Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

OK, Ellen.  Here is your picture on mommy's blog. This Santa hat has spent all year on the top shelf of her closet.  Off and on she has wanted it down in the worst way, but I have made her wait 'til Christmas.  Well....close enough to Christmas.  She just couldn't stand it any longer.  So last night I got it down and this AM she wanted her picture taken and wanted me to post it on my blog.  This was not what I was going to blog about, but it's awfully cute! And while we are on the subject of Christmas.  Ellen has talked several times about Santa Claus not being real and all.  She wants to know the specific reason WHY he isn't real, and we go over how there really are reindeer but that they can't really fly.  Elves don't really exist...etc.  But in school they wrote a letter to Santa this week, and Ellen was all happy about that.  Hubby wanted her to tell him what she asked Santa to bring her; you know, so ...

It is high time to do some Christmas shopping.  Do I shop locally, where they have nothing that I want to give as gifts?  Do I get the best of the mediocre that they have to offer around Dallas County? Do I go out of our county to a larger town that may or may not have what I want?  That means spending more on gas.  Or do I just go online and use the credit card?  Sometimes you can get good deals with low shipping charges, that would be comparable to the gas I'd spend if I went out of town.  Hmmm... I dunno. Ellen wants a Barbie lap top.  I don't know what they do or don't do or if they'd grow along with her.  I think it'd be a nice idea to get her something computer-ish that she could learn from, with games and such.  i would just like her to be able to get some use out of it throughout gradeschool, not just when she is a little'un.  I guess I really need to go to a superstore somewhere and investiga...

Way back when I still lived in Portland, I remember my wry, eye-rolling amusement at my sister-in-law for her lists.  She lived her life by lists and her day-runner (Blackberries and iPads and other such high-tech organizational helps not having been invented yet); grocery, errands, church activities, school activities...etc.  You name it, she had a list for it. At that time I lived such a simple life I thought it was all hilarious. Times have changed. Not that I don't live a simple life now, and I am still terribly disorganized. But I find that a running list helps me to get things done.  Hubby always has a running list of things to do.  We, hubby and I, are alike in that we use no high-tech gadgets for our list keeping.  Not even a day-runner.  We specialize in random slips of paper; stuffed in pockets, lying around on tables, counters or chairs.  It certainly helps me focus my activites to get things accomplished; even the simplest weekl...

As you can tell this is an old pic.  This was taken just a couple of weeks after the great ice storm of 2007.  We were out of power for about 9 days, I believe.  I was 8 months pregnant and not happy. However. Matilda, even during the ice storm, whilst the rest of us were slogging around in the ice, snow and sub-freezing temps...Matilda spent her days curled up on the sofa; blissfully ignorant of the rigors of keeping warm and milking cows with no electricity. I am of the opinion that if you have a happy cat; you are quite likely to have a happy home.  Comfort attracts a cat like a magnet.  She will find the snuggest place in the house and curl up there.  In fact, I just pushed her off of my lap to write this.  It is difficult to type with a cat in your lap.  If there is much dissension in the house, the cat will be nervous.  Cats can sense things like that.  Matilda has been a great kitty.  She k...

We had to take two non-producing culls to the sale barn, along with the bull we just got last year. He was the white one.  I was sad to have to get rid of him, but he was siring these humongo calves that needed pulled from the cows.  Hubby was going to put him in with the heifers after we got this last blue-blooded bull, but decided that if he is giving the older cows such calving problems, what would he do to the little heifers?  So, off to the sale barn he went.  At least we have another 9 months of his progeny to come along.  I hope we get a bunch of cute little white heifers.  This was not what I was going to post for today, but my computer is going so slowly I knew I wouldn't be able to get a pic to load on here before I had to shut down. I will try for something more interesting tomorrow.

Ellen and I went to church.  Hubby stayed home and worked on his hay baler.  Then this PM he baled hay with the neighbor.  They got a grand total of 8 bales which, when split, of course gives us FOUR bales each.  WOO.  and  HOO. Hubby says he probably won't do that second cutting next year.  HA The people we'd met last week and I'd invited to church, actually did come to church this week.  They likely will not be permanent residents in the area, but it was nice to see them anyway.  I hope they come back. Just the past few days Ellen has become totally enchanted with reading.  It has become magic to her.  She gets books that have languished on her shelves for awhile and is trying to read them.  She can pick out quite a few words.  Some of the books she has memorized, or mostly memorized, so she can sound out a few of the longer words.  Every so often she will get aggravated, throw down the book, and say that she ...

