Today's Activities

This morning we attended the funeral of Sarah Yoder, my aunt. She had a degenerate mind disease and in reality she has slowly been leaving her family for 25 years. In some ways her death was a relief and yet it was sad. Sad because the children never really knew a mother's love. After the funeral we headed back to PA for a few days. Sierra leaves Los Mochis Mexico tomorrow afternoon. They will be leaving LA about 11 PM and landing in DC about 6 AM Wed. Then we will be heading home again. Home to stay for a month and a half...

She Hath Passed

The cow I mentioned in the last several posts has died. Oh well, there wasn't much hope for her and at least it wasn't negligence...

Lacerated Ulcer

I mentioned in yesterday's post we were taking a cow to the vet for surgery. We discovered this cow had a lacerated ulcer. Basically this means she had an ulcer which exploded within her and this caused a hole in her stomach. This hole may or may not heal shut. If it doesn't she will be a dead cow by tomorrow. She looks terrible at the moment. She isn't eating or drinking. She is on a high dose of Penicillin as well as a few other medications. We are trying to keep her alive, according to the vitnery or is it vetniry or perhaps vit-n'ry anyway, I guess you can pick your pronunciation...

Big Day

We have a rather big agenda today. Bed stalls this morning, clean out some calf pens, load ten heifer calves to take to Don Gardner. Don raises my heifers as well as does my veterinary work. We also have a fresh heifer with a DA or twisted stomach. This is not a good thing, so she will be making the journey to Don's for an operation. We also be bringing 3 heifers due in the next two months back to the home place. I think Sonny will be making this trip while I work on chores and other odds and ends. Like cleaning up the old shop site... They are paying 7 cent a pound for scrap metal right now so I would like to get another load of scrap up to Cycle Systems.

Home Again!

We arrived home this evening about 3:30. We stopped in Harrisonburg and browsed through the rt. 33 Wal-Mart looking for sales. We left Aleya at the grandparents for the week. We have plans on going up again on Monday. Rachel's Aunt Carol and her family are coming in from IN so she wants to spend some time with them. Sierra and Carla fly back home Tues. night. Dad and I will be going down to pick them up at Dulles Wed. morning. The flight lands at 6:00 AM. Twill be another short night... After that little trip I think I will be in the Gladys area until the middle of February when I will be going to Florida on a VOP tour.

The beginning

Carla sent a bunch of pictures up via email this afternoon. Here are some for your viewing enjoyment. Sorry if I have slowed your loading ability down but I had high speed and wanted to get some on here. Hope you enjoy them.... Here the girls are checking in the luggage and getting there tickets at Dulles International Airport. Sierra looks good for 5:00 in the morning and having arisen at 2:15.

Weariness

Weariness has taken over...

LA

Sierra seems to be in her glory. Maybe I will have someone in my family who enjoys flying...

Reunited

Sierra is reunited with her cousins...

Supplies

The girls took down four 50 lb suitcases full of things... Here they have begun to unpack...

Covered Wagon???

The kids call this the covered wagon. I am not sure what it actually is, an old water trough?

Christmas Cookies

Working on cookies in Rod's mexican house

Hawaii

My wife and I would like to go too Hawaii for our 15th anniversary. have any of you made this journey? If so, where in Hawaii did you go? Would it be cheaper to book it online or use a travel agency. I only use one agency, when I use one, and that is Golden Rule.

Wood Cutting

This morning Dad and I went out to cut some wood. He had a permit for three loads of wood to be cut off of Buchanan State Forrest along Rte. 30. Those of you who have traveled rte. 30 between Breezewood and Chambersburg know how steep the land is along the road. There are no access roads so you have to climb up the bank, cut your load, roll the wood down the bank, pick it up throw it up the ditch, pick it up again and load it onto the truck. I was shocked they didn't have access roads. Of course, this is probably why his permit only cost him $10.

Arrival

Let's see. they landed at 5:42 Los Mochis time which was 7:42 our time. They had some friends make one quick call to let us know they arrived with all the luggage and they had cleared customs and had been reunited...
Thus ends a very busy day...

