Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

August 20, 2011 Last Monday, I believe it was, Ellen and I were walking down over the ridge to get the 4-wheeler from where hubby leaves it after his round-up. As is usual, the bull was standing there in the trees, a ways behind the milk barn. (He follows the herd up the hill and then stands there while hubby shuts the gate on him. He later decides he wants to join the cows and pushes the gate down to get to them. But that is a different story.) Ellen has seen the bull numerous times. We have had many discussions about how cows have udders and give milk, but she’d never really thought about what the bull is for…until that night. As we were walking by she suddenly asked; “Mommy, what does the bull do?” Trying to keep it light and unthreatening (to myself, not to her) I replied: “He eats grass and sleeps all day.” “No, Mom,” Ellen wasn’t satisfied. “What does he DO?” GULP Weeeelllll… I jumped in with both feet and just gave her the truth, since she obvio...

A few days ago, on Monday evening right after milking, we looked up the road and saw a little black cow and calf on the verge of the road, sniffing over the fence at our herd. We knew she'd end up being trouble of one sort or another. We were right. We had no idea where she came from. We surmised she'd come from the little herd just behind the 12 acres across the road. But the owners live in Marshfield and we have no idea of their names or phone numbers. We hoped she'd go on about her business and find her way home. I didn't want to mess with her as she's a beef cow and they tend to be aggressive when they have a calf. A couple of people either stopped and told us about "our cow" that was out (Nevermind the fact that we don't run beef cows.), or honked loudly and repeatedly as they drove by. Finally, at about 8:25 pm, a car pulls in. It was the owner of the cow. She'd actually come from about 2 miles from here (hubby said the ...

Ha ha. Ellen went to a cousin's birthday party last night. Well, I took her there of course. The cousin turned 8, but she has a younger sister who is Ellen's age. They had hit it off at a family reunion back in May. There were quite a few older children there, mostly family members and friends of the teenaged sister, so Ellen was quite shy at first. However she got her bearings, after a little cake and keem, and ended up having a fine time with her cousin. This is a picture of them. This cousin's birthday will be in Sept, so perhaps there will be another party to go to soon. And it has been revolving around in my mind that since Ellen's next birthday will be year number FIVE, perhaps we should have a party for her. We shall see. Where to have it is the question.

In early summer those 13 year cicadas came out. They had red eyes and were quite loud. I think I had mentioned them on my Facebook account, but not on here. Anyway, they were gone, had run their course...whatever, by the time we got back from our CA trip. But they left behind evidence. Here is a pic of the damage they did to the trees. The females cut little slits into small twigs at the ends of the limbs and lay their eggs. These twigs subsequently die, as shown here. You can tell which types of trees they prefer by the amount of damage. Hubby said it's mainly the white oaks that have the most dead twigs.

This is the husband's favorite photo of Ellen from our trip. We are out on Clam Beach. Ellen was rabid to go buy a shovel and pail and play in the sand on the beach. So the 3rd or 4th day there, off we went to the store and got those required items. Then we headed to the beach. Clam Beach is the closest beach to where we were staying so that is where we went. It is a nice beach, but it is quite a hike to get down to the wet sand and the waves. Ellen was a bit leery this time of getting too close to the waves, so we stayed well away. We filled the bucket once, made the pictured "sand castle" and she dug in the sand with her shovel once or twice. I took 2 pictures. Then she turned around and announced; "I have to go potty." The restrooms were, of course, a 50 mile hike back to the parking lot. (OK maybe I exaggerate the distance, but when you are walking through sand it seems like it.) When we got back she announced, "I don't have to go."...

I was going to tell our 2011 Calfornia trip story from the beginning; but how boring is that? So I will start with one of the funnier pictures I took. The Saturday before we left my mom (from here on out referred to as Mom) Ellen and I went over to the place where I grew up, Mom had had to sell it after my father passed away. The folks who bought it own a landscaping business and have fixed it up so nice. They have a garden, numerous fruit trees (most of which were the ones my father planted there many years before he died), berry bushes...etc. Down in the back they have a pen and raise a couple of pigs to butcher every other year I believe. They happened to have 2 fairly small porkers this year. So we went down so Ellen could see them. The lady gave them a couple of dog bone treats to get them to come out. I had Ellen stand in front of them so I could take a picture. Well, Ellen complied, but not without a certain dubiousness, which shows up so well in her expression in this p...

Here is my once-monthly blog entry. Really, I DO mean to blog more often, but somehow it just gets pushed to the wayside. I really need to update the photo too. Well, that will have to wait as well. Above please see Ellen and her newest buddy; the only other little girl in the pre-school VBS class. Fact: In 2 days we, Ellen and I, are flying out of MO and back to CA for a 2 week visit. Fact: Last week was Vacation Bible School at church. I am still frazzled from that. Fact: In the 2 weeks before and the week of VBS I get nothing done but the very basics. Fact: Now I needs must do cleaning, cook lots of food to sustain my husband in the 18 days I am gone, because he won't go shopping or do any major food prep by himself, and try and prep my garden for my absence as well. Fact: The weeds are taking over my garden. Fact: I will not be here when the peas need harvesting. Fact: I need to tie up my tomatoes. Fact: Oh, yes. I have to pack for both Ellen and myself. Any more ...