Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

The Chocolate Dream Yesterday morning a bit before I got up I had a random, strange dream.  I was at a university and had to go to the bathroom.  I went into a building, up on maybe the 2nd or 3rd floor, down to the far end on the left where, presumably, there was a restroom.  I followed a couple through some doors and found myself in a chocolate candy store.   The couple spoke to the clerk, who then disappeared into the back, also to the left.  I sat on a stool, presumably to wait for the clerk so I could ask to use the restroom.  I watched the couple wander around, then I got up and wandered around myself.  There were actually very few confections in this store; just chunks of unwrapped chocolate lying around mostly, and some unwrapped chocolate sculptures on random shelves and displays.  The clerk finally came back and handed the couple a package wrapped in butcher paper.  Like he had had to slice their chocolate to specific cuts; some...

A couple of days ago; Monday, I believe, Bella and  I once again forsook civilization and betook ourselves off of the ridge down to the creek.  It had rained a bit over the weekend, so it was up some, rushing along.   It was even foaming in spots.  I'd always thought when writers spoke of "foaming" waters they were being artistic in their speech.  Not true When the creek gets with it and rushes and tumbles along, it DOES churn up foam in the tree roots.  Bella wasn't too sure of the creek's being up and in a hurry.  She isn't as shy of water as she used to be but it took her a couple of tries before she made it to the other side.  She'd go in up to her elbows-like, then turn back. But she finally braved it and took off.   She was quite proud of herself when she made it to the other side, the water had actually pushed her off course a foot or two.  We went upstream a couple hundred yards or so.  The...

(This post was started back in April.) A few weeks ago my sister-in-law saw that a rotten log out back of their house had been torn into; like huge chunks ripped out of it.  She was kind of nervous about it; even though we told her it was probably a woodpecker. So Gary, with his own curiosity in mind also, went off and bought a trail camera or game camera or wildlife camera or whatever you call it.  Here is what he caught ripping into the log: Yep.  What we suspected. He set the camera in the creek bottom, somewhere along the actual creek bed, I believe.  He caught this: Then I took the camera down near the river and got a whole lot of nothing. I took it back down to the river and put in a different place.  Here are a few of the pics I got. The day the deer came the camera actually caught more than 20 pics of them.  It got quite a few more of the turkeys as well.  What you can't see in the pics is that there i...

Here is the newest picture I have of Anne-Shirley.  If you are new to Anne-Shirley's story, well, she is our little genetic hiccup; a red Holstein born to black and white parents. Her mother was a 2-banger, so we had to cull her; which made me very sad as it would have been nice to see if she'd drop another red calf the next go-round. Since all the other fall calves were, well, born in the fall and Anne-Shirley's dam calved in February there is a marked size difference.  She hasn't really made any new friends with these larger calves, but we have a smaller calf to put in with them in a day or two; maybe Anne-Shirley will take her under her wing, so to speak, and they can be buddies.

I need to be posting more dairy stuff.  Here goes... It is March.  And March frequently means high winds.  We have had two bouts of high winds here, both of which ended in dead trees across the same fence. The first time a neighbor stopped in and told me we had two cows out up the road.  We went up there and sure enough, farther down the road between the bull/heifer field and the dry cow field there was a tree across the fence.  Why only TWO of the 18 of them got out we will never know but will be ever grateful for.  We got them back into their field and Gary got the fence fixed. Then 2-3 days ago it happened AGAIN, except Gary happened to be up there and caught it BEFORE any animals escaped.  You can see them gathering at the fence on the left. Here they are inspecting his repair job.  They are quick to spot anything new and take advantage to go exploring. While I was up there I snapped a shot of the Wall...

Yesterday; March 8, 2018, I went into the hospital and had my gallbladder removed.  It was not fun; but it could have been worse. A wonderful lady Jane, from church, who is also my neighbor down the road, drove me in, stayed with me and drove me back home.  It went so fast that Gary wasn't even done with chores yet before I was home.  I was scheduled for about 7:30 and was at home before 11 AM.  They gave me pictures, but I will spare you and not scan and post them.  LOL I have 4 holes in my abdomen and am rather sore, but generic Percocet is a wonderful thing so I am doing OK.  Gary is having to do all of my graining chores for the next week or two though.  I feel bad about that; but at least there is only one bottle calf for him to worry about. The odd thing about the whole ordeal is that I wasn't too awfully anxious about it, except for one thing.  The whole anesthetic deal.  Coming out of it they say you don't remember much and co...

Sometimes things happen that make me say; "This is totally God."  Others may call it coincidence, but I believe that coincidences are Spiritually influenced.  In 2005 we got a little red heifer; which I blogged about after the fact: Genetic Hiccup.  She was born before I started this blog, so I didn't get her in here at birth.  But here's Rosie's picture: Here is Rosie with her red calf, which was a bull I believe, I can't even remember.  Either it was a bull or it turned black eventually.  I strongly believe it was a heifer that turned black. A bit before Rosie calved we had this red heifer calf come along:  However you can see the black markings on her nose and around her eyes.  I wish she'd stayed like this but she eventually, over the course of 7-8 months, turned a solid black with just a red tinge in her ears and on her udder.    Rosie herself died of some mysterious malady a few years ago; back when Ellen wa...