Bobcat

We have had this problem with the Bobcat for three years and never could figure out what the problem was. It would not run properly, like it was lacking for fuel. I had an electrical in-line fuel pump I put it on it once and it made no difference. We tried various things over the years and never could figure it out until last week. One morning we checked the engine oil and here it was way over full. Sonny immediately suggested that fuel must be getting in the oil but we didn't know how unless it was through the fuel pump some how. So we called the Bobcat people and asked them about it. They said it probably was the fuel pump. We ordered one and put it on. What a difference. It runs properly now. It is so nice. It it would stop developing new hydraulic oil leaks we would be in business...

Frigid

Once again we are having some very frigid weather. This morning it was about 20 with a windchill of 7. Tomorrow morning is suppose to be 9. I don't know what the wind chill will be. Beautiful weather. Very brilliant, high, clear sky. When the temperature gets much below freezing we never have any kind of precipitation. It's too cold too snow...
I will need lots of clothes in the morning when I go to milk...

Geografacts

We found this game at a used store after Christmas. Have you ever heard of it? It is fun and very informative. It is like a world history and geography class for those of us who can't remember what we learned in school...

Snow

It snowed this morning. This afternoon it turned to sleet before finishing off with rain. It was a very wet and cold rain. I was driving the skidloader for a while this afternoon and my hands were numb by the time I got finished. I don't like that so much. I love the snow and wish we would get more of it.

Awards

Once a year DHIA has this meeting. At this meeting they go over some items that have to do with how much the tester gets paid and some other budget things. They also hand out awards. This year two were sent home for me, I was unable to go plus I didn't know about it. They were both for SCC (Somatic Cell Count or Mastitus). One was for the most improved count and the other one for having the lowest count. I was tickled. This means we are doing a really good job. This affects all areas of a milking herd which means more money or more production or something. Anyway, enough bragging...

Slow Going

Today I had high hopes of taking some more junk to Cycle Systems. However, I could not get the truck we use to pull the goose neck started. We spent all day fiddling with it and never did get it started. Well, Sonny spent most of the day on it. We also discovered the Bob Cat is way to much engine oil. We couldn't figure this out except that some fuel must be getting in the oil. It is an air cooled engine so water wouldn't be the problem. We called JFC of Roanoke and they informed Sonny on the phone that it probably is the fuel pump. It is a Diaphragm pump and this diaphragm is probably wore out and cracked letting fuel into the oil. So we ordered the fuel pump. Let's see, then I milked and went to the house. By this time it was 6:00 PM. A whole day gone and not much to show for it...

Old 4020

This tractor was purchased new in 1968 by my grandfather. The engine has been overhauled at least twice. Apparently we will need to overhaul it again this winter. It locked up on me this morning. It was low in oil. In our defense it was using quite a bit of oil. Still, it shouldn't of happened. I am so annoyed with myself...

Hair Cuts

I am wondering how many of the male population have their locks shortened by the lady of the household? Some of you cut it yourself. This would be disastrous for me. Everything is backwards in the mirror and I would probably remove my ears from the head.
My wife has been cutting my hair for quite sometime. She has this habit of bouncing the clippers off of my head. Tonight I finally told her I felt like runway on a windy day with an inexperienced pilot. Here it comes and then SLAM on my and bouncing for a few yards before smoothing out and running smoothly along the contours of my skull. I calmly informed her of this rather annoying occurrence. After I relayed this information to her the clippers landings seemed to smooth out. I must say the haircut looks very nice...

Expansion

This evening Darrell Carol stopped by on his monthly supply run. I told him about my expansion idea and that I had a few thoughts concerning baby calf housing and I wandered what his opinion was. He promptly told me I should go with him down to Van-Derhyde dairy and see their operation. So I did. They are milking 1000 cows 3x a day. They have a 36 stall rotary parlor, very nice setup. For calf housing they use a greenhouse. I really like the way this looks and I think this is what I am going to do. It had a vented roof for air flow as well as moving stale air out of the barn. I couldn't smell a thing in this vented barn. They had another house they put up which they didn't put the vent in the roof. I was amazed at the difference. I have made up my mind on this one...

Hobbling

Last evening as I wandering around the farm with some purpose I found a nail protruding from a board. Lying across this upright projectile was a piece of plastic. This nail found it's way into my foot. So I have been hobbling around all day today. It has been somewhat painful at times. My tetanus shot is up to date so lock jaw should not be an issue. Hopefully this pain in the foot will remove itself in the next day or so...

Fun Fun

Here they are headed out to find the Dolphins. Looks like Sierra is bonding well with Uncle Rod...

