Wheat Harvest

So its that time of year when farmwives everywhere say goodbye to their husbands for the next 5 months...yep its summertime..and its kicked off with wheat harvest.  If you live in Kansas and are unsure of when wheat harvest starts, here are the top 10 Ways to Tell if Wheat Harvest Has Started:

10.  There is a traffic jam in front of the elevator.
9.  The country night sky is suddenly full of light, however that light is headlights from combines.
8.  A semi with a combine on a trailer, pulling a grain truck, pulling a grain cart doesn't seem odd, you've already passed 4 such conglomerates in a 10 mile stretch.
7.  A grain truck with a 1933 engine, 1925 truck bed, and 1968 clutch is stuck on main street, because the 12 year old driving it forgot that to go from 3rd gear to 4th, doesn't need the clutch, but from 4th to 5th does.
6.  Talk of how many bushels and test weight is talked about not only in coffee shops, but hair salons, gyms, and playgrounds.
5.  Gatorade and beer sales go up exponentially.
4.  You suddenly get a call from your cousins-3rd cousin once removed asking if you can drive a stick shift and are free for the next 5 days.
3.  You hear of some weird ritual involving burying an artifact or doing a hail dance in a wheat field saving it from hail and the person saying it doesn't think its odd at all.
2.  You hear of some high school boys taking a stop watch to see who is really faster getting grain from the field to the elevator, and whoever wins gets a case of 3.2 Natty Light.

1.  Everyone, even those not involved in farming, remember that Kansas is still the breadbasket of the world---awwww  :-)

The Adventures of Borus and Big Al

"Daddy, Daddy...what are you doing now?" Borus rushed, running over to where is Daddy was standing in the field.

"Well, I'm checking on the herd," Big Al calmly replied, his deep voice resonating in the prairie wind.

"Oh, I see, well I guess not, or maybe, well, Daddy I have a question."  Borus said his words tripping over one another, his head waving from side to side in apprehension.

"Yes son, you know you can ask me anything." Big Al replied, continuing his gaze on the herd.

"Well, when am I going to be big and strong like you Daddy?" Borus said, the question in his eyes telling more of the story.  "Well Lewis and Tini said that you are the biggest and strongest bull this farm has ever seen, and when will I grow up to be big like you?"

Big Al looked down at his son, his little hooves shaking in the ground and the big calf eyes looking back up at him.  How he looks like me when I was his age, he thought to himself.

"Well being the biggest or the strongest isn't what's important Borus" Big Al replied.

"Well then what is?"  Borus asked confused at what his Daddy was saying.

"You go and ask your Momma and her friends, they will tell you," Big Al said scooting his son towards the group of cows in the sun.

"Auntie Clarice, Auntie Clarice!"  Borus said excitedly, "What makes Daddy, I mean Big Al, so important?"

"Oh sweetie, that's easy, he looks after each one of us, keeping us all safe." Clarice said nodding in the warm sunshine.

Borus walked away, shaking his head, he really didn't expect that answer.  Maybe Auntie Myrtle and Louise would say something else.

"Auntie Myrtle, Auntie Louise!"  Borus said.

"Well hello Borus" they said together, their black kind faces looking towards him.

"What makes Daddy, Big Al, so important?" Borus said gazing at each face.

"He's the hardest working bull we've ever had here." Louise responded.

"Oh yes, he's the first one to rise and the last one to go to bed," Myrtle nodded in quick reply.

Borus walked away, and thought Momma will say that he's the biggest and best.

"Momma, Momma, what makes Daddy so important?"

"Oh son, your Daddy is the kindest bull I've ever known, he loves us all with his whole heart."  Borus' Momma said, her dark almond eyes glistening in the afternoon rays.

Borus walked away, and thought, I'll ask Auntie Gertie, she must say something about being big and strong.

"Auntie Gertie, Auntie Gertie, what makes Big Al so important?"  Borus looked up at the white and black face smiling down on him.

