Our Interesting Thanksgiving

The 3 Musketeers going to get help. For what, you may ask? See below.

Andrew and Erica

Stephen enjoying the ride

Nathan being silly

Philly fell in our pond during all the excitement. She was miserably wet.

Luke on Cleo

Sarah riding

Seth on Cleo and consulting with the rest of the Hastings clan

Another one of Seth

Erica the cowgirl! :)

Well, I didn't rearrange the pictures, so they let me type something under all of them. Here's our interesting Thanksgiving story. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the entry below this. This is the second part of my story. The Hastings came over for Thanksgiving this year. In order, the kids are Luke, Nathan, Seth, Andrew, Sarah, and Stephen. Luke is my age (well, a little older) and Stephen is 4. You know (because you read my previous blog) that the previous night, Thanksgiving Eve, we got a new steer, and that he was very shy and didn't like anybody. I don't really blame after a blown out tire ride. But, we let him out of the trailer, Cleo has her fun with him, and then we all go inside to finish cleaning up and to await the Hastings arrival. We had first heard from them that they were gonna get here around 10 at night. But they call and tell us that "we're stuck in traffic and we'll call when it starts moving." So, the Hastings got here around 10:30. We talk for a while, then we all go to sleep. I woke up the next morning around 7 and went downstairs (all the girls slept upstairs). I saw Mom and Dad outside letting out the chickens and talking, but I ate first. While I was eating, Mom and Dad came in. They looked really sad, and they told me (and everyone) that the new steer, the Black (or whatever we're going to name him), wasn't in our pasture. Since we got home in the dark, and we have a pond, we thought (and were pretty sure) that he had drowned in the pond in an attempt to get away from Cleo. Well, none of us wanted to believe that. So we all went outside and looked around the pond. We didn't really see any hoof prints, then Nathan got a brilliant idea. He saw a low spot in the fence, and decided to climb it and look for hoof prints on the other side of it. He jumped it and looked (along with Kayla, Erica, and Seth) around, and saw some hoof prints. I sprinted up to the house and told everyone that the steer didn't drown. So I went back outside and about 5 minutes later, Erica flew out of the forest and yelled at me, "We found him! We found him! He's about 3 houses down!" So I ran up to the house, and told everyone. They all grabbed a pair of boots, ran outside, and we all tried to find him. Well, eventually he turns up about a 1/2 mile back in our neighbor's property, next to the fence with Tavi. He must have missed her. Then he saw us, so he takes off to the front of the property. Silly me tries to corner him, and so, unwittingly, I chase him back to the back again. So then Dad, being the smart one of the family, tells us all to line up in the forest where the steer couldn't see us. So then Dad goes behind him, and slowly walks forward. The Black then walks up the fence line, toward the chicken coop, where we're gonna keep him. Then, one by one, he asks us to come out of the forest, so that he can't really go back. Then Erica, on Cleo, prevents him from going too far up the fence line. So we got him in the chicken coop. Success! We're all really happy that we got him in. But before we ate breakfast, the Hastings wanted to ride Cleo, since she was already saddled up. So, as you can see, they rode and had a great time. The fence you see in the second pic of Seth is the chicken coop where the Black was. Yea, you read right. Was. But first, I need to tell you about our Thanksgiving! It was way fun. The food was the best I've had in a long time (thanks Mrs. Hastings and Mom!!) and we all had a great time. We ate in the sun room, and then we ran around outside, and later that afternoon, we all rode Cleo again. But, unfortunately, she was in a terrible mood (all she wanted to do was run, and she was taking advantage of everybody) so that didn't last very long. So we all decided to play put out. Or knock out. Or whatever you want to call it. :) It was fun! I'm working on my skills (they're not so great) but the Hastings clan was great at it. I lost many a time to Nate and Luke, and several times to Sarah. Andrew and Seth would have, too, but I was fortunate enough to not really be behind them. Then we ate dinner (leftovers!) and then we played spotlight. That game is so much fun!! Stephen was my partner, and he found some pretty good hiding spots. But so did everyone else. For example, trees. But we had a mishap with those, so we didn't bother with them after that. We played that for a while, then we went inside. The next morning, the steer was out again. Apparently, he found a low spot in the chicken coop, and jumped it into the pasture, then jumped that fence into the neighbor's yard. What a surprise, right? So we all troop outside to find him. But we couldn't. He wasn't anywhere. We drive the truck out there, and Erica saddled Cleo up, but we couldn't find him. Eventually, we found him (I don't remember where) but I do know that we found him around lunch. Oh, I forgot to mention that Mrs. Hastings and Mom are out doing Thanksgiving weekend sales shopping. So while they're gone, we're running around like mad people trying to find the steer. So the picture you see is of Kayla, Erica, and Nathan (right to left) going over to the neighbor's house to ask for help. We corner him, only this time I wasn't out there. Only Dad, our neighbor (who's a member of SWAT), Kayla, and I think Seth was out there. They get him in the back yard with the help of some sweet feed, and he hasn't escaped yet. He's pretty happy, and very shy. He doesn't like me at all. But he loves Tavi. So that's our interesting story. Yep. I know. Hilarious. The Hastings left Saturday morning. I have one more thing to add to this entry, cause I know y'all are bored to tears. On Friday, LSU played the Razorbacks. They were beating us 14 to 3 early in the game. We came back, and at halftime, the score was 30 to 14, LSU. Guess what the ending score was. 31 to 30, Razorbacks. They were thrilled, cause of course I was all excited and was saying how we were going to beat them, and they were doing that to me. LSU stinks!! But Florida also rocks! They are so going to beat Alabama on Saturday!! But maybe I shouldn't say anything. Remember what happened last time. And I really hope that UT gets to go to the BCS Championship! But it'll probably be OU. So that's my blog. I thought I should add all that football stuff, cause that was a big part of my weekend. Talk later.

P.S. This was really published on Dec. 1. The computer's just confused.