Rain

It started raining last evening around seven. By six-thirty this morning the Lord had blessed us with 2.5 inches. By noon we had another half an inch. I forgot to look at the gauge when I came home but I am guessing we had another half inch or so. This is the first good, soaking rain we have had since June or so....
Thank you Jesus...

Tales From The Attic

This tale revolves around a dead rat, two men, a little boy, and my mother. The details are a tad sketchy because I have no memory of this tale. The facts are based on what I was told by one of the men. I will not divulge any names lest you think less of these men then you should think. Long ago when I was child the farm was owned by five men, a partnership. These men were on the grounds everyday. I was usually out showing the men how to work and trying hard to keep them on the straight and narrow path. I must have reached about the three year mark on my life's timeline when this tale took place. The two men were working in the calf barn, known as the Old Barn, and found a dead rat!!! These fine men placed the dead rat in a bag and told me to Run give this to your mamma! I was a lad who wanted to please so off I dashed. (I was unaware of the bags contents.) The men found strategic windows and doors to peek around while I was racing for the house. I bounded up the steps and kicked the door, I assume, (I have been told this a habit of mine.) Mamma came to the door and I obediently handed her the bag.
She peeked in the bag and did what any woman would do. She flung the bag out into the yard while shrieking wildly. Meanwhile the men, who were still out of sight, were bent over laughing and slapping their knees.
Mamma knew I would not have done such a thing without being told and she scanned the horizon vehemently for the individuals who sent the package but to no avail.
I don't think the identity of these two blokes was ever discovered.

Photos From The Attic

My what fun! I loved a good mud hole and we had plenty of them when I was growing up...

 

I Think I Fell In The Mud...

 

Hard Day

 

Conversation

Today Sierra went with me to feed the cows. She was trying to decide whether she wanted to come home or not and here is how the conversation went, sort of.
Daddy I'm thirsty.
Do you want to go home?
Well, I don't know? Do you want me to go home?
I don't care...
Well, will you miss me?
Well, yeah...
Would you be sad?
hmm not really...
I'm thirsty!!
We can get a drink in the barn.
I don't know, I think I want to go home.
Well, do you?
Well, do you want me to? Will you be sad?
Not really... I don't care if you go home.
Okay, I want to go home!
Okay.
Yeah, I am going to the airconditioned house!!!

Senneca Creek

Jackson dashed right in!

 

Swimmin

Girls loved it...

 

Dirt

but he loved the dirt, gravel, and sand.

 

Jayden

Jayden was a bit more tentative about the water.

 

Stocks

While milking the other morning my mind wandred off into some unknown and strange places. I can't remember what sparked the thought but I began to ponder the stockmarket. The basic question was centered around whether I as a christian should participate in buying and selling stocks. Currently I don't have any stocks or ever have had any stocks. My reason for not having any has nothing to do with religion or what I believe. However, the thought that went through my mind was this. Is their a difference between the New York Stock Exchange and playing the lottery? Would I not be taken a gamble by buying stocks? Or is it okay because one, stocks, would be a buisness venture and could be a wise thing to do. The chances for success would be much greater, I guess...
How many of you have stocks and how does it work? Maybe my ignorance on the subject can explain why I don't see much difference between the two.

33

The calendar tells me I have added another year of wisdom to my life. I am now half way to retirement, whatever that is. Also, what is wisdom? I seem to know less everyday.... Anyway, today is my birthday.

Church Service

How many of you have attended or participated in a black church service? African American brothers have a very invigorating way of worshipping. VOP broke new ground tonight. We were invited to sing at a revival meeting. It was great fun...
If you have never attended one of their services you should try to rectify the situation. I think you would be blessed....

Eye Ball Update

I was in to see the eye Dr. this morning. He is a very fine Dr. and I like him a great deal. He told me that my eyes had done an amazing amount of healing since Fri. evening. My eye is fairly blood shot and he was so glad. He told me that if the eye is blood shot that means it still has a blood supply. He also told me that when I was in on Fri. their were no lifing surface cells on my right eye. Today only two places had no living cells. I am a little unsure how large those places were. I also asked him what he thought of my vision. He said when the eye has been damaged, metal or something, it takes 21 days before you can make an accurate judgement concerning his or her vision. I am amazed at how the eye works and how God created us.

