Friday's Hunt #5...

I enjoy having a set of guidelines for blogging on Fridays, so here we go again!

This week's prompts are...

Starts with "E"...

I could have chosen and easy E word and gone with eggs...I have plenty of those right now, but instead I chose the word EAT.  We all do it...and it's oh so much more fun if we have a good recipe to try!  Here's a photo of what we were eating last week...

Avocado Mango Salad

Last week, Jim and I were going to a meal with an Indian theme, and I was to take a salad.  I googled Indian Salads, and this recipe popped up.  It was absolutely delicious!  Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it...I don't think you'll be disappointed!

AVOCADO MANGO SALAD

Combine the following ingredients in a bowl:

Lettuce, washed and torn
1 peeled and sliced ripe mango
1 peeled and sliced avocado
1 sliced red pepper

Dressing:
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Combine dressing ingredients, pour over salad and toss until well coated.

Chill and enjoy!

The second prompt is "Week's Favorite"...

I could have chosen just about any picture from the snow storm and called it my favorite, but this one wins...

It was Sunday morning, and folks were beginning to shovel out from the big storm.  Jim had just come inside from opening up for the milk truck and to warm up and have some breakfast, when out of the corner of my eye I saw one of our Amish neighbors walking up the road, kids in tow.  The two older girls (maybe 1st and 2nd grade ?) were carrying small shovels, and the two littler ones were riding on a plastic sled, pulled by their Dad. They had walked about a half mile to check on a couple who lives in the house you see in the picture. They discovered that Jake and Lydia were fine, and started their walk home when they noticed that the neighbor who lives to the right had just opened his garage door to begin what must have seemed like an overwhelming task.  No problem.  Melvin and his four little ones pitched in to help him, and in what seemed like no time at all, the driveway was clear! That's what you call being neighborly, and it's one of my favorite things about our community!

The last prompt is "Sky"...

I used this picture in my post about digging out, but I think this sky is so gorgeous I'll use it again here.  Not a cloud in sight the morning after the blizzard, and I just love the brilliant blue...

Here's another one, for good measure.  The sunrise this morning was beautiful...but only for a few minutes until the sun disappeared behind the clouds...

I just wish the tower and telephone pole didn't have to always be in the picture, but oh well, it's pretty anyway!

I hope your weekend is a good one!  Click here for more links to Friday's Hunt, with Teresa.

Amish Farm Sale...

What a fun morning...after being cooped up all weekend with the big snow!

One of our neighboring Amish farmers had sale today....

One of the married sons will be taking over the farm.  The cows will be sold, and he will be growing produce and raising beef cattle, so there was a lot of equipment for sale today.

How do you have a sale just days after a major blizzard?

I asked one of the sons what they did, and he said they hired someone to come in and move snow.  And move it they did!  There was a cleared area for parking...

...and a snowbank for scooters...

The horses were unhitched and spent their morning in the barn...

As we walked in, we were greeted by the wonderful smell of barbecue chicken.  Neighbor Leroy was in charge of this, and it was delicious!  Proceeds from the food stands at Amish sales usually go to benefit someone...either a family in need, or in this case, the school where most of the neighbor kids attend...

The home made soft pretzels were good too...

While the women hung out in either the house or the shop where food was served, the men gathered out behind the barn to bid on or watch the farm equipment sell...

The young guy in the middle holding the iced tea is one of the farmer's sons. He said he's excited to see the coming changes, but will probably miss the cows too...

Temps are in the 40's today, so there was an abundance of mud.  I sure hope these guys take their boots off before they go in the house...

The last thing to sell were the mules.  The boys led them back and forth between the crowd.  They sold for $2500 - $3500 each...

They're huge animals, but so well trained...

It's always fun to go to these sales and spend time with our neighbors. Everyone enjoys talking and catching up on the latest news in the neighborhood, and supporting the family having sale.

And I was especially glad not to have to make lunch today!

Digging Out...

It's good to be on this side of the "Blizzard of 2016"...

