Calving season has started.

Yesterday our first cow went into labor. This morning she had a still born calf. (very sad) Mike knew this cow was probably going to have twins from the size she was. He watched her all day and nothing else happened. Around 3 pm he took the chain and tractor and pulled the other calf. It was also still born. (very sad again). Just to let you know we have had several sets of twins before. Some are healthy and nurse ok, others die, one might nurse ok and the other has to be bottle fed. As far as I know there is no rhyme or reason for it.

This is not a very good way to start out the calf crop for the year. Let's pray that it gets better or the finances will be low.

We're also hoping that all our cows will have babies because our good young red bull got hit by lightning last year. That left only our older black bull to do the job.

Spring work has begun.

"Put the lime in the coconut and shake it all up" This isn't the type of lime Mike put on his fields. Last week he put the powdered lime on 300 of the 1000 acres he farms. The reason you have to put lime on the ground is so it nuetralizes the ground. Plants take lime out of the ground and after so many years there is none left. The acid in the ground will burn the plant and it will not grow. (The lime is similar to taking tums for indigestion)

That is why you need to apply lime every 3 years. The cost this year is $12.50 per ton and you need to apply 3 ton per acre. $37.50 per acre. The 300 acres cost $11,250. That is why Mike does only 300 acres each year. Next year he will do a different 300 + acres and the following year the other 300+ acres and then it will be time to start all over again.

Birthday Surprise.

Another year older... more gray hairs, added inches and memory loss but hey it's still a great sunny day. At least I'm able to write this.

Today at work the lady from our local grocery store brought me in a cake. She informed me that my grandson, Mikie, told his mommy "Boagie needs a cake today for her birthday." Seems Tracy didn't think she could bake it, fly and deliver it in the same day so she did the next best thing and called our only grocery store. They do not have a bakery but they do have frozen cakes. They even took the decorator gel (green, my favorite color) and wrote Happy Birthday Boagie on it. I was also told I needed to call the Jones family when I got my cake. I did and they sang Happy Birthday to me. Mikie then told his mommy they needed to come to my house to eat a piece of cake (if it was only that easy.)

An old friend of mine took me to lunch today. When I returned I checked my email and face book and there were so many good wishes from a lot of friends and family. I also have received several cards in the mail and hand deliverd. I guess it's ok to get older when there is such special people in your life. Thank you to everyone for your kindness.