Dinkey Creek Weekend

Steve & I went to Dinkey Creek for the weekend (well it turned out to be 24 hours after we worked Saturday!) and enjoyed some time in the mountains enjoying the quiet and the fresh mountain air with our dogs.

Here is our "cabin"...

and Steve with his dogs and the massive fire he built.

Dundee & Suesse carried this stick together so they could chew on it. So cute to see them playing together since normally Dundee wants nothing to do with Suesse!
Winnie loves the mountains and even though she can't walk around as well with her osteoporosis, I'm sure she'd rather be up here than anywhere else.
We stopped by McKinley Grove to walk around the giant sequioas. What a cute family!

On our way to Courtright Reservoir through the beautiful trees.

View of John Muir Wilderness.

We went to Courtright Reserviour to walk around. It's a big lake for fishing or kayaking and for Dundee and Winnie to jump in and get wet. Suesse, on the other hand, barely would take a drink! She probably doesn't like the cold water either.These are our homemade 'eclairs that Greta taught us how to make on the fire. Greta, I think we might need another lesson - they didn't look like the ones from your camping trip!! They were still good though!

I was 31 weeks on Sunday, August 24th. We're running out of weekends to enjoy hopping in our truck with our dogs on a moment's notice. Pretty soon, we'll need to plan ahead and rent a u-haul for all the stuff we'll have to take with a baby!

30 weeks

Here I am at 30 weeks on Monday, August 18th.

We went to our doctor's appt today and I am measuring 31 cm which is right on schedule. Baby Girl's heart rate was 140 bpm and is still in the "correct" head down position. What a good girl!

Here is a picture of the nursery room walls. We love how it turned out, those stripes were hard to do!
This is our hand-me-down crib with our nursery bedding on it. I'm so proud of how well it matches our wall coloring.
We'll post more pictures when we finish the room. Steve worked hard on putting the changing table together last night but I don't have a picture of it yet.

Weekend Cattle Branding

It was time once again to make the 1.5 hr drive to the Farris family's 5-F Ranch in Dunlap, CA (a foothill community near the northern entrance to Kings Canyon National Park). Amy had a friend from So Cal visiting for the weekend (thanks for coming up to visit, G-Funk!), so they stayed back on the homefront in Hanford. I (Steve) met the gang there at about 9am. This time, we were at Virgil's Ranch, which is property my family leases from a guy named Virgil (go figure). It is just a mile or so from our property. I arrived a little later than everyone else (but I also had the furthest to drive... and we stayed up late watching the Olympics). Haley and a few locals whom my Dad had recently met were already separating the adult cows/bulls from the babies. Once they are separated, the adults are ran through a narrow fence lane and into a squeeze chute, where their heads are locked down and their sides squeezed (gently) so they do not move around while getting a slew of vaccinations (which are required by the FDA). They are also examined for injuries, warts or infections. I think there were approx 20 adults that we treated on Sunday. They they hang around to watch their babies get ran through the gauntlet. The little ones are a bit more difficult to keep still because of their size. They often have to be held still by one or more people... usually by their head and tail... while they receive 6 vaccinations (Christina & I were the shot-givers), get their ears pierced with a 5-F tag with an ID number on it (Karina was the ear-piercer), and branded. My Mom was recording which vaccinations were given to which numbers... the FDA is requiring strict record-keeping to allow for tracing of lineage in case of an outbreak of contamination of beef or mad cow disease. My Dad is always the one who locks in their heads and squeezes down the chute. He also does the actual branding most of the time. My brother-in-law, James and a couple of the local guys were pushing the cows down the lane and into the chute. Randy was assisting them with the help of an electric shocker. Trenton had his own shocker... until he shocked Randy and had it taken away! My cousin Brian and another local, Mike, were locking the cows in the chute and holding down the babies while they were branded and treated. That's pretty much the process. Here are a few pictures and I'm going to make my first attempt to put a couple of short videos on here, as well.


This was my arsenal of injections. I hope not many of my patients see this or we may not be seeing them again in our office!

Randy with his shocker... watch out!

Tanner & Carter watching the action from the safety of the fence.

James in his customary position of King of the Lane guiding the cows to their destination.

A young heiffer with her head locked in the squeeze chute.

The branding iron heating up.

Winnie and Dun Dee love going to the mountains!

Cowgirl Christina... she really knows her stuff around the animals.

This is the only picture of Haley that I ended up with... Hmmm... I can't believe she just started her Junior year at Immanuel High! She knows how to ride and can sort with the best of 'em.

Trenton with his favorite outfit... his flightsuit... and with some glove that glows in the dark, of course.

Tanner's self portrait.

Shot from outside the action.

Karina flexing her power over the bovine while piercing their ears.

There's the Boss marking his territory...

Christina doing her thing...

This wild one decided to slip out the side of the squeeze chute. Brian, James and Mike were there to keep her from escaping before she got the works!

The boys wanted to walk down the creek bed to this Native American cemetery, which is still in use. A very interesting and solemn place.

29 weeks

I am 29 weeks now, 11 more to go before we get to meet our beautiful baby girl. I'm starting to feel really big even though I know my belly will start to grow a lot more in the last couple of months. The baby is 15 inches long and 2 1/2 lbs now and is like a butternut squash. She is still kicking up a storm and usually feels as though she is trying to kick herself out of my belly! I thinks she wants out of there or else she is exercising her little legs to high jump like her daddy.

I've definitely become accustomed to my new "weight" although it's still a shock to find myself not able to do everything like I used to. I get tired easy and out of breath more often doing simple things. It's amazing the way the body changes to carry such a precious load. I think I will be extremely happy when our due date comes and we will have a baby to show for all of these changes to my body. I can't wait - I know 11 weeks will fly by!

See the affects of the heat to our other little "baby":

Doesn't she look pathetic??!

Farris Family Fun Fest!

This past Sunday was the first official Farris Family Fun Fest. Ok, it was just a gathering of the immediate Farris family... but the other way sounds so much more exciting ;-) There is an elementary school with a great open grass area with baseball backstops, shade trees and a lot of room for the kids & dogs to run around. My parents were there, along with their two little dogs (Petie and Bubba). My sisters, Christina & Karina, were there with their kids (Randy & Carter and Tanner & Trenton... Haley was at Disneyland with friends for the weekend and missed the fun). Here is a photo that includes all the visitors, except my Mom, as we chowed down on Papa John's pizza and leftover fried chicken from the day of branding at 5-F Ranch the day before (watch for a report after our next family branding next Sunday).




And here is Amy with her trusty sidekick Suesse in her classic position... hovering above the plate of food.






And, finally, here were Suesse's guests. Bubba is on the left and Petie on the right. They were in Suesse's crate when no one was holding them. I guess they have been known to mark their territory in other houses in the past. Suesse had a ball playing with them!


We forgot to bring the camera along for the baseball game. Some of the highlights were... Christina falling on her behind the first time she swung the bat! That's why baseball players don't wear flipflops while playing ;-) Christina also pegged Carter in the head with a ball (he was ok). Amy showed us all up with her batting skills she developed while competing with Ryan during her early years... she smacked those balls way out of the park! Everyone did a great job hitting a combination of tennis balls, whiffle balls, T-balls & softballs.

Hopefully we can do it again soon!