Life of a Farm Blog

If anyone is looking to relocate there is 22 acres and an old house for sale next door. Very nice land. The house is older and I’m sure in need of repair. The neighbors were my grandparents’ age and lived there as long as I can remember. He pastored the local church and she was a cook for the school system. They have both passed away now and the children have decided to sell. I’d love to have at least part of it, but no way I can swing the $200,000 asking price.

Saturday was warm so I took the kids on a walk to the cliffs on the back side of our pasture. The farm is dotted with rock shelters. One set is known as the horse cliffs. The story is that civil war soldiers from the south used the cliffs to hide their horses. It’s quite a little walk to get in to these, but the children love to visit them. The warm weather also brought out the folks to install the skirting on the new double-wide. According to the weather forecast this is the calm before the storm. We are expecting an inch of snow tonight and temps in the low teens by tomorrow night. I guess winter is finally here to stay.

I used the 6000 4WD to set out 2 rolls each to the horses and the cows and goats. As soon as the weather lets up again I’m going to drag the drive because the rock is settling in and showing some low spots. My neighbor Joe Phillips who helps me in the hay called to say he wanted to buy some more hay for the horses he has. I only had 5 rolls that were of horse quality so I let him have them. Mr. Wisham also called needing hay moved and to tell me he is out of hay and looking to buy more. I told him I’d let him have 4 rolls, but I had to keep the rest for my animals.

Progress continues with the house. We’ve ordered a new counter top for the kitchen. All that is lacking on the addition now is the flooring and some trim. We’ve got cabin grade hardwood flooring ordered too. We are leaning toward replacing all the windows so the house will be easier to heat. That will cut into our excavating budget a little but should really improve the house.

I spent a while Tuesday chatting with the local county extension agent. We talked alot about what I could do with the farm. He doesn’t paint a very pretty picture for agriculture. He said if I want to make enough money to ever stay on the farm, chickenhouses is the way to go. He agreed with me that the area could use it’s own pumpkin patch since the closest one is an hour or more away. According to the figures being shown locally the cattle market is heading for a train wreck. I guess we’ll hold off until spring on any excavation because we cannot have any ponds on the place if we build chickenhouses.

I’ll post some pics of the progress and of the land for sale here. Hope this finds all of you well….

 

Not a whole lot to do on the farm this week. Just the normal feeding of the animals. We did finally get the signs right and change the pigs I bought that were males. I still don’t know what I will do with all the meat from those pigs. My aunt Sandy in Cincinatti Ohio has agreed to take one after it’s processed. On Saturday a neighbor, Mr. Wilson called me. He had a cow fall and injure herself bad enough that she could not get up. As luck would have it, she was in a very rough area. After trying for a couple hours to get her up and seeing how much pain she was in we finally made the decision to put her down. Due to knowing the nature of her injury he wanted to take her to the slaughter house to be made into hamburger. I used the 6000 4WD to load her onto a trailer for him.

I got another 26 tons of #2 gravel spread and I believe that will be enough for the drive to the double-wide. Now after the winter of freezing and thawing it should settle in. Then I can put some 57′s or dense grade on top of them and have a good solid smooth driveway. Progress continues on the log house improvements. We like the vinyl windows that were put in the room we added so well we are considering putting them in the whole house. That will cut into our land clearing budget allotment a little, but I believe it’s a worthwhile investment. A friend from high school runs a sawmill locally cutting pallet boards. I had mentioned to him that I would be clearing some more land shortly. There isn’t much on the land besides stuff that could be used for pallets. I worked out a deal with some boys who cut for him to get as much of it cleared as could be used. They should start soon.

Took a little time off work to spend with the kids this week. Madison turns 6 on Tuesday and we had her a little party. Then we went to rent some movies for us and the friends she had over. Forecasters are giving ice tonight. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t come.

We’ve achieved a milestone at work. We have gone a calender year with no recordable incidents. In turn we get our choice of a Jacket, a Case xx knife, or a Wal Mart gift certificate. As much as I dislike Wal Mart for their anti-union actions, I picked the gift certificate because the knife wasn’t worth $75 and I sure don’t need a jacket like they are giving away. We try to do most of our grocery shopping at Kroger due to their connection with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

I’ll go for now………….. but check out the pics I’m adding here.

