A Day on the Farm

Friday, March 21, 2014

Meet Kaylie Grace...

Autumn's water broke at 2 a.m. Saturday morning, but no contractions followed. We all waited on pins and needles…and waited…and waited….but no contractions. The midwife told her to try castor oil on Sunday morning. By 2:00 that afternoon, contractions were getting stronger and more regular. I guess that nasty castor oil was worth it! At 7:36 Sunday evening, Kaylie Grace entered the world. She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and measured 19 inches long. Labor and delivery went well. Kaylie is just the sweetest little thing. So tiny!!

Kaylie shortly after birth

Heather meets Kaylie

Nanna meets Kaylie

Kara meets Kaylie

Laura meets Kaylie

Meagan & Ryan meet Kaylie

Leah meets Kaylie

Erin meets Kaylie

Pop meets Kaylie

Pop with his grandkids-- Grady & Kaylie (Autumn's) on his lap & Ryan (Krissy's) standing

Krissy meets Kaylie

Kaylie on Tuesday.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

From a rodeo to a birthday party...

When Meagan, Heather, and Kara went down to feed calves this morning, they saw that the neighbor had 2 calves out. The girls got the calves back in while they waited on the neighbor and his son to get there. When they went to feed our calves, they discovered we had one calf missing. They hunted all over for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Then they discovered Eula was in with the neighbor's calves. She had broken out of our fence and into the neighbor's. That was a first!

So Gary, Meagan, Erin, Heather, Laura, Kara, & I, along with the neighbor & his son, had our own rodeo. Gary parked the Polaris Ranger in the road past the neighbor's driveway, and I parked the van in the road just past our driveway. Then they had to sort our calf from theirs and herd her out of the gate. Once Eula came out on the road, Gary got in the Ranger and started herding her towards me.

Once she got down to where there was open field, she decided to take a detour across the chiseled field that was starting to thaw. It was slippery on top with patches of snow and ice on the uneven ground. Erin went running after her, trying to head her back to the road without falling and breaking her ankle again. Gary took out across the muddy field in the Ranger and cut Eula off. She started back toward the road.

But being a dumb cow, she didn't go far before she turned around and headed back out into the field.

With a little work and running around in circles, they got her headed back to the road and brought her on towards our drive. Kara, Laura, & I were positioned at various places along the drive to keep her headed towards the barn. Gary & Meagan already had a pickup and a gate set up as a funnel, and she went right in the barn.

Erin's pant legs were covered in mud and the other brown stuff when the rodeo was over. The wind was raw, and we were all freezing. We hurried home to get some lunch and straighten up the house in preparation for Ryan's birthday party.

Ryan absolutely loves Thomas the Train. I've never seen a 2-year-old so infatuated with something. His party was a Thomas theme.

Grady was there to help Ryan celebrate. He was so excited when Autumn asked him if he wanted to go to Gammy's to see Ryan that he went over to the door and pulled on the handle to go out. Then he went and got his socks for his mommy to put on him and asked for his shoes.

Ryan thinks the best part of the cupcake is the frosting! He's related to his gammy!!

Ryan got pretty good at opening presents at Christmas-time. He went right after them.

Grady got in on the action and helped Ryan with some of his presents. They played together with some of Ryan's new toys after they got them opened. We all enjoyed watching them play together and interact with each other. They are such good friends.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Long, Long Winter

We came home from the Bahamas to these beautiful icicles hanging from the front porch. One of them measured 5 feet, 5 inches.

It doesn't seem like we can go for more than a week without snow or ice. Just yesterday Gary & I went to Rensselaer for a few things. A blizzard hit while we were gone. It was amazing! Instant blizzard!! This was State Road 16 on our way home. There were cars in the ditch and cars stuck in the road. It was just awful! So glad we made it home safely! Gary said it was a piece of cake, but I think I left fingerprints in the dash of his pickup.

Then this morning he was taking the girls down to feed the calves. The driveway was filled back in with snow. It took him several tries to get through it. He spent the afternoon plowing snow from our driveway, my mom & dad's, his mom & dad's, and his cousin's. The girls went to the grandparents' houses manned with shovels and salt to clear their walks.

