Choose wisely…

Posted on May 24, 2014 by farm2011

When I woke up this morning I had a ton of things that I should be doing. Everything from planting the garden to washing the house windows. But guess what I did? I went kayaking.

Perfect day! Sunshine, Diet Coke, and animal crackers. Yup, Life if Good!

Perfect day! Sunshine, Diet Coke, and animal crackers. Yup, Life if Good!

SCORE! I was talking about it at work and some people were giving me ideas of local rivers that I could go on. Now I really wanted to do that, but we had a couple of graduation parties to go to later in the afternoon so I didn’t want to get home too late. After loading up the kayak, off I went. I spent the afternoon on the Upper Iowa and because I’ve been there before I knew that I’d be home in time for us to get to the parties. The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cold and the river was up a little bit which made it run fast. Which was also a good thing. But the river was also very crowded in spots.I mean literally when I was getting my canoe on the river a full bus pulled in with people and their canoes. So now I’m even more anxious to see if there are less traveled rivers to get my kayak on this summer. Below are a couple of pictures that I took.  I didn’t get a good picture of the turtles, or the bald eagles, but I was able to snap a picture of the raccoon that was stealing some eggs from a bird up in a tree.

Arrow is pointing to the raccoon in the tree stealing eggs

Arrow is pointing to the raccoon in the tree stealing eggs

I never get tired of the scenery on the Upper Iowa River by Decorah

I never get tired of the scenery on the Upper Iowa River by Decorah

And the photo of the day is an old tree along the bank. I liked it so much because it literally ran out of dirt to grow in and had to move over to the rocks to continue to grow. IMG_1601 copy

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Outside stuff

Posted on May 23, 2014 by farm2011

Once again we were blessed with good weather and that makes it so nice to be outside. So after work I tilled up the garden again to see if I can rid of more of the crabgrass that’s growing in it. I’ve always heard that once you get this grass in your garden, your’e stuck with it for life. When I would hear this I would think ‘drama‘ but now? I think that it’s probably true. My little tiller still is working good and I’m hoping to get the garden planted this weekend. I thought at first I was really behind a lot of people getting the garden in, but after talking to some of our friends these last couple of days, I’m right on track.

While I was outside in the garden I couldn’t help but noticing how the apple tree bloomed just within a day or two. So of course I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture.

Our apple tree in full bloom

Our apple tree in full bloom

I also checked in with the two little Robin eggs and they are still the same. And in this case – that’s not such a good thing! I had to laugh when I was in the back yard because out of the corner of my eye I could see a chicken standing there. It was Rocky. He is the only Rooster that we have left and he thinks he owns the whole farm! So he came over to see just what I was doing.DSCN8424

And who was the happiest of everyone today? Our cows!! Daryl hooked up the electrical fence and everyone (including Scarlet) got to be out on the pasture. These past 6 months were long with being stuck on the cattle floor so they are just literally hanging out watching everyone. DSCN8425

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Yea! The beans are in!!

Posted on May 22, 2014 by farm2011

It’s always such a good sight when the planter is coming up the road and you know that the last of the crops are in for another year.

Daryl just pulling into the yard tonight with the planter

Daryl just pulling into the yard tonight with the planter

Daryl was able to get the rest of the soybeans done tonight and what a good feeling that is. The rest of the night it seemed like  he was moving a lot of  machinery around in our yard. Now I’m really not sure what he was actually doing, but I think he was working on getting some of the stuff more organized and out of the middle of our yard. When he was working on this, he had asked me if I would help him guide the planter back into the machine shed . Now my part of this job isn’t so bad and I’m just saying that if there ever was a backing machinery contest – he’s the guy that I’d put my money on! Then once the planter was tucked away for another year, the combine has to go right in front of everything in this shed. Daryl said when him and his dad were building the machine shed that they never would have thought that it would have to be bigger or taller – but it seems like he’s always looking for room to store stuff.

As for me, I worked in the garden to get it finally worked all up. I was wondering how I would like my new garden tiller and I LOVE it! I had a chance to use it at Ma’s the other day on her flower bed and our reactions were pretty funny. When we first started digging up the dirt with it, it was working really pretty good. We just looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said that we both were surprised how well it really did work. Isn’t that funny when something actually works better than you expect, you don’t  know how to react! But I got the garden done tonight and this weekend I’ll go over it again and get some stuff planted. I was kind of surprised that the ground was still muddy in some spots in my garden. But tomorrow the weather is supposed to be just as nice (Hurray!!) and it’ll dry it out just perfect to plant. I noticed that  I’ve got a lot of that dumb grass that is next to impossible to get rid of in the garden, but I’ll just have to deal with that as the summer goes. But for now – – I’m just excited that the tiller worked as well as it did and the ground is all worked up.