The 6000 has gotten an unusual workout this week. In the winter about all I regularly use it for is to feed hay for myself and neighbors. Not this week though. I have been working almost everyday on the drive to the double-wide. The last couple days I moved 53 tons of #2 gravel onto the drive. I believe I will need one more load to have everything covered good on the drive and to have enough to put a few around the entrances to the barns. It gets really muddy anywhere the animals gather up in the winter. At the ends of the barns is a soupy mess. Mud doesn’t bother the cows, but it is a breeding ground for worms. Goats are very succeptable to parasites so they don’t do well in moist places. It’s also hard on the horses’ shoes. It seems to suck them right off. Not to mention I hate walking in it.

Monday I noticed someone had used my tractor while I was at work. Turns out BJ had to feed hay to Mamaw and Papaw Staley’s cattle. Papaw said she did it like she had been doing it all her life. I told him it was just that she had a good teacher. Today I went and set out some rolls of hay to the same cattle. Same story where he has their cattle. Pretty much a soupy mess. They have rented my great uncle Fred’s old place and have about 25 head running on it. A few weeks back someone shot two of his cows. They must have done it in the night and just left them to die. There is enough loss in farming without such senseless things as that. The Staley’s have two fairly new John Deere tractors, but neither is 4wd so Papaw wants me to skid some logs for him in a week or two. I couldn’t understand why a fellow with two tractors of his own wasn’t moving his own hay so I asked. He said the one with a FEL had a hole in a hose and the other has a bad starter. I might add he has been waiting for parts on that starter for a week now. I kidded him that it was okay, my red tractor feeds a lot of green tractor owner’s animals. He said yeah – and the wheels are all good on yours. I couldn’t let that one go so I asked what he meant. He said when he bought his new Deere he hooked up his roller and headed to the field, and on the way one of the rear wheels came off. Couldn’t believe it. He also said that the dealer told him it was his fault, that the owner was supposed to check the tightness of the wheels. It bent the fender on his new tractor and everything. He said the dealer finally caved in and fixed everything, but the whole experience was certainly unpleasant.

I finally got around to replacing the light that was broken on the 6000 4WD. I really like how easy these tractors are to work on. Kind of a back to basics style. Not a lot of flash, just stuff that works. I noticed the replacement light is a sealed type. The old one wasn’t. That should help keep mud and water out. Sometime before summer I have got to do an oil and hydraulic fluid and filter change.

The progress on the house continues. I’ve put some more pics on here. We’ve got walls and windows now. They got all the new roof on too. I think it’s gonna be awesome when it’s done. We have found a deal on rough lumber too. I’m gonna try to pick up 2000 board feet of hemlock and 1000 board feet of cedar to use on the barn and the log house. I’ve got to pick up 140 ft of direct burial wire to run electricity to the barn. As a matter of fact I have a whole list of things to pick up at Lowes when I get the time to go. The electric company came and approved our permit for electricity. So we have power at the double-wide now. If I can get the septic hooked up, the heat and air unit put in, decks built, and the underpinning we’ll be ready to move in. Then we can start clearing land. That’s what I’m really excited about.

Well I better scoot ………..I have tons to do!

Things are coming right along here on the farm. Now we have a roof over where our new room will be and our deck. Rain will hamper us this week though, I am sure. It seems the children had a pretty good Christmas. Now there is tons of littlest pet shop stuff laying around everywhere. The Vermeer stuff I ordered way before Christmas still has not arrived. I hope they do a better job with parts than they do apparel.

We’re coming along on getting everything ready and turned on at the new doublewide too. I used the 6000 to cut a drive into the field where we set it up. I just set the dirt aside for now, but I will have to move the pile across the road into the basement of the house that burned. Now it’s time for gravel. I have a load of #2′s coming next week. It’s way too soft for a truck to get in there so I’ll need to have it dumped and spread it with the Mahindra. South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative finally came and set our new pole so we should have electricity soon. I already hooked up the water and covered it most of the way. Really all we need is the electricity inspected and turned on and to run our septic to the tank. Then we can start spending some time there.

I spent a couple hours Friday moving hay for our neighbor, Mr. Wisham. His longhorns had really made a mess out of his hay stack. Seems they really use those horns. I set hay in to some he had in a seperate pasture and the first thing they did was move it around the field with their horns. I think next time I will take my camera and get a shot of them working a roll over.

