Can It Really Be Clark's Birthday?

April 16, 1983

Drayton Valley, Alberta

7lbs 10oz  Born at 9:56 am

Grandpa had thee best penmanship and he wasn't a bad poet either.

My first of five!

5 years old in Huntington Beach, CA

 10 years old in Thousand Oaks, CA

I'm gonna say 16 years old (at Disneyland)

 This was taken in March.

Me and my boy Clark!

Why do kids want to grow up? 

When you are young you want to be older. When you are older you want to be young. 

It's all relative isn't it?  I think Clark is young. Neal thinks Clark is old. My father thinks I am young and Lou Lou thinks I am.....wait a second, we are the same age. We are young compared to the next generation and we are old to the younger generation, oh but wait, this is about Clark. Clark is the perfect age!

Happy Birthday Clark!

Another Utah Family Wedding

There seems to be a trend with family members getting married in the Salt Lake Temple. Michelle and Jordan were married last May with Kody and Lindsey last November and now Kelly and Dallin. March 8 to be exact. I say no more family weddings until Laurel gets back from her mission.  Hear that kids, nieces and nephews? 

  

Seth, Neal and Brad.  Cousins on the Hatch side. On my side, as in Hatch, there are only 13 first cousins.  On the Cahoon side there are, hold on, let me get a piece of paper and figure this out.......55.  yea, 55 first cousins. (i think) 

 Michelle was on her own without her husband Jordan. Law school keeps him very very busy.  

 This is my favorite picture.  Look how much fun these cousins are having with their grandpa.  I wonder what they were laughing about.  It's cute.

 Clark is story telling with a toothpick in his mouth. I wonder why he always has a toothpick in his mouth.  " Hey Clark, why do you like toothpicks in your mouth?" 

I call this my General Conference Ensign Issue photo.  

Happy as can be! 

Don't they make a handsome pair?   

 I know, there is something about this picture that is familiar right? 

We missed Sean and Caleb. We missed Laurel at Michelle's wedding too.  Sometimes it happens.  

 Hi daddy.  

 Oh Michelle.  

 Ok, now everybody turn around.  Thanks! 

 Lou Lou and I went to Weber State back in the day along with Melanie and Michelle.  Yep, 2 sets of identical twins in La Salle student housing.  We hadn't seen each other since 1979 and that is a long long time, like 34 years! 

Ok, look real close.  This is Lou Lou wearing my MOTB (mother of the bride) dress. 

And this is me wearing my MOTB dress last May.  

Twins share things. 

Mommas & Babies

Mommas need their babies and babies need their mommas. Today I helped sort the mommas and their new babies from the "mommas to be".  All the "mommas to be" are in one pasture until they calve.  When a few mommas have had their babies and the baby's ears have been tagged they need to be moved to another pasture to make it easier to see how everything is going with the remainder.  When you have around 300 mommas + their babies you gotta be organized. 

Before we have our fun we need to gather our helpers.

Here they come.....

Getting closer and closer......

Come on, just a little closer......

It's kind of a trick we play, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  

Catch em' with grain and then put on their halters. 

 Here is happy Belladonna just waiting to get all saddled up for all the fun.

Ok, so you might think this is a funny picture because it is a funny picture. This momma WOULD NOT move! Dixie thought that if she grabbed the tail and made the momma uncomfortable she might move.  Nope!

So she tried kicking the momma.  Nope!

I had to try it right?  Super nope!  This momma was taking me for a ride.  

 It's hard to remember so many things, like making the horse go forward too.

 Never mind.  Dixie got off of Belladonna and just walked them to the open gate.
Jeepers!

I bet you can't tell who the daddy is to this baby.  The milkman.  The momma is tan, the daddy is black and the baby is grey/white?  Weird genetics if you ask me. 

 This momma would not behave so we had the baby locked onto to Belladonna and then the momma followed her baby.

See this?  This is me on Downey.  I moved these two all by myself, start to finish with no problem.  Some pairs are easy and some are not, bottom line. 

