Nature's Facelift And A Giveaway

My favorite season of the year is Fall.

Thanks to Megan Z. for this photo taken on the St. Croix River.

I love the Fall colors. I think Fall is God's way of giving the landscape a bit of a facelift before our Minnesota Winter sets in. You see, if you are not from a Winter Wonderland like Minnesota, you may not know that before the snow covers and illuminates the landscape, that said landscape is brown and downright dreary! That's when God pops the Fall color image back into your head and you say, "Yes, but wasn't it a gorgeous Fall!"

Love this tree on the front yard of my childhood home.

I've been doing a bit of facelift work too. Although not nearly as grand as the Fall landscape, I am still proud of some facelift changes at My Barnyard View. Perhaps you noticed the new photo at the header of this blog. Daughter Sara captured this image as we were finishing up hay chopping right before a rain shower that left us with a double rainbow. 

You may have also noticed the new "buttons" on the right side of my posts.

I have added Instagram, and

 my channel on YouTube showing all my videos.

I also recently added a "My Barnyard View" Facebook page. 

(That's another facelift.) 

 I invite you to click on the 

 on the right side of this post, and "like" my newest addition 

to the Barnyard family.

Following My Barnyard View is as easy 

as a click of a button!

and facelifts!

In honor of all the new changes at My Barnyard View, 

let's celebrate with a giveaway! 

 Enter to win the start of your dairy herd. I promise you will not have to clean-up after her, but if you feed her she will help you save for upcoming holiday gifts, or perhaps pay for another addition to your herd!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A BIG Lunch Bag

Every so often I get this crazy notion to fill my freezer with make-ahead meals. Have you ever had this thought? Just imagine coming home from a hectic day, reaching into the freezer and a short time later presenting your family with a hearty meal. This idea is still just in my head...not my freezer, but this week we finished make-ahead hearty meals for our cows.

This week we finished filling their lunch bags with silage.  

 Corn silage is made by chopping the entire corn plant into small pieces using a machine called a forage harvester, which is pulled by a tractor. A wagon with tall sides is pulled behind the forage harvester to catch the chopped corn. 

 The wagons are then taken to the bunker where they are unloaded and the silage is tightly packed inside to avoid spoilage, and then the bunker is covered with plastic. Our bunkers are large, but not large enough to store all the silage we need for our animals, so we fill lunch bags too.

These plastic bags are 8 feet high and 150 feet long. They do the same job as our bunker- keep our cows feed fresh and safe.

The field may be bare, but our "cupboards" sure aren't. The silage in our bunker and bags will feed our cows until next fall. You can see how we mix the silage with additional feed by reading 120 Hungry Mouths To Feed.

V Should Be For Victory

V is for "Victory."

V is also for "Vikings Victory."

But this week we will have to settle for V is just for "Vikings."

If you have been following my blog for very long you will already know that I am a HUGE Minnesota Vikings Football fan. So is Farmer John, and so is our son Michael. Daughter Sara...not so much.

Each year for Michael's birthday we cheer on our beloved Vikes at a game that Michael chooses. This year it was verses the Detroit Lions. 

Here's how our day went...

Get up earlier than usual to do chores and milk cows. 

Grab a muffin and some yogurt and head off to the light rail station.

Ride the light rail to the game. 

(This avoids traffic and parking headaches at the stadium).

Me and birthday boy Mike

Farmer John and Sara

Once at the stadium...

Find bathroom, food, and seats...in that order.

Since the Minnesota Vikings are currently building a new stadium, 

this (and next) seasons games are being held at 

the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium.

It is a beautiful stadium on a 60 degree, slightly breezy October day. A December football game...hmmm...maybe not so much.

Win or lose, we always stay until the end.

Other than my creepy "hat-hair" I love this picture.

So our Vikings couldn't pull out a victory (congrats to Detroit) but you can bet we'll be heading back to celebrate Michael's birthday with the Vikes again next year. Until then...

Heading home to do chores.

The players were leaving the stadium at the same time we were and I snapped this picture of 6 foot 8 inch, 343 pound, tackle, Phil Loadholt. After the game, I guess it's back to reality for all of us, dad's and farmers.

For more of our Minnesota Vikings encounters...

You can read about, and view a video of the day we met the Vikings, here-

F Is For Fuel Up To Play 60

and learn about the Vikings player that came to our farm, here-

 It's Toby Day!

Four in One

Cows have, like seven stomachs, don't they? 

That was the question Pastor Z greeted me with when we shook hands at the end of today's worship service. I don't even remember how the conversation rolled around to that topic, but after giving him an abbreviated answer, I said, "That would make a great blog post!" So Pastor Z this one is for you 

(and anyone else who is curious).

Many people think cows have 4 stomachs, 

but they have one stomach with four compartments.

Parts of a cow’s stomach

• Rumen – This is the first part of the cow’s stomach. It helps break down complex plant products like grass. This is the largest part and holds up to 50 gallons of partially digested food.  Good bacteria in the Rumen helps soften and digest the cow's food and provides protein for the cow. 
• Reticulum – Here the food mixes with the cow’s saliva and produces cud. Cows burp up the cud into their mouths and chew it to help break it down more. Each cud returns to the cow's mouth and is chewed 40-60 times and then swallowed properly.
• Omasum – Here all the water is absorbed out of the food.
• Abomasum – Here is where the food is finally digested, similar to what happens in a human stomach. The food is digested by the cow's stomach juices, and essential nutrients that the cow needs are passed through the bloodstream. The rest is passed through to the intestines and comes out as well... you know...manure. 

So there you have it- 

1 stomach, 4 compartments

Way to go Pastor Z for keeping me on my toes. Next question please...

Speaking of stomachs... How about this to warm you up on a cool Fall day.

Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup

Thanks to Dairy Makes Sense for the recipe.

Cow stomach illustration thanks to Google image search.