I get after her when she starts eating it, she still does it. I think my anger only encourages her. Little brat.

Jessie, Joey, and Mister loved to play with each other. I'd get them all running together and then just sit back and watch...and hope that Jessie didn't get trampled.

Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for them, Parker eventually found new moms for both Joey and Mister. I was really sad the first few days they were gone and wasn't any fun to be around. Poor Jared had to deal with a big baby for awhile. But then I got to go visit the calves with their new moms a week or so later and it made me so happy to see how well they were doing. And it made me even happier that they both remembered me enough to walk up to me and let me pet them goodbye. Their new moms sure weren't happy about it though. I'd be lying if I said they didn't scare me a little bit...

It'd be nice to see little Penny get a new mom, but you won't hear me complain if she doesn't. She hasn't warmed up to me quite like the other two did since she's older and a bit more wild, but we've come a long way. It no longer takes both Jared and me to pin her down and force her to take her bottle. So that's a big improvement. She's still a little too timid to play like the others did, but I'm not giving up yet.

She's at least started to suck on my fingers, which is disgusting but also adorable.
And she let me hug her briefly once before freaking out.

So it's only a matter of time until we're best buds.

I hope :)

Rainbows

The following picture might look like it came from some kind of story book.

But it didn't.

It came from right outside my back door after last week's rain storm.

Ain't it perty?

Blind Side

I just got back from a nice casual bike ride around the ranch. Jessie came with me and ran along side the whole time with her tongue hanging about 4 inches out the side of her mouth. She definitely got a much better workout than I did.

This was her first experience with a bike as far as I know. She was confused at first because she's used to being able to "load up" whenever Jared and/or I get on anything with tires. Despite running a little too close to my tires than I would have liked, she managed to go the whole 30 minutes without any mishaps. Until the tractor happened.

When we were about 1/8 mile from home, I picked up my speed so that Jessie would have to sprint the rest of the way. Even though I was on her bad eye side, she did great. But then I got about 5 feet ahead of her, and then 10 feet, and then 15 feet, and then....

THUMP!!

YELP!!

I immediately looked back to see what happened. I guess she was so focused on catching up to me, that she forgot about everything else around her.

Like the Versatile Tractor.

Which was, unfortunately, on her bad eye side.

Note the two arrows in this picture. Can you guess which path Jessie took and which one I took?

Poor thing smacked pretty hard against that tire at a full sprint. And yelped loud enough to almost give me a heart attack. I think it shocked her more than anything since for her it came out of nowhere.

For the next 30 seconds she just stood there wondering what happened to her.

I swear she thought I did it to her the way she was looking at me.

It's a good thing she's a very forgiving little pup.

All it took to cheer her up was a little hug and some puppy talk (very similar to "baby talk") and she was putty in my hands again.

I just love her!

Lost and Found

Do you ever stop and think about all those little (or big) things you've lost in the past and wonder where in the crap they could possibly be? Knowing that your precious little something is just sitting somewhere under a cushion or tucked in a corner or buried just enough in the dirt that you can't see it no matter how hard you look is enough to drive you crazy, right? Or is it just me?

I lost my wedding ring a few months ago when I went snowmobiling with Jared's family up to their cabin. I had that ring just shy of a year. And I lost it. I knew I'd lose it eventually which is why I told Jared that I'd kill him if he spent a fortune on a ring...but not even a year before I lost it? Didn't see that one coming. I'm guessing it came off when I pulled my gloves off which I swear I didn't do until I got to the cabin. But we've searched the cabin to no avail. It seriously drives me crazy knowing that it's just sitting somewhere and I can't find it. And it makes me wonder if someone, someday, will find it and wonder where it came from. And will they keep it? Or will they not care and just toss it aside? Like I did this CD.

I found this just off the highway the other day when I was out walking. I realize this isn't exactly in the same category as a diamond ring, but it's Alabama Live! I love country music so I'd be pretty bummed if I lost this. I would have taken it home with me if it wasn't broken. Instead, I took a picture of it and am now hoping for some good karma (directed at finding my ring) by posting it online for all the world to see. If you think it might belong to you, you can find it about 12 miles up the Nowood on the east side of the highway.

Ok karma, I'm waiting for you...

I lost something else a couple months ago as well.
I've made multiple attempts to find it, but have failed miserably every time.

It's my desire to blog.

You may have noticed??

I don't really know what happened to it. I guess it might have disappeared with the snow because now that it's warm and sunny outside, the thought of staring at my laptop kind of gets me in a bad mood. So my laptop has remained remarkably untouched for about seven weeks now. I say "remarkably" because since moving to Ten Sleep, my laptop has been attached to my lap as my main source of connecting with the outside world.

I'll try to do better though and do my bestest to find my lost desire. I do have a lot of stories to catch up on, after all. Like how I FINALLY GOT A DOG!!!

Her name is Jessie and she's the cutest little brat in the world. I found her on KSL a week before Easter and immediately fell in love.

Ahhhh, look at the cute little puppy dog.

She's blind and deaf and has no whiskers as of this morning (little mishap with a burning ditch), but I still like to think that she's gonna be an awesome cow dog some day.

Fingers crossed.