Our Ireland Family Reunion at the Farm

By popular request, we held our 2017 Ireland Family Reunion back at the farm in South Dakota.  It was a big success with 59 of our family attending.  We were missing seven due to work (Judd and Amy; Todd, Taylor) and graduate school (Trevor, Megan, and Sadie).  A big THANK YOU goes to Brent and Tauna for all their preparations and for welcoming our group back to the farm.  Another big THANK YOU to Marla and Curtis for the planning and work done before, during, and after the goodbyes were said.

I always appreciate Beth being our official family photographer, but I did take some photos with my iPhone.  Beth and her family arrived Saturday evening, July 1st; so the photos I am sharing on this blog entry are ones I took before she got there. 

 Friday, June 30th

 

 Welcome to the farm!

 (Marla's photo)

 The reunion officially was to begin Sunday evening with a

Family Home Evening;

but Sam and I drove to South Dakota on Friday,

so we could have a visit with 

Randy (Sam's nephew) and Ashley (Randy's daughter), Philip, and Dakota.

Craig came with Bill and Karen (Sam's sister) from Scottsbluff on Saturday,
so they also could be there before Randy returned to California.

 Saturday, July 1

 Craig, Marla, Randy, and Scott

Randy, Ashley, and Dakota

 Karen, Randy, and Bill

 

 Ashley, Dakota, Philip, and Karen

 Craig, Bill, Sam (grandson), and Weston

 Sam and Randy

Craig and Tauna

[left] Brittney, Joe, Monty, and Trent;

[right] Rachel and Jenna 

 Bill, Sam, and Scott

 

 Marla, Barbie, and Karen

 

 Scott, Brittney, Trent, Monty, Joe, Shannon, and Jenna

 Matt, Karen, Grampa Sam, Scott, Bill, and Craig

Sam (our grandson) giving a tractor ride to 

Brittney and Matt's little boys, Monty and Joe.

 

Philip, Brent, Matt, and Sam playing Slammo in the shade

with others watching from the comfort of the shady porch.

Ryan, Grampa Sam, Craig, Karen, Bill, Scott, 

Brittney, Joe, Robert, Kristine, Monty, Tani, Tauna, and Marisa

Volleyball

 Randy, Scott, Ryan, Monty, Philip, Brent, Trent, Sam, and Matt

Grampa Sam, Jenna, Shannon, Kristine, Marla, and Jessica

* * * * * * * * * * * *

  We were fortunate to have sleeping places for all 59 of our family

with Brent and Tauna's home, Roy and Barbie's home,

Grampa Harold and Gramma Mabel's house,

and renting the hunting lodge nearby.

 Grampa Harold and Gramma Mabel's house

provided a good place for sleeping even though

the new carpets had not yet been installed.

The walls were freshly painted and floors were done

except for those waiting carpets.

There was no furniture except for a couple of beds and air mattresses

in the bedrooms, but the bathrooms were remodeled.

It did bring back a memory to see Gramma Mabel's 

rural pictures still on the walls in Grampa's bathroom.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

 Brittney and Matt arrived at the farm Friday night.

They drove from San Antonio, Texas, with their

cute boys:  Monty, Joe, and Robert.

Scott and Kristine with Jenna and Shannon also came Friday evening

having driven from Colorado in time to have a visit

with Scott's cousin, Randy, and Uncle Bill and Aunt Karen

who were there to visit on Saturday. 

 (Brent, Brittney, Joe, Matt, Bill, Karen, Grampa Sam, Scott, and Kristine)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

  

 

Saturday and Sunday more of our family arrived, 

and Sunday evening our reunion officially began with a Family Home Evening.

Blog entries will follow with photos and memories from those days.    

Branding at the Farm

On May 6th, we drove from Spanish Fork to Denver where we visited with Scott and Kristine's family.  The next day, we stopped for a visit with Bill and Karen in Scottsbluff and were treated to a good Mexican lunch before continuing on to the farm.

The following morning, Sam helped with the "big" branding of 360 calves.  There had been a smaller branding earlier, and there would be a few more to brand later.  It was about ideal weather for branding, which turned out to be lucky.  The next day it turned cold and rainy; and the day after that, it snowed.

 "Concerned mamas" on branding day at the farm.

May 8, 2015

Brent with the branding iron while his son, Sam,

holds down the head.

 Grampa Sam doing the branding.

 Sam getting a hot branding iron 

with Brent next in line.

Calves not yet branded.

 Cows waiting to be reunited with their calves

once they have been branded.

 A close-up look at the brand used by Ireland Bros.

It is a "bar, V, open A"

(shown upside down here).

 Roy and Barbie's daughter, Traci, visiting from Idaho,

stopped by to watch the branding.

(Traci and Sam)

 

 Rachel holding the legs takes her turn as a calf wrestler.

The horseback rider in the background is bringing

out another roped calf to be branded.

There were several ropers and lots of calf wrestlers.

 Rachel in the foreground wearing a black cap;

her brother Sam is the calf wrestler at the head,

while their dad puts on the brand.

 Weston wrestled calves, too.

Here he is talking with Grampa Sam.

 The branding is finished, and the cowboys are headed 

back to the home place for the meal.

Feeding the cowboys in the shop after the branding.

(Barbie and Tauna)

 Lots of good food starting with the roast beef.

 Two days after the branding, it snowed.

It was about 10 or 12 inches of heavy, wet snow.

(Sam brushing the snow from our van.)

 The snow scene on Mother's Day, May 10,

at the farm.

Two days later after the snow came,

it was all melted.

However, the ground was too wet to get into

the fields to plant corn as Sam had planned

to do while we were in South Dakota.

Instead, he helped out with other things around the farm.

We also attended graduations for Sam and Haley, 

two of our grandchildren (Brent and Tauna's and Curtis and Marla's).

We returned home on May 19th.

Back on the Farm

At the end of April, we drove back to Martin so Sam could help with spring planting on the farm.  They also had the annual branding while we were there.  It was good to be with Brent and Tauna's family and Roy and Barbie again.  We also enjoyed seeing other friends and attending church in the Rosebud branch.

 

 

Putting seed in the corn planter. 
 

 

 Filling the tank with fertilizer.

 

 Another view with the truck.

Ready to plant and heading to the field.

Cows and calves west of the house.

 

A roper at work during branding time.

 

Sam and Brent getting the branding irons hot. 

Calf wrestlers doing their part.

Rachel showing Averie how to hold the calf still.

The calf at the left has just finished getting branded,
and the next calf is roped ready to brand.
The wrestlers are lined up ready for their next calf.
(Rachel is in front of the line.)

Sam has just finished branding a calf,
and another calf is being branded at the left.
(To the right is Weston getting ready for another calf.)



I enjoyed my morning walks on the farm in spite of my
sciatica problem.  I took a camera along one morning
and liked this view of the rows of hay bales.

 

The grain bins northeast of the house.

Filling the feed wagon.

Some interesting things to see in the
"machinery cemetery," like this old car.
One Sunday afternoon Sam joined me on my walk,
and it was interesting to hear him tell
some of the history about different things we saw.

Horses in the pasture north of the house.

We didn't make it to Mitchell to see Marla and Curtis's family or attend Maggie's graduation, because I was hurting with sciatica all the time we were in South Dakota and even for a couple of more weeks after we returned to Utah.  We drove back to Spanish Fork on Thursday, May 16.