Didn't Happen

Well, what I wanted to do today didn't happen. Mainly hauling manure. I did get some calves vaccinated, a month late but it is done. Dwayne, the neighbor who is building our pond, and I went and found the pond site this morning. The fellow is there chipping timber and wanted to know where the site was. I got a load of wood and delivered it. We also got the stalls bedded. They were badly in need of some attention. So, we had a profitable day but it wasn't in the area I was hoping for. We try again tomorrow....
Oh yes, it is drizzling this evening. We have not had rain for a month. Hopefully it will rain all night...

35

Today I turned 35. It strikes me that I am nearing 40. Five short years and I will be 40. Being 40 doesn't bother me at the moment. I do wonder what and where life will take us, my family, in the next five years.
Tomorrow I start hauling manure, hopefully. I am hoping to cover the land the chopper finished before I leave for recording. Next week I will be in the studio all week. I am excited about it. It has been a long time, two years, since we recorded...

Good Feeling

We started in again yesterday morning about 9:00 and we finished about 5:00. We had some truck trouble which slowed us down. So in 9.5 hours we cut roughly 980 tons. We finished covering the trench about 7 or 7:30. Man I slept so good last night. I have never had so much fun chopping. Very stress free way to harvest. I am contemplating doing something in the spring with my small grain. We shall see. It will be about two weeks till the rest of the corn is ready.

Let The Games Begin

We started chopping at 4:00 last evening. We quit about 7:45. In that period of time we cut close 50 loads and covered 25 acres. I love it. We are just a rolling with Joe Motley's machine. I will post pictures in the very near future....

Topic Notes

Here are my topic notes from my wed. eve. topic.
Facing Evil
Facing The Devil
Facing Opposition
In The Face Of The Devil

1. WWII people faced evil. People were willing to face evil and die. Folks put themselves in grave danger to aid the Jews. Civil War was similar. Maybe every war…
2. Do we face opposition today? How do we face opposition? How would I react?
3. Am I/you so complacent we would fail the test?
4. How can we combat complacency?
5. How did Jesus face opposition?
WWII
Pull facts out of the Nazi Crimes against ethnic Poles paper….
Examples of people who faced opposition and lost.
Judas: Matt. 26:14 Judas offers to betray Jesus.
Peter: Luke 22: 54-62 Peter denies Christ. Why?
Pilate: Matthew: 27: 24 The closest Pilate comes to winning is washing his hands of the affair.

