My Heart was Touched

I had such a wonderful surprise in the mail today . I got a package from someone .I have no idea who it is from .There was no name or card. I opened it and found a gift card and a wrapped present. I was so excited by the gift card. And then I opened the wrapped present. And I cried . I had my Christmas Wish list on here and one of the things I wished I had the money to buy was the big box of Triscuit crackers . Someone sent us a big box of Triscuit crackers. I know it is a silly thing to cry about , a box of Triscuit crackers. But that someone took the time to send this to us , it was so special . It really touched my heart and I wish I could thank them for this so special gift . It made my day . And I plan on opening a bottle of wine , having myself some of those Triscuits and some cheese. So thank you to someone for caring and sending us this very Christmas gift. Bless You !

Christmas Wishes

This Christmas I have a couple of wishes.

#1 ~ I wish I had the money to replace my light above the stove , instead of moving a lamp beside the stove every time I cook.
#2 ~ I wish I could go to the grocery store and fill the cart with anything I want , instead of only buying what I absolutely need.
#3 ~ I wish I could buy that big box of Triscuit crackers , instead of putting it back on the shelf because I can't afford it.
#4 ~ I wish for a month of not having to worry and stress about how to pay the bills on the disgusting milk price we recieve.
#5 ~ I wish for another coat for when I take my walks ( to help deal with stress ) in the mornings, instead of having to safety pin it shut.
#6 ~ I wish I could turn on the heater in the milkhouse when I wash the milkers, instead of worrying it will make our electric bill higher .
#7 ~ I wish we could fill up our gas tank on the farm , instead of only buying 100 gallons.
#8 ~ I wish for a fair price for our milk , that we could actually live on and pay the bills with.
#9 ~ I wish I could enjoy the beauty of all my Christmas lights, instead of worrying how much higher our electric bill will be.
#10 ~ And while I am wishing ~~ I wish I was a size 8 !! LOL !

Decorations

Every year I decorate the archway in our dining room and the doorway to the living room. I have a pine garland with red berries that I bought at least 15 years ago. I add some white lights and a bow at each corner. The long shelf above the archway was a Christmas gift years ago. It was handmade to match the woodwork in our old farmhouse. You should have seen me in the car the day I picked up this long shelf at the shop where it was made. It would not fit in the car. I had the one end in the front seat of the car and the back end was hanging out the one side window. I love this shelf. I filled it with old jars, milk bottles and tins.

My Santa Collection

Pics of my trees

Here are some pics of my trees I decorate for Christmas.

Christmas is Coming

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I was on here. I can't believe it is December. Christmas will be here before I am ready . Also our one grandaughter has a birthday in Dec. She will be 7. I can't believe she is going to be 7. I remember when I was keeping her before she started school. Seems like so long ago. Now she is in First Grade. Also my birthday is this month too. But I am nowhere near 7. LOL ! Way beyond that . This year is the first year I won't buy my Thomas Kinkaid Christmas cards . I won't be buying any cards at all. I will only be sending cards to family.I have cards from other years I will use. Just can't afford the stamps . I will also be cutting back on Christmas presents . Mostly I will give family craft things I have made.
Last week I finished putting up all the trees . I have a 9' tree in the one living room, a twig tree in the other living room, the 7 1/2' tree in the dining room, a 2' tree in the kitchen, an 18 " tree in the downstairs bathroom and a 1' tree in the upstairs bathroom. The 7 1/2' tree is my primitive tree .It has all primitive ornies on it and white lights. The 9' tree has ornies I have collected over the years , some antique ornaments from my mother-in-law, ornies with the grandkids pics in them and ornies people have given us over the years . I didn't start putting out all my decorations til 2 days ago. I just couldn't get into the holiday mood. Probably because the milk prices aren't any better . Paying the bills isn't any easier . And we have pretty much sold about all we can sell to help pay the bills. Not sure what we are going to do. Can only pray God will help us out, like He has always done.

Getting Nowhere !!

