I'm Back!.......

First off Thanks to my Ghost Writer!

I have been away too long.

This last few weeks have been crazy busy,

We picked Kaitlynn up from Grandma and Grandpa's and headed out. Now that we are running as a team, Herb drives mostly during the day and I drive at night which leaves very little computer time.

We were able to spend Memorial Day Weekend with a friend of ours in Oregon, he helps to manage a Dairy farm with about 150 head of cattle. 

He recently purchased 8 chicks, six were old enough to go out in the coop and the other two were still in the pen in the house so Kaitlynn spent some time playing with them and the kittens in the barn. She even got to ride on a four wheeler.

Kaitlynn also got to help milk the cows and feed the calves. Before it was time to milk she kept asking if she were going to be able to use a little stool and how big was the bucket and she kept talking about how she would pull the teats to get the milk out. She didn't know that this was a modern dairy farm and they use a double six milking system.

It is a pit with six stalls on each side and allows for 12 cows to be miked at one time. The cows come in and get washed by hand with an antibacterial solution and then an iodine solution is sprayed on the udder, the udder is then wiped with a clean paper towel and the milker is attached, when the udder is dry the milker drops off and the cow is sprayed with iodine again, when the six cows on that side are done they are released back into the corral area and given hay. After the milking is done any milk given by cows that had recently given birth and that milk is given to the new calves, youngest first then the older ones until it is gone then they are given formula until they are old enough to eat hay and grain then they are shipped off to another farm to be raised until they are old enough to be bred.
Kaitlynn had a blast, she was upset when she thought she had mud on her leg until we told her it was cow poop then she was OK with it.

Kaitlynn made fast friends with this little bull whom she dubbed Butterfly.  He was only a few hours old and was waiting to go to the other farm to be raised.

Over all I think Kaitlynn had a blast, she was upset when she thought she had mud on her leg until we told her it was cow poop then she was OK with it.  It was good to get out of the truck for more than just a couple of hours.

Leah was able to enjoy the farm too, she was allowed to run with the other farm dogs for the weekend. The only time we tied her up was when we went to town to get some supplies and when we went to lunch, then it was only because we were afraid she would follow us and get lost or go to the barn and we were unsure as to how she would react to the cows.

During our visit we went to lunch at a place called The Pelican Bar and Grill right on the beach, after lunch we took a stroll down to the beach and Kaitlynn and AJ's son played in the Pacific ocean for about an hour, by which time she was nearly frozen, yet we still had to drag her out of the water.
We even managed to get the truck down to the beach.  No easy feat.
We watched the fishing boats come in and along with the many people on the beach there were several horses.
All too soon it was time to hit the road again.  We headed to Texas where it suddenly turned into summer.  It was in the 60's in Oregon and when we got to Laredo, TX it was over 100 degrees.  More about that in my next post.  Thanks for sticking with us on this continuing adventure.