I have a few examples of people who won. People who were resolved. People who were determined to live the life they felt God had called them to. There are lots of examples of people who faced opposition and won. Stephen, Paul, Peter, John the Baptist…
Examples of people who won.
Read some of the Martyrs Mirror accounts of people who were killed. People who were resolved.
John The Baptist:
John The Baptist had told Herod it was not proper or lawful for him to have his brother Phillip’s wife. Acts 12: 2 John the Baptist is murdered
James the Son of Zebedee Page 13
Phillip: Stoned with his head to a pillar.
The Ebonites, denied the trinity of Christ and worshiped idols, continued obstinately in their blasphemous doctrines and idolatry, and did not listen to this pious apostle of Christ, but apprehended him, and, having made his head fast to a pillar, stoned him.
James the Lesser
A cruel young man, being the high priest, summoned him before the judges. The goal was to compel him to deny that Jesus was the Christ. They wanted him to renounce the Son of God and the power of His resurrection. So they placed him on the pinnacle of the temple at the time of the passover so he could make his denial publicly. However, he proceeded to boldly confess that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah. Because of this testimony people praised God and magnified the name of the Christ. Then the enemies of truth cried: Oh, the just has also erred; let us take him away for he is unprofitable. So the threw him off of the temple roof and stoned him. But neither the fall or the stoning killed him. Having only broken his legs, he lying on his knees prayed for those who stoned him. One of the priests begged for James’s life. However another man had a fullers stick and struck him over the head with it, so that he died.
Barnabas:
Barnabas was badly treated by a sorcerer who stirred up the Jewish population. They decided not to take him before the judge because they were afraid Barnabas’s innocence would be discovered and he would be released. They put a rope around his neck and dragged him out of the city and burned him.
Mark Page 18
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was put in prison for preaching without a license. At one point they told him that if he would agree not to preach he could go home. He had a wife and 5-6 children. Bunyan would not compromise. He was stuck in prison. In fact Pilgrim’s Progress was written while he was in prison. Bunyan didn’t die in prison. The government changed the law and he was freed. While John Bunyan was in prison he wrote many books. He had written 60 books by the time he died at the age of 60.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Pages 3 and 4
So how do we face opposition? Evil is a scary thing. Pain is a scary thing. How do we face it? The Bible says we will not face anything we are not able to bear. Is this comforting?
Are we facing opposition today? Is the evil we face today more subtle? It is pretty obvious what the Nazis were doing was wicked and evil and I assume we would agree that helping those who are being persecuted would be a good thing. However, it may be harder to stand up for Truth, the Gospel, for Jesus Christ then to stand up against the Nazis.
How do we go about resisting evil without using carnal force? How do we stand with others against evil? We, Mennonites, try to keep peace by avoiding the issues. Then, when an issue needs to be dealt with, typically, people have bad attitudes and can’t function or relate to each other in a way that would resolve the issue. The Bible talks about resisting evil with love. This is how Jesus did it. Of course, they killed Him. HE won.
To win spiritually could mean death or “premature” death. It could mean persecution of some kind. We need to realize that living for Christ could or will lead us into painful territory. Friendships may be affected, family ties may need to be severed or changed. These are things that are painful and possibly could be referred to as “emotional persecution“. Acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and living for Him will bring trials and struggles. If we are going to win in the spiritual sense we need to be firmly resolved to the fact that Jesus is who He said He was. If we are firmly resolved to this fact nothing will deter us from our goal. The goal of living a Christ like life. Living the life we believe God has called us to live. The goal of doing the Father’s will no matter what.
Jesus:
John 5:16 The Jews continued to persecute Jesus. This was not an isolated incident. This was a continual action. The Jews were determined to keep Jesus from accomplishing his mission. Jesus was resolved.
Luke 6: 9-11 Jesus knew the scribes and Pharisees wanted a reason to accuse Him. Anything, they were looking for ways to accuse and condemn Him. Jesus knew this yet He remained resolved in the face of opposition. He heals the man and tells the scribes and Pharisees that refusal to do good on the Sabbath was completely opposite of God’s design. Because Jesus revealed or showed them this evil concept they responded with anger.
Mark 12: 38-40 Jesus tells the Jewish leaders the facts. Facts they don’t want to hear. He condemns them and ultimately this is why they crucified Him.
Jesus was victorious over death…
Those who have put there trust in the Father will also be victorious. Rev. 19: 17-21 Rev. 20 4-10

A Discovery

I had a phone call from Joe Motley this morning. He is a neighboring farmer and I have known him for quite some time, ten years at least. Well, he called this morning and told me he was coming to cut my corn this week. This made me rather weak in the knees, so to speak. We have two working days left until he is planning to arrive on Thursday morning. I feel like we have a good weeks worth of work to do before he gets here.
The trench is not finished. They are hoping to pour the floor Wed. afternoon.
The tractor is not ready. 4-150 broke a gear in the reverse department. It is apart and ready to go together.
I found a snowplow this morning that we have to have to push silage with. However, it needs to be reconfigured to fit the front of the tractor.
Also, the big dump truck needs one good day of personal attention...
Such is life. I am sure something will happen but I don't know what....

Tripping Home

We arrived at Baltimore's Inner Harbour around 11:45 yesterday morning. We then walked down to the food court and patronized Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Our tickets for the aquarium were for 1:00 PM. So, after eating we went directly to the aquarium entrance. After entering the first thing on the agenda was the dolphin show. The children loved it. They were wowed by the dolphin's leaps and splashes. I, however, was disappointed. It was a very lame show in comparison to the Sea World show I saw in Orlando. Of course there is a big difference between a dolphin and Shamu the great white whale. But it was an enjoyable day. The children really enjoyed it. They were feeding this turtle a truck load of lettuce. That would have been a miserable job, in my opinion.
We left Baltimore about 4:30 and headed home. We went down to DC and got on 495 W. We then went around DC and got on I 66 W. We traveled west on 66 to rt. 29 S. Everything went well for a while. We traveled S on 29 until we hit this detour for some reason. We were sent N at the rapid pace of 10 mph for probably 10 miles, well it felt like 10 miles. But they sent us right back to 66 W. If I would have known that I would have stayed on 66 to start with. So we took 66 W to 17 S. This brought us back to 29. We did arrive home about 9:30-10:00 or so.