The picture of the day is the little Robin eggs that I found in our apple tree awhile back. I saw that two of the eggs were gone the other day by possibly one of our cats and now I’m thinking that maybe one of the birds in the eggs is trying to hatch.  I’m a little worried that it’s taking so long for this little bird to get out, but we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.DSCN8414

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Music Practice – Roadhouse

Posted on May 21, 2014 by farm2011

Tonight was Daryl’s music group’s practice at our place. And where else would a good spot to practice at  our farm other than the Roadhouse? I just love it that the Roadhouse gets used as much as it does. The other day we were counting how many times we’ve used it in two years and if we counted right – the times was 10! That’s just amazing!! When it was first done for William’s graduation, we honestly thought that we might use it here and there but never would I have guessed it to be that many times. I think that it’s great! So when I told the group that I would make a couple of things to snack on, they said not to go overboard and make too much. Humm…. now what really is the definition of ‘too’ much? OK, so I didn’t make everything that I wanted and by the end of the night, a lot of  the food was almost gone. What did I have for snacks? I made maid-rites,  vegetable pizza, caramel popcorn, nacho dip and chips, cherry cheesecake, smokey hot dogs, and warm mushrooms. The Roadhouse smelled really good with all that food cooking in it!

And guess what we did tonight? Yup, the air was turned on. With the Roadhouse smelling good inside, our house was smelling just a little musty. For some reason when the air is on it takes that damp smell out of the rooms. So by the end of the night, the rooms in the house smelled much better.

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Kaiser’s initiation

Posted on May 20, 2014 by farm2011

Our trampoline has been something that not only the kids jump on,  it’s a place that when the kids were younger stories with their friends were told, and it’s also a place where the dogs and cats can share in the fun once in awhile. And for Kaiser, tonight was his first experience with being on the trampoline. We finally had got it all set up and it didn’t take long for William to grab the puppy and onto the trampoline they went. Reno wasn’t too excited about having Kaiser on it and honestly – Kaiser wasn’t very excited about the whole thing either! But he did take it in stride.IMG_1595

I also checked on my plants in the greenhouse. They didn’t look as bad as I was thinking that they were going to look. I’m hoping to get the garden planted in the next couple of days.

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Baby it’s warm outside

Posted on May 19, 2014 by farm2011

Today was a warm one.  Finally! I think it was only around 80 some degrees, but we went from using our furnace and fire place to trying NOT to turn on our air conditioner. Well, we didn’t cave and turn on the air but man I sure wanted to! I’m thinking before the end of the week, it’ll be on.

Like I said, the day was sunny and warm. Wonderful! But when I was sitting at work I kept thinking about my plants in William’s greenhouse. If it gets warm fast, you have to take care of the plants and move them down to the bottom otherwise they kind of fry. Now I knew that I had watered them really good before work, and I guess I’ll just have to see how they look when I got home. So right when I got home, into the greenhouse I went. Holy Smokes it was hot! OK, it wasn’t just hot, it was VERY HOT! My glasses were steaming when I just opened the door. And knowing this, I was afraid to see how the plants were going to look. Yup, some of them got smoked.IMG_1591 But then on the other hand, some of them still looked good!IMG_1592It’s always good to have extras – just in case.  I had water still in the water container inside the greenhouse so I thought that I’d give them a quick drink. I knew enough to test the water first and it was hotter than a hot bath water. So I quick poured it out and got some more from the rain barrel. I really don’t know why I was in such a big hurry at this point, but I sure was! Now I will just have to wait and see what is all going to live and what will need to be thrown out.

