A visit from a great friend!

Sorry for the delay in my follow up post.  A busy week and weekend rolled right into another very hectic week.  I started a different position at work for managing snow for one of our branches.  This requires me to be up at night and monitor weather conditions and then sometimes work during the day as well.  This is the first chance I have had to sit down to post in several days.

First of all some of you may have guessed my mystery guests!  It was David and his wife Robin from out in Montana.  They were at a wedding for one of Robin's family members and since they were over half way here they decided to surprise everyone with a visit.  

The biggest problem with short surprise visits is getting to spend time with everyone.  We were fortunate in the fact that Dave and Robin were able to stop in twice while they were here.  We thought they were going to have one more visit but time didn't allow it.  David's brother and I were ready just in case they had time though.   We got a fresh case of COORS ORIGINAL, a box of crackers, a pound of cream cheese, and a jar and a half of Jalapeno Jelly.  David and I enjoyed this treat many times in the past on days off from work!!  Only way it is better is with beer in the keg instead of the cans!

Jalapeno Jelly and beer treat!!

David and Robin brought my branding irons along with them when they came to visit.  I asked what for and David told me he had an idea.  So we built a hot fire and started heating them and went to the shed to find some boards.  The top one by my sons "Lady Bug Boots" is a barn siding board that David brought from Montana.  The second is a crotch slab board from an elm tree that I cut down on clearing for hay ground across the road.  The bottom one is a cherry board from the old cherry tree that stood in our yard when we moved in. 

Our CRF brand in some rough sawed wood slabs.

My plan for these should turn out really sweet.  I am going to seal the barn siding board from Montana and hang above the barn doors on my barn.  The Elm Slab I am planning on making a sign for the farm.  I want to put our house number on it with Conser Run Farm along the top.  After that I want to seal it and put up some kind of post in the front to hold it up and hang it with some old rusty chain!

My ornery children pointing at our brand!

My plan for this one is a little more special.  My plan is to lightly sand the board to make it a little more smooth.  I am going to trim it down so it is roughly the length of what is shown in this picture preserving the old Knot in the wood.   Then I want to burn all our names in around the brand and then seal it and I will hang it up in our house, hopefully over my desk.  Should turn out great!  I cannot wait to get it all done.  Now I just have to find a wood burning tool or make something up from the scrap pile in the shed!

Conser Run Farm brand on rough sawed cherry board.

I was really wonderful to see David and Robin again.  I wish we had gotten more time to spend with them but the short time limit makes the time we did spend together much more special.  I am cannot wait to get to visit them and our Pearl in Montana, hopefully, on a warm sunny week in June, either this year or next.  I am also very happy to hear they are doing well out there and that they are still very much in love with each other.  A lot of people questioned whether they would make it or not when they moved out west.  Although I never questioned their love for each other I did question their sanity in moving to a place that has summer temps as high as 110 and winter lows that consistently are in single digits and often well below zero!   However, I am thrilled to see they are proving everyone wrong and doing so well, even if they do have to be a little crazy to deal with the cold weather!!!   I wish them luck and we sent them on their way with a fresh jar of Jalapeno jelly for to enjoy while huddled next to the fire place on the cold nights ahead.  I also will keep a fresh case of beer and jelly ready for our next visit be it here or there!

We castrated piglets over the weekend and everyone is healing quickly.  I also got all five of the finished hogs and the one steer to the butcher with minimal problems and I am currently waiting to hear what they weighed.

Now I am off to bed for a quick nap before going out to check parking lots over night for icing.

Good night everyone!