I’ve turned the cows I bought out into the pasture and the horses don’t like it. I’m gonna have to figure something out to do with the horses. They will run the cows causing them to get hot which is not good in cold weather. It’s not a great concern while temps are what they are now, but if we get a cold snap it could cause problems. The pigs are eating like pigs. I guess that’s to be expected. I’ve got to check the signs and get them castrated before they get so big we can’t handle them.

We’ve almost got the electricity at the barn ready for the inspector. As soon as we get electricity there, the kids have made me promise we would get more baby chicks, ducks, guineas, and maybe some pheasants and geese.

Garett has been wanting some rabbits for a while now. Actually I promised him I’d get him some the last time I went to the stock sale. Our neighbor down the road had 5 he wanted to sell for $25 and when my friend John Bryant told me about them, Garett was close enough to hear him. Needless to say we have 5 new rabbits. By May we’ll have 55 if I don’t watch it.

One day this week I took a long walk and reflected back on all the memories I have of this farm as well as others in the neighborhood. I stopped and looked at my old IH 46 baler and remembered when the neighbors all used Massey Ferguson 35′s and 135′s, Ford Jubilees and 8N’s, International Harvester Farmalls, and the like to farm around here. I will never forget all the neighborhood kids getting together to pick up the countless square bales and stack them in the barn. The times were certainly simpler. The biggest farm I remember – now has a Federal Prison on it. The kids and I discussed the possibilty of fixing up an old tractor as well as refurbishing the 46 baler in the interest of preserving history. We will have to replace the 46 soon if we are going to do many more square bales. It certainly has earned its keep. I can only imagine how many bales that baler has tied and how many young men picked them up for extra money for school clothes or shotgun shells. I guess as a token of appreciation to the old baler, my new one should also be clad in IH red. It’s a shame what’s happened to the small family farm. I’m sure many people have been faced with the fact that they just aren’t making it on the farm anymore and sold out or quit. I don’t know that I would not have given up by now if it weren’t for the children.

The new shift at work isn’t as bad as I expected. I have a lot more time to work on the farm and it seems like almost as much time with the kids. I feel rough on Saturday and Sunday, but the boss said he plans to staff the shift a little different soon and give everyone the option of taking a day a week off. Since I have the most seniority I would get to choose my day first.

Well I’m sure there is something I should be doing…………..Hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!

Construction continues here on the farm. We almost have a roof over our addition again now. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. That, plus I’m getting excited about starting the land clearing and building the small lake. First order of business after the addition will be decks on the doublewide. I’ve taken some pictures of the doublewide and the views from the front and back doors. I am convinced it will be amazing when everything is done. It may take me another year to get everything the way we want it.

Garett has been helping me put water line in the trenches we dug. Honestly he’s not a lot of help, but hopefully he will feel like he’s a part of the success of the farm and he’s learning some work ethic. If there is one thing I want my kids to have besides good morals, it’s work ethic.

We really haven’t done much on the farm this week other than set hay in to the horses and feed and water everything once a day. The weather has been great, but I’ve been stuck at work from daylight to dark. In the winter it is really hard to get anything done. I usually don’t get home until after 4 and it’s dark by 5:30 so I have to go straight to what I need to do. That’s going to change now though. I traded shifts with a guy at work so now I should have a couple hours on Monday and Tuesday, until 2 PM on Wednesday and Thursday, and pretty much all day Friday to work on the farm. Friday and Saturday nights I have to pull the hoot owl shift so I probably won’t get much done on Saturday except sleep. The kicker is I have to work an entire extra shift once a week. No true days off except 24 hour periods between shifts. I thought I’d try it and if it doesn’t work out I’ll use my seniority to get back to days.

I used the 6000 4WD to bury two calves for a neighbor this week. You really take a chance buying animals at market. The animals I bought seem to be doing fine. I know they sure are eating a lot. I may just hang on to all the pigs. Several people have expressed intrest in buying a whole hog or part of one already processed.

I’ve moved the goats back into the pasture across the road. I had to take down part of the fence to dig the trench for a water spicket and that prevented me from letting them get to the barn. Across the road they can get in the barn. My friend and neighbor John Bryant helped me add some boards to the stall we plan to put the colt in to start the long process of breaking him. First step is going to be getting him away from his mom. I have to be careful here because if he can find a way he will break out and go to her. We caught him in the corrall and put his halter on a few days ago. He was none too happy. For about a half day he tried throwing it off. Now he doesn’t seem to mind it. The kids have been trying to get him to eat apples form their hands, but he is still scared so he nudges the apple out of their hands and eats them from the ground.

