Today's Activities

My parents are here for the day so we will be having lunch together, the Zehr clan. Vop is singing at Chesthill Baptist this evening at 6:00. We were scheduled there in January the day Jon got sick and ended up in the hospital. Obviously that was cancelled. So here we are six months later and trying again. The pastor from the church, Randy Bower, actually took the time to come into the hospital one evening for an hour or so. Very thoughtful of him.
After the service they will be serving homemade ice cream. Randy told me to invite all my friends so consider yourself invited. The church is located on Wards Rd. across from Waffle House in Lynchburg...

Jackson

Three years ago today, about 7:00 this morning, we were asked if we wanted another little feller to play with Jayden. We were given 30 min. to decide. Hard to believe he is turning three today...
Happy Birthday Jack....
Dad

Rain

It is hard to believe how much rain we are getting this summer so far. Everytime we need some we get some. This afternoon around 2 it rained about half an inch. Then from about 5-7 it rained fairly steady. A very nice slow drizzly rain. So, I am guess we had about an inch of rain in the last two days. (It rained last evening also.) Corn is looking good... I am blessed...

Vacation

Sonny and his wife are leaving today for a short but needed and well deserved vacation. He deserves a few days of R&R.
I need to make a run to Don's with some calves this morning. Jon will be helping me chore the next few days which is nice. Rachel and I are going dating tonight...

Summer To Do List

Here is the list of things we need to do in the next two months.
1. Spread Manure
2. Change the transmission in the big dump truck.
3. Put together another dump truck
4. Finish Manure pump
5. Work on the 4-150
6. Build a trench
I am sure there are several more things but this is the majority of the things that really should happen on the farm. Along with milking and choring and all those other little things we try to do...

Weed Pulling

My wife and I were pulling some ornery weeds out of a flower bed this evening. My wife has an aversion to dirt. She always weres gloves when she is working with or in the dirt.
Sierra was playing with Aleya and she must of tired of their project, washing the swing set, because I heard her tell Aleya she was going to go help Daddy and Mamma. Sierra went in the house for a few seconds before coming to help us. When she arrived she was proudly wearing a pair of my wifes gloves. So I went on this little schpeal(sp?) about how much more fun it is to weed when you can get your hands all dirty and you can play in the warm dirt. Before I finished talking she was pulling here gloves off and gleefully pulling weeds... Rachel said Sierra told her that "I am gong to go wash my hands. I don't like the feel of dirt under my finger nails..." So, how many of you wear gloves when pulling weeds

Last Wedding

This afternoon at 2:00 Nathan Swarey and Elizabeth Gilbert will be tying the knot. Liz is a first cousin of mine. 14 years ago she was scared and nervous about being a gift reciever at my wedding. Wonder if she is scared and nervous about getting married...
Which makes me wonder this: Have you ever been at a wedding where either the bride or the groom has changed her mind? Changed his or her mind during the ceremony? That would be awful. Allthough, that would be better than getting married and then having the marriage be a shambles.
Anyway, I am sure that won't happen today.
Nate and Liz, enjoy your day in the sun and have fun....

Twisted

The vet was here today and we had him look at a sick cow. He was sure she had a DA but he couldn't here it. So I drove her over to his place this evening and we had some serious biology going on. We discovered she had a twisted abomasum (sp?) instead of the normally twisted stomach. The part that was twisted was about the size of a 30 gallon drum and was packed full of feed and things of that nature. Because it was twisted nothing would pass through. So we decided it was not worth trying to rectify this situation. I called a fellow from church and he and his brother are, as we speak, turning her into hamburger. Such is life...

ID System

The ID system is working. I am very excited about it. I spent all day on the computer at the barn. I was on the phone with Dairy Plan support getting help with some reports. I can enter everything in the computer now. All my herd check information, calvings, dry dates, cull cows, everything. So that is cool. I still have a few questions about how to do things but I think I will get it figured out with time.
Dr. Gardner comes in the morning so we will see how herd check goes....

