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...

30

Kurt always talks about remember how simple life used to be and usually this always refers to our three-time-a-day milking schedule. Birthdays however also remind me of how simple life used to be. Today at 30-years-old it doesn't feel nor do I think like I did when I was 20 that 30 was old. By the time I was a few years into my 20s I realized it wasn't old and you get the picture. It's just a lovely number, a new decade, another year to reach more milestones. To be four-years-old again? Hmmm maybe because back then my mom took care of the cake! : )

The County Fair

Here is the low-key face-to-face "judging" for Coverbuds. Mac made a poster of the heifer she brought to the fair and the heifers family-kind of like a family tree of all of our Red and White Holsteins. This lady was a great person to have for Cloverbuds who were a little on the shy side. Mac also made a set of four coasters with her weaving loom.

Snow-Red resting comfortable at the fair.

Isabella mid-chewing her cud.

Mac bringing Snow-Red in for the winter calf class. I held the end of the halter which next year she will be all by herself when she shows in the junior show. Snow-Red did give her a little bit of trouble but all in all it went alright.




I apologize my camera takes crappy pics and this was far away but atleast Mac was looking at the camera. Here we are standing second in a class of four.

Since we placed second we got to go out for the picking of junior champion. The calf that placed ahead of us was chosen as Honorabe Mention.

This is the kids and calves showmanship competition. It's not too hard core but since it was Mac's last year doing this I wanted to see her do well. We borrowed a calf from our friends who showed this March calf in the junior show. Her name is Jewel and Maclayne really enjoyed leading her around the ring.

Hooray! She place second which meant she got a stuffed cow. I was probably more happy than she was because I'm not sure if she realized how she did. The last two years she has finished towards the top but not close enough to get the stuffed cow.

Can't wait until next years fair and hopefully we will have a March calf that she can show because it sure was a nice size for her.

How I Decorate

Some people I know wrinkle their noses at me when I mention rummage sales or Goodwill. If they only know what they were missing, I have been able to add to my cow collection for as little as ten cents! I also receive cow items for my birthday or Christmas. The above cow head I got for Christmas a few years ago. I didn't immediately like it but now I'd have to say it is one of my favorites.

Paid $1 for this at a rummage sale about six years ago. It hangs over the large doorway going into the living room from the dining room. 99% of my cows are in the kitchen/dining room area.

This is a cow themed windchime. It has a miniature tire around the cow on the top that says Welcome. The bottom chime area are milk bottles. I couldn't pass this up this spring at a rummage sale for a $1.

Sometimes I find cute items that match the colors in the room and no one would ever think I got it at a rummage sale again for a dollar. The opposite walls are blue and the saying is pretty cute on this little print.

I found the picture on the left at a rummage sale of a friends. I really liked it but it seemed like the perfect spot for this picture would be in a bathroom or laundry room in my opinion. Then when I painted the kitchen the flowers from the painting really popped out and with the frame coordinating with the opposite dining room walls it fit. For a dollar, I could not go wrong either way.

I was so glad we stopped at the rummage sale I found this wall hanging. For ten cents, I was able to replace the ugly cut out cow that was hung indefinetly in it's spot. Seriously, any non-rummagers believers yet???!!!

On this wall I got a snowman in the shape of a star that was hanging here for Christmas. As it got warmer I desperately needed to change the decor. My mother-in-law had a tow rack on this wall. I'm not sure why anyone would hang a towel bar above a stove but there was one there. I took it down when I painted and never planned to reinstall it. So there are large screw holes where I have the bottom hanging attached to the wall. I also paid a dollar for the birdhouse hanging. The tin star above it I found a few years ago and I paid no more than 50 cents.

This is linked to WFMW.

I Apologize

I have been busy. Busy working with my job, working on the farm, and a whole lot of life in general. Taking pictures of cows in various settings is part of my job.

Last week I took some pictures of Kurt milking but most important of all was Kurt kissing Dynasty the cow. One of Red Barn's marketing tools is digital photo frames with picture from Red Barn farms and people. One customer in particular wanted pictures with more interaction. Like for instance someone kissing a cow. Seriously. We don't kiss the cows. Uh maybe I'll give a baby a kiss on its head but the cows are kind of lethal with their heads. You could get easily be knocked out if you ticked them off messing with their heads. Dyansty is a pretty gentle cow. She was showed as a heifer by 4-H kids so she is pretty tame. She's also one of the tallest cows we have. She doesn't look too happy in the pic though.

