Wha'da ya' know...

I'm actually postin' pictures for a change. :)

I took this one quite a while back, while Jacob was teaching Mom how to farm on his farming simulator. She said it was harder to combine there than it is in real life. Hmmmm....

It was so lovely outside today, just sunny enough to bring out a few gophers even. Jacob and I were home alone, so on our cow-checking spin around the pasture, we spotted 3 gophers and he and I each shot 1. The 3rd one was too smart and stayed down in its hole after seeing us approaching!
While looking for newborns (we found 1 new baby and 1 in the process of being born), we came across 2 cows in the far South part of the pasture, just standing there. When we got closer, I saw a calf head sticking out of the ground! Hmmmm...
Apparently, the said calf fell or slipped into the hole backwards and was very snugly stuck there. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of him there, but alas, it was not until after I'd pulled it out and set it free that I thought about the camera I had tucked in my pocket! I did get a picture of the hole (about 3 feet deep) however, which we filled with rocks later. I'm guessing it was a badger hole?

The baby was pretty stiff at first, but did get to walking better by the time we moved on. He was pretty hungry too! There they go:

I stopped the pickup while on this hill to pick...

...some crocuses! Maybe it's time to put the snowmen away? ;)

Dad and Andrew cleaned grain all day again, arriving home late in the evening, Andrew just in time to get in on the 2nd half of a conference call regarding the GOP convention that is taking place the next 3 days here in ND. Mom was gone in Bismarck most of the day, so that left Jacob and I to do the chores, laundry, dishes, bread-baking and fruit-pizza-making, and the trampoline bouncing!

It was a good day and I thank God for the loveliness of it all...

...and it's well under way...

...grain cleaning is, I mean. Andrew is cleaning today/tomorrow/.... for friends by Ellendale and is staying with them. Dad cleaned South of Napoleon somewhere I think. I worked in town, so that left Mom and Jacob to do the chores and keep everything running smoothly here at home.

I don't have much of interest to tell tonight. I guess I could say how my coworkers, the night nurse, and I got to talking about politics and how I was able to share with them about the whole delegate procedure, but that might not be of much interest to the people reading this! :)

If you go to Jacob's blog (Under His Wings), you can see a picture of him with his "new" pickup...

I guess I'll say good night. "Good night!"

The grain cleaning will begin tomorrow!

They had thought it would be today, but alas, the cleaners needed a bit more work than the guys had anticipated and they are even now still out there fixing them!

Mom and I had a productive day, doing laundry (I saw a robin while hanging out a load on the wash-line!); clearing off the garden; I baked bread; Jacob took his C.A.T. test; we did some Spring cleanup around the yard; Dad, Jacob and I chased the bulls back in and fixed the fence up good; and several other odd jobs, like washing the windows..... It was a good day!

First day of "Nannying"...

Here are a few pictures of "My" new little girls: :)

Johanna, investigating the contents of my camera case....


I tried getting a nice picture of the 2 sisters together, but baby Tracey wasn't feeling too photogenic right at that time. Her pacifier kept falling out of her mouth and she didn't like that too well... Aren't they adorable though?

She was looking surprised after she tipped the empty water jug over...

Shortly after getting in from outside...

Look at all that pretty hair (and those tired eyes)!

It was a beautiful day, with sunshine everywhere. :)

I had a pleasant time with my new babysit-ees, Johanna and Tracey Jo (I enjoy their parents too)! I spent most of the day with the baby (11 weeks old) in my arms, so some of my arm muscles are a little sore tonight, but I enjoyed it all very much. :) I also had a chance to finish the book I was working my way through, "Heaven is For Real"--a very interesting, true story. The girls and I went outside for about an hour and enjoyed the beautiful weather, sitting on the grass and, later, I gave the girls a ride in the wagon for a while which they really enjoyed. One of their dogs, "Stash" thought it was great fun to play "Toss-and-catch" with a small ball we found lying by some evergreen trees....

Our phones have been ringing nearly non-stop this evening, with so many people wanting to get on Dad and Andrew's grain cleaning list, which is a blessing, but can seem overwhelming at the beginning of the season. (They hope to start tomorrow.)

Mom and Jacob went to Bismarck today, as Jacob needed the wheels realigned/balanced on his pickup and he and Mother had an appointment with our Natropath Doctor friend, Dr. Faye....

