Mystery Photo 9-17-14

Posted on September 24, 2014 by farm2011

I can’t believe that no one guessed the Mystery Photo from last week.

I thought for sure that my clue that we use it every day on our farm would have helped. But I guess not. OK – here was the picture from last week DSC_0173aand this is what the item is.DSC_0173 It’s used to force air into our chicken coop to keep the air inside not only cooler, but it also helps to recirculate it. The top part uses the wind to move the bottom part so it is lined up with the wind and that’s where you get the wind blowing down the chute into the coop. Kind of an early fan for your chickens.

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Check it off the list

Posted on September 23, 2014 by farm2011

Right after work tonight,  Daryl and I headed out to the field to get the last of the hay baled. I was hoping that we’d have as good as luck as we did the other night and for the most part that was true. I kind of freaked out when I looked back at the baler and where the hay was supposed to be going into it,  it wasn’t moving. Now I’m a Rookie at driving the baler and I admit that. When I was growing up, there was 6 kids in our family and with me being towards the end of the line, I never really got to choose what I was going to be doing when we baled hay. I was always up in the barn helping stack the bales. Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a really bad job. But it could be a very itchy job or scratchy job just depending if you were stacking hay or straw. So this whole driving a tractor thing and especially a baler is fairly new to me. So tonight when it wasn’t working like I said I kind of freaked out! But just as I hit the tractor breaks and Daryl came off the wagon to see what was going on – you guessed it, it was working again. So I started to second guess myself and thought that maybe it was working after all? But then it did it again and part of me was happy because I knew that I didn’t make it up and the other part was thinking Holy Crap now what? Then I started to wonder if it was broke or what? But I guess the pin sheared off and he had it fixed in no time flat. Off we went again and this time with no surprises. At the end of the night we had another good part of the second wagon full and it’ll be enough to keep the cows happy for those cold winter days. Daryl ended up unloading it down in the barn aisle and he said that it really brought back that familiar smell in the barn when the whole hay loft would be full of fresh hay. DSC_0186

The photo of the day is that of our apple tree that never has apples on it. For some reason this year she’s got a lot!

Both our trees are just loaded with apples this year

Both our trees are just loaded with apples this year

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Baling Hay

Posted on September 22, 2014 by farm2011

You know that you’re getting old when you’re kind of looking forward to baling hay! And I couldn’t even imagine that I would ever in my life time say that it was even kind of fun.  With both of us working off the farm, getting the hay raked in the fall and then making sure that it’s fit is always a challenge. But Daryl got it almost all raked up when I stopped in after work to see what the plan was for the night.IMG_2099 Well, after I saw him raking it, you didn’t need to be a Rocket Scientist to know what we were going to do. He thought that it’d be fit around 5:30, so I had about an hour before Daryl needed my help. I decided to go for a quick run. Now I haven’t ran for a couple of days and Holy Cow I could sure tell! Now the run was a little harder than I expected because I was out of shape or it might have been because we ate out a couple of times this past week and of course I had a couple of beers to go along with the meal. Yea.. you won’t find that plan on any Runner’s Web Page. I’m thinking that it might be a little bit of both. But after my run, it was time to bale hay. I was in charge of driving the tractor and even though I haven’t driven the baler for two years, Daryl said that I did a good job! I was thinking to myself that I pretty much rocked it, but it’s so much better when someone tells you it, isn’t it? We didn’t get everything baled because some of it wasn’t fit yet and then the sun was starting to disappear on us. The weather forecast is for sunshine tomorrow, so hopefully we can get the rest of it baled. We like at least one load of small bales for the winter because we feed it to the cows when the weather gets really bad and also we need it for the annual hay ride with Daryl’s family.

Before I go to bed, I’ve been promising Daryl that I would make some sympathy cards. They’re kind of simple, but they’ll do just fine.

