Cages

We all worked on the cages the other day when they arrived from Germany. Here are a few pics, including one of Jesse, Victoria, & Bruce hard at work, and Sarah, who seems to be on a mission. Thew last pic shows the barn, and gives you the idea that there is still lots to do.

Also last week

Also last week we got lots of mowing and harvesting done. We filled a silo with a good crop of clover and grass. I also got most of the barley sprayed and all of the corn. Here is a pic of Bruce spraying the corn, and also 2 of him harvesting. No pics of anybody mowing, but I included one of Sarah milking with a bit of help.

Getting ready for Cement

First, I want to say how fast these pictures that Jesse took with his cellphone uploaded to the blog. Gotta get me one of those phones. But I am still waiting for the pic of the finished cement and I am getting heat for not updating the blog. So here we are jackhammering out the old cow stalls, and in the second picture we are ready for the cement which actually came last Wednesday

Bruce milking a cow

For Fathers Day, I put a pic of Bruce milking a cow. It's not a real cow, and the teats are kinda of a little far forward, but hey, it is in the kitchen and near a bottle of wine, so life is good!

House for Sale

Today we are looking for buyers for this beautiful house in Bathmen, Holland. The house is located on a pretty cobblestone street, near the center of town, close to restaurants, cheese shops, and of course the annual fair( which has been held for like 450 years). Look at the garden and the lovely pair of holly trees! This is a wonderful house, in a pretty neighbourhood, and would be a great place to have if you wanted a place to vacation to. ( Trust me! ) Contact our good friend Jaap (pictured) or his lovely wife Fia.

Happy Birthday Jesse

Our main man Jesse turned 22 today. Here is a pic we like from a few years ago, a pic from today, of a much more mature young man, and a pic of him with Stacy and his favourite nephew, Bradford. Stacy, Kara, Bradford, Grandma, and his best bud Chris were here for supper to celebrate the birthday.

Dry, Dusty Week

We got lots done this week, everyone's corn is planted, all our seeding is done, and our grain is planted. Here is Bruce disking, and Jesse planting barley and another one of him planting grass seed with a borrowed Brillion seeder. We are fortunate to have great neighbours, because ours broke, and before we could take the time to fix it, Donnie and Brian were quick to offer us the use of theirs. It is very dry, and staying cold.

What's on T V ?

Willard, our flying llama, has spent more time out of the pasture than in it lately. We must be the only people on our block that have a peeping llama.

Happy Birthday Kara Bliss

Monday was Kara's birthday..she was 2..Sarah, Carrie & Bruce went over last night for a form of chocolate cake that I hear might have been made on Saturday. It was excellent!! Stacy is such a good cook!! Here is Kara wearing her new hat.

School Tours

Today Sarah started her school tours. We have about 400 children coming this year, over the next 3 weeks. The schools are from Hampton, Quispamsis, Rothesay and Saint John. For this years tours we have borrowed chickens, rabbits, piglets, a guinea pig, a pony and a horse from our good friend George, so with the animals we have we can show the kids a variety of animals.
Sarah first gets the kids to feed a few calves, and they look at the animals up in the calf barn, then go down to the lower barn and look at whatever is down there, up to the hay mow, out to manure pit, then back to see milk truck, then milk a cow, have a treat and get a ride on the horse or pony. Sarah really loves doing this, she tries hard to smile and not swear too much.
Today's class was from Leatherbarrow in Hampton, Ms. Davis & Ms. Kingston, and if I remember correctly, it was Christine that got this all started many years ago. Now we have parents coming with their kids that remember coming as children themselves. Yikes!!

LAC Mitham

Today, a bunch of us attended the Ceremonial Review for the 527 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Cadets. Leading Air Cadet Carrie Mitham made us proud. Here she is pictured being inspected, and a pic of her shiny boots, with credit being given to her cousin Dan who polished them, and a pic of her and Dan.

Corn

Busy day today. I finished up planting our corn, planted our neighbours corn, and went over to Stacy's and started planting Gilbert's corn. I have 2 more farms after Gilbert's to plant corn for. Jesse planted barley today, and is packing it and the corn tonight and picking rocks. I guess we need a picture of picking rocks for May. What's packing?

Coring A Pineapple

This weekend we were fortunate to have Tanya come visit with Emma, Madilyn, and Sarah. This morning we cored and ate a very tasty pineapple with our handy dandy tool that our very good friends Fia and Jaap gave me when I visited them in Holland last September.

What do we do with all this poop?

I spread almost 200 loads of manure last week. At 20 minutes a load.


Last load and Empty!!

Jesse Spreading Lime

Jesse Harrowing

We had a busy week. Here is Jesse harrowing with a new John Deere tractor we were trying out.
Very windy week here.

My Old Brown Truck

The brown truck turned 20 this week. We bought it on May 12th, 1988. It still kinda looks good if you don't look too close. We have a lot of memories associated with this truck. Cattle shows all over the Maritimes, the North American International Livestock show in Louisville Kentucky, the trips to the Royal in Toronto and the World Guernsey Conference show in Stratford Ontario in 1989. And all those trips to Oklahoma to get trailers. (Peter came with me once and drove when I got tired..I didn't stay tired long! What composure I didn't loose going through the Airline to Bangor, was lost approaching toll booths at 100mph!) And Grandpa and Sarah had a good trip too...which Salem were they looking for anyways? This is a pic of the truck on the way back from dropping heifers off at the dry pasture tonight. The dry cow pasture..ahhh...fond family bonding memories are made there too! Anyone want to go help catch some dry cows ?

A Mother of a day

Today we had Grandma; Sheila & Art; Stacy, Gilbert, Kara & Bradford; Jesse, Carrie & Victoria all home for a Mother's Day lunch. Here is a pic of all the mothers and of course there was one who didn't want to be in the picture.

I guess llamas can fly...

Well, maybe not fly, but they can jump fences...Willard has been out a few times but never broke the fence! We are still going with the premise that he will return to the same spot to poop..Seems to be working so far. We got the cows out on Tuesday, spread a lot of manure this week and today got a rain day to get the bookwork caught up. Got April done and the HST filed. Tonight I talked to my good friend Barry Martin, the fellow that taught me all I needed to know how to farm. (Or as he would put it, the things you shouldn't do).

We hope Llamas don't fly.

Today we got some dry cows down to the dry cow pasture, our first ones out of the barn this year, and the 2 goats(Billy&Emmagoat), sheep(Santa), horse(Ginger) and llama(Willard, who if you remember is in charge of this blog) are out today too. We don't know how well the llama will respect 1 strand of electric fence, maybe we will know by morning!

Cows can Fly!

Sarah spent this past week with Tanya and her family, helping out with the new baby and also was on hand for Emma's 6th birthday. Here she is with a flying cow that Nanny & Papa found in the airport in London.