Halftime Show

Farmer Excitement #4: When you deliver a calf during halftime.

The Farmer's Holiday

Today is November 11th and a holiday celebrating Veterans. The Farmer would like to take time out of his busy schedule and thank all the men and women who have served in our military services to protect our freedoms, with great sacrifice from them and their families.




So how busy was The Farmer on this holiday?




He left the house at 4:00am this morning to bottle feed his baby calves so he could start milking by 5:00am. After milking, the cows were fed and the veterinarian showed up at 9:00am for the cows' monthly herd health check. The barn was cleaned after the veterinarian left and The Farmer was home by 1:00pm for lunch. During lunch The Farmer fielded several farm-related phone calls and still managed to take a 15 minute nap.




At 2:00pm The Farmer was back to work, feeding the heifers and bottle feeding the calves in order to start milking at 4:00pm. During the evening milking The Farmer was interrupted by two dairy supply salesmen and a farm equipment dealer. After milking, the cows needed to be fed and The Farmer made it home for dinner at 7:30pm. After a quick dinner he went to a Diking District meeting at 8:00pm to discuss annual budget review and property acquisitions. He was home by 9:00pm to check on the cows - yes, there is "lights out" even for the cows - one more time before heading to bed.




Tomorrow The Farmer repeats his normal routine and will meet the grain truck before 4:00am, the milk truck at 8:00am and the shaving truck (bedding for the cows) at 10:00am, and shoot the breeze (aka conduct business) with any other unscheduled visitors.




On this "holiday" The Farmer would also like to thank the farmers who keep America rolling and to thank those individuals who keep the farmers rolling.




~The Farmer~

Farm Milestone: Complete!

A very important milestone happened yesterday.

Flipping over?
Old news.

Crawling?
Not yet.

Walking?
God help us...he's not even four months old.

What is every little boy's dream come true? Yep...riding a tractor. Or a firetruck...or a bus...or a bulldozer...

But around here, what we have are tractors. And guess who rode sat on one?

He looks (kinda) excited.

Now he's not so sure..."I might be tipping!"

"Look who joined me on my tractor!"

"I guess I'll let him borrow it sometimes..."

A Walk In The Country (Farming Style)

Hey! Look who it is! The Farmer is meeting me for a walk!

Wait...why is he bringing a shovel?

Oh. Yeah. We live on a farm. And a romantic walk in the country usually involves a non-romantic task.

Such as digging up tansy. 

Tansy is a noxious weed that needs killing. Apparently it needed killing today while on our walk.

But Bonus #1, this walk was better than the one we took a few years ago that was ill-timed with the spraying of the adjoining field. And spraying on a dairy farm does not mean spraying water. It's a more ... organic ... material.

And Bonus #2, we had this beautiful day...

Hello ladies!

And Bonus #3, I had a view like this...

Finally, Bonus #4 included The Herdsman. He looked like this for most of the walk.

Don't worry...we had him covered up with the stroller hood for most of the ride. He didn't like the sun in his eyes. 

But then this happened...

He doesn't like tansy either.

The Important Page

Reading the comics with The Farmer

Farm Excitement #74: The Age Old Question

...Why did the geese walk in the middle of the road?

Herdsman Excitement #20: Tummy Time Fail

When tummy time fails...

Herdsman Excitement #58: Bath Time

When you may have kinda sorta gotten a split-second tiny half-smile after a non-screaming bath.

Little Man...I'm onto you...

Nani and The Herdsman taking a bath a few weeks ago

Farmer Quote #23: Tractor Parking

"You know it's the start of summer when I park on the lawn."

Things I've Accomplished Today

Ate half my breakfast
Remembered to take my prescriptions
Turned off the alarm that I've set to tell me to take my prescriptions
Received a box for The Herdsman with a sock monkey inside (thank you, cousin K!)
Washed down my bedroom wall to rid it of pee
Changed someone's wet outfit...including a slightly damp hat
Pulled laundry out of the dryer from yesterday
Folded laundry I pulled out of the dryer three days ago
Thought about making myself a cup of tea
Found my camera...just in time to take smiling crying pictures during tummy time
Strapped The Herdsman into his car seat without waking him up
Read three chapters of Mockingjay while rocking back and forth
Read part of a fourth chapter out loud to a small but captive audience
Competed in a staring contest...and lost
Put The Herdsman's socks on...eight times
Written this blog post with one hand

So when I see a beautiful photo of my cousin R with her new little one (The Herdsman looks forward to playing with you, Little D!), I'll admit the first thing I thought was "Hey, R got to take a shower today!"

Crosswordy-ness

Jacques Cousteau's middle name is Yves.
A ball of yarn is also called a skein.
Athena's symbol is an owl.

Evenings on The Farm usually revolve around the daily crossword. Yes, even Friday nights...accompanied by homemade pizza. We know how to live it up around here!

As dinner winds down (or sometimes as it starts), the pencil - no pens allowed - comes out and we hover over the crossword, usually on page three of the sports section of our local paper. OK, in reality the Farmer hogs the crossword at first until I gently pull it a few inches towards me so I can offer my advice.

Possible answers are written next to clues.
Questions are posed over the clinking of dishwashing.
Groans escape our mouths as a particularly bad clue/answer reveals itself.
Swearing occurs when one of us struggles with a clue only to have the other exclaim with glee and ease the correct word.

And yes, occasionally the smart phone comes out to check on an answer or spelling. But only occasionally, mind you. This is the crossword...sacred territory...no little cheating allowed.

This past week The Farmer introduced The Herdsman to the crossword.

I'm not sure The Herdsman truly understood the importance of the crossword at this moment. Nor was he very helpful during his first evening of crosswordy-ness. But the Farmer was undaunted, reading clues aloud to the captive audience that lay in his arms.

The Herdsman was fascinated.

Let the dinner tradition continue!

(and be still my heart...)

The New Herdsman

It's been a while since I posted, but with good reason...we've been training a new herdsman. He arrived three weeks ago on March 21st.

We are in love.

The Farmer threatened that he was going to roll the new herdsman around in the mud upon arrival. I managed to negotiate "at least a week". Yes, we live on a farm but let's not push things too much.

So earlier this week the cows finally went out after a long winter. In farm terms, this is a big deal!

And the new herdsman was ready ...

The Farmer was excited to introduce him to the ways of the farm.

His first task...bringing in the cows...

The new herdsman slept through the entire thing. 

The Farmer has some work to do with this one...but I don't think he minds teaching him in the days and years ahead.

Again, we are in love.