Around the ranch..

Chris and Kate's house across the irrigation water. Our house.

Dad "watching" the kids play...

The kids playing after Sunday lunch...

Devin on day #2....

Chris on day #2.

Banks overflowing and rising....

The creek behind our house is running over today. George moved the road grader so he can get to it when he needs it. Chris went to turn on some ditches, and the headgates are under water. Do you remember that song....How high's the water, mama?? Those words went through our heads this morning! Devin spent a couple of hours walking yesterday afternoon, here is what he found. He thought he might find a few horns..then he found more that a few, and had to take a fence post...and some wire....and start wiring them together, trying to balance the load. He was a little tired after his long walk and heavy load! He walked several miles up and down hill. He was in what we call the 'badlands" and Bull Ridge....after he got back to the road, he agreed with the name!

We saw hundreds of elk. They crossed the road in front of us and behind our truck. Some bulls still have their horns, some have one horn, and some have no horns.

Bringing home a new baby...

Chris and Kate and their family have all gone to their house now....Grpa and Grma are kind of lonesome.....it sure seems quiet!! and boring!!

Fischer and Hazen were really excited to see Mom and Dad and the new baby. It was pretty windy, so had to keep him covered up.

Waiting for Mom and Dad to get here.

We read lots of books the past 3 days.

Clifford, our neighbor, brought the boys some new toys.

It takes quite awhile to get them out of the box.

Clifford unpacking one of toys.

Walking with dad.

The beginning of the week, the snow in the sagebrush all melted and ran in the ditch.
At night it froze up, ice chunks were everywhere.

Where the water ran over the road, it washed the side of the road away. This was one of 5 washouts between our place and the road...the last one was impassable...we had to turn around and go the other way. We were in a hurry to go see the new baby, so it slowed us down!

Just one more story....

Fischer and Hazen are staying with Grandma and Grandpa while mom and dad go to the hospital and get little brother....it seems to take a lot longer than usual to get to sleep! Just one more story....

Random memories from last week...

We attended a reception honoring my aunt and uncle for 50 years of marriage! Their 5 children surprised them with the lunch and cake. They might not want their picture to be blogged all over the world, so I posted one of the cake! We had a nice visit with old friends and relatives from the area. Grandpa G and Jazz. This is her favorite spot when Grpa is visiting with me and I am at the computer!

Fischer was ordering a hay truck from "Clifford" our neighbor.

This is the mtn lion that was sitting on Chris's deck last Sunday when he came home after lunch. It proceeded to kind of go crazy, jump at the windows, spread muddy paw prints on the windows and knock off the screens, before it ran up a tree. They suspected something might be wrong with it, but noone has contacted us to say so. The excitement started Kate having contractions and she had to go to the hospital overnight. The little white building in the background is an old one room school house used in the early 1900's.

Some of the menfolk at Great Grpa and Grma's last week.

We're not in Kansas any more....

We made a recent trip through Nebraska, and saw more birds in one day than we had EVER seen in our entire life! The sandhill cranes were flying and sitting in huge groups on the ground. The Canadian geese and the Snow geese were doing the same and turned the fields gray, brown, or white depending on which group you were looking at. We kept watching the air as the birds were heading north. You might have to click on this picture to see it. It was taken through the front window going 75 mph, so not the most artistic shot! The ground was white in some areas.

Amy was a wonderful tour guide. One of the places we saw was the Arabia steamboat museum. A family dug up one of the wrecked steamboats along the Missouri River...the channel had changed, so it was 1/2 mile from the present river and 45' under the surface of the cornfield. They have been cleaning and preserving the artifacts and have them displayed in a museum. The paddle wheel from the steamboat is in the museum. The boys enjoyed watching that. Check it out at http://www.1856.com

Bass Pro shops had a shooting gallery.

A fellow gets tired on the way home....Grandpa said a little hand would reach over and hold his.

Signs of spring....

This front walk has been snowed over since Thanksgiving.

Grpa G cleaning shed doors, pushing up snow fences out of snow, and plowing out driveways.

Mud is something we look forward to around here....that means some of our snow is melting. Mud is hard to work, walk, and drive in. We wear it, our vehicles are covered in it. we get stuck in it, but by and by it dries up as the sun keeps on shining and then we are into Spring. We heard blackbirds singing in the trees and geese on the meadows this morning. We also heard the weather man give out a winter storm warning for 3-6" of snow....with wind for tomorrow. It is Springtime in Wyoming!