Day 24: Fantastic Machines

It’s the reason why G takes off running down the sidewalk every day to the white hoop building.  It’s the reason why we say things such as “It’s getting dark outside. Tractor needs to go to sleep.”

 

In the next farm kid book, Fantastic Farm Machines, author Cris Peterson labels each set of pages with a “special machine.” On the Corn Planter the author describes how hybrid seed corn goes into the ground. 

 

“Each tiny kernel, or seed, travels through a maze of metal disks and tubes until it drops into the ground.  A packing wheel then covers the seed with dirt

 

In-action farm photographs taken by David R. Lundquist capture men, women and children chopping hay, sitting inside tractor wheels and holding ears of corn. 

Pages 3 and 4 feature a G favorite.  The one thing we can’t stop talking about. 

“Track-ter.”  “Track-tee.” 

Really if you think about it: riding in a 13-ton machine of steel is not something every little boy can note on his resume (or….um…. his coloring book.) 

What are you reading tonight? 

Lauren  

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful
Day 5: One Fast Grower
Day 6: Farmer Seuss
Day 7: Just One Cookie?
Day 8: Frowns Turn into Smiles
Day 9: BOO-HA
Day 10: Big Red Barn
Day 11: Magic with Vegetables
Day 12: Call to Action
Day 13: BOOM
Day 14: Ponies and Cowboys
Day 15: Value to our Trees
Day 16: Tractor Time
Day 17: Wishing for a Washing
Day 18: United Tweets
Day 19: Popcorn Pops
Day 20: Busy Places
Day 21: Peas Please
Day 22: Thankful
Day 23: Splashes of Ink

Our blogging host Holly Spangler writes “30 Days on a Prairie Farm” this month on her blog: My Generation.

Day 23: Splashes of Ink

Our next farm kid story author describes a great big cow in creative words that kids can relate to.

 “Her angular body is covered with huge black spots that look like splashes of ink.”

Yup, that’s exactly what a Holstein looks like.

 

 

In Clarabelle: Making Milk and So Much More, author Cris Peterson goes on to say, “Clarabelle is big and bony. She weights nearly fifteen hundred pounds – almost as much as a soccer team of second-graders with the coaches thrown in for good measure – and she’s almost as tall as Josh and Sam’s dad.”

 

 

And who didn’t just picture a group of knee-socked kiddos and their clipboard-holding coaches….and make the comparison to a gigantic cow?   Really, this author brings a sense of fun into her descriptions. 

 

 

Photographer David R. Lundquist captures the newness of a newborn calf including the wrinkly, wet fur and its mother’s protectiveness.   I enjoy the close-up photos of the things dairy cattle eat:   hay, corn, cottonseed, corn silage.

Any teachers out there?   If you enjoy this book and live in a 300-mile radius of northwest Indiana… then a visit to Fair Oaks Farms might be an idea for you.   I’d like to bring G someday and visit this family-owned dairy farm that includes a cheese factory and birthing barn. 

Any dairy (or hog) folks out there?  I think you would enjoy the My Cows and Pigs blog.  Be sure to check out the Pollards “30 Days of What’s That?” series here.  Their day 14 post that describes pivot gates makes me think about… that one Friends episode.  

Yes mixing agriculture and cultural references right here.

What’s your favorite cow book?

Lauren

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful
Day 5: One Fast Grower
Day 6: Farmer Seuss
Day 7: Just One Cookie?
Day 8: Frowns Turn into Smiles
Day 9: BOO-HA
Day 10: Big Red Barn
Day 11: Magic with Vegetables
Day 12: Call to Action
Day 13: BOOM
Day 14: Ponies and Cowboys
Day 15: Value to our Trees
Day 16: Tractor Time
Day 17: Wishing for a Washing
Day 18: United Tweets
Day 19: Popcorn Pops
Day 20: Busy Places
Day 21: Peas Please
Day 22: Thankful

Our blogging host Holly Spangler writes “30 Days on a Prairie Farm” this month on her blog: My Generation.

Day 2: Perfect Pizza

Living here in the country we drive 40 miles roundtrip to visit the nearest pizzeria.  And we have a thing for pizza. 

“Pea-za. PEA-ZA,” my hungry G says. 

Needless to say I am perfecting my pizza-making skills. Each pizza pie doesn’t turn out the same.  Maybe since I can’t remember how many cups of flour I plop into the mixer for the dough.  Or I might sprinkle a dump-truck full of red pepper into the tomato sauce. Opps again.

I do get one thing right, every time.  At least 3 cups of mozzarella cheese cover the sausage, green pepper and pepperoni. 

Like the next farm story says: “pizza isn’t pizza without cheese.”

In Cris Peterson’s book Extra Cheese, Please: Mozzarella’s Journey from Cow to Pizza step by step photographs follow cheese making from the udder to the factory.  And those photographs show crisp and well-lit scenes, even inside a cheese factory. Photographer Alvis Upitis documents how the milkman pulls samples of milk before he hauls and how the cheesemaker separates the curds from the whey.

Author Peterson has a knack for bringing the numbers to life.

“Annabelle is quite a cow.  In one year she produces 40,000 glasses of milk, enough to make cheese for 1,800 pizzas.  If your family ate one pizza a day, it would take you nearly five years to eat that many pizzas.”

One pizza a day, for 5 years?  I know a family up for the challenge.  But don’t expect me to turn the oven on every night.  A road trip to the local DiMaggios Pizza will be a must. 

What do you like on your pizza?

Lauren

My Library List:

Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 4:
And so on

Our blogging host Holly Spangler writes  “30 Days on a Prairie Farm” this month on her blog: My Generation. 

It’s a group party, of sorts!  Please join fellow bloggers as they tell their agricultural stories:

Beyer Beware: 30 Days, 30 Things You Never Knew About Food
Black Ink: Beef's a Trip - 30 Days from Gate to Plate
Confessions of a Farm Wife: Life on our Farm
Go Beyond the Barn: 30 Days of Farm Life Blessings
Kelly McCormick Photography: 30 Days of Thankfulness
Le Jardin da ma Vie: 30 Reasons Why I Love Being a Farmer's Wife
Pinke Post: 30 Days of a North Dakota November
Rural Route 2: 30 Days of the Not-So-Glamorous Life of This Farm Wife