Well , I have written another Letter to the Editor of our local paper,the CDT www.centredaily.com .I said in the letter that I have written to my politicians and I am getting nowhere . They have their hearings and do all their studies and hear from dairy industry people. The dairy industry people they should be hearing from are the farmers. Farmers who are in danger of losing their farms to these ridiculous prices we are getting for our milk. A dairy woman , Alice Allen, has filed a class action lawsuit against Dean Foods alleging monopoly pricing. Dean Foods and Kraft are showing record profits while dairy farmers are struggling to survive. There is something rotten in the wood pile !! Farmers are writing and telling their stories. We need to keep it up and keep the pressure on . My husband and I are still struggling. We are so far behind on our bills now , it will take years to ever catch up . If we ever do .

Harvester Died

Well , the new ( very used ) harvester has died. The whole time hubby was trying to fill the silo , it kept breaking down. That should have told us something right there ?? Yesterday , hubby and the neighbor were in the field and suddenly the harvester let out this big boom and crash . Something vibrated loose and went thru the harvester. It can't be used the rest of this year . Hubby has to try and work on it this winter and get it in shape for next year. That is if it can even be fixed. He doesnt know yet, til he starts to tear it apart. Luckily, we have the very best farming neighbors. They came over today and are helping us fill the rest of the silo with their harvester. I don't know where we are going to get the money to pay him for his time. But we are so lucky they are helping us out. We so appreciate it ! We have a 50 ' concrete silo and a small metal silo ( this one has to be an antique !! ) . We are working on the 50 ' silo right now. Hubby wants to fill the metal silo about half full. This week in our local paper www.centredaily.com a farmers silo , full of silage collapsed .It hit part of their barn and also killed 15 of their animals . A very big loss for the farmer and his family. Luckily no people were hurt. The farmers were 15 minutes away from going to the barn to start their work . I worry about our old metal silo falling down .I will worry the whole time they are filling it til they are done . I will say a prayer to keep them safe .

Forage Harvester

We will soon be filling silo .But we had a little problem this year. Last year we borrowed a harvester from another farmer . About 2 weeks ago my husband goes out to see if we can borrow it again this year .The farmer tore it apart , he didnt have it .He said I meant to come and tell you. So we were at a loss what to do . We don't have the money to pay our bills, with these lousy milk prices, let alone go buy a harvester. We asked around everywhere to see if anyone had one . We are a small farm , so all we needed was a 1 row. No luck anywhere . There was to be a sale of machinery on Saturday ( 19th ) . My husband decided to go and try and get one. No idea where the money is going to come from. But it is something we had to have or there was no way to fill our silo. He went to the sale and did get one . We were so glad . But to pay for it , we are going to have to send 2 cows out tomorrow . Which of course will mean we will ship out less milk. So we will be making even less money to try and pay the bills. It is a vicious circle. There doesn't seem to be an end to the low milk prices . And I keep reading where Dean's Food and Kraft are having record profits . At the farmers expense ! Oh yes, we got our huge raise in our milk prices ,thanks to Sec. of Agriculture Vilsack .We got a whopping $12.00 a hundredweight instead of $11.30 . Wow , what to do with all this money ! It is a joke! A joke on every hard working farmer , who struggles every day to pay the bills. How much longer are we to take these insults ?? Something needs to be done and now ! The milk price has to be raised immediately to at least $ 17.00 .So farmers can try to at least keep the farms they have worked and struggled over for years ! I read in one of our farm papers there were 250,000 farms in the US in 1980 .Now in 2009 there are only 50,000 . And there are going to be even less if something isn't done NOW !!!!

Bonnie Hunt Show

I saw on the Bonnie Hunt Show they were talking about Twitter . I sent an email to the show to tell them about the great bunch of farmers who are on Twitter . How we help each other with support and letting other farmers know they aren't alone . While we all are so stressed out worrying about hanging onto our farms. And worrying how to pay the bills from a milk check that isn't even enough to cover a third of your bills. There isn't enough in the news and papers about the farmers daily struggle to hold onto their farms. We just have to keep hoping there is a light at the end of the tunnel .

