I love strawberries!

Yum!!  I love fresh fruit!  This morning I cut up these tiny, but tasty strawberries to put over the super easy shortcake that I made.

Mix:

1.5 t salt

4 t baking powder

3 c all-purpose flour

2 T sugar

Gradually add:

3/4 c milk

Pat the dough into greased 9"x9" baking dish.  Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Cool and serve with fresh fruit (like strawberries) and milk, yogurt, or ice cream!

It doesn't look very good, but I'm sure it will taste great!

A Senator's visit

On Monday, we were privileged to be visited by Senator Casey, one of our PA senators.  He was here to promote the Farm Bill and tour our facilities.  We had a very good time, and Duchess enjoyed being spoiled by all the people who were here.

An interesting tidbit: 20 years ago, Senator Casey's father, who was then the Governor of PA visited the farm to tour the farm and see the field terraces along with the Governor of MD.

Scrapbook page from Josiah's photo album

Josiah was on TV!

The entourage

Josiah and the Senator just chillin in the robot room

Some one else wanted some attention

She slept well all afternoon!

It was a great time and we felt very privileged to have the Senator with us!

My lime song

This morning as we were putting more bedding in the cows' stalls, I was inspired by my task to make up a song.  Of course I used the tune of another song that I am familiar with, but I changed the words to reflect the task that I was doing.

This is my lime (like the white powdery stuff, not the green fruit) song, sung to the tune of "I've Got A River of Life Flowing Out Of Me" (which is a great song, my version is not as good)

I've got a cloud of lime coming over me
Makes my nose to run
And my eyes can't see
Open up the doors
Set the lime clouds free
I've got a cloud of lime coming over me


Spring up oh breeze
And come to me
Spring up oh breeze
So I can see
Spring up oh breeze
And come to me
I'm sneezing abundantly

The end.

I love being spontaneously creative!

Extra busy

I feel like I haven't posted in a long time.  Things have been pretty busy around the farm with all the post-harvest, pre-planting activities.  I think all the manure hauling is complete and corn is ready to be put into the ground as soon as the fields dry out from the storm last night.

And we've been doing everything since one week ago today, without the help of Grandpa Garber.  Since then he has been at the hospital, and now at home recovering from a fractured bone in his back.  It was a miracle really that no other bone was broken and there wasn't more damage!  He fell off the top of the manure tank truck (it would actually be more correct to say that he was thrown off).  The lid was not opening, so he climbed up to see if he could fix that problem.  He fixed whatever was wrong, but then the lid came flying open and knocked him off the truck to fall around 11 feet to the ground.

Thankfully, Josiah and his uncle saw the whole thing happen and were able to attend to Grandpa immediately.  He was able to walk a little but had some pain in his back.  So they decided to call the ambulance to take him to the hospital to have him checked out, because you don't want to mess around too much with back injuries.  After tests and x-rays and other stuff, they found that he had a fractured Lumbar 1 (which is midway up your back).  And another miracle, possibly from scoliosis, he has a large spinal canal (I don't really know what that is, just what I heard) that let the bone fragments pass through without causing any nerve damage that could have led to paralysis.  We are so thankful that he wasn't paralyzed!

He had surgery Saturday evening to put a metal rod in his back and was home Sunday afternoon!  Since then he has been resting at home.  Thanks to everyone for their prayers!  Keep praying for a speedy full recovery so that Grandpa can get back out the farm and do the things that he loves doing!!

Praise the Lord for his wonderful miracles!!