Doing chores with Owen

Our three year and a half old grandson, Owen came to the ranch yesterday with his dad. While his dad was coyote hunting, Owen spent the day with his Papa Doug and Grammy. We had been out checking cows when Owen arrived. When he saw me, spreading his hands out, said to me, "I was wondering where my Grammy was!"

We all ate breakfast and then with the boys heading out to hunt, Owen and his grandpa went to go work on moving bales in the hay yard. When I was done with dishes, I went to see if Owen wanted to go see the new calves and feed cows. When I got to the hay yard, it was obvious by the grins I could see thru the tractor window that Owen and Papa Doug were having a good time! Eventually, Owen traded places,climbing into the feed truck with me. As we passed by where our backhoe was sitting, Owen told me he wanted to drive the backhoe when we got home. He has been  just fascinated with tractors and dirt equipment since he was tiny.



Owen and I cruised around thru our big herd of cows and he was so tickled to see all of the baby calves. He talked nonstop about the cattle and the truck. When we stopped to unroll the first bale of hay, he climbed right out ready to feed cows. Some of the cows came up to meet Owen and he was not a bit afraid. I gave him some cake to feed them from  his hand which he did willingly. When it was time to cut the strings off of the bales, Owen stepped right up to start pulling them off. We finished feeding bales to that bunch of cattle and he decided he needed to drive the pickup for a short distance. "Driving" involves Owen sitting in my lap steering as we cruise along in 4 low. His dad, Uncle Cody and sister, Haley, drove that same way when they were little. He tends to over steer but it was only his first time!

The next stop was to feed the yearlings. Owen got to push the button to dump the cake into the feed bunks and got a kick out of the cattle running up to eat the cake. After they finished their cake, it was time to roll some hay out for them. Owen had been wanting to use the "mote" (remote control) for the bale arms, so I let him. In no time he learned which buttons raised, lowered, squeezed and released the arms. He even understood about centering the arms on the bale. I don't know who was more excited about his accomplishment, Owen or his grammy!It was so fun to watch Owen pull the strings from the bales. He just grabbed the strings and ran til they came off!

The heifers were so funny at first they ran from him but curiosity brought them right back. They were so intrigued with this little person running back and forth. Owen put on quite a show for them! By the end of the day when we had supper Owen was one tired little boy. He chose riding "his Denny" over the backhoe before he and his dad headed home to Williston. He loves to ride our Denny horse and Denny seems to like Owen too. We knew Owen was tired after his long day and figured it would not take him long to fall asleep in the pickup on their way home. His dad called us when they got home and said Owen had fallen asleep less than a mile from our house and slept all of the way home. It is always a treat to spend time with our grandkids and to know how much they love to be at the ranch!