Tigger's Entertainment...

The ultimate kittlets are quickly turning into full grown cats...and we've been enjoying them so much!  Never before have we had cats with so much personality. 

Peanut (the tuxedo kitty) is sweet...she just loves to be held and drapes herself over your shoulder for as long as you allow her to stay there.

Smokey (the gray and white male) is the least social of the three.  He enjoys being held and purrs contentedly whenever you look at him, but he's a true cat...he's constantly primping, and is sometimes a bit aloof or standoffish.

And then there's Tigger.  Words can't quite describe him!  He adores people!  He meows until you acknowledge him, and purrs louder than any cat I've heard before.  He runs underneath the cows, and they don't seem to care.  In a nutshell...he's spoiled rotten!  His latest antics involve the balage cart.  I got balage down today for the cows, and when came downstairs to feed it, guess who was parked in the cart!


He thinks it's his throne...and he loves to go along for the ride while we feed...

Tonight Eric was feeding the cows, and Tigger was playing his usual game.  You see...he thinks that not only is the balage his throne, but he thinks we have no right to feed it to the cows!  He attacks each handful as it is pulled out of the cart.  If he gets buried, he doesn't care...he just comes back for more...

Now if only we could train him to do the feeding for us!
 

Our Thanksgiving Feast...

Oh my...I don't think I need to eat for a while, after this week and all the feasting that took place!

On Thursday, we spent the day with Jim's family.  Our brother in law cooked a tasty, moist turkey breast, and of course we had all the fixings to go along with it.  We had leftovers for supper, and then spent the next couple of days doing yard work to get rid of all those delightful calories!

Today we had our second Thanksgiving feast, this time with my side of the family.  My sister and I always take our cameras and get a little bit carried away, and this year was no different!

Here's the gang getting ready to eat.  (this is only half of our family...two of my sisters live out of state and weren't able to be here)   We made the taste buds wait just  a few more minutes while we snapped away...

I told you we ate well...
 

The cook...
 

The guys, making fun of their mothers with the cameras.  They're trying to get the "perfect" photo of the butter dish...
 

After lunch, the guys retired to the basement to sleep watch some football...
 

After a while they ventured outside.  Creatively shooting some hoops...
 

Sighting up the guns for hunting season...
 

And then they played some football  (You'll just have to take my word for it) ...while Grandma and the girls made candles...
 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!  I am so thankful that we have families that enjoy being together.  The kids are so happy to be with their cousins on both sides of the family...they just wish their out of state cousins lived closer!

The cows have been milked and tucked in for the night, so now I guess we'll settle in for the evening in our warm house with our contentedly full bellies to watch some more football and try to come up with some creative ways to burn all those extra calories the next couple of days!

Hope your Thanksgiving was a happy one!

A Thanksgiving Hymn...

What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than to remember the words of this old hymn! 

Praise to God, immortal praise,

For the love that crowns our days;

Bounteous source of every joy,

Let Thy praise our tongues employ.

For the blessings of the field,

For the stores the gardens yield,

For the joy which harvests bring,

Grateful praises now we sing.

Clouds that drop refreshing dews;

Suns that genial heat diffuse;

Flocks that whiten all the plain,

Yellow sheaves of ripened grain.

All that spring with bounteous hand,

Scatters o'er the smiling land;

All that liberal autumn pours

From her overflowing stores.

These, great God to Thee we owe,

Source whence all our blessings flow;

And for these our souls shall raise

Grateful vows and solemn praise.

As long as I can remember, this hymn has been sung  a cappella, and from memory at every family gathering on my Dad's side of the family.  This was my Grandpa's favorite song, and I can still picture him the last few times we were together, sitting in his chair, with a smile on his face as we all sang!


Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Can't Do Without It...

What is it that you just can't do without in your diet?

Coffee?   Meat and potatoes?  Chocolate?


For the cows, it's corn...

In the fall when we combine our corn and beans, we send the shelled grain to a local company that dries, toasts and stores it.  Then, they deliver it to the farm as needed throughout the year.  Every two weeks, Jim has them deliver around three tons of toasted corn to our corn bin.  


