Research

Posted on July 9, 2015 by farm2011

I never thought of myself as a gadget person but after I was soaking in the bathtub tonight I’m thinking that well maybe I am just a little bit.

I saw this ‘Deep Water Bath’ plastic thing on the web the other day and I thought  – Heck yea! The claim is that you can get like a billion more gallons of water in your tub instead of it all draining out when it gets up to the drain. OK,maybe not a billion gallons but it’s supposed to be a lot more.

So tonight I was going to give it a try. I must say that it wasn’t the easiest to keep in our tub because our tub has more of a rounded edge by the drain than the normal tub, but I did get it to finally work and I think I might have got just a little bit too much water in the tub to fit in. It was full. Very full!DSCN0111

But the trouble that I had was because it was so full, I got so stinking hot that I had to get out of the tub way too early!

The final conclusion? Well the Deep Water Bath attachment did really work!DSCN0112

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Research

Mystery Photo 7-8-15

Posted on July 8, 2015 by farm2011

Now try your luck on this weeks Mystery Photo

Here is the photo clue

DSCN0101 - Version 2

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | 4 Comments

Results for Mystery Photo 7-1-15

Posted on July 8, 2015 by farm2011

Now there’s no fooling you guys is there!

Here was the clueDSCN0095 - Version 2

And the answer was that it was the egg basket. And let me just say that these days it’s used quite a bit! DSCN0095

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | Comments Off on Results for Mystery Photo 7-1-15

When did this happen?

Posted on July 7, 2015 by farm2011

Tonight Daryl had an eye appointment after work and as I was sitting in the lobby waiting for him to get done with his check up, I was thinking to myself when did we get old and need glasses to see?

I mean it just literally snuck up on me. One day I could see almost down to the corner on our gravel road and now? Well now I put on my glasses pretty much the first thing in the morning just to see which tooth brush is mine. Yea, not cool.

Now I know that there are many things that are so much worse in life and I agree with that. But I guess I never really thought that I was getting old until tonight. Kinda crazy isn’t it? I mean I’m not a spring chicken but I’m not a old dead hen either!

So with thinking about getting old and how fast time flies, I also started to think about what we should do for our 35th wedding anniversary. By now you probably know I’m a planner and our 35th anniversary isn’t for a couple of years, but hey I think I better talk about it now before I forget 🙂

 

Posted in Family | 2 Comments

The Holiday Weekend comes to a close

Posted on July 5, 2015 by farm2011

This weekend we sure got a lot done and also we spent some time doing nothing. It was the absolute perfect weekend for both of these things.

And guess what? We actually got our bicycles out these past two days. Normally we get them out around the first week of May – yea, that for sure didn’t happen. So this is the latest that we’ve taken them out of winter storage and hopefully we won’t pay for it on our upcoming bike rides. The big thing that I noticed these past couple of days is that I went brain dead on the gears. Now not necessarily how to shift but when we were going up this one pretty big hill today I thought what in the world is going on? I mean I was just saying to myself, one leg two leg, one leg two leg…. I’m sure you get the picture. I just focussed on the top of the hill and only to realize that the big gear is the top 12 to 17 gears and not the bottom 1 through 5 gears. Kind of a big mistake don’t you think? But it’s crunch time baby and what doesn’t kill you makes you strong right? Well I was sure glad that it didn’t kill me that’s all I’m saying about that!  We started our training on the bike trail yesterday and I sure like the Prairie Farm Recreational Trail in Calmar Iowa. A lot of the ride is under a canopy of trees and we rode to a local town to see what was going on there. Just a really nice trail.20150704_162431_resized

Other things going on was that I was reading from my soap bible book and in it there is a section that said if you are a soap maker, then you need to make some bar shampoo. Well if the book said that this is something that everyone should try, I guess count me in! It had coconut oil, olive oil, and then something called jojoba oil. This last oil, jojoba oil is kinda weird because it’s not really an oil but a wax that’s found in the seeds of the jojoba plant. Now who said you can’t learn something new about soap making every day 🙂 So this soap is fragranced with some of my essential oils. I used lavender and frankincense in it. After I put the frankincense into it I thought holy smokes that was kinda dumb! That oil is one of my more expensive ones. Oh well, I guess too late right? Hopefully I like the soap.

Drying the hair soap out

Drying the hair soap out

But I got done with the hair soap and then I thought also to make a double batch of ‘Sassy Come Home’ soap. This soap has about a cup of milk in it, along with oatmeal, honey, and the normal oils. It’s one that seems pretty popular and I sure hope it turns out because it made a pretty big batch! It kind of looks good to eat doesn’t it?

Sassy Come Home soap

Sassy Come Home soap

A couple of batches of beef jerky made it’s way into the schedule these past two days and it’s like a broken record because I sure wish I would have kept track on how many lbs I’ve made over the years. So if I would’ve kept track, I’d add another 4 lbs to the list.

