Meet Mary...

Meet Mary...

Even back when Jim's dad was farming, the nicest cow in the barn was named Mary.  She wasn't necessarily the heaviest milker, but definitely had the best personality.  Our last Mary hung around until she was eleven years old, and that was a few years ago.  There haven't been any stand out personalities until this past week when #399 freshened!  She's a beautiful two year old...first calf heifer...and it took only a few days until the name Mary started coming up in conversations.

She hasn't lifted a foot yet while being prepped or while being milked...

Here's to a happy heifer!

The Polar Vortex Has Arrived...

The dreaded polar vortex arrived this week.  Oh how I dislike that term! Early yesterday morning the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. Brrrrr...  Cold weather has it's benefits, but I'm such a fair weather fan that I have a hard time seeing them.  Instead, I think of the headaches that come in the barn.

The box pens in the barn are full of young heifers, so we have a couple of them still at the hutches.  They have shelter, but no running water over winter.  Thus, we have to carry water for them several times a day.  Our trusty green wagon gets a lot of use these days...

Drink fast girls, before it freezes again...

My negligence in gathering eggs last evening resulted in this...

Jim had ordered a truckload of sawdust, but postponed the delivery yesterday because of the strong winds.  The barn doors are quite heavy, and if the winds catch them, there could be some pretty serious damage...both to the doors and to whoever might be in the vicinity.  The barn hill catches the brunt of the brutal north and west winds...

The winds died down over night, so the sawdust was delivered this morning...

All the animals keep the inside of the barn much warmer...although we often drain the water lines on the west side of the barn when it's really cold and windy.  Yesterday (and again this morning) we used a hose to fill a big water tub for the outside pen heifers.

In the calf pens, this young heifer and Jolyn enjoyed some playful moments this morning while I was feeding a newborn...

...and when I turned my back, Phoebe crawled into the pen and curled up in a feed tub.  It's not a good place for a dog to be, but I must say that once again, she was being resourceful!  She found a warm place and made the best of it...near her people...

And of course there's always the dilemma of the glasses steaming up, going from warm to cold and back again.  I wish I could just take them off, but...

Hopefully you're keeping warm where you are!

Boxwood Tree 2016...

My friend Brenda and I have a fun tradition...if a couple of years counts as that...of making boxwood trees at Christmas time.

I didn't trim our boxwood bushes again this year (oops!) so we had plenty for cutting and making our trees.  We started with several blocks of wet foam and a dish/vase for a base.  (sorry no pictures of this part...we were having too much fun!!)  We then headed out around the house with our clippers and filled containers with snippets of boxwood.  After about 2 1/2 hours, and numerous trips out to the boxwood bushes, we were finally satisfied with the finished products.

Here's my tree last night after I finished decorating it with some of my favorites from my angel collection.  The tree skirt was a score at our local Ten Thousand Villages store a couple of years ago on after Christmas clearance...

Here are some closeups of a couple of favorite ornaments from my collection.  I don't like to put them on our family tree because some of them are rather small and I don't want them to get lost when we undecorate, and go out with the tree!

I bought this one in Heidelberg Germany in 2006 when I took a trip to visit my sister's family...

This tree topping angel/star ornament came from my sister.  I don't remember for sure, but it might have come from her mother in law in Germany...

This one was my latest find at Ten Thousand Villages.  It's made out of tin cans, and is from Burkina Faso...

This one was also a gift, but I don't remember if it was from Germany, or from an estate sale in Chicago!

This pasta angel caroler was made by another sister...

And this one came from Lancaster Central Market in 2008.  It's not a great picture, with the glare from my flash, but it's a Springerle cookie with an angel...

I have other angel ornaments from various people and places, but these are just a few of the ones that had "stories" behind them that "made" the blog today!

Brenda and I had a fun afternoon, creating and reconnecting since our busy lives have gotten in the way!

Phoebe the Resourceful Puppy...

Winter finally feels like it's threatening to pay us a visit, and the dogs are finding warm places to sleep at night.  They have numerous options...upstairs in the barn in either the sawdust pile, the hay mow or the straw mow (their usual first choice)...in the dog house with the flannel blanket...or downstairs in the barn with the cows.  We let the door open so they can go in and out as they please.

