All In A Name

The name of our farm is "Airy Mont Farm".  I have gotten more strange looks over this name.  Where did that come from?  Did you say Dairy Mont Farm?  Or maybe Dairy Mart Farm?  I always wonder if these folks simply need to purchase a nice pricey pair of hearing aids.  But I digress, Airy Mont Farm.  If you have ever planted your feet on our farm in the spring you will understand where the name comes from.  The farm buildings are located on a hill and we get more than our share of wind.
But there is more to it than this.  Years ago Merle Yoder coined another name for our farm, "Malfunction Junction".  I am really disappointed I can't take the credit for such an appropriate name.  It fits so well.  If you read my previous post you read about a decision which led to some hay being rained on.   Well, we raked it yesterday only to have it rained on again last night.  Another form of Malfunction Junction.  It never ends.  Some days we spend a considerable amount of time trying to find ways to make this name remain true and faithful till the end.  We spend so many days working toward this goal that I had "Malfunction Junction" printed under "Airy Mont Farm" on our checks.  The bank was somewhat surprised.
But wait, there is more.  We are in the process of purchasing another farm in Pittsylvania county. (Should have closing in a couple weeks.)  This property has an incredible number of creeks and streams as well as bordering Straight-stone Creek.  (Which I would call a small river and I assume this "Creek" is quite offended by it's poorly chosen name.  It isn't very straight either.)  Anyway, lest I ramble on forever I have been pondering names for this property.  We had quite a list.  Double Creek, Triple Creek, Rolling Creek, on and on the list goes.  None of which struck me as the appropriate name.  Earlier this week it came to me that perhaps it should be called Troublesome Creek.  Malfunction Junction and Troublesome Creek.  After all we have a reputation to uphold.

A Brief Jaunt Back To Blogging?

For some unknown reason I actually checked this blog this morning.  I haven't looked at it in months.  While glancing over a few of the posts I got this uncontrollable desire to post something.  Not that anyone will see it.  After all, if one doesn't ever post why would one keep checking back?  So, perhaps I will begin posting occasionally.  There are things about blogs that are much nicer than book face.  (I did that on purpose) one being the room or ability to type for as long as one wants.  Plus, I know that it will not clutter up someones wall or drive any one mad.  So, I see the clock has ticked past 7 and I am now late for work which is a bad thing when your the boss.  So, until next time...  If there is a next time...

Spring

As most of you know by now, I am doing %90 of the night milking. I really like it... I would much rather stay up till 2:00 then get up at 3... Anyway, I think spring is finally here. I almost didn't need a jacket tonight. There is also a very full moon, very bright. It made the stars quite pale. So what season is your favorite? I honestly don't know if I have one... I am always ready for the next one...

09

Well, 2009 is here. Can you believe it? I wonder what the year will bring...
VOP is stepping into uncharted waters with a new bass. I have discovered it usually takes a year for the group to gel when there is a personnel change. There will be social changes, as well as vocal changes. I have also discovered the social make up of the group has a big impact on how good we are vocally. How well we get along affects how well we sing... So these are all changes coming in 09.
Work: Wow, I don't know what the year will bring... I am firmly settled into phase one on expansion. At this point I am sitting tight and waiting to see how things develope.
Family: Who knows what 09 will bring. More kids, I doubt it.... Death? who knows....
So much is unknown....
Because of the unknown it is of utmost importance for me to dig deeper. Develope a deeper relationship with my Father.... The things that I do know should push me into a deeper relatioship...
I wonder alot why this relationship is so difficult... Why do I struggle so with it? I must not be commited enough...
So there you have it.... I really doubt whether 09 will be much different than 08... This morning wasn't. It was beautiful, cold morning....
God Bless us one and all as we seek his face....

This Is A Test

This is a test to see if I have set up my face book page to automatically update these posts onto my facebook page....

LIfe

I realize some of you may be getting tired of my lack of posting. Of course, some of you may be thrilled... Well, if your thrilled your not reading this anyway. I don't know why, but I have been so tired lately. By the time we get the children to bed and Rachel get's Kaiden fed and in bed it is usually 9:30 and I am exhausted and don't feel like trying to find something to expound on. Such is life. When I was getting up at 4 to milk it wasn't so bad. Now I am getting up at three but am still going to bed at the same time. Maybe I am just a wimp...
So, that is why I haven't been posting as often...
We finished cleaning up the milkhouse. Wow, it looks good. Next week we need to move some rock out of the new ground land. I really need to get this land sowed.... We also need to clean out some cow pens and haul some rotting silage. So we move on. I can't believe Christmas is so rapidly approaching....

Dead Phone

Our phone was dead all day yesterday. I have no idea why. This morning I checked when I left to go milk and we had a dial tone again. Very strange indeed.
So, It was nice not having a phone for the day. I was thankful no one could harrass us. Of course there was the cell phone but the service for that apparatus is poor in the house which aids the silence.
SO how many of you are off spending your hard earned money on this day splurge and spending? I went last year for awhile and was not impressed. I will more than gladly stay home, feed a few cows and spend my day in a leisurly fashion. The ladies are planning on going. Rachel, Sierra, and Carla. Yes I would say Sierra is now a lady, most of the time....

