The sky has been the most amazing color of brilliant blue today, with big huge puffy white clouds, their bellies painted silver. Sunday we had a gully washer with hail. It stripped most of my choke cherries and crab apples and did some damage to the wheat. But today was so incredibly beautiful.

Because it was such a rainy weekend, we set out early Saturday morning to pick up single stem roses and to visit and remember the graves of those who came before us. It is a solemn kind of vigil, but one that I have such respect for; it means a great deal to me to call to mind family and friends.

Moving heifers and adding the bulls to the mix took up most of the day. Everyone is settling in and soon we’ll have baby mammas wandering the pastures! The yearling bulls aren’t much bigger than these young heifers; it’s funny to watch them interact.

Our cold fall was so hard on the fruit trees, so today we replaced the five cherry trees we lost with three cherry trees designed for Canada, a plum and peach for the same cold region, and one blueberry that I added into the mix in hopes of something to put on morning cereal!