Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

This past summer during the drought we were forced to sell off many of our young heifers due to the fact that we just couldn't afford to poke so much hay down their gullets.  Hay that was supposed to be for winter months, not summer months. Now we are in the process of replacing these heifers.  Hubby wants to get springers (heifers soon expecting their first calves) and dry cows (cows that aren't milking and are expecting a calf in a few weeks).  A couple weeks ago we went down to a small dairy by Rogersville and took a look at this guy's springer heifers.  Hubby liked what he saw so we bought two of them.  In the picture above is one of them; the one in the foreground, looking off to my left.  What struck me was the strange similarities of their facial markings.  It is difficult to see the markings clearly of the heifer in the background, but the main difference is that on the one in the foreground; the...

Or...what I did for most the the morning of Sept 11, 2012. This past spring in my garden I planted my first half of a garden bed of green beans on May 29, 2012, the second half I planted about 2-3 weeks later.  I watered them all the rest of the spring.  No blooms.  Hubby watered them for 2 weeks while Ellen and I were in California.  No blooms.  We came back home and I kept them watered through an interminably hot, hot summer; daytime temps 90 degrees and over for at least 2 months...sometimes over 100 degrees for a week or two at a time.  No blooms.  I watered them when they looked so wilted and decrepit I thought I ought to stop watering them.  No blooms. But I persevered. Hubby said nothing, but had severe doubts, I believe. But finally a few weeks ago, when the temps dipped below the 90s at last; LO! to my everlasting relief my green beans started to bloom!  THREE MONTHS after planting...

I went out to our 'west' garden this morning.  The only thing the deer have left us are the tomatoes.  Not that the vines are actually producing any tomatoes, but there are LOTS of vines.  And on closer inspection, there are-or were-also lots of visitors chomping on said vines. You can't see them very clearly in the picture; but I found SEVEN of these nasty buggars on my tomato vines.  They are Bob the Tomato's worst nightmare; tomato horn worms. Bob, stop smiling like an idiot; RUN, BOB, RUN!!!

Here are a couple of pictures to illustrate what happened to our yard in Missouri after 2 months of no rain and temps between 90 and 100+ degrees.  Here's Ellen in early May; out helping me garden.  Looks like we are behind on the mowing and weedeating chores a wee tad. Here's Ellen in the first weekend in August; dressed up to go to a family reunion.  No need to mow here. A little randomness:  Bet you have never tried to tow a road grader with a bulldozer, have you? I have. It was quite the adventure.  Hubby got himself a newer road grader this summer.  The place he bought it from loaded it with some kind of crane-jobber-thingy-mabobber; which meant that the blade on the grader was cocked at a weird angle.  (Keep the blade angle in mind.) So anyway.  The grader is on the trailer.  Said grader cannot be started unless it is towed.  Hmmmm...  Thusly grader must be unloaded from trailer ...

Back after a long hiatus.  I am having trouble logging into this blogger thing.  It's very annoying.  It just takes FOREVER.  I think it's our connection.  Well, we have had adventures since I last blogged.  Ellen and I went to CA for 2 weeks.  Cool, green California.  I will post pictures when I get a chance.  Here; I will post this one, if it will let me. This is one of my favorite pics of her from CA; This was taken at Sequoia Park, in Eureka next to the zoo.  This is a redwood stump.  Ellen was kind of leery standing next to the "cave" in the stump, but it wasn't really as dark as it is in the picture. 

It was my fault.  I'll just say that from the beginning. It's that time of the year again; elections are coming.  And well before any election the campaign signs start popping up like mushrooms.  We have quite a bit of road-front property, so we get a few requests for sign posting.  This is OK.  We don't let anyone know how we vote so we give sign posting rights quite freely to most anyone who asks nicely. No problem. We have one stipulation: Just one. No signs near the house.  A couple weeks ago the son of one candidate who is running to oust the incumbent...I'll refrain from naming names or offices...but if you are local I'll just say the incumbent goes to our church and you will know of whom I speak. Anyway.  The opponent's son stopped by and asked hubby if he could put up a sign.  "Sure, sure;  no problem.  Put it up there a ways." So he did put it up there. Well, I was annoyed to go out and...

Hmmmm...yeah.  What do they serve at wedding showers?  Broccoli?  Carrots?  A nice fruit tray? Ummm...no. But, well.  It WAS Sunday afternoon.  And I had already decided that Sunday is the day of the week that I am going to cut myself a break and splurge a weeeeee tad.  So I had a cup of punch and a polite chunk of cake.  It is gratifying to note that after a week of avoiding sugary things anything with sugar in it now tastes cloyingly sweet. And I did try the Skinny Chunky Monkey cookies as suggested by the Lumberjack's Wife.  I will post a link if I ever get time.  Needless to say, with no eggs or sugar, they taste like a vegan dessert, but in a pinch they will satisfy your sweet tooth.  Hubby ate a couple and pronounced them "OK" and probably would eat them if there were nothing else sweet in the house.  But Ellen was totally unimpressed; "they taste funny." Five year olds.  Gotta trust ...