Anticipation can be the worst, I think.  Wondering how much snow we will get?  How cold will it be?  How long will it last?  Will we lose power?  Will the milk truck get here?

...and so on...

Now that it's over, we can deal with the facts.

It was an almost record setting storm for the east coast, with snowfall totals in our area ranging from 26" - 30".  It was hard to measure accurately, for the strong winds that came along with the storm.  On one side of our house you could still see tufts of grass peeking through the snow, while in other areas there were big drifts.

The first snow flurries started right on time, Friday evening around 6 pm. This is the first picture I took on Saturday morning, 6 am, looking out the porch door towards the barn, while my coffee brewed...

Jim had already headed out to start milking, and Daniel was coming on his four wheeler.  He lives about 1 1/2 miles away, and we figured that was the best bet to get him here.  Getting him home late morning was another story! The roads weren't plowed, and even a four wheel drive pickup couldn't get through.  A snow mobiler came the rescue, and that was probably more fun than a truck ride anyway!

It was a long day.  The snow just kept falling, and falling, and the wind blew everything shut as quickly as it could.  We were expecting the milk truck, so Jim and Daniel worked together to open the driveway as much as they could. Daniel ran the skid loader to move the snow off the driveway...

...and Jim used the D-17 to scrape...

I had taken extra feed to the chickens on Friday, but they still needed fresh water to drink.  The trek across the chicken pen...after fighting to get the gate open...was slow going, with snow above my knees by late morning...

This is looking back towards the barn from the calf hutches.  The hutches are on the south side of the house, in a protected area, so the calves were cozy, but the path getting there was hard walking through deep snow.  Our tracks were almost blown shut in the ten minutes we were down there...

The milk truck never made it yesterady, but we were fine.  We can hold extra milkings in our bulk tank, and so those who were full, got picked up first. The roads were horrible.  Those truck drivers have to have nerves of steel to navigate in weather like this!  Next time you drink some milk, thank a trucker!

The snow stopped last evening around bed time, and things look and feel totally different this morning!

Murphy and Snickers ventured outside, after being cooped up in the barn all day yesterday.  The path that Jim shoveled to the hutches last evening stayed open...

This view is much cheerier than the same view yesterday, isn't it?

The roads are passable again...

After milking this morning Jim began widening the driveway for the milk truck, who we expect this afternoon. The driver just called to see if we are ready for him.

In fact...here he is!

We were waiting to dig out our cars, because the snow around them will get thrown on to the driveway.  Now that the milk truck is in, I guess we'd better get to work!

Snow makes everything look so clean and bright...

I still had a hard walk to the chicken pen with water, but I got eleven eggs, even though they were closed in their shed for a day and a half!  Good girls!

We are so fortunate.  We never lost power, which would have thrown a whole other wrench into things.  Yes, we have a generator, but it's one more thing to fool around with when we're already cold and tired, so we're glad to not have to use it.

Looking back, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and for that we are thankful!

Here It Comes...

Ready or not, here comes the first snowfall of the season...

...and it's gonna be a be a DOOZY!

That's my "Starts with D" for Friday's Hunt #4, with Teresa at Eden Hills. I guess you'll have to take a description of doozy, rather than a photo! We spent a lot of time getting ready today.  The forecast is for 18"-22", with strong winds and some white out conditions.  The milk truck is due tomorrow morning, and that could be an adventure.  Those truck drivers have to go out in all kinds of conditions, just like the farmers do.

Jim put as many round bales up in the barn as he could fit...backed in a full wagon load of corn fodder for bedding...(the barn hill gets slippery and hard to navigate in this kind of weather!)...we got a load of sawdust earlier this week...the calves are cozy...the chickens have extra feed...and he's getting the generator ready, just in case.

This is my "beautiful" selection.  This morning's sunrise...the calm before the storm...

And for my "week's favorite" I chose a picture of the beautiful flowers on my windowsill.  They're what's left of the bouquet we gave Jenna after her District Orchestra concert over the weekend.  Gerbera daisies are some of my favorites, and seeing them smiling at us while anticipating a snow storm makes me happy!