Two Sympathy cards that we need to send out

Two Sympathy cards that we need to send out

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Getting the combine ready & auction stuff

Posted on September 21, 2014 by farm2011

Daryl and I spent the day so differently. He spent most of the day getting the combine out of the shed and checking it all out for the harvest season. Now doesn’t it just seem like we just put it into the shed not that long ago? The first thing that he did was to check out the corn head for the combine. I’m not sure what that all was but he was pretty busy working on it most of the morning.  After a late dinner, he said he was going to bring the corn head to the other farm and then work on the bean head. DSCN8959He drove the combine to the other farm and after dropping off the corn head, he was back in the yard hooking up the bean head. It just makes me smile because if you ever want to know what’s going on with our farm, just check out what equipment is in front of our barn. Today it was the combine with the bean head. He’ll take the beans out first, so it has to be ready when he needs it. The beans are not ready to be combined just quite yet, but it was a nice day outside and there’s no better way for a farmer to spend the day than getting ready for the harvest season.

Working on the bean head for the combine

Working on the bean head for the combine

And as for me? Well I worked on the boxes of things that I got from the auction yesterday. I wanted to sort out what I was keeping and what needed to go to the Good Will Store. I was able to find quite a few treasures so it was a lot of fun going through them. I also had some laundry that needed to be done and with the weather sunny and breezy it was a great day to hang them outside.

The night ended by bringing William’s car to the repair shop. This was the first appointment that we could bring it in since his break lines broke and he’s got our other car in the mean time. Since we were in town we needed to pick up some dog food and cat food. We ran out last night and even though they loved the scrambled eggs that they got today, I wasn’t too excited about making them again tomorrow if I didn’t have to. We wanted to get to town before 7 pm because we thought that this one discount store might close after 7. It must have been quite awhile since we’ve gone to this store on Sundays, because they weren’t open at all on any Sundays. OK, we thought that we’d just go to the gas station and pick up some food to get us by until tomorrow after work. This sounds like a good plan right? Well, the price of the largest bag (and I use the word ‘largest’ very loosely) the price was very expensive and we would have to buy a couple of bags. Kaiser eats things by swallowing them and doesn’t even taste them and he’d eat a bag by just by himself tonight. What a waste of money this would be. So we drove to the next town about 20 miles away and there a grocery store was open on Sundays. We picked up a huge bag of dog food,  along with another bag of cat food, and some other smaller groceries that we’ll need for the beginning of the week. Back home we went and tonight everyone’s bellies should be full.

We’re thinking if the weather holds out tomorrow, we might be able to rake the hay up on the outside rounds and get some small square bales made. I guess we’ll see what the weather is going to do. As for tonight? Well it’s time to get ready for the upcoming week.

The photo of the day is that of our little kitties.  Kyle shows his classroom in South Korea the pictures of the farm and with his kids in preschool grades, they were looking for more of the kitty ones. So here are 3 of them tonight on our porch. DSCN8958

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My First Barn Dance

Posted on September 20, 2014 by farm2011

We were invited to a Barn Dance tonight and honestly how fun! It was so tired when I got home from the auction, but I knew that I had to get in gear and get out the door! It was still kind of warm outside, so it was a little confusing what to wear. I mean, I’ve never been to a barn dance before. We were running late because of my little nap, so we stopped in town first to grab something to buy to share and then also something to eat. It sounds like you bring something to set out during the dance and we didn’t want to come empty handed. When we were eating supper in town, we could hear it starting to rain and we were thinking that Daryl just got the first two rounds of hay raked about an hour ago and now it’s going to be pretty wet. We didn’t have any trouble finding the farm and from the road you could see all the barn windows lit up and strings of lights hanging outside the doorway. We didn’t know where we should park but with the road lit by small motion lights on the lane that led out to the hay field, it was a dead giveaway. Once we got into the barn I can totally understand why they love it so much to have a barn dance. You stepped inside and we were greeted by a huge stairway that led to the next floor. On the second floor we could see the band playing in the corner and lights strung all around not only this floor, but also the next one up. There were tables and tables of food, so I guess we could have had supper here. But again, this was our first year and we were Rookies at this! With our chairs by our side, we made it past the crowded floor to the third level. There we literally knew everyone and it looked like it was going to be a good time! I really don’t know how many people were there, but there was a lot. A couple of people commented on the storm that came through and I guess it really shook the barn. Now old barns are made pretty tough so I’m sure they didn’t have anything to worry about. There was two groups of singers/bands there and towards the end of the night they played together which was a lot of fun. People were dancing, visiting, and just having a good time. I was so glad that we had a chance to go to this dance and I’m hoping that we’ll be able to make it back next week for the official Iowa Barn Tour to get the details of the barn by the guys who live there.