I hope that Spring is really and truly here now! Several hundred geese are stopping in our corn field tonight. The dogs keep barking at them. :)

It's been lovely weather...

...for hanging clothes out on the line! I also spent a while in the garden, clearing off the stubble and putting it in a big pile to burn on a less windy day. (I had to put a couple old tires on top of the pile to make sure they stayed put.)

The guys were busy in the shop all day (except Dad did go over and load another load of hay to be sold). Jacob has his pickup fixed now (with some help from Andrew and maybe Dad?)! It is really nice and Jacob likes the fact that it is loud......a guy thing. :) Andrew fixed the problem on his Stratus, so I get to test-drive it again tomorrow. He said they put my car in the shop today!!!!! I don't think I said that Andrew bought a white truck last Friday, so Dad will be using that to pull his cleaner with while Andrew uses Dad's semi to pull his larger rig. :) It's so nice that we can all work together like this to make things work!

Speaking of tomorrow though... I'm excited as I'll be starting a new part-time job, babysitting at least 1 day a week for a family who live about 12 miles NW of us. They have 2 young girls and I can hardly wait to spend time with them! The baby is just 11 weeks old. :) (Thanks so much, Kristi and Stacey for the referral!)

In a couple days, Dad and Andrew will start in on the grain-cleaning season, which means we won't be seeing much of them for the next 3 or so weeks! They'll come home late at night, dusty, hoarse and exhausted, but with nice checks in their billfolds. Jacob will be in charge of taking care of the cattle while they're gone. If you would pray for safety and for all to go well during this very busy season, that would be wonderful!

Meanwhile, Mom and I will be planning our garden while enjoying the feel of a cool breeze coming in the open windows and the sound of geese honking their cheery greetings to the countryside.

"Thank you, Lord, for Spring!" :)

Just a few more geese to go...

Andrew knocked on my bedroom door this morning, wondering if I'd come help catch geese. The man he was cleaning for (he and his family are friends of ours, actually) wanted to buy 4 geese, 2 pairs if possible. Sooooooo, Dad, Andrew and I ran around the farm for a while, cornering then catching the noisy white birds. Andrew hauled them in 2 kennels that we tucked in on his grain cleaning trailer wherever there was room. He said they made the journey just fine. :) Now we only have about a dozen geese left. The 5 that are setting haven't hatched anything out yet and we're beginning to wonder if they're going to?

After the grain cleaners in our family left, the remaining members of our 5-some did the morning chores. Suzie, (Andrew's milk cow heifer) is getting into the routine of things and, by the time I've got Sally in, milked her and opened the barn door to let her out, Suzie is coming in the door, headed for the stall. She doesn't give a lot of milk, due to a certain Sweet Pea (her calf), but she gives enough to feed the cats!

I was over at our neighbors' house today from 9 to 6, babysitting Amelia, James and Michael while their mom went to Bismarck and their dad was working. We ate tacos for lunch (my favorite) and had a lot of fun outside after naps were over. We blew countless bubbles and then I took them on a little-green-wagon ride. Their dog, Maggie, kept bringing sticks over to us, so I'd throw them for her and she'd usually bight the stick in half before she'd bring it back. I ended up finding some thicker sticks to throw! :)

Dad and Andrew cleaned in very different parts of ND, but they both arrived home at the exact same moment, just in time to share a cocoa milk shake before heading for bed.

Speaking of bed, perhaps I should head there myself!

The greenhouse is all planted, almost.

Mother, Jacob and I worked in the greenhouse for a few hours this afternoon and are now nearly done planting. We are done actually, except for a few dwarf fruit trees I ordered from a couple seed catalogs, the trees not having arrived yet..... We planted several different kinds of peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins and melons close together so they get going. Then, when the main garden area is worked up, we can transplant them after all danger of frost is over. It is SO nice to have a greenhouse! A new blogger friend, Mrs. Laura at "All Good Gifts" posted about their greenhouse today as well, so you can click HERE to visit her and see how she made a slip-over plastic cover for their greenhouse. :)

I'm so pleased with how Jacob is taking over the manly responsibilities here at home! Yesterday, he got the big tractor hooked up to the big digger (vibra-shank) all by himself and pulled it up in front of the shop so it can be inspected/fixed before heading out to the fields. Plus, he's been our main cow checker during the day and he feeds the cows twice a day too. This evening, the bulls needed a bale and, after I was done milking cows, I heard him across the road at their pen and thought maybe he'd need help with watching the gate. I hopped on Andrew's 4-wheeler and zipped over there, only to find him closing the gate, already done with the job. Tomorrows job is fence fixing. Fun, fun! Want to come help?

