november 13

Good morning.

Tis a beautiful frosty morning here - everything is covered with white. it is actually supposed to warm up today and be above normal the rest of the week.

Lisa, I do live in NY, but we're eight hours away from the city. I have friends in NYC and on Long Island, but this time out, I think everyone was away from the crash. My youngest daughter's best friend was in one of the buildings across from the WTC when it was hit and was very lucky to get out uninjured. It is horrible knowing that that city has become a target for madmen. This may sound odd, but I hope that the crash yesterday was just an accident - mechanical failure or something that can be figured out and fixed in other planes. it won't make it less painful for those who lost family or homes, but it may help the rest of us.

I had a 'day off' yesterday and did some things that I couldn't do when Jess is here. I made her a tutu for her birthday - she turned 4 yesterday - YIKES! I know after all my posts about my little tomboy, a tutu sounds like a strange gift, but she likes to play dress up and a ballerina skirt was on her list. I also got some applesauce made and in the freezer and worked on the kitchen. I have a hard time keeping up in the kitchen becuase it really hurts to wash dishes. My back doesn't like that job at all - weird.

Today, we have dentist appointments for cleanings and then Stan has to go to the cooperative extension for a planning meeting for next year's pasture walks. We have to type up a proposal for one here in August and he will help decide who to get for special speakers at the big pasture meeting in the spring. I know this may sound odd, but so many farmers went to confinement dairies in the 70s and 80s that they are having to be taught how to pasture animals. We do intensive rotational grazing here, and it is an art: paddocks and water systems and learning how to do the rotations and keep the feed values up. When I was a kid, we had a morning pasture and a night pasture, and put the cows on the hayfields after second cutting and let them in the corn fields after harvest. LOL, Stan and I spent our wedding night in a pick-up camper parked in his dad's night pasture. The cows woke us up very early butting the pick-up and licking the camper! I suppose I should have suspected something then!

Well, off to get started on the day.

Take good care,
Kathleen