It's 7 pm, and it's been snowing lightly for about an hour.  The cows are milked, the milk is cold, the pipeline is washing, the coveralls are in the washer.  Now we wait.

I hope you're warm and safe this weekend, wherever you are!

Bundle up...

Brrr...

I know, a lot of you have much colder temperatures for longer periods of time, but we've been spoiled so far this winter!

Not any more...

This morning it felt like it was below zero, with the wind.  Hearing the wind blow at night is an unsettling feeling.  We drained water lines, but still...you don't know exactly what might be frozen in the morning.  Thankfully the wind had died down some 'til morning, and there were no major problems. I had frozen water buckets at the hutches and in the chicken pen, but that's to be expected.

Last night we put the insulated coats on the hutch calves.  Doesn't she look toasty?

We are anticipating the first snow storm of the winter here this weekend. There are lots of mixed opinions on what might happen...and what folks are excited about happening....or not.

Me?  I'm ready for spring!

It's Friday...

Another week has rolled right on by, which means it's time to join up with Teresa , and Friday's Hunt.  I'm having fun with this. Sometimes I have trouble thinking of things that I think anyone would actually want to read about.  How many times do you want to read about another fresh cow, or how cold it is outside, and how many cute pictures of cats are there, really?

This week's prompts are...

Starts with "C"...

Now, what else would you expect me to post...a dairy farmer...of course I'm going to post a picture of...

Chocolate!

Look what I found in my freezer, right next to the frozen green beans...

...and a good find at my new favorite Aldi store, which is almost in my back yard...

Next is "this week's favorite"...

The photo quality isn't so good, but this was a favorite thing that happened this week.  My friend and neighbor Rhoda showed up at my door with some beautiful, cheery flowers yesterday.  She's so very thoughtful, and I appreciate her friendship!

And last, but not least, is "inside"...

Kind of disgusting picture alert!

Did you ever see inside a cow's mouth?  I was trying to take a close up of Patti's nose, but I wasn't quick enough, and she tried to lick the camera.  Her long tongue is like sand paper.  And she has silage all over her nose...give her a napkin!  Notice that she doesn't have any upper teeth?  A cow only has teeth on the bottom of her mouth...

Now that you've had a lesson in cow anatomy...

Have a great weekend!  (it just started raining here, so we're in for a soggy one!)

Cow Comfort, Milk Quality, and Snow...

How are cow comfort, milk quality and snow related?

Good question!

The snow has nothing at all to do with the other two, but I threw that in there because last night we had our first snow of the season!  It didn't amount to much, but it came all of a sudden and made the roads a little slick. This morning there's just a trace left, but the cold air is hanging around!  It "feels like" 5 degrees out there right now.  Brrr...thankfully there's not much wind...

Taken from inside the house where any sensible person would stay for as long as possible.  See the screen?

On to the other two...cow comfort and milk quality...

I would have have to do a lot of research...and no, I haven't done it...to find out just how closely the two are related, but we're wondering.  Here's our line of thinking...

First, the cow comfort part...

Back in May, we had a row of cow mattresses put in the barn.  At that time, we only did one row of stalls, because we weren't sure just how we (and the cows) would like them.  Were they worth the money?  Over the course of a few months, we were won over to the idea of replacing more mats with mattresses.  In November, we had two more rows of mats replaced.

Now for the milk quality part...

Each time the milk truck comes, the driver takes two samples of milk from our tank.  One of the samples is used to test the quality of the milk, which helps to determine the price we are paid for our milk.  We have always had good milk quality, but since the first row of mats went in, our somatic cell counts have been slowly dropping.  Since the second and third rows went in, our SSC have dropped dramatically, which translates to great milk quality!

Could the two be related?

We wonder!  Jim's always been very conscientious about cow cleanliness, but could the cows' comfort be playing a big role as well?