Highlight

Rod's took Sierra and Carla on a boat trip. This trip was to see Dolphins. I think this was a highlight for them.

Fireplace

How many of you have a fireplace and how many of you use them regularly?

Hot Milk

We have a warning light mounted on the outside of the milk house. This light is clearly visible from the house. I noticed it was on when they finished milking this evening so I went to investigate. I discovered the milk temperature was 50 some degrees, much to hot. So I did some investigating and discovered something in the systems brain isn't functioning properly. I manually started both compressors and they worked. So for some reason they are not receiving the signal to come on. In other words, the compressors think the milk is already cold. I have to go out and turn them off after while. If I don't, I will have a tank full of frozen milk.

Determination

No matter what happens I am gonna eat this whole thing.. This set of pictures were taking by my MIL while we were at Dairy Queen in Breezewood the other night. These pictures were not posed in any way shape or form. In fact, I never knew she had taken them until she sent them via email the other evening. They are classic...

Hmm

Where do I start?

First

You gotta open your mouth real wide...

For Best Results

Stick your toungue out as far as possible

Oh Yeah

Life is good...

Brrr

It is currently 13 degrees outside. This is quite rare for us southern folks. Upper teens is rather normal. Low teens is unusual and single digits is shocking. But by this weekend we will be having highs of 50 and lows of 40. Not bad for Jan.

Back In Virginia

We arrived home around 4:30 this evening. We have some pictures from the trip on the lap top we are going to look at here shortly. I will probably post some of them sometime in the future. Good to be home.

Back At Grandpa's

We just got back from the airport. Sierra is very sleepy and isn't talking much. I think we will need too take a nap before we head for VA. I was very tired and finally had Dad drive the last hour. I will take a nap and we will see how the day goes and then head for home...

Waiting

I just talked to Sierra on the phone. She is busy eating chicken finegers and a cheeseburger. They have four more hours to burn before they lift off. She is having fun and is a little tired. She is excited about coming home which is nice. So, I will see her in the morning.

Landed

The ladies are currently waiting in a long line to go through customs. They left Los Mochis late and landed early in LA.

Lift Off

They have lifted off. In fact, they are in the air and have been in the air since 3:07 Mexico time. They have 45 more minuets till they land...

Awaiting Lift Off

I just checked Sierra's flight status and they were awaiting lift off. They are scheduled to land in LA at 4:08 LA time and will have a nice layover. The flight out of LA leaves at 10:20 which will bring them into Dulles at 6:02 AM Wed. morning.

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...

Curiosity

So, what did you do today?

Adoption Supper

Tonight is our annual adoption supper. This is a supper in which we attempt to honor the children who have been adopted. My sister's family will be joining us, they have two adopted children. We will try also to honor those who have been adopted by God. The ones who have accepted Jesus as their Saviour.

Favorite/Best

Are favorite and best the same thing? You have a favorite musical group but that doesn't mean they are the best musical group, does it? Or is you favorite musical group the best one around?

Bad Day Part II

The power guys showed up about an hour later to reconnect the line to the transformer. They wanted to disconnect the fuse at the main power line. The main line runs through our pre-fresh pen. We currently have a rather vigorous or hyper active heifer in this group. She runs at people and makes them think she is going to gore them. So, one of the line guys went meandering down through the pasture. He seemed to be a tad nervous and was continually looking over his shoulders and wondering when an animal would pursue him. He was half way across the pasture when this heifer noticed his presence. This put her in a very hyper mood and she went galloping off across the field. This brought the line man out of his meandering and caused him to stride with a purpose towards the fence. His purposeful stride turned into a gallop and in a few seconds he was hurdling the fence like and Olympic gold medalist. I decided I should meander out and make sure the local paramedic wasn't needed to calm his racing heart. When I arrived on the premise we had a little discussion about what had transpired. I told him that animal had a very inquisitive nature and seemed to enjoy scaring people. He informed me he was sure he was going to hear about this caper for quite some time. I am sure he will. He had to feel rather silly as he watched me shoo the animal away from a distance of 10 feet.