The children are anxious for Santa to come. I think everyone is excited about Christmas but me. I don’t care much for birthday’s or holidays. I do like to see the kids with their new things though. We always try to get them a few things that they can use on the farm or that lets everyone know they are farm kids. This year they are getting t-shirts from Vermeer that say “Dad Says A Little Dirt Don’t Hurt”. We plan to get some more Combs Farms t-shirts and sweatshirts for them too. Last year we had a pumpkin cart embroidered along with our farm name. This year we’re doing either a black bull or a Boer goat.

Well lots to do so I better go…I’ve put up some more pics to see here….I’ll post more later.

Yet another week has come and gone here in KY. What a crazy week it’s been too. I can never remember it being so warm in December. Forecasts call for 60 degree temps all week. Don’t take me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’ll take these temps over the single digits we had for a couple nights last week.

The contractor we ended up hiring for our project has almost demolished the addition my uncle had built on the house. As with almost any project you start, this one has opened our eyes to other problems we have here. In particular the electricity. It’s a mess. I knew it was nowhere near code, but I didn’t think it was as bad as it is. Lots of the circuits have double 30 and double 60 amp breakers for simple 110 volt plugs and lights. There’s no way they could trip if they needed to. I guess they used what they had laying around. That or the right breakers were tripping so they just put in bigger breakers. At any rate we are going to try to correct the problem if we can. The first night the contractor started his tear down we kept smelling something burning, but couldn’t find anything until 1 in the morning. A baseboard heater in the addition had caught some insulation and carpet on fire. Luckily my mother was here and just happened to see it. I ran out and grabbed a hose I had stretched to the corrall to put it out. Wasn’t very much of a fire, but any fire around the house is too big.

With my mom spending more and more time with us and my dad talking of retiring for the second time, we decided to buy a new double wide mobile home. This will give everybody the space they need and should help Garett with his asthma. We went small, but nice. We ended up with a Giles 28 x 52. It’s a little over 1200 square feet. We’ll have the best of all worlds. We still have the house and will have my family close some of the time. Now we can convert the upstairs to a farm office. My great uncle left us about 100 books on agriculture and I buy more all the time, so now we’ll have plenty of space for the books. The patio room and deck will still be available to us anytime we want plus we’ll have a big deck on the back of our mobile home. I got out voted on using the big window in the patio room we are building. The rest of the family wants to opt for 4 vinyl windows instead of the big window. I gave in easy, so they figured I had to be up to something to give up so easy. That coupled with the fact that I’ve been going around saving every piece of lumber I can salvage… gave me away. I’m building a small cabin in the woods.

We’ve made arrangements with a friend of ours to rent the equipment for clearing the land and have him do the work. We want to put a dam in one of the hollers and create a small lake. If everything works out I’ll put the cabin by the lake.

Just my luck, Thursday when it was cold and snowy they brought the doublewide. It was too big to go down the drive so they had to go through the field. Well, the trucks weren’t made to go off road- so one got stuck. I was out putting hay in to the horses, so I took the 6000 over and pulled the truck and half the doublewide up where they needed to go.

I got quite a scare one day last week too. Went to start the 6000 and nothing. Just a click. Of course I thought the worst. Turned out to be a dead battery. I’d left the key on and the brake lights ran it down. I just knew it would be shot but after a few hours on charge it’s working again. Keep your fingers crossed that it lasts.

My cows and pigs are doing okay. Eating a lot, but that’s to be expected for growing pigs. I’ve given each of the cows a round of penicillin just in case. I also moved them over to the other field where they can get into the barn and gave them hay and grain.

Monday and Tuesday my friend John Bryant and I spent all day trenching. We dug trenches for water spickets all over the place. As soon as I can get the water line in we’ll have water at both barns, where we plan to build the pig lot, and at the corrall. We’ll also have direct burial wire to the barn for electricity. We had been using extension cords.

It’s crazy here, but I know it will be so much better when everything is finished. That’s what keeps me plugging along. well I’m sure there is some work that needs to be done around here so I better go……….check back soon.