The Best Daughters

We must have the best daughters in the world. Our 2 daughters have helped us pay some of our bills and paid off a loan we had. I keep thinking at the age hubby and I are at , we should be helping out our kids .Not them helping us out. There is something wrong with this picture. When because of corruption in the dairy pricing system , we can't even afford to pay our bills and feed ourself. It makes me feel bad we can't do more for the kids and help them out. We are so lucky to have our girls and the grandkids . Family means so much . They help you through the tough times and are there for you when you need a hug . Or when you need a good cry !

Farming Lesson

I recently had a mammogram . I had to give a farming lesson to a lady there . We were talking and I said I live on a farm . She told me she would love to live on a farm . I said things aren't good right now if you are a farmer . I told her how our milk prices are really low .How we can't even pay our bills . She says ~ Why don't you just raise your prices ?? I told her we don't set our prices .If we did , we sure would give ourselves enough to pay the bills ! And not have to sell some of our belongings to pay the bills the milk check won't pay . And a lot of the time that isn't even enough . Last month all I could send to our vet bill was $ 20 .00 .Other bills I can only send $ 10 .00 . Our bills are getting way behind because of the low prices . When ( and if it ever does !! ) the price does go up , we are going to be so far behind on all our bills . I don't know how much longer we can hang on. I have sent a letter to G.T. ( Rep. Glenn Thompson ~ PA ) again. I have sent him farm articles from our farm papers . And I know he is doing what he can . We really appreciate all he is trying to do to help .

Grandbaby Doesn't Want to Come Out !

Our oldest daughter is due Sept.21 with our 5th. grandbaby . She called last night and said she had been having pains all day and they were getting worse. She just wanted to warn me. If they have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night, I will have to go over and stay with the other 2 grandkids and get them off to school. So I pack a bag and have my stuff all ready for a middle of the night call. I called her about 9 p.m. to see how things were going. Well , the pains had stopped . So no new baby yet . Our other daughter says he doesn't want to come out , he wants to stay where it is nice and quiet ! LOL !

Milk Prices

Our milk prices haven' t improved . I keep sending farm articles to G.T. , Rep . Glenn Thompson. Articles about the crisis many dairy farmers are facing right now. Many farmers are in danger of losing their farms , cows and their home. Most can't afford to pay all their bills. And are hanging on by a thread. Most farmers don't have weeks and months while politicians figure out what to do about the insulting milk prices we are getting. Something has to be done and now , not in a couple of months . Recently my husband and I were interviewed by our local paper . They wanted to do an article about how the low milk prices were affecting us and our farm . They put a picture of us on the front page of the paper. You can view the article by going to www.centredaily.com . I hope people who read the article thought about farmers and what they are going through ,when they bought that gallon of milk at the store. I read in North Carolina there used to be 1300 farms and now there are only 300 . What will we do when there are hardly any dairy farms left ? Buy our milk from China ??

Grange Fair Pics

Grange Fair

We had a great time at Grange Fair. There are about 950 tents and 1300 campers who stay for 10 days . We ate way too much. Pork sandwiches by a local farmer , peach dumpings with home made cinnamon ice cream( could have ate one a day ~ they are so good ! ) , chicken and waffles , buckwheat pancakes, fruit cups, hoagies, cinnamon rolls . I could go on and on ! My Mom and I stayed in the camper together . Dad came over a few days. My one daughter has her own camper and stayed with the 2 grandkids . The other daughter came over a couple of days with the 2 grandkids . She is due with our 5 th . grandbaby in a matter of weeks. It will be another boy. We got home from the Fair yesterday . I had a lot to unload from the car and put away . Next year I am not taking so much stuff ! I say that every year and I still take too much along . I take books to read and cross stitch to work on. Our camper is right by the Cow Barn . Our youngest grandaughter loves to go over and look at the dairy cows. You would think she would be sick of seeing cows after being here on the farm when I babysit her . Guess the cows at the Fair look different ! I know ~~ they are cleaned up ! Our cows are dirtier ! I can't believe the Fair is over . It went really fast . Soon it will be fall . Fall is my favorite time of the year . When it gets a little cool and you need a sweatshirt . There is nothing more beautiful than taking a walk with the leaves all turning colors and a gorgeous blue sky.

