Sunday, July 18, 2010

Sunday Stills "Summer"

Summer has always meant playing ball in our family. My three brothers, their
kids and my sons all played ball in the summer. Now my granddaughter is
the ball player in the family as she begins her first year of softball.
One of the busiest times of the year for us on the ranch comes in
the summer. We cut and bale our hay to feed our cattle thru the winter
and early spring. We raise both alfalfa and grass for hay. I love to pull
the strings off of a bale of alfalfa hay on a -20F day and as it unrolls
breath in the summer smell of alfalfa and maybe find a perfectly
perserved flower.
Summer also means going swimming. My grandson, Owen,
is sure having fun this summer in the city pool!
I spend a lot of time caring for my flowers each summer.
The heat and wind we have in western North Dakota
can make for tough growing conditions.
Summer brings lots of good things to eat and can!
My mother-in-law keeps us in produce with her
giant garden. These were cucumbers that were
going to be made into sweet pickles. I also anxiously wait
for the chokecherries to ripen so I can make them into
jelly and syrup.

Another big part of our summer are the various county
fairs and rodeos. Both my husband and I showed livestock
when we were grwoing up as did our boys. Fair is a time to
visit with friends and neighbors and relax alittle bit after haying
and before school and fall work starts. We definetly live in
rodeo country, for years lots of champion bronc riders
have come from right around our area and still do. These two
photos are from the Wibaux County, Montana fair last year.

11 comments:

Crystal said...

The flowers are very pretty, I like the wagon wheels in there too.

Brenda said...

summer is for family fun. Our kids played softball too. I love the hay field. The flower pic is pretty enough to frame!

Far Side of Fifty said...

I love the flower photo..excellent:)

Holly said...

HAY! and rodeos. and canning. I love summer!

Shirley said...

Looks like you got a good hay crop. Those pickling cukes look nice and crisp!

Ed said...

Great pics and post, welcome to Sunday Stills..Ed

Regular Guy said...

Nice pictures, looks hot in the fields. I like all of the green color from the cucumbers in the sink.

Linda said...

I love your flower pic....I know how hard it is to get nice ones in a dry climate. Rodeo is a big part of our lives too.

gtyyup said...

HI Judy! Can't get much better than hay, horses & rodeos! I sure love the grass prairies you have out there...gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Great selection of summer shots. Welcome to Sunday Stills. :)

Rambling said...

My favorite thing about unrolling a bale of alfalfa in -20 is watching the cows pick some up and chewing it with their heads up and tongues coming out and knowing that they've forgotten about the blowing snow at least for a little while...