April Fools Day.

Do any of you remember when our family would write about our biggest bloopers of the year in our holiday letter(s)? By bloopers, I mean the kinds of things that are embarrassing at the time, but seem funny when we look back on them a few days/weeks/months later. Well, I think (hope!) I have my big blooper out of the way for this year.... :) Want to hear about it? (If not, just skip down a couple paragraphs and read about the rest of the days' events.) I intended well, really I did. But, well, you see.... One of the cow/calf pairs in the milk barn currently belongs to my brother, Jacob. Dad brought up the fact this morning that Jacob hadn't tagged his calf yet. So, my brother drew a big black 4 on a new orange tag and got it loaded in the tagger, all ready to go. He asked me if I'd help him catch the calf, but I declined, as I didn't think we could do it with just the 2 of us, as there are 2 other mothers and their babies in the same pen and I didn't think it would be safe. (I admit, I am a chicken when it comes to tagging calves with their mommies right there!) Later in the day, Dad was heading for town to buy some cattle supplies and he asked if any of us needed ear tags. I wasn't sure how many white tags I had, so went out to the barn to count. After finding that I needed several more tags, I peeked in the barn and saw a great opportunity awaiting me! The black calf without a tag was lying in a corner while it's mother, Orange 4 was standing in the doorway, just about to go outside. I opened the little barn gate, ducked under it and quickly shooshed Orange 4 outside, promptly closing the door behind her, leaving myself and the untagged calf alone together. Of course, by this time, the spunky little fella (he's a couple days old already) was up and running! I went and got the tagger (and tag) and ran the calf around the pen for a while until he made a bad move (for him) and I was able to grab him and through him to the ground so I could sit on him and have my hands free for tagging. The job was quickly accomplished and I let the poor little guy free. I felt, well, proud of myself as I walked over to the barn door and opened it so the calf could be reunited with his mother. That pride quickly tumbled though as I happened to look over at Orange 4 and saw a little untagged black calf at her side, nursing! OH NO! I tagged the wrong calf!!! I had thought the other 2 calves were tagged already, so you can imagine my embarrassment when I realized I should have made sure first whose calf I was sitting on before I tagged it. Yes, I felt pretty foolish! After evening chores, Dad, Jacob and I caught Orange 4's calf and tagged it orange 4, then we caught the other calf (whose mother is pretty protective) and changed its tag # to 14, and when we got in the house, Dad updated the calf record book! :) So, there's my story. I guess we all do foolish things sometimes, but somehow it struck us all funny that such a thing should happen on April Fools day! The newborn calf update today is: 3 new calves. Andrew spent the day cleaning grain and, after fixing a few problems, got things running smoothly. He and my dad were really impressed with how clean the wheat was when it was through the machines! They said they think the wheat is actually cleaner than the wheat that we ordered from our food-coop was, and that was food grade.... The reason for the big improvement in cleaning quality? Andrew was able to use his big drums (the drums he was sandblasting a couple weeks ago)! I made ice cream today and tried a new flavor: Banana. It tasted more like bubble gum ice cream than banana to some of us, and it was suggested that, if I make it again, I add chocolate chips to it. *Store suggestion in memory* This morning, I started 3 trays (and a pot) of seeds for our garden, planting everything from hot peppers, to Stevia plants. :) It felt very much like Spring today, with the snow melting and the geese flying overhead. Oh yes, I also did a partial water change in my aquarium, which is one of those things that should get done more than it does, but it doesn't..... We cleaned the house too, and made a chicken dish for supper, with fresh pumpkin bars for dessert, and Mom did a session for a client and got caught up on e-mails too.... It was a busy day, but a good one, and now, hooray!, it's time for rest! So, good night! PS. If you did anything embarrassing/foolish today and don't mind sharing it, I've always got two open ears. :)