These are some comfy cows!

This is why we do what we do.  To make the cows comfortable!

These cows are fast asleep!!  And these photos are all from the same day, within an hour of finishing bedding their stalls.

Do not disturb!

Shhh!  Don't wake up the neighbor.

I would have a sore neck after sleeping like this!

Is she snoring?!?!

I think she is.

So cute!

No lullaby needed here.

'Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest".'   ~Matthew 11: 28

Snowy birthday

It was nice to spend the morning inside, looking out at the snow.  My puppy on the other hand, fully enjoyed playing in the snow.  She is so cute!

Also Happy Birthday to two members of the farm family, Collin and Joe!!  They got snow on their birthday two years in a row, hopefully they got a chance to enjoy it!!

Cold mornings and long days

Some funny things about today:

This morning Josiah and I were feeding the calves.  The water from the evening before had frozen in their buckets so we had to get that out before putting in the milk.  If the water is frozen solid, we sometimes soak the bucket in hot water for a few seconds, but this morning we didn't really think about doing that because it hadn't been super cold last night.  So I was working at getting the ice out, rather unsuccessfully.  I finally asked Josiah how he did it so he stopped mixing milk and came over to show me.  First he hit the bucket against a wooden post several times, and then he threw it on the ground a few times.  So I tried the next one.  I hit it against the post and then asked if I should throw it on the ground next to get the rest of the ice out.  He kind of laughed and said, "No, the only reason I dropped it on the ground was that I was mad that the ice didn't come out."

So that made me laugh.  You have to be careful what and who you imitate sometimes.

Then later (and this isn't really that funny), when we were in for a lunch break, Josiah was using the computer and I was feeling sleepy.  I decided I wanted to lay down on the kitchen floor (tile floor), and ended up falling asleep in front of the heater.  When I woke up Josiah was laying on the rug in front of the dishwasher but he wasn't nearly as warm as I was... it's been a long week but we are making it.

Long weekend...perseverance

In Sunday school yesterday we talked about this passage from James 1: 1-12.


¹ This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad.  Greetings!
 ² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
 ⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.
 ⁹ Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. ¹⁰ And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. ¹¹ The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.
 ¹² God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.


This weekend was one of the toughest to get through that I can ever remember.  Not much was going wrong on my end, with the jobs that I was doing, but it seemed like a lot that could go wrong for Josiah did.  And the stupid thing is that I was the one getting frustrated.  He seemed to take it all in stride, and I just wanted to never see a cow again.


And the work continues.  And there is more "character building."  Why should these small problems get me so frustrated?  If I never had a problem, I would never grow and I would never learn perseverance.

It is so hard to consider a problem being an opportunity for joy.  But it really is, because it is a time of growth, and who doesn't want to grow?  It might be painful, but don't the benefits vastly outweigh the little frustration that I am feeling now?

And my growing will never be done, I will never be perfect, I will always need to ask God for wisdom, to see what he wants me to learn from a problem.  And I am trying to be thankful for that today, because I do want to grow, I want to receive that reward, I don't want to give up in despair or hopelessness.

1/12

Happy Gannon Day!!  This is Gannon:

Today is her day!

Too much excitement

This morning some of the cows got out of the barn.  We were working on putting in new bedding and the cows in one pen pushed through a gate that wasn't securely chained.  It was definitely a God-thing how everything was timed, because Charise and I had just finished scraping the stalls and she was going to leave when she saw the cows and ran up to tell me.  Josiah was walking past and heard what she was saying and immediately ran to that end of the barn.

Not all the cows got out, which was a blessing.  And the ones that did, didn't get too far.  They were chased away from the neighbor's yard by Duchess.  I guess the neighbor, Nelson, saw all this happen and came out of his house to help.  So with the help of Dad, Charise, Nelson, Josiah, and myself, we corralled the cows back into the barn.

The trick with escapee cows and any cows, I think, is to stay calm.  I know my heart was racing and I wanted to run, but I knew that would make the cows get even more excited and take off for who knows where.  So everyone did a very good job of remaining calm, and that is how we got the cows back into the barn rather quickly.

And of course I didn't have my camera, but even if I had I probably wouldn't have wanted to stop just to take a picture.  The cows are more important than a photograph.