This week I finally made it to the livestock market. I’ve been wanting to go for a while but something always comes up. I’m amazed at how low prices have gotten. I can’t figure if it’s because it’s close to Christmas or the price of feed that has the price low. I had only planned to buy 2 or 3 pigs and a calf. My budget allowed $800 for this purchase. A few months ago that’s what it would have cost to buy what I was looking for. With prices surpressed like they are my $800 got me 13 40-50 lb pigs and 3 calves that weighed a respectable 250#, 515#, and 550#. The guys at work were kind of making fun of me for buying all those pigs, but I just couldn’t pass up such a deal. I only want 4, so I’ll need to unload some on somebody. I talked with my grandfather Delbert Gay at the sale for a while. I’m amazed at how well he gets around for his age. He made me promise that I’d be bringing those children to see him soon. Madison and Garett were very disappointed that they didn’t get to go. Garett made me promise next time he can go to try and find some rabbits. Madison says next time she gets a new billygoat. This time they had to settle for a bushel of apples.

Tonight I worked until after dark getting everything situated. I almost always give the cattle that I buy at a sale a shot of penicillin and worm them. It’s a lot easier to deal with cattle since we built a pen to work them in. I’ll worm the pigs tomorrow and get some turpentine so we can castrate the males. Then I’ll set out some more rolls for the horses with the 6000. It’s time to worm the goats again too. Of course with all this needing to be done, it will be turning bitter cold. Forecasts for tonight show lows of teens and snow tomorrow. Today’s high was 54. I still have not managed to get my wood splitter back together, but I do have the parts. I have so much to do and the days are short, that I have been thinking of switching shifts to swing shift or nights so I would have more daylight hours to work on the farm. I’d hate to though, I finally have the seniority to have a decent job on day shift.

Today I did a little comparison shopping. I was already in Somerset for a meeting with some union guys on a problem we are experiencing so I stopped at the John Deere dealer. I am particularly interested in a 70 to 80 hp cab tractor. I’ve driven the Mahindra 7010 Cab around the parking lot, and had been told by other folks that the Deere cab was pretty nice, so I thought I’d see. I looked at 2 different cab models and I can’t see how they are any nicer than the Mahindra. I did not get a price on the Deere models, but have seen comparable used tractors with 1000 hours in that lineup priced at more than a new Mahindra 7010 Cab. That’s with no warranty. Throw in the fact that I’ve done business with my Mahindra Dealer for about 10 years… and the reliabilty of my 6000 4wd… I just could not justify going green.

Well tons to do so I better scoot………… Check back I’ll be adding some more soon.

The cold is once again on us here in Ky. Tonight’s lows are forecasted into the low 20s. What a change from earlier this week when temps were in the 70s. At 6am this morning the temperature was 69 degrees, by afternoon it was 34 degrees. The warm weather earlier in the week got us out and about. We took advantage and cleaned out the chickenhouses and finished blowing and burning the leaves. The kids suckered me into an evening of pushing them in the swings too. When we moved some things in the barn we found two very old windows that are in pretty good shape. One of them is over 8 ft wide. I am assuming these were in the covered back porch that used to be on the house. Sometime in the 70′s my great uncle decided to tear off the porch and build on 2 rooms. Unfortunately, he didn’t do a very good job and the rooms are starting to get in bad shape. We plan to tear them off and put a covered porch and deck in the back.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week talking to contractors and excavating folks about improvements around the farm. We want a 10 x 14 room with the old windows, a 10 x 22 deck, and a metal roof on the house. The plan is to have room for our books and plants and a place to go look out through the huge window into the pasture and read. We’ll have the deck for grilling and sitting in the fresh air. We also plan to clear about 40 more acres for pasture. Hopefully we’ll have enough money left to add a shed on the side of the chickenhouse for keeping my Mahindra 6000 in the dry.

We plan to move forward with the pumpkin patch idea too. I am looking for a good set of plows and a heavy disc for the 6000. We’ll also be building or buying a few picnic tables, hay wagons, and some more animals for the petting zoo. The neighbor (Joe Phillips) and I have penciled in a trip to the sale barn this coming Tuesday. Hopefully nothing will come up and we can get a few pigs, a new billy goat, and some calves. Depending on the price I may try to pick up a couple bottle babies. They are a whole lot of trouble, but well worth it as they get bigger and come bouncing and slobbering for the bottle.

On a sad note a good friend of mine was critically injured in an ATV accident. All your prayers are needed as he is still in critical condition almost a week later.

Lots to do so I better run…………. until next time………..stay safe!