Today has been a day of laundry.  This weekend seems neverending.  It has seemed like Sunday for the past 3-4 days, I guess because Ellen is out of school. Did you realize that Christmas is just about 4 weeks away?  I am still working on my Christmas cards, and need to work on the Christmas presents.  We will be having another Ladies' Meeting in a week or two.  We are supposed to have a cookie exchange, but they aren't too "down" about cookie exchanges.  They are asking us to bring 18 cookies.  Um, we aren't going to be able to take home much of a variety of cookies at that rate.  Oh, well.  We are also supposed to bring something to eat.  I am going to bring deviled eggs.  (or DOUBLED eggs, as Ellen would say.  She still says it that way, though she has ceased saying "Stinkerbell.")  But not just regular deviled eggs; a different, fancied up recipe; though I WILL skip the margarita deviled eggs; seeing as it's a ...

I have only once taken part in the insanity that is Black Friday.  That was long ago and far away in Portland.  It wasn't that bad.  But things seem to have changed since then; people get crushed and killed.  I hope that does not happen this time.  Though one of the clerks today in the grocery store said that our little WalMart got so packed at  midnight that they had to lock to doors until some shoppers finished and exited before they could let in more customers.  I guess it got rather heated because they ended up calling the police to help keep the folks locked out from rioting. Such insanity. ****************** On the lighter side; last night Ellen and I got into a discussion on school lunches.  She always takes her lunch. I asked her if she wanted to buy a lunch at school. "No, mostly they don't have food that I like." Ellen said. "They have all that Japanese food." Me, bewildered; "Japanese food?" Ellen; "Yes, like tacos....

Reasons to be thankful: 21. Rain  You take it for granted until you don't have any.  Then you really realize what makes the world go 'round.  22. A healthful meal shared with family.  And the will power to eat only one sparsely filled plate; plus a bit of dessert. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving with family and friends.

Didn't I leave off at 10? I believe so. 11.  Teaching the teens at church.  They never fail to make me laugh.  I used to be terrified of kids; teens in particular.  But we have such a great group of teens at church.  Their sincerity for Christ is always an inspiration. 12. My health.  I never take that for granted.  I always give God thanks for good health. 13. Music  I am not a big music fan; of any genre.  But when I get in the mood to listen, I enjoy it very much. 14.  The car.  You may laugh at this, but I can't overemphasize how nice it is to go grocery shopping in a car instead of a truck.  Especially when I have Ellen along. 15. The gift of laughter.  The older I get the more I learn how to laugh at myself.  I wish I'd learned the knack of not taking myself too seriously back when I was about 12.  I think I would have been more outgoing. 16. Living in a land of plenty.  There i...

During this month of thanks over on Facebook many people have been listing what they are thankful for every day.  I have been pondering the things I am thankful for. There are a bajillion things to be thankful for in my life; Christ, family, friends...etc not the least. Here are a few other things I am thankful for: 1)  Country living. 2) A child who wants her hair long.  She's never gone through the 'stage' of wanting to trim her own hair. 3) A husband who says "Thank you" after almost every meal.  4) A climate where we can grow sweet potatoes and watermelons. 5) Good neighbors. 6) A great church family. 7) Wonderful in-laws. 8) A warm fuzzy cat who doesn't get on table. 9) A computer to connect with the outside world 10) Books.  I love books. There's ten of them.  At the moment I do not have time to elaborate on each one. Some have funny stories to go with them.  Maybe next time.

