First Life Update of 2015

Well, hello and a late happy new year! Goodness, I can't believe it's already February 2015! I'm in the second semester of my senior year in high school and it seems like just yesterday I was starting high school. I'm having a hard time accepting that I have to grow up. Oh, well.

We got a bunch of baby chickies today. I'll have to take a picture so I can show you all. They're Brown Leghorns.  We built a stanchion by the barn, which we are actually getting around to finishing. Daddy and Grandpa put the vinyl siding up on two of the walls and they put the window in. It's lookin' good. Oh, and Honeybelle is definitely pregnant, which is a good thing. After she has her calf (in about late March), we will never have to run out of milk again! (crazy laugh) Sugar-Muffin, on the other hand... I sort of doubt she's pregnant. We shall see.

My Civil Air Patrol life has been somewhat laid back. I got my first pinning ceremony for my promotion to Cadet Senior Airman. Yay! You're supposed to get one when you promote to Cadet Airman and again for Cadet Airman First Class. We had some... interesting situations that prevented that so at least it's done now. I'm sort of relieved because everyone was getting really pushy for a ceremony.

My flight commander, C/CMS Bilardi and the cadet commander, C/Maj Cinnamon pinning me on Monday.

I did something a little out of character for me last Sunday. I curled my hair (using the pin curling method, of course. I would be the person who'd burn myself if I had an iron.) I got a lot of compliments and it was a nice change. Hmm. Might do it again someday. This coming Sunday will be fun. It is called "Old-Fashioned Sunday". We dress old fashioned and have an old fashioned dinner on the grounds. A couple friends and I are planning on dressing in Regency Era (in other words, Jane Austen's time) clothing (even though this is America and that was England...). I found the dress I'm going to wear at Goodwill for $11. It has a lace top and a sort of sea greenish skirt. It's so long it needs to be hemmed though. Despite my non-existant skill of sewing, I am attempting to hem it myself. We shall see how that works out.

I convinced my daddy to take me to our town's small, one room library the other day. They need a better selection of biographies. I love Abraham Lincoln, but could you have some lesser known people also? So I got a big, fat bio of President Lincoln, a book about the year 1775, and a book about King George VI. That ought to last me a while. I love reading and a good cup of tea. Earl Grey... I think I'll go get me a cup right now.

And so I shall leave you with a quote:

"I declare there is no enjoyment like reading" -Jane Austen

Farewell, good friends, until next time. (I am obviously feeling very dramatic today. I'm starting to scare myself.)

The Dairy

For my science class, I had a very fun assignment. I had to choose a place of interest, such as a farm, vet clinic, zoo, etc. and shadow someone there. So... I went to a dairy. I like cows and I want to be a livestock vet so I might as well see what my future might be like, right? I had a great time and everyone was nice. We went on the day that the vets were there to palpate some cows. Here's the definition if you don't know what exactly that is.

rectal palpationpalpation of the posterior abdomen and the organs in it by inserting the hand and arm (in horses, cattle and pigs) in the rectum

 Somehow they could tell whether a cow was pregnant or fresh or other things. It was extremely interesting.

Fieser Dairy, Inc. in Deleon Springs, FL

 Palpating a cow.

Those are the cows waiting to be milked. The jets sort of start cleaning off the grime from the udders.

The cows line up ten at a time to be checked.

This cow right here got the cow version of Gatorade.

You probably can't tell, but the cow in the foreground is missing it's left eye.  It had some cancer on its eye lid so the vet wanted to take it off. They put the cow in a stanchion and secured her head so she couldn't move it. The vet was only planning on taking the eye lid off, but after he did, he saw the cancer went behind the eye so he said, "We're going to have to take it out."  I looked at Daddy and said, "The eye? They're going to take the whole eye out?"   So I stood there and watched the whole thing. It was interesting and gross at the same time. I can watch that kind of thing, but I'm not so sure if I could do it...  I think the thing that surprised me the most, and I know it shouldn't have, was that it was a spur of the moment thing. 'Oh, we'll have to take the whole eye out' and then inject more pain killers and operate.

Later, someone asked me which vet I liked the best, the older one or the younger one. I don't know. Probably the older one better because I just like old people and because he made Mr. DJ (who was helping him take the cow's eye out) go find the eye he threw into some grass so I could see the optic nerve. :) But I like the younger vet too because he drew a smiley face on the side of a cow with his cow crayon. That made my day. Now there is a random cow out there that has a smiley face on it's side. On the way home, we went to Tractor Supply and got some cow crayons and drew on Honeybelle and Sugar Muffin. :D

Leigha

Moo Moo Photoshoot

I love my calves. They are such sweet animals. The other day I went out and took some pictures. The last one is my favorite! :)

Hey there, moo moos!

It sounds funny, but that's how we call the newest residents at the farm. Introducing Honeybelle and Sugar Muffin! (We call them Honey and Sugar for short.)

Sugar Muffin on the left, Honeybelle on the right

They are so cute! Sugar is two weeks old today and Honey 4 days older. I bought them for $200 each and they're pure Jersey. Right now they are being fed by nipple buckets twice a day with milk replacer. We leave a little grain and hay too. They eat the grain, but I haven't seen them do anything with the hay yet. Yesterday I went out and took a bazillion pictures of them. Unfortunately, it was just about to rain so the pictures look sort of dreary, but here's a few of them.

Sugar Muffin

Mmmm!

Honeybelle

Sugar Muffin

Honey in front and Sugar behind

Honeybelle

Bacon and her piglets are doing well. She is starting to wean them and you can tell they aren't happy about that.

We still have about two years till we can milk the cows, but I can wait. Meanwhile, I'll just play with them. :) -Leigha