"Oh Big Al, he's important because he thinks of everyone else first, then himself.  I've seen him eat last, just so you and all your friends could eat."  Gertie replied, smiling to herself.

Borus sauntered off to where his Daddy was standing, thinking about all what he had heard.

"So what did you learn today son?" Big Al asked.

"Well no one said that what made you important was that you were big and strong, they all said you were important because of...." Borus stopped, thinking in his head, "its because of what's on the inside Daddy--that's what makes you important!"

Big Al looked down on his son, the pride of watching a child learn something showing in his big square face.

"So I've changed my mind Daddy." Borus stated abruptly, his hoof stomping the ground.

"I don't want to be big and strong anymore Daddy, I want to be just like you."

From Chick to Table

So the hubs and I decided to get chickens (see previous blog: Cows calves and chickens oh my)  and here's a pictorial chain of events  :-)



Aren't they cute?  Crazy little guys!



Hungry chickens!!!

The chicken chop!  Now how did that Keystone can get in there?  LOL

I helped!  I tried the chop--couldn't quite the heads off, so I was regulated to the foodsaver machine.

The final product!  Bam!  It was AWESOME!!!  It tasted more "chicken-y" if that's a word!  Totally made the ordeal and time worth it!

It was a great experience and I'm glad the hubs and I did it together.  So many firsts--feeding chickens, having them peck you, seeing them chopped and defeathered, and cooking a whole chicken.  I'd never done that before--but it was really awesome!  Here's what I did :

Rub the chicken with butter
Mixed salt, sage, poultry seasoning, rosemary in a bowl
Sprinkled the chicken with the mixture
Cooked breast side down, covered with foil
cooked for a couple of hours at 350

It was so tender and juicy!  Yum!

The Adventures of Claribel and Clarice

Claribel stepped off the trailer and the she gazed into the pen, trying to take in all the new sights.  This place was different than when she lived with Momma.

There's was a cow at the end of the pen, that was looking at her with big kind eyes.

"You must be Claribel, you look so much like your Momma!" The older cow walked up to her and smiled.

"What is this place, and who are you?"  Claribel asked kind of frightened, so much had happened since Momma had gotten sick.

"Oh honey, you have nothing to be afraid of" Clarice said, noticing her frightened wobbly legs.  "This is a good, safe place.  The grass is green, the other cows are so nice, I'm sure you'll like it here, this is your new home."

"My name is Clarice, I knew your Momma very well" she continued, starting to saunter away, coaxing Claribel to walk along with her.

"I miss her so much!" Claribel said, her little almond eyes filling up with tears and streaking her little fuzzy face.  "Things will never be the same!"

Clarice nudged her and cuddled her into her side and said "Oh honey, I know things won't be the same, but you will make it through this, I just know it."

Claribel settled into the side of the older cow and looked up at the blue, blue sky, and wondered how things could ever be the same. 

"I tell you what, Claribel, you know what will keep the memory of your Momma alive in your heart?" Clarice looked down smiling.

Sniffle, sniffle, "What?" Claribel hiccuped.

"Close your eyes, sweetie" Clarice quietly said.

Claribel gently closed her big brown eyes and listened to the soft cadence of Clarice's voice.

"I want you to remember a time when your Momma was healthy and you two had a special thing you would do together."

Claribel thought in her mind about Momma's big smile and even bigger hugs, and then remembered what Momma had said about the wind. 

Claribel looked up at Clarice and said "Momma said that when I could feel the wind, it was just like a kiss, and that whenever I felt the wind on my face--it was a kiss from her, whether I could see her or not."

Clarice nodded, knowing that story, and knowing why Claribel's Momma had told it to her.

"Well now Claribel, it seems like your Momma will always be with you."

Claribel lifted her nose to the sky and felt the wind on her face and smiled--yes everything would be alright.

Clarice gave her one final lick, and said "Now its time for you to go play--over there you will find Lewis, Tini, and Borus, but I'll be right here---there's nothing to fear, I will be here."

