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!