Welcome to the Whipple Wanch!: October photo catch-up

I did not take many photos in October, but I did get a few starting on the 1st day of the month when we had a visit from Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jess. It was a very short visit as Aunt Nancy has been struggling with Alzheimer's the past few years. She did not recognize any of us, and after 10 minutes, strongly insisted on going home. It is a terrible ailment.

It wouldn't be normal if we weren't building and burning brush piles somewhere on the farm. This particular area used to be so dense with trees, brush and thorns that I could barely squeeze through the narrow path along the fence. Now look at it! I can drive the tractor or truck to the end, so I can easily check the water gap fencing across the west end of our stream. We also discovered old barbed wire fencing along this end of the stream, so we can now remove it this winter.

I had to blow this photo up so you could better see the "twins". They were born on the farm in the spring, but lost their mother soon after birth. They stayed all year up on the hill. Hope they stay on the farm during the current hunting season and live a little longer. I told Danny he can't shoot these two.

Heidi gave us the last Dexter calf of the year - a beautiful little Dun colored girl born on 7 Oct.

This car made K7 very happy in mid-October. It is K2's new, used car, an older Honda civic. K2 has been driving our Toyota Echo the past 6 months, so K7 was without wheels during the summer and start of the school year. I am also very happy to see this new car, because I am no longer the duty Taxi driver every single day.

K2 lived in this small trailer next to the KC railroad yards the past 3 years. After graduating Law School and working in KC for a few months, he is finally moving out. I drove up to KC on 18 Oct to help him. It all fit in the bed of my truck. He sold the trailer to a neighbor.

I sold Little Darlin's calf on Thursday morning, 23 October, so the boys began milking that night, which was rough since they had a performance of "Willie Wonka" earlier in the evening. Milking started at 10:30 P.M. The milk machine was broken, so they milked by hand. K2 timed them, and he said they did it much faster than using the machine. I guess we'll fix the milking machine and sell it! It is great having fresh, raw milk again - best tasting and healthy for you, nothing like it! We soon transitioned to milking at 10:30 A.M.

The boys have been watching old episodes of a TV show called "Merlin" on K6's Netflicks. It inspired them to get their wooden swords out one morning and beat on each other.

K8 wears a uniform to school each Thursday for his Marine Corps Junior ROTC class. He looks good. The weather has been gorgeous the entire month of October.