Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Got about 3 inches last night. I don't have any pics of it. I am sure you have seen pictures of snow before. I put the little snowy heifer as my title picture. She's pretty cute. That was from the snow last week. Don't feel sorry for this heifer; she's got shelter she could get in to if she so desired. Today we went down and got a close-to-calving heifer and brought her up with the dairy herd. You should have seen how frisky all the cows were. They were hopping around, snorting, tossing their heads, kicking up their heels. Just like kids on a snow day. They love the snow, as long as the temps don't get below zero, they do just fine. Ellen hasn't clamored for a snowman this time. But when it melts enough to get sticky we'll try to build a big one. Ellen has 2 imaginary friends now; Johnno and Jaynno. I hope you can figure out how to pronounce them from my spelling. My child WOULD choose unspell-able names for her imaginary friends. John-oh and...

There aren't that many dairy things going on right now. Mostly it's just do the milking, put out hay, chop ice and try to stay warm. Actually, though, it has been above freezing during the day so there's no ice to chop. This is really nice. In 6 years I haven't developed the knack of chopping ice without getting ice chips and water all over me. Gary doesn't have this problem. He thinks I am weird. Maybe he has a technique that I have yet to learn. I dunno. I have never watched him chop ice. Two days ago Gary took out the small stretch of fence back behind the house where the middle sized heifers are. Most of the wooden posts were over 20 years old and several were broken off. He drove in steel posts and I helped him put up cattle panels. They are so much better than barbed wire. Now that Christmas is over I am back in the thick of teaching the teens at church on Wednesday nights. We have added at least one regular in the past 6 months, and there are 4-...

Here's the lastest photo of Ellen, and her artwork to boot. I think she does a great job for not quite 4 years old. I need to get her to do stuff like this on paper, so I can put it in an album for her later on. But she loves to draw on her dry erase board. Allow me to interpret. This is a farm scene. You can tell the barn in the center. The top square in the barn is the feed box. (She has seen the feed truck putting feed into the top of the milk barn.) Lower righthand square is the animal bed. Lower lefthand square is the hen house. (We do not have chickens, but in every kid's book that has a barn depicted there's usually chickens in the hay somewhere in the barn.) The mini silo is off to the left. (We do not have a silo, but she's seen plenty in our jaunts around the area.) Wavy grass at the bottom. To the right is a brown goat. Note the horns. (I was pretty impressed with the goat. This is the first picture of an animal she has ever attempted to do. We do...

We had a great Christmas. Ellen made out like a bandit, as usual. She was funny this year. For some reason she didn't champ at the bit to open her presents; she'd just ask me which ones were hers, then she'd look at them and then leave them alone. Christmas morning, Gary came straight into the house from the barn with us. He told her we were going to open our present. Ellen held up her hands and said: (and I quote verbatim) "But wait, we need to eat breakfast first." So we delayed the gift opening for an hour; per a 3 year old's wishes. Go figure! So far the gifts she plays with the most are a little toy cell phone from my mother and the little pup-type tent that Gary got for her. We have it set up in her bedroom. We had Christmas dinner here, as usual. I got out my pickled okra and let everyone try it. They all liked it. Gary said when I first told him I was going to make some pickled okra this past summer, he thought I was wasting my time and supp...

Today we got our annual yeast rolls from the School of Metaphysics. The guy made me laugh to myself when he noted; "You have your stove outside in a building without walls. Why?" Apparently he'd never heard of an outdoor wood furnace. I never had either 'til I came here. I told him we heated the house with it, that there are pipes underground. Ellen is excited about Christmas, but she really isn't clamoring to open her presents yet. She asks which ones are hers every day, then she just walks away, apparently reassured that they are there waiting for her. I hope she continues like that every Christmas, but I won't hold my breath. On Sunday night we went to the church Christmas program. The kids did a great job as usual. Afterwards the kids gave out the presents they'd gotten each other. (Having exchanged names a couple of weeks ago.) Ellen got a little box of toys from her Sunday School teacher and a cute FurReal baby chipanzee from her cousin W...

Also known as AAA. This is what I ought to have named this blog. Anyway. Today I drove the dozer again. Had to tow some sort of something that hubby was working on from down by the sawmill up to front area. The last time I did this one of hubby's friends was astounded at my obliging attitude about doing such things. His atonishment kind of puzzles me; but then again his wife isn't as adventurous as I seem to be. So, because of such surprise reactions, here is a blog on having an adventure, helping hubby and how such things can be so fun and easy. Like I posted before, driving this dozer IS easy. Here is a horrible picture of me at the helm: Here is the view from the driver's seat: Here are the main controls: This inverted "V" concept is rather simple, but can be confusing. To go forward you pull the knob down to the right; the further down you pull the faster forward you go. To stop you just return the knob to the top of the "V." To go backw...

December's almost here. Yikes! I have to get some Christmas cards going. I have neglected this blog terribly, BUT I did my 30 day National Blog Posting deal over on my other blog. So, I will now try to get back to you. Random events in the past week or so. Last week I learned how to drive the big bulldozer! Piece of cake. It' just a little toggle dealy that you push up and down to make it go back or forward. Well, it's more than that, but for now, just take my word for it. The weird thing is that you use foot pedals to steer it. I have yet to learn how to operate the bucket, but first things first. Hubby wanted me to know how to drive it so I can tow OTHER pieces of heavy equipment around here, when/if needed. Last week we were eating supper and I looked up and there across the back yard strolled a little heifer. So we had to high-tail it out there and chase her back where she belonged. Our renter and his buddies got 5 -FIVE- deer this firearm season, all out in...