We flew home on Monday from Florida.. We are fairly close to the Syracuse Airport but flew from Buffalo about two hours distant. The flights to Florida include a non stop back and a considerable savings per ticket. Mary is originally from Buffalo. Part of our Buffalo routine is to stop and a hot dog stand which is a Buffalo institution located near the airport

Everything was fine when we got back to the farm. It is amazing how quickly the first promises of Spring in April have become early May. The calf born while we were away is excellent.

Tuesday morning we were right back into the swing. We continued to chisel plow our fields. Our hay supply is dwindling nicely so we should just have the right amount to last until the animals are all on pasture.

It's been pretty quiet at the diner. It looks like the swimmers have changed into golfers. The barber is an excellent golfer and needless to say quite competitive.

The good weather continued throughout the week with only one rainy evening. Our oats and grass seeding are all in and packed. When you do a seeding, you always wonder how it's going to look. You worry about whether the grain drill was working correctly or if all the seed was dropping. You get to find out in about ten days to two weeks depending upon the weather.

A friend of mine has an annual consignment auction of farm machinery in conjunction with another friend the auctioneer. Farmers from miles around bring over their surplus goods. It can be anything from an antique tractor part to a chicken coop with lots of other good serviceable equipment thrown in. I sent over a good hay rake that we no longer need.

I stopped at the auction on Saturday for a bit. There was a big crowd and everything was selling well. I decided to bid on a feeder wagon and wound up taking it home. Our hay rake sold well so we just sort of swapped pieces. It's a great rural outing to go to this type of auction. Lots of auctions are because of illness, injury or death with resultant sadness. This one is just fun.

Sunday we went to church then the pancake breakfast at the American Legion. This is a monthly event that we rarely miss. Not only is there lots of camaraderie but also real maple syrup. Both of which are becoming harder to find in modern day America.

There are no days off this time of year as we've got to get the crops planted. When we went up to the barn, Jim looked out into the field and saw a calf nursing with the mother silhouetted against the hill side. It turned out to be a nice bull calf. We went out with the tractor loader to fetch the calf. Jim grabbed him and sat in the bucket with the calf. The mother and Peter the steer accompanied us back to the barn. We got mother and calf all settled in a pen.

I finished plowing and we all had had a late supper of hamburgers from one of our animals. It is nice to know that we have a good reliable supply of our own grass fed beef.Around ten we all went to the Syracuse airport to pick up Eileen who was returning home after finishing her sophomore year at college. It's good to have her home.

I had an early start this morning when I was called to assist at an ATV accident and resultant transport of the victim to the hospital by helicopter. I hope it all turns out okay.

When I got home, it was just daylight. Standing in the barnyard was another new mother and calf. I just picked up the calf and put it into a pen. The mother dutifully followed along with the seemingly ever present Peter the steer. He seems to provide an escort service for new calves sort of like a proud uncle or possibly god father. I got them settled in. I'll check the calf's sex and weigh it later this morning.

He turned out to be a bull and weighed fifty pounds. Today was extremely busy. We got a good sized field disced in preparation for planting soy beans. We went to the farm supply and picked up a hay wagon. One of their customers had switched to a self unloading hay wagon and traded in a bunch of good conventional wagons. We traded our old one for one of them.

When I got back, we started putting in drainage tile in one of our wet fields. This tile had to be installed by digging rather than pulling. A busy and productive day and week.