July

A few more things we did this summer...

Amanda took the kids to the top of Windy Ridge!

We celebrated a couple more birthdays!

Joe took a few more people to the top of Windy Ridge during the family reunion, Gabi and Maya included.  They're always up for a good adventure!

My blackeyed susans always go crazy in the garden

I took a trip with a few friends to San Francisco to run a trail race and to see my brother!

Ready to Run!  Golden Gate Trail Half Marathon 

Tom and I after a big lobster dinner

4th of July

We spent the entire fourth of July weekend camping near the cabin.  We all had such a fun and relaxing time fishing, hiking, and playing in the creek.

Gabi and Maya worked hard together to build a bridget

on their completed bridge

Ranch Life

Summer brings the farm equipment out on the ranch.  Jacob still loves to watch and now that he is older, ride, in the swather and tractor.

Papa Don (almost 88) still swaths all the hay!

Someday, little guy!

Seth, Dave's hired man, likes to have Jacob ride in the tractor with him while he is baling hay.  Jacob likes it too.  :)

Seth also took the girls out a couple of times to bale hay.  He even lets them make their own bale.  Here is a picture he sent me of the one Gabi baled all by herself.  :)

June

Here are some more random pics from June!  We are happy school is out...except Maya.  Maya loves school and was crying as she got off the bus on the last day.  :(

Boarding the bus on the last day of school

All fueled up and ready to farm!

Maya's oatmeal creation one morning...complete with fresh garden strawberries.

Lots of time for reading in the summer.  Jacob loves having his sisters home.

Jacob loves Grammy's buggy!

Hudson

Our dog, Hudson, had to have surgery in mid-June.   It is a very long story, but basically a porcupine quill tip left in his left wrist ate away at his wrist joint.  A vet in Billings was able to take a bone graft from his shoulder and fuse his wrist together from the toes to the elbow.  He now has a steel plate over the joint as well.  He was in a cast all summer long.  These pics were taken right after we got home from the surgery.  As I am writing this (in October), he is now out of a cast and doing really well.  He still has a limp, but is no longer in pain and gets around very well.

Rockies Game

We went to Colorado in mid-June to visit my mom and dad.  We were able to meet up with Tom and Angelene as well.  We all attended a Rockies game in Denver.

Gabi and Joe love to talk baseball.

"Smokey"

Gabi got her first 4-H market lamb this summer.  The lamb was born in February and came to live at the Hall Ranch in mid-May.  Gio also got a lamb.  Gabi's was a little darker, so she named him, "Smokey."

"Smokey" is in the front.

Practicing showing her lamb at the Fair Frenzy

Gabi put a lot of work into her lamb.  She fed, watered, and walked him every day.

Joe showed sheep when he was growing up, so he was able to help Gabi shear, fit, and learn all about showing her lamb.  They put a lot of work into him and it paid off when she took him to the fair in August!  Gabi enjoyed taking care of Smokey, even though he was pretty mean to her.  There were quite a few times where he drug her through the weeds and dirt.  :(  She didn't shed a tear when he was sold and taken to the slaughter house!  Maybe next year she will get a nicer lamb.