Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

So...it has been quite a while since I have checked in here. This is not good. This is bad. I was going to be better at blogging in 2011. *sigh* Well. The news for the past almost-month.... The bull with the milking herd has started pulling capers. He did last week anyway; bellowing and pawing around while hubby is trying to do the round up. It freaks me out every time hubby has to go out and deal with him. If he shows any more attitude; the bull, not the husband, he will be taken to the sale barn post haste. Yesterday the sale barn in Lebanon had a grand opening, with new owners. We went to their free barbecue. It wasn't too bad, though we had to park way down the highway and walk. Ellen liked the goats and the pigs. Actually she only really cared about the pigs. This is one of those rare times I actually get to eat out. What meal isn't bettered by following it up with the scent of billy goats, pigs and cow exhaust? Ha ha. After we got home yesterday Ellen got h...

Over six hundred posts in 4 years. That's not a really great record. *sigh* Let's see. What can I post about? The peas are sprouting. I know, I know...hang onto your hats, it doesn't get much more exciting than that. Ha. Ellen is starting to learn how to use the mouse on the computer. I pull up "Paint," draw a few overlapping shapes and then let her use the mouse to choose different colors and fill each section in. The only problem is that I think she's going to be a true lefty, and I have the mouse set up on the right side. I'm a southpaw, but I use my right hand for different things; like cutting with scissors, and the mouse...etc. Maybe if I have her learn the righty way, she'll be more ambidexterous. Our trip to CA is set in stone. Ellen is anxious to leave. She wanted to up and go today. I am not so anxious about the traveling part. Being there and visiting everyone is great. GETTING there is hairraising to me. And for this trip our...

A little over 3 years ago our second closest neighbor's house burned down. He and his wife subsequently settled with the insurance and got out of Dodge; bought a place in Wisconsin. He had has the place here next to us up for sale for over a couple of years now. Well, glory hallelujah! It finally sold on Friday; they went and signed the papers and such. The former owner spent all last week hauling junk off of the place. We are so happy that the new owners are a nice couple from up near Lake of the Ozarks. They are going to use the place as a weekend retreat. At first they are going to just put up their RV here and come down and work on the place as they can. For those in the know, the former owners, MN and his wife, are actually wanting to come back to this area and are looking for property here. Apparently Missouri is a better place than Wisconsin. From what I hear the taxes are killer up there. ******* Dairy news We have two new little bottle calves as of Thursday I be...

Reflecting back upon my mother's kitchen, I vaguely remember that she had a little wooden spice rack mounted on the wall. It had maybe 3-4 shelves, 2 or 3 of which were filled with odds and ends; maybe some food coloring, a bottle of vanilla extract, and maybe 3 or 4 other flavorings, a salt and pepper shaker set or two, and then a few spices; salt, pepper, and honestly I cannot remember what else. She seasoned most every dish with garlic salt. My father thought black pepper was a heinous evil, on par with white bread, baking soda and baking powder. (Hence she hid those last 2 items in the cupboard-white bread was not allowed into the house at all-along with any other white flour products, like soda/soup crackers...etc.) I had not had my own kitchen long (starting only a little over 6-7 years ago, a bit before I married) that I realized I was NOT like my mother. I love exotic spices. I am not into hot spices, but just exotic spices. It probably began back in Portland with my first ...

Ellen loves to copy mommy; as is typical with children. I let her play around with my makeup on occasion. This is a shot from awhile back of how artistic she can be on her face. My mother has a photo of me when I was about this age. I had found my way into her dresser drawer where she'd stored her old makeup. I had been much more liberal that Ellen was in my artistic endeavors on my face. I wish I had a copy of that picture to post in comparison. On Tuesday evening Ellen and I made cookies. There was this moment that totally unnerved me; not really in a bad way, but just in a weird way. Ellen was helping mix the eggs into the batter when I just glanced down at her and got this weird impression that she was me as I was when I was a child; that I was working with much younger self. Ellen occasionally has certain expressions that for a fleeting moment makes her look like a photo of myself at her age had come to life and stepped out from the pages of my photo album. At times he...

Ellen and I planted over 50 tomato seeds today. They came in those packs of 20 little white pelleted seeds in each, but really there are closer to 20 pelleted seeds in each pack. I like using the pelleted seeds; Ellen can pick them up and plant the in the little holes I've pushed in the soil. She had a fine old time poking seeds into the holes, covering them up and, later on, watering them. Several hours later she came back in the house, inspected our containers and wondered why there weren't any tomatoes growing yet. Time means little when you are 4 years old. Last year I bought several different kinds of peat pots. This year I am not going to waste my money. I just used empy containers, like sour cream tubs, yogurt cups etc. I am also going to try making my own little pots from newspaper. Seems easy enough.

Argh! I sure do neglect my blog lately. Sorry blog and blog readers. Along in here, somewhere between my last blog post and this one, Ellen celebrated her 4th birthday. Above is a picture of her and the cake I made for her; Stinkerbelle's castle. If you don't know who Stinkerbelle is, then you really need to do some research on kid's animated characters. Ha ha. At any rate, it's not the best castle cake I have seen...and they have plenty of examples online, but Ellen was happy with it. Today Ellen had her 4 year well child check up. She did great. She's 41 and 3/4 inches tall and 46 pounds. Doc said Ellen may or may not have an umbilical hernia; we'd have to go to a specialist and have him look at it. She said it might just be an outie. We will continue to pray that it will heal over. Here on the dairy we have had a rush of calves. At the moment I am bottle feeding 6 heifer calves. We actually have had 4 bull calves come along in the past 3-4 weeks, but 2 of the...