Bad Day

I mentioned the other day I needed to fill you in on some details concerning our transformer and the lack of power to the house. I had a load of feed delivered on Saturday. The first thing the driver told me was We are going to have a mess when we dump this load. When we were loading a board got broke off the top of the trailer and my tarp got knocked inside the trailer. So my tarp is buried under the feed. In his defense, it was dark when he loaded so he was having a difficult time seeing, I guess...
Anyway, He got his rig turned around and backed into the bay and began to dump. I went about my business working on feeding the cows. I came back by a few minuets later and he wanted to talk to me. He wanted to explain to me why a board on the face of the shed was broke. He backed up to far with his trailer way up in the air and broke the board. So, in his words, he felt about half an inch tall. After this incident he did get the trailer emptied and it was then I discovered what a mess we had on our hands. His tarp was buried under the whole load. To make a long story short I moved 80% of the load back out of the bay to get his tarp. In the process I ruined his $1000 tarp. (I was doing what he instructed me to do so I didn't feel responsible for this negative affect on his bank account. It took me a good 30 minuets to uncover his tarp. By now the driver was very out of sorts. This had never happened to him before and he was very sorry and how much does he owe me for my time. I told him not to worry about it. It wasn't a big deal. He finally gave me $20 for fuel and left. I didn't pay any attention to him as he left because I was bust putting the feed back in the bay. The next thing I noticed was him stopped in front of the house walking around and looking at stuff. The poor fellow had gotten so distraught he had forgotten to lower his trailer when he left. When the trailer is in the dump position it is a good 30 feet in the air. We have over head electric service to the house and his trailer caught the lines and jerked them out of the transformer. The ladies informed me it sounded like the end of the house was going to fall down. The driver was very apologetic and offered to pay for this as well. I am afraid he will have to. I will see how much the electric company charges to reconnect the lines. I don't know how tall he felt by this time. He did wonder How much we would charge too take him home...

Doughnuts

We didn't have church this evening so we decided to make some doughnuts. Gloriously large, golden, doughnuts. I fried them or floated them in oil, while Sierra and Aleya took turns placing them in the bowl Rachel was using to glaze them. Then, after eating two wonderful cheese filled bratwursts I had two wonderful doughnuts with a cup of coffee. We had a wonderful time... When did you last make doughnuts?

News

First, I went on a shopping spree thursday morning. Staples had a lap top on sale for $350 and we had decided to go ahead and purchase one. So I went out bright and early for this early bird special. I arrived on the premises and discovered a line roughly 100 yards long. I stood in line about ten minutes before they opened the store. In the five minutes it took me to get to the door my lap top was gone. So I left without entering the store. I went to some other stores and decided they were too expensive so I left and headed home. On the way home I decided to go to the Wal-Mart in Altavista. This I did and discovered they had a seceret sale on a lap top for $350. So I bought it. In fact I am doing this update from my lap top sitting at my kitchen table. How cool is that....
In the near future I will do a post on how the electric lines got tore out of my transformer this afternoon. No one was hurt or anything but they could have been I guess....
More on this later...

Aleya

My sweet mischievous four year old. I love her to pieces

Expansion

I am in the process of gathering information concerning the possibility of expanding. I am looking at putting in place 5-10-15 year plan that will get me to 150 milking cows. This will be a rather long and tedious process for two major reasons. The first being I don't intend to borrow money or buy cows. The second reason consists of upgrading some of the facilities. My reason for looking at expanding is rather simple. I want my boys to have something that will support them when the time comes. If I don't expand I am not sure I will survive. I need to be able to spread my costs out over more cows which will make it cheaper to operate thus allowing me to stay in business.

Anne

Lately Anne has been a hot topic around our house. Tonight Sierra and I were doing a Light Brite creation in her closet and she was just a yammering away about her day and right in the middle of her stream of words and sentences she asked me if she was talking to much. This made me laugh. It sounded so much like Anne of Green Gables. We have this tape series which was done by Focus On The Family. The series covers the first book and is fairly accurate and is done quite well. The girls want to listen to it all the time and now they tend to throw Anne phrases around in normal conversation. The longer I heard the tapes the more I wanted to read the books. So I have started the series and was surprised how much of the story I had forgotten. Of course it has been ten years or more since I read them...
For our 10th anniversary we went to PEI and visited Green Gables, the Haunted Woods and a few other points of interest. This has made the books more interesting.

Troy Williams

I learned here a week ago or so that the Minnesota Vikings team owner asked his head coach to reconsider his position concerning the Troy Williams case. The coach took the issue up with his leadership team, his words not mine, (I wonder if he has Mennonite background) and they unanimously voted that Troy should be paid for his leave of absence. Troy was pleased about this and took the $25000 game check and donated it all too charity in honor of his grandmother.

Proud Boys

The boys are so pleased with their new clothes. Jackson is always sticking his toungue out in this manner when he is pleased with himself or is getting attention. Jayden appears to be copying him.

Gingerbread House

Last weekend I bought a Gingerbread House when I took Sierra out on her birthday date. Here we are working at putting it together....

