Jake.

I don't share about Jake often. It's not because I don't love him as much as the other two or anything like that. Let's face it, these two goobers are just more entertaining... 

Saturday afternoon I laid out on a blanket in the yard and soaked up the sunshine. The dogs, of course, joined me, while my parents laid in the hammock. 

I was playing with different settings on my camera, just trying to figure out things. I have had it for a year now and still don't know how to use it to its capacity. 

Jake was the perfect subject. He just laid there and let me take approximately 100 pictures of him. (maybe not quite a hundred. ha.)

Gus and Cooper ran around and dug up bones. 

 Jake is one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. He may look a little scary when you first pull up the driveway but he really is a softy. He weighs over a hundred pounds and is just a big boy. I can see how he is intimidating. 

He is super scared of storms! He lays on the mat by the back door all curled up and won't move. He rarely sleeps in the garage unless there is a storm. He is our weatherman. ha 

He is starting to get a few grey hairs, and has arthritis pretty bad in his right back leg but that doesn't slow him down. 

He has deciding that he doesn't want to ride in the car anymore so every time I take the dogs with me, he just runs beside the car. No amount of coaxing can convince him to ride. 

Jake's only downfall is that he loves skunks. He knows he is in trouble if he gets sprayed and stays way out in the yard, but that doesn't matter. We can still smell it. It is almost like an addiction or something. He just keeps finding them. Oh, and we have to keep an eye on him because he loves to lay in the flower bed. 

You can read more about how I got Jake here. (he is toward the bottom)

P.S. I only have 6 finals left and 1 quiz! 

We Meet at Last.

I'm finally getting around to revealing the surprise adventure I went on with some girlfriends on Friday afternoon.

We drove 45 min North. It was really a nice drive. The wheat is just beautiful right now and that area of the country has a lot of wheat.

Here some pictures for your first hint...

Statue of the Pioneer Woman. It represents all the pioneer women that braved the plains. I love it. 

This picture cracks me up. Bahaha

 We had a hard time getting the pioneer woman in our photo. 

Trying to hold his hand.

 So, have you guessed it yet?! 

Okay... I will just tell ya! We went to see the blogger pioneer woman. I was so excited! I'm slightly obsessed and convinced we would be fast friends. I'm not quite as obsessed with food as she is but I love bassets, cows, and photography. 

Creeper shot.

She was just like any other person and exactly like I thought she would be. I got shy and didn't ask her about cowboy Josh though... We will meet again though! I'm emailing her this picture and asking her about Josh. She probably won't respond but oh well. Elisa had her sign an apron so maybe she will remember us! 

If you don't know who she is, go check out her blog, especially if you need a good laugh or just want to see some pretty pictures of Oklahoma.

I really enjoyed myself and am determined to meet again.

Time flies.

I just finished my last regular test of the semester! Next week is "dead week." I'm not sure why they call it dead week. I have two lab finals but I guess maybe if you aren't science major and don't have classes with a lab than you really do get a week to just study for finals. Finals week I have a test everyday. My birthday is smack dab in the middle of all those finals so I will be celebrating the weekend after. It is going to be one big celebration. Done with my first year of vet school and my birthday! I can not wait!! 

This week we got our schedule for next semester. Guess how many hours I will be taking?! Just take a stab at it...

If you guessed 20 then you would be CORRECT!! That's right 20 hours of science classes. I need to start mentally preparing. This semester I had 19 so it really isn't going to be that much different. Plus, 4 of those hours are electives that I actually got to choose. I'm pretty excited about that! 

I am going to enjoy every minute of summer break though! 

I have a heard time realizing that I'm actually almost done with my first year of vet school. I feel like I have learned so much and the time has just flew by! 

Today though, I'm actually not headed straight home. I am going on a slight detour with some of my girlfriends and Elisa. I can't wait to share how it goes! But, for now I will keep the suspense up. I know that you will be on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what we are doing. :) 

Protection.

 This weekend was uneventful, and for that I am very thankful. The weathermen were predicting really bad storms. Some of Oklahoma did get hit pretty bad but we were spared the worst and it was truly an answer to prayer. 