OK Drawing a major blank here.  5 minutes max to blog. No time to post a picture.  Oh, OK...how about this? Just read an article on MSN about diet soda.  Do you know diet soda actually CAUSES obesity?  It's because the artificial sweeteners fool your body into thinking it needs more calories.  The calories in the sugar in regular soda actually fills you up.  Diet soday messes with your metabolism as well, among many other things.  Scary.  I am so glad Ellen won't drink the stuff.  I wonder if the PTO people would crap their pants if I stood up at a meeting and stated I wanted the soda machines removed from all of the Buffalo schools.  Along with the bottled water. We need to install a cold water station or two at every school and give out aluminum re-usable water canisters. La child, I can just hear the shrieks of protest now! LOL

Ellen got hold of the camera whilst I was out of the house momentarily on Friday night.  Here is what I found on my camera just yesterday: She was watching "The Wind in the Willows."  For some reason she wants to take pictures of movies she watches.  Mean mother that I am, a few weeks ago I erased the pics she took of "Spirit; Stallion of the Cimarron."  Here are some of my random thoughts and comments on this picture. 1)  Yes.  We DO own a television.  Remember the 29" monstrosity that hubby won this past spring?  It is in its box sitting here behind the front door in the living room.  We loan it to the church to use, if and when they wish. This means that Ellen watches her DVDs on the computer.  It all works out fairly well, except for the long warm-up wait. 2)  There is a white folded scrap of paper that has yet to be tossed; but it might be useful for scratch paper.  Like for hubby to write down a n...

Ellen wanted to do a "project" this weekend.  This is what she came up with.  We both worked on him.  I drew the body and she cut it out.  She cut out the brown wings and did the gluing. She insisted I take a picture of her with it and post it on my blog.  Voila! Ellen and her turkey.  I think she's going to put him up in her bedroom window.  She only wanted 2 blue feathers.  Only she knows why. 

As if there aren't enough freaks in the world.  Now we find out that the latest one was going to act out here in Missouri; just one county away from us. If you hadn't heard go Google "Blaec Lammers Bolivar Missouri."  When I first moved out here, and on various occasions when I speak with people; they've congratulated me on living out in the country and what an ideal place it is to raise a child.  Yes.  This is true to a certain point. But humans tend toward...um...human-ness, and that involves all the bad as well as the good.  Here in the country the drug issue is probably as bad or worse as in the city.  Gangs aren't that big of an issue in our county; but drugs certainly are.  And mental illness knows no geographic boundaries.  Thank God for this guy's mother and her timely call to the police.  I hope they put him away for good. Poor kid. I don't like making MSN headlines in this fashion. Hopefully this will be a better ...

Yes.  I am.  Another busy day here on the dairy.  I am too tired and it's too late in the evening to write a coherent post.  I will entertain you with a list of randomness. 1) Ellen has either another virus or a sinus infection.  Hubby is leaning toward a sinus infection.  I think it's a cold. How does one tell?  I dunno.  She HAS been stuffy for the past week or two; so have I.  I think this time of year the cedars start putting off some kind of gunk.  A lady at church said she'd been having a sinus reaction as well.  But, then Ellen tells me that there are 2 or 3 others in her class who aren't feeling well either.  Hmmm...  At any rate, there may not be a trip in store this weekend to Silver Dollar City. 2) I took this pic a few days ago; back before I decided what to do with the third pumpkin. If Ellen is around she so helpfully insinuates herself into any picture I might want to tak...

On this forum I visit; Homesteading Today, they have had major discussions about The End Of The World As We Know It.  And about the whole Mayan end of the calendar thing. On Facebook I had one or two Friends more or less stating that the EOTWAWKI has or will soon come since Obama has been re-elected.  I remain skeptical about the whole issue.  I (as well as the majority of the adults in, say their 20s) probably remember the whole Y2K hysteria.  Just a couple of weeks ago a lady at church said she and her husband are still eating the MREs they had stashed away for the Y2K crash that was supposed to happen.  Ha ha. What happened then?  Nothing major.  The sun kept shining, rising and setting it its appointed rounds, the wind still blows, the birds still sing.  So what really will comprise the EOTWAWKI?  I dunno?  Will it be the crash of the world financial systems?  Will it be the disease, starvation? ...

There are times I of of the opinion that my child is too much like her mother; in temperament, behavior, left-handedness, hobbies...etc. Then she goes in to get ready for school and I am comforted by the fact that she certainly must have a goodly portion of her dad's side of the family in her.  I don't believe that from the day I started Kindergarten I ever wanted to wear a dress.  But a dress or skirt is what Ellen wants to wear EVERY day.  On these really cold mornings she will even consent to wear tights, so she can wear a dress.  In this area we are so blessed that she has a grandma and an aunt who love to either make her lovely little dresses, or who manage to find them dirt cheap at closeout sales. Yes, Ellen revels in wearing girly stuff. AND she insists on painstakingly going through her jewelry collection to pick out the right accessories.  On Sunday mornings she even has to put on her "makeup." I am glad she is like this....

