VOP Practice

We are suppose to be singning at a wedding next Friday afternoon at 3:00 in the afternoon. Because of this we decided we better start working on the songs. We got together this evening and spent a good deal of time laughing. It was great. It has been a long time since I laughed so hard. Great fun. I love it when practice is fun...

Anger: What Is It?

How would you define anger? Do you have an anger problem? I do. Of course, that depends on your definition. So, I want a definition.

English

I was told today that my last post was very funny. I said really? How come?
Well you said you read and drank coffee.
Why is that so funny?
You read coffee?
Oh, yes, I drank a book and read coffee. Actually, I read a book and drank coffee.
Some people sure are sticklers...

Lazy Day

I had off today so I was able to do some things I have needed to do that I never seem to take the time to do. Namely some cleaning up outdoors. This afternoon I read and drank some coffee. I also spent some time on the phone. What a great day...

Email Weather Updates

I subscribed to an eamil weather service (it's free) and they email me the severe weather information. Here is what I got this morning. Have you ever heard of this before?
FIRE WEATHER WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BLACKSBURG VA
354 AM EST FRI FEB 23 2007

...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES AND WINDY CONDITIONS TO PERSIST TODAY...

.A VERY DRY AIRMASS WILL REMAIN IN PLACE OVER THE AREA TODAY. ALL
THE WHILE...GUSTY NORTHWEST WINDS WILL PERSIST THROUGH THE LATE
AFTERNOON HOURS. RELATIVE HUMIDITIES WILL FALL QUICKLY AFTER
SUNRISE...WITH FIRE DANGER QUICKLY INCREASING BY LATE MORNING.
ASHE-ALLEGHANY NC-SURRY-STOKES-ROCKINGHAM-CASWELL-WATAUGA-WILKES-
YADKIN-GRAYSON-CARROLL-FLOYD-ROANOKE-BOTETOURT-ROCKBRIDGE-PATRICK-
FRANKLIN-BEDFORD-AMHERST-HENRY-PITTSYLVANIA-CAMPBELL-APPOMATTOX-
BUCKINGHAM-HALIFAX-CHARLOTTE-
354 AM EST FRI FEB 23 2007

Hot Springs

Their is a town called Hot Springs in VA. The odd thing is the temperature doesn't fit the name. Last week one day they had a very steamy 12 degrees. Maybe they make up for it in the summer.

Playing House

When Rods were here several weeks ago we discovered that Aleya and Alyssa spent hours on the top bunk playing with doll beds and housy types of things. They drug these things up their themselves. Hours of fun...

 

Spring Like Weather

Is spring actually here? As I type this it is 53 outside so we had a very springy type of day. I can feel it in my bones. I am feeling a very slight urge to pull the corn planter out of the shed but alas I have other things to take care of. We have close to 50 acers of rye/rye grass to cut so I need to get the necessary equipment ready to roll. I love spring. Spring= New Life

Flase Accusations

Have you ever been falsely accused? If so, how did or do you react?

Dry Heaves

Sierra was rudely awakened around 12:30 with an incredible stomach problem. She depoisited the contents of her stomach in her bed. The good mother gave her a bath and did several loads of laundry in the night. About 1:15 I was rudely awakened by this incredible wail coming from the office the location to which Sierra had been moved. Rachel was out of the bed in a shot. After several more strange noises I went to investigate. Much to my dismay she was having dry heaves. I don't htink I have ever expierenced this and based on the wails she was emitting I don't think I would relish the expierence. When I returned to the house after milking Sierra had received another bath and looks extremely weary and weak. How many of you have had the dry heaves...

Nascar

How many of you pay any attention whatsoever to Nascar? Do you think it is a silly sport? Personaly, don't you like my honesty, I love it...

Rats

Well, things didn't turn out the way we were hoping last night. The King's Singers were stuck in SC trying to fly to Dulles. After sitting on the plane for a while they decided it wasn't gonna leave. They got off of the plane and boarded another to Charlotte. They landed around 2 and had a 3 hour lay over. They landed in charlottesville right around 7. The concert was pushed back to 8:30 . But because of these things their was no rehearsal. That was disappointing. The concert was good but, in my opinion, not great. They appeared weary and tired. They are very nice guys and I was able to get their autographs after the concert. After the day they had I am sure they were wishing for a bed but they were willing to visit with those who stayed around to visit.

Valentine's Day

Today is the day set aside to love on the one you love. Maybe that should be plural. You know, children, friends, and family. Anyway, it this day is usually spent eating chocolate and staying in fancy hotels. Tonight Rachel and I had planned on going to hear the King's Singers in Charlottesville VA. We were really looking forward to it. Free tickets always helps. It is nice to have a brother who seems to be in the know... Anyway, yesterday Rachel seemed quite ill. Aches and pains and things of that nature. Aches associated with the common cold only this one seemed quite worse than normal. She just said she feels good except for her throat and her ear. So, I don't know what is going to happen yet but I am hopeing we can spend our evening enjoying the superb talents of this amazing group of singers. They just released a new album titled The Quiet Heart. This album is a collection of Salvation Army Hymns and is very good. I am hoping they will include several of these in their concert tonight. I am sure they will also include a few titles to help people celebrate this day of love. We are looking forward to a high class evening.

