Catching up

Okay it is time to get caught up!  There has been quite a few things that have been happening around the farm and in our lives.  So I will try to make this short and sweet...Here we go!

March 8, 2012 was National Ag Day.  I spent most of the week trying to do things with my kids that involved Agriculture.  The first day we planted soybeans.  The kids had fun doing this activity.  We found the directions on http://www.myamericanfarm.com/.

The second day we played the memory game on http://www.myamericanfarm.com/. This site has lots of neat games to play.  It was built to educate people on agriculture as well as entertain.  This site is for all ages.

The next day we read Milk Comes From a Cow and The Soil Neighborhood.  These books are written by Dan Yunk and give good insight into the life of agriculture.  They can be ordered from http://www.kfb.org/.

Then National Ag day we went to our good friend Mick Rausch's house to watch him milk cows.  This brought back lots of memories for me as I worked on a Dairy in college.  It was ran by the university and it was a great experience.  I think the kids had just as much fun as I did.

The weekend of March 24-25th we went to Hays for a Young Farmers and Ranchers commitee meeting.  We did a community project at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.  We helped clean the store and put out variouse items that had been donated to the store.  We continued to plan the 2013 annual conference.  We also had a visit from Senator Jerry Moran.  He spoke to us about things going on in Congress and the Child Labor law he is trying to put a stop to.  It was a great weekend with great people.

Then it was Easter fun.  We spent two weekends in a row hunting easter eggs.  The kids had a blast and I had fun watching them.

And probably the most amazing thing has been the addition to my extended family.  Kelsey Marie was born on April 8th at 8:38 am.  She was 10 weeks early and only weighed 3 lbs 5 ounces.  She was 15 3/4 inches long.  My sister had been on best rest in the hospital for two weeks before Kelsey decided to grace us with her presence.  Even though she is so small she is showing great signs of improvement and hopefully she will be able to join her mom, dad and sister at home, where she belongs, soon.

Love my Kelsey Marie!

And now we are all caught up!



Photos from around the farm part 2

I love sunsets.

And clouds for that matter.

The different colors here is what caught my eye.

This barn is amazing!

Local dealership.

Soybean harvest.

What a flood irrigated field looks like before it is planted.

Co-op in the back ground.

Dusting of snow.

Weekend Getaway!

Last weekend we decided we needed a weekend away.  We had tickets to go to the farm show in Kansas City, Mo (KC).  We left early Saturday morning and hit the road.

We finally made it to KC.  I have never been to a farm show so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was excited to see what this show was all about.  I have to say I was pretty amazed.  I have never seen so much equipment under one roof.  There were two stories. Every piece was all shiny and new.  The kids wanted to climb up in every piece of equipment they could find.  They just about succeeded!

Swather...mommy like.  I want one if I am going to help swath straw this year!

Gleaner Combine.  Jeff ran one like this last year as a test for Gleaner.

Sprayer

After we spent several hours at the show we then drove to our buddies house which is between Topeka, KS and Manhattan, KS.  Him, his dad and grandpa ranch.  They have 700 head of angus cattle.  They have about 650 momma cows.  They ride horses to check cows and these horses are amazing.  Anyone can ride them.  I love going there to ride and see the cows.  The kids also got to help feed a couple of orphaned calves.  I loved that they got to experience this.

He had so much fun.  Little sister wasn't strong enough to hold the bottle so mommy had to help.  Mommy can multitask but not good enough to feed a hungry calf and take a picture!

My favorite horse on the ranch is Blaze.  This is also Heath's Grandpa's horse.

We also had to have a least one unexpected adventure and that was the car decided it wanted to lock itself with the keys still inside.  We are still trying to figure that mystery out!

The boys trying to get the car to unlock.

After spending some good quality time at Heath's ranch we then headed into Manhattan where we bedded down for the night. The kids were a little sad that we got there after the hotel pool closed but after the day we had I don't think they would have had the energy to swim (it was really the big kids I was worried about not having any energy!).

The next morning we got up and attended church at St. Isidore's, which is right off the K-State campuse.  I remember it always being packed but the church was completely full with 10 minutes left before mass started.  Father Keith gives everyone a hug as you come in.  The hugs from him is my favorite part besides his sermons.  I miss going to that church.  The atmosphere is wonderful!  After church we decided to walk around campus.  It is more fun to walk around campus now that I don't have to go to class!

The kids running in the center of campus.

We of course did some shopping at Varney's.  That is the only place that I buy my K-State gear.  That way I know that I am just as cool as the college kids (okay that is big maybe on the cool part but I do love the new K-State gear!).  After that we grabbed some pizza and headed to my friend Rachael's house to visit her family and her new addition.  Her little girl is so cute and her little boy is so sweet.  I could have stayed there all day and cuddled with him!

Pretending they are taking naps!

Sweet baby boy!

I finally told my husband that the only way for us to get back on the road to home was to make me give the sweet baby boy back to his momma.  After a lot of convencing to hand him over, we headed home.  We got home about 7 that night and everyone agreed that it was the best mini-vaction we have had in a long time.

And that my friends concludes our weekend getaway!

Swather work

Note: You will have to pause the music in order to hear the commentary on the videos.

I am having a hard time believing that we are still in winter.  We have had some wonderful temperatures that have let us play outside.  On this particular day we went over to the farm and watched as daddy worked on the swather.

I know nothing about working on this piece of equipment (I do know how to drive it though!) but thought it might be interesting to learn a little bit about maintenance.

I learned that if you take the header off the swather, it is much easier to work on.  If you don't, the work space is not very conducive to getting any work done.

Here is my husband replacing some belts.

It is amazing to me to think about how much my husband has to know in order to fix anything on the farm.  There are so many moving parts and nuts and bolts that hold things together, that I have no idea how he keeps it all straight.

I then decided to interview my son.  Now if you know anything about him you know that he hears one story and makes it his own.  This particular day he had his own story on what he was fixing.  His sister steals some of his thunder though.



So then I had to put my baby girl on the spot.  I think she might be a little camera shy. But she sure does have an award winning smile!

Here are the kids helping out in the cab of the swather.

Now that the belts are back in working order it is time to put the header back onto the swather.  It looks easier than it really is.  Everything has to line up just perfect.  Someone has to drive the swather and then the other one has to help the header line up.

Success!

We ended our day at the farm with a "three wheeler" ride around the yard.

Hope we have more of these warm days so I can continue to go to the farm and learn more about fixing and working on the equipment that helps make our lively hood possible!