We finished insulating just in time for the first snowflakes of the winter. With our wood furnace running and the house truly insulated for the first time in it's hundred year history, it gets quite toasty without much effort.
Zachary installed a new side door off the kitchen Tuesday. The old door was drafty and broken, after an unfortunate incident of locking ourselves out of the house.
This Siamese cat wandered onto our farm about a month ago and she seems to like it here, although she does not like us. We can get about 5 feet from her before she bolts. It is very unusual to see purebreds around here as a stray. Maybe one day we can be friends...
Wednesday night we were at it again carving pumpkins. Zachary did the Nintendo themed carvings of Mario and Yoshi and Link from Zelda: Windwaker. Yes, Zachary fully admits to being a nerd, and I love him for it. We made our own templates for those. Kate made the Barack Obama and she designed the Airplane, it is one of her favorite planes, the Ercoupe. I did the Lab and the Knight.
Over the weekend we finished harvesting our fourth cutting of hay. This time we made haylege from the crop. 4th crop is typically the last cutting of the season for us.
We also had our soybeans harvested. We don't have are own combine, so we had a local do it for us. The same guy will also combine our remaining corn in a few weeks, when the corn is dry enough.
Queequeg does not appreciate it when Zachary plays video games because it leaves no hands free for head scratches. She attempts to guilt him into stopping by looking cute as possible, or biting his hands.
Meet Goat. She hasn't been in a pen for over three years. She can wander where ever she pleases, but she claims the heifer shed as her home. At night she jumps in the pens with the cows and during the day she fills her face. She is as wide as she is long. Some people say that having a goat around your cattle prevents ringworm (a skin condition, no worms involved). We aren't sure about that, but we keep her around for the variety.
He was born on Wednesday to Arial. Arial is named after the font, not the Mermaid. He is marked almost like his mother, mostly black with white feet.
Can you touch your nose with your tongue?
Here is our pumpkin crop for the season. Not bad for a pumpkin patch that was basically ignored all summer. The gourds we planted never came up. My mom took half of them for decoration around their house and I scattered the rest around our yard.
Feeling a little creative, I "enhanced" this photo I took over the weekend in Photoshop. I work in Photoshop and other graphics programs all day for my day job, but it is nice to use them for fun once in a while. I need to play more.
On Friday, we went to the World Dairy Expo in Madison. It is a trade show for the dairy industry.
Most of the show is geared for large dairy operations, but we always manage to find a few things we can apply to our own farm. Above is a show arena, where people from all over the world bring their cattle to be judged. There are also several buildings full of exhibitors showing off their products. 
Here are some cows on their way to be judged. Show cows are very pampered. They even get their nails polished.
These are Normande calves. If cuteness was the only prerequisite for adding a breed to our herd, then Normandes would be on the top of our list.
The first frost of the year.
This one was born Wednesday, his mother's name is Linda and this is her third calf.
She was born this afternoon. Her mother's name is Carey and this is her second. Zachary is informing the calf feeding time is soon.
We finished insulating just in time for the first snowflakes of the winter. With our wood furnace running and the house truly insulated for the first time in it's hundred year history, it gets quite toasty without much effort.
Zachary installed a new side door off the kitchen Tuesday. The old door was drafty and broken, after an unfortunate incident of locking ourselves out of the house.
This Siamese cat wandered onto our farm about a month ago and she seems to like it here, although she does not like us. We can get about 5 feet from her before she bolts. It is very unusual to see purebreds around here as a stray. Maybe one day we can be friends...
Wednesday night we were at it again carving pumpkins. Zachary did the Nintendo themed carvings of Mario and Yoshi and Link from Zelda: Windwaker. Yes, Zachary fully admits to being a nerd, and I love him for it. We made our own templates for those. Kate made the Barack Obama and she designed the Airplane, it is one of her favorite planes, the Ercoupe. I did the Lab and the Knight.
Over the weekend we finished harvesting our fourth cutting of hay. This time we made haylege from the crop. 4th crop is typically the last cutting of the season for us.
Wednesday night we had a pumpkin carving party with Kate. The three of us each carved two pumpkins. We had so much fun that we are planning another carving event soon. We may try our hand at creating our own patterns next time. The night ended with six good looking jack-o-lanterns, a heap of seeds, and all fingers intact. 
This one was rated four out of four pumpkins in difficulty in the carving pattern book. Zachary loves punishing himself, so he volunteered for this one.
Our collection: lights out.
Our collection: lights on.
With the corn silage finished on Saturday, Sunday was free to take the day off and get one more river trip in before the snow flies. Our friend Kate joined us. We got on the water early so we could have a leisurely float, fishing along the way. The fishing was slow, but the weather and colors were beautiful. Above is a juvenile bald eagle. We tailed the youth and a parent most of the trip.
Forgetting to leave a means of transport at the end of the trip, we took a walk back to the house through the woods.
Queequeg does not appreciate it when Zachary plays video games because it leaves no hands free for head scratches. She attempts to guilt him into stopping by looking cute as possible, or biting his hands.
Meet Goat. She hasn't been in a pen for over three years. She can wander where ever she pleases, but she claims the heifer shed as her home. At night she jumps in the pens with the cows and during the day she fills her face. She is as wide as she is long. Some people say that having a goat around your cattle prevents ringworm (a skin condition, no worms involved). We aren't sure about that, but we keep her around for the variety.
He was born on Wednesday to Arial. Arial is named after the font, not the Mermaid. He is marked almost like his mother, mostly black with white feet.
Here is our pumpkin crop for the season. Not bad for a pumpkin patch that was basically ignored all summer. The gourds we planted never came up. My mom took half of them for decoration around their house and I scattered the rest around our yard.
Feeling a little creative, I "enhanced" this photo I took over the weekend in Photoshop. I work in Photoshop and other graphics programs all day for my day job, but it is nice to use them for fun once in a while. I need to play more.
When we got home from our day trip to the World Dairy Expo Friday afternoon, we had three new mothers with calves waiting for us. This is a bull from our top cow Winfred.
This is another bull calf, from Roberts. Roberts is from a group of nine cows we named after the US Supreme Court justices.
A heifer calf from Betty. If she is anything like her mother, she will be a very sassy bovine.
Saturday it was back to work on our corn silage. We finished the last silage bag today, and Monday we plan on filling the silo.
On Friday, we went to the World Dairy Expo in Madison. It is a trade show for the dairy industry. Most of the show is geared for large dairy operations, but we always manage to find a few things we can apply to our own farm. Above is a show arena, where people from all over the world bring their cattle to be judged. There are also several buildings full of exhibitors showing off their products. 
Here are some cows on their way to be judged. Show cows are very pampered. They even get their nails polished.
These are Normande calves. If cuteness was the only prerequisite for adding a breed to our herd, then Normandes would be on the top of our list.
This one was born Wednesday, his mother's name is Linda and this is her third calf.
She was born this afternoon. Her mother's name is Carey and this is her second. Zachary is informing the calf feeding time is soon.
