Our Own Private Skating Rink

We have had enough cold weather days strung together to make the pond safe to skate on. We hauled all our skates out and changed on an improvised bench I made on the bank of the pond. The weather today was pretty warm so by the time we were done, there was a layer of water on the ice. We had a blast! Tomorrow is supposed to reach 60 degrees but when the weather does turn cold again, I think this will be one of our favorite past times.

What to do when there are no "hills"?

Two Farmers in the Making

This is the setting we chose for our Christmas picture. After we were done taking pictures, I snapped this photo of Sam and Hannah "driving" on the tractor.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Sam and Hannah sure were excited about decorating the tree. Ranger even got into the Christmas spirit and helped out too. It's all up now and looks great. The only thing missing is the presents. We hope Santa brings a few this year. We'll see......

Mom's Birthday Party

Tathiana decided she wanted to go skating for her birthday. We loaded up and drove to the only place we know of that rents skates....Crown Center. This was probably Tathiana's second time skating and it certainly was the kids' first time. It wasn't my first time skating, but it was my first time skating with figure skates on. :o)

We had a really fun time! Sam and Hannah were a little shaky at the start. Hannah hung on my arm and wouldn't let go. By the end of the evening, she didn't want any help and was doing great. Sam picked it up right away and just kept getting faster. As you can see from the photos, and how wet their pants are, they were doing their best to help sweep the ice and keep it clean.

Soon after these pictures were taken, we headed north to MN to spend Thanksgiving with my family. While we were there, we stopped in at Play-it-Again Sports and picked up skates for the whole family (Sam and I went with hockey skates this time). When the weather stays cold long enough, we plan to get out on our pond and do some skating. Maybe over Christmas vacation.

Happy Birthday Honey!
Love you XO

Allis Chalmers - Final Phase

After the new radiator arrived, I got her put back together and brought it home. Here are a few pictures of what she looks like now. What a fun process of seeing that transformation.

Family Vist From Minnesota

Tom, Perk, and Geri came down for a visit this last weekend and we had a great time. For the gals, the highlight was going to the Maple Leaf Festival and seeing all the great crafts....of course buying too. For me, and I think for Tom too, the highlight was taking a whole day on Sunday to get some work done on the farm. My barn had been leaning since the weekend we moved in here, one year ago. I wanted desperately to get the thing shored up and take down the 3 telephone poles I had leaning against the north side. With his help, I put a big bale on my tractor and applied pressure to the sides that needed it, while he propped up the poles in the places where the barn could be kept plumb. Then, we moved inside and used some 2X6 boards to cross brace the rafters. When I lowered the bail, there was a little creaking and cracking, but no shifting of the barn. We have since had some strong winds and still no shifting. Thanks for your help Tom! We love to have friends and family come and visit us. Sam and Hannah, especially, like it when they get to show people all the great "secrets" of the farm. It's always sad when our guests leave, but we appreciate the memories we make while they are here.

Allis - Phase III

I did not take any pictures of the tractor when it was fully sandblasted but that would have been phase II. Here it is with fresh coats of AC Orange paint. The orange is a little overwhelming at first. I have since added more black with the air cleaner, tires, steering wheel, and radiator. The tires are on now and, with luck, I will get 'er all back together soon.

On another note, I was in my buddy's pasture the other day loading wood and his horse took a bite out of the hood of my truck (Yes, the same one I am trying to sell). I could not believe it! I have never heard of a horse biting a vehicle to get the paint. I guess I can log that information into my, "What I Now Know About Farming Log".

Take Me Out to the Ball Game.......

This summer, we went to a Royals game against the Whitesox. Royals lost, but we sure had a nice time!

1949 Allis Chalmers WD - Restoration

This is a tractor I bought from a guy I met shortly after we moved to Kansas. He had it sitting out in his pasture for about three years. He told me he moved it there when he bought a new John Deere. I asked him if it ran and he said it did when he drove it out there and parked it. I took the crank off and manually turned it over and it was not seized up (luckily the manifold had been kept covered). I was surprised something that old would still turn over. A few weeks ago, my buddy Randy went with me to get it running. We pulled it out of the pasture and worked on it for a little while. It didn't take us long to get it running good enough to load it onto the trailer.
I have been spending the better part of the last two weeks sandblasting it and priming it. I just painted it tonight so it looks much different. It has been a very interesting process watching it transform into what it looks like now. Amazingly, they still make parts for this thing. I will be painting the back wheels this week and getting it put back together. I'll post pictures of the finished product when it's all done.
Hopefully, this is what I will be mowing my own hay with next year. I also came across a two bottom plow and a two-row planter. This should really help us get the farming operation into full swing.

First Egg.

It finally happened.... a chicken laid an egg. Since these photos were taken, we have had five more eggs. They are all pretty small but I expect that they will be getting bigger. Also, a first for us to see one of the chickens actually using the nesting box. We had not seen them using it before. Sam and Hannah have really enjoyed checking the boxes for eggs each day. This morning I'll be making a three egg omelet using all of our own eggs.

Playing Catch-Up.

