When you get the call...

When my kids get off the bus in the afternoon, I either meet them at the house or they are supposed to call me to tell me they are home and I head that way.  Since we are only 5 minutes away, it works pretty well.  The other day, however, Gail got the call instead of me.  I happened to be standing near by and I could hear one of the kids yelling "THE 4-H CALVES ARE OUT!! COME HOME QUICK!!!".  So like any good dad would do, he replied, "Your mom is on her way!"

I was laughing the whole way home thinking about the conversation and when I got there, this is what I found:  1) Ally took charge and sent Nate to get the calves out of the garage while she notified the police a parent. 2) They sent the 4-H calves back in the general direction they came from, only to find that about 30 cows had also gotten out in the process.  3) Knowing the police and/or parents were on their way home, they did what any good farm kid would do... they got their afterschool snacks and stood guard while the cows had free range of our winter hay supply.  4) When I arrived, Nate was eating a sack of popcorn, Ally was shelling and eating peanuts, and the cows were eating hay and taunting us. 5) When I finished laughing, my helpers and I chased the whole bunch back into the pen and texted the boss to tell him the damage. 

Life on the farm... you just never know what to expect!!

Good Morning Nebraska

Angels making cake - Part I

When you have a few of these....

You are sure to have too many of these....

So you need one of these to do this.....

And one of these to do this.... 

And a few people to do A LOT of this.... 

 To come up with this....

Which turns into this...

And that is how you use your angels to make angel cake!

Angel Cake - Part II

The kids and I made this amazing Angel Food Cake on our snowday Friday. Actually, this isn't my cake.... I found this on the internet. But mine looked just like it. I just didn't get any pictures of the final product because some small female child in my house (who shall remain nameless) ate ALL the strawberries before I could take any pictures. This post is named Part II because PART I is still coming. We had lots of fun making it so you'll have to come back to see the before and after shots... Thanks to my chickens, it looks like we'll be making a lot of these in the future!

Farm Fashion...

Nate is all about fashion these days.  Actually he is more about being "just like dad".  This means he HAD to have a pair of coveralls.  He also HAS to wear his "John Jury" hat...  EVERYWHERE!  He talks about it like it's Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren.... like everybody should know about and/or own a piece of John Jury clothing.  So if you need some John Jury fashion in your life, visit his daughter's blog here and maybe she can hook you up!!  In the meantime, we should all take such joy in our farm aparell!

The calm before the storm...

Things aren't looking good for southwest Nebraska in the next 48 hrs... I keep hoping they are wrong but in return, they just keep adding inches to the forecast.  On top of the sheer volume of snow, they are calling for 25-35 mph winds with gusts up to 45.  Blizzard is the term they are calling it.  I can think of a few other names.

I've been lacking in blog material lately but I'm guessing after this weekend, I might have a thing or two to mention.  I'll let ya know how it works out!!

Farm Fresh Eggs!

 Remember these guys I told you about a few months ago?? Well, they are all grown up into big girls now!  We are happy to announce that the dogs are being remarkably good with their new free range friends and nearly all are still accounted for!!  You might also recall that we carefully studied the requirements and worked really hard to get a nesting box all ready for them so they had a nice quiet place to lay eggs...

Who wouldn't want to start laying eggs in this beauty?!?!?!  But chickens are apparently independent thinkers... who knew??  Here's where this guy comes into the picture...

They found one of these to make their own nest and lay their eggs!  If you aren't familiar with these, they are protein tubs that you put out for cattle.  The empty ones can be used for all sorts of jobs around the farm.  We happen to be using a couple out by the chicken pen to hold some extra grass hay to bed the rabbits.  You guessed it... that is where Miss Hen decided she would start laying her eggs.  Once she did, the others followed suit and now that seems to be the nest of choice.  So when the book said they need a nice, quiet, private, dark place to lay their eggs... it was lying.  When the book said it didn't have to be anything fancy... it was right on!

For the record, this isn't my picture.  We only get one or two eggs a day so far but we have great expectations for more!!

And my friend Lyndi was right about the math lessons... so far we have gathered 6 eggs.  Nate has broken 2 of them.  How many have we gotten to eat?  Ally says 4.  Isn't she smart??