Oh, I should tell you about what Lady found yesterday... She was in the barn when I went to give Suzie (the young milk cow) her water and she was looking at something underneath the built-in feed trough. Curious to see if there was a new chicken nest under there, (our chickens have free-run of the farm and we consequently get to hunt for our eggs,) I knelt down and took a look. What should I find but: 3 little kittens, 2 orange and 1 calico! :) They are very small yet and still have their eyes closed. We have more than enough cats already, but it still is always exciting to find new babies!

That's about all the news of the day, I think. I could tell you about the tiny red heifer calf that Jacob and I fed half a bottle of warm cows' milk to tonight as we're not sure if it's getting enough nourishment from its mother or not; or I could write about all the tulips that are getting ready to bloom out front in our long flowerbed; or how I split up our large Bleeding Heart plant this afternoon and planted them in the open areas of our corner flower bed; or how Dad and Andrew come home exhausted and dirty from grain cleaning for 13+ hours each day; or of how Mom needs to be in Bismarck early tomorrow for sessions; or......., but I should probably get some sleep as I also should get up early to make the guys' their lunches.

I thank God for such an interesting life!!!

The frogs are croaking tonight...

It was such a lovely day, temperature wise and otherwise too. Dad and Andrew went cleaning grain all day, so Jacob and I (more Jacob than I, actually) checked the cows and then he fed them again tonight while I milked the cows and etc... Mom was busy with clients for a while, but we also made bread and did some outdoor work. Jacob and I planted some watermelon, cabbage, and cauliflower plants (I'd started them indoors) in the greenhouse. It was VERY warm in there (100+ degrees) so we cooled off by spraying some water up on the plastic ceiling and, as the wind blew the plastic up and down (we had a door open a bit), the water would gently mist down on us and kept us kind of cool. :) We worked on some other farm-beautification projects too, but I'll wait to tell you about those things for when I have pictures. Now we're all back together again and ready for a good nights sleep! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Well, the snow WAS nearly gone!

Here, I have proof! Jacob took this picture of our farm when he and I were returning from running a computer part down to the mailbox at Titan Machinery yesterday (that's what we do when we need to mail something after our mailman's delivered the mail already for the day.) The tulips are popping up and everything...

And now it's snowing again.... We're praying for our little calves to do alright in this wet, wet snowy weather. We pulled a calf shelter out to the cows and located it on some fresh straw, so hopefully the babies will be smart enough to go inside for the night!

I took this picture of my goldfish that survived the Winter out in our stock tank. They were only about an inch long when I put them in the tank last Summer and now they're about 5 inches long. :)

OH, and here is Sweet Pea, drinking from her mother the hard way (from the back!)

Here is Sweet Peas' mother, Suzie. So far, we'd just been milking her here in this part of the barn by dumping some grain in a trough and setting a pail down beside her and milking her, but Andrew got home tonight (HORRAY--HE'D BEEN GONE SINCE MONDAY!) and decided it was time to start training Suzie right and so he, Jacob and I worked together to get her in the stanchion. She didn't like the idea of being stuck there too well, but eventually began to eat her grain and settled down. Meanwhile, Sweet Pea was having fun bugging Andrew! The other day when I milked Suzie, little Sweet Pea came from the back and pushed on me until I nearly fell off my pail. When Mother milked Suzie last night, the little calf thought sucking on Mom's boot laces was great fun too. She sure is cute, but I suppose we'll have to start teaching her some manners if we want her to respect people when she grows up.... Nobody wants a 1,000+ lb cow rubbing on them or sucking on their boot laces!

While Andrew and Dad were gone over the last few days, Jacob had to feed the cows a few times (when Dad wasn't going to make it home before dark.) Here he is, driving the 9030.

