WW: Five Year Old Attitude

Wordless Wednesday I have some five year old attitude.

I can go into many stories from just this one day, but I'll only subject you to one.

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WW: Goslings

Driving onto the ranch, there's a small walnut orchard to one side of the drive and making my way home from the gym early in the morning I came up on two families of geese who had staked claim in the orchard for their new offspring of adorable little goslings.

I'm not a huge fan of Canadian Geese....they tend to take over anywhere they land, eat all the oats from our planted hay and poop everywhere, in abundance......but this group was too cute.

Babies of any kind always make my day. 

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WW: Post Vegas

This is all that's left post Vegas.....what else does a girl need but high shoes and lashes?

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

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Barn Charmer

Barns are almost my favorite thing to photograph....right behind sunsets and sunrises.  

There is something so charming about barns, irresistible for me to drive by one without taking a photo of it.

Especially when they are set in a beautiful wine country setting, like this one.

The girls and I went barrel tasting a few weeks ago and as we were driving to our next destination, we happened on this beautiful barn with the late afternoon dim sunlight.  I immediately turned my vehicle around to snap this shot with my phone.

Wordless {almost} Wednesday:  Barn Charmer

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!
 
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WW: Frosty Fenceline

Wordless Wednesday....

From toes in the sand last week to frosty fenceline this morning on the way to school drop-off.

Paige noticed right away.....the mile of frosty fence line on the way to school where little spikes of ice completely covered the barbwire fence along the route to the one-room school.

An absolutely beautiful scene.....thankful I had my point-and-shoot with me....with a charged battery.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

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WW: Anticipation

Feeding time at the calf barn is always loud.  As soon as they see a human coming their way in the morning hours or in the afternoon, they anticipate the food they're about to receive and the mooing ensues.

This little girl grabbed a hold of the snap in her attempt at being patient, but dropped it as soon as the alfalfa was placed in the feeding trough.

And then there is peace and quiet.  All content as they munch.....kind of like at my house.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

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WW: Cotton Seed In My Pocket

Wordless Wednesday.

We don't have snow where we live, but we do have cotton seed.....which is almost as fun for play dates...

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WW: Awesome

This is a true Wordless Wednesday post for me.  There's nothing to be said about how beautiful this skyline is, right?! 

I was headed down to San Francisco last Saturday morning and HAD to stop in the church parking lot, down the street from my house just to take this shot.  I'm so glad I did too, because by the time I made my stop at Starbuck's the salmon color had turned to blue and white.

I tend to over use the word "awesome" but in this case, I think it fits.

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday to:
Pinke Post
Project Alicia
Live and Love Out Loud


Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

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WW: Clever Girls

Last week, while the kids were in school, I found myself with a little bit of spare time.  My laundry was caught up, the house was half-way picked up, it was a sunny and beautiful autumn day.  I called Dominic to find out his location on the farm and to ask him if there was anything interesting going on at the moment to snap a few photos of.

He had a job for me. 

I was to drive around the farm to all the locations where the manure spreading had taken place.  This is something that needs to be documented annually.  We need to show, through photos and a written report, how and where we spread the manure that's generated from dairy cows on the farm.

Okay, poop pics are not my favorite, but the drive was fantastic because I was able to see so many of the baby beef calves that had just been born within the last month.

One thing I've learned about beef cows, they see an opportunity and they take it.  An open gate is an open invitation to see if the grass really is greener on the other side.
 
Between me moving them along with the truck and horn and Dominic on foot, we had them all back where they were supposed to be.  We had to be quick though because as soon as I drove through the gate, the mamas tried to sneak back through again. 

Quite clever and sneaky, those beef cows are.

Here's just a handful of pairs.  Always so curious....or maybe hoping hay is in the back of the truck.....they see a truck and they immediately think food is coming.

I just love this time of year.  The grass is just beginning to turn green, especially where the manure was spread and the temperature reached 85 degrees on this day.

And my favorite part of the morning was watching all the baby calves kicking up their heels, running circles around their mamas.