Baltimore MD

Rachel's parents, Carla and our tribe are headed to the Baltimore Aquarium today. We have tickets for 1:00. I have always wanted to go. I hear it is a fantastic venue. I am currently sitting in Grandpa Kauffman's living room. The sun light is streaming through the window. I have a feeling if I would step outside it would be a very crisp morning. Last night I was reunited with Sierra, she has been here with Grandpas for about ten days. We had a picnic, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows as well as making elephant ears on top of the fire. I am rather partial to elephant ears. Much better than marshmallows.
Also, I must mention the grand discovery I made last evening. When I turned on the computer the mouse touch pad thing did not work. I could not figure it out. I finally discovered this button at the top of the touch pad. This button allows you to turn the touch pad on and off. I was so excited. When I try typing with the touch pad on I end up with my cursor some place else without my permission or knowledge. Anyway, now I won't have that annoying problem anymore....

Ice Cream

I am currently listening to the ice cream machine churning its way round and round in tight circle. I think it is slowly slowing... How many of you make ice cream? What flavors do you make? Are you a hand crank kind of ice cream guy/girl?

Trench

The fellows came today and started forming the walls for the trench. I don't know if they are planning on pouring the one wall tommorow afternoon or not. It looks like we will be chopping a week earlier than I anticipated. Which is good because I am scheduled to be in the recording studio the first week of September. It is hard to be in two places at once, I have noticed....
Anyway, I was getting a little nervous because they hadn't showed up yet this week...

Dress Up

Dressing up, or down as the case may be, has become a normal occurance. Lately the boys have gotten into the act as well. I must say, these boys make fine looking girls... If that is a possibility....

Crazy Cats

We have had two litters of cats this summer by two different mamma cats. We have found and lost them several times. We found a batch of four this afternoon. I was able to catch one, poor sod was scared spitless. Well, I guess not because it spent a lot of time spitting, biting and scratching. Wild eyed little monster... I like cats as a general rule. I held this one for five minuets or so and by the time a let it go it was relaxing a tad. It will be interesting to see if it starts to calm down and how long it will take to do so...

Trench

Well the trench took a turn towards finished today. The poured the footer this afternoon. Took 20 yards for the footer. Turned out the trench is only going to be about 30 foot wide. I decided to make it as long as possible so it will be 200 ft. long.

Riverville Trip

I am headed to Riverville today. There is a factory there that has huge belts in it. (What a poor sentence...) Anyway, they replace this fabric or felt every so often. It is free for the taking. We have been running a tad short so I will be making a trip to get some today. I am taking the goose neck trailer so we can get as much as possible. When we get these fabric belts they are in 20x30 or 30x30 pieces. We use them when we cover trench. You don't need near as many tires. Which means less work.

Trimmed

Hoof trimmer was here today and trimmed 70 cows. I was pleased with his efforts. The cows feet were very healthy. We had a few problems but not very many....

ID System Update

Friday I decided to do some research. I was wondering how many cows I had bred in the month of July. So I found a report in PCDart/DHIA that showed me the last twelve months. In July of 2007 I bred 12 cows. In July of 2008 I bred 32 cows. This is a huge improvement. I am still having some issues with the ID loop. It needs to be reconfigured. It is currently set up as a feeder. So it will ID the cow but not always send activity information. I feel fairly certain this is because a feeder doesn't really need to do anything but ID the cow. We will be setting it up as sort gate in the coming week, I hope. Hopefully this will fix the problem. A sort gate is designed to send a lot of information at one time. Nastitus cows or sick cows or lame cows or cows in heat would all be sorted out through a sort gate. My milking equipment is so outdated I cannot use any of this technology. This is why they set it up as a feeder instead of a sort gate initially. Ok, I will stop before I confuse you further....

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....

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...

ID System

I have been slowly putting on the legbands or Rescounters as they are officially called. I have successfully attached 50 of these so far. I have 90 more to go. The antenna should be installed on Monday and then I will be able to know more things about my cows and how active they are. Today I plan to plant 40 some odd acres of corn. The early corn is up and is looking good...

FInished Wheat

We finished the wheat this evening. We cut 122 loads total. The trench is full so we will be doing something else with the triticale. It still is not ready. Very little grain in the heads. So, we will chop some hay tomorrow and then cover the trench. They may be coming to install the Electronic ID system tomorrow and the well man will be coming also... I hope. We are currently out of water and I seem to have trouble cleaning up without it....

