Thanksgiving...

Yesterday was a wonderful day...

We had Thanksgiving lunch with Jim's family, came home and did the milking, and then spent the evening with my family.  It was cold and damp all day, but we had a warm day inside, spending time with people we enjoy!

I am thankful for a warm house when it's cold and damp outside...

I am thankful for the smell of Thanksgiving dinner...

I am thankful for cousins who enjoy being together...

I am thankful for more than enough to eat...and then some...

I am thankful for a long Thanksgiving break from school...

I am thankful for leftover turkey...

I am thankful for storage bins that help me get organized...

I am thankful for an attic in which to store said bins...

I am thankful for a good book to curl up with before bed...

I am thankful for laughter with friends...

And...I am thankful that Cowboys and Eagles fans can amicably co-exist! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

And more thankfulness...

As we get closer to Thanksgiving, I am more and more frustrated by the way "commercialism" has taken over this time of year!   Where has Thanksgiving gone?  Has it been hidden behind all the Christmas decorations that went up at our local shopping centers on November 1st?  Has it been forgotten?  Really?

I don't really think so...but I do think that we need to be more intentional about being thankful...not just now, but all the time!  Counting our blessings, no matter how small or insignificant, is a great reminder of how blessed we are!  So, once again...


I am thankful for the heater in my bathroom...

I am thankful that it isn't 8 degrees here today, like I saw it is in Montana on my friend's facebook status...

I am thankful for our kids' friends...they make life so much more fun...

I am thankful for Subway lunch...

I am thankful that we live within 5 miles of (almost) everything...

I am thankful for the local library...

I am thankful for Sunday afternoons, when I can prop up my feet and bury my nose in a book...

I am thankful that Jim could spend time away this weekend with friends...

I am thankful that things went like clockwork here, while he was gone...

And...I am thankful that he will be home soon...I want to sleep in tomorrow morning! :)


What are YOU thankful for?

One lonely flower...

Yesterday was another beautiful day.  Sunny skies (at least in the morning) and mild temperatures were just begging me to get some work done in the yard.   So...I got out my rake, the wheelbarrow and my trimmers and headed for the perennial bed.

Imagine my surprise, when underneath a pile of leaves, I uncovered this one lonely flower!  It looked quite happy there, blooming all by itself in an otherwise drab looking bed  of leaves and neglect...

You never know what you might find underneath all the yuck!

And...just moments after I took the picture, the dog ate it!!  Murphy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More thankfulness...

I am thankful for Jim, who works hard every day without complaint...


I am thankful for a rainy day to do some catch up work...


I am thankful that what I was dreading today did not take place after all...


I am thankful for a daughter who enjoys filling the house with beautiful violin music...


I am thankful that my nephew can come home for Thanksgiving...


I am thankful for good neighbors...


I am thankful that the new heifer had her calf last evening, before milking, and not at midnight...


I am thankful that Eric and I could watch the Eagles wallop the Redskins last night...

Sixth cutting hay...

There's a first time for everything...

This has been a most unusual fall!  Typically, Jim takes four cuttings of hay off of every field, five cuttings off of a few, but never, ever has he taken a sixth cutting.  And never, ever in November! 

On Saturday, Jim, Eric and one of Eric's buddies baled two fields of hay.  Granted, it didn't make much, and had taken a week to dry after mowing, but it was still beautiful hay...lush, green and full of leaves!  Those leaves add alot of nutrition.  In the summer when it's really hot, it can get so dry that the leaves fall off when it's being raked and baled.  But not this time!

Thanks  for the yummy, nutritional snack!

Beggars...

Do you remember when I posted about how the cows would stand at the wire and bawl for TWO HOURS if we didn't let them graze in the rye and alfalfa?

Well...here's proof!  I guess the grass really IS greener on the other side of the fence!

The beggars!!

I am thankful for...

