Search & Win

Monday, March 5, 2012

Been Almost a Year

 Pretty sure the last place I left off was going on our 2nd vacation to the Door County peninsula...These pictures are from our trip to Door County last August.  We went to Whitefish Dunes State Park located along the Lake Michigan side of Door County.
 Way back when I was 15 I was part of an interstate exchange group through 4-H.  We hosted kids from Kingman County Kansas.  There were planned activities and also time for host families to do separate family activities.  My girl Sonya wanted to see Lake Michigan.
 When we pulled up to pay for day long admission, the water temperature was posted.  The first time I was here I had really great memories of being able to walk out quite a ways and clear water.  Refreshing, not too cold water.
 Today's temperature a bone chilling 55 degrees on this end of August day!  Mac splashed around and found some shells.
 There are a few hiking trails.  Although we took the same one that Sonya, my family, and I took that first time.
 There are a few spots that are a little hazardous, but it keeps you on your toes.
Mac was just being sassy here.  This weekend we are going for our third year in a row the same weekend, same place.  We are bringing Mac with too.  I hope she enjoys staying in a converted barn.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Menu Plan Monday

MONDAY- Cheeseburger macaroni, salad, and green beans

TUESDAY- Sloppy joes, corn, and more salad

WEDNESDAY- Taco casserole with corn bread and jello

THURSDAY- Homemade pizza with salad

FRIDAY- Out to eat for supper because I will be on vacation. Going to the same place too. Pictures of it here and here. We are such exciting people that we plan on eating at the same place as we did last year. HERE. It's only about 2 miles down the road from where we are staying.

SATURDAY- Still on vacation and probably dining or picking up take out from here. We ate supper there last year too. Great ribs! But we made a mistake and ate a late lunch of pizza and then were uncomfortable full for supper. I have a game plan this year. Eat lunch at noon! Simple and practical! : )

Check out ORGJUNKIE for more menu ideas!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Just a Couple Pictures

Kurt's eyes. I like them a lot. He looks angry I think, but he was actually just giving me a very serious look.
Kittens were delivered to our farm via the neighbor's cat. Our female cats (all three of them) are fixed...not anymore. Clockwise from top right is Sad Eyes (aka Bullet)(female), tortoise colored kitten is Francis Apolis(aka Frannie)(female), Moose is male, and on top is Bubba another boy. Missing from the picture are Lucy and Daisy who are obviously female.

There is mama feeding her babies. We actually brought her to another farm who was looking for more cats. Her kittens are about five months old and are more than capable of surviving on their own. But they still tried to sneak a feeding from her.


We had a huge brush pile out front that needed to be cleaned up before the snow came. It didn't look too big until we started piling it on the flat wagon.



This is Brad Paisley. We went to his concert on one of the coldest nights of the year. It was so cold the next day school was cancelled. The concert was in Green Bay the Thursday before the NFC championship game against the Bears.




Recognize this guy??? That's Super Bowl XLV MVP Aaron Rogers. He was too far from us during the concert along with a bunch of other Packers. The crowd loved it!




Milking her favorite cow Dynasty this summer. So glad I got a picture of this because Dynasty is in a funk and we're not quite sure what's going on.


She has now been moved to the pen were she is surviving as of today. The last time I took pictures like this the cow left a few weeks later. So we wanted to make sure we got some pictures of her and her favorite (living) cow.
That's just a snippet of the few things that have gone on around here...








Monday, February 14, 2011

Menu Plan Feb 14-20


I have missed my meal planning! In my head I have tried to do it but its not the same. I started on Sunday night pulling meat out of the freezer to put my plan into action. Here it goes!

