Royal Heir

Many years ago, my uncle took care of an orphaned calf and named her Annie. She became tame and very special to the family. All of her offspring (AJ, BJ, CJ...) seem to get special attention and even live in a separate pen from the other cattle. Annie had her 6th calf the other day. They loaded the little guy up in the wagon and wheeled it across the yard to the barn. Annie followed and when they got to the barn, she put herself inside before the guys even made it in! The calf is so tiny and cute! I think it even gets the name Tiny Tim instead of being called FJ to follow the pattern. Tate had his first encounter with the "Royal Family." It is not practical to have cows as pets but it sure is fun!

Seeing a calf for the first time

Annie getting a good rub

Meeting Annie

First cow ride

Not too sure

This isn't so bad!

I like it!!

The Royal Family

So Sweet

Best Friends!

Beautiful Day

Yesterday was beautiful!

Proud Farmer

The Dodge Ram commerical featuring audio of Paul Harvey's "So God Made a Farmer" speech was my favorite one aired during the Super Bowl. I am so proud to say that 5 generations of my family have been farming this land.

Here is a very brief history of the farm. Mathias came over from Luxembourg (with his brother Nicholas) and settled right here and started to farm the land. His son, Nicholas J, took over the farm. It was then passed down to my grandfather, Nicholas M., who then passed it down to my dad and uncle (who is Nicolas R.). Currently, Brett and my cousin, Nicholas D., are also working on the farm. I think it is amazing that 5 generations of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into the soil. The area has seen a lot of changes in farming practices. I am so thankful for modern day farming equiupment and can't imagine the amount of work it took to run the farm a century ago! I even took a turn working on the farm but don't seem to do a whole lot out there now.

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Crawler

Here he comes!

Road Trip

Tate had a VERY rough Friday night. I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep. Despite being super tired we loaded up on Saturday and went to visit my brother and his wife. We had such a fun time. Tate LOVES the dogs and adores his aunt and uncle. We even got to listen to the harmonica!

Gingerbread Adventures

Tate can crawl! Life has changed completely. I was trying to make gingerbread yesterday and Tate was everywhere! I got out various kitchen gadgets thinking those would entertain Tate. Yeah right! Everytime I would turn around he was in a different room. I did finally manage to get the gingerbread into the oven. If you have never had a warm piece of gingerbread with hard sauce on top you are truly missing out. It is the official food of snow days around here. Tate got a nibble too and thought it was yummy!