They blow the corn through that pipe on the outside of the barn up into the bin.  The second pipe is an exhaust, or vent pipe...

It sure makes a dusty mess, but it smells wonderful...kind of like roasted peanuts!

When the corn cart needs to be filled, we pull open the sliding door on the bottom of the bin...

...and we have corn for the cows.  They eat it for part of their breakfast, lunch and supper.  It's only a small part of their diet, really.  (The average cow gets around ten pounds of toasted corn per day)

...but they never get tired of it.  If only we were all so easy to please!

Nutella Brownie Cups...

I've been in a bit of a funk this week...nothing has jumped out and said "you've gotta blog about this!"   We've been busy with things that wouldn't really be exciting to write...or read about...

So...maybe it's time to share a recipe!

Anything chocolate...or even remotely related to chocolate...catches my attention.  So when I saw this recipe from a friend on Facebook this week, I had to try it! 

NUTELLA BROWNIE CUPS                    

1/2 cup Nutella spread
1 large egg
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Instructions:
Line a 12-cup mini muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
Put the Nutella and egg in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth and well blended. Add the flour and whisk until blended.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins (about 3/4 full) and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts.
Bake until a pick comes out with wet, gooey crumbs, 11 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees. 

  I chose to make these without the chopped Hazelnuts, as my family doesn't care for chunks of nuts IN things, and they were delicious without them!

We learned to love Nutella after a trip I took to Germany in 2006 to visit my sister and brother-in-law, who were living in Heidelberg for a year.  I brought several jars back home with me, and they disappeared rather quickly!   I was happy to discover that it's very easy to find locally. We don't buy it often, but when we do, we sure enjoy it!

Finding new recipes that use things we love is great fun...thanks Julie!

 

 

 

Gleaning...

What a beautiful day we had today!

On days like today, don't bother looking to see if my house is clean...or if my dishes are washed...or if the laundry is folded and put away...it's time to be outside while the weather is still warm!

Today I decided to spend some time gleaning the soybean and corn fields to supplement our chickens' menu.  

When the soybeans were harvested, some beans were left along the edges of the field...

There was a significant amount of ear corn left in the fields.  There could be several reasons for this...the hot spell we had while the corn was pollinating left some weakened "stems" where the corn is attached to the stalk, which caused some of the ears to fall to the ground...Hurricane Irene left numerous patches of downed corn in some fields...and if the combine driver goes too fast during harvest, ears of corn can bounce around and fall to the ground!  

This morning I made piles of corn and filled feed bags,  but  I soon discovered that a bag full of ear corn is WAY too heavy to lug around, so this afternoon I switched to five-gallon buckets. That went much better...

I had some help this afternoon from two adorable neighbor boys and their Mom...thanks guys! :)

I lost track of how many buckets of corn I gathered, but it was somewhere between twelve and fifteen!  (And that was only from one field!)  I then dumped the corn into feed bags, and stacked them inside the empty corn crib.  They'll be under a roof and stay relatively unaffected by the weather...
 

The first time I ever threw ear corn to the chickens, they looked at me like I was nuts..."what are we supposed to do...work for our food?  Aren't you gonna shell that for us?!"

Well...it didn't take them long to figure out how to help themselves...they pick the soybeans right out of the pods...
 

...and clean off those ears of corn in no time at all...

 

The price of a 100 lb. bag of layer mash is close to $23.00, and our chickens were going through a bag in less than three weeks!  The layer mash has the protein and nutrients that they need to produce good eggs, but the ear corn will help to supplement their diets quite nicely! 

And since that corn and those beans would literally go to waste...why not give the chickens a treat?! 

Farm Memories #4...The Allis Chalmers D-17...

I had a fun surprise this morning!

retired farmer and "author"

My father in law walked into the barn around 6:30 and handed me a slip of paper with this story written on it.  I had asked him a few days ago if he'd write me another story about farm memories...this time about the Allis Chalmers D-17...and he came through again!  Thanks Lloyd!

                        A Story From A Guest Blogger...

 My father purchased this Allis Chalmers D-17 tractor in the late 1950's, when it was almost new...

