Knocking Loads Down

Sonny is pushing the loads into the trench. This is a 4150 White with a homemade blade mounted on the three point hitch. The 4 stands for four wheel drive and the 150 is the horse power.

 

Craft Class

My wife put 15 drops of food coloring and pasta in a bag. She used four colors, red, blue, yellow, and green. She did not mix the food coloring but I am sure you can if you want some other interesting color schemes. The girls took the bags and worked the food coloring into the pasta.

 

Finished

They have just finished mixing the pasta and the food coloring. Then they emptied the bags onto paper towels for them to dry before they began stringing them.

Sierra

Deep concentration...

 

Aleya

Stringing the dyed pasta onto the string. When the string is full tie a knot in the string. You now have a pasta necklace which you can eat when you are very hungry. It doesn't work to well for the boys to play with because it goes directly into their mouths. This makes the food coloring run all over their faces....

Granola

My wife tells me that she doesn't follow the recipe she just does what she wants to. Therefor, this recipe is patent pending....
She has graciously consented to give you her recipe, so, here it is.
Here is the basic recipe
12 cups oatmeal
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup organic br. sugar
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
Then I had 1/2 - 1 cup of 2 or 3 of these things
coconut
chopped nuts
slivered almonds
sesame seed
flax seed
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds
oat bran
Mix all of that together then add
1 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups honey
1 TBSP vanilla
Mix well. Bake at 350 for 15 min. Stir. Bake 10 more minutes.
It is pretty sweet and I want to try it with no br. sugar next time.
Enjoy it!
RZ

Chopping Update

Saturday I went on a scouting expedition with Sierra and we discovered thirty more acres of corn that were turning brown and needed to be cut. We started cutting Monday morning about 11:00. We had a very good day till about 5:00, got 19 loads cut. It is rather long haul and is well off the road. Anyway, I put the PTO in gear after dumping load #19 and something went through the chopper. Much to our dismay it was a gathering chain. This has the same result as tools on the choppers knives. Such is life.... I have to sharpen the chopper this morning and then we will be back at it....

West Virgina

I am very poor at remembering stories/jokes but I do have one that I would like to share with you.
Did you know that the tooth brush was invented in West Virginia? If it would have been invented anywhere else it would have been known as a teeth brush..... (laugh loudly)

Sunday Afternoon

What is a perfect Sunday afternoon? What does it consist of? You go to church, I assume, eat lunch and then what? Are Sundays incomplete when the nap is missed? How often do you have company for lunch? If you go somewhere for lunch how long are you gone? All afternoon? The perfect Sunday afternoon for me consists of lying in my hammock that is swinging gently in the breeze. This hammock is hanging from a huge oak tree in my spacious backyard. Their are no cows to feed or milk because I happen to have the afternoon off. Oh yes, the flies, they would magically disappear and I would be able to sip some ice cold lemonade while floating in my hammock and reading. Much to my chagrin I do not have huge old oak tree, a hammock, or cold lemonade. Perhaps someday I will expierence this perfect Sunday afternoon.

Cute Picture

I was told by a female in my family that: This is a very cute picture of you and the dog. Of course you can't see much of you but the pup is cute....

 

Granola

For the last several months my wife has been making Granola. My mother made Granola when I was growing up and I really liked it. I am wondering how many of you like Granola and what do you like in your Granola. I believe you can put just about any thing in Granola and it will still be edible. Within reason of course.....

Pets & Girls

Aleya and Cupcake.
Sierra and Blackie
(I am trying to get her to name the pup Duke but so far Sierra isn't to thrilled with the idea. Blackie seems a little wimpy for a big, bold, male dog...)

 

Different Reaction

Jackson wasn't very impressed with the puppy's actions.
It is interesting to see the different reaction between the two boys.

 

The Puppy

A puppy showed up today much to our chidlrens delight. Jayden and the pup are getting aquainted.

 

Garfield Monday

You will not believe how Garfieldish this day was.
To get things off to a roaring start I was awakend at 1:00 AM by a loud pounding on my front door. It was the milkman. He did not have current at the only recepticle he can use. I told him I would be right over. I stumble into the milkhouse and discover that one of the wires is broken at the breaker box. I was glad it was a minor problem and easily fixed. I crawled back into bed about 1:45.
At 4:00 the hated, annoying, alarm rings. I trudge morosely to the barn after swallowing 4 ibuprophen. I now have a headache and am feeling the effects of a sore throat and head cold. After my morning nap I head to the vets to pick up some heifers. (I do not raise my own heifers.) Oh me, I forgot to mention that I had to catch cows for the hoof trimmer while milking this morning. This always makes milking take longer and I am not a fan of sorting cows while milking.
I didn't get home for lunch till 1:30 and, because we were hoping to chop some more today, ny lunch hour turn into a 15 minute blink of the eye. We did make it to the field about 3:00. First load went fine. Second load went fine except for one minor detail. The header drive chain came apart. Third load went fine till the end of the load. The header lost two gathering chain shear pins and I had to replace them. This header is set up very nice and it is east to do but corn fields are always hotter when I have to work on something. Fourth load went fine. Fifth load, oh wait, their was no fifth load. The header was of the opinion we were not getting the hint. He was weary, he broke, we wept. I unhook dump wagon and take worthless machinery to shop. We perform surgery. We fix well. We are dirty and we are tired and we think the header better learn a lesson and not try this again tommorow.

One another note. Sierra had her first day of school toady. Yes it was at home and went well. We hope day 101 goes well as well.

Another Poll

Would anyone actually miss this blog if it suddenly disappeared?

10 More Down

Today we cut 10 more acres of corn. What a great feeling that is. This field produced roughly 11 tons to the acre. Not great but pretty good for the amount of rain we have had this summer. Monday we are hoping to start on a 27 acre field. Time will tell.

Heat Wave Part II

Last evening while getting the cows into milk I noticed a fetus lying in a freestall. The fetus was about the size of a puppy. After milking Sonny wondered if I knew who had lost the calf. I told him I thought it was TOTO. He then informed me that she had just dropped another one. Cows aborting is not a new occurence and is usally triggered by an infection. Mastitus, high fever, deformed calf, heat stress. I am sure their are other reasons as well. I think this may be the result of the intense heat we have suffered the past week. I remember about five years ago the whole herd caught a wind blown virus and the cows were running temps. in the 105-106 range. We lost a lot of calves due to the high fever. Such is life....

Atlanta Braves

I heard on ESPN yesterday that the Atlanta Braves are trying a new marketing ploy. Apparently pitcher John Smoltz preached from the mound after which there was a christian rock concert. This took place on what is now known as Faith Night. To hear John Smoltz preach and the band play you had to buy a second ticket for $10. At first glance one would think they are trying to improve an individual's soul in this city. However, a statement by the marketing staff made it very clear that the purpose for Faith Night was to generate more income. The sole purpose of Faith Night was to sell more tickets. This would enable them to pay more players more money so they can, hopefully, return to the glory days of the 90's. I have been an Atlanta Braves fan for years so I found this turn of events disappointing. What is your opinion of using religion as a marketing ploy. The fellow hosting the show on ESPN compared this to a credit card company offering Christians a credit card with a better interest rate. Imagine getting a credit card application which reads "If you are Christain sighn up for our special 2.5% interest rate for the life of the balance."

Heat Wave

The first day of August has been a real scorcher. There was a heat advisory for this afternoon. The heat index was some where between 110 and 114. It looks like the rest of the week will follow the same trend. Cows don't like this kind of heat and I expect a sharp drop in milk production. Can't say that I blame them because I seem to have a sharp drop of productive activity when it is this hot as well. How has it been in your part of the nation?