Wednesday, March 29, 2017

A Farmer Date...

The lazy days of summer winter are drawing to a close, and before we know it, the not-so-crazy-busy days will be gone, and our days will be filled with outside work.  I'm looking forward to some of it...gardening, mowing, opening the windows...bring it on!

We have a whole bunch of springers (cows that are about ready to calve) due in the next few weeks, and no where to go with them in the barn. So...we looked them over, and decided who might be the best option to sell at the sale barn.  We had her delivered to the barn yesterday, and today she was sold at the dairy sale.

I had to spend the morning shopping for a new dishwasher, but was finished in time to go with Jim to see her sell.  We got to the sale after she was already sold, but picked up the check (which more than paid for the new dishwasher! :) ) and watched some heifers sell.  I snapped a picture of the sale...(not our cow in the ring)...


It was a farmer date!  We stopped for lunch on the way home, and now it's just about time to head to the barn for evening milking.

I'm sitting here typing...hearing the furnace run because it's chilly inside...but hearing the birds singing out on the porch through the closed windows. They're just as glad as I am that it's SPRING!!


Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Winter? Or Spring?

A month.  That's how long it's been since I've posted.  I'm in a blogging slump right now, but stick around!

We've been keeping busy with regular stuff...you know, milking, feeding, cooking, cleaning, repeat.  The weather, however, has been very confused!

Two weeks ago we were running around in shorts and T-shirts...at least Jim was!...and last week we had a "blizzard".  Stella, the nor'easter paid us a visit on Monday evening and 'til she was gone, we had somewhere around a foot of snow.  We didn't know what to think!  It was pretty cold, but seemed frigid, considering the unusually warm weather we had all winter.

Here are a few pictures from the storm...

On Tuesday morning, just after I got up, and the snow wasn't too deep yet, I snapped this picture of the daffodils along the south side of the house...


The biggest concern for us was when the milk truck would come, and whether or not we would be ready for him.  He showed up just as we finished milking, and just as Jim was ready to hop on the skid loader to open the driveway.  It was pretty good timing, actually, because the snow was only about 6" deep at the time, so between the chains on his truck and Jim on the skid loader, he came and went with little trouble...


That's always a relief.

When I fed the calves in the morning, I glanced in the chicken pen, and was surprised to see these hens all huddled together outside...


I have no idea what they were thinking, but there were no tracks around them, so I'm assuming that they huddled together outside all night, with the snow coming down around them.  I carried them inside the shed, where they happily joined their friends for the duration of the storm.  They're fine...and laying eggs quite happily now that the snow is gone!

I got a new phone, and was having fun taking pictures in the snow.  This is one of the hens that was outside all night...she was intrigued by her first selfie...



Now, a week later, most of the snow is gone, except for a few big piles.  It had better be...because SPRING is officially here, and I'm happy about that! While I don't like losing an hour of sleep over the change to daylight savings time, the longer daylight hours energize me.  I feel so much more motivated to get things done when there is daylight and sunshine!

One thing I've been working on the past few weeks is something called 40 Bags in 40 Days.  You may have seen postings on face book about this, or read about it online somewhere.  I'm not following it to a "T", but I'm working on cleaning out and simplifying.  It coincides with lent, and is so satisfying to me.  I've cleaned out closets, cupboards and book shelves. (why was I keeping things in my kitchen cupboards that I never use?) When I'm done cleaning out, I'm planning to scrape wall paper in the upstairs hallway.

Enough rambling...

I hope you're seeing signs of spring wherever you are!