This morning when we went out to milk, I found Phoebe curled up in the cow stable in a pile of corn fodder...

Last night this bale was intact, but by this morning, she had torn it apart and made a nice warm nest for sleeping.  She's a late riser, and was still quite sleepy and calm when I found her.  I actually curled up beside her for a few minutes before I had to get back to work!

Some may think she made a mess by tearing up a fodder bale...but since it was going into the gutter in a few short hours anyway, I call it "being resourceful"!  :)

Fall 2016...

It's been a while since I've posted...

A lot has been happening, but my "get up and go" must've "got up and went"! My camera has been pretty idle.  There have been a bunch of things that I've had to cross off my list...stressful things...but hopefully I can put them behind me. The time change certainly hasn't helped anything.  This getting dark early stuff is for the birds! I need lots of sunlight/daylight to keep me going!

In the meantime...fall has been in full swing.  The rye grass behind the barn is growing, and I think this is one of the most beautiful views of the farm!

The corn and soybean harvest have been finished for a while now, and they both yielded very well.  Jim is about finished with baling corn fodder. The barn is full...

He finished cleaning out heifer pens...aka spreading pazutski...over the weekend, and now it's on to some other things like moving calves around, repairing some leaky water bowls and lots of other busy work. The weather has been beautiful!  It's actually rather dry, and the fall leaves have been hanging on extra long this year.  Jenna and I went on a college visit near Philadelphia on Friday, and the drive was spectacular!

Phoebe is growing...and is a mixture of sweet...

and naughty!

I will say, I wasn't very happy with her this weekend!  On Friday night we noticed that we are down one chicken...thanks to miss Phoebe.  :(  And on Sunday morning, Jim noticed that she had chewed off some wires on his sprayer.  :(  It's a good thing she's so sweet!

Yesterday afternoon, when Jim and I returned home from an afternoon at Eric's cross country banquet at college, we were greeted by the sweetest, most enthusiastic, warm, wiggling little brown body, and it almost made me forget that I was frustrated with her.  Puppies are definitely a lot of work.  We don't want her to be "one of those dogs" that people don't want to be around because she jumps up, destroys things, etc. We're slowly getting there!

What are your fall days busy with?

Wind Damage...

Yesterday started out to be a gorgeous day!

We said good bye to our last puppy...headed off to Church...had lunch...and relaxed a little before going to Jenna's orchestra concert...in the MGB with the top down...

But when we came out from the concert, the sky was black.  Hmmm...this was unexpected!  We hurried home, put the top up on the MGB and got ready for evening milking.

Suddenly out of the west, the wind began to blow...and blow...harder and harder.  Jenna and I watched from the kitchen window as an empty hay wagon rolled seemingly effortlessly across the yard, across the road and into the neighbor's yard, coming to rest against a tree, thankfully without doing any damage.

There wasn't much thunder, lightening, or rain...just about 15-20 minutes of strong winds.

After it was over, we looked to the west, up in the field where Jim finished baling corn fodder on Saturday afternoon...

We've never had anything happen like this before.  It looks like the side of the green wagon might have a little damage where it hit the ground, but Jim will look it over closely later today when he uprights it again.

Thankfully nothing worse happened.

There's a lot of power in the wind!

From Farm Dog To World Traveler...

I just can't resist sharing this adorable (yes, I'm biased!!) picture with you this morning.  Cheryl and Frank sent me this picture of Findlay on Monday night.

From northeast farm dog to southwest world traveler!  Findlay traveled in a car, on a plane, on a train, and got to take her first cruise...all in one day!

I just want to scratch those soft, warm little ears and have her lick my face one more time!

Thanks for the picture, Cheryl, and love on her for me!

Saying Goodbye To the Puppies...

It's getting a little lonely around here these days!

Last week at this time we had seven puppies running around, rolling in the flower beds, playing tug of war with a chew toy, chasing Murphy for the elusive drink and pointing at the chickens.

As of this morning, we have only three.

