Yesterday while my mind was wandering (see 6:30 am) on the way to the cows, the idea for this post came to me. I thought it might be fun to keep notes on my day and share the play-by-play in a post today. So, without further ado, here it is – yesterday in the life of this ranch wife.
4:30 am – I got up and put the coffee on – we have a Bunn, so luckily, it is only three minutes to coffee. I expressed and stored milk for the baby while enjoying my cup of coffee and taking in the news, both on social media and our local television station.
5:15 am – I headed outside to feed and water my hens and collect the nearly two dozen eggs they had waiting for me. While outside, I moved my sprinklers. The heat has been blazing the past couple of weeks, so the sprinklers are on the lawn pretty much 24/7.
5:30 am – Because he was leaving for a meeting and I needed to move the pairs before it got hot, Tom got the kids up and started getting them ready to take on the day.
6:15 am – Tom and I loaded/secured the kids, dogs, snacks, drinks, my camera, and myself in the side-by-side and took off for the pasture.
6:30 am – I had to turn around because I realized that my mind had wandered (this happens with some regularity) and I forgot to close a gate.
God’s handy work in a Sandhills sunrise.
6:40 am – We (by “we,” I mean the kids, dogs, and I) arrived at our destination and took a minute to take in the beautiful sunrise before we started moving the pairs.
8:00 am – The last necessary evil, otherwise known as bull, made it through the gate into the fresh pasture. I hooked up the fencing trailer (a small trailer that we pull behind the side-by-side, or 4-wheeler, when we repair, or build, fence) and moved it so the cattle wouldn’t rub on it. Then I went loaded the mineral tubs in the back of the side-by-side to move to the new pasture.
8:15 am – I stopped at the water tank and used the solar (water pump powered by solar energy) to wash out underneath of the side-by-side. This time of year it is important to keep the undercarriage clean, and free of dry grass seed, so that we don’t set the hills ablaze. Then I dropped off the mineral tubs in a patch of switch grass near the tank. After I got the tubs set out, I took a few minutes to feed the baby, watch the older kids play, and observe the cattle a bit more.
These two just doing what they do.
9:00 am – We loaded up and set out for the home place.
9:20 am – We arrived back at home. After I unloaded the kids, dogs, snacks, drinks, my camera, and myself out of the side-by-side, I went to work moving the sprinklers.
9:30 am – I employed the help of the kids to pick the garden. Our haul included cucumbers (so glad those are slowing down), tomatoes (so glad those are finally picking up), green beans, and peppers.
10:15 am – I started cleaning up the kitchen and prepping to can some tomatoes.
10:30 am – I sat down for a minute to listen to the older kids play, feed the baby, and eat a quick snack myself. While I was sitting down I noticed a strange smell coming from the baby. So, after Tagg had finished her snack, I ended up changing a stinky one.
11:00 am – I laid Tagg down for a nap.
11:05 am – The stinky one reminded me that I needed to start washing diapers, so I started a load of diapers.
11:10 am – I washed my hands because, yuck!
11:15 am – I prepared the tomatoes to make oven roasted marinara sauce, put them in the oven to roast, and started making lunch.
11:45 am – The older kids and I ate our lunch and headed outside to move the sprinklers.
12:00 pm – Tagg woke up from her nap and had lunch.
12:30 pm – I took the tomatoes out of the oven, ran them through the food mill, and started cooking them down on the stove top.
12:50 pm – I put the second batch of tomatoes in the oven.
1:00 pm – The older kids were getting owly, so upstairs they went for a nap, giving me a little quiet time to write some notes on the day.
1:15 pm – I topped the baby off with a snack and laid her down for her afternoon nap.
2:00 pm – I took the second batch of tomatoes out of the oven, ran them through the food mill to make juice, and finished making the marinara with the addition of the seasoning. I poured the sauce and juice into their respective jars and started the water in the canner.
Tomatoes fresh out of the oven and the yummy marinara cooking down.
2:30 pm – Tripp couldn’t sleep so he came back downstairs. It was actually perfect timing because Tom had made it back from his meeting, so they did school. While school was in session, I folded laundry and processed the juice and sauce in the canner.
3:00 pm – After school, Tom and Tripp went outside to mow. I finished folding laundry (I had a mountain of it to fold) and put fresh sheets on the guest beds for the company coming this weekend to help us celebrate the older kids’ birthdays.
4:00 pm – The baby woke up hungry from her nap.
4:30 pm – Tripp came inside and Tenley woke up from her nap just in time to catch the last episode of Wild Kratz.
5:00 pm – I picked, prepped, and started basil in the dehydrator. I also kept some fresh to put in our supper.
5:30 pm – I started fixing supper – One Pot Garlic Pasta (I double the batch and add fresh basil and grilled chicken).
6:15 pm – We ate supper and cleaned up after.
7:00 pm – I sat down to watch my favorite show on Create (a PBS channel), A Chef’s Life.
7:30 pm – I fed Taggert while Tom got the older kids ready for bed.
7:45 pm – We put all three kids down for the night and I took a much needed shower (canning is a sweaty job and something I wish could be down in the winter).
8:00 pm – I started more laundry, wrote a few notes on the day, and headed out to move the sprinklers.
8:30 pm – We started an episode of Castle on DVD, which I fell asleep watching.
There you have it – my yesterday in a nutshell.
Hello! I’m Terryn – the wife, mother, food safety enthusiast, Stormy Kromer fanatic who has slightly (okay, a lot) random tendencies, dabbles in photography, and shares (maybe a little too much) here at FFB.