Hay and Beans

Posted on September 21, 2015 by farm2011

Hay and Beans – Sounds kinda like a soup or something doesn’t it? Well it’s the furthest thing from it! We’ve had trouble figuring out the weather and when to cut and bale the last crop of hay. It needs to be done before the beans gets harvested. With the weather looking a lot like this lately20150920_183859

that usually means trouble. But we haven’t had much rain it’s just been cloudy and humid. So finally the hay got cut and tonight Daryl had got it raked up.IMG_3410

Hopefully we’ll be able to get it baled tomorrow night. When I picked him up after it the hay was raked, we spent some time getting the auger all lined up on the small bin on the farm that we work. IMG_3408So with the soybeans getting close, hopefully we can get the hay baled tomorrow after work!IMG_3411

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The Weekend is here!

Posted on September 20, 2015 by farm2011

The weekend is finally here and what a great time we all had! It was my nephews wedding and the weather was just perfect for an outside wedding ceremony. With a bunch of the family around  the day really was a lot of fun! And because the celebration was held in a town about 2 hours away, and the hay wasn’t fit yet, so Daryl and I decided to spend the night. That meant the next day we had a ‘free’ day and had to decide on what we should do with it.

First things first. We went out for brunch in a restaurant that we haven’t eaten at before and then off to the National Dairy Cattle Congress for the afternoon. Now if you haven’t been to this event in Waterloo,Iowa I would strongly suggest it. It’s much smaller than the Iowa State Fair, but it’s also a place where you’ll see a couple of kids being able to run off together and no one worries that they’ll get lost. This celebration started in 1910 and continues to draw in thousands of people each year. We haven’t been there for many years and it just worked out well that we’d be able to stop in for a couple of hours today. One of the last times that we were here I had gotten hypnotized and well let’s just say that there was a dancing contest that involved the people on stage and the audience and I guess I won. Yea, we were going to stay clear of that entertainment this time!! But we did see a ventriloquist 20150920_123441and an educational Monarch display. And of course we spent some time in the cattle barn and just couldn’t get over how big this one dairy cow was.

This is a huge dairy cow!

This is a huge dairy cow!

There was tons of rides to go on 20150920_130253and there was two things that I absolutely loved. The first one was this bear act. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a bear act before and it was pretty cool! When it started, the announcer said that these are real bears with real fur. And when she said that I thought to myself well I sure hope so! But honestly as the show was going on I had to remind myself that these were real bears! The bears rode bicycles 20150920_120635went across the stage doing hand stands, played basketball, and then rolled themselves around the cage on a huge ball. 20150920_121704Pretty darn impressive if you ask me!

The second thing that was cool was the Llamas. They were awesome and I’m thinking that having a couple of these around the farm would be so much fun! We couldn’t help but notice this one llama that was stealing food from a bucket outside his fence. There wasn’t anyone around to stop him, so I guess it was open game for him!20150920_113625 They were having a contest when we were there and I’ve never seen so many llamas in my life. They were all staged outside the ring and in a bunch of the barns outside.

The barns were full with llamas and we just got there in time for a contest

The barns were full with llamas and we just got there in time for a contest

When one was getting pretty close to me I have to be honest and I got a little nervous. But then I realized that the person showing this llama was about 6 years old. 20150920_113058Yea, if a 6 year old isn’t scared, I better get a grip on myself. So here is my picture of the day – this cute and adorable llama taken at the National Dairy Cattle Congress.20150920_113811

Posted in Picture of the day, Places to visit | 2 Comments

Scaredy Cat

Posted on September 18, 2015 by farm2011

Have you even seen a the pictures that they use during Halloween when they show a cat that’s scared? Well I never really knew that cats actually arched their backs and looked like that until tonight.

After a long overdue trip to the chiropractor,I came home to find the two little kitties on the porch AND the dogs were out. I thought to myself that this isn’t a good thing. And those dogs will think that they are play toys, and well you probably would know the outcome of that if that happened right?  So I hurried up to the house and when the dogs came with me I saw that the kitties were trying to act tough. The one thing that I didn’t notice at the time was that the calico kitty looked exactly like how the Halloween cats look. And check out her partner in crime behind her – she looks absolutely terrified! 20150918_173840

After making a wedding card for my nephews wedding tomorrow DSCN8277guess what I did with the rest of my night? Does this give you a better hint?DSCN8275

Posted in Cards, Farm animals, Gardening | 1 Comment

A Cold front is movin’ in

Posted on September 17, 2015 by farm2011

You guys are awesome in submitting suggestions for names for my soap business and keep them coming in! I LOVE them all!