Jim and Eric ( age 1...on the newly painted D-17) in 1997

It wasn't a big tractor, but I sure thought it was! The D-17 has about 55 horse power.  The Allis Chalmers tractors had a very quick governor, which means when it started working hard, the engine sped up quick as a wink.

Before the D-17, I plowed with a Ferguson TO30.  The D-17 pulled a three-bottom, 16" plow, which it pulled very well in corn stalk ground.  It had a snap coupler hook up, which pulled from the center of the tractor, which made the plow easier to pull...

Another unique feature the tractor had was a hand clutch that we called the "big stick", which had a high and low gear, with neutral in the center.  This made it easier for my wife Norma to drive.  She drove the D-17 to bale a lot of hay.  When she came to a groundhog hole, she would pop the big stick into neutral, and motion for me to drive around the hole for her.  I would say, "Just go slow!".   Norma would just smile at me and motion for me to drive around the hole!


The D-17 went from my father to me...and then I sold it to my son.  (Jim)  The D-17 is still running!   When I go back to the farm, I enjoy using it.  I have a lot of memories on it!

To sum it up, I really liked the tractor and so did Norma.  It was very easy to drive....

...although one day when I was very busy, I asked Norma, "Do you want to harrow, or put the cows out?"  Norma said, "I will harrow."  After some time, I saw her and the tractor, stopped at the far end of the field.  I thought, "What could be wrong?"  When she came in, I asked "What happened up there?"  Norma replied, "I just got sleepy and took a little nap!"

Better than hitting a tree!  :) 


*to see another thing we use the D-17 for, click  here.

*Linking to Farm Friend Friday and Farm Girl Friday !

And More Fodder...

We're still baling and unloading corn fodder!


The past few days have been gorgeous...perfect for drying the fodder and comfortable for baling and unloading.  Jim estimates that we have at least 2000 bales so far, and he hopes to bale four more loads tomorrow.  Those wagons won't be unloaded...he'll back them into the barn and we'll use the fodder right off the wagons...they won't be needed anyway until next spring

This scene kind of reminds me of a runway full of jets waiting to take off...

When we're looking ahead at baling fodder, it can look like a formidable task.  It's often cold outside, it's very dirty and dusty, and it's hard on the baler!  But now that we're almost finished...it wasn't so bad this year!

Another Busy Day...

Once again I was reminded that fall is our busy busy time!  It felt today like we were going non-stop.  Finally now, just after 8pm, we're finished with supper and ready to settle in for the evening.

Yesterday afternoon Jim began raking corn fodder at the other farm.  This morning he headed out after breakfast to rake at the rental ground at our neighbor's.  It was chilly, and he called for an extra coat...

By lunch time, he had begun baling, and had filled several wagons...

We ate a quick lunch while we waited for the guys to arrive who were helping to unload the wagons.  They began unloading and stacking the fodder in the mow at the other farm.  We use lots of fodder and straw for bedding up the dry cow and heifer pens.  (Fodder is our first choice, since it is much more absorbent than straw)  

Jim headed back out to bale, and the wagons kept coming...and coming...


Eric is hooking up a full wagon to be pulled into the barn...
 

Everyone is tired tonight!  Jim was raking and baling for about eight hours...and then tonight during milking he raked up some hay to be baled on Monday.  The kids unloaded fodder for about five hours, and then helped with milking.

It's wonderful to have had a beautiful day to get all this accomplished!  There were about ten bales of fodder left in the mow at the other farm this morning, so the timing couldn't have been better!  Hopefully next week will go just as well...there's more fodder to bale on Monday!


 

Today...

Today started out like this...

 

It's definitely feeling more like fall out there.  Today was windy and cool...but with lots of sunshine by the afternoon. 

...perfect for drying corn fodder...we're just now beginning...last year at this time we were finished!

...perfect temps for milking...in jeans, a t-shirt and a quilted flannel...

...perfect for weed-eating without breaking a sweat...

...perfect for the dogs...chasing each other through the fields...

...perfect for a cup of hot, spiced apple cider...

How did you spend your fall day?