UPS

Not too much is new since the last post. I've worked twice for UPS, and this week will hopefully be working every day. I worked with a different driver each time, and they were both enjoyable to work with. Lots of walking/lifting, but I enjoyed it.

Still no calf from the milk cow!

I moved a wall in the basement which enlarged the room with the wood stove. I suppose we'll call that the family room now, although the motivating factor was to have a room large enough to host a home fellowship.

Until next time...

In all my UPS finery...

Milk room

This week was filled with building the milk room/milking stanchion, butchering roosters and traveling to the second Junior Bible Quiz meet.

The milk room is ready for milking, and more importantly, for heating! The stanchion is very basic, but I test-drove it with Bell and she seemed to think it was OK. She has still not had her calf. Hopefully she will deliver soon.

We have now butchered 29 roosters, so we have greatly diminished the stress in the chicken coop in addition to lowering our feed costs for the winter. We have gone from zero eggs per day to 4-6 eggs per day. We have around 25 hens, so the number should steadily climb.

I was very pleased with the children at the JBQ meet. They were much improved over their first meet. Tucker and Courtney’s teams placed first and second in the A league, and Tanner’s team placed second in the B league. In their overall individual standings, Courtney placed 2nd and Tucker placed 4th out of all A league quizzers, and Tanner placed 3rd out of all B league quizzers. Most important of all, they continue to hide God’s word in their hearts! The next meet will be in Minot in January. The baby will only be a couple of weeks old, but hopefully Sheryll will be able to go and see them quiz.


Here's the milk room framed in and ready for insulation.

Here's the milking stanchion that will keep Bell from wandering around during milking.

And here's the completed milk room. It's 10' X 12', so it doesn't take up too much room and should be easy to warm up.

I go to training with UPS this Wednesday, so we'll see when they want to put me to work. If it gets quiet on the blog for a while, that may be why. Of course, with my erratic history, I'm not sure if you'll be able to tell a difference! :-)

Ready for winter...we think!

It continues to be a busy time for us, but we do feel that we're mostly ready for winter. It's a good thing, too, because I interviewed with UPS for work as a seasonal Driver’s Helper. I go to training on Nov 18th, and will work from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve Day. I may do some work as a package sorter the week before Thanksgiving.

Poppy (Sheryll's dad) called two weeks ago and said he was thinking of coming for a visit. He left Texas the following Tuesday and got here on Wednesday. His comment on getting out of his car was, “Boy, ya’ll sure do live a long way from Dime Box, Texas!” He stayed until the following Monday, and we sure did enjoy it. With Mom and Dad spending much of the summer here and two visits from Poppy, we are hoping this is a trend that continues!

Here he is getting his camera ready for the birthday party. He did a great job capturing lots of good pictures for us.

The barn and chicken coop are done! Now all that remains before winter to care for the animals is to build a milking room.

Here's the chicken coop connected to the barn by a breezeway.

Here's the barn with no more holes where the guineas can get in! It's nice to finally have it completely enclosed.

We now have two teenagers in the house. We celebrated Trevor’s 15th (Nov 1st) and Courtney’s 13th (Nov 5th) birthdays on the 1st.

We had a surprise visit from Tyler during the party, so we had all three November birthday kids represented. Hard to believe Ty is now 20! (Nov 1st as well)

Bell (the milk cow) should be calving any day. She lost her mucous plug last Monday, and the gentleman we bought her from said that meant we should have a calf within 24-48 hours. Apparently Bell missed that memo, as she has not yet calved. Hopefully soon, as I’d like to get a few days of milking under our belts before I go to work for UPS.

OK, who is checking out whom here?

Some friends of ours from Bismarck called and asked us if we would be interested in wintering over 9 bottle calves that they have. In exchange, we can have our pick of two of them for our own in the spring. So now we have a good use of our hay for the winter. They are about 6 months old and very friendly, so this should be lots of fun.

As I type this it is sunny and 57 degrees outside. The weather this fall has been great! We are very thankful, as we weren't prepared for winter to set in early, and this great weather has allowed us to get things in order.

Until next time...