Stuff and nonsense in These titles mean nothing.

So I skipped the bitch who was handy with a louse detector until she got sloshed, and then I find myself with, hello their!, the chest was lined with the fleece of an enchanted sheep. I think it was golden but I’m not sure. The hind was golden, but it sailed away. Too much anger in the choir.

I tried Quordle but it’s too hard for me. Perhaps a greater challenge? Perhaps.

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We sold calves yesterday. Jim says that’s the hardest day of the year for him. There is work - the work of loading and hauling them, the work that went into them, the daily emotional, financial, personal aspect of the whole thing. They are sentient, sweet, personable creatures who depend on him, and he of course depends on them too. The check he gets is the biggest payment of the year and he divides it among many needs and uses. To a great deal it is the purpose of the farm and the purpose of the farmer. He never watches them sell.

He takes them in the day before the sale. I put on my rubber boots and went out and helped him a bit when he loaded them. Five trailer loads. It was warm and there was a light rain. He kept back 11 heifers. He asked me how I liked their faces. He tries to keep back the girls he thinks have the best dispositions, the ones that will handle life and motherhood and dealing with him the best. We like smart calm pretty faces.

He sets up feed bunks and gates and cattle panels, and he loads them through the front part of the old hog lot. It is a matter of reducing options until they get on the trailer. He didn’t get kicked. One of the panels fell over right after I walked past it. The panels are heavy steel and you do not want to get hit with one of them. So that was our luck for the day. That it missed me.

The IceCreamTruck had a big week. It went 200 miles to bring home the new used green soil finisher/tiller on Sunday and then took the calves to town on Tuesday. The mint green retired U. S. Forest Service pickup with the big engine is having a good second life with us.

Every time I write about this I end feeling defensive for raising cattle at all. There are easier, cheaper ways to feed the world. Ways that don’t relate so closely with life and death. When things don’t go well, I wish we would quit. But then we can’t really do that.

I’ve been watching youtubes on tiny homes and they remind me of the trailer we had when we were first married. I remember then wanting to have a couple cows who would each raise a calf each summer. It was something that I wanted. Funny, I got it.

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The basement is wet. Rain does that. There is a puddle in front of the door into the furnace room and the laundry room floor is just wet. I can’t do my house walks when the puddle is there. And my house walks are important. I can’t do my outdoor walks which are harder to do when it’s raining either.

The house needs eave troughs. I’m not sure if roof gutters are in the Amish repertoire or not. I know we talked about them when we put the steel roof on, and didn’t talk about them when they put the siding on. They come equipped with a good hoist that would get them up and down well. Maybe later this year we can do something like that.

The washer and the furnace are on blocks - the furnace for sure. The washer is on a high place in the cellar floor. I think. That is a joke. Not a good one.