Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!  We love you and are so grateful to call you Dad!  Thanks for EVERYTHING you have done and do for us over the years.

What I remember of my dad growing up. . . Although he was often working, he made sure we were working next to him.  I say with pride that he taught me how to:
* Ride a horse by myself around the age of three.
* Chase and sort cattle from the back of horse with the best of them.
* Use a fencing tool (probably with my eyes closed. . . since we fixed more fences then I care to remember!)
* Haul and set up irrigation piles in the dog heat of summer.
* Drive a straight shift.
* Swim (he tells it as he threw us in the lake and let us fend for ourselves, but I remember differently!)  LOL
* Weld (I had my welding sample on the Welding Wall of Fame in my high school to prove this. . . wonder if it is still there. . . )  ;-)
* Castrate, vaccinate, and dehorn calves.
* Help with calving, . . . bottle feeding calves, and pretty much every other thing that goes with being a rancher's daughter!
* Drive a grain truck and operate the hydraulics.
* Run a chainsaw, a drill, a saw, yup, pretty much any power tool!
* Water ski (behind the old yellow boat.)
* Never to be afraid but to respect a storm (when everyone else was taking cover he was taking us out to storm chase)
* To change a tire.
* To explore and discover how and why things work.
* To fish.
* To hunt both by gun and by snare (He started us out young by taking care of the gofers in the pastures!)

Yup, those are just a FEW of the things that quickly came to my head when I think about all the things my dad taught me over the years!  If you would ask my husband he would say the one thing my dad never taught me was the word, "No!"  ;-)  And actually I have to agree with him!  If Mom said no, we knew to go ask dad!  'One' of dad's favorite sayings was, "I reward good behavior!"  As long as we were good and worked hard he seldom said no. But we also knew if he did say no, we could usually convince him to eventually say yes!  Yup, having three daughters (who growing up were all daddy's girls) he didn't have much of a chance!

Thank you for spending so much time with us as children making sure we were well rounded and had the best childhood anyone could EVER wish for!  Hope your birthday is great!  Love you dad!  XOXO