Watching kids pick out their favorite puppy...watching people meet the dogs they chose by sight on the internet...it's all good.

Wilbur left for his new home in New Jersey on Thursday, Reggie and Nugget left for New Jersey and Pittsburgh on Saturday, and this morning Cupcake (aka Findlay) is flying home to Arizona.  Jenna left early for school this morning and said her goodbyes while it was still dark.

Meet our new friends Frank and Cheryl...

We had so much fun meeting them yesterday afternoon and hosting them overnight while they met and got to know Findlay.  They took us out to dinner last night, and there was no lack of things to talk about!  Findlay is going to have a great life in Arizona, we just know it!

*Findlay and her family made it safely to Phoenix...and the word is that she was an amazing traveler!

This Friday we'll say goodbye to Mocha (Delaware) and Ted (aka Cooper) will go to New Jersey next Sunday.  That leaves us with...

Phoebe!

I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this pretty gal!

One Of Those Days...

It's been one of those days...

One of those weeks, really...

Way too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it.  I shouldn't really even be taking time to sit and write this post, but I'll make it quick!  I don't want to forget how sometimes when we feel overwhelmed, God puts just the right people into our lives at just the right place, at just the right time!

Here's some cuteness to go along with my "story"...

Reggie

These dear, sweet puppies are some of what's taking up so much of my time.  I'll miss them like crazy when they go to their new homes, but in the meantime, it's like watching a whole bunch of toddlers that all have different ideas of what they want to do for fun.  They need to run...a lot...so we let them out numerous times through out the day...

I can't see their collars, so I don't know who is who here...

Anyway...the past few days have been just crazy busy.  Jim's been picking corn, I've been watching puppies and trying to get housework done in between milkings, etc.  Yesterday afternoon, our refrigerator decided it had had enough, and it bit the dust.  No fixing it.  I put perishables into coolers overnight, and this morning I headed out fridge shopping.

I don't need bells and whistles in a fridge, and am usually content with left over models or scratch and dent appliances.  I headed to the closest appliance store (which isn't known for their good prices) and got lucky. Really lucky.  They had a floor model fridge...a discontinued model way discounted...with two tiny scratches on the doors that they sold me...deliverable this afternoon...with no installation or delivery fee, and will take the old one away at no charge!

While I was running around looking for a fridge, Jim headed back to the field to finish picking corn, without having time to get the morning "chores" done.  Bedding up the cows, cleaning out gutters, etc got pushed to the side today.  While I was emptying out the old fridge, the phone rang.  I saw on the caller ID that it was our Amish neighbor who's son helps us three nights a week.  I assumed that she was calling to say that he couldn't come tonight. But NO...she was calling to say that he had a half day of school today and "would we have something he could help us with this afternoon?"

I could have cried.  I am so thankful that when life feels overwhelming...no matter how insignificantly so...that God sometimes sends circumstances into our lives as a reminder to us that we matter!

And oh...to top it all off?  I found some chocolate in the crisper drawer while cleaning out the old fridge!   :) :)

Sunrise...

Tuesday, October 18, 2016...

Same time, same place...just doing a little experimentation with my camera.

I'm joining TexWis Girl with Good Fences today

Harvest 2016...

Fall harvest is in full swing all around these days...

Last evening the combine arrived to harvest soybeans.  They finished combining late last night, and emptied the last of the beans from the grain cart into the semi this morning...

Then it was time to switch from the bean head to the corn head...

Then he headed out across the harvested bean field towards the corn.  He opened up the fields here at home so that Jim could pick the rest of the corn here for the corn crib...

Jim began picking around lunch time this morning, and here are the first two bin wagons emptied into the corn crib...

Jim doesn't fill the crib every year, but decided it would be a good idea this year to pick at least a portion of our fields rather than shell them out to be sold or stored in the grain bank.

If the weather stays nice and the equipment works like it should, he should hopefully finish up by tomorrow.  Then it will be time to shred stalks and bale corn fodder.

First Frost...

After a record setting hot summer, we woke up on Tuesday morning to our first frost...

