Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Look what I found last month! Nine teensy turkles!  Last June I watched the mama turtle lay her eggs in the west yard, out by our big sign.  I marked it with little sticks so I could find it this spring.  But what with mowing and limbs falling and all I lost my markers.  Last month I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I took the shovel and went out looking for the nest.  I dug very carefully all up and down where I thought it was and couldn’t find anything.i almost gave up, but I tried one more spot and AHA!   I will keep one or two of the smaller ones and let the rest go into ponds or the river. Here are the smallest and the largest.

Ellen and I did our annual walk down to the creek last week, on the 11th, when she was on her spring break from school.   It was up a bit due to the rains we had, and in some places was flowing quite swiftly. I missed getting a close up of Bella in any of the shots we took, but she was there, as usual. Ellen has always loved going to the creek.  You can probably do a search on this blog of "creek" and/or "Ellen and  come up with more than one post that involve her in the creek. (Thankful for running water on our property, for a daughter who loves the outdoors almost as much as I do, for a walking buddy.)

Her eyebrows are not as pronounced as they were when she was a calf; but she is still cute.  For the time being she is our only dry cow up the road.  We are slowing down with the breeding and all, so we don't have many to calve soon.  It's kind of sad, but a relief in a way.

Today, the day I am starting this entry, is December 21, 2018.  I probably will not finish tonight, or even this month.  I have to have time think things through. On December 16th we lost one of the pillars of our little church; Rick Mills.  It was a blow to us all, but we rejoiced with him as well.  He'd spent the last few years battling an incurable cancer, was on meds for it and was sick most all the time.  He'd spent a great amount of in and out of hospitals this past year, and I believe he was ready to rest and meet his Savior.  The only reason he'd stayed was for his wife, Jane, and his family. At any rate;  we had his funeral today, the 21st.  The family had a memory box there, with papers for us to fill out with memories of Rick for them to read over.  I took a paper, but couldn't get my thoughts into coherent words.  This funeral, though beautiful, was hard for me; almost as hard as my dad's was.  That is what this bl...

All of our open heifers were bred to calve in November; at least we calculated that to be so when we put them in with the bull in February.  All of them calved last month.  At least all but one. This one was a hold out. Imagine my surprise when I went up there Sunday and found this little girl: She's another red one!  I could hardly believe it! And I am a bit bummed that we had to sell the bull that sired the red calves.  This is our third little red calf this year.  I told Gary that our calf buyers would be thrilled to get a little red heifer, as the other red calf they bought from us was a bull. Gary said; "Maybe we will keep her." If we do keep her I am going to call her "Lucy."  Don't you think that would be a good red-head to name her after?  (Always thankful to the Lord for fun little surprises.  A healthy calf and new mama cow are also wonderful blessings.)

Here in Missouri for many years my arch nemesis has been nothing more nor less than the proverbial Christmas tree.  For me it has been the fly in the ointment of my holiday cheer.  If you'd like to read more about this go here: Christmas Grinch But here, before I go further, is a picture of my little Christmas Tree Grinch-let.  This was her first Christmas, 2007.  Haha... We were at Gary's aunt's house, and Ellen was just not having any of this posing beneath the Christmas tree.  Nope, nope, nope! Anyway.  I digress. Here, also in 2007, is how I got our Christmas tree: Look at that smile.  And the rather dull saw.  Little did I know this chore would become an overwhelming aggravation. Fast forward to last year; 2017.  Mama had had enough.  Mama got a very nice fake Christmas tree from her Secret Pal in early 2018. And the wailing began...  (see above Ellen picture for an idea). So I said; "Fine.  I don't min...