Working around the farm – Sunday

Posted on September 17, 2017 by farm2011

Even though it was Sunday, it was a good day to work around the farm and to get a couple of things done. 

Daryl spent a good part of the day getting the combine all cleaned up for the fall harvest and I don’t think it was such a good move on the peacocks to hang out on top the combine after Daryl walked away. It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t mess it up, but I’m guessing that they left their mark before they headed to the shed for the night. 

We also spent some time today looking for a new hatching of baby chicks in the barn. Daryl saw a couple of new little chickens hanging out with the hen in the barn and when we came to get me and we went back – well they were gone! Now I’m guessing this one big Tom Cat who was lurking around the back of the barn while we were in there had something to do with the missing baby chicks, but who could blame him? He probably thought it was a buffet or something! And was the mother hen mad! She clucked for about and hour or so just looking for her little chicks. Not a good situation at all! 

I spent quite a bit of my day catching up on laundry and getting some things organized in the house. I even watched a movie this afternoon on the TV. Now normally I don’t do that very often, but it was a great day to slow down and even watch a movie if you wanted to –  so that’s just what I did! 

And I noticed today that our cows are still not sure why there is gates up going back into the pasture. I don’t ever remember having gates in the pasture before, but our little calves would just walk under the electric fence and hang out in the yard all the time. And our dogs HATED that they were out! So Daryl & I hung a couple of gates and that took care of that problem! And as you can see in the picture below our tree pile is still there. It’ll probably have to be there until later this fall when the crops are out. We’d hate to burn something other than the tree pile so we’re probably going to wait until it snows or gets a whole lot more wet in the fields  🙂 

And speaking of fields, you can almost see the fields changing every day. Here’s a bean field that is starting to drop it’s leaves. Soon the combines will be out working on getting the beans harvested and then the busy season will begin! 

And we ended the night by skyping and talking with all the kids which is always my favorite part of the week. But now it’s time to get some projects organized that will need to be done this week and think about what we’ll do next weekend! 

Posted in Farming | Comments Off on Working around the farm – Sunday

Saturday – Kayaking, weddings, and barn parties

Posted on September 16, 2017 by farm2011

When I got up this morning I could hear that it was trying really hard to rain this morning just as the sun was starting to come up for the day . 

Now I know that we need rain, but with a day planned to be on the water today -well I sure wish that it would rain like maybe later tonight or something! 

But after checking the weather radar it looked like we would be OK for our kayaking trip and off I went with the truck with the kayaks in the back to meet up for breakfast before we hit the water. It was still overcast, but it was one of those times when you knew that the weather was going to turn out just be perfect. 

And guess what? It was absolutely perfect! The weather was around 80 degrees, a slight breeze was blowing, and hardly anyone on the river but us. Yup, just perfect. 

Then to top it off the trees were just starting to turn their fall colors and we never had to get out once because the water was too low. I think I could have stayed on the river even a couple more hours if we didn’t have plans for the night. We had plans to go to a wedding reception then off to friends barn party. 

Whew! What a great day! 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Saturday – Kayaking, weddings, and barn parties

Dry weather & apples

Posted on September 15, 2017 by farm2011

We couldn’t figure out why the one apple tree was dropping the apples so fast until we took a closer look this weekend and found out that the ground must be just so dry that the apple tree just couldn’t take it anymore! 

Just some of the ground cracks in the back yard

So Daryl got the tractor with the bucket and it was time to get the backyard cleaned up. 

Now sometimes what I’ve done when there wasn’t too many apples on the ground was to just mow them up for a kind of lawn mulch. I mean it should have some good stuff for the ground in the rotten apples right? 

But this year the trees were loaded and with so many apples on the ground we decided that we better pick them up instead. 

And the good news is that the other tree with apples is still doing well so I’ve picked a couple of containers of apples to make some apple sauce this weekend. I’m not sure if the final sauce is any good because it’s in the fridge before I’m going to can it. But I’m telling you that the recipe that I used was super easy. 4 apples, 1/4 cup sugar, and 3/4 cup water. Peel, core, and slice the apples and then heat them up until soft. 