Look Back/Look Ahead

Yesterday we cut 40 more loads of wheat. I was very pleased. I hope to finish the wheat tomorrow and start on the triticale. We may not get that far but you never know. We have cut 100 loads of wheat so far and have roughly 35 more to go. I have no idea how many loads of triticale there are. At least 100.
Tomorrow is Jayden's birthday. He is three. I can hardly believe it. Wed. is our anniversary. You tell me how many years we have been married... Bet you can't unless your family or were at church this morning...

Wheat

We have been chopping wheat the last two days and will be starting again here in a half hour or so. We have cut 60 loads so far. This has come off of 26 acres. It is producing more than I anticipated and I am not sure we will have enough room for it. We may have to make a pile on the ground...
So, how will you be spending your holiday weekend? If you need something to do let me know... I can put you in a truck for a day....

Water System

My well driller, Tommie Moore, called me yesterday morning and told me we had two options. We could go with a conventional well system or we could install a constant pressure system. The constant well system is relatively new. It has only been available for a year and a half or so. I don't know if you are aware of this kind of system or not but here is how it works, I think...
First, I told him before he started we needed 20 gallons a minute. He thought we would be doing good to hit 5. So he knew we were looking for a lot of water. If memory serves me correctly we are going to set the pump at 500 ft with a 1 inch line, it may be an inch and quarter line. From the top of the well to the pressure tank we are going to run a 1.5 inch line. This, according to the book, should carry 25 gallons a minute. The pressure tank will hold 180-200 gallons of water. The pump will be a variable speed drive 3 horsepower pump. If the well is full, 65-70 feet from the top, it will pump 30 gallons a minute but as the water level drops so will the gallons a minute. At 500 ft. it will still pump 20 gallons a minute. However, if we are pulling two gallons a minute off of the system the pump will only pump two gallons a minute instead of running wide open like a conventional well. Also, by using the constant pressure system with the variable speed drive pump you can cut the wire size back 3 sizes which saves us about $1000 dollars. We have the ability to set this pump at the amount of pressure we want in the system. 40 or 50 lbs. Oh we will be dropping a 1 inch line out of the pressure tank to tie into the old system. When we build the new facilities we will go back and drop a bigger line out of the tank so we can get the amount of water we need. Very cool, I think. The cost is something else Over all this well will run us about $12,000. This due mainly because of how deep we had to go. But in comparison to a the conventional well system it is still $1100 cheaper....
Such is life...
Donations will be accepted....

640

Well, it is a deep subject....
640 feet and 30 gallons a minute... I am in shock. I couldn't believe it... 30 THIRTY Three Zero amazing...

500

The well driller came today. Not good news so far. We hit 500 feet this evening and had a whopping 3 gallons a minute. This is a stressful predicament to be in. The driller told me the rock had really changed in the last 40-50 feet he drilled and he thought we should go another 100 feet and see what happens. He said he picked up some more water in the last 40-50 feet also. I was hoping to find 20 gallons a minute. Maybe tomorrow we will hit a lake down there somewhere....

Bored Wife

I have a very bored wife and buggy wife... She had to stay home from church this morning because several of the children have the throw up bug. So she is now feeling somewhat house bound and buggy. Cheerful but buggy none the less. How do you deal with a buggy spouse....

Fisrt Bank & Trust

We have officially changed banks. Well, we are in the process of changing banks. The bank we are switching to focuses on the ag industry. So, we should fit in a little better....

Planter Troubles

I have a John Deere 7000 corn planter. Every year we have had a different set of problems to work on. This year a belt has decided to malfunction. This planter is a six row planter so, naturally, it has six planter hoppers. Each box has one of these belts and yesterday they started breaking. I made three trips to Phillips Equipment for parts. I don't know why they are breaking... Wore out I reckon. Another belt broke today but I finished the field anyway. I pretended I was using a five row planter instead of six. The hopper that wasn't working was on the outside of the planter or one on the end. Another trip to Phillips before I start planting again.

Corn Planting

I have managed to plant 55 or so acres before getting rained out. I planted in the rain till 9:00 last night but I was unable to finish due to the falling darkness. Hopefully I can finish this evening or tomorrow. It rained this morning, however, the sun is suppose to shine this afternoon. We are having the wettest spring I can remember. Let me rephrase that. We are having the wettest spring since I started managing the farm.

Poll

It is time for another question.
What is your favorite scripture or passage and why?