The picture that I took isn’t the clearest, but it will give you an idea of how it was decorated for the dance. IMG_2093

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The Auction

Posted on September 20, 2014 by farm2011

Today is the Auction that I’ve mentioned a couple of days ago.

The first thing when I woke up was to check out the weather. It didn’t look too bad and I was trying to convince myself that the dark clouds that I was looking at in the West will just blow over. Well, as I was loading up some additional tables into the truck that we might need, it started to sprinkle. OK, way not cool! But it never did rain and soon the clouds kind of broke up and everything was good again. I was heading to the auction and also a chance to do something that I’ve never done before. What I helped with was to try to set the items up for the auction in an organized and somewhat logical way for the auctioneer. Now you would think that this is something that’s pretty easy right? Yea, not at all! At first we gave it a lot of thought and really tried to put everything in the absolute correct spot. But as things kept coming out of the house and the weather was getting pretty warm, we did the best that we could. And it might not have been perfect, but it was OK. Then as everything was set out and we just stood back to look at what we worked on for a couple of hours, it was kind of weird. I mean, here is someone’s total life right in front of us. It was toys that they had when they were a kid, up to hobbies that they had done for so many years. Again, it was definitely something that needed to be done,  but it was just a little eerie at the same time. It also made me think if someone would have to do this to our house… oh man it would not be good! And guess what? It’s a reality check because it will happen to all of us at some time.  Just when it was getting close to start the auction it starts to sprinkle. Then the wind picked up and it starts to rain. WHAT?? Out come the tarps to try to keep everything that needed to be covered, covered. There were a couple of people who were keeping tabs on the radar on their phones and we knew that once the rain blew through it would be nice outside again. And guess what? They were right. It didn’t take long and the auction was ready to start. IMG_2084Now I had an unofficial list of what I was wanting to buy today with one main thing which was an enamel double wash basin. I also had a budget that I wanted to stay with and was hoping that I could stick ‘somewhat’ close to it. It’s not like it was any type of law or anything and if I went over, well I just hoped it wasn’t by too much. The auction started on some household stuff and Shazam! I was able to buy just exactly what I wanted. It was looking promising. The only thing that I did run into is what I wanted to buy, well they bundled it with other things. Now if you’re not sure what bundling is, my recommendation is to go to an Auction and you’ll learn real fast. Next on the list was the doilies. There were a lot of family members at the auction and we all wanted to make sure that we could do this so everyone left with at least one. Everyone was able to take at least one home today and now who would have thought that this would have turned out so good? As the day went on, there were a couple of things that wasn’t selling and so I felt bad for them (OK, I know that this sounds stupid!) so I would just throw my bid in and at least they went to a good home. It wasn’t so much things that were bought, but more so things that have been passed down through the generations. And when I had a chance to see in the boxes of some of these surprise buys, they turned out pretty cool! IMG_2086Now it’s time for the double wash basin. I really didn’t have any idea on how high I was going to go and I also didn’t know where I was with my budget – but too late and the bidding started. At first I couldn’t even get in with my bid. And that’s a bunch of crap right? Finally I yelled and got in. Then it was going back and forth pretty fast and … and Score!! I got it. It has a lid for the top and inside is two compartments. I want to use it in the Roadhouse for a cooler. At the end of the Auction the Auctioneer came up to me and said that I got the best deal of the day. Now I was thinking he was talking about some real old crockery kitchen bowls that I got, but they were talking about this wash basin. I told them that I felt that maybe I spent too much and they thought that it wasn’t too much at all. Right now it’s sitting on our front porch and I’ll have to bring it in tonight.

