Pickup troubles...

It's been a busy day, once again. 

Dad and Jacob worked on trucks/tractors/planters/unloading corn-seed and Basic-H that arrived/etc...   My mom went to Bismarck for many different errands today (a part for our garden tiller; lumber for the top of the greenhouse; Kangen water; she looked at a car for Andrew and decided it wasn't even worth $1,500; got groceries; did a session....).   I babysat until 5:30, at which time I came home and made supper and then helped with chores.  I screwed in a few more boards on the greenhouse to keep the plastic from flapping in the wind; checked cows; did dishes; ground up more chicken feed; baked my first loaf of sourdough bread (haven't tasted it yet); moved the water hose up to the tank by the house; swept and scrubbed parts of the floor; etc...   Andrew left right after morning chores and plans to be home Friday evening. 

At 9:00pm, Dad and Jacob left for Bismarck with one of Andrew's pickups and his car-trailer to go pick up Mom and Andrew's other pickup which wouldn't start or move or something when she was done at Sam's club.  :(  They probably won't be back until midnight.  So goes life sometimes.

Well, I think I'll go try a slice of sourdough bread now.  I wonder how it will be????

Sourdough bread...

I ordered a special sourdough culture to use with whole wheat flour and have been "Feeding" the starter for about a week now.  I finally have enough to make 1 loaf of bread with the extra, so I shaped the bread tonight and will let it rise for the recommended 4-24 hours.  Yes, somewhere in there.  :)   I hope it will taste yummy, as it is supposed to be much healthier for a person than regular bread. 

The chicks are all doing well now and are really growing already! 

The guys finished their last day of grain cleaning today and Andrew's heading out right away in the morning (after milking his cow) to spend a week helping Organic farmer Dave by Linton get his crops in the ground.  Farmer Dave is a medical doctor from Iowa, but he comes back to farm and put up hay, just because he loves doing it.  He was one of (I think) 15 children and is a really nice man.  Andrew will probably be home on Saturday for the day, but then will head back to the Linton area.

Meanwhile, my dad and Jacob will be getting our farming done (and maybe my mom?).  My mom and Jacob pulled up the fence posts around last years corn field and rolled up all of the electric wire, so that took a good portion of their afternoon. 

I was over babysitting "My" girls.  We had a fun time outside, blowing bubbles and drawing shapes on the cement.  I got home just in time to milk Sally and the goats (Andrew was still busy helping Dad and Jacob with the corn planter and things).  Then, everyone ate supper quickly and the guys headed south of Hazelton to pick up the extra tires for the sprayer that they bought.  Mom and I did a pile of dishes and took care of the chicks and got the bread going, and watched one episode of the Waltons----the one I've been waiting for:  Where Ike (the storekeeper) meets and marrys CoraBeth Walton.  :)

Greenhouse!

Hooray, hooray, hooray!  With all of my family's help, the greenhouse got re-plasticed today.  I wish it had been done a month ago already, but I didn't order the plastic soon enough and there really wouldn't have been time to get it put up anyway with the guys being so busy cleaning...  I ordered a special greenhouse plastic this year that is SUPPOSED to last 4 years, so I'm hoping that's true and we won't need to redo the plastic each year as it is a big job.    There are still a few things to do on it (for example, we can't get inside of the greenhouse right now, as we haven't cut the doors yet, and we need to get some more 2x2s from Menards for holding the top plastic down for those super windy days). 

My dad and brothers also spent a good portion of the day getting the corn planter and tractor all ready to go---and worked on something for the sprayer.  Oh, and my dad had to chase a huge portion of our cows back in this morning, as he left a gate open just for a little while, as he was planning to go back out to the pasture and they decided to go for a run.  They were outside of the north shelter-belt already by the time he caught up with them.  Then they turned around and ran all the way back in.  Silly cows!

We had 1 dead chick today.  I think she never got started eating and drinking properly?

We also have 1 new bottle calf as of today, making a grand total of 3.  No more yogurt for us for about a month!  The calves will be taking all of Sally's milk.....

My mom got bit by the weeding bug already and was weeding the raspberry patch when she wasn't helping me with the greenhouse. 

I got my first (mini) sunburn of the year.

It was a good day and we are so blessed! 

So far, so very good...