Here you can see about half of a 3 year old heifer.  Well, not quite the full half, but let me tell the story below. About 3 weeks ago hubby went out and found a heifer down; couldn't get up.  The end of the story is that she had a shattered back leg.  In an unprecedented move we went ahead and had her butchered and split her with a neighbor family of 5.  The broken leg was so damaged that we lost about 50-60 lbs of meat, maybe more, I don't recall, so we didn't get all the meat off of her that we could have.  She was about 3 yrs old and being a dairy cow instead of a beef cow, she didn't have any good cuts on her.  We got some jerky cuts for the neighbor, some stew meat for us, and the rest in hamburger.  We gave part of our hamburger and stew cuts to hubby's mom.  Hubby has never before, as far as I am aware, in the history of his dairy, ever butchered one of his animals.  For one thing, unless they are sick, he prefers t...

And thanks also to all those who have served in our military since the inception of our country.  My brother, Dan, my Uncle Milton, and so many others, some of whom will never be known or remembered. Ellen's great-great-great grandfather, Edward Spain Howard, was a Lieutenant in the Army in the Civil war.  According to what information we have, he marched with Sherman through Georgia.  Ellen's aunt has a photocopied picture of him.  I wish he'd kept a journal or something like that; that could have been passed down over the generations.  I wonder about his wife's family; what her maiden name was and if there are any descendants on that side of the family.  He and his wife are buried at Benton Branch Cemetery in the London Smoke area, I believe.  I am not clear about the neighborhood names around here.  God bless America!

Meet De-Su. He is a GIN-YOU-INE registered Holstein bull; about 18-19 months old.  His registered name is: DE-SU 1288-ET.  And he has quite the pedigree.  Here is his registration certificate, on the left, and his pedigree on the right. The pedigree is just a listing of stats of his dams and granddams.  About their milk productions, protein scores and all that stuff.  They are all DOM, or dams of merit.  Whatever that means.  All I know is that he cost a pretty penny.  And he'd better be worth it all.  Bulls are supposed to carry the better part of the responsibility of siring good producing cows, as well as calving ease...smaller calves, that is. In nine months we will see about the calving ease, and in 2 yrs and 9 months we shall see about the production.  Seems a long time to wait.

Here is Ellen and the cake she won at the cake walk during the Long Lane Carnival last Saturday.  She was pleased as punch to win.  We only played the game ONCE and she won.  I forget, did I already blog about this?  I don't think so.  And if I did I know I didn't post this picture. Anyway. The label on the cake says it's white with white frosting, but when I cut into it the cake is actually red.  It's pretty good.  I think it even has homemade frosting on it.  The store stuff usually has a subtle taste you can detect.  *********************************************************************** In continuing pumpkin news: I have one pumpkin in the crock pot; hopefully cooking down into pumpkin butter.  The seeds from it just came out of the oven.  YUM! I have another pumpkin in the freezer in a pureed state.  Hopefully to become pie or pumpkin bread or somesuch other yummy.  The third pumpkin is yet s...

Today at church we had our ladies GLOW meeting.  This is just the church ladies getting together.  GLOW stands for something, but when hubby first heard it he called it, God's League of Old Women (or God Loves Old Women...something along those lines.) so now I just think of that and can't remember what it really stands for.  Anyway. We made felt pumpkins:  It's a cute idea.  The example was cute.  But somehow my crafts never look cute.  I need to rearrange the felt a bit; that might help.  I think the person who organized this craft said she got the idea off of Pinterest.  If you are interested go to Pinterest and find it.  Or, you could do as I did and Google "Seven pieces of felt for pumpkin craft."  That will take you to someone's blog, where the whole idea probably originated in the first place. We had fun making them, though. *********************** Then, one of the ladies at the GLOW meeting said she ha...