I put in on the front porch because there was a chance of rain tonight

I put in on the front porch because there was a chance of rain tonight

At the end of the day I got a lot of things and my total amount of auction tickets was 20. But one of them was for my Mom, so really I only had 19. I was standing by her during the auction and she said that I might as well bid because they knew my number by now. And they did! I told Daryl that I was going to bring the pickup because I needed to bring some tables. OK, now this wasn’t a lie. But guess what? I couldn’t even fit the tables in it to bring them home this afternoon because the truck was too full. Too funny! DSCN8955I was a little nervous what he was going to say when he saw the pickup pull into the yard. But he didn’t say a thing and do you know when I asked him what his favorite thing that I brought home was? It was a baby bed that my Mom threw into the truck because she had gotten it in a bundle with something that she bought. And if you’re wondering how I did on my budget, I did really well. Now granted it was just pure dumb luck – but I only went over it by $0.50.

Once I got home and took a shower,  I sat down for a little bit.  Daryl came into the room and found me sleeping in the chair with a Diet Coke in my hand. I knew that I better find my second wind soon because we’re headed for a Barn Dance later tonight!

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3rd Crop of Hay

Posted on September 19, 2014 by farm2011

Daryl was able to cut the rest of the hay that he had started the other day. He started to cut it the other day and literally ran out of daylight. So this afternoon he was able to get off work at a decent time and spent the late afternoon working in the field. The haybine was working pretty good and the hay was drying even better! So now I’m not sure when he’s going to want to bale it… but I’m sure hoping it’s not any time tomorrow. I’ve got plans to go to an Estate sale,  and with it a family member it’s one that I’m not planning on missing. I’m bringing the truck if that gives you any idea on how many of the things that I think are pretty cool that are on the sale bill. And I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if I’m the lucky person who is the new owner of the treasures.

Getting back to Daryl cutting hay. It’s not a bad crop for the 3rd cutting and if you remember last year a lot of farmers didn’t even get a 3rd crop. We were one of those farmers, so it’s a good thing this year that we’re lucky enough for one last fall cutting.  I quick got in the field and snapped a picture of Daryl on the final round. It was perfect timing! DSC_0177

While we were out in the field we also were checking out the soy beans. They sure are starting to turn color and drying up. It won’t be long now when all the fields will be busy both day and night in our area with the farmers harvesting their crops.

Daryl checking out our soybean crops

Daryl checking out our soybean crops

The photo of the day is the hay field. OK, I know that this is kind of a weird topic for a picture, but it’s also kind of a cool picture this time of the year also. Not only does it look really good, but the fresh cut hay also smells really good! DSC_0179

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Earl

Posted on September 18, 2014 by farm2011

I get it. I’m a born sucker for any kitty, puppy, or calf that’s cute. But Earl… Earl is kind of pushing this whole cuteness stuff!