Sweet Corn Ready

Our sweet corn is ready . Our sweet corn is the best I have ever eaten. I went up and picked some to freeze. Worked up a sweat doing that , too ! I froze 10 quarts . Hope to get more done tomorrow. It will taste pretty good this winter . Mom is going to do some and our one daughter hopes to get some done . All the grandkids love to go in the field and help to pick it. When they were small , they were afraid they would get lost in the cornfield. The corn was high and they were so little . They aren't so little anymore. The oldest is 12 and almost as tall as me . I think I used to be taller ! As I get older I think I am shrinking ! LOL ! Of course my butt and hips aren't ! Oh well , joys of getting older !

Hay Making

We just finished the 2nd. cutting of hay . So no hay to unload for a bit. The last couple of days unloading has been really hot and humid. Yuck !! Sweat just drips off of you. Two of the grandkids helped on the wagon. But not too long, they got pretty dusty and hot.
My hubby and I were on the front page of our local paper . They came to talk to us about how the low milk prices were affecting our small farm. Then they came another day and took some pics . And wouldn't you know they put a big pic of me on the front page feeding hay . Told our girls , if I had known I was going to be on the front page , I would have gone on a crash diet ! It was a very nice article. It can be seen @ www.CentreDaily.com . Hope it makes people think about all the farms that are being lost . I hear about farms being lost every day . Just hope something is done and soon about the milk prices . Kraft and Dean Foods have had record profits . Well , not dairy farmers !!

Baling Hay ~~ NOT

We started the 2nd cutting of hay .But we aren't making much progress . We have only had 2 loads so far. It won't stop raining. We get one sunny day and than it rains again. The hay needs lots of sun to dry so we can bale it. But the sun isn't cooperating . By this time we are usually on the 3rd. cutting. I don't think we are going to even get a 3rd. cutting this year . Guess we just have to be glad we did get some hay.

the view from our upper fields

The grandkids and I walked up to some of our upper fields to see Papee baling hay . They got to pick a few raspberries . We walked to the fields closest to our mountain . They got a bit tired . But they enjoyed it . I told them the next time they came, we would pack a lunch and take it up to the field and have a picnic . They were all excited about that . The view from these fields is beautiful. You can see down the valley . It would be wonderful to have a small cabin up in the woods and have that wonderful view.

the farmers tears

It isn't getting any better for the dairy farmer . Prices are still not good. I was very depressed and wrote this the other night.

He sits at the table and his heart is breaking
The banker came today and said your farm we are taking .

He walks to the barn with tears rolling down his face
Today is the day he feared would take place .

He has tried and tried to hold onto his land
All he ever wanted was a bit of a helping hand .

The cows have left and the farm is up for sale
What else can he do he feels like he has failed.

He has pleaded for a fair price almost all this year
But those pleas have fallen on a deaf ear .

Let's bail out big business when they come crawling
But no help comes for the family farmer when he comes calling .

Unloading Hay

Hay season is here ! So far we have unloaded about 1000 bales . Yesterday 2 of the grandkids were helping. Our grandson was up with Papee stacking the hay . He did a great job. Our grandaughter was on the hay wagon with me and our neighbor tossing the hay off. I think she was more interested in having her Mommy take her picture on the wagon. She did push a few bales to the front of the wagon , though . They both did great !

Farm Aid

Our milk prices have not improved much . I had written a letter to Farm Aid about the problems we are facing. I recieved an email from Joel at Farm Aid . He said they have had so many farmers email and call about how they are also having a terrible time trying to pay their bills. Last week I got another email . Farm Aid wanted dairy farmers to write to the Sec. of Agriculture and tell him what they are going through . So I wrote a letter . You were to send it to Farm Aid and they would forward the letters .

