Score!!

The ladies all ate out of my hand tonight!!  Score!  They are coming around faster than Thor that's for sure!  :-)

Silly Ava!

Oh silly Ava!  What do you mean you don't want to go to the barn.  Okay!  Let's practice then!  :-D

A little more spunk than yesterday!!  :-)

We still struggle with Ava slightly leaning back from me.

Pretty girl!

Practicing tracking my hand!  She does great!

You'll be happy to note I finally found a pair of shorts that are more presentable!  Mike thought so!  :-)  Pretty sure everyone is getting tired of the cruddy cut offs.  :-)  Ha ha!  It was a pretty quiet day of nothing today.  Sitting around relaxing and playing with Ava.
Just a quick update on Oscar...  He's been consistently getting reserves every weekend.  Gotta get some weight on that boy!  He's just growing so tall it's hard to keep him beefy!  But it will come.  I miss him!  :'(  sniff!!!  Kind of a poopy kind of day today... Missing the girls and missing my Oscar...  Come here Ava!  Let's practice some more!  :-)  Hope your Memorial day was a fantastic one.  See ya when I see ya!

What??... Seriously??

Come on!  You just mowed the front yard two days ago!!  Seriously??
And I swear, that was not my dog!  I would fess up if it was my dog!  I swear!!

It was a heavenly summer day today!

As soon as I saw that black swallowtail butterfly today, I knew it was going to be a great day!  I haven't seen an actual black swallowtail butterfly since I was a kid living in the country...  I saw the butterfly briefly before he flew out to my pasture...  But I saw him so I knew today would be fantastic.
The temperature was warm!  Perfect for cold blooded me!  I spent almost all day outside which was exactly where I wanted to be!  The dogs thought it might be a bit too hot though so they spent most of the day in the shade!

I barely fit in this shady spot!!

Dyna and Harley enjoying the shade

Molly with her normal pose

When I wasn't giving my opinion on where the trees should be planted, I spent a lot of the day planting some final flowers...  My flowers probably look the best they ever will this summer...  Prior to getting hailed out.  As I sit here typing this, a pretty big thunderstorm is rolling through just north of the ranch...  So we may have skirted the hail for one more day...  But anyway, the flowers look great!  Check it out!  I've even been watching some hummingbirds and hummingbird moths enjoy my flowers too!  :-)

I got to spend some time with Ava training as well.  She's doing much better at standing for me now.  She still tends to lean back a bit...  I've got to start trying to get her to shift her weight forward..  We've been having problems with Ava and her growing pains.  Much like a teenager, she's been growing so quickly, her joints get achy...  I've started giving her some joint supplements and some anti-inflammatory for the joints.  It's not easy being 6 months old and weighing more than 100 lbs!  Hopefully she has a good weekend the weekend of June 9th.  That is our first show in the Twin Cities!  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Obviously Ava says it's too hot to do this!!

 I hope my industrial strength white legs don't frighten you!  It's a survival tool!  If a bear tried to attack me, the glare of my white legs would blind the bear and I would be able to run away!  Survival of the fittest!!

I was on a mission today much to the dogs chagrin!  All the dogs got their shots, treated with their topline, the goats got wormed, Rasmus and Molly got wormed!  Tomorrow the horses get it!  Here's a picture of Rasmus and a present I got for him for being a good boy...  Their favorite!  Beef Knuckle from Bomgaars!!  :-)  

It was a beautiful day.  Apple and I relaxed late afternoon in the garage and watched some cars drive by for awhile...  Apple smiles for the camera!  She's so cute!

It's days like today with the black swallowtail butterfly that make me thankful I grew up in Iowa.  I'm thankful I have an appreciation for my animals, and plants and butterflies...  and all the other things that we are fortunate enough to be able to experience growing up in rural Iowa.
And as I sit here typing this, it's pouring rain outside...  but I'm smiling because there's no hail and my flowers will look fantastic tomorrow!!  :-)

Going Green...

Yay!  I love planting trees!!  We went to Menards....  "Save big money at Menards!"  and looked for some new trees.  As soon as I saw a small weeping willow tree, I HAD to have it.  Mike doesn't like weeping willows but I begged and pleaded and begged some more until he caved in.  I was going for the front yard but the only way I got this worked out was to commit my new willow tree to the back yard. 
I had to have this tree!  When I was a kid growing up in the country we had this awesome weeping willow tree...  I used to tie my horses to this tree!  My brothers and I used to climb this tree!  When I was a kid, I thought it was the most awesome tree in the world.  And now I have one of my own!   I love it!  Right now it looks a little bit like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree but I have faith!  It's going to be beautiful!!

Mike said "hold the shovel and pretend you dug the hole!"  ha ha!

Mike picked out his own tree.  It was a maple that turns red in the fall.  He wanted it for a shade tree for the goats and the dogs..  It's going to be a few years before we get any shade out of this new tree but I thought it was a nice idea...

Ground hard?

Not much shade yet!

The ladies say "Ah!  Scary!  Let's get out of here!"

