Lavender

Posted on July 13, 2016 by farm2011

This post is about lavender – both my soap and the flower.

It was pretty coincidental that when I stopped in at my sisters after work tonight,  that she asked if I wanted some lavender to take home for my soap. Little did she know that I was brewing up a batch as we spoke of just that – lavender soap. 

Well I’m not that crazy to say no, so I said absolutely! With a baggie full of the fresh cut flowers, back home I went with my car smelling absolutely awesome! 

Now what should I be doing with them? I debated if I should hang them or dehydrate them. I decided on dehydrating them and so for now they’re cooking in our cellar. And guess what? Instead of our cellar smelling like beef jerky when I’ve got the dehydrator going, it’s smelling pretty floral down there! Yup, whoever said that change isn’t good 🙂 

Judys lavender

And for my soap? Well this was the first batch that I’ve made with my new soap containers and at first I wasn’t just sure what I was thinking about them. They are a little smaller than I was thinking they would be, but after I used them on my lavender soap and took a second look at how they came out – I’m digging the new equipment. 

Now to get on the stick and make a bunch more soap. We’ve got a busy July (surprise surprise !) but with another trade show coming up in September, I seriously don’t want to pull a couple of the all nighters that I did with the last trade show to get ready.

So for the photo of the day I’m sharing a picture of my lavender soap. With each change of color of the soap means that I added a new layer to the bar. lavender soap

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And how does your corn grow?

Posted on July 12, 2016 by farm2011

Check out Daryl’s corn. 

If you remember just one week ago we took this picture on the 4th of July Daryl in corn fieldand tonight when we were on the other farm I took this picture.DSC_0724 You can almost hear it growing! 

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Things you find in the yard

Posted on July 11, 2016 by farm2011

Late last night our dogs just starting barking like crazy and then they did what normal dogs would do. They tore off through the yard chasing something. They were peacefully laying on the porch and at first it looked like it might be a ploy not to have to get locked up for the night. But it was such a funny bark that I knew something was very wrong. 

And wrong it was! 

We still don’t know what they really were barking at, but we did find whatever they were chasing was probably doing. What we found was left of a peahen!!!!!! 

My stomach just hurt. See we know that we have fox in the area and my guess is that a fox caught this peahen and killed it. Now I don’t know how in the world he could have caught her because peacocks are very very tough! They are so strong that you better make sure you know what you’re doing if you really want to catch one. 

Now it just didn’t make sense why our peahen (Sally) would have gotten caught. But it definitely was a peahen. My only hope was that there was a strange peahen in our neighborhood a couple of weeks ago and maybe, just maybe, it was that one. Now that would be a long shot don’t you think? But it was the only thing that I could think of when I was laying awake in bed for the long hours after I should have been asleep. 

So tonight I asked Daryl if he saw the peacocks and he said that he didn’t really see them today at all. OH NO!! Maybe the bones and a few wings left from the one in our yard actually was Sally! 

Well tonight I went looking for her myself and guess what? I found her! She was hanging out with the cows in the yard and it seems like Sassy and Audrey were keeping on eye out for her. DSC_0737

I just laughed out loud tonight when I was trying to take this picture because both Scarlet and No Ears thought that I was only in the cow yard to give them treats or something. Now normally that’s a true statement, but for tonight I was just trying to snap a picture. And when I stepped back so they wouldn’t keep trying to lick the camera and my face, well Scarlet could still reach me and she started to lick my legs!

I think I’ll buy them some apples tomorrow. 

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No sun in Sunday!

Posted on July 10, 2016 by farm2011

I really wanted to go on a full day bike ride today because I’ve got a week long bike ride coming up and well to be honest I’ve got only around 28 miles of training in so far. And if you’re thinking to yourself  – – I wonder if that’s a good amount? The answer is NO!! So I’m hoping to cram in a lot this week because I’ll be gone for about a week for work and well then it’s time for the ride. 

So I got up early and Daryl was going to get chores done quick and then we were going to get on our bicycles and ride. 

Well, not so much! When we were in the house getting ready, all of a sudden the outside sky got really dark and it was like a huge flying saucer was hovering over our house. In reality it was a huge cloud. I tried to get a picture of it, but with it being right over our farm it wasn’t going to happen. 

So I’m posting a picture that one of my friends took of the storm that went through today. As you can see, it was pretty impressive!

My friends picture that she took this morning of the storm cloud

My friends picture that she took this morning of the storm cloud

But with only rain and a lot of lightning, the cloud and storm hung around for pretty much of the day and the day was pretty gloomy. 

Now there wasn’t going to be any bike riding today or even getting in a good run! And the only thing left to do was to do some laundry and make some soap! I really don’t want to get into the situation again when I run out of soap and I noticed that I’m getting a little low on the Lazy Lavender soap so that’s what was made in our farm kitchen today. Because it’s been awhile since I made any of my soaps lately – I’m telling you it was a lot of fun! It didn’t hurt that I got to use some new soap pour containers for the first time either. 

