Dairy Do List

Here is what is going on today....
First, I need to meet with Shannon Wisecarver. He is chipping some new ground land and I need to discuss some driveway options with him.
Second, I need to go to Rustburg and pick up Delvin's manure pump.
Third, I need to locate a tractor that will run the manure pump.
Fourth, I need to work on the manure pump.
Fifth, I need to fix some tires on the manure truck.
Sixth, I need to milk this evening.
Seventh, Finish up some feeding for Sonny.
Whew, I didn't realize there were that many things to do today...
I wish now I hadn't made the list...
Oh well....

Chopping

I said i would post a picture and here it is, finally. Unfortunately this is not my truck or chopper...

Feed

We finished chopping my corn today. I have more feed on hand than I have ever had. The trench is piled way up, probably 10-12 feet over the top of the ground. Meaning the face from the floor will be pushing 20 feet tall. The new trench is full. I have, roughly, 250 tons of triticale piled on the ground. I have a 40 by 100 bunker silo full of triticale. I am feeling very blessed. I can't believe it. We just started feeding the corn silage we cut the end of August. I am anxiously awaiting the cows response. Hopefully they decide it is time to stop playing about making milk and start making some. I would love to see them run the tank over....
Time will tell.... By the way, we cut 106 acres of corn in 13.25 hrs...

New Dimension

It is fun to watch how the baby has affected our family, Sierra probably the most. She is three years older then she was when the twins arrived. She is alot of help. What strikes me how much of a mother she is. Maybe all girls are this way, I don't know. The way she carries him, taks to him, and so on. Very neat. The boys want to hold him more than I anticipated. Aleya, has shown a maternal side as well. However, it is not as noticable as Sierra's. This is due partly to her age, I assume, it could very well be her personality... What do I know...
Life is good...

JoAnna

Kaiden meeting JoAnna...

Settling In

Well, let's see, we are home... Trying to get settled back into the routine of life, or make a new one. It is kinda cool to have a baby in the house, especially a good one... It's neat watching the children relate to a baby. Jackson yanks Kaiden's socks off everytime someone shows up. He likes to show them Kaiden's toes. Jayden loves his fingers and the girls, they just like having a baby to cuddle.
On the farm front, Surge is still trying to figure out why the ID system isn't working properly. It ID's all the cows but won't send activity information on all the cows. Right now it is missing 20 cows a milking. Not good...
Sonny is gone so I am holding down the fort. Next week we finish chopping corn and then we need to get serious about spreading manure and planting small grain.

Home

We, surprisingly, received clearance to go home at 10:30 yesterday morning. We left at 12:30 stopped in Savannah and sold my old van for $200 dollars. Disappointing but I couldn't see any other solution to the problem. We got home at 10:00 to a house full of children. Rachel's parents brought the rest of the tribe home. They will be leaving about lunch time today. I need to take the rental vehicle back by noon. I think we will be purchasing a 2003 Astro. I have always wanted one so now I get to try it out.
Kaiden is amazing. We have never had a baby this good. He eats and sleeps and looks around, fussing only when he is cold or something. Anyway, much different then our other children...

Sierra

Sierra is happy as a lark...

Small

Little Guy

Kaiden

I told you he was small. His head fits in one hand...

Wow

We met Joy, Kaiden's foster mom, at Heart Of Adoptions about 10:30 yesterday morning. I was shocked at how small Kaiden is. I must have been expecting something the size of Jay & Jack. Silly of me I know. But Kaiden is so little. Like a new born not 3 weeks old. Also, he is so good. Sierra fed him just before we left the agencyat 11:30 and, except for two squeeks he made no noise until we were at the hotel which was 4:30. Then last night he ate about 10:30 and slept till, I think it was 5, however, I can't remember. I do remember waking up at 2 and asking Rachel if he was okay. She told me she had just checked to make sure he was alive. He is something. Joy said he was like this but we were somewhat skeptical...
Sierra is in her glory. She is alwayas wanting to carry him everywhere. She is such a little mother. I think it is great. She is growing up.
The van... My van was towed to the mechanic to tune of $70, he went a block and a half. Must be good money in towing, at least in the city of Savannah. The mechanic towed it for me and he seems like a very honest man. He told me it would cost me $1800-$2000 to fix the transmission but he thought they may be able to change the oil and filter and it might get me home. This would cost me $100. So I told him to check it out. He also told me that if they drop the pan and find a bunch of metal shavings they won't fool with it. So, I think he is treating me fair. He could really take me for a ride if he wants to.

Hmmm

Well, I am currently sittitng in a Double Tree Inn west of Tampa. They just ripped me off 10 bucks to use the high speed internet. Needless to say we won't be staying here tonight... Here is the big discouraging or annoying, or what is God doing news. We were on I 95 toolilng merryily along when we decided to switch drivers. (Rachel was driving while I ate.) After settling in the drivers seat I put it in gear. Nothing happened. I restarted the van, still nothing. After trying this method several times it started moving. So I sped up until I reached the high speed of 30 mph. After which the engine kept picking up speed and the wheels didn't. So I pulled over onto the shoulder. Thankfully we were at an exit and I rolled down the exit. The van started working again but was continually getting worse. We were able to limp into a GATE parking lot. I made a few phone calls and we decided the van is not worth me putting a new transmission in (It has 200000 miles on it). We took a taxi to the Savannah Int. Airport and rented a car. So, we finally got to our motel at 3:00 this morning. We are leaving here in about 30 minutes to find a bank. Then we pick up the baby. Then we figure out what happens next....

