Aggravating Email

We have been unable to receive email since Sat. afternoon. This is so annoying. Apparently the server is down. When I try to use web mail the server will not respond. If you have been sending us emails that are extremely important and we have not been responding it is truly out of our control. It has nothing to do with the fact that we don't like you or don't care about your emails. Really, truly, you must believe me....
Anyway and so forth....
Hopefully they fix this little problem soon.

Struggling Well

We have two wells on the farm. They are tied together with a valve in between them. This valve is closed unless a well pump goes bad and we need water. The well that feeds the barn has been really struggling the last year or so and is slowly getting worse. It has been fine in the morning but in the evening it has been a real joke. No water to wash down the parlor. Takes the vat 45 min. to fill up to wash the system. Things of this nature. (The vat should fill in less than 5 min.) Also, the well that feeds the house is not a very good well either. If I open the valve so the house well will feed the barn also then the house doesn't have water when you are washing the parlor down. This is very annoying. Especially if your stuck in the shower.... Anyway, yesterday we took a 300 gallon tank I had placed strategically in the back room several years ago and put it to good use, finally. This tank catches all the wash water from the milking system except the initial rinse cycle. I also plumbed the wash machine discharge into the tank. Currently, there is no water going into the tank from the well. Last night it was full again after all the cycles had run. Hopefully this will take a lot of stress off of the well. Also, I am going to try to open the house well to the barn and see what happens. Hopefully, we won't lose water at the house because we are not pulling water out of the well to wash down....

Busy Day Ahead

I have Bruce coming this morning to discuss calf housing options. I have 17 cows to breed right after lunch. Darrell Carrol is bringing a gentleman by the name of Dean by this evening to watch us milk and help us on our routine some. He will also check out the milking system and see what can be done to help it wash better. He is a sanitation specialist. Also, Rachel is going to pick Aleya up today.....
What a day.....

I Backed Out

Yep, I backed out on those 19 heifers. Here is why. #1 They were not willing to test them for Johnes or BVDPI (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Persistently Infected). #2 They had the parentage information on only a third of the animals. So the more I thought about it the less inclined I was. BVDPI is a mess. I know it can be passed through the fetus but that is really all I know about it. Dr. Gardner told me not to buy anything that hadn't been tested. Johnes is a mess also. most people have heard of Johnes. Our herd has been tested Johnes free for the last 3 years and I intend to keep it that way...

Snow

It is currently 35.1 degrees and there is snow falling gently out of the sky. It feels like it will be a very damp bone chilling day. I am so ready for warm showers or spring showers and spring dampness instead of this bone chilling, damp, cold weather. I guess we have been having beautiful weather, spring weather, but then spring forgets it has sprung and reverts back to winter. Is that why spring is called spring? Because it bounces back and forth?
Okay, what a rambling post. I shall take myself off and find my book, For One Moment, and see how that ends....
Very good book, you should read it or reread it or rereread it... You get the idea...
Wait, I said I was going to stop....

Wedding # 2

Myron Yoder married Heidi Schwartz this afternoon in Honea Path SC. Beautiful wedding... I felt like I was marrying off one of my sons or my brother. He is a very good man and he found a jewel for a wife...

The Beginning Of The End As We Know It

Yesterday I chatted with a gentleman about buying 19 heifers due to calf between the end of April and the first of June. When it comes right down to pulling the trigger on spending money it's not so easy. At least for me....

Mexican Tales

Kassie said to Aleya, Um ,when Kyle bugs you , you just have to tell him PLEASE STOP! then he stops! Aleya leaned real close and whispered, nah, I will just CHASE him! And Kassie said well, okey ,fine ,you can chase him, but he wont stop until you say PLEASE STOP!
So this is the way cousins relate to each other in Mexico....

They Arrived

From what I am hearing Aleya loved flying also. She firmly informed Grandma that she wanted to sit by the window on one of the flights because she couldn't see what was going on outside from where she was sitting. The luggage got lost somewhere along the way I guess they will find it eventually. But they are there and loving it I am sure.....
I will post some pictures when I get some....

Tired

For some reason I am very tired tonight. Tomorrow is a huge day again. Herd check in the morning. Guys from VA Tech coming at 1:30 to give there opinion on my expansion ideas. I am afraid there will be no lunch tomorrow and no nap. Oh, I forgot, the Md/Va field rep. is coming too chat about my expansion. I need to see how long they will pick my milk up once a day after I buy cows so I don't have to buy a new tank.... Tanks are expensive.....
Now, I am tireder then everer... whew...

Aleya

I can't believe it.... Aleya has gone to Grandma Kauffman's and will be traveling with them to Mexico for a week of visiting and playing with her cousins. She is excited about seeing cousin Alyssa. She told me she would have to play with Kyle and Kassie too. I am sure she will... Will be interesting to see what she thinks of the trip.

LLC

Can someone tell me exactly what an LLC is? Is it a partnership or is it not? I always thought it was some kind of corporation, is this correct or not?

Expansion

Bruce was here again today. We talked for several hours, four-five to be exact. We were pushing some numbers. He showed me that I could go get a $150,000 loan to buy 30 cows, an electronic ID system for 140 cows. At 8% interest on a five year loan, after feed costs and a loan payment of $3100 a month I would still be profiting $1000 a month. In two years these numbers would change because I would then be milking offspring from those initial 30 cows....
Low and behold I thinks I am going to do it..... In some form or another.....

