Christopher's 'birthday card'

Today's sunrise

     Happy Valentines Day! In case you don't like Valentines, Happy Lisping Walrus Day! :D Today is also the fifth birthday of the best teddy bear in the whole world, Christopher. 

SNOW!

Our only Hereford, Abigail

Our Bull, Bofur

   Much to our joy, it snowed yesterday!  A lot. Probably six inches or so. I haven't got lost of pictures yet because it's been cold, but I thought you might enjoy our adorable cows. C=

The cows waiting for breakfast

Hope's Heroes pt. 3

     Homer had a more interesting story. He was a twin born to the cow, Agnes. She would only let his brother nurse, so we decided to take him on as bucket calf. He was named after the character from Robert McCloskey's book, Homer Price. He was great, but we didn't have much time to integrate him into our story because we adopted him onto a cow who had lost her calf.

     Corriam was another calf from our neighbor. He also didn't get written into the story much because by then Farm Boy and I actually sort of had lives, so we didn't have as much time on our hands. His gemstone was orange, but I’m not sure of the fancy name for it.

     Lucy was a calf we had the same year as Corriam (Cory), and from the same neighbor. Her mother had died and they couldn't keep her in a pen. She just kind of blundered through the fences and they thought she might have brain damage. Anywho, like I said, we didn't have much time to develop characters so I don’t know much about her. She was the only member of Hope’s Heroes who actually had a super power, but we never discovered exactly what it was.

     Jack Sparrow (aka  Jack Jack, Jacchus, or Jack Boy) is the last of the super heroes that have at this point been a part of Hope’s Heroes. He is super friendly and is fond of chewing on things, especially food and shoes. We got him just this year  from a family in our homeschool group because they had heard we loved bucket calves. No weapon was ever developed for him, but I’m not sure he needs one
because his cuteness could kill ya'.

Hope's Heroes pt. 2

     Chelsea joined us when she was about a month old. She was born to one of our favorite cows, Little Bobbie. Chelsea was super duper cute, and true to the nature of gray cows, was very flighty and excitable.

     In Hope’s Heroes she was a sweet little girl, but that’s about all that I can remember. Except that her gemstone was a scapolite.

     Charity was a bucket calf we purchased from a neighbor. She was a sturdy calf and very self confident. (Our rooster has a habit of chasing our cows around and she’s one of few who has ever stood up to him.) The neighbor we bought her from has really good bloodlines in his cattle, so we decided to keep her for one of our cows. So far, she has had two calves; a heifer and a steer.

     In Hopes Heroes, she was pretty much the same as in real life. Her weapon was kind of confusing, but I shall do my best to explain it. She had metal plates on the back of her neck and on top of that was a metal battering ram. The mechanism had springs that shot it forward to punch whatever was in front of her. The metal plates on her neck were kind of like dominoes that pushed her neck down so she didn't whack herself in the head. Her gemstone was a rubelite.

     Joseph was a bucket calf we got a little later in the year. He was born to an older cow of ours, like Chelsea was, and we had him the same year. 

     In Hope's Heroes he was a minor character. I think his weapon was a combustion device that expelled two violently explosive gases. His gemstone was a demantoid.

     Aaron was yet another calf we had with Chelsea, Charity, and Josef. He had the same story of being born to an old cow that we sold, giving us a fourth bucket calf. He was fantastic.  He was the most apathetic calf you could ever meet. You could stand there trying to move him all day and he wouldn't budge an inch.

     In Hope’s Heroes he took over as the scientist from Bingo. He developed a lot of the weapons and planned missions with his strategy genius. His gemstone was the axanite.

     Omega was a bucket calf we purchased from the same neighbor who sold us Charity. He was from the same year as Chelsea, Charity, Josef, and Aaron. We had five bucket calves that year, a record for us that will go down in history! Omega was absolutely hilariously adorable. He was lazy, kind of like Aaron, but he would actually move. Just very. Very. Very. Slowly. He also had droopy ears that made him look like a sheep. =P

     In Hope’s Heroes his character was not developed much. All I know is that his gemstone was the rhoddelite.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday Hope! May your next years be filled with twice as many calves as you have already born! (twins allowed)

Hope's Heroes pt. 1

     I have brought up Hope's Heroes in a previous post and meant to post about each of the characters, but as you can see it did not happen. To recap, Hope's Heroes is a story Farm Boy and I made up about our animals being heroes and fighting against a villain named Ecirocil. Anyways, here are some of the members of Hope's Heroes.

     Faith was nearly a month old when we acquired her as a bucket calf. She was great friends with Hope and got on well with Missy, also. She was super sweet and polite in contrast to the gregarious Hope.

     In Hope’s heroes, Faith was like a sidekick to Hope. She stuck with her and tried to keep her out of too much trouble. Her gemstone was the citrine and her weapon was never established.

     Bingo was a twenty-two year old Quarter Horse given to us by a neighbor. For a while, we were uncertain about getting him because he was so old, but we decided to say yes and never regretted it. We put him on some good grazing and soon he was nice and plump. He had been a cutting horse and despite his age was still quite energetic. We used him for herding and moving cows and he was a professional. He loved getting out and moving! He was also very fuzzy and slightly resembled a woolly mammoth.

     In Hope’s Heroes, Bingo was their mastermind. He organized them as a group and for a time served as their scientist. He developed a chemical that turned limestone into gemstones which could then be colored with flower petals. (Yes, it’s absurd. Please don’t judge. xD)

     Missy was just a puppy when we got her, one roly-poly bundle of cuteness. She’s half Basset Hound, half lab, and the cutest parts of each. She’s fat, lazy, short, and sweet. That’s pretty much her description. And she has a goofy way of hopping along like a frog when she’s in grass above her head.

     In Hope’s Heroes she was kind of a crazy little goofball. To take advantage of her great length, she had a ‘weapon’ of sorts that let her stretch a long ways, kind of like a slinky. We can’t quite remember, but we think she might have had stilts also. Her gemstone was a bixbite.

     Mario was one of our Aberdeen Angus bulls. He was purchased on Dad’s birthday and named after Mario Chalmers. (I think we bought him in 2008 after his namesake scored a 3 point shot for KU in the NCAA basketball Championship) We called him Mario Dietrich (dee-trik) because we purchased him from the Dietrich family. He was a good bull except for his tendency to get out of his pen. He was the first bull we bred Hope to, so that was how she came to be called Hope Dietrich.

     In Hope’s Heroes he was silly and bumbling and always trying to impress Hope. At one point in the story Mario met a real Spanish fighting bull and was officially inducted by him into ‘Fighting Bull-hood’. The fighting bull also inspired Mario's weapon- a pair of metal horns with electrical currents in them. Mario’s gemstone was a baddelyite.