Plans

Sonny is gone to the annual youth camp this weekend so I have weasled my brother and his sons into helping chore. Korwin rode his bike down and helped me finish milking this moring. Very nice of him. Our plans are to leave for FL as soon as I am done feeding tomorrow. I am hoping to leave by 1 or so. Plans are to pick the little fellow up at 10 Monday morning. Sonny's family is heading for IN on Thursday so I need to be home Wed. night sometime. We are praying we will get clearance to come home on Tuesday or Wednesday by noon. Thanks for your prayers...

Home

Jon and I left Hburg at 3:30 AM this morning. Got home about 6. I slept till about 9:30 AM before heading out to work. I have been reaclimating myself all day. I milked this evening. I will be milking mornings till we leave for FL to pick up kaiden. Not sure what these plans are for sure. I will be sure to keep you posted. As far as the mixing on the new album. We didn't get anywhere near finished. We actually only mixed one song. There is a reason why Jerry has won 10 Dove awards over the years. He is very good which means he is also picky. He wants it to sound muscial and wants the reverb and eq's to be right. So it tool awhile to get some of those things figured out....

Still At It

Well, I finished Sleep Sleep about 1. Then we ate lunch. We are now giving my voice a rest before I finish One Small Child. While I rest we are in the process of mixing. This is taking far too long and I really need to get home. I was planning to milk in the morning... I may be showing up in time for milking (3:30 AM). Whew... Exhaustion rules...

Uh Oh

It looks like I am losing my voice. I have a solo and one other song to finish. I tried to finish the other song tonight and I sounded so bad we decided to wait until in the morning. Hopefully a night of sleep will improve this dilemma.

News

Kaiden James Zehr
Born Aug. 26 In Tampa Fl.
Wt. 6lbs 10 ounces Length 21 inches..
He is currently in foster care...

Moving On

Well, here are the plans. I am leaving with the guys in about thirty minutes. We sing at Rivermont tonight. Service starts at 6:30 after which we are headed back to the studio. If we get there in time and Jerry is still there we will probably do some recording yet tonight. We will be there till late tomorrow night. Whatever we get done in that amount of time is what we will have on the album. We will be coming home tomorrow night and then I will be trying to get back in the groove on the home front.

Day, What is it?

It always amazes me how easily time disappears. The world disappears time stops. We have been in the studio, everyday this week, from 8:30-11-11:30 at night. So, we have come to the conclusion we will not be able to get all the songs done we had originally picked. We have dropped two hard songs and added several easier songs. We also may record several songs around one mic as a group. We will see....

Whew!!!

Let'd see. I went in the studio at 2:00 and finished at 6:00. Jon is working on his now. I hope his goes faster than mine. Anyway, just a brief update...

Moving On

So, finished First Light last evening and moved forwards. We finished uup Tiny King before heading for sleep. Ben has been laying down both of his bass parts for our first Rumsey piece, Good Christians Now Rejoice. He has been sinign since 8:30 this morning... He should be finished in about 15 min. Then I will begin laying down my tracks. Looks like we may only get one song down today. We really need two so we shall see...
I love recording.... Seeing these songs come together and hear them all put together...

By The Way

If you want to hear a clip of some songs, you can visit Bool's Blog by clicking on the link on the side bar...

More Stuff

Well, yesterday was discouraging. We were working on In The First Light. We never finished the song. It is an 11 part song so it is very long as far as studio time. We worked on it for 12 hrs yesterday and got about two thirds finished. Consider we are stacking each voice 4 times, meaning we will have 44 voices on this song. The song is going to be an awsome song. The problem is getting all the songs done we want to get done. Hopefully today will go better. We still have 3 more tough songs to do. We shall see....

Long Days

Well, we are striving forward. It is a very time consuming process. We are recording in amuch different manner than we ever have before. It is much more relaxed in one sense but is taking longer per song in the studio. We are recording each person individually. We go in as a group and put down one track which we use as a guide. Then we each go in by ourselves and put down our parts. It is fun and I am enjoying it. After everyone has laid down their part the song is pretty much finished. Jerry Yoder, the enginer/producer, is editing and mixing as he goes so we there will be very little if any post recording work. Jerry Yoder has quite a resume. He has 10 dove awards and is a drummer. He lives in Nashville, however, his roots are Grantsville MD. In fact, I think he is related to me. He has been fun to work with. Well, time to get some more food or something. We finished two songs yesterday and are just now finishing up our first song for today. WE have to get two a day or we won't get all our songs done this week. It will be a long evening....