Vegas Baby

Let me quote my dear husband:

"We are having Prime Rib.  Sorry for your bad luck!"

 I'm home while the whole gang (including my parents)

are spending Spring Break in Vegas.

I had to take a business trip to Atlanta

(I had an incredible view from my hotel room)...

 and got home yesterday in time for another baby cow

to make its debut this morning.

It looks and sounds like they are having a grand time.

I'm told Kean only whined for me for the first couple of days

(he's now conveniently forgotten about me)- ha.

They spent one day hiking around one of our favorites--

Valley of Fire.

 If you haven't been, it's about 45 miles outside of Vegas.

 And has all kinds of cool historical stories (about a renegade Indian

who killed a few people and hid up in these canyons)

and lots of Indian Petroglyphs.

 They got to have dinner with my childhood best friend and her husband--

and have been living it up in the sun at Grammy and Grandpa's house.

 There's no pool but a jacuzzi is just as good.

This is the house my parents are trying to sell -- again.

In case you didn't know, they had it sold once but the

guy died three weeks before closing.

If you know of anyone... er, looking to buy, not die--

let me know!

Rodeo Barker Style

Ahh, what a long way I've come from my days in New York and L.A.

Should've seen me last night... chasing down a cow in my flip flops!

Greer and I came home from getting her hair cut to find Byron

and Holland trying to round up our remaining two cows and a baby.

 We joined in the chase... helping to get the Mama and the other cow

in the trailer.  You'd think the calf would be a cinch to lasso.

Um no.

You'd have laughed yourself silly watching all of us running

back and forth across the pasture to 1. wear the calf out

and 2.  get him close enough to Byron so he could lasso him.

 And Byron tried so hard and came so close- many, many times.

Like, a hundred times.  Or attempts.  No joke.

It was hilarious and exhausting and everything else.

 Finally, the planets aligned.  Or the calf got too tired.

No matter, Byron got him on a dead run.

And got a horrific rope burn to show for his efforts.

But we got them all loaded, locked and moved

to our friend's greener pastures

where they will get nice and fat.

 And... hopefully, a little action.

They are now back in the company of our neighbor's bull.

And I think I'll just leave it at that.

 Oh, and by the way, Greer got 8 inches cut off.

That girl has enough hair for half the country.

Life and Death

Huge thank yous for all of the birthday wishes.

This was a big one for me-- we had great plans to head up

to the cabin so I could hide from the world and avoid any celebrating.

My dear friend, Elly Moomey had planned to cook a birthday feast

for me up at the cabin-- but at the last minute we cancelled the trip

(don't dare leave with those cows all so close to having babies)!!

So she cooked up a storm at my house and invited my dad, Byron's mom

and our neighbors- the Bodily's.

 The way I see it is why not celebrate getting old with the

best examples of elderly coolness I know!

  Dinner was magnificent (eat your hearts out-- Elly is an incredible cook).

And it was the perfect way to chalk up another year around the sun.

 Elly may be a terrific cook but she is a horrific influence on the girls- ha!

They have this horrid tradition of eating whipped cream right out of the bottle.

And they love it!

 That was Wednesday.

Thursday, I spent the afternoon at a grave site service for

a 9 year old boy who died of cancer.

Rashid wanted to be a police officer when he grew up-

even though we all knew he never would.

A few months back, the Boise Police Department made his dreams come true.

They put him through training, had him graduate as an officer

and then immediately solve a crime involving the Boise State Football team.

It was a beautiful story -- on every level.

If you have a few minutes, here's a link to their video:

https://vimeo.com/139258962

The funeral was heartbreaking.

Rashid's mother is only 25 and she wailed loudly throughout the entire service.

I know I wasn't the only one who wanted to go to her and just hold her.

I've never been to a Muslim funeral-- it was very interesting

but the sweetest part came at the end when all of the men

went over and shook hands with the long line of police officers

(including the Chief of Police)

who were in attendance.

It was the only picture I felt comfortable enough to take.

 Minutes before I got home, we had another calf born.

If you are keeping track-- this little boy makes 3

with 5 more cows still to deliver.

Um, they would, of course, choose the freak cold snap

we are having as the time to give birth.

This one seems to be fine.

The mama did what she was supposed to.

The other two babies are looking good too.

 This has been one stressful vacation.

I keep telling the other girls to keep their legs crossed

and hold off delivering until the temperatures go up in a few more days!

Meanwhile, we went to a fun New Year's Eve party last night

(Kean fell asleep by 8 so Byron took him home)...

and we had our traditional Bingo Fest (with dollar store prizes)

all afternoon today.

Happy 2016.

