Prancing, Dancing Lily App Review

I was pretty excited to be contacted by Fat Red Couch to receive a free promo copy and review their new app Prancing, Dancing Lily which is based on the children's book by Marsha Diane Arnold. They have versions available from Itunes, Google Play, and the one I chose at the Amazon Kindle Store.

In order to have a good app you must first start with good content. The story is about a dairy cow that doesn't quite fit in with her herd and travels the world to find her dance before she returns to the farm. The app begins by giving you the choice of reading the book to yourself or having some very talented voices read it to you. When the book reads to you the words are highlighted as they are read.


                           

The graphics are delightful and some move, as you can see in the above video, bringing the story to life. Music also punctuates the story and delighted my children. The app also has puzzles of different levels for your child to work.

I liked the way you could easily advance the pages, click on items in the story, as well as the scene selection tab at the top. Ease of use for this app is very kid friendly. My only fault would be that, at least on my Kindle Fire tablet, some of the words on the page would be cut off and you could not see them. I have emailed the makers and they are already submitting updates to take care of these issues. Glad to know they support their product!

One of the most interesting things about it for me as a dairy farmer was finding out that the author grew up on a dairy farm herself. Marsha Diane Arnold not only worked on her father's farm in Kansas, but also was once a Kansas Dairy Princess. I was very glad to see dairy farming shown in a positive light in the app.

All in all, this was a fun app for small kids to read and play with and I would recommend Prancing, Dancing Lily as a fun app for them to have.

Ornithologist on the Farm (or Attack of the Birds!)

The other day we had a "herd of birds" on the farm that flew back and forth from field to field and trees to trees. While it wasn't exactly Hitchcock type mean birds...





..there sure were a lot of them.



This group stayed around the farm for a couple of days and then either dispersed or left altogether.


As far as being a professional bird watcher, I'd say I fall decidedly short. More so along the lines of Mr. Hobbs in this Jimmy Stewart movie.

Blue Skies

Fencing

Nothing soothes a child's problems quicker than a parent's calm voice.  The trust that has been built up over time between them can solve many problems.  Farmers are a lot like parents with a large family of animals.  This morning my soothing call helped some of my calves out of trouble.

The problem probably began over the weekend with the storms that had rolled through.  A large tree fell on the fence and took out about 25' worth of it, but I didn't find that out until later.  What I saw was five of my young heifers standing out in the road wishing they could find a way back in to the field with their friends.  I called them to the gate and they walked right in behind me.  It was too dark to look for any problems with the fence then, and I didn't have any tools with me anyway.

I sent our farm hand out to check the fence for problems and gave him a bucket of feed in case he needed it to lure the calves in if they had wandered out again.  He found the tree, the downed fence, and two calves that would not listen to reason and come back to where they belonged.  So he called me.

I'm the one who feeds these calves everyday.  They know me and my truck.  When I got to the field all the calves were on the far side of it standing next to the two calves on the other side of the fence.  I drove on back there and called for them.  The calves followed me all the way around and up and down the hills until we got to the gate and the lost ones again walked back in with their friends.  I drove over to the feed boxes and fed them some more to thank them for doing what I asked.

It amazes me how some people believe that farmers do not care for their animals.  I know these calves and count them everyday to make sure they are all present.  I bring them feed daily and medicine if they need it.  If I do my part to raise them to be healthy then they will do their part and provide me with a way to earn a living.