The photo of the day is the temperature gage inside the greenhouse. It tops out at 120 degrees and it took about 30 minutes for me to just get it below the 120 mark. Yea, it was warm in there!IMG_1590

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Visiting friends

Posted on May 18, 2014 by farm2011

Do you have friends that you’ve had what it seems like forever and you are just as comfortable around them 30 years later and you were when you first started to hang out? Well that’s what we’re lucky to have with our Card Club group. When we first started we were all just married and starting our families. Then as the years passed, we went to not only our kids activities, but our friend’s kids stuff  – basket ball games, football games, musicals…. well you get the picture. We wanted to make sure that we were supporting not only our family but also our friend’s family. Then the kids all got older and started to move on to college. Most of them have moved out of the area to start their new lives. So now that most all of us in the Card Club are ’empty nesters’ you would think it would be easier to get together right? Wrong. We really have to work hard to make the time for each other and sometimes it works and other times we’re not so successful. So we’ve always talked about getting together at one of our friends house that was in the club. This couple moved a couple of years ago and only lives  a couple of hours away, but we’ve never gone down just to visit. We’ve gone to their kids graduation parties, but that’s just not the same as just sitting around and being able to visit. So  when another couple  from our card clubs band was playing in that area, well this was the time to make this adventure happen. We were ready for a night (and next morning) to just hang out with our friends. I can’t help thinking just how cool that was that we actually got together. Because we’ve all been in a situation when it’s so much easier just not to go. And by just making a little effort we were able to have one of the best weekends laughing until our bellies literally hurt, eating wayyyy too much, dancing, and  just hanging out with our friends. What a good time we had!

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Hillbilly Swap, Museums, & Greenhouses

Posted on May 17, 2014 by farm2011

I saw an add earlier this week for a Hillbilly Swap close to where we live and I thought to myself ‘how could you pass up something like that?’ I had no idea what a Hillbilly Swap was, but it sounded interesting so I went. I knew the town where it was going to be held and even though the directions on the add said that you should take this one highway, I just thought that maybe they didn’t know what they were talking about. I mean, I really don’t know the area exactly where I was headed to this morning, but how hard could it be right? There are a lot of smaller communities and towns around us and this was one of them. So I grabbed a Diet Coke and some breakfast pizza from the gas station and I was off. I had the cat carrier in the car just in case I found something cool. Daryl said it would take around 45 minutes to get there and he was spot on. Now to find the swap meet. I started to drive around and was really kind of surprised how big the town was. But honestly I should still be able to find this place. I wasn’t having any luck trying to see if I could stumble across it and then I got another plan. I saw some trucks with trailers driving through town and now where in the world would they be going this morning at 8:00 other than the swap meet? Well…. I guess they were going to other places. I did find the Coop in town though 🙂 Finally I had to break down and ask someone where I should be going. The directions she gave were pretty much exactly what the add said. Hum, maybe I should have just followed that instead. My running around cost me about a half of an hour, so that wasn’t too bad and soon I was parking the car. I was pretty excited to see all the cars and was wondering what treasures that I could find there for myself. As I paid my $3 to get in, I’m still thinking that I for sure should find something that I just can’t live without. As I went from booth to booth, I found out that this was more of a specific swap that I was thinking of. They didn’t have too much ‘girl’ stuff and I saw a lot of guns, chain saws, and helmets. Like I said, guy stuff. Now I do want to get a gun, but I’m thinking I better research that a little bit before I just buy one from someone’s pickup bed parked in the middle of some trees.

Hillbilly swap meet

Hillbilly Swap 

So as I’m walking out of the area I thought that I just can’t leave without buying something. I did find a ruler with an advertisement from a local bank on it and I spent the $1 to call it mine.

When I was driving around earlier in the town I saw a Museum that looked interesting. IMG_1573So after the Swap Meet I tried to see if the Railroad Depot Museum was open by then. But it wasn’t. That was too bad so I was back in my car again heading home.

The morning was still early and when I was leaving I saw a sign for a greenhouse nearby. The area that I was in is known for a lot of greenhouses that the Mennonite community has. So that sounded like a good idea and off I went. I wanted a couple of geraniums for some larger pots outside so I wanted to make it a quick trip to pick them up. I didn’t have any trouble finding a greenhouse, and I actually went by 5 of them in the area.IMG_1577 I told you that they have a lot of greenhouses and these are the ones that I either saw the sign for or physically drove by. After seeing a couple of people that I knew in there, I had picked out more than I probably should have and into the back of the car it went.

Hauling stuff again in the car

Hauling stuff again in the car

I asked if I could take a picture inside one of the greenhouses and the young girl just smiled and said absolutely.