Here it is, almost Thanksgiving again.  This is my favorite holiday of all!  We have SO MUCH to be thankful for!  I was reading another blog this morning, and I got this idea from there...to share just a few of the things I am most thankful for right now...

I am thankful for my family!

I am thankful for the opportunity to live on a farm...work and all!

I am thankful that the heifer we just loaded, walked onto the trailer without a fight!

I am thankful that the fall work is coming to an end!

I am thankful for safety on the farm!

I am thankful for the beautiful weather we've been having this week!

I am thankful for my "new" friends and neighbors, Rhoda and Anne, who I walk with every week, and who are becoming a very valuable part of my life!

I am thankful for our church family...they really are like a big family!

I am thankful for our boiler; even though it burns alot of oil, it keeps us warm!

And...I am thankful for the end of daylight savings time, and an extra hour of sleep last weekend!

So, she does work sometimes...

All in good fun...I had to prove that I do actually work sometimes.  I don't just walk around all day with the camera!

One of my regular jobs in the morning is to throw down a cart full of balage for the cows.  It's their first meal of the day, and they are usually ravenous! 

This is what is inside of those "marshmallow" ag bags that you see sitting out in the field.  After the plastic is removed from the bale, it easily unwinds, and we throw it down the hay hole into
the feed cart below. You can see the hay hole behind me in the first picture...

                                        

After breakfast, the next thing I often do is shovel down a cart full of sawdust.  We use this for fresh bedding in the cows' stalls...

And...here is my latest job!  Jim usually does this, but he's handed it over to me...

Just kidding!  I must admit...I have never forked out a boxpen in my life!  I just had to make you think I can do EVERYTHING!

It's a dirty job...

It's a dirty, stinky job, but it has to be done.  Every day.  Hot or cold, sunny or rainy; even in the middle of last year's blizzards it had to be done.  I'm glad it's not MY job...Jim gets the honors of hauling manure out of the dairy barn every day.

Several times a year, the heifer pens also need to be cleaned out completely.  In the fall, after the fields are clear and there's a place to spread the manure, Jim cleans out the pens, and again in the spring.  "Pen pack" makes a great fertilizer!  It doesn't smell the greatest, but it's good for the soil, and it's great to have the pens empty and ready for winter.

Last week, before he began cleaning out pens, Jim put  a new web on the manure spreader.  This is probably the third time he's replaced it since we bought the spreader...a bunch of years ago. 

Here he is, piecing the new web together...

Halfway done...

Complete!  The web moves in a circle, pushing the load of manure towards the back of the spreader, where the beaters send it flying through the air and out onto the field.  You don't want to be standing too close!  The spreader won't look this clean for a long, long time...

 Oh wait..no job is ever complete until you've thoroughly greased all the moving parts!

And now the fun begins...cleaning out the pens at the "other farm"...a family farm that we rent and where we keep our dry cows and bred heifers...



And of course, on a cold, windy day, a thermos of coffee is a must...

 Ahhhhhhh...

This is how Jim is spending his day today...how about you?

Loving it...

I'm so thankful that we live in an area where we notice the change of seasons!

I'm generally a fair weather fan...I like spring when it gets warm, and fall when it cools down...

And the cows love it too...

They enjoy being outside most of the day this time of year.  In the summer, they line up to come in after a short amount of time...they know we'll feed them and turn on the fans!  (are they spoiled or what?!)

This fall, Jim fenced off about half the farm, and allows the cows to graze the rye fields, the alfalfa fields, and even to glean the corn fields...  They would stay out there all day if we'd let them!

(Last week one day, he left the cows in the meadow, but not out into the grazing area...they stood at the wire, looking longingly at the other side of the fence and bawled...for TWO HOURS!  Seriously!)

Don't they look content?

. 
This is Belle...

She's the oldest cow in the barn ...the matriarch...the leader of the pack...at the ripe old age of 11...

Can you tell she's happy?

She's FAT from all that grazing...and she's loving it!