Airplane Rides and Farm Projects

Saturday morning we got up really early and headed to the airport for the free plane rides for the Come On Home celebration. The boys had never been up, and we thought it was time they had!! Both were excited. J went up with Rick in the 2 seater, while D and T went up in a bigger 4 seater. I decided to stay on the ground after my most recent experiences at the I-max and State Fair rides. I didn’t want to embarrass my self or my family in front of a crowd of people. Maybe someday soon I can get back up in the air just to see if planes make me sick too. (They used to, but only at take off/landing. My tolerance has gotten MUCH, MUCH lower as I’ve gotten older though. Yuck.)
Anyway, it was a HIT. J took the camera up and got some really neat pictures of the lake and town. T thinks he’d like to be a pilot when he gets bigger and the pilot that took him told him he was that age when he decided to become one. I guess I have a few years to convince him to do something that keeps him planted firmly on the ground. =-)*

Ol’ Chewy is growing really well. He’s going to get “cut” in the next week or so. I think I’ll be staying at home for that chore. We put him on a diet. I am not used to dairy cows, since all I’ve ever been around are beef cattle, and have “over-loved” Chewy…a lot. He’s down to one bottle a day, and was getting creep feed as well as free grazing. He looked as though he as about to give birth any day. Actually, I said he looked like he swallowed a giant egg. Jerseys are supposed to be really boney in the hind in, and the ribs are supposed to show a bit. This morning he was FINALLY looking like a Jersey calf again. He’s not really happy about being cut off his feed though. We got the old calf scale out, and weighed him. That was a lot of fun. HA! Imagine trying to weigh a calf on one of the manual scales at the Dr’s office. He finally just plopped down on it when T gave him a bunch of grass he’s picked. He’s at right around 110 lbs now. I added a couple of pictures of him I took this morning. The middle one is a funny one of Chewy sucking on T's ear--hearing T's shrieks and laughter made it even better!!

This fall we plan on adding at least one, maybe two, more calves out there.

We also have a couple of new animal projects we are going to start. The first one is we are getting ready to get some Ameraucana chickens. (Everyone calls them Easter Eggers or EE’s) They lay the most BEAUTIFUL eggs that are pretty shades of blue, green, and pink. We should have the baby chicks with in a month, so by spring I should have some pretty eggs to share!!

We are also getting a few feeder pigs this spring. My dad’s been helping us figure out the best spot for them, and I think we have it all figured out. I can’t wait for the day we have a freezer(s) full of beef and pork!!

We had the most delicious lunch today. Mashed potatoes and corn on the cob, all homegrown, and fried chicken, not homegrown…it came from the store!! HA! It was so cool to me that I had to go buy was the chicken! Little thrills!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!! I’m off Friday to do a little bit of shopping with my Sista!!