Haaay. And Kids. And Curls.

We went to go see the rancher at one of the hay stacks the other day.

It's a large one, that stack.

Done hayin'!
"I might do a few more small bales."
-the rancher

As I type this I am thinking that I didn't get a picture of the whole stack.

This is how we ride.

This whole hay stack is about 500,000 pounds.

It should feed 300 cows for 2 1/2 months.

There are 2 other stacks in different locations.

He made 428 round bales (the huge ones) this summer.  They are about 1400 pounds each.  

In the middle of the winter, he feeds 5 of those 1400-pounders per day.

Thank goodness  for tractors.

 Oh, well here is kind of a picture of the whole stack.

I'm up there, too, so it isn't the whole thing, obviously.

bottle parking...

One of the bulls.  Looks like he's #23.  Maybe we should call him Jordan.  He is a Bull, after all. 

3 of our 4 cows that seem to be everywhere lately...

Ji, the wire guy, who has been dressing himself lately, an like every 30 minutes into a new outfit.  He is 3, after all.

Plaid (apparently one can never have too much around)...

Zozie and her bottle...

She is the only child of mine that I have ever given a bottle to.  I went straight to sippy cups from nursing (we never do formula) with my older 4, but my sister gave us some of her little girl's old bottles, and it's been fun to give her fresh milk in them.

Like I mentioned 2 posts ago, I think, we were watching some friends' kids while they took their oldest daughter to college last week.   These kids are pretty much our kids' best friends, so it's always a party when they're here.

The boys...

and the girls...

They are good workers/helpers, too.

They helped pick apples, and babysit, and set the table, and shuck corn, and feed chickens/collect eggs, and whatever else I asked them to do.

One afternoon we all loaded onto the 4-wheeler (me and all 9 kids) and headed over to the hay stack.  I made them sit age order for a picture.  We have one similar to it when they stayed with us last year when their mom was having a baby (#11!).

Then as soon as I snapped the picture and said, "OK," they were off climbing.

Most of them ran the 1/2 mile back home.  Then we realized we had lost one of Jiles's shoes, so we went back to look for it.  Ezra and Timmy ran.  Ezra ended up running a mile and Timmy ran a mile and a half.  As they were washing their sweaty red faces in the bathroom, I heard them bragging about the farthest they have ever run.  Ezra said that he ran 6 miles once.  Ummm.....?

The girls made like a 90-something square hopscotch game (it starts where Zoe is standing and goes behind me).

The last time they were here I put their hair in rag curlers.  They asked me to put them in again this time.  Kate actually told me that she wanted them in her hair.  This is the girl that would  rejoice if I told her that I would never ever touch her hair again.  I am grateful for the influence of these other girls.  

When I got back from getting the rags, they giggly showed me this...

"Kate does not love T (Timmy)

Rachel does not love M (her buddy Max)

Savannah does not love E (Ezra)

Shirley does not love S (Spencer)

We all think this is true."

pretty funny.  They are always teasing each other about who likes who.

After the rags were in...

And the next morning before school...

After I took them out...

Savannah (on the right)'s hair is so thick and layered and kind of short that it was really hard to keep the rags in.  Plus most of them fell out during the night while she was sleeping.

Oh, and Rachel woke up after the older 6 went off to school.  Here're hers...