Flying Home

Tomorrow Luke & I are flying to Montana for Thanksgiving week. We are really looking forward to it as we are spending Christmas in Missouri this year. I have a little success story that I would like to share with anyone that plans to fly in the near future.

Here is what happened to us. I've gotten in the habit of buying plane tickets as soon as I know that we want to travel somewhere. Last year at Christmas we waited and waited for prices to go down and then they never did and we ended up driving to Montana, which turned out to be not such a good idea in December. So, when we decided to go to Montana for Thanksgiving this year, I booked us tickets in July. The prices weren't great, but we were afraid they would continue to increase so we bit the bullet and bought them. The last couple weeks I've been receiving numerous emails about airline sales and great holiday flight prices. So, I typed in our exact flight number for the exact days and the prices had dropped $120 per ticket! I was kind of pissed off that we had once again gotten screwed so I called United Airlines to complain thinking I would get nowhere. Instead, the customer service rep was really nice and offered to give us each a travel voucher for the amount we had over-paid!! We received them in the mail just the other day. He did say that he could only do this because we had booked them on united.com and not like Orbitz or Travelocity or somewhere like that.

So, moral of the story is whether you book early or late you never know what the prices are going to do---so just call and complain! You might actually get somewhere! And...use the airline's website!

Sale Day

All summer we have been backgrounding our calves that were born Fall '07. I've been wanting to sell them for a long time, but something always comes up. One gets pinkeye or the markets are down or we don't have time to get the trailer and sort them, etc., etc. So, today was the day that we said we would definitely sell our calves by and we did it. I'm so glad that we have such nice neighbors that let us borrow their trailer to haul them to the sale barn. We sold them in Edina which is only about 7 miles away. The owner of the sale barn is a customer of Luke's, so we had to play politics a little and make sure we sold them there.

Luke stopped by this afternoon and picked up our check, which was really nice to see! Now we can make our first farm payment!

New Do

So, looking at the picture my hair doesn't really look that much different to me. It sure seems like a change in person though.

Luke also has a new "look". He's been growing a goatie (not sure if thats spelled right) the last week or so.

My First Customer

I first got my chicks in May. They were so tiny and fragile. Can you see the little girl there?

Now they're all grown up!

And laying eggs like crazy! They first started laying eggs in early October and haven't slowed down since. I have 11 chickens and get between 7-9 eggs per day. With only the two of us here, the eggs are adding up quick.

I've been trying to sell these farm-raised, free range, brown chicken eggs and started advertising last week for $1.50 a dozen. I was really disappointed that I didn't have any calls, but then, yesterday I got my first customer! She works at an office in Kirksville and is also going to see if anyone else at her office wants to buy them too. If anyone out there needs eggs, I am trying to get rid of them ASAP as my supply continues to grow! And...they're much better than store bought eggs!!

My Weekend

It's been awhile since I last wrote. Not too much exciting news around here I guess. Last weekend was the opening of deer season so Luke was in Carrollton for the weekend. I stayed here as it was the last opportunity to have a weekend at home in the next month! Actually, I went to Quincy, Illinois on Saturday and went shopping. It was really fun and it really got me in the Christmas spirit. I went to Kohls, Hobby Lobby, Panera Bread, Boyers Boots & Bath & Body Works (all places that Luke would complain about if he was along, well except maybe Boyers Boots). Everything was on SALE! It was really fun and I got lots of Christmas decorations and some Christmas presents and a pair of jeans for myself :)

I also gave Kelly a bath on Sunday. She has been shedding really bad which I dont understand since it has been so cold. So, the bath helped some. Then I had to clean the shower and bathroom floor.

Oh, my other new news is that I got my hair cut and dyed last Friday. It's pretty dark brown...so its taking some gettting used to, but I like it!

Well, I think that's all for now!!

First Frost

Yesterday morning we had our first frost of the year. It was a very pretty morning and the wind had finally died down. Luke & I went out to check the cows & to make sure all the waterers were open. We started feeding hay this weekend and the cows were pretty happy to see it. Here are some pictures I took that morning.

Ice on the water trough:


Kelly Jo has been wearing either an orange or red bandana when she is outside so that no hunters can mistake her for a coyote.

Here are some of our cows (plus one). That's right, we have a stray. We think she belongs to the neighbors, but nobody seems to be claiming her. Maybe she will become ours after all!

Luke tried to catch his two horses. We wanted to move them out of the pasture they are in because they are pretty much out of grass. However, they must not want to leave because this was the second attempt at catching them and Luke still had no luck. They don't know what's good for them!!

Today it is really rainy and muddy here, so the frost looks pretty good compared!

Our Weekend

I was going to put up some pictures today, but for some reason they wont load...

We had a nice, quiet weekend at home. Saturday we had lots of stuff to do with the cattle and spent most the afternoon sorting, weaning, castrating, and preg checking. We had two open heifers (from the Spring calving herd) so they got sorted in with the yearlings that we are going to sell. We kept 4 of the yearlings as replacement heifers so they got sorted in with the cows. Then, all the cows got moved into a new pasture and fed some hay. Kelly helped alot and everything worked pretty good.

Saturday evening the James' came over for dinner and cards. It was a fun night and good to see them.

Sunday we were extremely lazy. We didn't leave the house, except to go outside and do chores, and Luke left to bow hunt across the road. I guess that is what weekends are for though. Pretty much every weekend from here on out is planned until Christmas...so it was nice to have a quiet weekend!

Photo of the Day

Lady Bugs are everywhere!

Laundry Day

Today is laundry day. A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to wash my sleeping bag and the simple task turned into a catastrophie. Apparently the sleeping bag didn't absorb enough water so the water overflowed out the top of the washer and the washer made a horrible sound, not to mention a horrible mess with the water everywhere. Since then, the washer has gotten increasingly worse about not draining. Finally, when it got to the point where it wasn't rinsing or draining, enough was enough and we went washer shopping.

We picked out a washer and brought it home last Wednesday. We tried our best to level it and then started it to see how it would work. Well...it was shaking so bad that it pulled so far away from the wall the drain hose pulled out and once again, there was water everywhere. Plus, it scraped a hole in our linoleum floor! We tried everything to get it to work and couldn't make any progess. So, we had to wait until today when a Maytag man could come and fix it (our brand new washer) so that we could finally use it. The good news is it's fixed and will be running non-stop for several days!

We have never had so much laundry piled up! Luke had so many dirty plaid shirts that they alone took up an entire (supersize) load.

November?!

Can you believe it is November already? Where has the fall gone? I'm happy that it is November 1st. That means I will be going home for Thanksgiving in just 22 days, that the Christmas season is only 1 month away, and it will soon be 2009!


Not too much is going on around here this weekend. It has been gorgeous weather so I cleaned out some flower beds, moved & replanted some bulbs, and dug up and replanted a shrub that was by our front door and didn't have any room to grow. Luke worked on the fence around the hayfield. We haven't grazed this before so the fences needed some work. We just finished moving the cows over there and they were really happy to have some lush green grass!

Hope everyone else is having a nice fall! Kelly Jo says hi!