If you go to www.farmaid.blogspot.com , my letter is printed there . Farm Aid printed my letter on their blogspot.

Cows out in the Pasture

The cows are finally out in the pasture. The first time we put them out, they usually go through some fences. Especially the younger cows. But this year we were lucky ~~ Not one cow went through the fence ! Once they get to the pasture the first time , they run all over the field . Just like they were little kids.

My hubbie has been busy in the fields. At least he was and than the corn planter broke down for a couple of days . We had to order the parts and that took awhile. But now it is fixed and he is busy again.

We have a garden plowed and ready to get planted. Our one daughter is going to plant some veggies . And the other night we planted a couple of rows of potatoes. Our grandaughter and grandson helped to plant them and cover them up . I had told them how years ago when their Mommy and Aunt were little we used to plant about 5 long rows of potatoes. It was nice to have all those potatoes . Now we will have some again.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day ! My girls went together and got me diamond stud earrings . I love them and have them in now. I took a walk and got my yard mowed ~ again . And watched 2 of my favorite shows last night. Cold Case and The Unit .

Some of my Crafts

I thought I would put some pictures on here of some of the crafts I have painted and made. Many are on my ebay store or on my booth on The Prim Market . Hope you take a look.

New Calves

Well , it is that time of the year. The cows are having calves . We have had 4 cows freshen ( have a calf ) . Out of those 4 they had 3 bulls and 1 heifer . Since September we have had all bulls and no heifers. And of course heifers are what you want . You sure can't milk a bull ! But when the cows freshen they sometimes have problems. Like milk fever . We had a cow last week with that . It is a calcium defiency . They go down and can't get up. They are too weak. We had the vet here 3 times for that cow. Luckily she got up and has stayed up. But we have to still give her pills . My husband has to climb in the stall with the cow . And get a halter on her and then I help give her the pills ( they measure about 3 " long ) . Then this morning we had to get the vet here again. We had a different cow get mastitis . The quarter where the mastitis is will swell and the milk gets clots . And of course you have to treat the quarter . You have to throw all her milk away . And right now with the milk prices we need every ounce we have . We can't put her milk back in the milk tank til it passes a test . The test shows if there are antibiotics in the milk . There are very strict rules for antibiotic milk .
Also last night the one water cup in our extension barn broke. We got done milking about 8:00 p.m. My husband had to tear the water cup apart to get it fixed. He got done about 9:00p.m. So it was a late night for us. We don't have any more cows due til the end of April . But Lexi , our grandaughter was all excited about finally getting a heifer . She thinks she will name it " Annabelle " . She climbs in the pen and pets it and helps feed it with the big bottle. She is definitely a little dairy farmer .

Telling our Grandaughters Class About Farming

Our one grandaughter is in Kindergarten . Yesterday we went and gave a talk about farming to her class . We had pictures of the farm equipment , the cows , the barn , the calves , the milk tank with milk in it , the barn with hay , a cow getting milked , the milkers and a picture of the cow named after our grandaughter ( Kirsten ) . The kids seemed to enjoy it. They asked if it hurt to milk a cow by hand. Which we almost never do . We use the milkers . And most cows don't like being milked by hand . They are used to being milked with a milker. We handed out cow erasers . Plus since my husband is also a Forest Fire Warden he talked about Smokey the Bear . And handed out Smokey the Bear pencils and coloring books. I think our granduaghter was very excited to have her Papee come in to her class.

Hay Baling

Last summer we baled loads and loads of hay . We have the old type baler . It bales the rectangle shape bales . Not the great big round ones a lot of farmers have . We baled about 6300 bales of hay . Our barn was full . But soon we will be running out of hay. My husband , myself and a retired farm neighbor unloaded most of the hay . Once in awhile my brother helped or a friend . Between feeding the cows , small calves , dry cows and heifers we use about 24 bales a day . I usually feed the hay at the barn . Depending on the size of the bale , one bale usually feeds 4 cows.