Now, you are probably saying, "well everyone is thankful when they don't get hit by a tornado!" Well, duh! But you have to understand that we are farmers and our livelihood depends on the weather. Therefore, we have to have a lot of faith that God is going to provide for us. And let me tell you, my faith has been put to the test in the past year or so. Last summer was so incredibly hot and dry! Not conducive conditions for things to grow.

This year on the other hand has been a great year for wheat. We have gotten rain when we need it and the wheat is looking really good. If we would have gotten bad weather this weekend it would have been pretty devastating. If the wheat gets hailed on, it knocks kernels onto the ground (can't be harvested) and knocks the whole plant over which makes it harder to harvest. (I'm sure my dad could add to this, but that's the gist)

When we heard there was bad weather we all started praying and hoping for the best. Friday night we got a little rain but the storms went just north of us. Saturday night there was a storm that I was sure was going to hit us, but we just got rain. I watched the weather all Saturday evening while I studied (I know, what an exciting Saturday night. ha) and watched the storm pop up and go around us. God takes care of us! 

Friday afternoon, after picking asparagus in the rain, I ran around and took some pictures of everything in case it stormed. Luke has some really pretty veggies in the garden right now, the wheat is gorgeous, and there are flowers everywhere. There is something about this spring that the flowers are really loving! I think God is showing us that He is still around after such a hard summer last year. 

Wheat is heading out.

Lots of lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and other veggies! All with weird names that I'm not even going to try to remember. ha

Tomatoes already! 

Radishes sprouting. 

A lot of tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and Kansas that destroyed a lot of homes and took lives but we are so thankful for God's protective hand! 

P.S. I have about a bazillion tests in the next two and a half weeks! So happy to be finishing things up though! 

"Studying"

I have about 3 and half weeks of school and so I pretty much will be studying non stop for the next weeks. I have a problem though, my mind tends to wonder when I'm studying. I guess you could call it daydreaming. I was thinking about it the other day and the list of things I think about is very random. 

I want...

... to go Fishing!! 

... to go to the lake!!

... 10 pounds to just fall off my body. ha

... to just read a book for the enjoyment of reading a book.

... to go to a baseball game.

... to be done with school.

... to know what I'm talking about when people ask me questions about there animals.

... to go back to Africa.

... to sleep. (This one actually happens all the time... when I'm supposed to be studying)

... to give some of my professors some words of wisdom. 

... to go on a date.

... to be an online student. I'm convinced it would be better for me. I HATE going to class!
... a baby goat.

The list goes on...

Oh, and every guy whoever calls women moody, unpredictable, etc. should be required to take a female reproductive physiology class. Seriously, it is crazy how up and down our hormones are. And that's when they are doing what they are supposed to be doing! I'm studying it right now and it is amazing me! I ponder this one quite often... 

As you can probably tell, my mind has pretty much checked out already! And my thought are very random and unorganized!

Easter Weekend.

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. Honestly, I just don't have much to say. This weekend I picked more asparagus. I'm pretty sure I have eaten asparagus for every meal, besides breakfast, lately. I only picked Friday and for about an hour Sunday though.

 I planted my garden on Friday as well. Everyone always asks why I have a garden if I work in a big garden all summer. "Aren't you tired of it?!" Well not really... my garden is small enough that I don't really have to do a whole lot but watch things grow and then I can have as many tomatoes as I want. ;)  

I planted 11 tomato plants, 2 jalapeno plants, 2 sweet banana pepper plants (we love them on sandwiches), basil and some kind of weird spicy basil that I'm testing out. I also planted sunflower seeds and am planning on planting some green beans in the empty spot in the middle. Oh, and I planted a blueberry and raspberry bush this year. We will see how that turns out. :) The lavender and rosemary have been growing for a few years and they smell quite lovely. Now I'm just waiting for things to grow.

I also went to the Chiropractor on Friday and he was pretty amazed at how out of align my neck was. He fixed me up but my neck was so sore on Saturday that I was pretty much down for the count. It is soooo much better now though! My mom bought me the movie "We Bought A Zoo" so I watched that. Loved it!! I need a zoo now... 

