Repairing

Sonny has been working on the dump truck. He has the new engine and transmission in and bolted together. It appears that we will be using this truck in the near future. I am planning on pulling the 150 towards the shop tomorrow. We need to get a blade mounted on the front of the tractor. This will allow us to move and pack silage in the trench much easier. We will move forward...

Site Plan

Here is a picture of our most recent site plan. This will probably be tweaked some but overall I like it. I realize this is rather small but it will give you an idea of what I am looking at doing. The building on the left, the rectangle with no lines in it is the existing free stall barn which holds 100 cows. The set of pens in the middle are for special needs. Sore feet, calving, sick cows, etc. The next building is the new free stall barn. This barn would hold roughly 280-300 cows. The facility closest to you is the new parlor and

holding pen and all that good stuff. We downsized the parlour to a double 16 because of room. It is now a 16/32 swing, parallel, rapid exit. I can still milk close to 150 cows an hour in this parlour.

A Tad Depressed

I lost a really good cow this morning. Sat. evening/afternoon she got all hung up in a free stall. Messed her back and her neck up. She was really in a bind. I removed two of the free stall loops so we could get her out. We put her in the bed pack barn and then she got up. She was extremely weak but once a cow gets up she usually gets better. Not this one. She laid back down and never got up again. I think the swelling in her back got worse and she ended up paralyzed. She died this afternoon. She was in her 8th lactation and had 253,000 some odd lbs of milk in her lifetime. She has also given me three or four heifer calves. Oh well, such is life. May she rest in peace. The other depressing thing is my SCC or mastitus. We were doing so well for so long and now it is rediculously high and I can't seem to get it down. Aggravating. This too shall pass but it is extremely annoying. You try to improve the technique and things get worse. Doesn't make sense to me.... Sigh

After

Much more better... (I was fairly certain I could find a before picture but I was unable to locate one. Trust me, it looked awful. It was depressing...

Lap Top Date

I am currently sitting in Main Street Cafe pecking on my lap top. My wife is browsing the web on her computer. What brought on this little escapade was our pitiful dial up service. I have been trying to put AVG 8.0 on her lap top but couldn't. This became very annoying. The phone was tied up all night and it still didn't get the job accomplished. I decided enough was enough. So, we are having a lap top date. How cool.... Her computer in now up to date and the process was quite painless.

Rain, Or Was That Sweat...

Those of you know me and have played a game of hoops with me, know how much sweat doth poor from my pores, if you know what I mean... This afternoon around three I was making salt while picking up hay. In other words I was sweating profusely. I was drenched, like I had been running through a sprinkler or had fallen in the river. We finished the hay by five. The truck and two trailers are still loaded but they were backed under a roof just in case it rained. Which it did soundly. Lovely beautiful thunderstorm.

Test Day

The milk tester was here this evening. It was a pathetic test but I was encouraged by the fact that everyone else is doing as poorly as I am. Unless you look at the Virginia Dairyman. When you look through this lovely magazine you realize how pathetic your cows are doing. Oh well. I knew they were not going to hit 60 lbs and I was right. They topped off at 57.5 lbs. Ach vell....
I could spend the next few minutes of your precious time giving you all of my grand excuses but I guess I will spare you those mind boggling facts or fiction as the case may be...
We raked our hay this afternoon and now I hear thunder pealing in the distance. Oh well, the corn needs water worse than I need the hay. Plus it doesn't really make any difference what I would like either it will rain or it won't...
Well, so long from Airy Mont
Have a goood nite everybody...

Hot

Today was rather hot. It is also a tad dry. However, I hate to complain or grumble. This afternoon the corn leaves rolled up. This is a sign of moisture defincency. However, this is only the second time I have the corn roll this summer. So, like I said, I am not complaining.
I mowed some hay today. Maybe we will rake it tomorrow.
Tonight was our first of summer Bible School. We have a two week Bible School and the girls are really excited about it.
We found some more kittens today. There are two sets around here now. One of them is a set of five and the other has a set of four.
Well, I have run out of ramblings so I shall stop/
Till next time....

