Q: What's black and white and red all over?

A: The view from the "Cat walk" at Kists' Livestock auction.....black cows, white cows, and red ones. :)

After baking bread this morning, I took an unexpected outing with my brother, Andrew!

First, Dad, Andrew, Jacob & I loaded up 9 of our Holstein steers, then the boys helped me assemble a veggie pizza quickly and Andrew and I grabbed several pieces of it and ate on the run. After fueling up at the Coffee Cup in Steele, we made the slow journey West to Mandan. After unloading our babies (only they aren't babies anymore, as they're over a year old!), and after unhooking the stock trailer, Andrew and I climbed the old wooden steps to the "Cat Walk"---a narrow bridge with railings on either side so people can walk over the pens of cattle and have a look without getting in the way of the workers there AND without getting your boots full of, well, you know what. It was fun being so high up and looking down at the cows and calves that were returning our stares! Some of us are looking to buy a few more head of bred cows, so Andrew had his camcorder along to take some footage of what was there....

After we had walked all the way to the end of the little bridge and back (it really is quite long), we went to Eagers Electric to pick up something for Dad; then we stopped at a Rent All place to look at the sand-blaster Andrew was going to rent (more on that later), to see if we needed any more parts to make it work with our set-up here at home; then we went to Menards and bought the needed supplies, plus some safety articles for Andrew to wear while he's blasting, and the "Sand" to blast with; after that we stopped at KT Animal Supply and we picked out 5 more fish for my tank (just in case you're all wondering, I now have 12 fish, as I lost most of them when a certain snail died and am now slowly building up again); then we returned to the Rent All store and loaded the blaster and a huge air compressor that will run it; and to finish our day off with, we met Mom at Sam's club (she had been working in her office all day, but had an hour between sessions for shopping) and then took our groceries home.

Meanwhile, back at the farm....

Jacob kept busy with the list I left him, while Dad went to Linton to do some business. When he returned, they both shoveled off the bit of snow that was on the storage-shed flooring, again.
Then, Dad started work on a project that I'm very excited about!!! He used the loader tractor to push away the tons of snow that were on the South side of our storage shed, so the sun can thaw the garden soil out sooner so we can build a greenhouse on the side of the shed so I/we can use it this year! :)

It's been a great day!