Home Again

We were getting on I 75 last night at 8:15. I arrived home at 10:30 this morning so it took us just over 14 hours to get home. We had a really good trip. Met some old friends of mine. Funny, Brian Miller hasn't changed a lick in the last 15 years. We went to the beach Sunday afternoon. We spent roughly five minutes on the sand. This was about how long it took us to walk from our van to the water's edge and back to the van. The wind was really howling and it was cold.
This coming Thursday is our first practice with Joe. The new CD has arrived. Tom, yours is in the mail and Nevin, I need your mailing address. Till next time....

Frozen Bagels

For breakfast this morning I had blueberry bagels. I was in the process of preparing one for the toaster when I made a fascinating discovery. I was calmly slicing my frozen bagel with a bread knife when I made this discovery. I must admit there was some amazement concerning the sharpness of the tool I held. I was slicing the bagel and was trying very hard to control the speed of the knifes exiting of the bagel. Of this I was very unsuccesful. I now have a cut on my pinky to prove it. The cut was quite deep and what so shocking was the amount of blood which flowed from my battle wound. It was very little. I am assuming the frozen bagel slowed the amount of blood passing through my pinky. So, the moral of the story is this. When you are cutting things make sure your hands are frozen...

Nope

Just so you know, I didn't go trick or treating...
I have never gone and have no plans of ever going. My children didn't go either and I have no plans of them ever going. I was wondering if people still do this? I have not heard any horror stories concerning razor blades in apples or strichnyne lazed candy.

Ramblings

I finished hauling manure today and plan to finish planting tomorrow. For this I am greatful...
Now onto other interesting topics and unsettling things I have heard. I heard on the news the other day that someone had been trying to sue God about something but because God couldn't be reached they threw it out of court.
I heard on Dobson tonight that a gentleman in Massachusettes (sp?) got thrown in jail because he was in a tiff with his school. They were trying to teach his preschooler about same sex marriage and things of that nature which the father was adamantly opposed to. The school higher ups actually called the cops and had him handcuffed and thrown in the slammer for the night. From what I could gather the family had gone all the way to the supreme court concerning the issue and hadn't been very successfull...
On a more light note the World Series was postponed because of weather. It seems that the commisioner, Bud Selig, has taken it upon himself to make up rules as he goes. Basically he got lucky because the game ended up being tied when he postponed it because of the freezing rain and slop they were playing in. Selig has been quoted as syaing he wasn't going to let the World Series end in like that. Meaning, if the Phillies would have been leading after the Tampa Bay Rays top of the 6th inning the series would have been over. Not just the game but the Series. They are finishing game five tonight starting in the bottom of the sixth....
It's a strange world we live in.....

Farming (And Other Stuff)

We sowed another 30 acres of barley today. I am hoping to cover another 35 tomorrow and then start on rye Friday. We shall see. I still have one big day of manure hauling left before we can finish planting. I will be so glad when this fall work is done. After we finish the fall work I have decided to go to a 3x milking schedule. (If we can work out the scheduling...)
This Saturday is our school sale or Fall Festival. Rachel and I will be involved with the auction quite heavily, along with Randy and Anita Martin. We love working with them and we are looking forward to it. I love this event. I love watching our church pull together in this way...

Hired Man

Fred Knicely took me up on my job offer this evening. For this I am grateful... Sonny and I are about ready to give up the ghost.
I have never had more than one person working for me full time so I am sure there will be a learning curve on my part.
I managed to disk 30 some acres of land today. Hopefully we will get some barley sowed tomorrow.
I think I am getting a cold...
Our school sale is this weekend... I always enjoy this and look forward to it.

Stuff

After going to bed at 1:00 Sat. morning. Rising at 7:20. Mixing all day and knowing I had promised to milk Sunday moning, I was hoping to leave Alive Studios by 8:00 Sat. evening. That would have put me to bed by 10:00 or so. We left Alive around 10 wihich put me to bed about 12:15. Up at 3:30 and will be leaving in a few minutes for a program at Evergreen Baptist Church in Appomattox. I was scared to lay down after milking. I was afraid I would feel really bad if I slept for an hour and woke up feeling groggy. We still have three more songs to mix on Monday. However, I am not planning on going up. I think some of the other guys will be. I think the album is sounding very nice. If you are interested in ordering a copy you can email me at glen.dairyfarmer@gmail.com I try to check this several times a week. You can also use our website and send an email. However there is no information concerning the album up yet.

Sprinkles

It is sprinkling this morning. I am glad. I have three loads to go to finish the field I am working on. I will try to get that finished this morning. I have to be gone this evening and the rest of the week. I will be back Sat. night and will be milking Sunday morning. I then have to be in Appomatox to sing Sunday morning and will be following that up with a program in South Boston at Faith Mennonite in the evening. This is a lot of running around. Friday and Saturday will be spent back in the studio mixing the Christmas album, Tiny King. I should be available for you to purchase by Thanksgiving. So, I hope it rains while I am gone becuase I wouldn't be able to work if I was at home so it would be nice if the rain would fit into my schedule so nicely...

Settling In

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

Home

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

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...

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...