Outside stuff around the farm in kind of on hold with a cold front moving in. You know before I got married when I heard a “cold front movin’ in” I would think well that’s just great! Now I’ve got to find a coat to wear if I go outside and I probably will be stuck in the house anyway! But now that I’m married to a farmer, when you hear those words it means, it’s going to rain so let’s hurry up and get the lawn mowed, should we cut the hay today or do we wait?, how is the garden looking should you pick the tomatoes so they don’t drop off the vines?, you know.. stuff like that.

So a cold front moved in and it rained today about a  1/2 inch. Daryl hurried up last night and mowed the lawn 🙂  and no surprise here, we had the discussion about cutting hay. It was all planned, Daryl was going to cut it on Wednesday night and rake it on Sunday morning and we were going to bale it on Sunday afternoon. But now? Well I’m not sure anymore. Maybe he’ll cut it on Sunday and we’ll have to bale it next week sometime after work. But the problem is that we have such a short window after work to get it baled before the night dew sets in that I’m thinking that this isn’t such a good plan anymore. Darn cold front!

And the photo of the day? I knew the wind blew down my NEW water can the other day off the water hydrant but after the second day of the dogs not attacking it, I thought that it wouldn’t get demolished and it would be safe.  Now obviously this was against my better judgement, but I guess I wanted to give the dogs the benefit of the doubt. So when Daryl said he yelled at the dogs because they were running around the yard with the water can hanging out of their mouth, I knew when I found it that it wasn’t going to be good. Yea, that was a pretty accurate call on my side. DSCN8273

 

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Mystery Photo 9-16-15

Posted on September 16, 2015 by farm2011

OK kids here we go again.

I am feeling so confident that you can not guess what this is, that I will be sending a box of soap to the first person who guesses correctly. (are you seeing a pattern on how I’m trying to get rid of my soap?)

What is this?
DSCN8271

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | 7 Comments

My tomato concoction

Posted on September 15, 2015 by farm2011

Now our kitchen usually smells like lilac or wildflowers because of my soap habit,  but tonight it smells mostly like tomatoes. I had a chance to mix the concoction of tomatoes, cumin, peppers, onions, and other things and guess what? It tastes pretty good. It’s a salsa recipe that I wanted to try with my roasted tomatoes and even though I had about 1/3 to 1/2 more of the tomatoes than I was supposed to have, so as I was mixing it up well I would just add a little more of the other ingredients than what was called out for.

So I got my Jethro Bodine kettle out DSCN8268and when I put everything in and I was so surprised – no I think that I was shocked how thick it turned out. DSCN8267Now I don’t know if it’s because I had done the roasting thing or what, but who cares! Tomorrow night I’m going to get it into canning jars and start up the next batch. I love canning just about anything and you just can’t beat the sound of the jar lid sealing. Yup, just can’t beat it.

Posted in Gardening | 1 Comment

It’s a CONTEST!

Posted on September 14, 2015 by farm2011

OK everyone have I got a Contest for you! 

I finally decided to put on my big girl pants and take the plunge and see what it takes to make my soap into a business. I’m doing this for two reasons: Number one reason is that I really like making soap and I’m hoping that I’m getting better at it. Number two is that I’m getting one heck of a lot of soap just kind of sitting in boxes in our back parlor and the pile just keeps growing! 

So here is what the Contest is all about: I need a name for my business. Daryl was trying to help me last night when we were at the farm auction, but I’m looking for even more ideas if you have them. 

The names that we have so far are  *Windmill Soaps, *Barking Dog Soap (the dogs WOULDN”T STOP BARKING last night!!), & Hands Down Soap. We talked about names with farm in it,  but there was quite a few on the web already with that in it and also quite a few with milk house in the name. 

So if you have some names that you think would be good for my soap business – don’t be shy and please share them! And if you’re asking yourself ‘just what do I win if it’s a contest?’ Well of course a big box of soap! 🙂 

Posted in Soap | 13 Comments

Sunday – work continues on the combine

Posted on September 13, 2015 by farm2011

I’m not sure how much work it takes to get the combine ready – but Daryl spent pretty much the whole day getting things ready and double checking everything. And with the weather absolutely gorgeous I mean, how can you even think of staying in the house?

