The Muench Bunch

Friends of ours had extra tickets to the Luke Bryan concert in Boone at the Farm Progress grounds.  We both have mutual friends, so the 6 of us met and headed to the concert. Chad is a friend of Mark's that he has known out of high school. He feeds a lot of cattle. His daughter took summer riding lessons with us. The other couple, Laura and Tanner I met in college. Laura was my college rodeo friend and barrel racer. The concert was crazy!! Mobs of people stood in line for over 6 hours to get up front and close to the stage. We arrived about a half hour before the concert started. There was a sea of people still filing in the gates. We took lawn chairs and set back in the crowd. It was very chilly for the time of year and we all had coats on by the end. There was a lot of alcohol consumed and not enough porta potties. There was a line 10 people deep at every one. They were beyond nasty and overused. There were several opening acts and it was late when Luke Bryan finally sang. We got

In searching for what to do for Ace, I suggested meeting with a trainer. Frankie has  helped Morgan for several years and we decided to give her a try. She ended up taking Ace to her home for 3 nights. She did some therapy on him and riding. Unfortunately the first night, he cut his foot in the stall somehow. My heart sank when I heard this and I was really worried. She put ice boots on morning and night, super glued the wound, wrapped it, gave him antibiotics, and treated him like a patient. She had new shoes put on his feet and hauled him to Dayton for the Sunday morning rodeo. She really enjoys training horses and coaching kids. As Ace has been recovering from his wound, he remains in a stall with medicine, bandaging, and ice wraps. Joker has been lame and we suspected it was related to his recent horse shoeing. Today Jayden took him to yet another farrier to check his shoes. THis is the third farrier we have tried since Kyle quit us. Its the scenario you hope never happens. Your h

The boys and I took a day to go and play with Levi. He is growing up and changing so fast. we don't get to spend much time with him, so today we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and got some play time. Levis is sitting up, but not quite crawling. He tries by putting his hand on the ground and his rear in the air, but he just can't figure it out. I took lots of pictures with the three boys.

9/24/17 Competition is bitter sweet for Jayden. Being on top of her game has never been easy for her. Some kids seem to be on top all the time. It seems if there is any luck at all, it is always in the other persons favor. I can go back years when Jayden started riding horses, started youth rodeos, and started barrel racing and riding in fun shows as a little bitty girl. She was always trying for that first place ribbon, trying to beat the competition, but never rarely getting there. I can remember the first time she won money on Jessie at a rodeo. It was all of $25, but it felt like a gold buckle to her. Many years of county fair seeing other girls win trophy after trophy and wanting just one. It took several years before she won her first trophy and it meant something! Last years rodeo season was exciting with some checks and wins. She got a piece of the action and enjoyed the ride. She was so close to the top, just within reach of the big prize (Rookie of The Year Buckle), but then

Monday Mark took the kids and took Luke to taekwondo. They all went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse and I had a quite evening home. Wednesday Jayden worked at Overflow and went to youth group. Luke had taewkondo then out to eat with mom at our most favorite place,  Chik-fil-A. I not only love love love the food, I also like that everyone working is kind, courteous, clean, neat, and most likely a christian, because the CEO is and all the way down the hiring chain. 9/21/17 The first day in the field went well and no breakdowns, that is always a big deal. The boys were as anxious as Dad to get in the field and start combining some beans. It has been years since we have had beans.   Jake has been working with his Farmall tractor alongside the mechanic Nate Hersh. It has been one step forward, two steps back. It will be a big deal when he gets it running. He sure takes a lot of pride in it. School is off and running fairly smooth. I put Luke in his own room at a desk and Jake is i

Even though we went to Hawaii to celebrate my parents 50th anniversary, this year they actually celebrated their 49th. I thought it would be nice to celebrate and go out to dinner, so I made the plans. We picked a new place in Ames that Mark heard about called, Provisions. We met with Alice, Wade and his family, and my parents. Mark was in the field, so wasn't able to be there. The food was unique and good. We had fun holding and playing with Levi. He is so darn cute, smiles and is happy all the time. He is a fun baby and growing up fast, he is already 8 months. It was nice to get our family together.

Friday the kids went to ride in semis after school. Jayden has ridden in the semi with Mark 3 times already. They have been hauling corn to Gowrie. In the evening I went to the Hidden Acres Women's retreat with a few of the ladies from our church. It was a nice time and maybe next year I will stay over night. We had a large excellent meal, a time of worship, and a speaker. We talked about the book of Ruth. After that we could do many things, I made smores and cookies. There were crafts, a giant swing, zipline, and the pool. I headed home around 10:30Pm  Saturday the plan was to go trail riding first thing in the morning. The thunder was rolling and it rained awhile. We waited until noon to go to Brushy. This time it was Jake, Mark, and I on Tex, Traveler, and Ace. We got along fine, however the trails were not ideal, very wet and muddy. The horses did a lot of slipping and sliding. We went on a nice 2 hour ride.  Saturday was a big day for my parents. My Dad got to go on the hono

   2017 I retired my shoes. I just couldn't bear to throw them in the garbage. There is so much history in a pair of shoes. I held on to them most of the spring and summer, then finally decided to put them in the shop in my old cowboy boot collection. I couldn't bring myself to tossing them. I don't know when I bought the gray Asics shoes, but it had to be around 2012 or earlier. When I buy a pair of shoes or boots, I buy them to last. I wear them a ton, but I take care of them. My gray Asics shoes made the trip to Disney world in Feburary 2013. They roamed Disneyworld, Epcot, Animal Kingdom. Later that summer, these shoes were my training jogging shoes to run down the gravel road preparing for a 5K. I added sparkling purple laces because that was the favorite color of Kathlynn, who we were running in memory of. I ran with these shoes through Dayton in the Cowboy for Kathlynn 5k. I never took the purple laces out as a reminder. December 2013, these shoes went to Jamaica. I

9/12/17 Monday started our first full week of school. I am trying really hard to keep a positive attitude, have lots of patience, make it fun and keep it simple.  Luke started back in taekwondo class. It was almost like he never left with all the same kids. I am tired just thinking about all the running, however I think it is good to keep the kids active in activities. At home, it is so easy for them to become couch potatoes and video game junkies. Tuesday after school, I went to Ames to get my hair done. It takes 3 hours to get my hair cut and colored. Once home, I had a horse lesson and Cash came over to ride horses with Jake and Luke. Cash is such a funny kid, he always makes me laugh. The boys rode their horses together pretending they were semis. Mark took Jayden to Maxwell for a barrel race. Wednesday would be the first night of what would become the weekly routine. I headed to Ames with all 3 kids at 3:30, stopped at Overflow Thrift Store and dropped of Jayden and Jake at 4:30

9/12/17 Famer's  in the area had the choice to put wind turbines on their property. There were many in our area that chose to put them up and many were against them,. We were against them and one neighbor was strongly against them presenting her petitions and arguments at many meetings. She hired lawyers and fought the battle only to find the construction beginning.    We lost the battle, a sad reality we must face. They will not be here on our farm, however they will be on the edge, so close to our home, it will feel like they are in our backyard. We live in such a scenic area, we can look out in all directions and see for miles. Beautiful blue sky and land as far as the eye can see. These wind turbines will be scattered all over obstructing our view. They already built the power plant nearby that is huge. The pipelines just ran through the area and now this. We have been watching the progress. They hauled in sand and gravel, and expanded the driveways for the larger truck