Yello!

Trying to look at the sunny side…

Our fast money the process or 30 Day Payday Loan 30 Day Payday Loan health problems and respect.

A new baby llama … whose mama is also a llama!

February 28th, 2009

We found a surprise out in the pasture yesterday.  Fortunately it looks like the mama likes this baby llama, so we’re keeping our hopes up that this little one will do well.  What a cutie!

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Winter on the farm

February 4th, 2008

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~Anne Bradstreet

January has come and gone and , hopefully, the bitter cold weather is gone for awhile too. We’ve had snow on the ground for several weeks, so we’re ready for a bit of a spring thaw now. Winter on the farm means extra effort goes into caring for the animals who are, by necessity, out in the cold during snowstorms and bitterly cold nights. Last week Francis went out early one morning to find a newborn baby calf that was nearly frozen by the cold wind and snow. So he carried the 90+ pound calf into our house and warmed it up in our downstairs bathtub! After a soak in the warm water, the new baby calf lounged for a few more hours snuggled in towels on the bathroom floor gathering strength before it needed to be returned to an anxious mama out in the barnyard. The problem was that the bath that saved it’s life also washed off the scent that the cow would have recognized and it took a day or two to convince her that the calf indeed was her own. Francis has been around cattle his whole life and is pretty good at knowing how to handle such delicate situations. Fortunately, mother and her baby are doing well and the calf is relatively unscathed by it’s ordeal with the exception of the frozen tips of his ears.
Here’s a couple of photos Francis took yesterday of some big snowflakes and the cows. Luckily the snow didn’t fall very long and the day warmed up a bit so we didn’t have too much accumulation.snowcows.JPGsnowcows2.JPG

Man’s Best Friend

December 29th, 2007

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive. ~Gilda Radner

Our farm dog recently had an unfortunate injury to his paw that led us to make a sort of funny analogy. Nearly two weeks ago, Turner – our Border Collie/German Shepard mixed farm dog – somehow managed to cut the pad on his front left paw on some ice or something around the farm. He is Francis’ right hand man, helping to guard the cattle from going out the gate when Francis feeds them and just making sure all the animals stay in their rightful places around the farm. We consulted the vet and were advised that stitches probably would not successfully help the cut to heal, but rather the foot should be bandaged to help Turner remember to stay off it and let the wound heal itself. So Francis played doctor and fixed Turner up with a bandage covered by a sock and wrapped with heavy tape. Turner has been slowed somewhat but is getting around pretty good using only three legs. Much of the time, though, he has taken to staying on our back porch resting in warmer surroundings. Although his bandage has been removed, it still is tender enough that he avoids walking on it. Yesterday, Francis and Jesse were out in the pickup tending to a cow that was having problems calving. On their way back to the farm they decided to buzz on by in the pickup down to the sandpit to check things out there. Turner’s habit (when he’s well) is to follow the pickup when it goes south because that usually means Francis is checking on cattle or doing something that Turner can help with. Soon after the guys got to the sandpit (about 1/2 mile from our farm) they were surprised to see that Turner had followed them, running on his three legs, just so he could be there with them in case they needed his help. When Francis told me this story, I had to admire Turner’s love and devotion to think that he would want to be there so badly he would run so far, all hobbled by his injury. I asked Francis if he was on crutches and saw me driving by… would he also run 1/2 mile in such a condition just to be with me or to see if I needed his help??? 🙂 I guess you probably know what the answer was! So when you hear the saying about a dog being a man’s best friend… you know, it’s probably true!

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It’s not every day that a house drives by!

September 23rd, 2007

Last Friday something happened that probably will never happen again…a house drove by! A farm house about 1/2 mile south of ours stood empty for the past couple of years and was recently sold. Our neighbor bought it and moved it a mile west.

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My solution to the empty nest…a puppy!!

August 25th, 2007

My new puppy. I’m thinking of calling her Mika. Any housebreaking tips? 🙂puppie2.JPGpuppie3.JPG

When it rains…it not only pours, but floods!

June 3rd, 2007

OK…so here it is June and May just flew by. As we hurried from one event to another, I kept thinking maybe I could blog about this or that…and just never found the time to do it. Kalie graduated and we went to lots of other graduations around the state of family and friends. The school year ended and our summer routine picked up. The month was filled with lots of fun events and some challenges too. But, the weather took front and center stage last Tuesday night and the early hours of Wednesday morning when over 6 1/2 inches of rain fell here. Roads, fields, city streets and many basements in the area were filled with water! About 2:30 am Wednesday morning, our house guests who were sleeping in the basement awoke to more than 4 inches of water covering the floor. There were musical instruments, video games, and electronics to rescue along with whatever else could be gathered quickly and a rush to start up the pumps to get all that water out of the house! The next few days were spent trying to dry off and salvage what we could and taking up carpeting and the pad underneath that was acting as a very soggy sponge. We have it mostly dried out now and have most all of our remaining belongings that are to be stored in the basement in a pyramid of plastic storage containers. We love the rain, but would have appreciated not getting all 6+ inches within a few hours. It was a month of May to remember!Looking south down our road.

