Where did November go?!

Fishing at Bench's pond.

Cash (isn't he a little heartbreaker?!)

Grandpa Stuart(97 in December) and Dad at Thanksgiving

Hayes and Lauree. (Hee Hee)

Me and Laur on Thanksgiving.

Jared saddling his colt for the first time. He even rode her.



Cash and Jared

Grandpa and his babies!
Chansy and Cash





Dally graining the horses.

Wow! I just experienced the fastest November on record. Not that I am complaining, because now I am just that much closer to CHRISTMAS!!! But I mean, WOW, where did it go? We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Woodruff and got to spend all weekend there.

Happy Halloween!!!

I loved having Halloween on Saturday this year. We had all day to enjoy it and not be rushed. Our house was graced with the presence of a clone trooper, a wizard, a pumpkin or two and a ballerina. The PTA had a carnival at the school and the kids spent most of their afternoon there. The girls had to come home and take naps so Dad took Hayes and Kalon trick-or-treating up and back main street. The struck candy gold! By the time we met them to all go together trick-or-treating, the boys were burned out. We pushed them along because Dally still needed to go trick-or-treat. When we ended at Grandma Rainy's house, the boys literally crashed on the floor. They didn't even want to eat their candy. What a great ending to a beautiful fall day!

Our Little Punkin
Kalon went up the climbing wall to the top 3 different times!

Camera

Yay! Yay! I finally got a new camera and have taken about 600+ pictures in the last few days. The leaves were changing colors and I was going crazy not having a camera. I finally decided on one and got it ordered and it came even sooner than I expected. We are shipping calves tomorrow and those and branding pics are my absolute favorites. Here are some pictures from the last few days. By the way, did I mention that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new camera?

Chansy watching her dad load straw bales.

Earl and Kalon sorting off replacement heifers.

Hayes and Cherry in a standoff. He had to ride my saddle and the stirrups didn't fit him but he did awsome.

The boss.... no, SERIOUSLY!

My "Man Snowy River" picture (minus the sunglasses of course).

Deer Hunt 2009

I absolutely LOVE the deer hunt! I have always hunted Norther region which for the Stuart family tradition consists of starting early morning on the Middle Ridge. Then we always headed to Dairy Ridge. TRADITION. This year was a little different as those two areas are now CMW areas. So we stayed local, meaning town and surrounding fields. Dad and I rode around the night before the hunt and ended up seeing 5 little bucks. I always have hopes of bagging a great big buck and this year was no different. I told myself that night before the hunt that I wasn't going to be shooting any of those little bucks. HMMM. Saturday morning, Dad, Maureen, Earl, Hayes, Kalon, and I all loaded up before dawn and headed to Cox's pasture. We didn't see a deer, let alone a buck. Dad took a shot and missed a HUGE coyote that just stood and looked at us. We drove around and saw a few does and fawns and then rode over the hill to the creek to take a look at a couple of little bucks that were walking over by the hill. 4 pt. and a 2x3 pt. Maureen was closest to the door so she got first shot on the 4 point. One shot, and the buck behind hers started running. What the heck. One shot. Two bucks-two bullets. Who can complain about that? Anyway, it's been a few years since we've had venison so I'll just be happy that we have some meat. Plus, it's always fun to hunt!

Hayes had a ball!
Kalon didn't know what to think of gutting the deer! (That's NOT a smile)

After the deer hunt ended at 7:30am, we went fishing down on the river. We didn't have any luck but it is always fun to try. Then, we picked up Grandma Stuart and Uncle Dick and headed out to Sessions for a hot dog roast. The weather was perfect! We walked down to where an old mine shaft was and picked up a lot of petrified shells that pretty much made up the mountain.

Lauree making popcorn and my cute, cute grandma.