I'm praying for a dull and boring year

even though I know that's a pipe dream.

Ladies and Gentlemen-- We Have ANOTHER!

I swear, a writer for a sitcom or drama could not come close 

to making this stuff up.

We finally got one baby calf to the point where we think she is going 

to survive and boom!!!-- tonight just before dinner another one

dropped a calf.

 This one is much smaller (actually more normal sized)

and got right up and started walking.

It wasn't nearly as cold as the other night so that helped.

 But get this, the dumb thing would root all around

but never latch onto her Mama-- even with Byron

squirting milk into her mouth and forcing her

mouth open and over the teat.

We finally tonight resorted to breaking out the

mega bottle of colostrum.

 It was quite a chore getting her to figure out how to suck the bottle

but she finally did.  Sorry my picture is so dark-- it is quite tricky

trying to take a picture while holding the bottle 

and Byron is holding her.

Still no go on the Mama yet.

Sigh... maybe tomorrow.

p.s.  here's the deal:  our neighbor brought his bull over

and told us it would take a while for him to get acclimated

and "get busy".  Umm, he must have gotten busy the first night-

because we weren't expecting babies for at least another month.

This is definitely not what I had envisioned for Christmas break!

Babies, Babies, Babies (The Barker Bovine Breeding Center and Puppy Central)

So much for a quiet little Christmas.

Our lives have been INSANE the past few days.

I don't even know where to begin-- 

so I'll begin with the cliff notes on Christmas.

All the girls wanted was a puppy.

That tricky ol' guy with the white beard and red suit

left them a stuffed puppy and a note-- saying he couldn't find

them "a puppy" and that we'd have to go as a family to pick

out one that would be a perfect fit.

But he did say he left a couple of small presents up in the barn.

 We all (and I mean all-- the Bodily's, the Moomey's, my parents

and Byron's mom) traipsed up to the barn-- where the girls

found these two little fur balls.

 Drum roll please-- meet Lola...

 and Monroe (as in Marilyn).  They call her Ro for short.

The sisters are Aussie/Border Collie and Blue Heeler mixed.

Trust me, they are even cuter in person.

 The funniest thing is they think Kean is one of their chew toys.

It is so funny to watch them interact.

 As if two puppies away from their mama for the first time

isn't enough... we came home Christmas night to find one of our

cows had literally just given birth.

It was about ten degrees outside and the new mama cow

didn't go over and clean off her baby.

So as hypothermia set in, we rushed the baby to the barn

(Byron's extended garage) and with the help of Ron Moomey,

dried the baby off and cleaned him up.

 We all took turns blow drying the fur on the little guy.

Crazy... not something I ever thought I'd do in this life!

 Between the puppies, the baby calf and Kean who got a new bed

for Christmas (have I mentioned he does not like changes in his routine?),

we were up ALL night.

The baby calf-- I think the girls have decided on the name Elfis (like Elvis

but the Christmas version), was really struggling by Saturday morning--

a runny nose, weak and wouldn't get milk from his mom.

We weren't sure whether it was the mom or the baby-- but he wasn't 

getting any milk and was really worrying us.

So even though Byron had put him back out once he was dry,

he got cold again and we brought him back into the barn.

 The most we could get the mom to do was nuzzle him and moo--

but no milk.

 So Byron went out and found a supplier open and bought some

colostrum and got that down the baby, plus some vitamin shots.

By Saturday night, he still wasn't latching on- so we got the mama

into the trailer, Byron tied her up and forced the baby onto her.

It has been a long two days (and nights) but the Cow Whisperer, aka,

Byron thinks we have rounded the corner and the little calf is now strong

enough to drink and will survive.

That's the good news.

The scary news is we have 7 more (yup, 7)

pregnant cows.

Arrggghhhhhh.

In the Thick of It (and Cow Pies)

Thought you'd like a little update on "Plague Central".

Let's see, I'm finally better.

Reese, who was sick over the weekend is better.

Holland is getting over the gunk

and Greer is down hard tonight with a fever.

I've decided Kean, with his lousy immune system,

is catching just about everything at Kindergarten, bringing it home

and sharing the love with the rest of us.

The boy, himself, is doing much better but still

has that awful, itchy rash on his face (and is therefore a bit edgy)!

We had good news though, we had our rescheduled doctor's

appointment early this morning with the specialist he sees

for those scary Hypoglycemic seizures.

And now that he's off the Chemo (we hope he won't

have any more) we don't have to go back

for another YEAR!!  Whoo hoo!

 We had some other good news this evening.

For the past several weeks Byron has been trying

to get one of our cows rounded up to bring back home

(she's been at "summer camp" at my cousins).