The first snow of the year has come and gone here. The kids were so disappointed to see it melt. They wanted to build a snowman. We only got about a half inch so it would have been difficult even if it hadn’t melted by the time they got home from school.

The snow did make us finally start feeding out some hay. I’ve put out 4 rolls total for the goats and horses. The goats also get some squares along the way that got baled too green. I am afraid to feed this to the horses due to the likelyhood of some mold being in it. The goats sure don’t mind it though. They gobble it down and don’t waste a bit like they do with the rolls.

Today the family is off to Mamaw Staley’s for Thanksgiving dinner. The Staley’s live just a few miles north of us and they have a small farmstead the kids like to visit. They raise their own honey as well as milk. They make buttermilk and fresh butter too.

Temps today are forecasted to be in the 60s and that’s a welcome change. Our wood splitter has been torn up so we’ve been only burning the round stuff. I braved the cold long enough to take it apart. Now I’ve got to order some parts. The goats helped me with it by eating the spark plug wire. I’ll never understand why they eat some of the things they do.

We have decided on rough lumber to side one of the old chickenhouses since we are out of the stone shingles that were on it originally, and several of them are broken. I made a trip to an old friend’s sawmill to see about the wood. It will be a couple weeks, but fortunately he will saw the 1×6′s I will need. He told me he has a really hard time getting pine to saw since the pine beetle hit us so hard. There just doesn’t seem to be much pine left here, and what little there is won’t get cut because folks are hoping the trees will reseed themselves. On this property there are hundreds of downed dead pines that would have fetched a pretty penny in their prime. At the time, the estate of my great uncle was being litigated so no one could do anything with them. I bet it cost the parties involved over $100,000 in timber sales on the whole 125 acres. If I thought the lumber would be salvagable, I would skid them out with the 6000 4wd and either take them to be sawed or buy a band mill and do it myself.

The next few months will bring big changes here on the farm. We have borrowed the money to clear some more of our land and do some improvements. Now we are searching for the most economical way to do this. Our choices are hiring someone to do it all, versus renting (or buying) a dozer and doing it ourselves.

Well check back soon I’ll be posting more with some pics as time allows……Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!

After a couple nights and days of unseasonably cold weather, the rain has set in and doesn’t seem to be going away. I did get one fairly dry, but overcast day to haul some more cross ties from the railroad. Other than that and work it’s been a week of taking care of the animals and hanging out with the kids. We have been to a couple local farms to look at cattle. I believe we have decided on a 600 lb simmental bull calf from a neighbor for our next beef. He’s a tad big to steer, but I like a challenge. We’ve planned a trip to the stockyard to buy some pigs for week after next. I will have to borrow our friend and neighbor Joe Phillips’ trailer. I sold mine a few months back and have never replaced it.

Another neighbor, Mr. Wisham, called and needs hay set out for his cows starting Monday. This will be a weekly chore for the Mahindra 6000 this winter. Sure wish I could swing that 7010 Cab. The colt born on Garett’s birthday (6/30) “Thumper” will soon be separated from his mother. I’ll make a place in the barn for him. If we don’t put him somewhere that is impossible for him to escape he will find a way to get back to his mother. Then we will begin the long process of breaking him.

We had to take time this week to do something none of us enjoy doing. A long time friend of the family passed away and we attended his services. Mr. Travis Bryant was a retired logger. He resided here just about a mile and a half from the farm for several years. I grew up around and have remained friends with his sons and daughter.

The goats the kids raised on a bottle are now big enough to put them in with the rest of the herd. Only problem is, they are so tame they keep finding a way out of the fence and coming to the porch. I thought I had seen every way a goat could get itself into trouble until the other day. One of the horned dams had reached as far into the middle of a roll of hay as it could only to get it’s horns caught in the hay. It was stuck there with it’s head in the hay. I just happened to look out there and see it struggling. She was so grateful when I finally dug enough hay away she could get loose.

On a positive note, while looking for something in the attic I found a box of old picture negatives. Just from looking at them through the light I can tell that they are my great uncle Norman in various places both here and overseas – I would assume during WWII. We have tons of pictures that he took during the war of friends of his, but we have no way of identifying them. Someday I hope to scan them and post them on a website for folks to help me identify them. I have taken about half of them to have them developed and hopefully I can afford to get the rest soon.

Well I should go for now…….feel free to drop a comment anytime.