Random shots from past week:

Okay, this one wasn't a random shot. K8 is using a pellet air rifle to convince some roaming dogs outside our fence to keep moving.

Made a trip into town to buy feed and get diesel fuel for the tractor. Ranchers and farmers can buy fuel for agricultural purposes at a special fuel store and not pay taxes.

K6 and a buddy were hired to do some manual labor on their uncle's land. K6 had to leave to work his shift at McDonald's, so K7 asked if he could work. The answer to that question is always YES. It helped that their Uncle was paying them a wage. K8 is tagging along with me doing other errands.

The boys with shovels had to put a few inches of dirt on the newly installed water line from the well house at the top of picture...

...for a length of about 750 feet down the hill.

In the evening, I enjoy sitting at the edge of my pond and feeding the ducks.

I am usually joined by all the dogs, and Jimmy jumps up in my lap for a scratching session.

Pretty relaxing time for all involved.

Oops! Forgot to tell you...

New calf is a girl! Some folks don't like the dun color, but I do.

Heidi is a good Momma.

Our herd is up to seven - 1 bull, 3 cows, 1 steer, and 2 heifer calves. Going to the annual Missouri Dexter Cattle Show and Sale this weekend. Would love to buy a red cow with a heifer (especially if the Momma was already re-bred and expecting again). 

Community Service

The boys and I get the opportunity to do community service on a regular weekly basis. Last Friday morning the boys had an easy one - digging up the water line for a gent with his left arm in a cast. I say "easy" because you just have to look at the rich, soft black dirt to know this is not typical Ozark soil. K7 is wearing red jacket on the far left background holding a pick that was not needed. K6 is the lad in red t-shirt center background. It was even more "easy" because most of the trench was dug by the time we arrived! No, we didn't purposely drag our feet. We headed over there as soon as we got the phone call. 

Farm Truck Repairs

This is the Wanch work horse. Got new tires last month, but at 132,000 miles, it recently needed some repairs and maintenance. Two separate trips into the big city Toyota shop.

Just to the left of the exhaust system (the long tube thing you see on the right) is where the drive shaft should be. Where is it?

Laying on the floor in pieces. Needed all 3 U-joints replaced. Big buck$. Wish I had a cow available to sale to cover the cost! 

Wanch Dairy goes high-tech!

Early morning chores begin with feeding the cats (and dogs). K8 has the outside chores this week. Looks like he stayed up rather late last night.

Because Darlin's teats are so small and difficult to hand milk, I stretched the budget and bought a milking machine. As a result, milk production has greatly increased and the amount of time on the milking process has greatly decreased. Are the boys happy with this improvement?

K8 nodding off and catching 20 winks while on the job looks like valid proof. 

With winter coming, we would prefer to milk inside the barn, but the step-up through the shed door is too much for the cows. It was a piece of cake for the goats. So we will cover the front of shed with plywood to block the wind and continue inside the shed - burrrrrr! The new milking machine (bought used) is actually designed to milk 2 cows at once. We will start milking Heidi within a week, but first need to build a head stanchion to hold her steady for milking since she has never been milked - should be exciting. 

Clean-up and sanitizing, while not as fast as just washing your hands, is pretty quick and easy. 

Gardening 101 for success.

A while back, my daughter K4 sent me a web link (http://backtoedenfilm.com/) and said I just had to watch this free online movie documentary. Well, it was during our month without internet service, and McDonald's free wifi does not handle fast video streaming, so, based on her recommendation, I bought the DVD sight-unseen from their web site. After carrying it around in my backpack for 2 weeks, I finally found time this afternoon to watch it. All I can say is, WOW! K4 was absolutely right. It will revolutionize the way you think about gardening, I can't wait to get started this fall. If you love gardening - Watch It! If you have always avoided gardening because of too much work watering, fertilizing, and pulling weeds - Watch It! If you have problems with slow video buffering, email me and I'll mail you the DVD as a loaner (but don't hold onto it for 2 weeks waiting to watch it).

New kittens on the Wanch.

We wanted one new kitten to replace Lucky who disappeared in July, but ended up with two. They spent first week in the barn hiding from the dogs, and are now slowly warming up to everyone except Jimmy the orange male cat and Dandy the killer dog. The grey one on left is Lizzie 2...not sure what the boys call her sister.
How do you like the two little alien psycho dogs from outer space?