Claribel nodded and headed off to play, and looked back and sure enough Clarice was right there watching her.  She lifted her head to the sky and felt the wind on her face, and thought everything will be ok, and this will be my new home.

Antique Horseshoe?

So the other day, as we were moving heifers around, I noticed a shiny piece of metal in Scoot's (our horse) pen.  I start digging around and its really stuck, so I ask J for some pliers or pocketknife and dig it up...and here's what it was:

Has anyone ever seen a shoe like this before?  I have scoured the internet to try and find something like it and to no avail.  In my wildest dreams its worth thousands of dollars..in actuality its probably just an interesting piece of metal.  Anyways if anyone can identify it, I would appreciate it  :-)

Just Say NO to Vectra 3D!

So we took the dogs (both my little angel Jose and J's dog Gunnar--now Gunnar is probably an angel too, but he's so rambunctious his halo never gets a chance to hang perfectly above his golden lab head--lol) to the vet and they gave us some new flea/tick/bug keeper-awayer--Vectra 3D.  Apparently this stuff is the best stuff, and the vet's not even carrying Frontline anymore.  Fine, fine, we'll give it a whirl. 

Last night I head out to give Gunnar his dose, now mind you I did read the instruction packet first--well what there was of it, which was not much.  So of course, in his normal golden lab self, he doesn't really sit still and allow me to apply it well and some gets on my hand.  I go inside and head to give my little man some (I just save a few little drips and give it to Jose) and my hand starts burning.  Hmph--that's weird.  So I pull out the original box and this is what it says:

Crap!!!  I start washing my hands and call the number.  Apparently Vectra is a valued customer at the good ol' poison number.  I get transferred to Human Safety Services and talk to a registered nurse.  She asks what kind of soap I used to wash with, how long the tingly/burning/paralysis sensation lasted, etc, etc.  Apparently there is some ingredient in the product that causes skin paralysis in humans---WTF!!!  Why does it not say on the box--wear gloves!?!?!?  The nurse said the paralysis feeling would go away in a couple of hours and if it didn't go away before I went to bed to call them back.  Why did the vet not say hey---just so you know, wear gloves, something, anything.  We will not be using this product again!

Then I went outside and checked on Tatonka's sister who had been limping and a big black snake jumped out at me.  I'm so done for the day!  It was time to call it quits and definitely time for a drink!!!!

The Adventures of Ellie and Scooter

Ellie walked into the corral and saw this bigger, weird looking cow standing across the fence.

“Hey, who are you?” Ellie asked, unsure what to make of the taller cow.

This creature didn’t look like any of her friends.  Her other friends were about her size, in fact some people said her and her group of friends were identical with their nice black fur and oval-shaped eyes.

“My name Scooter!” the long drawl came out of the long face of the horse.  “What are you doing in my pen?”

“Well my friends came over here and we like to hang out together.”  Ellie responded nodding her head to the direction of her buddies.  “My name is Ellie, and that is Molly, Queenie, and Josie.”

“Hi all” came the reply.

“What are you—you seem kind of big for a cow.”  Ellie poked her nose up at Scooter, giving him a smell, “And you really don’t smell like a cow.”

“I’m a horse—haven’t you ever seen one before?”  He replied, astonished that Ellie had never seen a horse.

“Well no, all my friends are cows.  We do everything together- go out to eat, get our ears pierced together, keep each other company, talk about the old cows, ya know, everything together."

Scooter listened to her chatter, head nodding at appropriate times.  "Don't you have any other friends?"  He asked.

"Well no, just my girls over there, why do I need other friends?"  Ellie was getting inpatient with all the questions, and could see her friends whispering behind her.

"Do you like to eat only grass?"  Scooter asked, "Or do you like to eat corn, alfalfa, and milo, too."

"Oh that sounds so good--we have to head to the feed bin!"  Ellie was getting hungry listening to Scooter talk about all the different foods.

"Friends that are different are good too, ya know."  Scooter said, stomping his foot for emphasis.

"I guess I could be friends with you...but what about my other friends?"  Ellie asked; looking at her group of friends.