Stuff

I finished planting corn today. I feel so relaxed now... I can move onto other less stressfull projects.
We also think we have the ID thing working. We will try it in depth in the morning...
Tootaloo

Weekend Report

I must say we had a very good weekend. It is always good to meet new people and renew old friendships. Let's see, I ran into Byron Smucker and his father-in-law, Ernie Weaver. Saturday evening we were in York and sang at Tidings Of Peace. This was great fun. Though the crowd was small they were very enthusiastic. Sunday we sang at Pleasent Valley in Ephrata. Some people are very easy to visit with and Stanely Fox and his family would fall into this category. We ate lunch with them and had a very good time. Last evening we sang at a Brethern church in Chambersburg/Greencastle area. After the service the other three guys headed home. I am currently sitting in my father-in-laws living room. My family and I will be leaving here shortly. It rained at home Saturday so I need to get home and plant my last 50 acres of corn.

Tour

We leave at 8:30 in the morning for a weekend tour. We were asked to sing at a reception in PA. A good friend and cousin of mine is getting married. Lowell Yoder is his name. Anyway, we are turning the weekend into to a tour. Check the VOP site for more information. Look forward to seeing you at one of those locations...

Finally

We finally finished chopping....
Next year this is going to need to be different. Some how, some way, it cannot take us so long to get the spring work done. I cannot finish planting corn till we get another rain. Tomorrow I have some odds and ends I need to get finished up. Changing inflations, cleaning out some calf pens and the prefresh pen...
I am so relieved to be finished with field work I could weep...
Today the reverse quit working on the 4-150 White. We finished packing trench with another tractor....

Still At It

We are still cutting silage. It is really drying down and will be straw and stubble soon. I don't think we will finish today but we will come close.
I am headed out for breakfast with a buddy of mine here in about one minute...
Tonight we have a birthday party for the Zehr cousins....
I am singing at a wedding in two weeks and we practiced for that last evening.
Well I better run or I will be late...
Have a good day everybody...

Fans

With the help of my two nephews, Korwin and Marcus, I got my 60 inch fans hung yesterday morning. They move alot of air and the cows really like them.
This evening we have cottage meetings. So our group will be going to visit an old black gentleman and his wife. I need to make a list of songs to sing for them this evening. Perley is a very nice and friendly fellow. He thinks the world of my father since he donated some land to his church. Their cemetary is beside one of our fields and is about a mile from the church. Well, it is not often you get a post as diverse as this one. I hope you enjoyed it... I must run or I will be late for church. Stay cool, drink lots of water, sit under a fan....

Half Way

We arrived at tha half way point in our triticale/winter peas removal. We will start again on Monday making a pile on the ground somewhere because my trenchs are full. This is a good feeling. However, everyone is ready to be finished...
This has been an incredibly long and tiring spring. We, well Rachel really, is having a yard sale again tomorrow. I will be helping them set up before heading home to help cover trench. I need to work on hanging some fans for the cows also. It is suppose to be brutally hot this weekend... It was very hot and muggy today....

More Progress

Due to the rain shower we had last evening we were unable to start chopping till noon. We did manage to cut 20 some loads. The peas smell like garden peas. They remind of shelling peas when I was a child. Hopefully we make a large stride tomorrow.
On an entirely different note: My wife went to the eye Dr. today and discovered her glasses were too strong. The Dr. wondered if she was pregnant when she went to the Dr. the last time. The answer was no. Anyway, makes you wonder if Wal-Mart knows what they are doing when it comes to eyes...
Her new glasses should be ready tomorrow. This may explain why she has had so many headaches...

Progress

Well, some progress was made today. The new well is hooked up and running. This is great. We started cutting the triticale and peas. There will be a lot of it. I think it will be good feed. It is raining as I peck on this keyboard. I am not sure what this will mean for tomorrows game plan. We won't grumble about the rain. I refuse to do that....
The ID system is not finished. The antenna wasn't working properly. The couldn't get it tuned for some reason or another.
Have a good evening everybody...

60

Daddy turned 60 today. It is hard to believe he is really 60. 60 isn't very old any more. We had a big party for him last night. People told stories about him. Very interesting. VOP had our first full program since Jon Alan's battle with sickness. It was an honor to have Daddy present. It went very well...