HE'S HAPPY!!!!!!!

Note* baby calf pictures just added

I've been meaning to write for a few days to share some WONDERFUL news, but first we got the flue here and then, today, my computer has been out of commission. Seeing now that Andrew's repair job has been successful and hearing that my family is downstairs in the midst of a Foosball tournament (I just woke up from my nap), I decided to take this time to fill you in on our updates and share this news which is a true answer to prayer.

First of all, we had another blizzard. So far that's 2 for this year. I recall last Winter counting up to a dozen, but then I quit counting as it was too depressing. A blizzard, I recall reading from Webster's last Winter, is when you have heavy snow with very strong winds for at least 4 hours. We're VERY thankful for the 9030s as they can make mountains out of 2 foot deep snow everywhere in record time.

The evergreens are beautiful when they're packed full of snow. You can see that our deck snowbank is now almost half way up the doors.
Well, the weather outside is frightful but inside it's so delightful. This is Clara and I together in the milking parlor. I sit on an upside-down 5 gallon pail beside her and do her sessions. A friend asked me the other day why I would waste time doing sessions on a cow when there are so many sick people in the world. "Well," I said, "while I'm waiting for her milk to empty out, I'm not doing anything else anyway." There's another thing too--Clara lets me work on her and she actually gets grumpy if I skip too many days. :) Right now I'm behind with posting her session reports but I do try to give her a session every 2 or 3 days. One of my goals is to have the oldest cow in the world some day. As I fill her life with all sorts of love (Including BodyTalk sessions), I don't see why she doesn't have a fighting chance. :) Isn't my Brown Swiss absolutely beautiful?

This is a closeup of the snow on Clara's back. I can see why she has to be balanced often to Winter.

Cora had a surprise addition to her family this week. Robert went out to feed one 20-degrees- below-zero morning and came back to the milk room with news that one of Cora's cows had calved. We rushed through the rest of chores and headed up to the milk room. The little bull calf was pretty cold. Here I am giving him a BT session while Cora rubbed him vigorously.

We rolled him over so that she could rub the other side too. I worked on the feet and we pulled both heaters as close as possible to the little fellow. All of our efforts paid off when, later in the day, Robert and Cora took him down to the cattle maternity ward in the other section of the goat barn. Mama and baby took to each other like hungry boys take to food and it was a successful match--YIPEE!!! Now Cora has 3 cow-calf pairs in the barn so it is so much fun to watch the babies romping in the straw as we milk the goats. :)

We had a surprise visit from our Keister friends last week. As always, Sarah is a wealth of information as she reads more than anybody that I know. This visit she got us thinking about building a cider press. The speed at which you can process apples has great appeal to me as we didn't get all of our apples put up this year. I never mind giving a few apples to the goats, but they'd be just as happy with the pulp left over from the press. If I can get my dad's apple shoots grafted on to our baby crab apple trees this Spring like I'd like to, we'll need a press even more. Here Sarah and I are pondering God only knows what. :)
And now for my big news. I called my dad on Thursday to see how he's doing. We visited a little bit about the food in his new home and the activities that they do together. I asked him how he's doing and he said, "Pretty good." Then out of the blue he said, "I am so happy that I am in here--at least for the Winter." PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't drag it out of him--he offered this opinion all on his own. HE'S ACTUALLY HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh for joy!!!! I'm thanking all of you who have prayed for his transition to his new home. May the Lord bless you all! Here's a picture of their kitchen in the assisted living facility from the day that we moved him in there.

Well, it looks as though if I want to pop the corn for Sabbath Night at the Movies, I'd best cut this off. You KNOW how much I love popping popcorn. How about if you come over and join us? Who could resist freshly popped corn and a Bonanza re-run? You're all welcome!!!

Waiting for the first kernel to pop,

Dawn