Monday- Pork roast, saurkraut, and carrots cooked in the crockpot, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans
Tuesday- Sloppy Joe beef cups (refrigerated biscuits patted into muffin tins, fill with sloppy joe mixture and top with cheese and bake-easy!), corn, and salad
Wednesday- Cut up chicken in the crockpot, mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans
Thursday- Out to eat with the county Dairy Promotion group
Friday- Homemade pizza and salad
Saturday- Hamburger, potato, and carrot casserole
Sunday- Maybe out to eat for my dad's birthday which was the 12th...hmm we'll see
Check out more menu ideas at OrgJunkie

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Week in Review

Life always seems like it gets busier and busier and harder to recall the past. I'm 30 and I used to have a great memory, but it seems like it's not what I remember it to be : ) Seriously though I'm thinking I should start journaling my week or days in an actual book. My husband has a pocket calendar with a week covering the two pages. If something monumental happens on the farm it is recorded in the book. I have made the book a few times. He usually uses it to record harvest information. Like how many loads of corn silage were unloaded into the silo, if he lowered the unloader in the silo, dehorned the calves, weened the calves off of milk, moved calves to different group, replaced motors, machinery, etc. He also reports the weather--amount of snow or rain. I'm going to try and recall last week!

Monday- I worked at the coop. I only had a few loads of corn come in and the rest of the day I cleaned up and did stuff on the computer. We milked at 7pm tonight because we milked at 5am the next morning. Its always kind of strange when we milk so that we are in the house for good by 8pm. I watched Mike and Molly. Love that show! We had stuffed pork chops in the slow cooker for supper.

Tuesday- Up at 4:30am to milk by 5. It was nice to be done milking early, but we have a cow that is two days fresh (gave birth) and is not doing too hot. She is running a temp of 107 degrees which is like a 105 in humans. She is chewing her cud which is even more puzzling. My Godmother always told me that happy cow chews it's cud. Kurt treated her with some pain meds and IVed her which she dislikes as does Kurt. After morning chores were done, we got a two hour nap in which wasn't our best idea. Because we were classifying later that afternoon, which means we still needed to wash our cows tails, feed the cows, bed the cows with soybean straw, and have everything cleaned up. We also needed to vote. Today also celebrated our second year completed of milking three times a day. Kurt knows I dislike days where it feels like you live out in the barn. Ugh I dislike those days. I think I was out there for five hours straight. He brightened my day be suggesting we go out for supper. We had kind of planned to do that since we earned it for the milking three x. After voting we three went out to eat. I had chicken oscar. Its a grilled chicken breast with crab meat and asparagus covered with hollandaise sauce. Wow that was good.

Wednesday- I have to be honest. I don't remember what happened this day. I woud hope that I napped and I think I did. I know I watched The Middle and Modern Family that night.

Thursday- Today I worked at the coop. My normal days to work are Mondays and Tuesdays but because we were classifying I switched my Tuesday for this day. Our milk tester Patti stopped in by me for about an hour and she bought me lunch. Holy moly can that girl eat. She is petite and tiny and she claims her and food are pretty close. She ordered a chicken sandwich and fries and went to go pick up our order (I got a cheeseburger and fries). She saw the special was an Indian Taco so she ordered one of those too. She ate the taco first and then her sandwich and most of her fries. Then went to go test at farm that was a few miles away to the north. I was very full from lunch.

Friday- Today I thought I could hopefully get in some house cleaning before our lunch date with some friends but it did not happen. This whole week had a go-go theme to it so this day was no different. We stayed out in the barn after the cows were let out on pasture and did all the chores. This way after lunch all we have to is open the door and let the cows in and milk. Our lunch date was for 11:30 with two other couples. It went until 2:30 and we were just up the road at the golf course eating. I had wanted to milking by 2 because on most Friday nights we have Kurt's cousins son milk for us. Its easier if there is closer to eight hours of milk in the cows since he's a little slow at moving milkers. Well he came early tonight because he was going to same classifying party as us. We had a party the time before when we classified. Classifying takes place every seven months. It was so nice to come home after the party and not have to milk!

Saturday- Today I actually got some housework done. I did laundry, some vacuuming, and a little bit of dusting. I'm not done but it was a start and I also got a lot of office and bills put away. Mac and Kurt loaded a brush pile onto a flat rack and hauled to the back of our lane. Which is a half mile ride one way. Mac was getting pretty cold and had to add a pair of pants to what she had on already. I think they made three trips. We had sweet and sour chicken for supper. The extra is going to be my lunch at work on Monday. Kurt also had the vet come out to confirm if our cow had pneumonia because her temp would go down but wasn't staying down. It was pneumonia so now we are attacking it differently.

