Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for? Did you get asked that question yearly as a child in Sunday School or Grade school? As adults we often take many things for granted as we learn from experience that probably all things will turn out well. God's Grace, Mercy and Love are things that come to my mind that we take for granted until reminded of them. We know that eternity with Him is available only through His Son. Personal things I am thankful for are our family of course( there you go-you are taken for granted). God in His wisdom brought Ann and I together and we will celebrate our 40th in August. What Goodness! Our parents led us in the correct paths as children and I thank them for that. Our daughters and families are a great blessing and source of enjoyment. How we are thankful to have them nearby. Dad is getting to celebrate his 85th year this year and I am thankful for his wisdom and leadership over the years. God gave me an occupation where I can be outside and witness His Glory in the beatuiful sunrises and sunsets and the greatness of His creation. I need to run and get to our church for the Thanksgiving dinner there. One year ago God laid it on my heart that we as a congregation should do this for those who might otherwise eat this special dinner alone and I am especially thankful for Ann and the others making this happen. Thank You God for all you have done for us!!!Bob

Hey-Harvest is finished!! Not a great harvest but we do give thanks for what God has given. I got the combine home about 4 PM and am glad to be done. If there are any volunteers to clean the combine and headers, we would be glad to have visitors. That's a job I always dread.
Next item is to get the cow herd ready for winter. I actually have'nt been to the ranch for 12 days and plan to go tomorrow. We need to preg check, vaccinate and de worm the cows and we will bring some here for about 60 days to graze corn stalks and other crop residues.
Ann is busy making bears and subbing until Christmas break other than grandma time with the Hutch bunch next week. Forecast is for lite snow this week-I guess it's time but snow is not my favorite thing.
The wind farm towers 6 south is beginning to go up and it's interesting to watch the huge crane lift the pieces up. We can actually see the crane from here and the towers as they rise. There will be 33 chargers and the towers will be something like 300' tall and the blade will clear the ground by 115'. The south horizion is changing. Bob

what's up in the coming week and we have been blessed with rain

After being so dry for so long we have had some really abundant moisture in the last 10 days-about 3.90" here and over 6" on the ranch. It's somewhat soggy over there. Lots of wind (hard wind-out of electricity for 6 or 7 hours-blew some lines down somewhere) and a little bit of that four letter word stuff-snow. The next week is shaping up to be busy if we can get some harvesting going. we had a freeze Friday morning (ice) so the milo should get ready to harvest now. we have 2 more loads of calves coming Tuesday and that will fill us up. We need to move some cows off of leased grass as the grazing season leases expire Nov 1 and it's time to think of preg checking cows and vaccinating and worming them. Anybody have the next week off??
We are open to thoughts as to what the economy is planning for us ordinary people and also how the election will end up. I've been teasing Ann that her cats are even going to vote Democrat-you can imaging what kind of response that got!!
We have our care group from church coming tomorrow evening and we really look forward to gettting together and sharing and visiting about our families and what's going on with God working in our lives. Our pastor is preaching through Romans and I think our discussion will be along those lines.
How about the Sooners and Cats this afternoon? Just about enough points. Leoti won one game this fall with a score of 6-2 and some thought it was a really boring game.
We pray that you all have a good week next week and that you give God thanks for how he has blessed you. Bob and Ann
p.s. Ann has been busy mass producing teddy bears this week-I think she has 20 to make for a lady in Leoti.

Another inch!!! We're thankful it's not snow with temps in the low 40's. Our hurricane cattle from the deep Mississippi and Louisiana probably are thinking that Ike may have been better.

How about that?? Our rain gauge dumped out a total of 1.25" this morning. what a blessing!
We had very hard wind all day Friday,Saturday and Sunday with rain starting about 2Pm Sun and then more during the late evening. Ann is subbing today and we are catching up on some odd jobs. Rained hard enough during the night that the roads are firm. According to weatherbug we should have had about 3" on the ranch. Hope it didn't wash things-we'll go tomorrow to check and work on some things over there.

It's Fall

Fall must certainly be here-as are the millipedes. Every fall our family room is invaded by millipedes. At precisely 9 PM Ann' s laminate floor comes to life with the herd. It's kind of funny because they're right on time and you don't notice them until you look down and the floor is moving. They are dark red and about 2" long and 1/8" diameter. Spraying around the house with Tiempo helps until it showers or rains and then here they come.
Had a call from one of the NeW Orleans songwriters that we have fed for in the past and he asked for all of our available pen space. First arrivals are in the morning. It's great to have the business but his cattle are usually difficult to care for and keep healthy. He buys what he thinks are bargain cattle and they can be really stale when they get here. We'll do our best and that will keep me pretty busy for awhile. He hinted he wants to keep us full for a length of time-we'll see. This particular writer is Boyd Robert' (Rowbear)(cajun deluxe). He and some others come every fall to Scott City and hunt and then put on a concert. They are good friends of a neighboring feedlot that we do business with-last fall they hunted here and did fair. Rivers Rutherford is the big name among the bunch and is a really nice gentlemen and down to earth.
Tried corn again today-too wet-milo's really needs a freeze to be ready. Ann substituted today at the grade school-lots of sickness I guess.

It's been a couple weeks since our last update but things keep moving along in our yearly cycle of things. We have harvested some corn and are waiting for more to dry enough to bin. It's been extremely dry the last month. .56" moisture in September. Most of the wheat is drilled and up and awaiting the blessing of a soaking rain. the feedlot pen renovation is mostly complete for this time and we have the feedlot about 40% full. Dust has been a real problem the last couple of weeks. Ann has been busy subbing and volunteering and helping me.
We just returned home from a weekend in Hutch and got to watch Aubrey march in the Buhler Frolic Days parade,Luke play a rec league football game in Buhler, enjoy worshipping Sunday morning with the Bernings and absorbing a message about integrity and then Jackson played a flag football game in the afternoon and then we headed home..so it was a worthwhile trip.
To share a concern-with the free fall of the stock market the commodity markets have fallowed suit so we are looking at much lower prices for our outputs while our inputs (fertilizer, seed,chemicals,fuel,repairs,etc.) have reached new highs this falls-we would ask for your prayers for this situation be corrected. We know that without a doubt God has a plan for each of us and he has blessed us mightly with a great and caring family and a fantastic life.