After our picnic, Earl and I took Kalon fishing up to Hardy and Linda's pond. Holy FISH! Kalon skunked us. He caught about 12 huge trout. It was the only time that I have EVER seen Earl enjoy fishing. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

Blessings

During the last little while it seems like everything has broken or worn out around our house. My lawn mower was the first to go this summer. Then, the water heater, and then the microwave that I used to heat water for the 11 days that we had no water heater. Earl and I also talked of adding on to our house which is not going to happen now either. I am now without a camera now as well. This is one of my hardest things to go without. I am a picture freak. My one excuse is that when my kids are grown and gone, I will still have my pictures. When it rains, it most definitely pours! In the midst of all of this, I am not going to complain because I am so truly blessed! I look around the world at all of the disasters and losses and horrible things that people are going through and I acknowledge that I am blessed. I live in a free nation (for now) where I can CHOOSE to do anything that I please. I have a warm home (still small for 6 people), beef to eat at my every convenience, healthy children (for the most part), wonderful friends and family, and I especially appreciate the blessing of raising my children in the gospel. For these things I am completely thankful and I know where these blessings have came from!

Hay hauling "olden day style" (in other words...OUCH)

My husband's uncle hired him to haul 600 little bales of alfalfa to Payson for him. My husband thought that he'd made a pretty good deal. He then asked me, his very out of shape wife, to help him. His pretty good deal went down the drain with that first mistake. The bales are already stacked in the field, we just have to throw them on the trailer, stack, and haul. We were informed that there would be a crew there to unload the trailer when we got there.
Day 1
2:30 pm 95 degrees- long sleeved shirt, allergies, -wimpy sneezing wife helps load about 16 bales to amazing, strong husband's 200 on the trailer. We then load kids up, strap down hay, honk at Hayes on the way through town because he has scouts after school and then head to Payson where the "crew" waits to unload us.
5:30 pm scheduled time to unload. We wait, and wait, call the lady, no answer, drive around to see if we are in the right place and then go back (during rush hour with a loaded trailer) and wait, call the lady, no answer, and wait some more. My husband then makes the comment "What women doesn't have or answer her cell phone"? Then some 80 year olds show up and ask us if this is the girl scout hay. Earl looks at me and rolls his eyes. They get out of the truck with gloves. I put 911 on my speed dial.
6:15 pm "boss lady" shows up and says that we are waiting for the hay elevator.
6:30 pm Hay elevator man shows up with it hanging out of the back of his 4 horse trailer. We unload the elevator to the side of the hay stack, put on our gloves and go to work. Still 95 degrees. 2- 80 year olds, a hip replacement hay elevator man, boss lady, and Earl and I. HMMMMM. I wipe out my head in the rafters while rolling hay bales to the back. I can't see through the sweat running into my eyes which are already so swollen that my head looks like a red rubber ball from elementary school. I am also sneezing so badly that I can't breath in to get any air. Unloading crew my foot!
8:45 pm We pull into the yard exhausted. Lukewarm showers, because the water heater is broke again and fall into bed. I have blisters on my "mommy" hands and just want an allergy pill. Take a couple of Tylonal for my split head.

Day 2
7:30am I take an allergy pill. I put on a cowboy shirt but roll up the sleeves.
8:30 am Get Hayes and Kalon to school. Recruit awesome brother-in-law Jess to help load hay. Loading hay goes a lot faster. Jess and Earl are amazing. I am still pretty wimpy but work up another good sweat. It helps that it is cooler. Strap down hay and decide to just haul it up and unload it ourselves instead of waiting for another "unloading crew".
11:00 am Pull Kalon out of school a couple of minutes early and head north. Jess felt sorry for us and went along for the ride. Lady meets us at the hay shed. Unloading is much faster. I drag a lot more bales today and don't throw nearly as many but the work still gets done. Again, Jess and Earl rock! Wendy's house for lunch on the way through Nephi.
2:00 pm Exhausted! Get home and pretty much die but I can't because I'm a mom and mom's do a million things so I keep doing the million things on my list. My muscles don't hurt. My hips and elbows do. When did I go from muscles to joints??? Maybe I'm not in as bad a shape as I thought?!? Okay, I know wishful thinking! My arms look like a crazy cat got a hold of them but it was a little cooler.
Day 3
7:00 am Take an allergy pill. Coolness over protection today. A t-shirt is so, so, so much cooler. Feed kids and get ready. Call for Aunt Tammy to take Hayes and Kalon to school.
8:00 am Pick up Jess again who is again, so willing to help.
8:45 am Start loading hay. It goes even faster than the day before. Again, I'm hardly any help compared to the boys but I do what I can.
9:20 am Finish loading. NEW RECORD! We don't even call lady today. We drive up, I kind of slide out of the truck and crawl slowly and carefully onto the trailer and again drag bales. We unload in record time and are home by 11:40am. I feel like I have been through the ringer. No naps for mommy though. On to the demands of motherhood.