Someday the ladies will appreciate the shade...  Mike just said a while ago...  "I can't believe you talked me into a dirty weeping willow tree."  :-)  Mark my words!  Someday my weeping willow will be beautiful!!  :-)

OCD at the Johnson Ranch

We all have our individual things that make us unique...  and annoying to others!  ha ha!!  I call it your own personal OCD!  Mike's is he is physically unable to keep himself from washing a slightly dirty vehicle...  Yep, Saturday he scrubbed every one of our vehicles!

Rasmus doesn't quite get it....

Now, I can't do a whole lot of criticizing about Mike's OCD of scrubbing vehicles...  As you will see, I have my own OCD related to scrubbing...

Ava taking her scrubbing like a big girl!

Rasmus was too scared to get into the pool...

Shake it off Rasmus!

Molly thinks this is unfair treatment!

I scrubbed these three and then scrubbed the two little dogs...  Raisin hands when I was all done!  But I wasn't the winner of the OCD for the day....  As you know another compulsion of Mike's is his lawn..  Yep!  Later in the day, Ava left Mike a present on the front lawn...  Mike started to hyper-ventilate and I thought he was going to have a fit...  I said, don't worry!  I'll clean it up tomorrow besides it will make that spot all the greener!  haha!  :-D  Nope, that didn't fly..  I had to clean it up immediately!!  And kinda weird that Mike wanted to take a picture of me scooping poop for my blog...  hmmmm...

I am a professional pooper scooper...  I hire out if you're interested!

Woo Hoo!! Three day weekend!

A three day weekend!  Awesome!  Unfortunately I started my three day weekend with a quick trip to the vet!  Yep, poor little Remy had developed a little upper respiratory.  I suspect from the stress of the sale and the new home and all that scary stuff! 

Remy

Remy got a shot that she didn't appreciate but she'll be better soon now.  She sure loves her little goat block that we got for the ladies.  Kasey, gotta break you the news, I had to change Danika's name to Peggy.  She seems more like a Peggy.  Here is what Peggy normally looks like...  got her mouth open and making a lot of noise!  Ha Ha!

Baa-aa-aa-aa

Yes, my name is now Peggy!

And then there is little Farrah.  Farrah is probably the bravest of the three.  I've gotten Farrah to sniff my hand.  Then she reared up and tried to butt me.  She was playing with me.  It was super funny!  I'm always laughing at these three clowns!

Farrah the blond!

You should have gotten a goat instead...

Friday night consisted of Mike and me trying to move Thor from one lot to another one.  The grass was getting a little short and Mike's not ready to turn everyone out on the pasture yet so we moved them out back so they could clean up some hay and some grass in that lot.  Unfortunately Thor had other ideas.  We tried and tried but for some reason Thor did not want to go into the back lot.  We tried for more than an hour.  And then Thor started getting ticked off and started getting snorty and chargy.  He was shaking his head at us and pawing dirt and coming at us with his head down.  So me being the cowgirl that I am told Mike "you should have gotten a goat" and then I went and stood behind the utility pole!  :-)  Unlike Thor, I ain't no dummy!  :-D  I can see a losing battle when I'm in one.  ha ha!  Thor eventually got a metal fencepost along side of the head because he was trying to back Mike down...  But one "Thump"....  later and Thor decided he really wasn't interested in fighting anymore.  And neither were we....  So Thor won...  The horses went out back and Thor stayed in the pen with little grass or hay...  Not very smart...  Again, Mike should have gotten a goat...  :-D  haha!

Harry Potter or Dirty Water... Whatever you want to call it. Haha!

Okay Karley!  Here's your art work so far!  I have three in process now..  One left to get started!  Anything for you my darling!  :-)

Sunday afternoon

It finally warmed up a little bit so we could do some planting outside.  The wind was whipping so it wasn't a totally nice day but at least it dried out a bit from the thunderstorms last night and it was kinda pleasant.  My flowers are looking pretty good...  until of course it hails like it always does....  :-)

When we were done with the planting, Ava got a little one on one time.  She didn't listen real well today so we had to have a conversation about taking this serious...  She did eventually come around... :-)

Pretty girl!!

That's what I'm finally talking about!

Then as the evening wound down, we were all a little pooped from all the wind and activities that went on today.  :-)  Ava tuckered out!!  See ya next week!

The Kraken!

Hey, so have I ever shown you my fish?  Kasey and I named him "The Kraken" after we watched "Wrath of the Titans" and "Clash of the Titans"...  Here he is posing for the camera!  What a ham!

The ladies

Well, the little ladies seem to be fitting in however, they have established themselves as escape artists!  Farrah, Remy, and Danika don't seem to be phased much by all the electric fence that Mike put up today.  They are crafty little devils!  But soooo  adorable!!

They seemed to be obsessed with the big dogs...  They spent a lot of time talking to Molly today!  :-)  Molly just ignored them for the most part.

Before..after..before..after..

Okay, so we were reaching crisis mode with Dora...  She pretty much looked like a shaggy mop.  I think the last time I clipped her it was October!! 

Maybe I could have sold her as a sheep yesterday?

And here she is later!  Yep, pretty much looks like she got run over with the lawn mower.  I'm pretty proud of my handy work here.  I'm thinking of hiring out?  Anyone else want a dog that looks like it's been chewed on?  :-)

Much better!