My "Day Off" from the group home

I had off from the group home today! Yea! Problem is that I don't really get a day off. Here is a run down of my day today.

First, the day started with milking. The thing that was different was today was testing day. Once a month we have a woman come out to our farm. She milks with us and collects samples. She takes them back to a lab were they test the white blood cells and other things. This also tells us how much each cow is giving for milk.

Next, while we were still milking, the plumber showed up to fix our waterer for the cows. He got everything working properly again!

Then we had this guy show up. He finished off our cow lane. Now the cows should come into the barn cleaner! And he cleared of our bed pack so we have a fresh start for the winter! Another yea :)

Then, our last two calfs of the year got shipped off to market. Its bitter sweet. On one hand, it's sad to see them go because I like watching them grow. On the other hand, now I don't have to feed any till sometime at the end of February. That will be a nice break.

Finally we get to eat...and take a 15 min. nap.

After we woke up, we drove about 45 min. to the woods where Noel goes hunting. An FYI, he didn't get anything this year :( We spent about 2 hours out there, taking down 5 hunting stands. Noels dad came with. We went back to his dad's house and helped him throw some wood down into his basement.

We got a pizza to go and ate it on the drive back to our house. We got back, unloaded the chopper box full of feed, got our feed mix going in the mixer, and fed the cows. We got cows milking by 7pm. Not too bad for all the stuff we did. We were almost done and Noel left me to finish up while he mixed another load of feed. He fed that out and I cleaned up the barn. We got in the house a little after 9pm! Wow, that has to be some kind of record for us. What a productive day. It felt really good to go out to the hunting land, get the cow lane done, and the bed pack cleared away. I wish every day could be like this.

This is how a typical "day off" is for me. And some people wonder why my house is not always clean, I have dirty dishes in my sink, and my yard doesn't look like it belongs in a post card. Tomorrow I head back to work at the group home.

This week

We have big plans for this week, before the frost sets in too deep. Stay tuned for all the details!

A Rough Night

Last night was one of those nights that was not fun. We had all intentions of pounding posts to fix our wind block for the cows. Noel spent all morning getting the pounder hooked up to the tractor. When I got home we loaded up some posts on the front of the tractor and headed out to the field. All was going fine, but then...the pounder fell off the tractor! We spent two hours messing with that. We only got one post partially in. I twisted my ankle while getting out of the tractor. The cows got milked late. And now we have to deal with the post pounder.
Even with all of that happening, I was still in an ok mood. I have been thinking about our adoption and having a fund raiser for it. I posted my thoughts on facebook and got a good response from people. Now I just need to decide which one and when. All has not been lost, and I look forward to the future!

Every cloud has a silver lining, just like the background picture of this blog, that I took one day after a rain storm!

52 and 11-0

These two calves, that were born on Sunday, are why I am tthankful for the number 52. We are now milking 52 cows! These two babies came out of the last two heifers that we were expecting to calf before the end of the year. We try to have all of our calves in the spring, so they are big and strong before going into the harsh Wisconsin winter. These two will actually not stay on our farm. They will be going to market where someone else with a calf barn will buy them and raise them for the winter. It has been so exciting to see the calves, that we have raised from babies, have their own babies. We are starting to grow our herd from within it's self!

11-0 is the other number I am thankful for. The Packers, my favorite team, won today! This is their wins vs losses for the season!

On Thanksgiving I would also like to say that I am thankful for my husband, friends, my family and co-workers (that all can drive me crazy at times, but teach me so much). The fact that I am working, and able to work. All of my animals that make me smile. All of the ffamily and friends that have gone before me to meet our Lord. I'm thankful for all of the good food that he has provided for me. Oh yea, and to the first person to follow and comment on my blog! All of these things make me who I am and I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you

Buddy

This Buddy. He is our Australian Shepherd. He is our herding dog. It's all he has ever really been interested in. With all of this time off lately Buddy has not had a chance to case (herd) the cows. Tonight was the first time. He was so excited. The second picture is him running back to me after I had to yell at him for making the cows run to fast. Buddy loves to run. Every time I let him out to go to the bathroom he looked at me as if to say "Mom, are we going to chase cows? When are we going to chase cows? Not now. Ok. How about now?" Poor Buddy, I think he is glad to be getting back to normal. To tell the truth, so am I.

The Past

I have heard stories of farmers past. How they milked each cow by hand, carried the milk buckets and poured them into a bigger bucket, how they raised animals for the meat and used every part of that animal, and all the work it took just to be a farmer.

Some people say that farmers now have it made. They have pipe that carries the milk to the bulk tank. They take animals in some where to get butchered, and they have REALLY big tractors to do the field work. I would have to agree that farming has changed, A LOT. But still is the same in some ways.

For Noel and I, we still seem to work hard. We still worry about the weather. We are always watching the milk and grain prices. We still milk our cows every 12 hours. We still feed calves. We have one tractor and lots of pitch forks. We do a lot of manual labor, compared to the bigger farms around us.

Our dream is to get bigger and bring me home, out of the group home. If all goes well, I will be home by 2013. For now, we talk to people and find out how to improve, we share stories, and keep praying.

Today I am thankful for...

Noel, my husband of 8+ years. I knew this day would come. I woke up this morning, to my alarm clock (boo), and realized that I had to let the dog out and load the wood furnace before going to work at the group home. Because Noel doesn't have to leave the yard, this is usually his job. It wasn't sooo bad, it just took time out of my usual me time in the morning. Noel tells me all the time that I am like a florescent light bulb in the cold. Sometimes I flicker a little until I warm up. Now this does not mean I was cold, it just takes awhile for my brain to warm up in the morning.

On my way home this afternoon it also hit me that this is my last night off. Tomorrow is when Noel will be returning from hunting and we only have our helpers in the morning. This means full steam ahead tomorrow night. My vacation is over. Life will return to it's normal amount of crazy. Wish me luck.

I can't seem to say it enough... I have loved this little vacation from the farm and the group home. I also can't wait to see Noel again (after he showers of course). :)