Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 We have planned and looked forward to this day for some time, but now that it is here it is bittersweet to say the least.  For the past 2-3 years we haven't been keeping any replacement heifers to add to the milking herd, with the goal in mind of retiring the dairy. Today was the day.   Here they are loading up: This is the Eyebrow Cow saying "Goodbye."  I almost lost it when I saw her looking out.   Here are the two trailers.  We had locals do the transporting for us.       And below; the last milk truck visit.  Good bye Paul! So....I regret not keeping up with this blog more the past few years.  But now that the dairy is done, what next?  Just change this blog name, or create a new one? Stay tuned...

Our puddy, Matilda, crossed over the rainbow bridge this afternoon.  My heart is hurting.  She was my first furry friend when I came to Missouri.  She had been going downhill for a long while, I hadn't actually noticed it until a few days ago.  It makes me sad that I didn't notice sooner and take her in.  But maybe they couldn't have done anything anyway.  I will never know.  Anyway, she'd been eating less and less every day this past weekend.  But she kept going out to widdle or whatever, and then coming back to the house.  It looked like she was having trouble with her back hips/legs.  This past Monday (today is Thurs) she slept inside from about 4 AM, drank a bit of water, and only lapped up a smidge of tuna juice.  She laid back down for a bit but wanted outside that afternoon.  That was the last I saw of her until today.  Gary and I had looked all over; in the tractor shed where she liked to hang out, under the house,...

 What winter here is complete without a walk to the creek and a picture of Ellen down there?  None that I know of.    I love how clear the water is this time of year.  There is still a thin layer of algae on the rocks, which gives it that gold/brown color.  Following in Ellen's footsteps as we waded in the water I could track her because everywhere she had stepped the rocks were gray; her boots had cleaned the algae off of the rocks.