Also needed pictures of Mac interacting with the cows. I had a pic from a couple years ago where Mac is bottle feeding a calf and that is the pic they chose to use.

We classified our cattle two weeks ago. This pic was taken while they were getting scored. Nice full udders and clean tails. Clean tails are the best. The alternative is far worse. We also had a party the night we classified so I had to get all the food ready. It is just a long exhausting day and then you throw in a party it's down right ridiculous. I went to bed at 2am and Kurt went to bed around 5am. Farmers are crazy. When they have an opportunity to have fun they take full advantage of it because these parties don't happen a whole lot. But this time during classifying for our county their were four other parties. Ours was the first on Thursday then another on Friday which we did not go to because we were too dang tired. Then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we went to the other parties but we were home by 10pm.

This week Kurt has started planting corn which is kind of early but its dry and the sun is out. Our house has a cold bug go through it which makes you feel kind of cruddy and tired. Maclayne had a stomach bug Tuesday night and she thought she needed to go to the doctor. Which in to me seemed kind of funny, but the poor girl rarely gets sick so when she feels cruddy, she feels really cruddy. So she went to the bathroom and had some Pepto and a Tylenol and was back outside helping her dad unload baled shavings off the truck ten minutes later. To go from one extreme to the next was crazy but I kind of figured she as going a little being on dramatic requesting to go to the doctor. Fortunately for her, she gets to have her eight year checkup today! Then we'll stop at Kohls, Hobby Lobby, and maybe my least favorite place the W word.

PS-Thanks for sticking with me. I am seriously trying to find a nice balance with the following...farming, family, exercising, computer work, Red Barn work, homemaking, relaxing, and fun. We actually watched two movies this past weekend. I think I'm getting a hang of this relaxing on the weekends. Horray!

Trip Pics Silo Rooms

These are the steps on the second floor that lead up to the sitting room in the silo.

There was a little alcove area before entering the sitting room where a coffee maker was set up. Very thoughtful, but we don't drink coffee.

It was really fogging the day we arrived. Can you tell? There were books up there to read which was a really nice touch.

Kurt reading his Dave Ramsey book. He got quite a bit read and he is not the reading kind of guy. We spent a lot of time on that couch reading and watching tv. It was very comfy!

The ceiling of the lower part of the silo. There was a mural painted around the hot tub and in sky part of the mural there are little stars painted. They glowed in the dark if you turned off the light which was pretty neat.

A very nice relaxing place. If you are ever in the Door County area, go check out the Cornerstone! Still can not believe that we went away for an entire weekend. Even though it happened a month ago, I can say I am good (unfortunately) for another year or so but hopefully it is not that long until another vacation.

Trip Pics Part Uno

This is a painting that was in the bedroom of where we stayed. It is a painting of where we stayed. Sounds repetative, but hopefully informative. : ) In case you can not tell it is a restored barn.

Here is the front view. The suite we stayed in was on the right. The two large windows to the far right were our living room. The silo (farthest right) had a sitting room in the top. In the bottom of the silo there was a hot tub.

The backside of the Cornerstone and my husbands. That is our bedroom window to the right of the deck. The deck was part of our suite and the upstairs bedroom had skylights which you can make out on the roof.

This is the kitchen/dining area. Very cute. The upright cupboard on the left had plates, bowls, and some pots and pans. There were glasses on the shelf above the sink. Those are beams from the original barn. Behind that wall is the first floor bedroom, coming right up.
Here is it. Be still my heart! It was decorated in a cow theme! Loved it and the bed was so soft except too soft and it gave me an achy back.
Here was the focal point of our whole getaway. The gas fireplace and the tv. Very relaxing. There were also about a dozen books and magazines spread throughout the suite which I read mostly. There were also videotapes and DVDs provided.

The steps leading up to the second floor bedroom.

A very peaceful and calming room on the second floor. This bed was firmer but not in a good way. I tried sleeping on it the second night and went back to the softer downstairs bed. See that little step. Can you guess what that is??
I loved the door in this room it was not an ordinary door. More cute farm pics and the dressers and most furnishings were antique.

The chair was not antique. Oh there is that little step. Oh, what could that be!?

It was a half bath! Cute, different, a little odd, but handy if you were not sleeping downstairs.

More pictures to come...stay tuned! We stayed at the Cornerstone Suites near Egg Harbor if anyone is curious.