My little cousins, Aunt and grandparents were at our house this weekend for Easter. Sunday we colored and hunted eggs! 

Adam

Some of the finished product!

We started to hide the eggs for the kids and I quickly realized we had a problem. Gus was going to eat them all if he could reach them. I spent the rest of the time trying to distract him and I feel like I said "Gus, NO!!" about 100 times. It was kinda humorous though.

He was determined! Yes, Brett is wearing Macy's Muck boots. He only face dived twice. ha

They were having a blast.

 I took pictures of some of the flowers in the yard while I was distracting Gus. 

Snowball bush in full bloom. I don't know what it is technically called...

Someday I will get a picture of him that is not blurry, but they are entertaining through the blur. 

See that egg?! Yep, he ate at least half a dozen. Even though I was trying to keep an eye on him. 

He also led the kids to many eggs. They just had to get them before he did. 

Worn out from all the hunting.

 Gus doesn't hold still very often... no typical basset.

Seriously, they had a blast playing. See that white blur? That's Cooper, he never stopped and Gus likes to take breaks and roll around on the grass.

 Cooper was a mess and he isn't supposed to have a bath for a week because of his surgery. He got his feet washed though. He was feeling back to normal!

Jake didn't want to hang out with us. He got bored and went and laid out in the sun so I don't have many pictures of him. 

I know there are more pictures of the dogs than people but I spent my time entertaining the dogs and, after all, they are my kids. 

I also spent a small amount of time trying to study but wasn't very productive so I should go do that now. 

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter and remembered the real reason for the holiday, that Christ died and rose again so that we may be saved! 

Asparagus.

Hopefully after this post you will understand my absence. This past weekend was packed with asparagus. My cousin Luke does organic gardening and that is where you will find me most of the time during the summer. Spring came pretty early this year and so things are really growing. Asparagus usually starts the season off and boy did it start with a bang! 

We had, and still have, sooooo much asparagus! Friday afternoon we picked for 4 and a half hours and got the most asparagus we have ever gotten. I'm not even going to guess how many pounds it was. Saturday night we picked for 5 hours. We got finished at a little after 1 am Sunday. And yes, my positive attitude had left by then. I was cold, tired, every part of my body ached and it had been so long since I ate supper that I was hungry. ha But it needed to be picked! Sunday was another day full of asparagus. There were lots of helpers around though so I mowed the yard and studied most of the day. I only helped for a few hours. 

To give you a little idea of what we do...

On the left is where the asparagus is.

There is about 5 acres of it I believe.

It grows like this... 

We have purple and green.

This machine was pretty much handmade and it is how we pick. 

 This way we can pick three rows at a time. Luke, or whoever is in the middle, drives with there feet so that they can pick at the same time. We just bend over and pick between our legs. This is the biggest problem for me. I can never quite decide where to put my legs. We just snap the asparagus off as close to the ground as possible. So, pretty much, you are digging your knuckles into the ground the whole time.

Picking in the dark... with headlamps... and a face covered in bugs attracted to your headlamp...

It really isn't that bad, and I don't actually mind picking most of the time. Unless it is waayyy past my bedtime, then I will be cranky no matter what I'm doin'! There was just so much this weekend it was really hard to keep up. It was like a wall of asparagus coming at you and my hands only go so fast. I would just be throwing it into the crate sometimes. It did not always look like this... 

Nice and neat and easy to sort later on.

 After it is picked, it's sorted and sold! 

This weekend was full of other farming as well. We transplanted some sweet corn...

Sorry it's so far away... the corn is to the left. You can kind of see the rows and tiny plants.

 My dad finished spreading manure and started planting field corn like a madman. He planted pretty late into the night on Monday. It was supposed to rain Tuesday and he wanted to get as much seed in the ground before that happened as he could. It didn't actually end up raining very much but every little bit helps. 

I have spent the last few days just catching up on school and eating asparagus! 

As you can tell it has been busy around here! But busy is good!! :)