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday to:
Pinke Post
Project Alicia
Live and Love Out Loud


Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

For more farm life posts, visit http://www.TheWifeOfADairyman.blogspot.com

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WW: Spooktacular Treats made with Dairy {recipes}

If your kids are like mine, then Halloween rates right up towards the top of the list when talking holidays.  Why?  For us, it all has to do with the decorating and the ghoulishly ghouls that are spotted everywhere from school to the neighborhood library and of course the candy they collect has a little something to do with it as well. 

When I received recipes for these kid-friendly, spooky and fun confectionery-free treats from the California Milk Advisory Board, I just had to share with you!  All the recipes in the photo are made in 30 minutes or less, and use Real California dairy products.  Food is so much more fun to eat when it looks like this, whether you're a kid or an adult, right?!

I think any of these would be perfect for a Halloween party at school, at home or just as an after school snack!  My kids are gonna love the Spider Web Pizza, the Toasted Ghosts and the Yogurt Ghost Pops for sure.

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The One-Room School

There are nine students attending our district's one-room school house this year.  That's nine students, total, grades K-6th.  Two Kinders, two 1st graders, two 2 nd graders and three 6th graders.  So, what does that mean for my Kindergartner and Second Grader?

With one teacher/principal, one full time aide and one part-time Spanish aide, it means LOTS of one on one attention.   The school is very academic, they work hard and they play hard.  Bryce was reading during the second month of his Kindergarten year and now, so is Paige.  All the kids learn and progress at their own pace, what ever that may be.  They're not forced and they're not held back. 

Similar to home school, but I don't have to do it!

At first I was concerned about Paige being the only girl in the school up through the 5th grade level, but no longer. I actually think she likes being the only little girl....and why not? She get's a whole lot of attention from the boys, even with one of them being her brother.

Now with both kids attending the one-room school, I'm finding by beginning in Kindergarten, they don't know any different with regards to the size of the school and the amount of children. I keep both Bryce and Paige active in many activities outside of school. Paige spends time with her girlfriends, so she's not missing the important girl time where she can dress up in princess outfits and such......although, she could probably talk those boys at school into playing princess with her if she really wanted to.....I'm sure of it.

Confidence is not lacking at all.......amazing what a little sheltering will do.

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday to:
Pinke Post
Project Alicia
Live and Love Out Loud


Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

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WW: Chicken Fried Cube Steak

I grew up in the country on a few acres of land with my parents raising their own beef to feed our family of five and now, with my own family, we do the same.  When we harvest beef, we usually stock up our freezer with either a quarter or a half of the animal for our family of four.  The first time doing this was definitely a learning experience for me because with this amount of beef, comes many different cuts.  Cuts I wasn't really familiar with cooking.  I learned by trial and error with many of the cuts.  Cube steak was one of the cuts I tried a few different ways. 

The first experiment with cube steak was to BBQ it.  It was okay, but I don't recommend it.  Cube steak should be prepared one way, and one way only.

Chicken Fried.

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WW: Ladies Day at Deer Camp

Here in northern California, deer season lasts for six weeks from August to September.  Every weekend during the season, the men and the kids head to Deer Camp to hang out, eat, play cards, many sleep overnight and oh yes, hunt in the morning of course.  It's a multi-generational family tradition in most cases.

I've heard some of the older generation women describe themselves during the six weeks of deer season as being "Weekend Widows".  But in a bit, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.  {The men don't read this blog, so they'll never find out}.  

 \

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WW: Mushroom Ice Cream~My New Love

We just got back from a weekend in the picturesque town of Fort Bragg, CA.  Paige was in a Portuguese parade there and when considering the three hour drive, the curvy road to get there and the fact Paige becomes car sick, we traveled a day early so we could have some down time before she had to walk in the parade.  I'm so glad we did because if not, I wouldn't have discovered my new found love of Mushroom Ice Cream.

Yep, that's right, Mushroom Ice Cream.