Plans

It is always good to have plans so I try to make some on rare occasions. I plan to plant some corn tomorrow. At least I plan to try. It may still be to wet but all I can do is try... Next week we may start chopping again. I need to check and see what stage the grain is at...

New Well

Those of you who read my little updates are aware of our dwindling water supply. We have decided to drill a well and do it soon. I am unsure how soon but as soon as they, the health department, can give us the permit...

Burial

The girls have just finished burying the little mouse MIL was referring to in her comment on my last post. I am unsure when the mouse died but it has received a royal burial. The ladies are currently looking for a flower to grace the grave. I remember burying many cats in my time. How about you? Have you buried your pets?

The Boring Life I Live

I am currently sitting in a hotel room at Holiday Inn near Carlise PA. I just checked our email and we a 66 emails in our inbox for the last 24 hrs. About half of them were weather related. These emails were in regards to tornado and thunderstorm warnings. Out of the remaining emails there was one, 1, ONE email for myself. And this one email was in regards to work. It was my milk quality reports. If that isn't a boring life I don't know what is...

Gone

I left this evening for Grandpa Kauffman's. We, my wife and I, will be going to a homeschool convention this weekend in Harisburg, PA. Should be fun. I am exhausted and am loking forward to relaxing a little before a crazy week next week.
We have discovered we need another well also. Did you know it takes 4 lbs of water to make 1 lb of milk. Which means we were using at least 36,000 and some odd lbs of water a day. Our two wells were not and are not keeping up so a new well will be drilled soon...

Quick Word

A quick word here. I am sure you are all dying to know what is going on at Malfunction Junction. We are still hauling manure. I think 15 more loads will finish this task. Corn to plant. Might get to that Thursday...
Sierra and Aleya think the manure smells good. Isn't that funny? Most people hate it. I love my farm girls...

Work

Let's see, first I will mention the cows. Cows are interesting animals. They thrive on consistency. Since we have been feeding the rye we chopped this spring they are slowly gaining ground or milk in this case. We added 25 more milking cows and on cow calved this morning so we are milking exactly 130 cows. I am on an everyday pick up because I am afraid the cows will run the tank over. If we were not on an every day pick up we would have shipped 17546 lbs of milk tonight. The tank holds 17,717....
Now for this weeks working schedule. I need to cover50 acres with manure and plant 70 acres of corn before 6:00 Thursday evening. We also need to help Dwayne, neighboring farmer, finish chopping. Next week we plan to start chopping the wheat and triticale. Then we need to immediately finish planting corn....
I had off this afternoon and feel somewhat ready to face the new week. This past week was an exhausting one for everyone involved. This week looks exhausting as well. Time will tell...

Yard Sale

Our annual yard sale is tomorrow. She has more stuff than she has ever had before. The neighbors gave us a bunch of stuff and her mom gave her lots of stuff. We shall see...

Jayden

Jayden came up to me last evening and told me My fever hurts...
He didn't have a fever though and I think he was in a pouting mood.

More Purchases

What a day it was yesterday. A very long one... I arose at 3:30 AM and milked before heading to Harrisonburg. Walter McClure and I went to the herd sale of Daryl Heatwhole. A fine looking herd of cows it was of which we bought 28. We had them loaded and headed toward the home ranch by 5:30. We finally had them unloaded and headed toward the parlor by 11:30 PM. I finally headed to bed by 12:30 AM. I am nervously excited about this turn of events. Well, I better go make sure they are still alive....

More Rain

We are having an unbelievably wet spring. The clouds showered upon us 1.5 inches Saturday night. It appears that we may well have got another 1.5 inches last night and it is suppose to rain all day today. What a blessing....

Caterpillers

How many of you or your children catch caterpillars and put them in jars in hopes of watching them do whatever it is they do? How many of them live? Sierra is working Caterpillar #2 as of a few minutes ago. #1, April, died or something so she found another one. I remember running around catching fireflies and putting them in a quart jar. Ah, to be a child again.... Life was much simpler as a child....

Online Shopping

How many of you do your shopping on line?

Work

Work is endless. There is always something that needs to be done and should have been done last week. Is this just poor management or what? I find it interesting, though, if I had no work to do I would go out of my mind. I would be so bored with life and I would probably get into trouble. Was working not part of God's plan?

Rain

It has been raining since Sat. night. Not solid but quite often. I was planning on chopping some more this week but that has been placed on the back burner. I am in the process of trying to tie up some loose ends in regards to more cows arriving on the premises. There is a sale in NC next Wed. We should be able to find the last 25 cows at this sale. I don't feel overwhelmed, yet, but I do see things that have got to be done, soon....