 There they are in the new pasture until fall.

Oh, now who could this be?  After all the work is done.  Dixie came up empty handed with her pair. 

She had a couple momma cows really mad at her for disturbing their newborn babies and decided to charge her.  That happened to me last year and that can be scary. 

Look at this baby.  He was all curled up laying down in the reeds on the pond's edge having a little nap.  

Dixie tried to get the calf up, but apparently they play possum so she had to tie a rope around this baby and drag her out.  

The momma was a little concerned. 

Not too concerned because it seemed to walk away so we just left this cow/calf pair alone until the next go around. 

Did you know that horses tend to be their own chiropractor sometimes?  After they have worked and played they love to get down and dirty and roll around.  It helps their spines. Just a little FYI .

James Devine

  James Devine the Band. 

Brad is having a blast being a part of the band. They have done a few shows in the area and we were lucky enough to be in Salt Lake when they played at The Wall last weekend. 

This is kinda legit don't you think?  A flyer. And let me tell you, it was a par-tay.

This is a new venue at BYU downstairs next to the bowling alley. When I first heard the name I got a little excited.  My grandmother was a Wall and my mind kinda went to genealogy since the Budge Hall on campus housing is named after my great great grandfather. So anyway, The Wall is a place and a pretty cool spot for bands to play.     

Brad did a great job. It's so fun to see him play and sing again.  He was in a band in High  School and that was pretty cool, but he is all grown up and it's a little more cool(er).

The crowd went crazy!  There was body surfing at BYU?   You betcha!

I'm telling you, when James Devine played their last song the crowd was still going strong.  Look at this crazy guy.  He got on stage and danced like he was at a concert.  The funny thing was is that he was Clark's roommate at BYU-H  not so long ago.  I don't know if you know this about Clark, but he knows people where ever he goes and what ever country he may be in. It's crazy.

Here's a little clip.......BTW you might not be able to view this video on your ipad. iphones work though.

"Holy smokes, that cow is dead!"

Well, it's that time of year when the cows that are gonna have babies need to be close to home so the mommas and the babies can be taken care if need be.  Dixie has her cattle about 6 or 7 miles from her house so the cattle drive takes a little while.  It was a little windy, but the temperature was close to 50 degrees or more so who really cares about the wind. 

We got our start around 8:30 am. See those cows back there? There are 30 of them, count them. 

Is this not spectacular?  Driving cattle is one of my favorite things to do. Look at that wide open space. 

See the mountains?  Love that.

Look at Dixie to the far left.  She is back there with a single momma that was being a little pokey. It is a long way for these momma and it's stressful for them so you don't want to push them too hard or fast. 

Looks like #10 wants to take a break. 

Mmmmmm.....look at that sky.

BTW (by the way) it was just Dixie and I moving the 30 mommas today. We totally rocked it, in that they didn't run away.  You have to be careful with open gates along the way.  Cows love open gates. 

We're on the home stretch little mommas.

Have you ever heard of snot ribbon?  It's gross.  We were heading into the wind which means whatever is in front of us comes our way on a windy day and when cows are being driven they make messes on the road.  There is another thing that happens when the cows are stressed, they salivate. I don't know for sure, but I bet their noses run too. Anyway.  See the brown cow?  See the stuff coming from her mouth (and nose) and then again along her backside?  I call that snot ribbon and some of that touched my lips.  You know, you never think about licking your lips and then something touches your lips and then you really want to lick your lips.  I used my coat sleeve. 

And, we're home! Oh, but wait.  We need to go check on the momma who wanted a break.

" Holy cow, that cow is dead." 

While #10 was walking she got a little slow, started to wobble and before you know it her back legs gave out, she fell down and she died.  Right there along the highway. Bamm! No doctors were involved, but we think it was a heart attack.  The sad thing is, is that the baby she was carrying is gone too.

  

The sun was shining after we moved the mommas and you know what that means.  The gophers are out. We thought we better have some more fun after "working" so hard. Not. 

My new sweet gun was super sweet to shoot.