That’s why I spent only part of the day doing housework which is such a terrible waste of a good weather weekend and then I was able to get outside to work on getting the tomatoes out of the garden.DSCN8261I wasn’t sure what kind of salsa I was going to make and normally I make a recipe that starts with a premix. But my first batch for this year is going to be made from scratch. I’ve got all my tomatoes cleaned and washed and then into the oven they went with some peppers, onions, and celery. I’m sure hoping that this roasting thing that I’m doing is a good gig or else I’ve got a lot of tomatoes that aren’t going to turn out so well! I’m also hoping that tomorrow night I’ll get the jars and everything else ready and mix up a big Jethro batch 🙂

Say check out my soap. This is the Morning Sunrise soap that I made yesterday and even though I think they might be too small, I sure do like how they smell! DSCN8265

And finally at the end of the day we spent it by heading out to a local auction yard to see what kind of machinery they are selling tomorrow. Now even though this sounds like a boring way to end the weekend – it was kinda fun! Daryl found some big machinery that he was looking at but honestly I found a TON of stuff that he said was the ‘junky’ part of the auction. I guess it’s a good thing that I’m working tomorrow isn’t it!

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Baby Showers, Combines, and Soap

Posted on September 12, 2015 by farm2011

The day was a perfect day for the weather. I mean it was sunny and around 70 degrees. Now I sure would like it to be around 90 degrees, but if it’s sunny – we’ll that’s not a bad day now is it?

The day started out with a baby shower for one of my friends daughters and then back home I went to see how Daryl was doing on the combine. He knew at the end of last year he had some repairs to do on it, and even though I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be that much help fixing it, I could be the runner for him for the parts. But when I got home he already had the parts that he needed and was close to having it fixed again. His arms got pretty scratched up and when I saw the tight spots that he was in fixing it,  I’m surprised his arms didn’t look worse!20150912_140634_resized

20150912_140446_resizedThe night ended up with going to church and then seeing if there was anything going on.The local movies wasn’t something that interested us so it looks like a good night for….. SOAP Making!! Whooo Hooo!!  The soap tonight is called Morning Sunrise and it’s scented with a fragrance that’s called Energy. Which I must say is making our house smell so good!! I’m also trying something new on this soap and I’ve added sugar to the beginning water mixture. Weird right? Well it’s supposed to give more bigger bubbles to the lather. So far so good on how the soap set up and I guess I’ll see how it turned out tomorrow when I take it out of the mold.DSCN8260

 

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Remembering

Posted on September 11, 2015 by farm2011

Seriously sometimes I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but when someone asks me what were you doing on 9-11-01?  Well I can tell you just about every smallest detail of that day. Where I was, who I was talking to, what happened throughout the day… And because the day was such a shock and  if I’m still writing this Blog next year I’ll guessing that I’ll probably write the same thing again next year (maybe also it’s because I couldn’t remember what I wrote 🙂  )

But one of the craziest things is a comment that my sister in law said. She said that the kids in her school class that she teaches wasn’t even born yet when New York was attacked. Now I don’t know how that makes you feel – but holy smokes it makes me feel pretty darn old! But it also makes me think that how people must have felt when they say other major things that had happened – JFK being shot, Pearl Harbor, and even the San Francisco earthquake in 1989. And for me? Well there was a lot to remember about that day, but what hit home the most was that someone that worked in the office with me was trying to get ahold of his daughter and he suspected that she was on the plane that the passengers took down in Pennsylvania. After hours of trying to find out anything – the news was that she was safe and was on another flight. If you’ve ever seen a grown man outwardly sob in front of around 150 people and thanking them for helping to find his daughter – well you probably would know how grateful he was and how sad he was for the others on the flight.

So when Kyle graduated with his Masters Degree from New York State, it was a perfect time to not only go to his ceremonies but also to do some tourist things. The picture of the day is one that Kyle took when we were at the National September 11 Memorial. There are 3000 names inscribed on the walls around the water pool and these are the names who died on the 9-11-01 attacks along with the people who died in February 1993 at the World Trade Center bombing. I’m so grateful that we got to see it and know how lucky we are to be there. Very cool!

Daryl and I at the 9-11 Memorial in New York

Daryl and I at the 9-11 Memorial in New York

 

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