April Showers

April 28th, 2007

April is nearly gone, so I decided maybe I should post something before May rolls around. There have been lots of things happening – some things good and some things not so good – some things mundane and some things unique! Here’s some of the highlights:

  • ***A couple of weeks ago Jesse drove up from Lincoln with an author who was in town interviewing him for a book he is writing about what he called “relos” – people who relocate often because of their jobs. He chose Jesse to interview because he is finishing up a master’s and will soon have to decide whether to move away someplace for a job or stay close to home. He also wanted to visit Jesse’s hometown and meet his parents, so that was the reason for the trip up to our house. We had quite an interesting conversation over dinner and will be anxious to see the book when it is published. The writer had worked at the New York Times for thirty years before retiring to pursue a career as an author.
  • ***As the title of this entry indicates, we have had lots and lots of rain lately which is a good thing in the spring on a farm. Soon we’ll be planting corn and soybeans when the ground dries out.
  • ***Prom, track meets, music contests and other spring events have kept us busy at school. Graduation is just around the corner!

Many more amazing ice strom photos…

January 14th, 2007

A friend sent me this link http://www.extremeinstability.com/06-12-31.htm to some absolutely amazing photographs of the recent ice storm that devastated much of Nebraska a couple of weeks ago. These photos seem to be mostly in the south central part of the state where some are still without electrical power two weeks later. Incredible!

Even though we were only without power for five days, that was enough. More than one person asked us if it wasn’t sort of fun to “rough” it without power for those days. Ummmm… the answer was a resounding no. It just was not a word that came to my mind to describe it. It’s one thing to make the best of a bad situation, but I doubt that those who are still without power would describe the last two weeks as fun. Going fishing is fun, riding a motorcycle is fun, being with family is fun, sometimes even grading papers can be fun! Living in a cold house with no water, tv, or lights is not fun.   If you ask a farmer, he would probably tell you that trying to care for livestock without water and other electrically-powered equipment is not much fun either.

Yay for electricity!

January 3rd, 2007

You may have heard about the ice storm that hit our state on Saturday, December 30. A cold, icy rain came down for several hours and temperatures hovering around the lower 30’s allowed 2-4 inches of ice to coat everything it landed on. Unfortunately, that included our electrical lines which, in turn, caused big electrical poles to snap off and drop the wires to the ground. When our power went out on Saturday night, we joined the approximately 29,000 homes across the state who lost power due to the storm. It was just restored a few hours ago today (Wednesday). It wasn’t fun, but we survived without heat, television, running water, refrigeration, and all the other conveniences we take for granted that depend on electrical power. With the generosity of good friends and neighbors we were still able to shower, wash clothes, water the livestock, celebrate New Year’s Eve, and watch the Cotton Bowl. We even took some time a couple of days ago to take some photos of some icy spectacles we hope we don’t see again for quite some time. Still, we were very, very glad when repairs were made and the lights and heat came back on this afternoon!

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Our “Watching Cat”

October 8th, 2006

Since I posted a picture of one of our kittens, I thought I should put a picture up of the most distinctive cat on the farm – a cat we call the Watching Cat. Although he’s not nearly as cute as the kittens, he does have quite a personality. Several years ago as a young tom cat, he had the very annoying habit of “marking” just about everything. That included our back door, the bottom of the grill, and…well, yeah, you can probably see how that got annoying. When we were enclosing our front porch to make what is now our sunroom, the carpenters were working with the new decorative header that was to go above our two front French doors. They needed something that they left in town, so they left for about 15-20 minutes. When they came back, sure enough, the smell told them that Watching Cat had been there…and left his mark on the new wooden header! So that got Francis to thinking that something needed to be done. To make a long story short, Francis used some little rubber bands that helped to turn the Watching Cat into a more well-mannered, but less masculine, tom cat. Let’s just say that he never really knew what happened to him.

Now our Watching Cat just sort of monitors everything that happens here on the farm by, well…watching us! The picture below shows him as I found him this morning when I got up…peering through the front door just to see what we were going to be doing today. He basically watches us 24-7. He has figured out how to perch on just about every window sill and sometimes even hangs from the screen so that he can spy on us. We have joked about outfitting him with a tiny camera attached to the top of his head – it might be interested to see ourselves from his vantage point.

This past summer I went into town one day for an hour or so, leaving the television on in the living room. When I returned I was surprised to see that the Watching Cat had somehow let himself into the house and was lying contentedly in my recliner – watching The Price Is Right! What a cat!

A few weeks ago we got up earlier than usual on a Saturday morning and were rushing around the house getting ready to go someplace. Francis heard a commotion at the bathroom window as he was shaving and turned to see the Watching Cat clinging to the screen peeking in on him. A few minutes later Watching Cat was on the deck by the patio door meowing loudly seemingly trying to get my attention. I mentioned it to Francis and he said “Oops! I forgot to feed the cats!”. We think Watching Cat surveyed the situation, saw that we were hurrying around more than usual, and thought he’d better get our attention or he wasn’t going to get his breakfast! What a cat!
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