"Don't be thinking you can share my food!"

Kitty Dallas came over to visit and wanted some sustenance (food!).

"Let's be moving along here, the food dish is EMPTY!!!" (His head is out of focus because it was in motion showing me the empty food dish.)

When Dallas eats, he places his paws on each side of the dish to effectively ward off anyone who might think that they would share his food!!!

Preparing to seed and seeding millet

Jimmy had planted triticale as a cover crop on the fields where he wanted to ultimately plant millet. Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triticale

On Saturday, the large spray rig came through to spray herbicide to kill the triticale and fertilizer for the ground.

This large spray rig has GPS controls that will stop the sprayers on one or both arms if he is going over an area that it knows was already sprayed.

Today, Jimmy spent much of the day getting the seeder ready to plan millet. He started planting near dusk today.

Note how brown the triticale is in just a couple of days since the spraying on Saturday.

Jimmy's seeder has just about a 9 foot swath compared to the 30 foot swath of the commercial sprayer, so he will make a few more passes on the field than the sprayer.

Homecoming at Olivet Church

Sunday, May 15, was the 146th Memorial Service for Olivet Presbyterian Church. According to the "Brief History of Olivet Church":

This church is shown on the records of the old Hanover Presbytery as New Kent Church which is next to the oldest church in the Presbytery. It was organized in 1766, probably by the Reverend David Rice, pastor of Hanover Church, with twenty-seven members. Services are thought to have been held in a building near the Hanover line.

The church was re-organized in the early 1800's and regular worship was established in the Colonial Church of St. Peter's. The latter had at this time fallen into decay and was repaired and preserved by the Presbyterians. 

In 1856, the site of an early Methodist meeting house named Mt. Olivet was purchased for $50. The present building, costing $1300, was dedicated on the third Sunday in November, 1856.

In 1868, the daughter church, Bethany in Charles City County, was formed by members living in that county.

In 1870, the first annual Memorial Day was observed on the Saturday before the third Sunday in May.

In 1936, the congregation was moved to Providence Forge. The building and cemetery were preserved by the Olivet Historical Society which, in 1945, became The Society for the Preservation of Olivet Church and Cemetery in New Kent County.

We participated in the worship service and "dinner on the grounds".

Olivet Presbyterian Church in New Kent County

Dinner on the grounds

Dinner on the grounds

 Patti grew up in and was a member of Providence Forge Presbyterian Church, so it was nice to be able to participate in this event that was a fond memory from her childhood.

Activities on a beef farm

Friday was veterinarian visit day. He came to determine if the beef cows had "settled" (were pregnant) and also to take care of a couple of other maintenance items with the dairy cows. So all the beef cows were brought up into the "handling system" and one-by-one processed through.

The cattle go up into a corral system over to the right (behind Jimmy) and then he separates them into smaller groups into the area right behind the chute.

Regina controls the gate of the chute - making sure that the cow gets her head through but not her shoulders - it is a carefully timed maneuver to get the cow set just right so the vet can do his inspection. Let's just say it is a manual inspection...

These are the ones that have already been checked.

Once it is all over, the ones who have "settled" are sent out to new pasture which they were very happy about. There were a few not so happy - 3 babies got weaned today so their moms aren't as happy and we're hearing the serenade back and forth, and two of the cows who have had issues with "settling" before weren't pregnant at this point either, so they have also been separated out. They will go to auction in the next week or so.

Jimmy and Dwayne took a load of calves to the feedlot on Thursday, being fed out as their final step before going into the freezer. Some of these are for the pasture raised beef - if you are in the southeastern Virginia area and want DELICIOUS tender beef, check it out!
http://oakgrovefarm08.wix.com/products#!pasture-raised-beef/imyk5

Well, are we welcomed or not?

We got a mixed message from the state of Virginia when we crossed in from North Carolina:

The Virginia Welcome Center was closed...

But there was still a nice welcome sign for us!

And we are certainly well welcomed at the family farm!!!

This couldn't be good...

When there is time on the interstate to put up signs that there is an accident ahead, it probably is not good....

This was about 3 miles before the accident

A lot of people moved over when the signs said "Left Lane Closed Ahead", but some people are more important and just ran right up the left lane.

Coming up to the merge

There was a tractor trailer that had gone off into the median - you can see the back of the trailer in the median. There were two tractors there (the one being towed by the other you can see facing us in the left lane). Then there was a really big heavy duty wrecker about to try to pull the tractor trailer back onto the roadway. I'm pretty sure they were going to have to close the road completely while that was attempted/completed - but we got through before that point.

All of this was in North Carolina a couple of days ago. We are comfortably ensconced on the farm in Virginia.

Jimmy's new "pickup"

One of our neighbors at the farm had gotten a new pickup truck, so Jimmy got a new one too, except his is called a "mower conditioner":

Ain't it a handsome piece of equipment???
Now if it would just stop raining long enough to get it into the field and to get some hay cut!