That night as I ran over to my friends house, she commented that I looked skinnier. Okay, I'm getting on a hay crew full time! I may not be able to walk for a few days though.

(The first days unloading crew were very, very, very nice people and we never did use the hay elevator. They chained it to the hay shed and when we needed it on day 3, we couldn't use it.)

Hay camp, cow camp, we camp, and camp and camp and camp....

Happy kids (for the moment).

Chansy absolutely adores Hayes. He is so good with her! They are playing in the sheep camp.

Sorry, I couldn't turn the picture. Dally and Choc dog.

This is an I-spy picture. Who can find the bluegill?

Okay, August for the Bailey's was pretty much a blur. We hayed, hauled hay, and then hayed some more. Our hay fields are about 17 miles away. To solve the problem of so much running around, we hauled the sheep camp to Chester and spent a lot of late nights in the fields and a little bit of time sleeping. The kids had a BALL for the most part. They got pretty sick of the hay hauling part. 4 kids and mommy in the 2 ton with no air. Not the best situation for sibling bonding. We DID survive though and hopefully created lasting memories. There is a circle pond with a flowing well where we camped that is full of 3-5" blue gills. The kids fished and fished and fished some more. Kalon fell out of the trees a couple of times but survived as well (it was pretty scary for mom and dad though). All of the kids ended up wet from the well but we just counted it as baths.

Earl and Kalon

We also spent a week herding cows on the Skyline permit. It started out pretty good. The fences suck so it is a full time herding job. Earl took Hayes and Kalon and did some good riding but it is almost useless with the fence situations. Plus a trough wasn't working so the cows wouldn't and couldn't stay where they were supposed to. Earl was pretty frustrated but it was beautiful up there! Again, the kids had a ball. Hayes and Kalon stayed in the tent while Earl and I listened for bears all night every night. It turned out that all we really had to worry about was cows. This is one of our pairs. It was funny that they are the only ones that dared come in this close- and it was definitely close. The boys were still asleep.

Earl hurt his back pretty bad a few days after we got up there and it pretty much put him out of commission. We had to lead all of the horses to a trough a little bit down the mountain twice a day. The kids thought that it was pretty cool to ride bareback and I must admit so did I. They did awesome.

I got a couple of chances to go for some great walks. Can I just say that I LOVE MY ATS (all terrain stroller). I LOVE MY STROLLER!

Kalon and Dally in the "fort" that they helped Hayes build.

Chansy also started crawling. I know that it's late but it's pretty good for a baby that has spent most of her life in a car seat. It was really nice for me because I never had to worry about her getting into anything out of reach. That has now changed!! Immensely! She is into everything now. She had her 1st birthday on the 28th and now we are working on walking. Hayes and Kalon started school on the 27th. Hayes is in 3rd grade and Kalon started kindergarten and so far, they love it. Hayes started reading Harry Potter books and made it through the first 3 books in August. (That's how the younger siblings survived the hay hauling-older brother was reading). Kalon is starting to read as well and doing awesome. Wow, our kids are growing fast! What a great month August turned out to be! Now for cow hauling season.