While Jacob and I were out with the RAM, checking the cows yesterday afternoon, Jacob captured some fun pictures of calves, a few of which I've shared below:

My White 222's baby. :)

See that black calf toward the left side of the picture below? OK, now, do you see that white circle on his hip? That is a real mark on the calf, not one that we made or anything. He'll be very easy to tell apart from the other calves!

This is one of Jacob's calves (Orange 4)...

These 2 reddish calves were so cute together, standing on some old bales that used to be a wind-break.

FYI:

• We now have a total of 60 live calves!


• 2 calves have died.


• 1 calf has needed pulling.


• There's just been 1 set of twins.


• We're not half done calving yet.

AND NOW, about our greenhouse:

This is what it looks like from the outside...

Here is the view when walking from the house...

And here is the inside, nearly ready to seed in. The barrels are going to be filled with water so they will hold heat into the night, hopefully. It is so exciting to have a large greenhouse after all these years of talking about building one! We are so blessed!

Now, please come back Spring so we can enjoy Springy things once more!!!

In need of pictures...

I have several things I want to tell you, or actually, show you, so I think I'll wait to write about those until tomorrow, as I want to share pictures here of the "Things". :)


One "Thing" we didn't get pictures of though was yesterday when some people came from Wishek to buy 8 of our geese. We literally had a wild goose chase, trying to corner and catch a few of those honkers! We eventually caught them though and loaded them in the back of these people's suburban and sent them on their adventurous journey. Does anybody else want to buy some geese? We still have about 20, + there are 3 geese setting now! We're wanting to get rid of them all as they make a huge mess all over the lawn when we let them roam (actually killing the lawn in some places and nipping off our flowers and....) and, when we lock them up in a pen, it defeats our purpose of having them, that purpose being bug eating. We used to really enjoy having ducks and geese when we lived by a creek and they could just stay down by the water and eat bugs and splash and enjoy a waterfowl's way of life, but now we don't live by water, so they're not happy and we're not either.... I think we'll stick with turkeys and chickens for our bug patrol from now on!


Andrew didn't make it home today yet, as he has more cleaning at our friends' place than what he'd originally thought, which is good, really! We do miss him though......
Well, I'm pretty tired tonight, as I worked in town again all afternoon/evening, so I shall bid you all a good night and a happy Wednesday!

Great news, good news, and bad news....

Let's reverse that, though, and give you the bad news first:



Jacob was disappointed today because his Teen Driver Safety movie didn't make it to the judging round. :( Maybe next time, Jacob!



Good news: Andrew headed for some Organic farming friends' place this morning to clean grain for 2 days, but I guess he had some troubles and broke down (he thought it might be something major), but the good news is that he and our friends were able to fix the problem and got everything up and running again! He is spending the night there, as it's a couple hours drive away, so those of us here at home get to milk Sally for the next few chores!



And the GREAT news is that, while I was away at work in town, Dad (after he was done with a cleaning job that lasted all morning and part of the afternoon), Mom (after baking bread and doing sessions) and Jacob (after doing schoolwork, I assume, and checking the cows) put up the plastic on the greenhouse!!!!! They still need to make the doors, but the plastic is UP! I can hardly wait for morning to come so I can see it! :)


I wonder what tomorrow will bring....?


PS. The calf report for today was down a bit: "Only" 2.

April Fools Day.

