We had a great day today! 

First, it rained.  We are short on moisture here, and the rain was a very welcomed blessing.  Hay is in short supply from last year's drought, and our hay supply is very tight.  The rain will help the grass grow faster so we can get the cows out on pasture hopefully before we run out of hay.  The rain is also important to those who are waiting to get into the fields to plant, so if you saw a lot of smiles today, they were probably on the faces of farmers.

Second, we had 9 less calves to feed this evening!  We raise most all of our heifer calves (the girls), but we sell the bull calves (the boys).  The only bulls we raise are for breeding, and we buy them from other farmers.  During calving season, we want to move these bull calves out as soon as we can to save time and milk.  However, we do keep them for 3 days minimum to give them a good start for our buyer.  So today, our buyer came. We'll call him "Bob".  Bob is a good friend and neighbor of ours. He has bought our bull calves for many years. Bob raises them as feeder cattle and sells them later on for a profit (at least, that is the goal).  We really appreciate Bob. He comes about twice a week to pick up the calves that we have ready.  We both get a fair price for the calves, and we don't have to load them up (or pay a cattle hauler) to take them to the livestock auction.

Third, a niece of mine happen to go near where we buy our bulk foods, so she picked up my order and dropped it off!  I got a 50lb bag of flour, a 25lb bag of oats, and two 5lb bags of beans.  With our large(r) family it has been very helpful to buy in bulk and have these staples on hand, and most often they come at a better price per unit.  I told her "now, if I have trouble finding time to go to the store, at least we can have oatmeal and chili...lots of it!"

 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Psalms 107:1