Farm Cats

You wouldn't know it from these photos, but farm cats work very hard. Al surprised a cat on a few occasions concentrating on their catch, mainly at night when he was driving wagons to the yard.

Sun-warmed concrete is a nice place to relax

The friendliest cat was this rough-and-ready tom

Sitting pretty. I managed to pick her up -- once.

Looks like there will be more kittens soon.  Unfortunately, late kittens don't have a very good chance to survive.

Lengua

¿Hablas español?

I did not expect to find so many shots with this feature!  Each of these was a accidental capture.

Instead of a pocket for tissues, God gave cows tongues.

Ms. Thomason, I'm Ready for my Closeup!

Remember my Redheads post? (It wasn't that long ago -- just scroll down if you missed it) Well, I have LOTS of photos from that evening with my camera, and a few 'themes' were visible when I edited, so I thought I'd do a few fun posts.

Alternate title for this post:  Head to Toe
(though I missed a toe shot -- perhaps too 'messy')

First Cemetery Visit

This morning Al and I made a visit to the cemetery. It is the first time we have been there since Mom died. Our time in Minnesota this Fall is between the one-year anniversaries of their deaths.

As expected, there were soft-voiced remembrances and tears.

I placed my tribute. Mom taught me as a child to knit, and after her death I took a refresher class. I thought it only fitting to knit something for her. Mom's favorite author was Debbie Macomber, who has a yarn shop in Port Orchard, Washington. I visited the store in the spring and purchased some yarn for this project. And I designed something that says a lot about my feelings for my parents, and what I believe they felt for each other.

The yarn is a pale blue, both Mom and Dad's favorite color, and was their wedding color. The heart is a symbol of love. I made the hearts puffy, or FULL -- their love never ran out. There is a cord between the hearts, reaching for the other, the 'tie that binds'. And bows are the shape of infinity. They were married for over 61 years on earth and now goes on forever.

There is a gentle mound where they lie. I am glad to see their markers are SO close together. But it does make it seem my sister Gwen is so far away.

Dad's Veteran Star

Where have all the Costs gone?

Perhaps you are one of the readers who come to this blog primary for the detailed tracking of costs we have published over the years: http://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com/search/label/Costs

If so, you likely have noted that I have not published updates for a while.   And I am here today to explain why.

In short: last year we took a break in Minnesota; hence the postings listed 'Cost to Not Cruise' during 2014.   I had been looking forward to resuming our true Cost to Cruise blog posts this year - but again 2015 turns out to be an odd year.

See, I try to 'filter out' things which are not really related to costs associated with cruising.  Example, when I take business trips I did not include Airfare nor hotel, but do include moorage costs while I was away.  I had a set of 'rules' for these adjustments - but 2015 is a bit complex and I felt things were getting out of hand.  We had our trip to the BVI.  Then there was a family trip in the spring.  We are right now taking another trip to Minnesota to help out with harvest.  And we have three more trips planned after that.

So many exceptions, oh so many adjustments.  Things just seemed way too artificial and manipulated. So we made the decision to suspend the Costs posts for 2015 - and I was lazy in posting an explanation - until now.

But never fear.  2016 is looking to be a much more 'normal' pure cruising year and we intend to restart the costs posts come January 2016.

A Break

Dean, Elizabeth and I took a break from harvest and chores to attend the football game last night. The Windom team won! And Ethan got in on a few plays in the first half too. Wins have been a little rare for this team so it was really appreciated, even though we felt bad (a little) that it was the other team's Homecoming.

A year ago they were the same height. It looks like Ethan is still a growing boy!

Al had stayed home to run the combine and fill the trailers to take to town first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, he had a 'break' too. He called Dean on our way to the game to say that a belt had broken on the combine. Fortunately we were driving by a John Deere shop on the way, and even though it was 7PM, the door was open. The parts man was able to assist quickly and we made it to the game in time to hear the home team cheering a touchdown.

Al then had time to research online how to install the new belt on the combine. He's still working on it as I write.

Redheads!

We are here to help with 'the harvest', but this IS a dairy farm. It's all to feed the girls.

The herd is mainly Holsteins, but everyone knows redheads get more attention.

My favorite picture of the bunch

'Cheese!'

No, they aren't segregated, even though this picture makes it look like it.

A pretty auburn. Elizabeth says this is the 'miracle calf', all grown up.

Cows are quite curious creatures, but this one is a bit shy. Peek-a-boo!

I love this one's wild hairdo! She is my nephew's cow he took to the fair last year in his last year of 4-H showing. Her mama is #1712 above -- the one saying 'cheese'.

Freckles!

And, the chickens ARE all redheads!