She was in a pasture with two other cows who turned out

to be quite the bullies.  Every time Byron tried to round

her up, they cut her off etc.

 My studly cowboy husband has spent countless hours

trying to catch this cow!!

And tonight he got her and got her home.

We celebrated with "cow pie" cookies.

And yes, they tasted better than they look.

The Girls Chase the Boys

What a Spring Break we've had--- we played hard at the lake

for the first few days and then nearly killed ourselves off the second half.

My dear husband (many of you know I call him McGyver- because he 

can do everything) decided we were going to refinish our wood floors.

Holy cow-- what a lot of work!!!

Our wood floors actually are an old gym floor from a high school

in Arizona-- true hard wood, and I mean hard.

We sanded on those darn things for years it felt like.

 We put not one, but two coats of the hardener on it, plus

the top coat (with sanding and cleaning each time in between).

Let's just say we put in some incredibly long hours and I'm pretty

sure I won't be able to move tomorrow.

 We also carted the kids over to my folks house and ended up

staying there-- due to the mountains of dust and the

toxic fumes.

Last night we celebrated my dad's birthday and the birthdays 

of my parents' neighbors-- Janice and Bob.

(Janice is our dear miracle-- she wasn't supposed

to survive her cancer and yet is still with us and fighting hard).

 And as if we don't have enough on our plates with cleaning 

everything-- and I mean everything-- and moving it all back

into the house... we had to move Sadie and her baby, Rudy

down to the back pasture with the other cows.

 I swear it is a good thing there aren't cameras to capture

all of us chasing and hollering after these dumb cows

trying to get them to go where we want.

 Thankfully, we got them in with no extra drama

and it was crazy watching all the seven of the girl cows

we have chase Rudy around and check him out.

Byron, of course, said that is exactly how he and Kean

feel all the time- since they are "ladies men".

 I guess that makes us the chasers.

Both Ends!

We are a little stressed over here.

Poor Kean hasn't felt well all weekend-- nothing

big, he was just off.

Well today, without going into too many details, I changed

four diapers in less than 30 minutes-- the smelly kind.

And just as we were sitting down for dinner, our boy

vomited and vomited (really, my cooking is not that bad)!

So we now are in that waiting game-- watching him way too 

closely and taking his temperature every 30 minutes.

He's been running around 99.5 to 100.  Remember,

if he goes over 101, we go to the hospital.

The thing is, other than be overly cuddly, he looks and acts

quite fine.

He even wanted to brush his teeth tonight.

 His Oncologist said there are about five viruses going around

and he's letting us stay home and play the waiting game

rather than run to the E.R. tonight.

So extra prayers, fingers crossed and anything else you can

think of that will help our little warrior  beat this bug

without us spending hours upon hours in the E.R.

p.s.  Rudolph Hubert Barker the first-- a.k.a. Rudy

is doing great.  He's running, jumping, practically skipping

around his pen.  We are all quite taken with the little calf.

A New Baby for the Barkers!!!

Hold onto your shorts.

It's not what you think.

But we do have a new addition to the family--

and for all of you who know me as a city girl-- boy, are you

ever gonna be shocked.

But first,

we had a great, great Christmas.

 This year, we had a full house, or shall I say, a full

audience to watch the kids in all their giddiness.

My folks, Byron's mom and our beloved neighbors,

the Bodily's joined us Christmas morn.

The girls got all kinds of new bedding and decorations

for their rooms...

 Reese gave Byron some of her framed artwork

for his office...

 but hands down, my favorite gift was the one Grandpa Bodily opened.

We made him a book chronicling all the months he spent

riding his lawn mower to help Kean build up those legs and learn

to walk.  It was titled "Lawn Mower Therapy" (and it even

made him cry a tiny bit).

So worth it! 

It was a great day.

 Now onto our baby news.

Our cow Sadie finally decided to give birth today--

the day after Christmas.

I won't go into all of the gory details-- but I will say I came

pretty darn close to throwing up.

(It made me, for the first time, thankful it was me giving birth

and not my husband having to watch it when we had our children).

Sadie's birthing was well, to put it delicately, rather icky.

So if you have a wimpy stomach (much  like mine,

skip the picture below).

If you don't, look closely.  That is a little hoof

sticking out.

Thankfully, all went well, and this little guy-- yes, it is a boy

joined us. 

 We all watched in utter amazement as Sadie

instinctively turned into a mother before our eyes.

She softly mooed and washed her baby down with her tongue.

 And then little Rudy (Rudolph) got up and tried his darndest

to walk in front of us.

It took him several tries before he got the hang of it

but tonight, he's a walkin' drinkin' machine.

Ah, what experiences we are having!