Lazy Lavender

Lazy Lavender

With about 4 loads of laundry done and my soap made, I decided to run and get some groceries. I’ve spent a lot of time in grocery stores in my lifetime, but I’ve never had what happened to me tonight. See I was hovering in the vegetable section and all of a sudden this terrible screeching noise started. I looked at the guys in the meat section and they were looking back at me. They seemed just as confused as I did. Then I saw the emergency lights going all over the store. OK, now we’ve either got a fire alarm going on or there is another storm brewing. Well no one was too nervous about this whole situation and they just kept calling on the PA system for Emergency to call the office. And guess what I was thinking the whole time? I was thinking – I don’t smell any smoke yet and the weather looks pretty good outside,  so I sure hope that they’ll check me out before the fire gets too bad! So I hurried and made my way to the checkout counter and they said it was a false alarm. But did that stop the firetrucks? Nope. They showed up and blocked the front entrance to the store. Next the fire chief come in looking for the Manager and all the workers got pretty focused on their work and didn’t look up. I overheard one of them say that they think that a kid pulled the alarm but they weren’t sure.  

After that, things went back to normal in the store. When I got home I got the groceries unloaded, supper made, some housework done, and then the best part of the night was skyping with the kids in New York. 

What a great weekend that we had again! I’m getting kind of used to these and I sure hope that we have many more before the summer is over! 

And who said old milkhouses can’t be pretty?  Here is my picture of the day: DSC_0719

Posted in Family, Picture of the day, Riding bikes, Soap | 1 Comment

Perfect weather today – kayaking and races were on the agenda!

Posted on July 9, 2016 by farm2011

I debated going kayaking today because the weather was going to be just perfect. Now I know that this doesn’t make much sense, but you know that there is always stuff that you think you should be doing. So guess what I did?

I went kayaking with a friend 🙂

And with the weather around 80 degrees with no clouds in the sky with a slight breeze – yea it was the right idea!feet kayaking

We ended up going to a different spot to start with and that was also fun! It was still on the Upper Iowa river but a whole different area that before. Now granted there wasn’t the hight cliffs and bluffs as what you would see around Decorah, but on this part of the river there also wasn’t all the people and just tons and tons of trees. It was beautiful!

The river was high on Saturday so we literally just had to float on the water and steer ourselves the right way once in a while. Shazam!!

Because the water was up, it also meant that we got down to our pick up spot also early. So once I got home and cleaned up, it was time to head to the stock car races. See we usually go to the races once a year and tonight was the night.

We got there with the races just starting, we laughed when we walked up to the Grandstand because with the smell of gasoline in the air and dirt flying off the track, well we knew that we were in the right spot. 

Now even though this track is part of a small town race track, but where will you go to see all different types of cars racing and going so fast that only two wheels of the four will only be on the ground. Or when there was a roll over and the car is sitting on the side, everyone knows that the driver is OK and ends up sitting on the door waving as they take him and the car off the track. races 2016

But the best part of the races? Well for me it’s when they have the beginning of the winners races (not sure what they’re actually called) Anyway right before they start these races, the whole grandstand stands up and wave as the drivers drive by on the track. And the drivers wave back at the grandstand. Now I don’t know where this tradition started, but it’s pretty cool if you ask me! 

 

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Trying out a new soap design

Posted on July 7, 2016 by farm2011

I am working on an experiment these past couple of days to see if I could stamp the bars with a type of an identifying mark on them. So my thought was to make a white bar of soap and then stamp the bars with a food grade colored mica and one of my scrapbooking stamps.making soapsoap loaves

So first I made a batch of lemon white soap and then stamped them with the mica. Well guess what? It worked. Well it worked so far. I learned my lesson from the bath bombs to not to get too positive too soon!

So for tonight, I’m letting them dry overnight and check them in the next couple of days to see if the mica works or not. I sure hope so, it looks kinda cool! stamped soap 

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Standing guard

Posted on July 6, 2016 by farm2011

Now with all the crazy weather that we’ve been having lately, over 3 inches in 2 days!, some people use the news to keep up on what to expect for the coming weather for the day. Others use the internet and watch the future radar to see what’s happening.  

And if you are on our farm we use Lucky the peacock! He keeps watch and literally screams. How funny is that!!

Can you see him sitting on top of the garage? 

Lucky on weather alert!

Lucky on weather alert!

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Bath Bombs

Posted on July 5, 2016 by farm2011

I tried my luck on making bath bombs and honestly I was feeling pretty sassy about the whole thing. And the reason why was because it was my first batch that I made and I was mostly worried about getting them out of the molds.

So I ordered all my ‘ingredients’ and had them set out and pulled up my recipe that I wanted to use. OK, I’m ready.

After I made the first one – SHAZAM! It worked!! Hey this isn’t so hard after all. I even posted a picture to say that I was pretty good at this. Only to find out that this theory was very premature in the whole process. IMG_20160702_081128

Then the unthinkable happened. They literally fell apart as they were drying. I was hoping to keep at least one in tact but I wasn’t so lucky. 20160702_135428_resizedThe only good thing about the whole experiment is that our kitchen smelled pretty good, it smelled like Lavender.

