the Dairy Tour

This morning before the tour at the Dairy we went to an Amish Bakery. We had real tasty rolls and donuts and there were lots of baking items and foods in bulk pkgs.

the back of the Amish Bakery. then we drove about 25 miles to the huge Dairy farm, owned by the University of Iowa

In the heart of northeast Iowa's dairy country, the Dairy Center sits on a hilltop just outside of Calmar, Iowa. The Dairy Center and Dairy Foundation work to bring together education, demonstration and research to foster the growth and prosperity of families who make dairy farming their way of life.

The Dairy Center is operated by the Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation, a non-profit, grassroots organization formed to prepare young men and women to operate dairy farms, provide ongoing education for existing dairy farmers and serve as a public educational facility. The partnership with Northeast Iowa Community College allows students enrolled in agriculture programs to experience hands-on curriculum by working with the dairy herd.

The Dairy Center site includes an educational facility with classrooms and labs, a milking parlor, NEW robotic milking system, freestall barn and calf barn.

Here is a picture of the barn the cows come into to be milked, there's 8 milking stations on each side, in this part of the building

Here's a picture of the automated milking parlor...the cows come in and go out at will, they get a treat while their in so some of them just keep coming in over and over, but the computerized machines know when they were milked last and they can only give milk every 4 hours. the teats  or udders  are found by a lazer and when they are in correct position they start milking.

All the cows in this huge building eat this silage freely and can walk around any where in the building they want and there's soft sand where they lay down on.

there is another big building that house the Mother's to be...this calf is just a few hours old.

After the tour we got to make our own icecream!!! We put 2 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla in a small plastic bag, sealed it with duct tape to make sure it didn't leak, and put it in a large coffee can with rock salt and ice. then we rolled it back and forth on the table and in 10 min. we had icecream!!

fun at the Campout

We are still enjoying the cool weather here at Clermont. Today was in the upper 70's I think, and we usually run our little heater in the mornings for a little while.

This morning quite a few of us were going to Horsefalls and then a huge quilt shop in Monona. But my knee has been giving me fits so we did our laundry and later I went to Monona by myself. The quilt shop was downtown and I met up with a carload from the campout. But my knee was hurting so bad I just browsed for awhile and decided to leave, I got turned around as to how to get back to the highway that I came in on, and stopped and asked a guy...he said just go straight ahead to the stop sign then left, which I was headed that way anyway thinking that was the right street to take...then He laughed and said "Oh, you Texans"!

This picture and the next two were taken at Maggies diner, yesterday.

Norman Gibbs t-shirt  

This morning ready to head  out for more shopping.

We are eating way too good!

K & K Gardens

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Marquette trip

We gathered around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday and went to Marquette site seeing and shopping.

We had 3 carloads and then some of the guys met us at Maggies Diner for lunch, 4 of us went to The casino later  and some stopped in Elkador for more shopping
Marquette has many antique shops, wine store, the flowers on the street were lovely

Clermont Monday

This morning Gary and Jan Philipp came in. We ate up at the bar for lunch, delicious hamburgers. there were 14 or so of us and other people came in and the only cook and bartender was getting bogged down, so Jo Solberg got up and waited on people!!! We were about ready to go when 4 more of our group came in. We had a little shower and are to get some showers this week but not to be anything severe, just much needed rain on and off for a couple days....

 Mary Lou took this picture and titled it "barflies" lol
Here's Jo "the waitress"

Mary Lou took this picture this morning, "Even the dogs enjoying the campout"

News

We are in Clermont and we do have internet....We read on facebook that Jack Bardon passed away. He was our former park Manager. So young...

When we were camping at Swan Lake in Carroll, we drove through the town of Glidden, which is where Grace Thornton lives.We saw a flyer somewhere that Glidden was having fun days. Lots of activities, and one of the events was a biscuits and gravy feed sat. morning. so we decided to attend. We were in the park in town and all of these tractors starting arriving and parking side by side all around 2 sides of the park, close to 100 of them. They were old tractors, about 8:30 all the tractor drivers headed for their tractors and they went on a big tractor ride all around the countryside.I guess it lasted a couple hours.We were just leaving town when a fire truck blocked the highway and we had to sit and wait while these 100 tractors drove through the intersection! It was quite a site!

We arrived at Clermont Sunday about 2:00p.m. or so. Quite a few folks came in just before us and after us, John and Irene Quail grilled hotdogs and chili sauce for all of us and we brought some sides.

I had a couple more pictures but they don't want to load for some reason so I will put them in later
John and Marge Whited are here! They bought a new rig, a mini motor home!

Vacation time

We stayed in Waco last Friday night, it was hot! We were out to Lake Waco at a Corp of Engineers park, then Saturday night we camped at a wonderful park near Ottawa, Ks.The park is called Homewood R.V. park, very nice there, still hot weather, when we got to the Iowa border...oh what a relief, cool breeze! Highs of 80's low of 60's, so nice!We continued on to Carroll Iowa to Swan Lake State Park, we have stayed here many times we spent 4 night here so far and will leave Sunday for the campout.
A few pictures to share...

At Homewood R.V. Park

We took these Deer pictures yesterday at Swan Lake . The camp host says there are lots of deer , 2 Does with twins and a Doe with triplets, there is a patch of corn planted just for the Deer, they are usually spotted near the road every morning early.

My home town is just 30 miles East of Carroll, IA, ...Jefferson, IA. Over the past few years this town has been growing! A lot of new businesses and they are getting a Casino, next year, it should be operating when we come back.
Jefferson is a very clean town, lovely downtown with a court house in the middle of the square and a bell tower, the tower is 17 stories tall and the chimes every 1/2 hour and chimes full songs each hour, just beautiful.


I talked to Marge Rexroad this morning. Very quiet in the park

Ron and Rita Sutherland provided donuts this morning, There was a card passed around for folks to sign for Bill and Velda Lee Clement's 60th wedding Anniversary, which is coming up soon.

More later...