It all started the other day when I was literally backing out of the garage to leave. Since our car is an electric car you can hear everything that goes on outside. So what was I listening to when I was backing up? I could hear the dogs just barking and barking. My first instinct was to get the broom and convince them to be quite. Reno is scared of the broom, but Kaiser hasn’t been introduced to it by being chased through the yard. And honestly, Kaiser was the one who was barking. So like I said, the first thing I could think of was for them to quit barking! But then I gave it more thought and was wondering if maybe the cows were out? Daryl is still working some crazy hours in town and that would just be my luck. They are tame, but I was already late for an appointment that I was supposed to be at and really didn’t want to mess with putting the cows back in. So finally instead of over analyzing this whole situation, I decided to just get out and see what was going on. What I found was Earl standing up by the cattle shed just balling. The ‘big’ cows were on the other side and Earl looked like he was going to literally cry and was pretty scared. Poor thing right? Well, he’s not as tame as Scarlet and I knew that I’d have to approach this a little differently. He was kind of hanging out by the pasture and I thought that maybe he crawled under the electric fence. But after a couple of tries to get him to just go back under it – yea… I had no luck! OK, I’ll just unhook it and then he can walk through right? Well as I was unhooking it, he made a bee line to the other part of the farm and was heading down to the road. We have a lot of traffic on our road and if he went on it, well it would be the true definition of road kill. Of course the harder I tried to get the electric fence hooked up, the more frustrated I was getting. I guess Daryl made it tight so the cows couldn’t get out and it was too tight for me to just hook it back up. I kept working on it and watching Earl and finally I decided to just take one for the team. I held the part that the hook goes into with my left hand, closed my eyes, and then hooked the two together. And do you know what I was thinking? I was thinking that maybe old Earl isn’t as cute as I thought he was about 20 minutes ago 🙂 But with the cows making such a racket on one side of the fence and Earl on the other side, I was able to get the two together finally and everything was good. Finally I was off for my appointment and with hanging out so much down by the barn, I was just hoping that I didn’t smell too much like the cows!

Now fast forward to tonight. Check out who was standing in our yard when I got home from work. I have no idea how he’s getting out, but I knew that this time he was going to get back into the cow yard by the gate! I like also how the chickens and peacocks are on the wrong side of the fence!  Earl on one side and No Ears on the other. What is wrong with this picture?

Earl on one side and No Ears on the other and everyone seems to be posing!

And for the photo of the day – Butter was on sale at the grocery store! DSCN8951

 

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Wednesday’s Challenge 9-17-14

Posted on September 17, 2014 by farm2011

Do you ever get so busy in your day to day life that you kind of skip over a day? Well that’s what happened to me. I was at work on Thursday and couldn’t figure out where the ‘regular’ Wednesday’s crowd was. I finally figured it out that it was Thursday and not Wednesday! Holy Smokes that can kind of freak you out.

So I’m posting the Photo Challenge a little late and I’m anxious to see if you can guess it. It’s on something that is used most every day on our farm. I’ll post the answer next week Wednesday.

DSC_0173a

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Party at the neighbors

Posted on September 16, 2014 by farm2011

When I got home from work tonight I knew that I needed to spend some time mowing the lawn. I just can’t believe that it’s growing the way it has! And I told Daryl if our hay is growing anything like the grass on our farm, we’re going to be millionaires!! Whoo Hoo!!  But he said that the hay doesn’t grow like that and we’re both going to have to keep our day jobs. Oh well, it was worth a shot right? So I decided to mow the lawn only for 1 & 1/2 hours and then work on it more as the week goes on. After my time was up, I went for a run.

Now when I was on my run I kept hearing this noise and I knew it wasn’t the James Brown music that I was listening to either. Finally I saw what was going on. One of the farmers on my run had taken some of the corn out of the field for silage and now the field was filled with geese. I’ve been seeing a lot of geese lately flying south, and I guess this was a good spot to land and rest for awhile. They sure were making a lot of noise and it was pretty cool to see all of them flying in and out of the field. Since I’m not a very fast runner, I had quite a bit of time to check this whole situation out and it reminded me so much of the old George Jetson cartoons. In those cartoons the car planes (not sure what to call them) would be flying in and out and it was such a busy place. You didn’t know where to watch because there was so much going on. But in this field, some of the birds were flying in and others were just taking off. Now if you use your imagination you can kind of picture it -right? Well I kept running and finally I was on the home stretch to our farm. Then I could hear more geese and saw them over my head heading south. With the sun just setting over the corn fields it was pretty cool. But then, then all of a sudden the birds started to turn and eventually headed back into town. You know where they were going? They were going to that one farmer’s field. And if there ever was a party going on – I’m pretty sure it was going to be in that farmer’s field tonight!

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