Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Hubby put the dozer in the shed, so I can't really get a good picture of him, yet. But here is the trailer that will carry him around. It's called a "lowboy." I asked why that particular moniker. The answer is that this is lower than a regular semi trailer. OK. I will take hubby's word for it. To me a trailer is a trailer...some are longer, some are different colors, some have sides. But...well...you know. In any case, it is our newest acquisition. What other news can I share? Hubby said that one juicy piece of news that we have cannot be shared with anyone. Therefore I am disappointed because I had a great idea of how to share it. Oh, well. (No, it does NOT have anything to do with babies) We have a new heifer to milk. But the calf was dead. I have a new cold. Today Ellen got to reading a toy catalog and, of course, wanted everything in it. I finally told her; "Ellen we don't have the money." Ellen knew better. She went to my purse, got o...

Yes, we have a new "family" member here on the dairy. Note the quotation marks. He's a pretty big dude, but will come in handy here. We still have fallen trees from the ice storm 3 years ago that need to be cleared up. Forgive me for not having a picture of him to post yet. However, above you can see a shot of his service manual. Inside this service manual, at the very back, is his operation manual. Do not confuse the two, as I would have. The operation manual is only maybe 1/2 inch thick. The rest of the monster manual is all about servicing him. This manual pictured above did NOT come with him. Take a guess how much this would cost if you bought it from the manufacturer. Come on...just pull a figure out of the air. I didn't come very close to it when hubby had me guess. I made what I thought was a preposterous guess and gasped when I was way under. Here's a hint. Hubby went online and found a place that dealt in used machines and manuals. He paid ...

(*ahem...we begin this post with a sincere apology for the month long absence...the month of August was too hot and dry for blogging, all my words turned to dust before my fingers could type them out. Thank you for your continued patience...) Really I need to bring my camera with me in the mornings when I go up the road to feed and check on the stock. Last week there was a doe and her twins out feeding by the road. Today...well, today was another story. It began yesterday actually. Since it has been so dry hubby has had to put out hay for the bull and heifer group up the road. Yesterday morning they had finished their hay, and for some reason their hay ring was up on its side a ways away from where it had been around the hay bale. Hubby went up there and put out another bale (these are the big round bales, by the way...maybe 4'x5'.). Then this morning I go up there and notice that not only is the hay ring no longer around what's left of the bale of hay, but it is abou...

A couple more sayings for you: "His shirt-tail doesn't hit his butt, 'til he finds someone to tell his tale to." This one has to do with a gossip. Obviously this dates from way back since nowadays when someone gets juicy news all they have to do is whip out their cell phone, ticky-tack a few buttons and have all their contacts informed. "Its a poor dog who can't find his way back home." This one hubby quoted at me today after I told him what had happened. We had a couple of dudes fly out here to conduct some business with hubby. They landed in Springfield at about 11:30 AM and then had to fly back out at about 5PM. They were through talking at about 2:35 PM. Hubby left. At 3:00 PM, one of them knocks on the door: "Hi, um...I am having trouble getting my GPS to give me directions back to the airport. When I enter the airport address it just gives me this weird message." "Ah," I say. "Yes, the terminal out there is new, I do...

Here is one picture that I was astounded to be able to take. There at the zoo in Eureka they have a petting area...I think they actually call it "The Barnyard." Mostly all they have are goats and sheep. You walk in there and they have brushes to groom the animals. Ellen walked in there like she owned the place, took a brush that another kid handed her, and went to brushing the goats. The shot I got of her brushing them doesn't show her face, but she was happy to pose for this one. (Oh, they do have alpaca and a llama, but they were penned up. My nephew said he the alpaca spit on him once...I avoided them. haha) What is a trip to the coast if you don't go to the beach; even if it is cool, windy and cloudy? We went to the little town of Trinidad, where the beach is much more accessible. Clam Beach near McK, requires quite a hike to get down the water. Ellen was a bit intimidated by the waves and surf, but she got her feet wet a couple of times and watched me b...

Ellen and I got back from our 2 week trip to California on Tuesday. We had a great time visiting family and friends and seeing some sights. You can't go to N. California and not get a picture of some redwoods. So one day we visited Sequoia Park Zoo. I will post some of the zoo pics in a different entry, but for now here is a couple of impressive shots. There at the park, in a cluster of redwoods, they have a platform and two slides set up. Here is a shot of Ellen on the bottom of one of the slides: And here she is standing at the top of the stairs that you go up to get to the slides. This is on the opposite side from the slides, of course. Believe it or not, I actually convinced her to sit on my lap and go down one of these slides. She was not at all in to doing so alone. She isn't really adventurous and won't go on the swings at all.