Games

What games do you and your family play on a regular basis? Board, card, word, pictunary, which I hate, etc. Do you and your spouse agree or like the same kind of games? I like Rook, Rachel doesn't. We do both like scrabble but we would not land in the genius category...

Fear

Our SS school lesson was on fear. The question Is fear a sin? was asked. What is your opinion?

Covered

We finished chopping yesterday and covered the trench last evening. I feel very good about our accomplishments this week. Next week we move onto other endeavors... It is raining this evening. I must say I feel very blessed. This is the wettest spring we have had in the last 4-5 years. The cows are milking decent considering all the ration changes and inconsistencies that have abounded in the last two months. The rest of my small grain crops are looking good. I don't deserve these blessings. My hearing is returning. My wife loves me. My children love me. I love me... God loves me even though I love myself more than I should.....
Anyway, Have a good night everybody....

I Is Tired

Funny I am so weary when I get home these days. When I was young long days wouldn't have really bothered me. Now I am bothered. I keep telling myself I sure am glad I don't have to do this again this fall...
Maybe I am just getting lazy in my old age....
We cut 36 loads today we have 30 or so left to cut tomorrow and hopefully cover trench. Well, it's off to bed I go...

Deception

I have been deceived. For the last two weeks or so I have been deceived. I have been living in a state of, I think the word would be, surprise since the truth has dawned on me. I was hopeful the truth would be truth. (Does that make sense?) Now that I have your attention I will tell you the boring details. Unless you are a farmer you will probably be tearful with boredom. The rye crop is really good. Not just good but really good. The neighboring farmer told me last night he has never seen a crop of rye this good. I looked at it all winter and wasn't overly impressed. I walked out in it and wasn't overly impressed. While I was gone last week it must of grew like crazy because now it is waist high, on me, and just pushing heads. It is thicker than hair on a dogs back. We start chopping today....

Question

I was reading in Genesis chapter one tonight and I am now wondering something. If I am not mistaken God created male and female. I think it was verse 26 or 27. If he created male and female why did he need to create or make Eve in chapter 2? Or is this male and female referring to the animals and fish and things of nature? However, I believe this takes place directly after he created man. I am sure someone can answer this or explain this too me...

Heading Home

Rod's and Carla headed for OH yesterday afternoon. Rachel, Jayden and MIL headed for a ladies retreat where MIL was scheduled to speak. Dad, myself, and the rest of my children stayed put at Grandpa's house last night. This afternoon my tribe will be heading for VA. I am so glad it is only a four hour trip instead of the eight hours we used to have. Whew, that always drove me bannanas.
We are planning a very busy week at work. We will start mowing rye Monday and then chopping by Tuesday afternoon, I hope. Time will tell...

Passed Out

I wasn't present for this odd occurrence but apparently a sip of a Frapachinno (sp?) resulted in a seizure late Friday evening in Hagerstown MD. Donna Kauffman wanted a sip of her daughters flavored coffee. Rachel Zehr reported that Donna, after sipping this frozen treat, complained of a major freeze headache before laying her head back on the headrest. After a few seconds in this position her eyes rolled oddly up into her head and Mrs. kauffman slumped over the steering wheel. This maneuver cause quite stir in Rachel's heart and she started trying to communicate with her mother. Mrs. kauffman was vocally unresponsive but her body did began to twitch and jerk in response to her daughters inquiries also her foot slid off of the brake pedal causeing the vehicle to twitch oddly and scaring the grandchildren. Sources say that Rachel frantically put the van in park and began waving at her sisters who were traveling in another vehicle. These ladies came running to the scene trying to decide if emergency services should be contacted. At this point Mrs. Kauffman revived and wondered where she was exactly. They filled her in on the details and removed her from the drivers seat. Family members report that Mrs. Kauffman had been under some stress a little earlier in the day and they wonder if the cause of the seizure like symptoms were a result of stress and a freeze headache. Sources also claim the family is unaware of these kind of symptoms at any other point and are unaware of anyone in the human race who has suffered a seizure from sipping a Frappachino. Family members are not overly concerned at this point, however, if another one of these freakish things takes place a Dr. will need to be seen.