En route

The ladies are en route to Mexico. They finally lifted off at 5:16 PM. They are scheduled to land in about ten minutes. I have been checking the flight status on line which is a really neat thing. They had some trouble in LA with getting tickets. They were trying to send them Reno Nevada but they sorted that all out and we are hoping the luggage is on the same flight as the ladies.

Delayed

We have been informed that the ladies flight out of LA has been delayed close to three hours. They will be arriving in Los Mochis around 5:00 instead of 2:00 local time. I think this means it would be 7:00 here. Sierra loved the flight, she was fascinated by the landing. When we arrived at Dulles this morning it was very foggy and she wondered what the flashing lights were for. I explained that it was so the pilots could see the runway. She then wondered which runway they would be running on. She actually thought she would run down the runway... Very funny, we just laughed and laughed....

Heavy Eyelids

Just got back from the airport. We got up at 2:15 and left about 2:30. We arrived at the airport about 4:45 and had the girls checked in and through security by 5:30. The teary father called the daughter when I got to the van and she was proudly riding the shuttle bus to her gate. called her again 30 minuets later and she was sitting at her gate waiting to board. She then called me after her and Carla were sitting in there seats. Now we wait till they land in LA before we hear from them again. My, I feel like an overbearing, over worrying father, but I couldn't help it... She is too little for this, yesterday she was a baby... sigh....

Up, Up, and Away

In 8 hours I will lift my weary head off of the pillow, pick my little 7 year old up in my arms and place her in the van. We will then head to Dulles International Airport. We will then put Sierra and her Aunt Carla on a plane to LA where they will change airline and board a plane for Los Mochis Mexico. They are set to land in Los Mochis at 2:16 PM. They will be with Rod and Christa until January the second. They will retrace these steps and be landing in Dulles around 6 in the morning. I find it hard too believe my little girl is heading off into the sky. I am some what surprised or shocked she is doing this. Shocked we are letting her do this... I will probably weep all the way home again. She is growing up far to fast...

Reforestation

Today I was in the FSA office (Farm Service Agency) in Rustburg. As I was leaving the forester, Mr. Jarvis, caught my attention. We have are almost finished logging off a sorry piece of timber. I would guess it is close to 100 acers of scrubby stuff, loads and loads of pulp wood. Anyway, the forester was telling me that Short Leaf Pine is becoming a diminshing species. This means they would like some people too consider replaniting these pines. To prove this, they are offering more financial aid. $50 an acre instead of $25. The cost of the seedlings is the same. I was also told the return on Short Leaf Pine is higher in the long run then Lob Lolly Pine. So, I said great, Sign us up. So he did...

Christmas

Today is our Zehr Christmas celebration. Brunch is at 9, Grandma has a tea planned for the ladies at 11, supper will be sometime this afternoon. Our gift exchange will follow this. Oh, I think the grandchildren are planning a Christmas play of some sort. I think it will be a reenactment of the school Christmas program. Games will be played, music will be listened to and memories will be made...
What fun...

Herd Check Results

Well, we found 12 pregnant cows. I was hoping for 15, 12 is decent I guess. Some fresh cows had uterine infection, nothing serious. I have a list of 20 cows that should be in heat in the next 3 weeks. Maybe I should start sleeping in the barn...

Herd Check

Tomorrow is herd check which I dread too some extent. I made the list this morning and I think it will be between 50-60 cows. That is ridiculous. I am scared I have missed lots of cows in heat which means cows that I think are pregnant won't be which will make the vet some what grumpy. He will then inform me I need to do a better job of heat detection and give me grand lecture on the proper way to do this. I will nod my head and agree with him. By the time he is done I will be some what grumpy. Catching cows in heat is like fighting with sin. It never ends....

Christmas Program

Tonight is the school Christmas program. Sierra is involved in a music class so she will be participating in some singing. It is rather interesting the way things worked out. I was suppose to be in charge of a song service. I was given the suggestion of having the music classes sing some songs. Some how this morphed into the school doing the whole program and I get off without doing anything. How cool is that?

Phase 1

They removed the metal from the roof first. Things will never look the same around here again. As you will see...

Phase 2

I missed the actual act of pulling the building over. Demolition is lots of fun, except for the cleanup.