I guess it’s back to the drawing board. But until then? Well I’ve got a mason jar full of bath salt to use up and now our bath room smells like lavender. 

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Happy 4th of July !

Posted on July 4, 2016 by farm2011

First of all – you can’t have the 4th of July go by without taking a picture of someone standing in your corn field. So here is Daryl in ours 🙂 The old saying of knee high by the 4th of July was blown out of the waters again this year! Daryl in corn field

And what did we do with the rest of this long weekend? Well you remember that we were in Des Moines and this wasn’t just some coincidence. No sir! We went there specifically to head to the Adventureland Amusement Park. See they opened up a new roller coaster called ‘The Monster’ and it was on our list to do this summer.IMG_3719

So we met up with the kids at our hotel and we were off to meet up with the Monster! 

Let me tell you a little bit about it first . Well for starters it goes literally straight up 133 feet in the air IMG_3713and then you reach a speed of 65 mph once you hit the bottom! Yea.. can you say FUN!!

It also was voted by CNN as one of the “Best New Roller coasters of 2016”  

Well we had our tickets in advance so once we were through the gates the only thing to do was to head over to the ride and get in line. And guess what? The line wasn’t even too bad! Well I just could hardly wait to go on it and soon it was our turn. There are only 4 people on the ride at once and with us four in the front it was going to be great! But I have to admit when you are literally going straight up in the air it makes you think how this whole thing was going to go. But soon you were looking straight down and then BAM! There you go. After that it was just one blur after the other. You would go so fast and then flip up side down and then take a turn and flip again. And man oh man it was fun!! So after the ride they always want to sell you some over priced photo and we always so no. But this time? Well I think it’s so funny – check it out! Can you spot me in the front?? Adventureland

After that ride we went on a bunch of other roller coasters and also the ride called the Storm Chaser. If you look in the first photo above the tall yellow ride with swings on it is the Storm Chaser ride. We’ve never been on this ride before and once you are 260 feet up in the air and going 35 mph it seems kind of like a breeze compared to the Monster. So I decided to try to take a picture of the park while spinning around and hopefully not dropping my camera. I really didn’t do too good with the photos, but this one wasn’t too bad. I shows you how many twists and turns the Monster ride actually took you on. IMG_3718

We had a quick dinner and then we headed over to the rides at the Waterpark and just had the best time. I’ve never been in a water tube that most of it was pitch dark and you have no idea where you’re actually going. And NO I didn’t have my eyes closed … 

Finally at the end of the day and before we said our goodbyes to the kids, it was funnel cake time. funnel cakeNow you absolutely know that these things are not good for you, but boy they sure taste good don’t they? velley fair

After a long day at the park, we found our car and headed back to the farm to get ready for the work week ahead of us. Hopefully next time we go to this park all the kids can go with us. It was such great time!! IMG_3709

 

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Sunday is Fun Day! 4th of July weekend continues

Posted on July 3, 2016 by farm2011

Today is Sunday and we’ve got a few things that we have planned. Keeping with the theme that this weekend we’re going to have fun! 

But before we can do some of them, there are some things that I’d like to do. So first things first – laundry. OK, not a fun thing to do but with the weather perfect outside I wanted to hang a couple of loads on the line. 

Next? I want to get the dishes done because we’re debating on heading out later tonight for the night in a hotel and I for sure don’t want to come home with dishes in the sink. Yuck! So I quickly do the dishes and let them air dry while Daryl and I get dressed for a bike ride.

But one more thing before we left for the bike ride is that I wanted to put in a double batch of beef jerky into the dehydrator to bake while we were off on the ride. And I know I’ve said this before, but man I sure wish I would have kept track of how many lbs. I’ve made over the years. Well I don’t have a count but I for sure know it’s been a lot! beef jerky

Now it’s time for a bike ride and I’m really glad that we’re going because the annual bike ride that is coming up in a few weeks will be here before you know it and I need to get ready. Now you would think the ‘getting ready’ part is getting my legs in shape or something like that. Well when I say I need to get ready I need to get  my bottom ready. And NOT really the bottom you’re thinking of. I need to get the bottoms of my feet ready. Weird I know – but I must ride and push off with the bottoms of my feet or something. And OK, I also need to get my ‘bottom’ ready too 🙂

But I had a chance to wear my new gloves that I got for Christmas. Having new bike gloves is like being able to put on new socks for the first time. You put them on and just kind of stand for a little bit enjoying the feeling. If you know what I’m talking about then you know what it feels to wear new bicycle gloves. It feels awesome! new gloves

We didn’t go too far, maybe 20 miles and then came home quick to get chores done and get packed. We were off to Des Moines to a hotel with a swimming pool and hot tub for the night. 

Yup, July is turning out to be a great month so far!

 

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