Going on an Adventure!

The kids love to go on "adventures" around our farm. One of their favorite adventures is to go down to our creek. We had a great time!

Quentin and Maci love crawling across the creek on logs....but our dog, Myles, wasn't so sure about it.

Quentin likes to climb trees...

..and hide behind them!

Maci likes to hold trees up...

..and try to push them over!

Then, we headed for home...

..for some hot chocolate and silliness!

Hope you had a fun Sunday too!

10 Great Years!

Today is our 10th ANNIVERSARY....

..not exactly the same attire we had on ten years ago today, but oh well!


Evening out? No...evening PULLING out...

Ryan was helping a friend get some equipment out for his farm sale and even with a bale on the back for weight he got STUCK! ..and that shovel...wasn't cuttin it!

There wasn't another tractor at the farm and the pickup wasn't budging it. So...as much as it pains me to share these next pictures...we used a combine.....a RED one! (We're pretty big John Deere fans around here!)

Here's to ten more great years...and hopefully never having to be pulled out by anything RED again...ha ha!

Kids and Calves

Tonight the kids got to go out and help chore. They love helping out! It was like 20 degrees out and they were SO excited that they got to ride in the back of the pickup out to the pasture. Brrr! Remember how awesome it was when you were a kid though?!

We now have two bottle calves. The kids were eager to get to feed them. The calves were eager to be feed too, so after almost knocking them over the kids decided to let Dad do it this time.

The kids had a great time playing with the calves!

Ryan is feeling better today but, as you can tell from the photos, his mouth is still swollen.

Just can't have anything nice around here!

As you know, it's calving season and we've had a lot of visitors in our basement because of the weather. This poses a problem for me. As another farmer's wife told me the other night....."I just can't have anything nice!" It's true. See I just recently bought this rug for my basement. Nothin' fancy, but I was hoping it would at least last until spring. No deal! We've power washed it twice because of 'gifts' left behind, but his time....well, it's just gotta go. Also, did ya know Rubbermaid made fencing? Ryan and the kids came up with this fence made of rubbermaid totes to keep the calves on the rug. Oh yeah, we're rednecks! ;)

It's all worth it, though, when you see the little cuties all out in the pasture playing.

Ryan had some major dental work done today. Several teeth pulled. He was suppossed to be resting all day. I knew that wouldn't happen. Not sure if that's a "man" thing or a "farmer" thing, but the combination can't be good...lol! As you can see, he wasn't able to stay away from the chores.



On the way home we had to drive out by the pasture and he noticed a new calf had been born while he was at the dentist. So, here he is with the tagger making sure everybody is 'checked in'. Pretty sure tagging the calf could have waited, but he kept telling me he felt fine.

I think it's catching up with him now though. He hasn't moved from the couch in the last four hours. Glad he getting some rest.

My Soapbox Comment of the Day

There are so many people and organizations out there that are criticising animal agriculture. I was recently on Facebook and saw a post from a non-agriculture person. This guy said that if animal agriculture disappeared in our country, our economy wouldn't be negatively effected. Hey man, we're not out here doing this for nothin'! ;) Anyway, I found this interesting paragraph online that I wanted to share. I'll get off my soapbox now. :)

Nationally, animal agriculture created over $74 billion in earnings that resulted in over $400 billion in economic output in the United States. This means that animal agriculture and related industries generated $400 billion into the economy. Livestock and poultry production created 2.9 million jobs in the United States, according to the Animal Agriculture Economic Analysis Update, a report by Promar Internationl for the United Soybean Board (USB). To put the economic output in perspective, the automotive industry accounted for $344 billion in 2002, according to a report by the Center for Automotive Research.

Sleeping Beauty

Sometimes farm work can be exhausting! Today us girls took the tractor to get hay. The snow is deep and melting a little, making it slick. We weren't able to get to the stockpile of hay that we have been feeding, so we had to travel a few miles down the road to get hay from another location. This took longer than normal and cut into Maci's naptime a little.

It's calving time...in our basement!

Calving time is especially fun this year. Ryan and I haven't calved out any of our heifers since our son was a baby. So, the kids don't even remember what this is like. Just like farm kids, though, they are lovin every minute of it!

So far we have three calves, all girls, and two have them have had to spend a little time in the house. The first one came in the evening. Ryan went out to check them and found her on a patch of ice. Mama couldn't get her up, so we had to bring her in the basement to get her cleaned up and her first milk to her. She came about two weeks early so, as it usually goes, we were not prepared. Luckily, Ryan's friend, Tom, was able to come to our rescue with some colostrum ('first milk' replacer), a bag to tube her and a bottle.

Baby number two came around 2:00 A.M. Sunday night. As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. Our daughter had just woke up with a fever when Ryan came inside hollering for help with the newest addition. With the frigid windchills she needed cleaned off and dried ASAP.

Number three came during the day on Monday. Ryan did have to help mama out a little by pulling the calf, but all in all everything went well. She was cleaned up right away, fed and didn't have to spend the night in our basement like her playmates.

Babies spending the night in our basement has become very popular with our kids, but not so much with our dog. He sleeps in the basement at night and has had a few short nights due to the bawling from the juvenile visitors!