A Day in the life...CSA Day (Picture Intensive!!)

One of the items on the 101 list was to do a "Day in the Life" blog post.  

It was requested that I do a CSA delivery day.  I didn't feel like it was a "typical" day as I am off the farm and in town, but then when I thought about it, yes, twice a week this is a typical day.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, I pack up the "little dump truck" with all the farm goodies for my wonderful friends/customers that have are subscribers to various items off the farm.

After the morning milking (no pictures of that....until I get a staff photographer, not enough hands to milk AND take pictures!), we load up the car and head the 25 miles south to the city to meet with my wonderful ladies.

This day, Boy went with me because he was going home with one of his best buds (whose mom is one of our friends/customer, too) for a sleepover and fun at one of the local water parks.

After the pickup, I also had food to take to my Reyn BFF, as her father-in-love had just passed away and I only know one way to comfort...food.  This ended up being a whole 'nother "Rea" fiasco because later I discovered that I had left the food at the wrong house, and the residents were sure that the chocolate chip cookies I left must have been poison.....sigh. 

And what timing!  My car turned over a milestone while I was out! 

(And yes, I am aware that there are TWO check engine lights, and that I am out of gas!) 

After all the deliveries, over to Sam's to pick up coffee (something I am not able to grow on the farm) 

And fuel, because everyone gets nervous when I am out driving on fumes. 

And briefly looking at a new "milk mobile" because of the check engine lights..

Then finally a stop at the grocery to pick up prescriptions and my vice, Diet Citrus Drop (something else I can't grow on the farm -grin) 

Then back to the farm by 3 pm.  

Unload the car.

Milk jars to be sterilized.

Brief nap to take.

Then chore time....chores were a bit longer tonight as my Boy was off having a blast!

This is our only named chicken, Omlet.  She lets us pick her up and pet her.

More about her soon!

Taking care of my "flock" of turkeys.  OK, it's only 2:  a male (Stuffing) and female (Cranberry). 

Omlet is their 'pet chicken' too.

Taking care of the "girl dogs" Kristl and Iona.

Taking care of the 'herd' of rabbits.  Currently 38.

And the Twins!  They are getting so big!!

Miracle (left) and Franci (right)

Mama Cow, Hershey, out on her pasture line.

And Yellow Cat waiting patiently for his dinner.

Calling the hens for their dinner (sorry the video is choppy)

After all the Critters are fed and watered, it's time to go in and feed the people.  After fixing dinner, eating, and doing dishes, it's time to go do some work in the gardens.  

Danny Dog is my farm dog and comes along for all the chores....plus, he LOVES raw beans so he keeps me company with the hopes of getting a few (and usually does!)

This is the brassica patch in the front and behind that is the bean patch.

The Roma tomatoes are finally starting to change to red!!

Then as the sun gets ready to go down, it looks as though a storm is rolling in...

and I was able to get some amazing pictures of the sun rays!

And off to the house to finally get some sleep before it starts up again tomorrow morning!

A Day at the Fair

Boy is in 4-H.  His plan was to show breeding rabbits and do a woodworking project.

Unfortunately, with his Dad being very ill, the plans were derailed and we didn't make it to the fair to show.  However, we did make it to the fair to see Boy's Best Friend and his award winning turkeys!

And came home to a gorgeous summer sunset!

Flash back: Race to Save Face: July 11th

One of my 101 in 1001 goals was to do a 5K...well, we did a 2 mile walk instead.   There were about 167 people preregistered for the race and/or walk.  It was a five mile run (with a big crazy hill) or a 2 mile walk.  There was also a kid's 1 mile "fun run".  

 It was to raise research funds for Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is the disease I have.  Not many people actually go into the "fundraising" aspect of it, but I did!  I raised $280 in addition to my entrance fees and was the top fundraiser. 

Our "color" is teal.  We had a "Team" to go, but as the day came closer, most everyone else ended up with something else they needed to do.  My Man was too sick to go....so it ended up just being me and My Boy. It was an awesome day anyway.  It wasn't very hot for July!!  YAY!  

I found Teal Shoes the morning of the race. 

Here is my determined young man....not a kid anymore! 

He may have been in the "Kid's Fun Run" but he took it totally seriously, and finished the mile in just over 6 minutes!!! 

I met a few others that are "warriors" with TN.  It was nice to know I'm not the only one!

It' was a great Mom N Boy Day!

