Snapshots: An Eclectic Assortment

I was so pleased by the inadvertent alliteration of my shopping list that I took a photo.

It's the little things in life.

A child who wishes to no longer be featured by name here actually cleaned the work table in the shop. The shop is one of the few areas that I don't use, and thus, do not clean. That means it is usually in an incredible state of chaos. I try to just avoid it. And now at least this part is organized! Yay!

I will respect the desire for anonymity, even if it means he doesn't get credit for this lovely sight.

Ready for work.

Another anonymous child arranged every single toy car we have in what he called "a war council."

I thought it looked quite artistic.

We've been keeping the sheep off their pastures near the house so the recent rains can do their work of actually making forage in there. If we don't keep the sheep off the pastures as they grow initially, they will eat every last tiny sprout and nothing will grow well all summer. So we have them penned in the alley near the house. 

We had been feeding them hay in there, but now that there are weeds and things growing all over the roadsides, A. stopped buying hay and has instead been letting the sheep out to graze morning and evening around our ghost village. They are happy to do this, and it's nice not to be paying for hay, but they do require some shepherding. 

Sheep like to roam, you see. And sometimes they will roam too near our (not-very-close) neighbors' houses, or too far down the road. And then they must be re-directed. The children are actually very proficient shepherds, although they occasionally require help.

Sheep on the road.

May is the branding month here in cattle country. Any new calves have to be branded, vaccinated, tagged (on the ear), and castrated if they're bull calves. Typically, the calves are put in a pen, roped by the hind leg by a roper on horseback, flipped over and held by one person at the head and one at the tail, and then there's a person to do the branding, another to do the castrating, and one who does the ear tag and vaccination.

This is hard, dirty work, and it requires a fairly large working party. Our elderly neighbors (the ones with whom we butchered the bull) branded 35 calves yesterday and we went to their house to watch. Well, the children and I watched. A. was pressed into service to hold the calves.

He learned quite a few tricks in the process. And got very muddy and sore.

Last, I will leave you with a sunrise shapshot, which is quite misty thanks to the regular rain we've been getting.

Alleluia.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.