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WW: The Farm Fresh Tour Kick-Off

This past weekend I met my friend, Katie in the town of Carmel by the Sea for quite an amazing event  she was overseeing for a client of her firm, Know a California Farmer. Know a California Farmer invited six California food and or mom bloggers to tour a couple of family farms located in the Carmel and Salinas area who were eager to learn more about how our food is grown and how it gets from farm to fork. 

Friday afternoon, I arrived to meet Katie at 4 p.m. in Carmel and after settling in we met the rest of her colleagues at a fun little bar in downtown Carmel, A.W. Shucks Oyster and Cocktail Bar.  Being so close to the ocean and farmlands at the same time, it is a real treat when visiting a restaurant, especially if you're from North Dakota like Katie is.  We enjoyed deliciously fresh prawn cocktail, scrumptious calamari and a delicious artichoke appetizer.

To wash it all down, I enjoyed my first ever Moscow Mule cocktail.  It's made with ginger beer, vodka and fresh lime.  I'll be making these at home for sure, it was so refreshing.

Later in the evening, to kick off the Farm Fresh Tour participant meet-up, we all met at Grasing's Restaurant roof top patio for a gorgeous locally grown, fresh dinner.

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WW: Mamas and brand new baby beef

With the entrance of September comes many things; back to school, autumn weather, harvesting and for us, newborn baby beef calves.  Mid September is about the time when our mama beef cows begin to have their babies. 

We took a drive out the other day to check up on how progress was coming along.

All of our beef cows have been moved down the hill to the flat area to have their babies.  We have only spotted a few babies thus far. 

Here's one.  She was so very curious of the big camera pointed in her direction.

And if you look close, you can see this mama decided to stick her tongue out at the camera.

After the mamas calve, they'll breed with the bulls from October - April (who have been patiently waiting for the return of their mamas), graze, nurse their new born calves, and wait to be moved again in April.

Driving out to check the beef cows and newborn calves is one of my favorite things to do on the ranch, stay tuned for more photos.

Linking Wordless Wednesday to:

Pinke Post
Project Alicia
Live and Love Out Loud

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment, I love to hear from you!. Have a fantastic day!

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WW: Perfectly Portable Parfaits

What a fantastically busy weekend this last weekend of August was for us.  But not too busy to fit in the first episode of The Pioneer Woman's new Food Network show on Saturday morning.  I love that all episondes have been filmed on their Oklahoma beef ranch.  Along with the great recipes Ree shares with us, we also get a peek into what her ranch life is like.  The show inspired me to try something different.

I was to attend a baby shower on Sunday morning and was putting together parfaits to bring along and share.  I used Chobani Vanilla yogurt for the first layer on the bottom of my mason jar.  Second layer was granola, then sliced strawberries and blueberries.

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WW: The Charm of a Barn

I adore barns.  Most especially old barns, they definitely have more character.  On a recent morning trip out to the town of Pt. Reyes Station, we stopped at this old barn.  It was a working dairy barn up until a few years ago and sits at the south end of Tomales Bay, just two blocks from the center of the town.  Today, through the Giacomini Wetlands Restoration, this former dairy ranch has been returned to tidal wetlands and flood plains it once was many years ago and is now owned by the National Park Service. 

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For Wordless Wednesday: Sway

Living in the country, we have our fair share of grass growing; oat grass, rye grass just to name a few.  When I first married Dominic and moved to the farm, living in a newly built house, there wasn't a whole lot of landscaping going on in the yard.  We had a few rose bushes, a few trees and that was about it.  Now, eight years later, there's slightly more landscaping {we take things slow} but one of the things that's remained the same is the oat grass growing on the far side of the driveway.

At first I wanted it gone, mowed down.  But you know what?  It has grown on me.  I like it.  It sways in the wind almost like it's waving with its delicate rustle that can be heard if our windows are open. 

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WW: What Type of Flower?

This Wordless Wednesday post is almost wordless! 

We have these growing in our vegetable garden.  Take a guess at what it might be.

Linking up to Wordless Wednesday at:

Pinke Post
Project Alicia
Live and Love Out Loud

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment, I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

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