For My Faithful Readers

All you dear folks who have been coming here daily to see what is new have been disappointed for way too long, but I’ve been busy! I’ll try to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to:

--I moved the turkeys into a bigger cage. Before we could do that, we had to clean out part of the shed. It took a few days of morning work to get it ready.

--Do any of you remember Kiss Me and Kiss Me, Too? Kiss Me was my daughter’s show heifer. She died shortly after Kiss Me, Too was born. We bottle fed KMII, but one day we found her bloating really badly. The vet said she might never be able to conceive due to complications of the bloating. We’ve waited and waited, we artificially inseminated way to many times for any heifer, but we kept trying. This week KMII calved—and lost her baby. Our best guess is that the umbilical cord got wrapped around a leg while in labor and pulled off before the calf was born. Such a pretty little heifer she was!

--I'm taking my husband to the ophthalmologist again on Friday. We are hoping the injection my husband was given will give him some of his sight back. Time will tell. When the technician asked him to cover his left eye and tell him how far down the chart he could read, he said, “What chart?” That gives you an idea about how much of the center of his vision he has lost in one eye. We hope to recover some of it. We appreciate your prayers.

--I’ve been doing my research for next year’s textbooks and materials. Some days I am waist deep in books. I pulled out a dozen books to see what I had for poetry units. I’ve also had twice that many lying around me dealing with composition—and I plan to buy more. You’d think I’d get my fill of this, wouldn’t you? Our biggest and most exciting news is that my youngest brought up his PASS test scores by as much as 50 percentile points—50 in reading, 40 in math and 30 in language. Since he did not start to read until he was in 4th grade, it has been a struggle to get him up and running in language skills—which is the area he struggles in the most. We are doing the happy dance here!

--My children helped me pick our cherries and I steamed them in my Mehu Mija (a steamer). We are going to make cherry jelly, both frozen and cooked. I like to give these as Christmas gifts.

--Last Saturday we implanted 43 Cedrs in our cows so that they will be ready to be artificially inseminated at the same time. We want to sell some of them next winter and they will do better if they are bred.

--I’ve been going outside and enjoying my telescope! For a couple of weeks I was out several nights in a row, but the last few days have been cloudy. It looks as though I will be able to be out tonight, though. The night sky rocks! Drop by around 10:00 tonight and I’ll give you a tour of the stars!

--My children are getting ready for the fairs that are coming up. I’m nervous about their not getting enough finish on their cattle due to our being busy and their not getting some things done without their dad here to help. Lack of finish is good for us, but really bad for the show ring. The folks who judge cattle want the heifers to be as heavy as a steer should be, but then these animals have trouble conceiving and delivering. Many times we have cattle that are the smallest in the ring, and when we bring them home and have to call the vet to get the calf delivered, she tells us it is because the animal is too fat. One year the judge would not even look at one of our animals in the show ring—he did not consider it big enough to show, and it was one of the biggest animals we had ever taken. The judges say they do not have enough “finish.” My reaction to all of this is pure frustration, but my children and hubby still want to show cattle and so they keep going. We do better when it comes to showing steers. We win the carcass judging contests regularly. That’s fun! I’ve informed my family, however, that I would like to leave the farm for a vacation sometime when we DON’T TAKE THE COWS WITH US. Sigh.

O.K. I need to go. I’m sure I could tell you a lot more, but I need to run over to the other pasture to see how the cows are doing. I’ll check the pond to see if there are any snapping turtles and also check for signs of trespassers who have been fishing there. We’ll run over to the stream pasture to see if the sick calf we medicated is looking any better, and I’ll check to see how the Whitney crab apple tree is doing. I need to check to see if Kiss Me, Too has cleaned, and I’ll offer the donkey a carrot (if I don’t she’ll try to eat my pants). I’ll take my camera with me and add some pictures when I get back. So long!

Blessings!

Trouble Comes in Threes

Trouble comes in threes (or so the proverb says).

#1: John Mark's splint is off. He is not supposed to use it too roughly for the rest of the summer, and it is slowing gaining some of his thumb's mobility back.

#2: I've finished physical therapy for my back. I now have the "normal" amount of back pain, and the small of my back only whimpers when I try to lift something heavy.

#3: My husband has a broken blood vessel in his eye (macular degeneration from age? severe myopia? a previous blow to the eye?). The doctor injected some medicine into the eye which has the highest chance of improving the lost vision. My hubby will need to be careful to stay away from environments that could irritate the eye and cause infection (i.e.. farm work) for several days. We pray that all will heal without any infection and that the procedure will produce better vision.

Thanks for your prayers!
Jean

In the Month of June

Since we do not feed the birds in the summer, Ruffy takes possession of the bird feeder for her daily siesta.


















One of my favorites is Angel food cake made from a whole dozen eggs and topped with strawberries!






















Penelope (an old photo, but one I love.)

















Breakfast! 

The Cabin in the Woods

My cousins came to visit today. The boys were down in the woods raising the walls of their cabin a little higher. What fun!



 

Desktop

I chose this photo for my desktop today. The computer trimmed the photo so that the ears and all the tile are gone, and all that is left are two HUGH eyes staring at me with an ATTITUDE. Cat lovers might like to try it!

10 New Babies

Our turkeys have arrived. There are 10 of them. Peep, peep, peep. They are really dumb birds when they are in captivity. In the wild they are quite cunning. Benjamin Franklin, if I remember correctly, wanted to make them the national bird to help us remember the importance of freedom. If you put a barrel into their cage, they will all fly into it, smothering the ones at the bottom. Last year our turkies died because we moved them to a new, larger penned area, and they couldn't figure out where the food was (under their beaks). We didn't realize the problem until it was too late. :-( Gotta take care of these babies! 

June 5th

A dozen for my birthday from my love! 

On the Farm

This is a small corner of the pasture that I think is so lovely--a little valley, a rock outcropping, and everything green.
















Orion (aka Fluffy Boy) looks frightened. I'm not that scary!


















Posing for the camera. I think he knows someday he'll rule the pasture. 

By the Pond

This is how the pond looked this morning when we went out to check the cattle. Yesterday we found over 40 Canada Geese on the pond, but they were gone this morning when I arrived with my camera. The turtles were watching us, the frogs were splashing, and the tadpoles were there by the millions.


















These are the 9 ladies in waiting. They are all expecting to calve sometime this summer. One calf hid in the pasture when the rest of the cows were moved, and mom came back through the fence for it. So now we have a total of 10 cows and one calf by the pond.