Sierra

I just like this picture...

Scrap Metal

We loaded a dump truck load of junk machinery and scrap metal to haul to cycle systems. We then loaded the cattle trailer with aluminum roofing that came off of the shed and we will take it tomorrow morning. I think they are paying 6-7 cent a lb on scrap metal. I don't know what they are paying for aluminum. We shall see. I have plenty of scraps lying around here I would like to get hauled in the next few weeks...

Hay

Due to our record low rainfall I have purchased a 25 ton load of Timothy/Alfalfa hay. It arrived via tractor trailer this afternoon at @3:00. I unloaded him and sent back on his way with a check. This load cost $230.29 a ton. Freight is what drives the cost up. On the farm it is $145 a ton. If you know of a better deal let me know...

Liquid Nitrogen

I was shocked to hear liquid nitrogen has rocketed to $335 a ton. Typically, nitrogen is cheaper in the fall than the spring. However, I have decided this is an absorbent price and I am going to go a different route. I am going to try to get some turkey or chicken litter from up in the valley, Harrisonburg. This is much cheaper per ton. I can get litter delivered for $32 a ton and if I put two tons to the acre it is still cheaper than liquid nitrogen. I hope it works. If anyone from the valley reads this and know of someone who has litter to sell, let me know.

Franklin Heights (Part II)

Singing at Franklin Heights was quite an experience. First, the sanctuary seats close to 1400 people. Huge place. Second, they had an amazing sound system. Wireless microphones. Was very nice to not be stepping on my cord all night long. Third, they had two large screens behind us and to the side. They then had us on these screens for the whole program/concert. Fourth, they dimmed the lights. That was a first. I didn't particularly care for this because I couldn't see the people in the audience very well. I enjoyed singing there and look forward to going back in the future.

Franklin Heights Baptist Church

VOP will be singing in Rocky Mount VA tonight. Service starts at 6:30. We will be leaving the Gladys area about 3:30. Josh will be meeting us at the church about 4:30. They have redone the sanctuary since we were there last. It has been several years since the last time we sang for them.

Another Date

So, I finally took Sierra out for her birthday. Funny how things change. As little as a year ago she didn't have much to say. This appears to have changed. She now seems to have lots of things on her mind.
This afternoon I mowed some yard, hopefully for the last time this year. I don't have much more to say so I won't say it....

Troy Williams

I was surprised to hear this morning on ESPN radio that Troy Williams took a leave of absence from the Minnesota Vikings last weekend to go to his grandmothers funeral. This doesn't sound very earth shattering unless you hear a few more details. One detail was the fact that his grandmother raised him. The second fact was that he had to miss a game. The third fact was he was docked one game worth of pay, $25,000, by team ownership. I cannot believe someone would be so uncaring... They said the decision was based on business principal. Really? What does that mean. I was glad to hear that Troy Williams also said that the team could have docked him the rest of this years paycheck and he still would have went home. What would you do if your boss did this to you?

Odyssey

Last night on the way home we were listening to odyssey. In short the story was about a set of parents who separated because their differences were irreconcilable. Today, Sierra said Wouldn't it be sad if you and Mama broke up? I said Yes it would.... I wonder how many parents have wounded their children because of differences they are not willing to work out...

All Home

I left this afternoon @ 2:30 for Harrisonburg VA. I met Rachel's parents and my family at Wal-Mart on 33 east of I 81. We switched the car seats over to our van and headed for McDonalds before heading home. We got home about 15 minutes ago. It is so nice to have the family here...

Main Street Cafe

A new cafe has opened in Altavista VA. It is located on main street in a remodeled bank. I believe it is a remodeled bank because they have what is called a Vaulted Conference Room. You can have a conference and eat in the old vault. Very nice. I must put a big plug in for these fine people. The people who opened the cafe are Christian people who want to help keep young people out of trouble. The goal was to give young people some thing to do after school. Something to help keep them out of trouble. Tonight a buddy of mine and I went for supper. We got there not long before closing time. We ordered and ate and then she asked us if we wanted more soup. They were just going to throw it away anyway. We both said sure we would love more soup. So we had more soup. Those of you in the area really should go eat at this wonderful cafe....

Home Again!

I am home again. My wife and the children are not going to be coming till Tuesday evening. When I got home I drove out to the barn to see if I could let the cows out. When I got out of the van my nose was hit with the aroma of cows and feed. The first thought that went through my mind was Man, it is good to be home....