The chickies are all looking well today and are bustling around their box-house making soft cheeping noises which, when all added together (105 soft cheeps) can be heard throughout most of the house.  :) 

It was a peaceful day of rest.  I praise God for days like this.  There were for sure 3 calves born this afternoon when I went out and checked.  We've gotten behind on the tagging (with the guys being gone grain cleaning and my mom in Bismarck some days and me babysitting some days), so it's a little hard to tell which calves are new and which are a day old already.  Before they all go up to pasture, we'll put a random tag in each untagged calves ear and then spend some time watching the cows and calves as they pair up in pasture and write the numbers down (who belongs to who).  I saw 3 gophers while out checking cows, but had forgotten my gun.  Shoot...

So ends a quiet day. 

Now we're ready for a new, busy week.  Are you ready?

A post on cleaning; chicks; and childhood chums...

This is a picture from a few days back when a farmer brought his grain to our place to have it cleaned...  That's Andrew's "Rig" you see.

 

 My mom went to town this morning and picked up our chicks while I got a home ready for them in the laundry room.

 This is how huddled they were when we first put them in the boxes:

 My dear "Old" friend, Miranda stopped in this afternoon and visited for a few hours.  :)  It was fairly nice outside, so we went for a swing...

 :)  It's so good to have genuine friends!

 Back to our cheepers...  They spread out a lot after they'd warmed up a bit and haven't stopped eating and drinking ever since!

 They sure are cute when they're at this age.  It's hard to believe that puff of fluff with legs is really a living thing.  

You're all welcome to drop in and see them while they're still little and cute.  ;)

My dad thought he might finish cleaning today, then got one more call, so he started with that job and will finish it on Sunday or Monday.  Andrew still has Monday to go, then he heads to the Linton area to help farmer Dave again for about a week---getting his crops in the ground. 

My dad bought a drill-fill from a neighbor he was cleaning for today, so when Andrew got home from cleaning, he, Jacob and I went down there and lifted it into the pickup and brought it home.  It will fit perfectly on that new old red truck they bought this spring over by Ellendale. 

While my mom was in town, she went grocery shopping and wanted to get some special food for celebrating nearly being done with grain cleaning/calving/etc...  She came home with ice cream and asparagus.  :)  I made the asparagus into a yummy chicken/noodle/onion/mushroom dish and we ate the ice cream for dessert.

It was a good day! 

"Thank you, Lord, for friends, and fowl, and finishing projects."

Excited for tomorrow!

Why?  Well, for two good reasons. 

#1: The future laying hens of our farm are coming in the mail,

&

#2: Miranda is stopping in for a visit on her way back home from business in Linton.  :)

I'm excited about tonight too, as Andrew is taking the 3am cow-check (then I'll get up and milk his cow), which means that I get to sleep the whole night through... 

It was another fairly lovely day outside and I took Johanna and Tracy out to play for a while after nap time until their Grandma came to take care of them.  We went for a mini-walk until we got out of the windbreak of the trees and realized it was too cold for such things.  Tracy was sitting in the wagon and Johanna pulled her---when the ground was level.  :)

My dad got his old corn planter sold today, so he's happy.  He and Andrew are nearly done with grain cleaning now (although people still keep calling) and I believe they each have 2 farmers to clean for yet.  Then, it will be busy fieldwork time at our farm...

The Lord is so good!  He protects us, guides us and leads us each day.  We even had energy left to play the guess-how-much-the-food-in-the-grocery-flier-costs? game this evening for a few minutes before prayer. 

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood---

...a beautiful day for a neighbor.  I spent most of this lovely day over with Johanna and Tracy Jo.  We spent some time out of doors, drawing with sidewalk chalk and the girls had fun sweeping the paved part of the driveway off somewhat then playing in the dirt.  :)  I'm not sure if people living 11 or 12 miles away qualify officially as a neighbor (in country terms, of course) but I call them my neighbors...and it was a beautiful day when you could be out of the wind.

So many things are going on each day here now.  It's hard to keep up with everybody.  My brothers made a town run and brought home more mineral lick-tubs for the cattle and a huge 3,000 gallon water tank.  They also worked on getting the corn planter field worthy.  My mom kept things going at home and also said "Hi" to some other neighbors when they stopped by with May basket goodies.  My dad cleaned grain all day long. 

It was so nice to see several farmers in the fields today and to have to be passing tractors on the road.

Oh, and another sure sign of spring is that the Cackle Hatchery called my mom today and arranged a shipping date for the laying hen pullets we ordered.  100 balls of fluff are coming to my house on Friday!!!  :)