This means that I am under pressure here to produce a valid blog post for this date.  I have 25 minutes to do so. I shall not succeed.  I shall just post randomly. 1) Christmas is less than 2 months away.  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  I have, but not on a full scale operation. 2)  Ellen changes her mind daily on what it might be that she wants for Christmas.  This makes it hard to shop ahead of time for her. 3) We are supposed to get a new bull today.  He is supposed to be a registered ET bull, with good bloodlines...etc.  100 meaningless points if you can guess what an ET bull is.  HA. 4) In this month of thankfulness it occurs to me to be thankful that my daughter fights me every time I want to trim her hair.  She has never wanted short hair; thus she has never butchered her hair in an attempt to trim it herself.  5)  I have run out of things to write about.  This is not lack of mater...

This is just a random shot I took last month of a box turtle.  He was hanging out down over the hill in hubby's rust garden.  (Well, I don't know what else to call it.)  I am 90% sure he's a HE because he had red eyes, though you can't see them very well in the pic here.  Usually the males are more colorful than the females.  I wonder about the holes in his shell there; did something try to bite him, did some kid injure him?  The world will never know. ************************************* Today is our 8th annivesary.  We celebrated by doing our civic duty and voting.  Such excitement!

From the moment Ellen could hold a writing implement in her little hand...and it was ALWAYS the left hand, mind you...she has been doodling away.  Just this past year, in Feb and March 2012, she started composing her own books.  They were generally just a series of pictures.  Her first one we gave away to her Aunt as a birthday present.  I think the book had something to do with gardening: The first page was drawing of all sorts of gardening tools; rake, hoe, trowel, shovel...  The second page was of Aunty and Ellen in the garden, with rows of vegetables. The third page was either a basket with veggies in it, or a kitchen scene, I forget. Fourth page was of Ellen, Grandma and Aunty sitting at a table eating the veggies. Ellen would get a sheet of contruction paper and make a cover for her book, have me spell out her choice for a title and then she'd write her name. Over the past few months she has made several picture books like that; ...

This year was our first year to participate in this HUGE local event.  LOL The Long Lane Elementary school annual carnival is the biggest social event of the year in our tiny town.  It is sponsored by the Long Lane Parent Teacher Organization.  Since Ellen started Kindergarten I have been attending PTO meetings.  So far they have all consisted of planning this weekend's event.  I took my camera, but did not get the chance to really get any good pictures.  But here's the rundown.  We got there just barely in time to get tickets and play a couple of games before I had to be at my station at the Duck Pond at 6 PM.  Ellen was not happy to be stuck with me at the Duck Pond for an hour; but she summarily refused to go off and play games with any of her friends or cousins.  She got good at helping me hold out the different boxes so the kids could pick their prizes.  To make a long story short; Ellen won two stuffed toys (like she NEED...

Here are just a couple photos of this year's fall color, which was particularly spectacular.  I certainly wish the brilliant fall color would last longer than a few days.  The bright colors lend a certain glow to even the most mundane of objects, like the bulldozer. And the hillsides down in the creek bottoms were a lovely patchwork of colors.  A picture doesn't do it justice at all. 

This September, out in my tomato patch among several dozen hornworms, I found this BROWN fellow.  I found him fascinating.  He inspired me to do some research on his kind. I found that he is a true hornworm.  See the light "V" patterns on him?  That indicates he is a hornworm.  If he were missing the bottom slash and had only stripes instead of "v"s he would be a tobacco hornworm; of the which I have found at least one out in my tomato plants. However, while not terribly rare, he is rather uncommon in that he is brown instead of green.  In my research they said that you can raise them and that they are easy to keep as pets.   Hmmmmm.... Hmmmmmm...I say. I dunno about the pet part, but I put him in a glass gallon jar and kept tomato leaves in there to see what he would do.   Three days after I put him in the came the day when he went to the ...

A pencil for every season. A pencil for every reason. A pencil for every cause. A pencil for either paw. Christmas, Valentine's Day Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, too. Even the Fourth of July  Is there for you. Listening Library, Merrill, CHC Smokey the Bear, he's my man Let's say "No" to Drugs and there's Even one for Data Dan. When you have a kid you find out that the easiest thing for folks to give for any and every holiday, even and cause is a pencil; often more than one. How many pencils can one possibly use? The Data Dan one I have had for a LONG time, but you'd have to ask my brother at InsideOutPut about that one. LOL