Cow auction set-up day

The house I'm sitting in right now typing this post from is over 130 years old.  It's reasonable to assume that for about 130 years there has been a dairy cow living on this farm.  

For years and years and years, it would have been the family's only source for milk, cream or butter.  Later on, it became part of the business of the farm.  Raise cows, milk them and earn money by selling the milk.

But, the time came when my dad and uncle decided enough was enough.  Their bodies were tired of the rigors of daily chores and the responsibility of cows that needed to be milked twice a day (and many, many more stresses that I don't understand).  It was time to sell the cows.  So, last Sunday we worked for hours with the auction crew to help set up a tent, set up panels to create walkways, pens, gates, etc. for all 220 animals to be sold.

Roughly half the cows lived over at my uncle's house.  Here's the cycle of life for cows at this farm - the smallest calves and cows that are milked lived at our place.  All the heifers and steers and the bull, lived over at my uncle's place.  So, all the rowdy adolescent-type heifers and steers had to be moved over here.

The boys had a hay day on Sunday.  The weather was beyond perfect.  Warm, warm sunshine just a little bit of breeze.  It was a perfect day to be outside.

Rylee got one last visit with the cows.  She has always loved to see the cows when she comes out to the farm.

The tent was set up with chutes leading to a ring for the cows to be auctioned in.  There were gates that opened and closed and the boys ran through the maze of panels like there was no tomorrow.  They even pretended to auction each other off.  I think Levi sold for $20.01.

The kids had fun playing in the tent!

The cows, small brains and all, had a lot of adjusting to do in a short amount of time.  Their usual places to walk and feed were disrupted.  Their normal milking times were off by quite a few hours so they were sure to have full bags of milk at auction time.  It was certainly strange to hear the milker on at 9pm on a Sunday night.  But, at the end of the day on Sunday the farm was poised and ready for  sale day.

Birthday Party

Noah and Rylee have birthdays within a week of each other, so last Sunday we got together to celebrate!

We ate an Epp-family tradition for lunch - fondue.  Not a traditional cheese fondue, but more like a hamburger cheese dip kind of fondue.  It's really unhealthy and really delicious.

The birthday kids enjoyed opening gifts.

Isn't she gorgeous?

Several times during the day, I spotted Rylee doing this:

My boys don't do this and never have really done this, so I found it amazing to watch.

We spent a little bit of time outside visiting the cows, but the chilly wind pushed us back inside after not too long.  Don't let Noah's shorts fool you...

Happy 3rd birthday Rylee and happy 6th birthday Noah!

Bowling

The photo above is blurry, but still cute enough for it to make the blog.  We promised Noah that we'd go out for dinner and go bowling as part of celebrating his 6th birthday.  He made sure we remembered. So, the four us and my parents went to McPherson for a night out on the town.

The boys had a great time even though we couldn't get a lane with bumpers.  Noah wanted to bowl all by himself and even though at least half of the time his ball went in the gutter he never got frustrated.

Levi usually required some help and thankfully Ben took on that challenge.

This photo is dark....the lighting wasn't good - but hopefully you can still see the smile on Noah's face.

We managed to bowl one game before Levi lost interest.  I managed to get a higher score then the boys but lost in the adult competition (clearly, my bowling skills are rusty).

The Trees

Can you find Ben in this photo?

Yep, he's the guy in brown with a chain saw up in the air on the skid steer bucket.  Nice.  Makes me terribly nervous, but it certainly helps get big tree limbs down. We're working on a long row of trees that hasn't been cleaned up for many, many years.  Some trees are dead, some have huge parts of them that are dead and have flopped down over other trees.  The trees are a real mess, but we certainly enjoy working our way through them.

There's instant gratification from taking a row of trees from being a mangled mess and cutting away the bad limbs until a healthy row of trees remains.

The skid steer is helpful in pushing piles of limbs to a place to burn them and as a play space for the boys.

Plus, my dad purchased this fancy contraption for the skid steer.

And he put it to the test to help take down a tree.

It's not really meant to take down entire trees - more for trimming limbs, but it managed to cut the tree down.

It made for an exciting 2 minutes as we watched the new saw make the tree fall.
The good news about the row of trees Ben and I are working on is that we've made good progress so far in our 3 weeks of working on it.  The bad news, is that we have a LONG way to go.

Spring program

 Noah's school gave their spring program last week.  Seems a bit early for a "spring" program, doesn't it?

 Noah was excited about the program and is still singing the songs around the house.

 It was so cute, and all about friendship, showing respect and being kind to others - look at all those expressions!

Six!

Wednesday was Noah's 6th birthday.  We celebrated it first thing in the morning, since we were busy in the evening at church.  He asked for Rice Krispy Treats for his school birthday treats, so we jazzed it up by doing Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats. 

Check out the load of Valentine's that landed at our house on Tuesday!

This is how Noah said someone should be photographed on their birthday.

At breakfast Noah opened the cards he got in the mail and his presents from us.  He got an awesome card from Grandma and Grandpa Schrag that plays a fun song and was full of cash.  Noah had a great time counting the twenty $1 bills that came in the card.

He's already scheming what he'll buy at the John Deere store with his money.

We gave him a John Deere sweatshirt, fences and

a Big Wooden Lean To.

At church, in an attempt to make it feel more like his birthday, I stuck a candle in Noah's piece of cake.  Ben lit the candle and we sang to him.  We actually had to light it twice so Levi could get a turn to blow out the candle.

When we got home from church, we could barely pull him away from his new lean to, fence, animals and tractors in order to put him to bed.  He laid down complaining that his head hurt, but eventually fell asleep.

It didn't last though.  He spent the last hours of his birthday with an earache.  He woke up at 10:30 crying and moaning (loudly) about his ear hurting.  It went on and on until 1am when the medicine finally kicked in enough for him to sleep.  Thankfully, he woke up today happy and ready to go to school.