Friday Night – Irish Fest & 5k

Posted on June 20, 2014 by farm2011

And the weekend has officially begun –  Thank Goodness! I hosted some guests for work this week and I was really glad that everything went well for that. I think (OK, I know) that I worry about this more than I should. But like I said, the day went well and I can check that off my list. So now it’s the first night of the Irish Fest in our town and we’re ready for the people to come. The pictures and the book that I’ve been helping with look really good if I say so myself. We had so much help from others in the Community getting it ready, it was so fantastic! There seems to be quite a bit of interest in it, so I’m thinking it should go over pretty good. The large tents are set up for the music crowd and Daryl, William, and I are getting ready for the 5k tonight. Yup, same as before – I’m hoping to get under 30 minutes. So how did the run go? Well I ended up between 31 & 32 minutes. So I did do better than last week, but I’m going to try to find another 5k that I can run in soon and hopefully by the end of summer I should.. well I hope … that I will be able to meet and beat that goal of 30 minutes! I still want to do a half marathon this fall, but after seeing how hard it is for me to beat this dumb 30 minute goal thing,  I think the verdict is still out if I’m still going to sign up or not.

After the run, we went home quick to get cleaned up and came back in for the band. The music was great and the tent and town was full.

Sweet Siren on stage

Sweet Siren on stage

I didn’t take too many pictures tonight, but here is one of my favorites of Daryl and I 🙂

He’s such a good sport and hardly puts up a fight anymore for these photo ops!  So this is the photo of the day- Daryl and I.

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The water’s rising

Posted on June 19, 2014 by farm2011

It’s been raining a lot lately and it’s too much not only for our crops, but also for people’s property. Daryl dumped the rain gauge tonight from last night and it was 4 inches. 4 inches! I guess it could be worse, the farmers just north of us had 6 inches of rain these past 12 hours. Now it’s hard to turn away rain because soon we’re going to be praying for more in July, but it needs to stop now for awhile. The forecast is for it to start clearing up tomorrow and just in time for the Irish Fest in our town. Keep your fingers crossed!

I snapped a quick picture of a small creek just down the road from us on the way to work this morning. It’s not the best picture because I had someone coming up the road behind me and I’m not sure if he wanted to drive that way or he was just checking the out why I was driving so slow. It really could be a little bit of both. But hopefully the water won’t get any higher because it makes it really hard to get home when that happens!

The small creek is rising by us this morning

The small creek is rising by us this morning. This is the field beside the creek. 

I also took a picture of my sunflowers. They are so not looking very good after I set them outside on the porch last night and the dog AND the cat both laid on them. But I planted them tonight and I guess we’ll just see if they will grow.

My poor sunflowers

My poor sunflowers

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Deja vu – Proud moments

Posted on June 18, 2014 by farm2011

When I came home the other night I was a little confused on why the sidewalk had dirt on it. I mean, I had all the flowers planted and they were actually even starting to bloom. Then all of a sudden I could feel the puppy beside me and he was looking both pretty excited and proud at the same time. Well, I wouldn’t think he should be either of those two. Check him out.

Kaiser by the flower bed

Kaiser by the flower bed

Now normally I wouldn’t want to blame him for the hole in the flower bed and all the flowers on the sidewalk now, but his paws were filthy and he did have a dumb grin on his face. Then I thought to myself, I’ve been here before. All of a sudden it hit me. Yup, I was standing in the same spot with Apollo our last male dog. It was definitely Deja vu moment. So I checked through some pictures and I was right. Apollo also was always looking in this spot for ‘something’. Now I’m not trying to say nothing about nothing… but we’ve never had this trouble with any of the female dogs that we’ve had.

Remember this photo of Apollo? DSCN02642-837x1024

 

 

I guess

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Telephone poles

Posted on June 17, 2014 by farm2011

We got notice a couple of weeks ago that they were going to replace the telephone poles in our area. Now honestly, I don’t really have an opinion on this. As long as they don’t shut off our electricity or it causes us any issues – more power to them (no pun intended)  So this week they started the process. I came home for dinner the other day and found the workers just down the road prepping the poles. DSC_0055Then when I was in the house watching Sandra’s Semi Homemade Meals on the food channel – out of the corner of my eye I caught someone outside the window. Freaky right? Well, I decided to go out and see why these guys were on our front lawn. It turned out that they were on lunch break and needed some place where they could get some shade. I guess no big deal. But soon Sandra’s cooking show was over and it was time to head back to work. I decided to make sure that the front door was locked and off I went with about 5 guys sleeping on our lawn. I snapped a picture of how the poles looked later in the day. I guess they push them over so they can hook up the wires to the new poles. I know that there’s supposed to be bad storms coming through tonight and I sure hope that the winds don’t blow these poles over and now we really are out of electricity!

The crooked poles are on the left side of the road

The crooked poles are on the left side of the road

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Little Kitty update

Posted on June 16, 2014 by farm2011

Today’s post is going to be more visual than anything else.

I worry that sometimes Little Kitty isn’t getting enough to eat during the day and out in the big real world. Trying to forage for food if he doesn’t get enough when he’s in the house. You know.. ruffing it.