Well I did a 5 x batch in the crock pot 

and I’m kinda digging how it turned out. No hassle and you can’t get any easier than this! Now to get the jars washed and the apples sauce put away for the winter. 

Posted in Gardening | Comments Off on Dry weather & apples

Random pictures

Posted on September 12, 2017 by farm2011

I decided that this post is going to be random pictures that I’ve taken these past couple of days

To start out, I’ve been working on organizing my craft room so it’s nice to have a reason to make a card or two lately. Here’s Kyle’s birthday card that I sent 

Next, check out the hangout center of the farm for the chickens and the peacocks. We are not sure why they like being in here so much, but they sure like it! I’m guessing if we looked close in between the bales we’d find a ton of eggs! 

On to a picture of one of our cows. It’s funny because they don’t even think anything of it when I’m walking in the pasture anymore with a camera. They think it’s perfectly normal to do that 🙂 

And finally here’s one of our dogs. They look pretty innocent but don’t let looks fool you! 

Well that’s it for tonight! 

Posted in Farm animals | Comments Off on Random pictures

Appreciation Barbecue

Posted on September 10, 2017 by farm2011

Our town is small in numbers but big in their hearts. Like all small farm country towns, everyone will always help to pitch in when there is something that needs to get done. 

And today we had an appreciation barbecue to celebrate all the hard work that everyone has done for one of our town parks. 

There was a committee that raised money for the new playground equipment, there are others that are working on getting the rest of the playground equipment painted and making the volleyball and tennis courts shined up again, I was on a committee that helped put a walking trail around the park, and how can you forget the local businesses that gave their business resources both in material and labor? For our trail, we would have never had gotten it completed without their generosity! 

So this weekend we put together a barbecue where the Lions Club grilled steak sandwiches,

a local business donated the chips, there was potato salad and our group was in charge of the bars. And because you just never want to run out of bars – we kinda had wayyyy too many! But we didn’t run out and that was good!!  

With a bunch of family games that was set up for the kids and the new playground equipment to play on

if the grownups weren’t chasing after their kids, they spent the time just hanging out

The afternoon really turned out well. 

What a great town we have and it’s so nice to see so many people proud of it! 

Posted in Community | Comments Off on Appreciation Barbecue

And it’s Show Time!

Posted on September 9, 2017 by farm2011

What a great weekend I had. Now granted it helped that I sold a lot of soap – but also it was so much fun!! 

I was expecting the weather to be absolutely perfect at the show and with Daryl’s help and 3 trips to set up, I was finally ready for the show. Now how can it take 3 trips of ‘stuff’ to set up to sell soap just baffles me – but that’s what happened. OK to my defense I wasn’t sure just what I was going to do for my booth so I wanted to be prepared. Below was my second trip to set up my booth.

The only thing that I didn’t take after all that preparation was the apple basket. Why? Well when I was putting it in the truck I realized that there was a hornets nest it it. And of course I was in a hurry so I grabbed it and pulled it out to the ground. I found out that there was a LOT of live hornets still living in it and they were not the happiest campers of the day! Good thing I had my sandals on because I quick went over and took care of the situation, or I thought I did. And holy cow was there a lot of babies in that hive yet. I guess I didn’t get all the live ones out of the basket so I flipped the basket upside down and as I’m running through the yard with the apple basket and the hornets just a buzzing inside I was thinking to myself – This is not on my list to do today! And then I thought thank goodness I didn’t bring this to the show 🙂

But like I said I was able to get everything else all set up in my booth and not only did the weather hold out – but man oh man did we have a crowd! 

It’s always fun to see everyone and sometimes I think maybe I like going to shows so much because you get to meet up with your friends just to say Hi! . And speaking of that, when I was talking with someone at my booth there was a girl who caught my eye. Now it was one of those times when you know that you’ve seen them before but just couldn’t place them. Then in a minute or two she came over and I knew exactly who it was. It was one of our friends that we literally haven’t seen for about 30 years!! How cool is that! We lost touch just right after we got married and it was so much fun to see her again and to try to catch up with each other and our families. The best thing is that their son lives in the same town as our son so hopefully we’ll be able to reconnect again soon. And of course I couldn’t let her leave without taking a picture of us two to show Daryl! 