Fun

Rachel and I had a date tonight. Left the chillens with Uncle Ben's and went to Altavista for some alone time. Very short but much fun....

Quote

My wife found this quote somewhere.... I think it was on adoption blog but I don't know which one or where.

"Adoption is created through loss; without loss there would be no adoption. Loss, then, is at the hub of the wheel. All birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees share in having experienced at least one major, life-altering loss before becoming involved in adoption. In adoption, in order to gain anything, one must first lose--a family, a child, a dream. It is these losses and the way they are accepted and, hopefully, resolved which set the tone for the lifelong process of adoption."

-Deborah N. Silverstein and Sharon Kaplan

I was thinking about this in regards to our spiritual adoption. Did Christ lose something? He experienced pain and trauma. Did he lose something? Did he lose a dream? Did he have a dream? Maybe this cannot be applied to our spiritual adoption. Something inside me says it should apply but I am not sure. What do you think?

Garden

So, how many of you have started working in your garden? I tilled mine up this evening with a shovel.... Our garden is rather small... So, what you planting this year?

Out Of Feed

I ran out of silage today. I am currently purchasing 40 tons from Uncle Delvin. I am hopeful this will be enough to last us until we begin chopping Rye in a couple weeks. According to my math: If we feed 5000 lbs a day 40 tons will last for 16 days. That may be long enough.... And then again it may not.... It might have to be.....

Big News

I have hesitated to mention this because I/we were unsure what our actual time frame was or is. Isn't that a confusing introduction. Ben, due to busyness/family/church and things of that nature, has decided it is time to end his illustrious career as the bass for VOP. This has put us in the search mode. We asked two gentleman who both declined. Now we are pursuing some baritone options which means, yeah, you guessed, I would be switching to bass. This is a big move for me if it actually happens, although I am somewhat excited about it as well. I have begun taking voice again as well as singing bass at every oppurtunity.
Ben will be sorely missed, not only musically but socially as well. I hope the new dude will fit in as well. We have an audition scheduled for one evening this week.

The Routine

Here is what we were doing or what I was doing.
Step 1. Dip the teats and pre-strip five cows.
Step 2. Clean five cows.
Step3. Put milkers on five cows.
The new routine is this.
Step 1. Dry strip and dip five cows. In other words I am dipping (foaming in my case) the cow after I strip her.
Step 2. Clean and attach the milker. In stead of cleaning five cows and then going back and putting the milker on I am attaching the milker as soon as I finish cleaning the cow. You have a 70 second window to get the milker on the cow. From the time you first touch her till the milker is attached. I am being told that it is extremely important for everyone to do the same thing every time. I believe the cows will begin to understand what is happening. They will get into the routine which will make a happier cow. Happier cows make more milk....

Amazing

I was told by my expansion consultant that I needed to change my milking routine. So, I did and here is what happened. The first thing I noticed was how I cut 30 minutes off of my milking time. The second thing I noticed was how the slow cows were not quite as slow. The third thing I noticed was milk in the tank or the amount we actually shipped. On Monday we shipped 13,500 and some odd lbs. On Wed. we shipped 14,600 and some odd lbs. The only thing that changed was the milking routine. I don't know if the cows will hold this production. I don't know if they would have jumped if we hadn't changed the routine. I don't know.... It is very interesting to say the least...

Custom Chopping

The last several years I have begun to dread the harvest season. The corn chopping nightmare. Yesterday I got to thinking and did a little math. I discovered that if I make 2 more lbs of milk per cow per day for the year it would more than pay to have my corn silage custom harvested. I would supply the trucks and pay for the chopper. I am thinking we will be able to cut 130 acres in three days at the most. 16-20 hrs should easily cover it. I am no longer dreading the harvest season...

It's Here

For those of who have been asking for Quiet Understanding or Send The Light on cd you are now in luck. We took these two albums, had them digitally remastered, and put them on cd's. Here is the really cool part. We are still only going to charge you $12. Oh, did I mention these two albums are combined on one cd? I forgot? Well deary me!!! How could I forget such a thing. If you are dying to purchase one please visit our website or shoot me an email and I will gladly place one in the mail for you....

Flavored Water???

How many of you have grabbed a bottled water at the convience store and discovered it WASN'T WHAT YOU THOUGHT IT WAS!!!!
That happened to me tonight. I wanted water not some fizzle saturated, unfulfilling, tasteless, fruit imitating water.... Anyway, I think they should kindly consider marking the bottles differently. You know, make them look different so the ninny's like me wouldn't pick up the wrong bottle....

Misc.

First, I was privileged to have Mr. Byron Smucker singing under my direction on Sat. I have to admit that in some ways this made me nervous. I didn't know him or had never met him. I heard a good bit about him and his involvement with AHQ. He has sung under quite a few really good directors and in some very prestigious choirs. So, naturally, I was somewhat nervous. However, I soon realized and am of the opinion that Byron and I could be really good friends if we had the opportunity. In the midst of our discussion he informed of some rather interesting developments in the life of MR. ITF....
In other news, My wife and children have left me for a few days. They should return sometime on Tues.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with my expansion consultant. That should be interesting.

Wedding Complete

I was afraid the singing was going to be a real struggle. We hadn't had time to practice together as a group. The songs were somewhat difficult. So, I was pleasantly surprised at how well things came together. There were two problem spots that continued to be issues during the wedding. However, I would say we did quite well. I was pleased...