So take a look at two pictures that were taken of him this past week. I’m thinking he’ll be OK. I like the first picture, it almost looks like the picture of the face on the bag matches the cat

William and Daryl caught him grabbing a quick snack

William and Daryl caught him grabbing a quick snack

He got the lid off his food and decided it was a 'Buffet'

He got the lid off his food and decided it was a ‘Buffet’

 

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How we celebrate Father’s Day

Posted on June 15, 2014 by farm2011

Everyone celebrates the weekends differently and they also can celebrate the ‘Special’ days in about a million ways. Around our neck of the woods, families could celebrate Father’s day by going on a picnic, golfing, bicycle riding, or for a motorcycle ride. And this list if just the beginning of what you can do. Since we had some crazy weather coming through our area these couple of days, our plan for the day was  for a bicycle ride and that was kind of out of the question. I mean, who wants to ride in typhoon wind and risk having a tornado show up? OK, maybe a little bit too dramatic, but you get the picture. So we went out for supper on Saturday night with the kids and then after church on Sunday I made a quick road trip to Ma’s to pick up a card that she wanted me to add some stuff to. After dinner I went into town to work on the Hardware Store to get it ready for the Irish Fest this coming weekend. (And it’s not looking too bad if I say so myself) So with me gone to town to work for a couple of hours, how did Daryl and William spend Father’s day ? Check it out.DSC_0046

Yup, they picked rocks. Now picking rocks on a Sunday is bad enough, but on Father’s day? Yikes! But the beans are starting to really take off and with the hot weather predicted, Daryl wanted to get some more of the rocks off the field before the crops were too tall. They did get a full load of rocks and then called it quits. The night ended up very nice though. We were able to skype with Kyle and here is our families Father’s day photo.

Daryl and the boys

Daryl and the boys

Now granted, this isn’t probably you’re ordinary father/sons photo right? But even though it might not be the norm, I love that we can all see each other and spend the time each week just catching up with what’s going on in each other’s lives. So here’s a cheer to all the Father’s out there and hopefully they didn’t have to pick more than one load of rocks today!

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Garden time

Posted on June 14, 2014 by farm2011

It’s another windy day on the farm and you know just how much I love wind! NOT!! But it was the moment of truth for the garden. If I didn’t get in there today and get it somewhat cleaned out, it was going to be too late. They were forecasting rain this afternoon, so I decided to take the plunge and get it done! So I find some extension cords and start up my handy little garden tiller… and it works! Yea for me!! I guess I was just expecting that it was going to be a one shot deal or something. But I headed over to the tomatoes and started to work getting it cleaned up.  Even though the onions weren’t too tall and strong yet, they still were growing and didn’t look too bad either. Now for my lettuce? Yea, not so good. I planted some of the strips that you can buy now with the seeds all on this paper strip and you just lay it down in the rows. But I might have planted it too deep and if  the lettuce did come up, it was mixed in with the weeds. So I dug that section up and will replant.DSC_0044My peas & peppers are looking pretty good and a couple of the beans came up. I’ve got a raspberry patch on the corner of the garden that got smoked last year when the lawn got sprayed, and I was hoping that it would come back this year. But no such luck,  so I’m going to spray this one section to kill all the grass and start over next new. I also took a huge step for me today. I cleaned out most of the greenhouse. I’ve been trying to find someone… anyone.. that wanted some tomato plants. But with no luck, today I threw out about 80 plants. Any you know what? It was kind of a relief to be honest. I had to keep just about 10 plants just in case I can find someplace to plant them.

While I was in the garden, Daryl was moving the hay that was baled last week home for the cattle. We store some of the bales in our shed on our farm so it makes it easier to feed the cattle.DSCN8473

The picture of the day is this one Robin that was spying on my strawberry plants.DSC_0038 I couldn’t believe how tame the bird was! But tomorrow I better get some netting for those strawberries before the birds eat all of them. DSCN8474

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Brat & Brew – Friday night in Protivin