Once the show is over it’s time to tear down the display and lug it all home again. Now normally this isn’t such an issue, but the old stove that I used from the laundry room is pretty heavy to say the least. But with help from Daryl we got it back into the truck without going to the emergency room and now I’ll be able that stove back in the house, I’ll put the wreath back on our front door, the old scale in the bathroom, and the table found it’s place on our front porch again. As for the apple basket? Well it’s still down by the barn. I haven’t checked back on that yet. 

Yup, all in all it was a very good weekend. Now to get some more soap made! 

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on And it’s Show Time!

Soap and more soap ….

Posted on September 7, 2017 by farm2011

I have been working this past month on getting ready for an upcoming show and do you think that I am ready by the day before? NO! 

So I looked at how I wrap the soap to see how I can streamline the process. You know.. it’s all about the process improvements! 

OK, so I found a couple of things that I could do and by Thursday evening I was wrapping like it wasn’t anyone’s business. I even thought to myself at one point that I’ll be in bed by midnight. 

Yea, I found out that the midnight thing wasn’t going to happen. 

So I was wrapping and when I still wasn’t done by 5 am the next morning, I knew that it was going to be another all nighter and I might as well set my goal for 6 am. And guess what time I got done? If you guessed 6:30 then you are the winner! 

I was just glad that I had the bath bombs all wrapped and ready to go so I wouldn’t miss the show! 

Now to hit the shower and get dressed for the show. Seriously next time I’m going to do this so much better!! 

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on Soap and more soap ….

Luna

Posted on September 5, 2017 by farm2011

The kids gave our little calf a name a couple of weeks ago and it seems perfect for her. 

Meet Luna 

And if you’re wondering if she’s still wild and not very tame, well the answer is that she continues to be a Mama’s baby and isn’t thrilled at all about anyone getting too close to her. Even No Ears will come up to you and push you away with her head if she thinks you’re getting too close to Luna. Then she’ll look at you like, you better back off! Now I know that No Ears wouldn’t ever hurt anyone, but she rules the cow yard and I guess that’s that!

 

Posted in Farm animals | Comments Off on Luna

Labor Day weekend, Twins Baseball & Campfires!

Posted on September 3, 2017 by farm2011

The weather today was perfect! I mean it was around 85 and sunny and you couldn’t get it much better. Just the kind of weather that you’d like to have when you’re at a baseball game. 

We had the tickets for just that and when we knew that the weather was going to be nice we were even more excited to spend the afternoon at the Twins game in Minneapolis. 

The tickets that we had were supposed to be on the 6th row, but with the rows kinda goofy where our seats were, so we were actually the second row from the field. SCORE!!

Even though the game ended up with the Twins loosing by one and no foul balls were hit to our section even though Daryl was ready with his ball glove, we still had a great time!

And to end out the night, the kids were at the farm and had a bon fire going when we pulled into the yard. With the dogs by our feet and the kitties running around by the windmill, bon fires are always a good time! 

 

Posted in Family | Comments Off on Labor Day weekend, Twins Baseball & Campfires!

Hanging with the girls

Posted on September 2, 2017 by farm2011

Any day on the water is a great day and then mix that up with some of my best girlfriends and it’s a Perfect day! 

First things first. With the kayaks stored in the barn where they get pretty dusty and dirty, they needed a bath before I did anything! 

Daryl had the power washer hooked up and was ready to go by the barn and SCORE right? I think this project was only going to take me a minute or two and then I’d be done. 

Yea. 

Well the power washer was one where you have to pull it to get it started and after what seemed like about 2 hours of trying to get it started (OK it was only about 3 minutes!) I completely ran out of patience so I shut the water off, unhooked the water hose, and headed to the house to get a bucket and a brush. With a full pail of hot soapy water it really didn’t take me too long and before I knew it, the kayaks were ready to go and so was I! 

After we all met for breakfast and made our plans for the day, it turned out to be a perfect day just floating on the river enjoying each other’s company and a great day on the water.  

I  used to really like being on the river and decided today that I’m kicking it up a notch. I Love being on the water!

Posted in Places to visit | Comments Off on Hanging with the girls