Mountain Climbing

Upon arriving at grandpa's house for this brief vacation I was informed we would be going on a little hike Thursday. Another family had taken this hike and greatly enjoyed it and, naturally, we thought our family would as well. I must admit I was somewhat skeptical from the begining but managed to my thoughts to myself. We, four adults and eight children, were dropped off at the top of the mountain, or hill if you are from Oregon. When we were dropped off the grandparents gave us some pertinent information concerning the trail we would be following. Be careful, they said, the trail isn't marked very well. We have never gone down the trail so we don't know where it is or what it looks like... Great, I thought, this sounds exciting. Nobody has ever tried this but I doubt it will be very difficult. Well, our tribe wandered around the top of this mountain for about 45 minuets before finding a path we thought was correct. While we were doing our wandering, I was beginning to feel like an Israelite in the desert, the grandparents were coming to meet us from the other end of the trail. They had taken our vehicles to the exiting end of the trail. We discovered we had never found the correct trail. The only reason we found the correct path was because Grandpa met us back up at the top, basically, and showed us the way to go...
I am sure there are lessons to be learned from this little experience. One of them is the fact that the further you carry 40 lbs the heavier it gets...
It was a grand experience and I think every one should take there children on such a hike as this at least once. Who knows, maybe it will help your children develop a great desire to climb Mt. Everest someday.

Hearing

About two weeks ago I had a terrible soar throat. Couldn't hardly talk, it was awful. Apparently, this malady has moved from my throat to my ears. However, my ears don't hurt like my throat did. My ears also are hearing about as good as my throat does. Well, it isn't that bad. People will be talking all around me and I won't hear a word. This does have it's good points... I am finding it extremely annoying. So, I went to the Dr. He ooo'd and ahh'd over how badly infected my ears were and put me on some ear drops and amoxicillen. I hate amoxicillen... Anyway, this malady has made singing difficult as well. Sunday when we sang I could hardly hear Jon and he was standing right beside me. Josh and Ben should have stayed home as much as I heard them.... I am hopeful this will be improving in the next couple of days...

Off

I am leaving in the morning for 4-5 days. Rod's are home for several weeks so we will be spending some quality time crammed into Grandpa Kauffman's house. I think I am looking forward to it. I am, I am, it's just that, well, that's a lot of people/children in one house all the time. It'll be great....
Really....
We are planning on chopping rye next week. That will be a very busy week. I think it will be fun. You make a lot better time cutting small grain then corn silage I have learned...

Busy, Busy, Busy,

You get the idea, it was a busy day. Hoof trimmer was here. Trimmed 53 cows. I started milking before leaving early for voice. Was late.... I wonder if I am retaining anything in the vocal area...
So much to do so little time....
Whew....

John Sines

I had the privilege of meeting John Sines today. VOP was asked to participate in a fund raiser to for Operation Smile. Operation Smile helps pay for surgery to help repair cleft lips or cleft pallets.
Operation Smile targets individuals who live in third world countries. It is a very neat organization. Anyway, John Sines was participating also. I met him before the concert and chatted with him some. He is very down to earth, very nice guy. Easy to talk to and fun to be around. He is a dedicated Christian as well. He wrote a tribute Dale Earnhardt after his death. He also has the number one song on the Country Christian Charts for the months of Feb. and March. I am not a country music fan per say but John Sines is very talented. Has an amazing vocal range. It was cool to meet someone who is famous...

Installing Lights

I hung 7 lights in the parlor today and I have four more to go. I have not wired any of them yet but if it rains and I am unable to mow the grass tomorrow I may work on that. Bruce Thompson told recommended improving the lighting in the parlor. We are hoping improved lighting will help cow flow. Bruce says we should be able to milk 80-90 cows an hour in our parlor. So far I have come no where close to this rapid pace. I think I could cut another 30 minutes off my milking time if cow flow was better. We shall see...

Purchase

Five milking cows, one dry cow, one springing heifer and two far off heifers were purchased yesterday in my name. The cows and springing heifer showed up last night about 9:00. I am unsure were the other two heifers are at this point. I should know more today. Now that I spent money I don't have I can tell Mr. Phillips in our meeting today that I really need some money and his bank really should help me out....

Sale

Today may be a big day for me. I have a gentleman attending a herd dispersal sale in NC. He may or may not buy me some cows. I can't wait to find out. I should know something tonight or this afternoon....

April Fools

I would love to hear the best April Fools trick you have ever heard. I have always wondered what the point of April Fools was or is? Is the goal to bring laughter to the world???