Sunday- Mac and I went to church and Kurt stayed home to doctor Shanna the cow. It was All Saints day and Kurt has an aunt who is dying of cancer-hospice has been called in. After church her daughter (who played the piano for church), came over to tell me that Kurt was to be a pallbearer for her when she passes. Which means I need to take Kurt shopping for new dress pants and a jacket so basically a suit. He needs an updated version. After sunday school, we went home and threw in a frozen pizza. A Home Run pizza which are made in Appleton and Kurt thinks they are great. Read the paper a little and then I rearranged the porch. My parents brought us their old (5 years) TV. I had to turn stuff around and I dusted and vacuumed out there. I love that room because before I moved it it was basically a junk room with a freezer. Now I have two chest freezers out there, two chairs, TV, treadmill, and plants. It's on the south side of the house so it gets nice and warm out there on cold days. We have a baseboard heater out there incase it gets too chilly. I also washed and folded more clothes. We had smoked sausage, cheesy hashbrown potatoes, and green beans.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Menu Plan Monday

Greetings, happy Monday! Blogging would be so much easier if I could plug my brain in and have everything dictate itself. Oh and if I'm going that route I would just be able to select pictures off my camera without downloading them. That's my internal issue. No worries. We have a busy week. I am working this week down at the coop weighing in loads of corn and soybeans. Ten hour days down there kick my butt and milking the third milking drop kicks my behind over a goal post. Literally. Hope my hubby takes pity on me a night or two. Check out OrgJunkie for all kinds of wonderful menu ideas.

Monday-Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad

Tuesday-Hamburgers (leftover from Sat. night), mashed potatoes (leftover from weekend) or steak fries, and green beans

Wednesday-Pancakes, bacon, and fruit

Thursday-Homemade pizza and salad

Friday- I'm waving the white flag today. Picking up broasted chicken from the grocery store's deli or getting a carryout from somewhere. Maybe my ambition will peak on Friday and we'll have something really easy made from home. Either way the key word is easy : )

Saturday- Pork chops, cheesy potatoes, and green beans

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

20 days Later

My office is still a mess. I have much news to share mostly farm news but that is usually the only news I have to share around this place. I feel right now my life half slanted the wrong way and I'm walking downhill to get uphill. Does that make sense?

What I'm doing during my lockdown in the office.
Exciting necessary tasks which some have been neglected...I haven't kept up with my checkbook. The farm checkbook is intact but I still need to pay some bills out of it and get my checkbook in order. I also have two registrations for calves that were born in May. Um yeah it's September and I'm a little behind. It's a simple task but I need to printout the pics and fill out a form. Simple enough but not when you'd rather be napping. Yawn. I also need to add some files to the filing cabinet because the paper piles in here are driving me batty. I should also picture some articles and post them on craigslist because they are taking up space here in the office. Lastly I really need to copy pictures onto disk it's something that's been on my to-do list for two years. No lie.

What else am I doing today?
Glad you asked! Washing bedding because I have had a lovely fall cold as has my daughter. I actually have the alarm set on my phone to remind me when to go down to the basement and put another load in. 10 more minutes! I also have a kitchen that needs cleaning. Like refrigerator completely wiped down inside and out. Dishes washed. Table cleaned off and the floor mopped. This then carries into the bathroom which both vanities need to be cleaned and I need to take the shop vac to some cobwebs-yuck. Floor needs to be mopped as well. Back out of the bathroom back to the kitchen and go out to the entry way. I found this shelf with coat hooks on it at a rummage sale and I bought it for 1.75! I was looking for something like it but had only seen them at the store starting around 15 or 20 dollars. Kurt needs to hang this up which I could easily do but as he always tells me I want him to feel part of the team. Welcome!

How am I going get this done?
One step at a time? I guess I won't be taking a nap today. I also informed Kurt that I would be taking the afternoon milking off so I can actually accomplish something today. Good luck to me. I'm hoping with a productive day I'll starting walking uphill while going downhill...is that better? I hope so!