Just one of the greenhouses on this property

Just one of the greenhouses on this property

I think she was an older sister to the other 4 kids behind the counter. She looked maybe 14 and was really nice. Before I left I also just had to take a picture of one of the plants that I thought looked pretty cool until I read the description of the plant. Creeping Charlie!! We hate creeping charlie in our lawn and I would have hated to see Daryl’s reaction if I hadn’t read the description and actually would have bought it!IMG_1574

Now I’m back home and the guys are over at the other farm fixing one of the barn doors that was damaged in the last winds that went through. I found out why the dishwasher also made so many bubbles the other day. Have you ever walked around your house and knew that a smell wasn’t just right? Now I’m not saying that it’s a bad smell, just a different smell. So I was in the kitchen the other day and the dishwasher was going and it smelled a little more ‘soapy’ than normal. But it was a new dishwasher detergent and it was on sale, so I just thought those two things together made it smell funny. Yea. The so called funny part of this is that when I saw it was on sale I didn’t read it very close and the sale detergent is for the laundry not dishes. It caught my eye when it said that it attacks dried on ..

Pretty dumb thing to do!

Pretty dumb thing to do!

No wonder I had to smash it in the little pocket thing on the dishwasher door and then I had so many bubbles. Duh!  So today William brought home the new detergent in the green container. Yup, much better.

And the picture of the day is one of Miss Scarlet. She is out of the barn and as you can see pretty darn happy! Even Ed is keeping an eye on her.

Scarlet and Ed this Saturday morning. Scarlet is feeling pretty good!

Scarlet and Ed this Saturday morning. Scarlet is feeling pretty good!

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And how does your garden grow?

Posted on May 15, 2014 by farm2011

If you would ask me that question – well the answer would be that the weeds are growing well and the rest? Not so well, at least in the garden. The greenhouse is still full of a little bit of everything and if we could get some sunshine those plants should be ready soon. It’s been raining here for the past few days and when I got the weed eater I thought that it wouldn’t be an issue to test it out. If not that day, I was sure that I’d be able to use it the following day. Now that it’s been already a week later, I still haven’t used it in the garden. But Mom called and I’m going to go over there and try it out sometime soon on her flower beds. I’m anxious to see how it’s going to work. DSCN8411

 

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The best-laid plans of mice and men…

Posted on May 13, 2014 by farm2011

‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry’. Now I heard this quote probably 30 years ago from one of my friends and honestly I’ve never really thought about it again. Well,  until tonight.

You probably know by now I’m always looking for things to make me better organized and plan each day better than the day before. So I came up with this brilliant idea. My idea is instead of having one list of To Do items for the day, that I would have the day broke out into categories. The reasoning is so you have a well rounded life. Well anyway that’s what the experts say that you should have. So tonight was the first night of me having this super well rounded life. Yea.. not so much. I guess I should first tell you that my list has these categories on it : HOME, COMPUTER, BILLS, FAMILY, PERSONAL, PHONE CALLS, COMMUNITY, and SUPPER.  Your’e probably thinking to yourself by now – Wow, that’s a great idea! Right? Well in each category you only get to identify one thing to do. That way you can get everything on your list done and be this well rounded person. Let me just say that the kick off of this new way of doing things didn’t go so well. I was working on  the Supper category and needed to wash some potatoes for the mash potatoes that we were having . When I looked down into the tote that is under the sink that holds not only the veggie scrubber, but also other kitchen cleaning things, it looked pretty grungy. So I thought that I would take all the stuff out of it, empty the dishwasher of the clean dishes and then do a quick wash of this tote. Makes sense right? Well, this tote must have had some dish soap on it that I didn’t see and this is where the trouble starts. After the dishwasher was running for awhile,  I opened the dishwasher door. Bubbles started to pour out and onto the floor. What in the heck was that ? Then when I looked inside, it was solid bubbles. Now I knew how Lucille Ball felt because man oh man did I have a mess. I have no clue how many times that I had to start the dishwasher, stop it, and then try to spray down the bubbles to get it cleaned out. I’m still working on getting the bubbles out and it’s going on 11:30 tonight! I’m going to do it one more time and hopefully that will be the end of that. So that brings me to my list. Yea, with only about half of my categories checked off, I think that I’ll have to try to start over again tomorrow. The only difference is that doing dishes are NOT going to be on my list!

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