"Why don't you bring them over here, and we can all be friends?"  Scooter said.  "We all live here together on this same farm, we should all be friends."

Ellie nodded and looked up at Scooter gave him a head hug, and thought, we are all here together, just because we're different doesn't mean we can't be friends.

*Note: I really saw this happen--one of the heifers and Scoot leaned over the fence and gave each other an eskimo kiss--it was so cute!  What can I say the animals inspire me?

Time In Sally

Sally is her name, New Holland is her manufacturer, yep she's a swather--and she's what makes the hay go down.  We've had a random past, check out previous blogsIts What Makes the Hay Go Down:  one thing I haven't encountered was mud.  Hmmmm.  So here I am swathing down some alfalfa and suddenly I feel kind of airborne, like that feeling you get when you're driving and hit ice.  You're moving, but you don't have control over where you are moving.  I'm thinking, oh sh*t, I can not get Sally stuck.  I pull off the gas, raise the header, and just glide for a bit.  I slide into the row I had just cut down, leaving a big zig-zag behind me.  Schwoo!  That's one thing about swathing though, you never know what its really going to be until you start cutting.  Oh well, another experience bites the dust  :-)

International Chihuahua Appreciation Day!

So I just found out that today is International Chihuahua appreciation day!!!  Ahh!  I have had two very special chihuahua's in my life--first Daisy and now Jose.  They are the most precious little animals.  My little Jose is so loving and Daisy was just a doll  :-)

How can you not love this face?

Here he is sleeping...doesn't he look like a little peanut?

Those Pictures From the Past

So one of my college sorority sisters uploaded a bunch of pics from the past---and they really are quite funny.  Its long enough ago now that the fashion looks kind of bad (hello tshirt sleeves rolled up), and the hair styles have changed several times.  Well one of my other friends saw these pics on facebook, and said, does it bother you people posting the pics and tagging you in them?  It got me to thinking.

I would not trade the experience at Pitt State and being in a sorority for the world.  Was I a "sorority girl" I don't think so.  But the memories of living in the house, doing the crazy stunts, serenading fraternity houses, getting my hair highlighted for the first time, getting talked into doing things I normally would not do, everything about it---I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Besides when I get old and gray what will I have to tell the cows about?  You know it has to be something juicy  :-)

Bovine Sex Education

So J's Dad AI's cows...and I'm pretty sure I didn't know how it was done until I actually saw it.  Its kind of one of those images like a car crash that you have to look, but really don't want too, but do anyway.  The cows have been going open (like heat for dogs) and they start to ride each other.  Which I also didn't know that girl cows will ride other girl cows--I thought just the boys rode the girls.  Alas my cow sex-education was at a 3rd grade level and is now about freshman in high school.  So today I see 2 cows trying to get busy and the text to J is something like this:  "b/w face 064 and 713 were getting the lesbian love this morning".  So J's Dad comes over to AI them.  Now, I didn't realize that the person's hand goes up the pooper to feel the uterus and the other hand leads the straw up the hoohoo.  The first time I saw this happen I was like...now what?!?!  No wonder the cow doesn't like it.  Ooof.  J and his Dad think I should learn how since I have smaller arms...huh.  There are some things I just won't do--I'm thinking that's one of them.  Schwoo!

The Adventures of Borus and the Legend of Dennis

One night Borus was just getting to sleep and overheard his Momma and Clarice talking about Dennis.

“Well you know he was just a wayward little calf, always going off on his own adventures.”

“Yes, yes I know the way he would get out and cause everyone problems.” Clarice nodded in agreement, remembering the flurry of activity that would happen when Dennis would sneak outside of the fence and explore the world beyond.

Borus’s little ears perked up, adventures? Get out? He kept his eyes shut, but tilted up his ears to overhear what they were saying.

“He didn’t mean anything by it Clarice, he just wanted to see what the world was about—you know, what’s on the other side of the fence.”

“I know, I know, whatever happened with Foxy Brown?”

“Well I tell you what, I saw her the other day at the beauty salon and.....”