When the hay is baled Glenn ( our neighbor ) brings the full wagon of hay down to the barn . My husband is still in the field baling more hay . Glenn pulls the wagon close to the barn .I unhook the pin holding the front of the wagon to the tractor . Then a guiding pole is inserted in the back of the wagon and is attached to the tractor. Glenn pushes the wagon in towards the barn and I guide it inside . Sometimes we start unloading the hay right away . If we have a couple of loads to bale , we have to unload the hay to get the wagon back up to the field. There were a few times last summer we had 6 loads to unload in 1 day . Boy , does that wear you out ! I try and think of it as good exercise !

It gets pretty hot in the middle of the summer unloading hay . And those humid days are really bad. I am usually on the wagon throwing the hay into my husband to stack . Once in awhile some of our 4 grandkids like to climb up on the wagon and try and push some of the bales off to their Papee . They are our little helpers . And of course we tell them we couldn't have got all that hay unloaded without them .

Soon my husband will be starting the field work for spring. Plowing and planting. Sometimes he works in the field all day , comes down to milk and then goes back to the field after milking and works til sometimes 9 p.m. or later. Never gets to eat supper til almost 9:30 or 10:00 . Farming is a lot of hard work and it takes a toll on your body . My husband just turned 60 in January and he a lot of back and leg problems.

Most of our farm equipment is antique. Almost all of the tractors are the ones my father-in-law used when he farmed. Most farmers can't afford new tractors or other equipment . The only ones who can are those " Pretend Farmers " . That is what I call them . The ones who use their farm as a tax write-off . And aren't on the farm to actually farm it.

Well ~ need to get going . Almost time to go to the barn adnget started !

Milk Prices

We got our milk check and the milk price is even worse than I thought it would be . We are getting $ 12.00 for a hundred pounds of our milk and it cost us $ 30.00 to make it . This might be the month we give it up. Just don't know what else we can sell to get more money . If farmers were getting paid what we should be we would be ok. Farmers are getting ripped off big time . All the work my husband does and to get this insulting amount for our milk is awful ! Guess I better get my letters to my Congress people sent out again ! Not that it seems to do much good.

Our farmhouse at Christmas

This is a picture of our farmhouse this past Christmas. I always decorate everywhere . I put lots of pine branches and Santa's and Snowman all over the porch . I have an old chicken crate hanging on the wall .I have it filled with some of my prim goodies. And I have some crocks , old boxes and old tools around the porch . I have an old wooden shutter by the porch . It used to be on the house years ago . They were stored up in our barn . We found them the other year . So we brought them down and I decorated with some of them . They are a really neat aqua color . When everyone comes for the Craft Open House they love to look over everything on my porch . Usually they want to buy stuff that is on the porch . But I tell them it isn't for sale. At least not yet !

Calf prices

One of our cows had twin calves the other day . They both were bulls. Usually we send bull calves out and only keep heifer calves . But we learned we are better off keeping them . We were told they were only worth $5.00 !! We are charged a hauling fee and other fees. So til they would take all the fees off our price we would end up with nothing. The other week a farmer sent out a bull calf and he got $5.00 .They took off the fees and ended up sending him a bill ! Even cow prices are awful . We used to get from $ 400 to $ 700 . The last cow we sent out we got $ 300 .

There are only about 59,135 dairy farms left in the whole US . The number of dairy farms drops about 5000 per year . 2009 could be the year to beat that number if the farmers milk prices do not improve quickly .

Dairy Farms Going Fast

Dairy farms are going fast . Farmers are getting lower and lower prices for our milk . The milk check is hardly enough to pay the bills. As the price falls there are going to be fewer and fewer family farms. And the price people pay at the store is going to go up and go up high . Could it go as high as $10.00 a gallon ? Who knows ? It seems the milk processors have more influence over the Congress than we farmers do . We have had to start selling some of the things we hold dear . I am selling an antique dry sink to try and get some money to help pay bills . My husband is selling some of his guns. We used to have stock . But the last of it was sold last year . You sometimes ask yourself ~ how much do you sacrifice to hold on to your farm ? Farmers don't want a bailout . We just want a fair price for our milk !