A tradition with us is to also see how tall the corn is on the 4th of July. The old saying is that it should be knee high on the 4th of July, but as you can see it’s much taller than that. Someone was saying that last week it grew three leaves in a week. Now you almost could see the corn growing if it grew that fast! Daryl said that it’s close to tasseling out. It sure seems early for that. 20150705_171610_resized

And to finish out the weekend – make sure that you’re ready for this. If you’re not sitting down, I’d recommend that you do find a chair. I’m just saying…

Here is the picture of the garden a couple of days ago

This is the before picture of the garden

This is the before picture of the garden

OK, it’s not pretty I know! And here is the garden all cleaned up

Wait for it…..

 

Wait for it…

 

Here is the finished product. SHAZAM! In the garden I’ve got a both eating tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, green peppers, and a couple of different hot peppers, peas, onions, lettuce, chives, parsley, and a strawberry patch. Not a bad haul underneath all those weeds! Daryl had some extra grass the other day so he put it around a couple of the tomato plants to keep the moisture in. Yup, she’s lookin’ pretty fine if I say so myself!  DSCN0097

 

And our 4th of July weekend wouldn’t be complete without getting the Chevelle out to celebrate our engagement anniversary. See we got engaged 33 years ago on the 4th of July. Pretty romantic right? Well it is a fun weekend to get engaged or it’s also an easy weekend to remember when we got engaged. Maybe it’s just a little bit of both!

Looking over the hood of the Chevelle heading out for the night

Looking over the hood of the Chevelle heading out for the night

Posted in Gardening, Places to visit, Riding bikes, Soap | Comments Off on The Holiday Weekend comes to a close

Save the lettuce and Museum Day!

Posted on July 3, 2015 by farm2011

With the 4th of July being on a Saturday this year, both the companies that Daryl and I work for are closed on Friday. SCORE!!!

So what to do with the day right? Well first things first, since I saved the peas in my garden, I wanted now to move on to the rest of the vegetables. I wanted to see if I had any lettuce left. I really like fresh lettuce out of the garden and for some reason when William planted it in the past years he had everything come up. Me? Well I’m not as lucky. Or maybe the weeds choked it out. Yea, that’s probably the real reason. Oh well whatever happened, it was todays job early this morning to see just what I have left (if any) and try to save the lettuce.

I’ve been trying to only spend only about an hour a day pulling weeds and tilling the garden ad so far so good. For today’s job, I was able to find a few scrawny stems. Well it’s better than nothing and now to see if they will grow better without all their friends the weeds.

After catching up with things around the house, Daryl and I have been talking about going to the John Deere museum for sometime now and today looks like the perfect day for that. After some other errands in town and of course we went out for dinner, we finally made it to the museum later in the afternoon. IMG_3174And to say that I was impressed is an understatement. IMG_3169The museum is beautiful. IMG_3168IMG_3173OK, that’s kinda weird to say that about a tractor museum,  but from the second you walk into the door you know that these guys spared no expense to make it look expensive and awesome. IMG_3166They did really cool things with technology and it was fun just to see how they not only set up the place but also how much stuff was in it. Man oh man, if we could just get our little store in our town to look 1/10 this cool once a year for the Irish Fest that would be awesome!

On to the next museum. The next one was the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum & Grout Museum of History & Science. IMG_3186Whew! Just looking at the title you know that there’s going to be a lot going on in there right? And that’s an understatement. This museum looks big on the outside but once you get inside you know that if you want to see it all, you’re going to be spending a couple of hours inside it.IMG_3185IMG_3179

The Five Sullivan brothers

The Five Sullivan brothers

I’ve learned quite a bit these past few weeks about the Sullivan brothers and the one thing that it really interesting is that one of the reasons all five of these brothers signed up for the war was because of a friend from a nearby town of ours was killed at Pearl Harbor. IMG_3178This made the boys angry that their friend had to die and they wanted to do something about it. Now I know that this was a time when most all young guys were signing up for the war, but seriously having 5 sons and all of them heading out at once? Then the story goes that the boys who wrote home all the time all of a sudden had their letters stop. But the parents neighbor who’s son was also a sailor wrote home to say it was too bad that the Sullivan’s boat went down. How crazy hard that would be wouldn’t it? Yikes! And they just had to wait until someone gave them to formal word. I can’t hardly stand it if one of the boys are traveling somewhere and I don’t a text that they made it OK safe and sound. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t handle this situation very good that the Mom and Dad had to go through!

Because this museum is also a Veterans Museum there are artifacts and history of all the wars. IMG_3181There was one place in the museum that we really wanted to go visit and that was the Korean War. Now I wanted to go see this not only because my Dad was in this war but also because we had heard that Daryl’s uncle was in a picture in the museum. If I remember the story right, his uncle said that they were visiting the museum with their grown kids and one of the kids turned around and saw a picture of their dad (Daryl’s uncle). Seriously how cool it that? It might bring back some memories that have been put away for awhile but it would be something to see if you were his wife and kids. It didn’t take us long and we like we found Morris. Check him out! I don’t think they knew this soldier was from Iowa, but even so, there was 8000 Iowa’s in the war and around 5,720,000 people sent over to serve, how crazy it is to see Morris standing there !IMG_3180

Well that pretty much ended our day for today. We thought about getting our bikes out for the first time this year  – but it only was a thought for now 🙂

Posted in Gardening, Places to visit | 4 Comments

Save the Peas!