This will be my attempt to bring you up to speed on what is happening around the farm. The fence(s) is/are finally finished. I had to do some after completion modifications to prevent my dogs from getting out. The way the fence is designed is that the yard and pasture closest to the cow shed are supposed to be completely secure. All of the fencing in these two locations should not allow for a dog to slip through.... or so I thought. I found out that Ranger was slipping out, under the electric wire and climbing through a section of the rock wall that had fallen over. Today, I filled that hole with a mass of old barbed wire that I had laying out in the pasture and, as of the last few hours, they haven't be able to breech the wire.
What else is going on? My kind neighbor agreed to swath and bail my south pasture this weekend (thanks Jerry). In order to get the ground ready, I had to clear out all the young hedge trees growing there. I came home from school on Friday and started cutting. Nothing is harder on a chain saw than cutting hedge trees at ground level. I worked until I couldn't see anymore and then got up early on Sat. to finish the job. I reverted to a hand saw and, other than the extra scratches on my forearms, I thought it went well.
He just finished bailing and he was able to get 19 smaller, round bails out of the field. I'm happy with that as I think it will give me more than enough hay for the winter.
I think I have my cows trained pretty well now to come when I call them. I had one get out on Friday and get into my neighbor's pasture. I went down to the fence that joins our pastures and called my cow over with the promise of some sweet feed. The good girl came, but unfortunately, I was out of sweet feed. '
Finally, we had some dear friends stop for a visit on their way back to MN from CA. Skip and Peggy are like Sam and Hannah's grandma and grandpa and are so good with our kids. Sam and Hannah always enjoy spending time with them and have fond memories of when they came and visited us in Guatemala. I took the day off from work and kept the kids home too. Skip and I were able to knock a few major projects off of the too do list and the kids had a great time hanging out with Peggy. It was a nice visit, but too short.
All is well on the farm. We look forward to many more visits from our friends and family. I'll post a blend of some of the more recent photos we have taken. D.

Fences, Cows Coming Home, and Back to Work

It seems like only yesterday that I was starting my fencing projects for the summer. Even though it has been over a month since my last posting, it's easy to summarize what transpired since that time. Fence building pretty much sums it all up. It seems there wasn't much else. My poor kids must have thought that their father forgot how to play and have fun. It wasn't all that bad but it was close.... and I'm still not done. I'll finish the house's treated wood fence, hopefully, this weekend.

The cows are in the pasture and getting along nicely. I had just finished the pasture fencing when I brought home 4 heifers. They spent the night in the pasture, up close to the cow shed, but by the next morning, two were gone. I walked out with a cup of coffee to look at the cows and imagine my surprise to find two gone. One had already gone over, or through the south fence and the other was pacing the fence looking for a weakness. When she found it, she went through it. In short, it took me two weeks, some good fence mending, and the erection of an electric fence before the two wayward cows were brought home. No problems since that time, thankfully.

School has started and a new year has begun. I am pleased with the work that was done over the summer and can breath more easily knowing that I only need to build a chicken coop next. I'll post some photos of the cows, the fences, and the new shop floor in the barn. It was nice to have my brother and his son Josh come down to help me pour. Thanks also to my buddy Randy for lending a hand. It should make for a nice work space when I get it all put together.

Other tidbits of information: chicken population is now down to 20. It seems my dogs will never stop eating them; saw a rattler the other day while working on the fence and last night, I killed a black snake in the basement of the house (Yikes!).

Where does the time go?

I haven't posted anything since May so there is much to catch up on. We are near the end of a great summer vacation and lots has happened around the farm. I had a list a mile long of things to do around here, once I began vacation, and I'm happy to say the list is shorter, but it's still long. I'll post some pictures as time allows. Now that we have a new and improved Internet connection at the house it should make posting updates much easier.

The two most important items on my to-do-list this summer were to build fencing around the cow shed and move and improve the pasture fencing so our yard/play space is much bigger. The fencing is completed, except for the electric cattle fence (more on that saga latter) and we actually have four cows of our own. I'm in process of completing the fence in the front yard and will begin sinking posts today.

It is hard to decide what to share with our friends and family that are reading this. I think it is all interesting, but know it may not be as interesting to others. I'll summarize some of the other things that have gone on and then post any photos that hit on those subjects.

We left for our annual visit to Guatemala and I hired a neighbor girl to feed the dogs, chickens, and water the garden. Wouldn't you know it, it rained the entire time we were gone and she didn't have to water once. As a result, the weeds that over took our garden made it impossible to see any plants that were there. When we returned, it was a jungle. (note to self: hire her to water and to pull weeds). The garden, at least the corn, never did make a full recovery. Because of the heavy rains, my corn went yellow and seemed to be stunted. I eventually mowed it all down and will re-cultivate and plant something else in it's place (broccoli maybe).

The chickens are fewer in number, thanks to my hungry dogs and a BB gun shot from my back porch ( more on that later too). We started at 29 and are now down to 22. I have one rooster left. I didn't realize how fragile chickens are nor how well they can play possum when in the clutches of a Rottweiler. After the fence is finished I will get started on the last big project for the summer - the chicken coop. I'm optimistic that I'll get 'er done before school starts in August. We'll see.

All for now but here is a smattering of some pictures that have been taken so far this summer.

Chicks Becoming Chickens

I've said before that the chicks were growing faster than I could believe.  A combination of that and the smell that was filling my basement, motivated me to build a temporary coop out in the barn.  Construction on the chicken house won't start until mid-June, but I needed them to have more room now.  I divided one of the grain areas into two halves.  This was formally the place I used to keep our female Rottie and I think she feels cheated.  I have built some places to roost and also added 16 nesting boxes (acquired from an old chicken house at a buddy's farm).  The chicks don't seem too interested in using either of them yet, but I did catch one roosting on top of the waterer one day (see photo).  I think the birds are happier in their new home and, for me, it is easier to take care of them now.