Either way, we're not complaining!

Friday's Hunt #2...

It's time for another post linking to Friday's Hunt, with Teresa at Eden Hills!

This week's prompts are...

1. The letter "B"

I've got a wagon full of buckets that fit into that category!  Water buckets...milk buckets...

...buckets full of breakfast...

...empty buckets...

I'll add another "B", and that's bummer.  Remember our little calf with the broken leg?  We're so disappointed.  We did everything we could for her, but she unfortunately didn't make it.  These things happen, but it's never easy.

2. "Week's Favorite"

I couldn't post just one of my favorite Tom cat, Dust Bunny!  He has a super personality, and is the largest, softest cat that we have.  He feels just like a stuffed animal!

3.  "Outside"

It's dreary outside again...but the chickens don't seem to mind.  They're still giving me 10 - 12 eggs per day! They love being outside, and they come running to the fence anticipating a treat.  Every time...

Happy Saturday to you!

Christmas In the Country...

This year I joined in with a group of bloggers for a Christmas in the country gift exchange...

Before Christmas, we signed up to participate, and sent in our information to the gals who organized the exchange.  They, in turn, assigned each of us another blogger to send a gift to.  We were given resources to search for information... facebook, blogs, instagram, etc.  It was fun to search for a gift for "my" person... Erin Mullins, the Missouri State Honey Queen. She blogs here if you'd like to check out her blog.  Some of the things she enjoys were things that I had "connections" to, so it was extra fun!

About ten days before Christmas, a box showed up at my door!  My gift was sent from Kerry, who happens to also be a dairy farmer...from Kansas. Kerry blogs at I Married A Milkman.  She's busy milking cows and caring for her family of five children, along with lots of other activities.  Check out her blog when you have a chance.

The box was full of goodies, and I had fun pulling them out, one by one...

My sweet tooth was very satisfied with chocolates, caramels, and butter cookies.  The note pad hangs on my fridge, and is well used already...as I'm definitely a list maker!  The mug came with some iced coffee mix, which I really enjoy. This week now that the weather has suddenly/finally turned COLD, I'm using it for hot chocolate and hot coffee, but I'll definitely be using the iced coffee soon!  I can drink that all year long.  She included several tea towels in my favorite color green, and a scented wax warmer, with some delicious smelling vanilla cookie wax tarts! There was also a cute Christmas ornament in the box, but it was already hanging on the tree, and I missed getting it in the picture!

It was fun to "meet" her family on her Christmas card, and by checking out her blog as well.

Thanks, Kerry, for the fun gifts!

And thanks to the gals who hosted and organized this year...Jamie at http://unchartedrhoade.blogspot.com/ , Laurie at https://countrylinked.wordpress.com/ , Lara at http://www.myothermoreexcitingself.com/ , and Kirby at http://15009farmhouse.blogspot.com/ .

Happy New Year...and Friday's Hunt Week #1...

Happy New Year and welcome 2016!

I've been looking forward to writing 2016 on checks for a while now, because my "5"'s are always sloppy. Good reason, right?!

I've decided to join up with Teresa at Eden Hills for her new meme...Friday's Hunt.

This week we have...

Starts with "A"...

I'm going with Above Average...

You can't see a thermometer here, but our December temps were way above average.  In fact, it just might go down as the warmest December on record.  You can see the green (needing mowed in December?!) grass and the fog, and indication of the warm, damp weather we had most of the month...

This is my "Week's Favorite"...

My nephew Toby with Jolyn the cat.  She's never happier than when on someone's shoulder...after she's been fed, of course...

And last is "Celebrate"...

We celebrated my family's Christmas today, on New Years Day.  Anyone who went away hungry, did so because they chose not to eat.  We had numerous types of sausages, pork and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, and much, much more...

My parents still usually host us all for our family meals.  I know they won't be able to do this forever, but we all pitch in and work together.  We are all thankful for their good health, and for a family that enjoys being together...

Happy New Year!  Wishing you all the best in 2016!