It wasn't a hard, killing frost, but a sure reminder that the seasons do change, as always!  Our typical "frost date" here is around October 15th, so it really wasn't that early.  It's been flannel shirt and jeans weather in the barn (for me at least), and that's a welcome change...

The cows have been staying in overnight the past few days, and the tender plants on porches are gradually moving inside.

The puppies are spending their nights in the barn too.  They're seven weeks old now, have had their vet checks, first round of shots, etc, and are for sale, available for adoption next weekend!  They're so sweet...but I feel like the Mom of seven toddlers, continually counting heads when they're out for playtime.  Oh my.

The wear themselves out playing. Here they're playing tug of war with a dog toy...
(photo courtesy of my friend Denise who came to visit yesterday with her daughter)

...and then they crash...

Just like toddlers!

We're going to miss them when they're gone!

Waiting For Breakfast...

There are so many creatures around here depending on us for their breakfasts...

These two heifers in the corner hutch saw me coming.  They're anticipating hay, grain and silage...

The chickens get excited when I fill their water tub, knowing that something else is coming soon...

Murphy saw me toss some stale bagels into the chicken pen yesterday, and she's been keeping vigil...thinking that somehow, sometime, she'll get one. Shy of digging under the fence...which she tried...grrrrr...she's going to be waiting a long time...

The puppies have been staying in the warm barn overnight, and they can hardly contain themselves when they see someone in the morning. Anticipation of freedom and breakfast and attention has them so excited...

How do you anticipate your breakfast?

5th Cutting Is Finished...

It's hard to believe we're finally at this end of the summer!

Jim started mowing and baling hay in May...and five cutting later, here we are at the end of September.  He finished up with baling the last two contours here at home this afternoon.  Perhaps just in time, because the weather forecast is now calling for rain over the next few days.

We've finally said goodbye good riddance to the horrible humid heat wave that was summer...and have begun enjoying blue jeans and flannel shirt weather the past two days.  Yeah!  Can you tell I'm happy about that?

Anway...

This load got backed into the barn to be unloaded another day...

Peanut has a "thing" for hay wagons, and promptly found a cozy hole to curl up in.  She's raised several litters of kittens in hay wagons over the years, but there will be NO MORE Peanut babies...

I still don't think she's forgiven us for that, but...

Now we move on to other things...like the West Lampeter Fair.  The hubbub begins tomorrow (for me) as the baked good will be entered for Wednesday's judging, tasting (!!) and bake sale.

Hope to see you there!

Fresh Country Air...

Smell that fresh. country. air.

All that manure that was stored all summer is now being spread on the bare fields for fertilizer.

Even if I couldn't see it, my nose would tell me the corn fields are bare!

Filling Silo 2016...

It's been a busy couple of weeks here, and I haven't taken the time to post much, other than about the puppies.

They're sweet...and growing like crazy!  Two weeks old already...here's a quick  peek from a few days ago...

We've been doing more than playing with puppies though...although that's definitely been the most fun "job"!  Last week we had a return of horrible hot, humid weather.  When it comes in September, it's especially draining.  Both kids had cross country meets on Saturday...one high school and one college...and the heat was not helpful!  We're done with heat and ready for flannel shirt and blue jeans weather.

Anyway...

On Saturday evening they started chopping corn and filling silo here at home. Here's the chopper...ready to go, just waiting for the tractors and silage wagons to come up the road...

I'm always anxious to see this particular field chopped, because then I can see out again.  Some people like to be surrounded by corn fields, but I like to be able to see out!

This morning they came back to finish...

The fields look so different now.  Jim said that he thinks it really starts to feel like fall once you see bare fields appearing...

One of the wagons unloading at the silo...

There was some trouble with the goose neck at the top of the silo this morning, so Jim was at the top working on it for a bit.  I'm not a fan of heights, so I'm sure glad it wasn't my job!

Clean up at the bottom of the silo this morning after the silos were both full...

Deciding when the moisture is just right to chop corn is not an easy thing, so to have this job behind us is very satisfying!

Now it's time to concentrate on fifth cutting of hay.  That starts tomorrow.