Another Poll

Since I have had this little expierence with my eyes I had this very interesting thought. How many of you fine people wear something to improve your vision? Contacts, glasses, or have had laser surgery performed on your eyes? I have pair of glasses that I got just before I got married but I have never worn them much. Except for my wedding, Rachel thought I looked so distinguished in glasses. Ugh, I hate them, they are always fogging up and getting in the way. Plus they make my ears hurt.....

Reunions

It seems that every summer everyone is going to family reunions. I attended one reunion this summer and it was with my wifes side of the family. I believe the last reunion I have attended with my blood relatives was several years ago. What I am wondering is this: Do you attend a reunion every summer? How often does your extended family get together? Is it an annual thing? When I was growing up my mother's side of the family got together very often and it was great fun. I am sure it helps to have everyone living in the same community. This weekend the Yoders were getting together for a weekend of camping at SMBI. We were unable to attend due my harvest schedule. Anyway, this is turning into a post that is going round and round....
In short I wonder how many reunions you attend in a years time?

Propionic Acid

This is a picture of the whole rig. The white 55 gallon drum has propionic acid in it. This is a preservative and aids the fermentation process of the silage. By the way, the tractor is a 4520 powershift John Deere. The acid is pumped out of the drum and through a meter before it is piped to the chopper blower using an old air hose. Last evening about four I was finishing the next to last load when this hose wrapped around the chopper tire and broke a fitting at the pump. This pump is located in the cab of the tractor and is turned on and off by toggle switch. Here is the sequence of events. I hear something break and my head autamatically turns to see what is going on. My right eyeball is blasted with a flood of acid. I immediately close my eyes push in the clutch and the break with my feet. I cannot open either eye due to the acid that is swimming in them. I blindly try to locate the toggle switch but this in vain. By now my shirt and pants are acid drenched and my eyes are in sever pain. I decide to exit the tractor and jump up only to have the tractor go lurching forward. I then realize I ahd never put the tractor in park. I sit back down in the acid shower and grope blindly for the gear shift. When this is found I slam it into park and get out of the tractor. By now my chest is begining to burn so I take my shirt off. After a few minuets I am able to see enough to think. I think to myself, self, the Power Take Off (PTO) is still engaged and the acid is still running. Also their is a jug of water in the tractor that I would like to get so I can pour its contents over my burning eyes. I want to be able to see enough to not get caught in the PTO while I am trying to turn off the acid. I step up onto the back of the tractor and reach in and hit the switch. I then grab the water jug before getting off of the tractor. I then Dump all of the water over my face. Immediate relief is felt. By this time the truck driver has arrived and I tell him what happened and that I think a shower would be in order. I tale a shower and then I lay on the couch with my wife by my side. She has a glass of water and a dropper. She faithfully puts water in my eyes for about 30 min. I am still in pain so we decide to call an eye doctor. They want to see me right away. So away we go. He looks deeply into my eyes and says. Good night man you got a bunch of trash under your lids. I have to get that out. This trash turned out to be ash dust. The acid destroyed the thin, clear membrane of my eyelids. He worked on my right eye for almost an hour removing the ash dust. When removed the dust he also removed the protective membrane. He gave me a salve to put in my eyes to ward off infection. Amazingly I have felt little pain allthough the right eye is watery and puffy and swollen. Such is life.....

 

Finished Dumping

How obvious...

Dumping

 

Dump Wagon

I remember when we went to pick this dump wagon up. I must have been 7 or 8 at the time. It was used when we got it and must be getting close to thirty years old. We have spent time over the years replacing certain parts of it and bracing others but it has been a very trustworthy machine.

 

Header

This is the offending header. Since we got it fixed properly we have had no more trouble.

 

Chopping

This is a 3960 John Deere forage harvester with a three row header.

