Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Here is Ellen on her "motorcycle." That is what she calls it. Her dad got this for her in lieu of a Radio Flyer wagon, which was too expensive. Not that this was cheap by any means, but she loves it, so it's all good. She had a great birthday party; such as it was. She got quite a load of loot and was very pleased with herself. The only toy she isn't quite sure of is the animated Tigger that plays a song and "bounces" when you squeeze his tail. She says she doesn't like it. But I am sure she will get used to it eventually.

Oh for a peaceful day! Well, so far today actually hasn't been TOO bad, but there are still quite a few hours left. This is Ellen's birthday; a big 2 years old! I haven't taken any pictures of her yet, but I will later on. At least I will try. The trouble with trying to get her pic is that instead of standing there she follows me around trying to get a look at the baby in the viewfinder of the camera. It's annoying. Anyway. On Wednesday afternoon I had just got the baby down for her nap when my Portland sis in law called. It was nice to hear from her and as we were chatting amiably about family news I looked out the window and saw my husband charging across the front lawn. I looked the other way and here comes my mother in law from the other direction. Hubby charged off the again and MIL went around the corner of the house to the garage. I went to the window and saw hubby with hoses on his shoulder, he saw me and hollered something at me through the window and...

It has been cold here in the Ozarks the past few days. Temps well below freezing. I am so looking forward to spring, even though it means more work; gardening and such. We had two calves arrive this weekend; one on Fri and one Sat. Both heifers. We are glad they are heifers, bull calves are hard to get rid of nowadays. You practically have to give them away. We were selling them for $150, but now they are barely bringing $25 at the auctions. The price per 100 weight of milk is supposed to plummet, but I am quite sure that won't be reflected in the grocery stores. The big news here in town is that they are going to try and close the local grade school-grades K-5, I believe it is, and merge it with the main shool in Buffalo. Most of the locals are up in arms about it. They are having a school board meeting tonight and will hear public comments on it. The opponents have chosen 5 spokespersons. We are curious as to the results of it.

There hasn't been much going on in the dairy lately. Well, last week we did do some dehorning. We need to do more this week but hubby has been busy helping with this house that is going in a few miles away; he's hauled gravel and dug ditches...etc. Recently an email pal and I were talking and we both discovered that our husbands are of the same mind in the changing of their daughters' diapers; they refuse to do so based on the fact that they don't think they ought to be "down there" on their daughters for any reason. Hubby doesn't even like being in the same room when I am changing her diaper. It doesn't bother me. He'd probably get it on upside down anyway. ha. Last week at the business meeting at church I made the proposal that we ought to have quarterly Wed night youth meetings; in which the kids are in charge of the service and we do some fun activity. It being my idea of course, I am in charge of this. The 5 regular Wed night kids are ...

Sister in law got back from her cruise in the islands last week. She brought us a unique condiment from her travels; Banana Ketchup. Really it tastes much more like mustard, much spicier than tomato ketchup. But it's good. We like it. The banana taste is very prominent and makes it naturally sweet. From SIL's descriptions I don't think I'd be the type to want to take a cruise. I don't think I could take the sea-sickness factor. Not my thing. Also, she said that all they really got to see were the touristy areas, not very much of going out into the real country side. Then again, pretty much all of those islands down there depend on tourism to even survive.

OK. I now know for sure that men never do grow up. This past week hubby was down at the place where the renters used to dump all their trash. He found an old purse. Thinking back to his younger days he took it, put a couple of dried cow pies in it and put it out in the road. This is an old country trick. You do this, hide in the bushes and wait for a car to come to a roaring halt and pick up the purse. You watch to see how far they go before the purse comes flying back out the window. He didn't stay to watch, but the purse disappeared. It is nowhere to be found in either direction. His theory; "Wal, lookee here, here's a right fine purse I could give to Maw on Valentine's day. I'll dump out the poop and it'll look right nice for her."

Kids are so funny when they are starting to talk. I wanted to record a couple of Ellen's phrases. "Watchuhdune?" This is the question she asked me this morning. She was sitting in her highchair coloring and while she was so occupied I hustled into the bathroom to clean the shower. As soon as she heard the spray hitting the shower stall I heard her little voice; "Watchuhdune?" Translation: "What are you doing?" I slid open one of the doors. Again the little voice answered; "Mommy clean shower." "Em-eye-innaway?" Another question she asked me this morning. I had my feet up on the footstool and she wanted by. She gets this from my sarcastic (which I said I was going to try and avoid)question to her during our kitchen time. We have, as I heard a former music pastor say, a One-Butt kitchen. When two people try to occupy the kitchen at once there isn't much room to turn around. So anyway, while I am doing dishes she'...

It is warmer here in the Ozarks. After a snow and freeze that means that everything is squishy outside. But it is nice to be able to have the windows and patio door open and air things out in here. Ellen is getting her 2 yr molars in (I guess that's what they are called) and is kind of grumpy. But so far she is sleeping fairly well during the nights. This might be because she isn't taking much of a nap during the day though. I guess it all equals out. Our two main issues with Ellen now are: 1)She won't drink milk. I have kept her on the bottle WAAAAYYY longer than I ought to have for this reason. She will look dubiously into a cup of milk and then push it away. Refuses to even taste it. I figured once I took her off the bottle completely she would start to drink it. But no. Warmed up? Nuh-uh! Cold? Not a chance! In a sippy cup? Nope! With chocolate in it? A couple of sips and that's all. I give her cheese, yogurt and ice cream. That's all I can t...

Here are a few pictures from my walk the other day. It was nice to get out and get the cobwebs cleared out of my head. This first one is just a shot to remind me that I am not the only one who walks down in the creek bottoms; most of these tracks are either coyote, deer or turkey. It was interesting to see them all criss-crossing in the snow. The second here is a turkey track up close. I didn't have the forethought to put my boot in the pic so you could get an idea of size, but rest assured, a big bird leaves a big track. I went down into the creek bed and walked along and kept seeing more and more turkey tracks that looked to me (a tracking neophyte) fairly fresh. I didn't go too far before I saw the whole flock take off running up the hill ahead of me; too far away and too quickly to get a picture of them. In the creek bed, to my surprise, I found standing water. This was the largest pool of it. All along I had been feeling sorry for the wildlife and wondering how t...