Posted on July 2, 2015 by farm2011

My mission if I decide to take it : Save the Peas!

What? Yup, my poor little garden has once gotten away from me and it’s just like a broken record isn’t it? I mean every year I have such high hopes and then BAM! everything changes.

But this year, my mission isn’t impossible and I’m going to save the garden from being totally overtaken by weeds.

So the task started last night. I thought if I just tried to save one thing at a time it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. And guess what? It honestly wasn’t so bad. But my feet and hands probably wouldn’t be the same. I had to kind of him my hands at work because my nails are pretty much extinct and there is so much dirt ground into the rest of my hands that they are not looking so hot. That is a very accurate statement if I say so myself. And my feet? Yea, it’s a good thing my mom gave me a foot manicure set because I’m guessing that I’ll probably have to use it this weekend!

For my mission I’ve got an apple basket that’s working good to haul the loads of weeds out and for now I’m making a weed compost pile behind the gas tank. The reason why I choose this spot for all my weeds? It was the closest spot to hide anything 🙂

I did take a before picture but decided to wait until I can show the after picture with it. I’d hate for anyone to keel over just looking at it.

Well for now? It’s looking much better and hopefully before the weekend is over she’ll be looking pretty nice. Keep your fingers crossed!

Posted in Gardening | Comments Off on Save the Peas!

Mystery Photo 7-1-15

Posted on July 1, 2015 by farm2011

Thank you to everyone who replied with answers to the Mystery Photo last week. I’m not sure just exactly why our rocks do this, but we see quite a few in the one field by the creek.

OK, for this weeks photo. This is something that is used very often on the farm. Can you guess what it is?DSCN0095 - Version 2

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | 5 Comments

Just like going to confession

Posted on July 1, 2015 by farm2011

I am preparing myself to go to the dentist. Now I know that this isn’t such a big deal – but if that’s true – why do so many of us get so nervous about it?

So as I was thinking this whole thing through these past couple of days I thought that it sure seems like it was so similar to confession.

And if you can quiet picture it, here’s why I think that.

You know you have to go and there is a reminder either in the bulletin for confession or on your answering machine that you have this ‘thing’ coming up. Yea, you can’t seem to escape it!

So the next thing is to do prep work. For confession you’re thinking of all the things that you should be saying and how to answer the questions if any surprises come up. Are you seeing the familiarity? To go to the dentist you do some prep work by flossing a couple of days before your appointment and really brushing your teeth good before you head to bed for the night. Now it’s not like I don’t floss often – OK, I don’t, but I do an extra good job when it’s time for a checkup.

Now it’s time. You’re sitting in the waiting room just hoping that they will run out of time and that you should just go home and come back another time. But this wishful thinking NEVER happens to me and then you see them come around the corner. They do a little smile and say your name. It’s time.

So you act all cool and everything and make some small talk but for me I’d rather be doing about a million other things that heading back to the room right now.

Once you get settled in you get asked the question. You get asked if you’ve been flossing. My heart skips a beat but then I remember my training that I’ve been doing all week. I confidently say that I have been flossing! And then when you’re asked how often? OK, so this question isn’t how often in the past year, or past month right? So they must be asking how often in the past week I would be guessing. I sit a little taller and say I’ve been doing it almost every night. Now this isn’t really a lie, but it might not just be replying back to the question just exactly how they were asking it. Tonight in the dentist office the hygienist looks at me and smiles and says “You can really tell. Your teeth are looking pretty healthy” Can you say SCORE!!

Now I’m wondering if there’s confession in our church coming up? I think I’m on a roll 🙂

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Just like going to confession

Stormy night

Posted on June 29, 2015 by farm2011

When I was driving home tonight I noticed that the weather was changing. And this time of the year, that’s not usually a good thing.

So as I’m driving up our road I could literally see the clouds just rolling above me as I was headed home. I pulled over along the side of the road and snapped a couple of  quick pictures.

Now I’m not claiming to be any type of meteorologist or anything – but I’m pretty sure that this isn’t what you would call a ‘good cloud’.

Clouds moving in over the farm tonight

Clouds moving in over the farm tonight on the west side of the farm

Looking east

Looking east

It’s been about 3 hours since I took these pictures and it’s still rumbling outside. And someone somewhere must have got hail because the air is really cold when I stepped outside. I’m hoping that we’ll just get by with some thunder tonight a small shower. Well keep your fingers crossed! It might be a long night!

Posted in Farming | 2 Comments