 

Dump Truck

This is the truck we have been using to haul the silage. This truck was bought from an electric company that was going out of buisness or replacing their fleet. These trucks are fairly old but they run really well and we were able to purchase quite a few of them for a very small sum.

 

Blade

We made the blade out of some heavy channel iron. We mounted it onto the frame of an old wore out V ripper (Subsoiler).

 

Knocking Loads Down

Sonny is pushing the loads into the trench. This is a 4150 White with a homemade blade mounted on the three point hitch. The 4 stands for four wheel drive and the 150 is the horse power.

 

Craft Class

My wife put 15 drops of food coloring and pasta in a bag. She used four colors, red, blue, yellow, and green. She did not mix the food coloring but I am sure you can if you want some other interesting color schemes. The girls took the bags and worked the food coloring into the pasta.

 

Finished

They have just finished mixing the pasta and the food coloring. Then they emptied the bags onto paper towels for them to dry before they began stringing them.

Sierra

Deep concentration...

 

Aleya

Stringing the dyed pasta onto the string. When the string is full tie a knot in the string. You now have a pasta necklace which you can eat when you are very hungry. It doesn't work to well for the boys to play with because it goes directly into their mouths. This makes the food coloring run all over their faces....

Granola

My wife tells me that she doesn't follow the recipe she just does what she wants to. Therefor, this recipe is patent pending....
She has graciously consented to give you her recipe, so, here it is.
Here is the basic recipe
12 cups oatmeal
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup organic br. sugar
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
Then I had 1/2 - 1 cup of 2 or 3 of these things
coconut
chopped nuts
slivered almonds
sesame seed
flax seed
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds
oat bran
Mix all of that together then add
1 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups honey
1 TBSP vanilla
Mix well. Bake at 350 for 15 min. Stir. Bake 10 more minutes.
It is pretty sweet and I want to try it with no br. sugar next time.
Enjoy it!
RZ

Chopping Update

Saturday I went on a scouting expedition with Sierra and we discovered thirty more acres of corn that were turning brown and needed to be cut. We started cutting Monday morning about 11:00. We had a very good day till about 5:00, got 19 loads cut. It is rather long haul and is well off the road. Anyway, I put the PTO in gear after dumping load #19 and something went through the chopper. Much to our dismay it was a gathering chain. This has the same result as tools on the choppers knives. Such is life.... I have to sharpen the chopper this morning and then we will be back at it....

West Virgina

I am very poor at remembering stories/jokes but I do have one that I would like to share with you.
Did you know that the tooth brush was invented in West Virginia? If it would have been invented anywhere else it would have been known as a teeth brush..... (laugh loudly)

Sunday Afternoon

What is a perfect Sunday afternoon? What does it consist of? You go to church, I assume, eat lunch and then what? Are Sundays incomplete when the nap is missed? How often do you have company for lunch? If you go somewhere for lunch how long are you gone? All afternoon? The perfect Sunday afternoon for me consists of lying in my hammock that is swinging gently in the breeze. This hammock is hanging from a huge oak tree in my spacious backyard. Their are no cows to feed or milk because I happen to have the afternoon off. Oh yes, the flies, they would magically disappear and I would be able to sip some ice cold lemonade while floating in my hammock and reading. Much to my chagrin I do not have huge old oak tree, a hammock, or cold lemonade. Perhaps someday I will expierence this perfect Sunday afternoon.

Cute Picture

I was told by a female in my family that: This is a very cute picture of you and the dog. Of course you can't see much of you but the pup is cute....

 

Granola

For the last several months my wife has been making Granola. My mother made Granola when I was growing up and I really liked it. I am wondering how many of you like Granola and what do you like in your Granola. I believe you can put just about any thing in Granola and it will still be edible. Within reason of course.....

Pets & Girls

Aleya and Cupcake.
Sierra and Blackie
(I am trying to get her to name the pup Duke but so far Sierra isn't to thrilled with the idea. Blackie seems a little wimpy for a big, bold, male dog...)

 

Different Reaction

Jackson wasn't very impressed with the puppy's actions.
It is interesting to see the different reaction between the two boys.