I love this Boy!  He's become such a nice young man.

And even while walking, we "barn safari"ed.

And check out these chickens on a water tank...they were easily 9 feet tall!

As we left the race for our 2 hour drive home, it was under the July Super Moon.

My good friend, E. had a "Race to Save Face - South" as her mom has TN, too.

Look at this!

My Man and Boy went on a delivery last month and stopped by an antique store on the way home and 

JUST LOOK AT THE PERFECT CAN

 they found for my kitchen!!!

Farm Visitors

It's always fun to have visitors! 

One of my CSA ladies and her sweet daughter came by yesterday morning to give Miracle her morning bottle.

As FranciB looks on... 

The twins are already getting bigger!

THEN...in the later afternoon...

the crop duster came past and gave us a show!

Why, yes, that is right above the calf field (and that is my car...) 

Um, yeah, that is the power lines....

So close that Danny thinks he can catch him...

Why YES, That IS my mailbox!
Can you say Air Mail?!?

Jealous much?

So as I stood at the fence taking pictures of Hershey and the twins, I heard a scrabbling sound beside me.

Yellow cat climbed the post beside me so he could have some attention too.

And went all ""Pride Rock" on me!

Three days old and new halters...

It's the Man's birthday...

I haven't shared on the blog yet, but one of the reasons I've been offline a lot this summer is the absolute craziness that has gone on...one of which is a Big.Medical.Issue.



My man has been feeling sick to his stomach since early June.  He dealt with it, but it was really an issue.  He was spending more and more time on the couch than anything else.  He didn't go out to see his bunnies...



Fast forward to July 5th,after having a great time with friends on the 4th, he really felt bad.  So we went to the ER.  Thinking it was a gall bladder or such issue....They told us that wasn't it, but we should follow up with our family doctor because his EKG was abnormal...umm..but then sent us home...I'll spare most of the little details, but it ended up not being a stomach thing but a very serious heart problem.  He is now disabled from our business (at least until October.)



We have seen true miracles...such as first they did a test and told him that we were scheduled for open heart surgery in 10 days.  We and many of our prayer warrior friends prayed for healing and strengthening of the heart and wisdom for the doctors.  When we went in 2 days before the surgery for a more invasive test to see the damage, it wasn't as bad as they orginally thought and surgery ultimately got cancelled!! God is good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.



We still have very, very serious issues that we are patiently working though, but with God is with us and this is not a surprise to Him.



So for Man's birthday, it was a very quiet day.  Resting and well, resting.  He did manage to take his once daily walk out to see his bunnies and give them a drink..

The black strap around his neck is an amazing invention called a Zoll LifeVest!  

We are so grateful for this technology.

Evening Chores on the farm...

The cows like to come out in the evening.  Hershey doesn't seem to like the daytime heat, so as the sun dips down we see her and the babies in the field.

Look how much thinner she is (and no, she's not starving...that's the way Jerseys look, however we are slowly trying to fatten her up a bit!)

Both the twins with some of the chickens... 

"Excuse me?!  Might you have some milk for me....?" 

Miracle the Bottle Baby

Miracle has been challenged with finding where the milk comes from on Hershey.  She's constantly 

head-butting Hershey's neck and sucking on her waddle.  I'm not sure if there is an issue with Frances not letting her nurse, but it doesn't seem like it.  So....we've taken over the job of feeding Miracle.  It took her no time at all to take to the bottle.

The thing with bottle feeding a calf as opposed to a baby?  Babies lay all nice a quiet while you feed them.  Calves, not so much.  They naturally head-butt the bottle, yank and pull and when they come off the bottle, their mouth is all foamy and milking and that's when they decide your elbow looks like it might have milk...Cow slime!  But it's also pretty wonderful to sit and stroke her fur and scratch her ears.  It's also pretty awesome that she is already "people friendly".  Whereas FranciB is definitely more people shy.

Boy is an awesome helper with feeding too.  He is thinking about taking Miracle to fair with 4H next year.

First post-calf milking...

We've had lots of people talk about how big Hershey's udder had gotten. 

This would be why!  Our first milking was 5.5 gallons, and a quart.

It's really yellow because this is what is known as "Transitional Milk"  It's about 1/2 colostrum, and 1/2 milk.  This is what we will be feeding to Miracle as she still seems to not realize that no milk is going to come out of Mama's neck waddle!