Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Often when I am out on my walks I encounter sights that steer my thoughts toward deeper subjects.  Here is one that I encountered last winter.  I have various paths I take the dog(s) walking on depending upon where the milking herd is quartered.  Both coming and going I pass by this old grapevine: You can see one little dead vine tendril clinging to a dead twig. The main vine stretches from one tree to the next, so the twig is hanging between the trees.  There is no way to tell how long the vine has held the twig prisoner; swaying in the breeze, for years maybe.   Once upon a time when the grapevine was small it sent out a tendril and caught onto the small limb of a tree.  It needed the support while its central stem climbed higher. But at some point the vine tore away from the tree, or perhaps it was a small tree that died.  Who knows?  But the main trunk of the vine continued reaching upward into the canopy of the forest, leav...

Ever have a bad day?  What's a person to do? Get out from under What's crapping on you.  (Thankful for the little lessons in life that God shares with me.  Also thankful that bovines tend to have oily fur which sheds stuff like this fairly rapidly.  By next morning she was pretty much cleaned off.  haha)

Not that my story is all that terribly dramatic.  However I did get on here and on Facebook and talk a bit about it, so I thought I'd wrap up the first 30 days. Yes.  I did write the FIRST thirty days. Today is Day 30 of my Whole30.  Here are my results: *  This morning the scale advised me that I'd lost 10 pounds!  Yay!  This is really a pretty dramatic weight loss for four weeks of not half trying.  I did 30 minute to 1 hour walks 4-5 times per week.  But no major workouts.  And, with the exception of about 3-4 oopsies, I followed the program to the letter. *  I can honestly say I went a WHOLE month without sugar!  This is a biggee for me.  My sugar dragon used to wake up roaring every morning, and roared loudly most of the day.  I will not say I do not have the occasional desire for chocolate; but the craving to consume everything and anything sugary is now pretty much quenched.  *  I know th...

Actually, all in all, it was a good day.  Fridays are always shopping day.  Taking my mom into town to go shopping is always an adventure.  She is like a kid.  But I have become used to it; I find the humor and enjoy laughing with my mom. Anyway. Gary has been getting in our supply of hay for the winter.  He did bale some a few weeks ago, but he has had to search around to get enough to last all winter. Last week he went over to L--- to look at some.  He said they were 4x6s, which are large, but manageable, and will last a couple of days up the road at the dry cows or heifer lots.  He asked to have them delivered; I believe from 2 different farms, but the same driver.  Earlier this week the driver brought 2 loads; no problems at all.  Then today he brought a 3rd from a different farm.  Major problems.  The hay wasn't what Gary had seen and inspected when he was there.  It was the same size but was super wet and heav...

Long, long ago, back when I was still living my California life, my sister got me a turtle.  A red-eared slider.  This was by my request, by the way.  For some reason I have always been fascinated by turtles and I wanted one awfully bad.  I put it in an old aquarium and kept it for about a year.  Unfortunately I don't think I ever actually took a photo of it; for some bizarre reason. In any case my dad started calling it the "Turkle."  This is because his mother, my Grandmother Davis, always called them "turkles." In June of 2015 I caught the below photo of a red-eared slider, commonly called a pond turtle around here, laying her eggs in my green bean patch.   Then this past spring I'd pretty much forgotten all about it.  Gary tilled the garden beds and imagine my surprise when I went to plant my beets and found this: Isn't that the cutest thing?  A baby red-eared slider.  I was enchanted, so I kept it.  It wasn't un...

This actually happened on Sept 1st.  I started this on Sept 2nd, but have had in draft since then.  LOL  In the intervening time I have forgotten quite a few details....maybe on purpose!  Haha To begin with let me just say that  in the almost-13 years I have been on the dairy,  I have had minimal trouble with any of our bulls, and have only been in dangerous situations a couple of times.  All of those times were up the road in the heifer/bull pasture where we take the open heifers to be bred for the first time, and Gary was always with me.  (Hi! I'm Ellen :P ) (Um, this is what happens when you walk away from your blog for a moment.) Yesterday however I was on my own. Last year I went into the heifer/bull without hesitation as the bull was quite docile, minded his manners, and stayed with his ladies.  We were in and out of the multiple times from Nov through Feb; feeding, getting calves and cows...etc.  He didn't make a moo abou...

So... I am trying to get back into the groove here of blogging.  But I am failing abominably at it.  Nothing for it but to get back up and write about anything that comes to mind.  Here's what's happening on the dairy now. Whole30 Last Saturday I started "The Whole30" plan.  It's not really a "diet" as you'd think a diet should be.  It's more of a lifestyle change really. There are no calories to count. No points to keep track of. No portions to weigh. Just lots and lots of whole, delicious foods to eat. A friend asked if my food was boring.  No, not really.  I am, or was, a boring eater anyway.  Though I do like the varied spices in Indian foods, and try to imitate their cuisine when I can.  I am attempting to be a bit more creative with making my meals compliant to the program.  We are supposed to go easy on the fruit, but I am probably pushing that rule to the limit.    Here's what the basic rules consist of: ...