Grumpy Kids???

Every afternoon at 3:15 the county scholl bus passes the farm. I am usually getting the cows in to milk and 90% of the time I am close enough to give a friendly wave. I have never seen my act of friendliness reciprocated. Is this a common problem? Why do these children seem so listless and uninterested? Why do they stare out the window and see nothing? Am I the only one who has had this expierence? Quite frankly I find it annoying. Like a slap in the face. An attitude of disrespect and unfriendliness. Of course I may be wrong.

The Week Ahead

Sonny is off to Ministers week at SMBI so I will be holding things down here. I have two or three loads of litter to spread in the morning then I plan to sit back and only take care of the things that have to be done. My wife and I are headed for a King's Singers concert on Wed. evening. I am really looking forward to it...

Weekend Plans

My folks are coming in this evening and will be here until Monday forenoon. This morning I hauled a few loads of litter. Truck is working great now.... I have to milk this evening so feel free to come and give me a hand...

Sierra's Return

Rachel just left to pick Sierra up in Harrisunburg. Sierra went home with Uncle Rod's and spent the week with her Grandma Kauffman. Aleya missed her greatly and is anxious for her to get home. Speaking of Aleya, her and Rachel got into a very deep discussion this morning about the heart. Jesus wants to clean your heart. Aleya told Rachel "If you get run over by a car and Jesus cleaned your heart then your heart will go to heaven?" "Yep" said Rachel. A second later Aleya said "If you get run over by truck your heart will go to heaven?"

Biblical Names

What was Saul/Paul's last name? Why are last names never or rarely mentioned in the Bible? I can't think of one person who is known by his last name. Am I mistaken???

Hydraulic Difficulties

We have been engineering an ash/chicken litter spreader for the last several months. We have been trying to get our first load off for a week. Today we spent all day trying to get the thing to run. We mounted it on a truck and are running the hydraulic system off of a pto unit. We have put in relief valves, variable speed control valves and return lines and we still have not figured out why it will not work. It appears that our variable speed control valve box didn't work. However, we then discovered that our pressure line was not the pressure line but the return line so we had oil traveling through the system backwards. A few minuets ago we tried again and everything was running backwards. So in the morning we will switch a few hoses around and we should have it.
we hope...

Broken Bones (almost)

This forenoon I was making up some hydraulic hoses with my hose machine. This machine uses reuseable fittings and is really slick. Well, like a dummy, I got my hand caught between a stationary pice of tubing and one that wasn't stationary. My hand was stuck and was sending a series of painful feelings to my brain. I was able to reverse the rotation of the metal piece and back it off of my hand. To my knowledge their are no broken bones. Just a swollen and sore hand.

Judgement Day

I was told the other day that judgement may occur between Feb. 6-8 or 22-24. When I heard the news I instantly began to take an inventory of things. Things that needed to be addressed. Things that may affect the judges decision. Would I pass the inspection? What happens if I don't pass? Okay, I knew the answer to the last question but it still made me think. I came to the conclusion that their were many things to do. I had one room that needed an amazing amount of attention. So to this room I strolled armed with the tools I would need to win this battle. Tools that would increas my chances of passing the judges inspection. I have done my home work. I am ready. Come and inspect every nook and cranny if you wish. I have nothing to hide. I don't know if he will come on those specific dates but I was told he would. I have to trust the one who told me these things because he is suppose to know. He has the inside track and fills me in on these yearly inspections. Once a year I am warned that the judge is coming. You see, it is required by law that my dairy is inspected every so often and tommorrow may be my judgement day.

YCC

YCC stands for Young Cooperative Conference and no this is not a new Mennonite Conference...
This is a conference that is sponsored or put together by the co-op we sell our milk to. This co-op is known as Maryland & Virginia. The YCC is for people between the ages of 18 - 40 who own or work on a farm who sells their to milk to the co-op. This years conference is being held in Athens GA at the University of Georgia. I want to go and if we can work out babysitting arrangements we will be going. Here is the really cool part. The co-op pays up to $400 worth of travel expenses plus they cover all food and lodging cost. They have a speaker scheduled for one day and then one of the days they are palnnning to visit a 1200 cow dairy. This dairy milks in a 60 cow raotary parlour. I want to go...

Deer

My nephew, Kyle, wanted to go spotlighten. So tonight we went out for about 30 min. We saw 23 deer. One of the bucks was very nice, 8-10 points. The event was a huge success.

Company

Rod's are here as is Aunt Carla. Is family ever company? Anyway, they will be here tommorrow and leave Sunday for home. Should be fun, the house will be full of kids. Eight kids six or younger. Ah yes, don't you wish you were here?

Let's See

My mind is currently rather blank, not that you would notice. My mind appears blank quite frequently. However, in this period of blankness I had a thought. This thought was one that concerns you, the reader. I ponder at times what to post about and so I usually just go with the flow. Basically the first thing that strikes me and I think it may be of interest to someone so I peck out a few random thoughts. Now I am asking you what you would like to see me post about. Trust me I have opinions on lots of things and may be willing to share them with the blogging community. Whether I do or not will depend solely on the topic. Ooops I better go my lunch may be burning...