Posted on June 13, 2014 by farm2011

I was ready for the Brat & Brew 5k  Friday night in Protivin. I mean I went out running these past couple of weeks and everything that I knew was that I wanted to get my time for this 5k under 30 minutes. So on the way to Protivin, I was trying to mentally get ready. I mean honestly, how hard can it be to shave off a couple of minutes right? So like I said I was trying to psych myself into thinking that I can do this. Last year Kyle ran with me and it was my first 5k and I didn’t do too bad. But this year ? Man I want to get under 30 minutes. Once I got signed in and my tickets for beer and brats that come with the registration, I have my I pod ready to go. And what music did I choose for tonight? Well Johnny Cash of course! How can you not be motivated when you hear ‘Ring of Fire’ right? So I’m getting anxious and also a little sick to my stomach worrying that it’s not going to go as well as I hoped. I’m thinking to myself that I should join the other 75% of the people who are all drinking before the run, but then … no I want to be ready. I had a small bowl of salted wheat pasta before I left and I didn’t want to chance the run by having anything not healthy. Now we’re getting lined up and listening to the Star Spangled banner being sang. After I hear the word “Brave” I turn on my I pod and …. what? What’s the matter with the screen? It’s all weird and ahhhhhh! OK, I told myself calm down. It’s not the end of the world. I finally could figure out where Johnny’s music was and set the timer for 30 minutes. And we’re off. Things were going pretty good and I was able to keep up. Then I hear “10 minutes” in my ears. Well I wasn’t too far from the 1 mile marker and I felt that I was still in the game. Then when I got to around the 2 mile marker I started to slow down. And at the 2 1/2 mile marker I could just catch out of the corner of my eye something. Yup, it was the dreaded stroller. Now I don’t know many of the rules of 5k’s but I do know this one. You should NEVER.. and I mean NEVER get passed by someone pushing a stroller with a baby inside. So I tried to suck it up and keep thinking 30 minutes.. 30 minutes… but just as I was trying to keep up with the stroller the guy who was running with his wife and baby looked at me and said hello. OK, now I’m not sure just exactly what I said or did, but I’m thinking I might have gave kind of a snotty face back to them. Yup, pretty sure on that.  Now we’re going up the last hill and going to turn the corner. I’m just trying not to puke and then in my ear I hear “Congratulations, you reached your goal of 30 minutes”  Well I did set it for 30 minutes, but I also wanted to have the 30 minutes voice when I was done, not when I was a half of a block away! So did I make the time that I set? No. It was a complete failure. I clocked in at 34:17 minutes. I spent the remaining of the night being so disappointed in myself and now I’ve got another 5k next week to try to make my goal all over again. I’ve also been thinking on what I could have done different and do you know that the one thing that I should have done? I’m thinking that I should have been with the rest of the group and had my ‘brew’ before the race! 🙂

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Dairy Days – Fredericksburg, Iowa

Posted on June 11, 2014 by farm2011

It was the 90 th Dairy Days in Fredericksburg this year! Holy Cow !! There are a lot of towns that continue to try to figure out how to keep their town alive and the town of Fredericksburg has really been successful with this annual celebration.

Now that I work in Fredericksburg, I have been involved with our company float that is in the parades. OK, so this whole float thing is so new to me and I absolutely never knew how competitive it actually was to win the best overall entry. So we gave it our all again this year and …. we didn’t place in the Top 3. Now last year we got 2nd place so that was good. But how disappointing to not even place right? And the winner wasn’t even someone who we were expecting to bring it all. The top two winners were churches. Talk about sneaking up on you. But we had fun getting it ready and it was kind of different walking in the parade instead of watching it. I’ve road on floats when I was a kid and the Dairy Princess (Yup, you could say that I’m a celebrity) but never walked and threw out candy. It puts a whole new look on this parade thing. Below are some pictures that I took quick during the morning parade. Now honestly, how can we not have won right?

Main Street

Main Street

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And the photo of the day is me. Before you look at it, I just want to say that the only thing that we have ever had camouflage in our house was gloves that Daryl got by accident… well until tonight that is 🙂

Humm..just quite don't know what to say about this

Humm..just quite don’t know what to say about this

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Hay baled

Posted on June 10, 2014 by farm2011

I used to think that October was one of the busiest times, but I take my opinion back. I think June is just about as crazy as it can get! But slowly things are getting crossed off the ‘List’ and we’re getting back on track again.

Daryl is traveling for work this week, so it’s just William and I on the farm. I’m really glad that he’s around because we weren’t able to bale our hay before Daryl left, so we asked our neighbor to bale it for us. I’m kinda bummed about it because I would like to have some small bales for a hay ride in a couple of weeks, but on the other hand glad that it’s done before it got rained on again. The first time it was raked it got  1 1/2 inches of rain on it. Yea, not cool! But William raked it again in the beginning of the week and now it’s all baled. It’s not that big of a spot that was cut, but we got 12 big bales of hay off it and that will sure come in handy this fall and winter.

William moving the round bales of hay to the shed

William moving the round bales of hay to the shed

As for me, I’ve been on chore duty before and after work. I seriously just laugh ever night when I go and feed the cows and let the dogs out. In the morning, Scarlet is close by and she is ready to eat. But at the night feeding I have to go and find her. She’s usually in the pasture and when she sees me, she comes running. And I mean RUNNING! Then we race to see who can get to the barn first. I hate to say it, but she usually wins.

I’m also helping out with the one book that is going to be sold at our town festival. We’re getting together this week to make any final changes and then it’s off to the printer. Man, I sure hope people  like this book. We ordered 100 of them! I’m also helping with some more prints for a building in our town for a pictorial display. I think it’ll be as cool as last year, and honestly I’m hoping that it’s even better! Keep your fingers crossed.

And finally I’m getting things lined up for a party that we’re having on the farm in about 2 weeks. This is a project that is definitely a work in progress and I’m not too worried (well, not yet anyway!)

The photo of the day is this NEW baby kitty that keeps showing up by the grainery. I kind of know where she should belong outside, but can’t convince her that this is where she should stay. As for now? Well, she’s hanging with William while he’s doing some homework. Needless to say that Little Kitty isn’t real fond of sharing any of the house with this new intruder. DSCN8469

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