Wild Life

I was crossing the bridge that spans our grand tributary known as "The Seneca" when I saw a huge hairy dog crossing the road a 100 yards in front of me. As the dog entered the brush I realized this was no ordinary dog. In fact it wasn't a dog, it was a black bear. This is the first bear I have ever seen that wasn't behind bars and fed by the local zoo man or lady. Based on my vast knowledge of bears and amount of time I saw the animal, a brief 20 seconds, I would say he was in the 2-300lb range. I contemplated getting out of the truck and traipsing into the brush with my trusty hands as a weapon. (I was feeling very much like David Crocket.) In the end common sense prevailed and passed by. I consoled myself with the joy of seeing such an animal in the wild.

Skin Color and God

This is an excerpt from one of my wife's emails to her family.
we had our 1st conversation about skin color today... and also the 1st convseration about God that he (Jayden) initiated.

We were outside and he said my hand is blue.. I said no your hand is brown and he said is your hand brown mama? I said no mine is white and yours is brown... and i showed him our hands beside each other.. I said isn't that cool?
Then he said mama where is god? I said he lives way way up in the sky.. He said, but i can't see him... I told him we can't see him but we know he is there.
cute eh... he is growing up.

VOP Practice

We are really gearing up for our Christmas album. We are scheduled to record the first of September and we due to our scheduling we oly have three more practices scheduled. Tonight, for the first time in the groups history, we recorded ourselves. To put it bluntly, it was awfull. To put it nicely, it wasn't very good. So, now we are wondering if we should be trying to record these songs. I am of the opinion we are always this bad and the recording engineer has the amazing ability to fix most of our mistakes by using modern technology. Time will tell if we will be fixable once again....
It was a fun practice....

Try Again

Farmer Girls

During one of our rains the girls decided to venture forth. They managed to squeeze into the boys fireman rain suits. They appear to be having a deep discussion. I hope they found the answer to their farm management puzzle...

More Of The Same

We had another half inch of water yesterday evening. That puts us at close to 2.5 inches this week so far. So far, since we finished chopping this spring, we have had about an inch a week. The early corn is over head tall now and is looking really good. I am humbled when I look at it. I have done nothing different this year than I have any other year. Water makes all the difference. I am very thankful...

Farm Touring

Bruce and I spent the day looking at three different farms. One is a prototype which I am not suppose to talk about yet. The second farm is a parallel double 15 rapid exit. The third was 12-24 para-bone swing parlour. I didn't really like anything I saw. Not enough to say I want this exact setup. I did see a combination of things and I now have an idea which Bruce will quote for me in the near future. What I am looking at doing would be a parallel 20-40 rapid exit swing parlour. I would like to use the prototype stall and put the swing parlour in it. This makes me really excited. Theoretically we could milk 200 cows an hour in this parlour. That would be awesome....

More Rain

More rain fell on the greater Marysville area this evening. There was some hail at one point in the storm. It appeared to be three different storms. The second storm hit thirty minuets after the first. The third seemed to swing in directly on the heels of the second. Of course I may be wrong. It may have only been two storms. Anyway, what difference does it make? It rained, end of article...

Church Picnic

We didn't have a church service tonight. Instead we met at Grandaddies pond and had a picnic. I really liked this. Alot of interaction with other folks. I wish we would do more of it....
How often does your church have a picnic or something of that nature?

McDonalds

This is the port the milk man is suppose to use for the milk hose and electrical cord that runs his pump. The children like nothing more than pretending to be at McDonalds and ordering things. Someone will be inside taking the orders and handing something out the window. Here Jayden is receiving an item or returning it, I am not sure which.

Trench

A fellow by the name of Art is coming to start digging my trench today. I think we will go 40 foot wide. I am unsure of the distance or length at this point. Rachel's parents are coming today and will be here for the weekend. I will be taking off tomorrow to work on Rachel's list. What are you doing tomorrow?

Chatting

My wife wondered if Sonny and I were talking to eachother... We weren't but we were both talking on our cell phones...

Gatorade For Cows

I bought a powder that you mix with the cows feed. Essentially it is gatorade for cows. The recommendation is to feed it through the hot spells. I decided to try it and see if it makes any difference. The cows are suppose to drink more water which does several things. More water intake would keep the cow cooler. Cows do not have the ability to sweat so they will stand around blowing or panting. Also, more water intake means more milk. I was surprised to see them continue eating well the last couple days even when it was 90 degrees and somewhat humid. Their feed intakes held steady and they were up in milk. All good things. I don't know if it can be attributed to the Gatorade or not....