Happy Birthday!

Our son turned 15 Yay!  For his birthday celebration he wanted to have a few friends spend the night then have a bunch of friends come for the day and then have kayak races and run around the property with a February birthday often we have to be inside but I like his positive attitude.  Let’s try it!

We need to move the sheep and cattle into different areas.  The cattle we moved into a pasture with our neighbors horses to eat what the horses wouldn’t eat for just a couple days and somehow that turned into over a week with us not getting around to moving them.  One of the horses liked the fodder so much he chased the cows away from it. 

The morning of the sleep over, while I am making breakfast for all the boys, Birthday Boy informs me he made arrangements for the horse he is taking care of to get its feet trimmed.  Ok, so now while his friends are over we need to try to catch a horse that sometimes is an angel and you can put your arms around it and sometimes you can spend hours chasing it to catch it.  Great what fun!  While Darling Husband is eating his breakfast I remind him we need to move the sheep but think with all the kids here we can let them free range for the day.  Darling Husband says, “You are adding chaos onto chaos!”

We finish breakfast and go out to take care of the animals.  I walk up to get the fodder while Birthday Boy walks his FFA Lamb.  Then we let all the sheep loose and feed the cattle and try to catch Magic.  Magic doesn’t want to be caught.  Every once in a while one of Birthday Boy’s friends walks towards the sheep as if he will pet them but they run away from him.  We ask Stick Boy to keep an eye on the sheep.  After 30 minutes of almost getting a rope around Magic’s neck we ask Stick Boy where the sheep are “What Sheep MOM?”  So 8 of us start looking for the sheep, who had decided to go visit a neighbor.  We get them back on the property and they start eating happily.  Darling Husband turns to me “I told you this was a bad idea.  I thought I was clear I didn’t want the sheep out today”.  I said “You said I was adding chaos onto chaos.  I thought that was just our life.” 

We get back to the business of catching Magic with only 10 minutes until the Ferrier arrives.  Magic runs from me with hay in my hand.  Magic runs from Birthday Boy then stops and stands still.  Birthday Boy walks up and puts his arms around the horse’s neck, I walk over and we gently put a rope around his neck and then get the halter on.  Magic gets his hoofs trimmed and everything finishes up just as more boys arrive for the party. 

Mother Nature gave us a beautiful hot day!  The boys had kayak races, played bumper kayaks, jumped off the rope swing into the pond.  The sheep would wander over and check out the boys every once in a while and didn’t go visiting any neighbors.  Fillet that naughty steer found ways to get out 2 times.

All the boys were supposed to leave at 5:pm and I let them know any that stayed late would help us move the sheep fence.  At 5:20 we still had 3 boys so they helped move the sheep fence and set up the solar charger.  By 6: all the animals were where they belonged and fed.  We still need to move the cattle but tomorrow is another day.

It was a great day!  Happy Birthday to my son!