The crazy thing is that after the blizzard yesterday, it was 44 degrees today. Everything was dripping and messy. Then they are predicting it will be in the 50s Thursday with damaging winds and thunderstorms. Then back to the single digits next week. Such crazy weather! I think I'll go back to the Bahamas!!

Bahamas Bound!

Just two weeks before the cruise was to leave, one of our Southern Gospel friends contacted us and told us they were offering a phenomenal deal for the Singing at Sea cruise to try to get the boat full. We weren't planning to go, but decided we couldn't pass up this deal. All 9 of us went for the cost of 2 adults, plus taxes and gratuities.

We were planning to leave bright & early on Saturday morning, but there was yet another winter storm coming in Friday evening. We were afraid if we waited until Saturday morning, we wouldn't get out of here. We worked as quickly as we could Friday to leave a day earlier, but didn't get out of here until 5:30 in the evening. The roads were already slick, and the snow was coming down. We drove through the night, arriving at our first scheduled stop at 4:00 a.m. We stayed in Morganton, North Carolina, until Sunday when we finished our trip to Jacksonville, Florida. We boarded the Carnival Fascination on Monday.

Every morning, we ate our breakfast out on the deck at the back of the boat.

It was always so beautiful!!

We spent one day at Half Moon Cay. We took Cheerios to feed the fish. We had fish jumping up and splashing us as they fought for the Cheerios. It was quite an experience as they swam around us.

Family photo with the ship in the background

Nanna playing in the sand with the other girls in the background

Laura & Heather feeding the sea gulls while we were in port in Nassau

It seemed like every night at supper time we were leaving one port or another, so the first 3 nights we never had all the girls at the supper table at the same time because their stomachs couldn't stand the motion and vibration. This was one of the nights they were all feeling well.

Our waiter, Big Joe, did tricks for the girls most nights. In this photo, he is holding a glass of water up with a straw. He raised it up 2 or 3 times, and a couple of seconds after I took this picture it fell and shattered all over the table.

Big Joe is showing Laura that she has 11 fingers. "10-9-8-7-6, and how many fingers do you have on the other hand?" 5. "See, 6 plus 5 more is 11!"

The Gala Buffet began at 11:30 p.m. Thursday night. The ice sculpture was fabulous!! The Coconut Grove was crowded! We had a fun time fellowshipping with friends.

There was food, food, and more food. All of it was elaborately presented.

Cantalope and watermelon

The girls with our waiters the last night. We were sad to tell them goodbye. We had an absolutely fantastic 5 days at sea. We wish it could have been longer!!!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Happy 15th Birthday, Erin!

The birthday girl

Erin had help from her nephews to open her presents. They had a lot of practice at Christmas time.

Speaking of blizzards…we were just speaking of them in the last post…Erin was born during a blizzard. We were planning a home birth, and the snowplow had to plow the road for the midwife to get to the house. He said that was the first time he'd ever plowed someone in to have a baby!

The Blizzard of '14

That's how it will come to be known, I'm sure….the blizzard of '14. While we were snowed in last weekend, we were reminiscing about the blizzard of '78. I'm sure our girls will reminisce about the blizzard of '14 when they're older.

With wind chills -40 to -50 on Sunday night through Tuesday afternoon, the girls had to wear many layers and try to cover every bit of exposed skin when they went to feed the cattle. The cold stung their eyes so that they watered. Then their eyelashes froze to their faces.

This is how deep the snow was in the driveway before Gary cleaned it out with the tractor.

Panoramic picture of the front yard

See the rainbow between the trees?

The mighty billows roll…..an ocean of snow

It's just unbelievable that we had that much snow and those dangerously cold temperatures just one week ago. The roads in our county were closed to only emergency vehicles from Sunday at 11 a.m. until Tuesday evening. Krissy was snowed in at work in Lafayette from Saturday through Tuesday. Now most of the snow has been melted by rain, and today was 65 degrees warmer than a week ago. Welcome to Indiana!!