Do any of you remember when our family would write about our biggest bloopers of the year in our holiday letter(s)? By bloopers, I mean the kinds of things that are embarrassing at the time, but seem funny when we look back on them a few days/weeks/months later. Well, I think (hope!) I have my big blooper out of the way for this year.... :) Want to hear about it? (If not, just skip down a couple paragraphs and read about the rest of the days' events.) I intended well, really I did. But, well, you see.... One of the cow/calf pairs in the milk barn currently belongs to my brother, Jacob. Dad brought up the fact this morning that Jacob hadn't tagged his calf yet. So, my brother drew a big black 4 on a new orange tag and got it loaded in the tagger, all ready to go. He asked me if I'd help him catch the calf, but I declined, as I didn't think we could do it with just the 2 of us, as there are 2 other mothers and their babies in the same pen and I didn't think it would be safe. (I admit, I am a chicken when it comes to tagging calves with their mommies right there!) Later in the day, Dad was heading for town to buy some cattle supplies and he asked if any of us needed ear tags. I wasn't sure how many white tags I had, so went out to the barn to count. After finding that I needed several more tags, I peeked in the barn and saw a great opportunity awaiting me! The black calf without a tag was lying in a corner while it's mother, Orange 4 was standing in the doorway, just about to go outside. I opened the little barn gate, ducked under it and quickly shooshed Orange 4 outside, promptly closing the door behind her, leaving myself and the untagged calf alone together. Of course, by this time, the spunky little fella (he's a couple days old already) was up and running! I went and got the tagger (and tag) and ran the calf around the pen for a while until he made a bad move (for him) and I was able to grab him and through him to the ground so I could sit on him and have my hands free for tagging. The job was quickly accomplished and I let the poor little guy free. I felt, well, proud of myself as I walked over to the barn door and opened it so the calf could be reunited with his mother. That pride quickly tumbled though as I happened to look over at Orange 4 and saw a little untagged black calf at her side, nursing! OH NO! I tagged the wrong calf!!! I had thought the other 2 calves were tagged already, so you can imagine my embarrassment when I realized I should have made sure first whose calf I was sitting on before I tagged it. Yes, I felt pretty foolish! After evening chores, Dad, Jacob and I caught Orange 4's calf and tagged it orange 4, then we caught the other calf (whose mother is pretty protective) and changed its tag # to 14, and when we got in the house, Dad updated the calf record book! :) So, there's my story. I guess we all do foolish things sometimes, but somehow it struck us all funny that such a thing should happen on April Fools day! The newborn calf update today is: 3 new calves. Andrew spent the day cleaning grain and, after fixing a few problems, got things running smoothly. He and my dad were really impressed with how clean the wheat was when it was through the machines! They said they think the wheat is actually cleaner than the wheat that we ordered from our food-coop was, and that was food grade.... The reason for the big improvement in cleaning quality? Andrew was able to use his big drums (the drums he was sandblasting a couple weeks ago)! I made ice cream today and tried a new flavor: Banana. It tasted more like bubble gum ice cream than banana to some of us, and it was suggested that, if I make it again, I add chocolate chips to it. *Store suggestion in memory* This morning, I started 3 trays (and a pot) of seeds for our garden, planting everything from hot peppers, to Stevia plants. :) It felt very much like Spring today, with the snow melting and the geese flying overhead. Oh yes, I also did a partial water change in my aquarium, which is one of those things that should get done more than it does, but it doesn't..... We cleaned the house too, and made a chicken dish for supper, with fresh pumpkin bars for dessert, and Mom did a session for a client and got caught up on e-mails too.... It was a busy day, but a good one, and now, hooray!, it's time for rest! So, good night! PS. If you did anything embarrassing/foolish today and don't mind sharing it, I've always got two open ears. :)

Will it work? That is the question!

We're trying to spike one of the twin calves onto a cow that had a dead calf today. Will it work? We're sure hoping so! Andrew and I pinned the twin calf to the ground while Dad rubbed the dead calf over the top of the live one, hopefully getting the live one to smell like the mothers' calf. We also sprinkled "Oh-No-Mo" on the calf, which has helped in times past with getting a mother to accept another cows' baby. When we put the calf in the barn with the cow, the mama mooed at it and sniffed it, so we're hopeful that they'll take a liking to each other! I'll let you know what the morning brings... I babysat for most of the day and was happy to find out that Amelia (3) is a good dishwasher. :) She actually got the dishes clean, although it took a good deal longer than it would have taken me to do it, but that allowed time for me to wash off the table, stove and counter. Of course, by the time dishes were done, there were 2 little boys who also had their hands in the dishwater, splashing bubbles around to their hearts content. :) Mom and Jacob went to Bismarck today, after placing the Azure order and packing a lunch. They drove my van as they needed to get the 3 bookcases Mom found/bought (for her office library) on BisManOnline inside a vehicle, and they thought my van would work best for that purpose. While in town, they also stopped at the animal store and bought me some more fish, now bringing my grand total to 18. Andrew's going to, hopefully, start grain cleaning with his rig tomorrow at our neighbors' place. If you think of him, please pray that all goes well as he gets the bugs worked out and as he gets everything set again the way it's supposed to be. I think Dad's going to go over and help him start up..... Let the BUSY season begin! We separated milk/cream again tonight, so ice cream is on the menu tomorrow night. Want to come join us for a sampling? :)