Life

Finally have an internet connection again. Tuesday morning we once again loaded things. We left Middlefield with Grandpa driving Rod's van, Grandma driving their van with a six foot picnic table and some outside benchs strapped to the top. Rachel was driving our van and I was driving the Uhaul. A very nice Uhaul. It was a 2007 model with only 8000 miles on it. We arrived at the rental house in Harrisonville, PA around 5:00 in the evening. We unloaded the vans and the trailer I was pulling with the Uhaul truck. Wed. Morning we unloaded the truck. We had to put all the stuff in the basement except for some large furniture which we put in the garage. The lady was not out yet. Needless to say this was a very trying thing. We were unable to do anything yesterday. I was going to trim some shrubs but I was told I needed to leave by a very angry man. So I meekly left with my tail between my legs, never to be seen or heard from again. They were totally moved out this morning so we once again moved things from the basement upstairs. I am very weary and sore. Tommorow sometime I will be headed home. Rachel will be staying to help Grandma get more settled, or unsettled as the case may be. Aside from some tense moments I would say we are still on speaking terms and still love eachother.....
So this is what we have been going through.....

Moving

Rachel's parents are moving to Breezewood, PA this week. As you know Rod's are in Mexico and they left a lot of stuff in Dad's garage. So, Dad and I have been loading a 26 foot U haul and a 6x12 foot U haul trailer since 1:30 this afternoon. Lots and lots of stuff. oooo my I and the pop-in-law are shot......
My feet hurt.....
My back hurts....
Ok, I will stop wining and complaining now.
I will say this, we did a very good job...... We got a lot of stuff in that trailer and the truck.....

Sales - Birthday Party - Travel

Yesterday was the school sale, our fifth. It went really well. I am always some what surprised by the ability of our people to work together on this huge project. I find it very rewarding in that regard.
Last evening after the dust settled we had Sierra's birthday party with Grandpa Kauffman's.
Some time today we will be heading for OH to help Grandpa Kauffman move to Breezewood.
One funny little note from yesterday during the auction. We had a rocking chair we were going to auction off and my Mother-In-Law found it be quite comfortable during the sale. (We didn't have room to put it on the stage.) I was the one deciding what we were going to sell when and I suddenly had this funny little idea. When I decided to sell it she was still sitting in the chair and I told the auctioneer to tell the audience we were going to sell the Grandma in the rocking the chair......

Flood Watch

We are currently under a flood watch until sometime tonight. I would guess we have had close to 5 inches so far. We have %100 chance of rain today and into the night with a %50 chance of showers tomorrow morning.

School Sale

Our fifth annual school sale and benefit auction is upon us. Rachel and I along with Norman and Dorcas Yoder are in charge of the auction. We will be quite busy the next several days. I am looking forward to it. I find it to be an exciting and challenging event. I think this has been used to touch lives also...

More Rain

It began raining just before lunch and rained till almost three. They are calling for rain the next three days or so. The interesting thing is our annual school sale/benefit auction is this Saturday. The last three years or so it has rained each school sale weekend. I am beginning to think we should have the school sale in July or early August. Maybe it would rain in the summer if we did...

Technology (Or Not)

We seem to be living in a state of technology deficiency that is less than some third world countries. We keep discovering it will be two years till high speed internet is available. So, we have checked into satellite internet, not TV. Do any of you have it? Do you like it? I have talked to one person who has it and he can't stand it however, he also says it is much better than dial up....
PS The wife and I had our date tonight. Twas great....

Date Day

This morning Grandma took Aleya on a date. While this occurred Sierra went with her Grandpa and her Daddy over to Dons to drop of some heifer calves. This afternoon Sierra went with Grandma on a date. Grandpa went along. He has gotten fed up with dial up internet and decided it was high time to sit in the library and use some wireless internet so he could get somethings done. Meanwhile, Aleya went with Daddy to Brookneal to get some milk- replacer. Rachel had to stay home all day but at least she didn't have all the kids all the time... Maybe I should take her out on a date, what do you think?

Zoo

The Natural Bridge Zoo was a big hit. We were too late for the elephant rides however. The monkeys, my favorite, were pretty boring. They had a bear cub that was very active and giraffes were neat. They had two baby camels which we were able to pet. The tigers were growling. The boys were running all around enjoying themselves until the Lamas that run loose came up and tried to give them kisses...

Today's Plans

I just got in from milking and Rachel left a few minutes ago for some huge yard sale or something up in Lynchburg. I think they have nice stuff for little money...
We are planning on going to Natural Bridge Zoo this afternoon. The website says they offer elephant rides now so we will see how that works out. Sierra says she will get on one if someone goes with her. We shall see.