Phase 3

The last section to remove. This was the old shop and we were going to leave it until we realized it would only be in the way. We also discovered some apparent Termite or Wood bore damage. Quite a bit actually...

Demolished

Christmas Shopping

I am wondering how many of you do your shopping online? Personally, I would much rather shop online and stay home...

Disappointment

I was disappointed today to discover we would be wiser to demolish a building instead of remodel it. We were planning to put new metal on an old machine shed and the guys started removing metal this morning. We discovered the building was not fit to be fixed. After further review we will be taking the whole building down and have no plans to replace it on this site. Such is life...

Private Pesticide Applicators License

Several years ago I went too the extension office and took a test (without studying) which I passed. Let me hasten to add it was a very common sense type of test. Sample question: Where do you rinse out your empty chemical jugs? A. In the river. B. Kitchen Sink. C. Rinse them and pour remaining contents into spreader. Off course the answer is C.
Anyway, every two years you have to be re-certified. This simply involves showing up at a meeting. You listen to whatever the speaker is talking about and sign a few papers and then they mail you your new Private Applicators License. Very simple and costs nothing.

Weddings

Let's see
March 1st = Karlin Schrock& Susan Martin
March 8 = Rose Yoder & Daryl ???
March 15 = Kendall Hoschstetler & Tina ???
March 22 = Myron Yoder & Heidi Schwartz
June 14 = Lowell Yoder & Juanita ???
Okay, I can't remember all the last names but at least I know the first name!
Also, there is a good possibility two more weddings could happen in 2008....

VOP Program

We sang this morning at First Baptist Church of Republican Grove. We were awful...
There are several reasons for this and none of them are any good. Your suppose to be able to rise above it but we didn't this morning and that disappoints me.

Heading Home

We head home today. We will be stopping in Hagerstown for lunch with Rachel's parents. Sight & Sound was really good. I thought they could have down a much better job with the angels and shepherds in the field scene. I have always wonder how Mary and Joseph felt concerning everything that was happening. How much did they really know? Did they know He was the Messiah? Probably... They didn't know what all this was going to involve, did they? It had to be a tough experience. Also, I wonder how long the angel was with Mary when he told her she was going to have a baby? Did he tell her and leave immediately? That seems a little cruel doesn't it? To drop a bomb shell like that and then leave her alone... Some day maybe I will know the answer to these questions. Of course you may think it doesn't matter. It doesn't, really. But, somehow, these questions make them seem more real and human. They struggled with what was taking place...

Lazy Days

Yesterday we sat around here at my parents place in Bowmansville PA. Had a wonderful time. In the afternoon we went furniture shopping but we didn't find what we wanted in our price range...
Today we will be going to see the Miracle Of Christmas at Sight and Sound. The concert starts at 4:15. Not sure what we will do this morning. We will need to do something with the children or they will get extremely bored.
Also, on an entirely different note. There will be at least three to four to five weddings in our church this spring.... To many to count.
Must be the water....

Ant Viirus

What anti virus program do you use? Do you use a free one?

Expasnion (Part II)

This morning Beverly Cox from the Virginia Cooperative Extension was here. I told her what we wanted to do or what I was thinking. She took lots of notes and is trying to get some professors from Virginia Tech to come out and help me think through this whole process. It is exciting and also a bit scary....

Christmas Website Special

Well folks, we have lowered our already low prices for the month of Dec. That's right, we have lowered our prices from $12 to $10 on cd's and from $8 to $5 on cassettes. Please note this is a website special and is good only through the website. Shipping charges will apply. So, don't delay and dash right over to the website and begin ordering your Christmas presents.
Of course, if your like my wife you were done Christmas shopping in July....
Okay, that is an exaggeration, it was at least August....

Triplets

While I was feeding the dry cows I noticed a cow, Shania, standing down at the other end of the pasture. I figured she had calved because she was about three weeks early. I told Sonny she was fresh and I saw him going down with the four wheeler. I saw him put two calves on the four wheeler and head back to the barn. The cow didn't follow him so I walked down and got her. When I arrived on the scene I was shocked to find a third calf. All three calves are alive and drank well. They were also all bulls...