Fast Trip for Country Living to See Our Mothers

After a few days in Kansas City to see the youngest member of our family, we made the seven-hour trip to the Panhandle of Oklahoma to see the oldest members of our family. We didn't even take pictures as we crossed the Kansas and Oklahoma state lines that we have seen so many times before. Our Mothers live just 15 miles apart and are great friends to each other. So we are lucky to get to see both of them in the same trip. We went first to Denisa's Mother's farm. Denisa's Mother and Mark are trying to decide where to mount her just-painted quilt square on that big red barn. Denisa wants to point out that she helped her Father build that barn when she was in high school.

At the ranch where Mark was raised, a new dog has been added to the family since we last visited. Mark's Mother has the old German Shepherd and the new husky circling her on the front patio.

The panhandle of Oklahoma has gotten an amazing amount of rain this summer. So we were greeted by some of the greenest pastures we have ever seen--especially for this time of year.

We were both raised in agricultural families, so being around cattle is not new to either of us. Mark was recruited to help with a round-up one of the days while we were visiting. He had been on horse-back early this morning, and then helped to run the baby calves through the chute. Now his job (besides holding up that post) is bringing the momma cows in.

Once into the chute, the mothers will be checked over and get a dose of fly spray. That's Mark's brother, Danny on the left, and the veterinarian on the right. But the main reason they are here is to "preg" the cows.

That's cowboy-talk for checking to see if the cows are pregnant. The veterinarian uses the latest in technology, and we had never seen this method. That tube in his right hand is out-fitted with an ultrasound camera. When inserted into the cow, he can see if there is a calf growing inside. If you look carefully in the picture above, you can see the ultrasound screen is mounted into the glasses that he wears. He let us try on his glasses so we could see the confirmation that the last cow was pregnant. Out of the herd, only one cow was "open." She was taken to the sale as it's not profitable to feed a cow without a calf through the winter.

Here's another look of ranch life, as Mark and Danny brought in a cow that was suffering from mastitis. That's inflammation in the udder, and can be a problem for a cow raising a calf.

Her calf is looking on with concern as he sees that this could be a problem for his dinner.

We've had several animal pictures on this post, but we have to turn to the insect-world for our wildlife picture of the day. When Denisa went to turn off the garden hose, this giant orb spider greeted her. This guy was as big as her hand, so she obviously didn't get the water turned off. She might have been raised as a country girl, but she is scared of spiders that big!

After three days in Oklahoma, it was time to make that seven-hour trip back to Kansas City. We're skipping forward four generations as we drive from visiting with the great-grandmothers in Oklahoma to visiting our granddaughter in Missouri.