A Sunny Saturday

Saturday was bright and sunny

and not horribly cold.

The frost was beautiful!

It was a great day to get a few catch-up projects done.

Like fixing and hanging the gate in the shed.

Christmas Pictures

Sunday was the day to celebrate Christmas 

with Mom and Dad and Renee's.

But first we had things to do,

like bake desserts

and make stop motion videos

and take pictures 

for Christmas cards.

The truth behind the picture of the boys!

Do you have any idea how hard it was 

to find a time when everyone was home 

during daylight hours!

Luke's New Wheels

Luke's old beater served him well

and he put lots of miles on it 

driving back and forth to Mankato 

for two years.

But Wednesday he replaced it!

Not bad!

New Calves

Ben brought 10 new calves home yesterday.

I'm not sure what the exact distribution is going to be,

but the six kids are going to split ownership some how.

There were 6 heifers unloaded first

and then the 4 steers.

Everyone is happily settled in.

Snow and Manure

Sunday morning was spent at home.
Elsie had the stomach flu
which meant the rest of us had been exposed.
It didn't seem wise to expose everyone at church to it!


So the boys moved snow


and manure.


The pens were all scraped


and cleaned out,
but the fields were too mushy to spread.


Today dawned bright and cold at 6*
so Ben got everything spread and fresh bedding everywhere.

Good-bye Massey

It was chilly but not horrible Thursday morning.

Everyone was put to work.

The chickens were thankful for fresh bedding.

Luke found a place that would buy the Massey for parts.

So they loaded the gooseneck

with all the parts and pieces.

The Massey was pulled out of the shed and over to the trailer.

Someone suggested seeing if the skidsteer could load it.

That didn't work so well!

So back to the original plan 

of just pushing it up on the gooseneck.

They got everything loaded.

We got it all tied down 

and ready for Paul to take off early Friday morning with it.

How on earth could I forget to take pictures of the whole load ready to go?

The Snow Arrived

It is here.

I'm guessing we only got 4".

But isn't it cool what God can paint with snow and wind!

The snow inside the closed shed doors

suggested that the winds were pretty strong.

The girls and Jack had to feed silage and do the shoveling this morning.

I'm sure they were glad that it wasn't bitterly cold!

Snow Prep

They predicted lots and lots of snow.

So we did bunches of outside work to get ready on Tuesday.

Jack cleaned the Flex.

Molly power washed several things.

Ben made windbreaks

and moved and cleaned up all of the equipment.

Let it snow!

The Massey and Hauling Cattle

Well, it finally happened.

The Massey is done for.

We've had it a long time.

Wednesday morning was the day to haul four cull cows to market.

It was time for Beatrice, Audra, Dilly, and Katie Elder to go.

Thankfully, they walked right in and were off.

Elsie is 21!

Amazing!

Elsie turned 21 Saturday!

Elsie, Hannah, and Jack ran up to Resto Espresso for a morning coffee treat.

How did so many of our children

learn to like coffee at such young ages?

The boys headed out to bale the last of the corn stalks shortly after 1:00.

After 47 bales things came to a screeching halt.

The baler was brought home to be torn into.

A friend's baler was used to finish off the field.

Another 10:00 bowl of ice cream for supper

before calling it a day.

More Bales

Just because I love pictures

of fields full of bales.

And if there is a big ol' red barn in the background

it's even better.