Borus tuned out the chatter of his Momma and rolled over and looked up in the night sky.

Adventure? Other side of the fence? What was on the other side of the fence? All he had ever seen was fence to fence—but what was on the other side.

As he lay in the quiet coolness of night, an idea started to form.

The next day the green machine came and all his friends ran right up to meet it. He ambled over, then slowly but surely backed away and found an opening in the fence and made a getaway.

He looked back at his Momma and she didn’t even notice he was gone, so on and on he ran.

The fields were so luscious and green, some of them even had corn and soybeans in them—it was like heaven.

“Is this Heaven God?” Borus looked up at the sky and not hearing a reply decided it must be and felt very pleased with himself—he had adventure!

As the golden sky turned to a deep navy he realized he had to find a place to sleep, but was used to having his Momma and her friends voices mooing him to sleep.

“Oh well,” he said, “this is adventure!” more to himself than the night sky.

As the stars filled the skies, the sounds of night sounded even louder than he remembered. What was that? Why was it so cold? He shivered to himself. Maybe this “adventure” wasn’t all it was supposed to be. He final rocked himself to sleep, his teeth chattering away, thinking in the morning this adventure really would be great.

“Cock-a-doodle doo!!!!”

Borus shot up, what was that?  Who was there?

In the distance he saw a rooster strutting towards him.

"Boy what are you doing out here by yourself?"  The rooster crowed at him.

"Well I wanted adventure I wanted to see the world, but now I'm not so sure." Borus said back, ashamed to be admitting the fact to anyone, let alone a rooster. 

"Tell you what son, you need to head back to your Momma, I bet she's worried" Rooster said to him,  poking him in a direction back home.

As Borus headed back home, he walked and walked, and finally saw the farm, but all of his friends and his Momma were locked in the corral.

He started running, "Momma--is everything Ok?"

The farmer in the green monster saw him and started running too.  Borus's momma ran to the side of the fence and nose-kissed her little son.

"Where have you been? We were all worried about you."

"Momma, I just wanted adventure, I heard you and Clarice talking about Dennis, I wanted to see what was beyond the fence too." 

"Oh Borus, don't you realize what happens to one of us happens to all of us?  You leaving made us all worry.  Together we are all one family--and when one of us is missing the family isn't complete." 

His momma nudged her little son to look at him.  "Together we are stronger than we ever are on our own."

Shrimp Po'Boys

There is this great Cajun place in Newton that serves the best shrimp po'boy that I have ever had--they are so good.  So I figured why can't I do that at home?  LOL.  Here's what I did:

Cooked fried shrimp (I used the frozen throw in the oven kind)
toasted some rolls with butter and garlic powder
and the sauce--I mixed equal parts of cocktail sauce, ranch, and Dijon mustard--it was yummo!

Cut up the shrimp, slathered on some sauce, and let me tell you--they were delicious!  When I do it again, I might also put some jalapenos or tomatoes on them, and serve with some red beans and rice  :-)

There Comes a Time

In every shoe lover's life that the inevitable happens...the shoes get worn so much that they get worn out and must pass on to the shoe haven heaven in the sky.  Now when I lived in KC I had a fabulous cobbler who was of Polish/something East European/accent unidentifiable who would mend my shoes for me  (and yes there's a Sex in the City episode almost exactly like that).  Anyways he would see my poor shoes and mutter something and say I fix--you come tomorrow.  Oh how I loved that strange little man.  However, in Whitewater I'd be more apt to find someone to shoe a horse than fix my shoes.  Alas, these fabulous pair of shoes have lived a good life:

Yes, they are pink and white polk-a-dotted, but so cute!  I found them at a JCPenny outlet probably 7 years ago.  Have taken them on planes (they have their own special linen bag), worn them to a good friend's bachelorette party--she's a great photographer--check out her blog at http://www.rebeccapetersblog.com/, worn them to work, out for drinks with jeans and a cute top, the list goes on and on.  Anyway they have shimmied their last....should I have a burial?  LOL