 

The Puppy

A puppy showed up today much to our chidlrens delight. Jayden and the pup are getting aquainted.

 

Garfield Monday

You will not believe how Garfieldish this day was.
To get things off to a roaring start I was awakend at 1:00 AM by a loud pounding on my front door. It was the milkman. He did not have current at the only recepticle he can use. I told him I would be right over. I stumble into the milkhouse and discover that one of the wires is broken at the breaker box. I was glad it was a minor problem and easily fixed. I crawled back into bed about 1:45.
At 4:00 the hated, annoying, alarm rings. I trudge morosely to the barn after swallowing 4 ibuprophen. I now have a headache and am feeling the effects of a sore throat and head cold. After my morning nap I head to the vets to pick up some heifers. (I do not raise my own heifers.) Oh me, I forgot to mention that I had to catch cows for the hoof trimmer while milking this morning. This always makes milking take longer and I am not a fan of sorting cows while milking.
I didn't get home for lunch till 1:30 and, because we were hoping to chop some more today, ny lunch hour turn into a 15 minute blink of the eye. We did make it to the field about 3:00. First load went fine. Second load went fine except for one minor detail. The header drive chain came apart. Third load went fine till the end of the load. The header lost two gathering chain shear pins and I had to replace them. This header is set up very nice and it is east to do but corn fields are always hotter when I have to work on something. Fourth load went fine. Fifth load, oh wait, their was no fifth load. The header was of the opinion we were not getting the hint. He was weary, he broke, we wept. I unhook dump wagon and take worthless machinery to shop. We perform surgery. We fix well. We are dirty and we are tired and we think the header better learn a lesson and not try this again tommorow.

One another note. Sierra had her first day of school toady. Yes it was at home and went well. We hope day 101 goes well as well.

Another Poll

Would anyone actually miss this blog if it suddenly disappeared?

10 More Down

Today we cut 10 more acres of corn. What a great feeling that is. This field produced roughly 11 tons to the acre. Not great but pretty good for the amount of rain we have had this summer. Monday we are hoping to start on a 27 acre field. Time will tell.

Heat Wave Part II

Last evening while getting the cows into milk I noticed a fetus lying in a freestall. The fetus was about the size of a puppy. After milking Sonny wondered if I knew who had lost the calf. I told him I thought it was TOTO. He then informed me that she had just dropped another one. Cows aborting is not a new occurence and is usally triggered by an infection. Mastitus, high fever, deformed calf, heat stress. I am sure their are other reasons as well. I think this may be the result of the intense heat we have suffered the past week. I remember about five years ago the whole herd caught a wind blown virus and the cows were running temps. in the 105-106 range. We lost a lot of calves due to the high fever. Such is life....

Atlanta Braves

I heard on ESPN yesterday that the Atlanta Braves are trying a new marketing ploy. Apparently pitcher John Smoltz preached from the mound after which there was a christian rock concert. This took place on what is now known as Faith Night. To hear John Smoltz preach and the band play you had to buy a second ticket for $10. At first glance one would think they are trying to improve an individual's soul in this city. However, a statement by the marketing staff made it very clear that the purpose for Faith Night was to generate more income. The sole purpose of Faith Night was to sell more tickets. This would enable them to pay more players more money so they can, hopefully, return to the glory days of the 90's. I have been an Atlanta Braves fan for years so I found this turn of events disappointing. What is your opinion of using religion as a marketing ploy. The fellow hosting the show on ESPN compared this to a credit card company offering Christians a credit card with a better interest rate. Imagine getting a credit card application which reads "If you are Christain sighn up for our special 2.5% interest rate for the life of the balance."

Heat Wave

The first day of August has been a real scorcher. There was a heat advisory for this afternoon. The heat index was some where between 110 and 114. It looks like the rest of the week will follow the same trend. Cows don't like this kind of heat and I expect a sharp drop in milk production. Can't say that I blame them because I seem to have a sharp drop of productive activity when it is this hot as well. How has it been in your part of the nation?