We’ve had the most craziest weather this Spring, and I use the word Spring very loosely here!
You just never know what it is going to do and for now we’re getting snow. And seriously way to much snow for April in Iowa if you ask me.
Daryl is anxious to get in the fields and for me? I’m just anxious for warmer weather!
So take a look at what our back yard looks like – it’s just not a very nice Spring day 🙁
OK, here is my disclaimer for this Post. I am not excited that it’s Good Friday with the religious side of the day. I mean it’s a pretty serious day in the church so that’s not where I’m going with this.
Where I’m going is that – It’s Good Friday and that means Red Lobster time! Whooohooo!!
If you remember we have this kinda weird tradition that we only can go to Red Lobster once a year and I’m sure that you can guess that it’s on Good Friday!
The reason that this all started was because in my previous job I would get safety bonuses for gift cards and we’d use them at Red Lobster. Seriously there could be worse traditions right? And for the second part of this tradition is that you can order anything that you want. Yup, SCORE! So with appetizers to start out the night along with lobster and shrimp to follow – it was a very good night!
Hooray for Traditions! 
You know when you see something out of the corner of your eye while you’re driving and you just weren’t sure what you’re looking at?
Well that’s what happened to me when I was driving home today. I saw something that at first I thought was one of our dogs laying in the trees and wasn’t moving too fast. Way scary right? So I backed up on the road and with squinting eyes I tried to see just what in the world I was looking at. And guess what it was? Well I had no idea because I still couldn’t see what it was so I just figured I’d park the car and walk to the grove and see.
So I was worried it could be one of the dogs until I was in from of our farm yard. Yeah, I found one of the dogs. And by the looks of it, she took her dog bed off of the front porch and moved it to the yard so they can keep track of traffic driving by.
I was feeling much better when the other dog came running as I drove into the yard, so now I wasn’t so scared to see what was the mystery item in the trees.
And guess what that was? Well they must have wanted an Eastern lookout from the farm so they found some foam from one of their older torn up dog beds and moved it to the trees. Now I’m not even sure where they found this foam, maybe they had it stashed someplace. But seriously, I think this is pretty funny! I guess maybe they do watch over the farm while we’re gone.
Either they are good watch dogs or they are good at finding some warm napping spots! 
We’ve been talking about heading out to New York to see the kids for sometime now and well it was just the right time for us!
We were able to spend last weekend with the kids in Ankeny which we absolutely Loved! And now this weekend we are heading to Albany. 
We left on Thursday after work and with a direct flight to the Albany airport, and once we picked up our car we found out that we were we only within 10 minutes away from the kids apartment.
Without a real plan in place from Daryl and I for our time in NY, we ended up sleeping in late and was greeted in the morning with breakfast cooking on the stove for us. I’ll be the first one to admit that we were pretty lazy and just enjoyed the morning.
After a good breakfast we were off for the day. Now one thing that I really didn’t know was what to pack. The weather was in the mid 40’s but the wind was still cold. So with about twice as much as I needed, I was sure to find something to wear that would work. We’ve been to New York City before, but never to the state capital – Albany, so it’ll be fun exploring these next few days!
First stop was New York’s state capital. 
And to say that it was absolutely beautiful is such an understatement! I looked at some of my pictures and it just didn’t capture how cool it was. 
We appreciated Kyle’s knowledge and patience with us while we spent the morning there.
And for this picture below I’m not sure just what was going on! I’m thinking that Daryl was probably messing around again 🙂 
And how funny is this? Have you ever seen a legitimate turtle crossing sign before? 
The next stop for today was to find some food and it didn’t take long and within walking distance we found a small pub that served local favorites. And what did I order? Well Poutine of course! When you’re in New York you eat poutine.
Then we were off to the State Museum which was huge, but the display that had the most impact for me was the 911 display and articles. We were in New York after the attack when they were still working on putting the city back together again, but to see the fire trucks that had gotten wrecked and the wedding rings that they found while sorting out the material in the landfill, it was very moving.
The night was spent heading out for supper with the kids and Kelcie’s folks. And since it was a Friday, our meal for the night was fresh lobster & shrimp mac and cheese. 
Now it’s not that I missed the fish, but this dish was awesome! Having a great meal with some new friends was a perfect way to send the day!
Saturday’s agenda was to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Saying that Daryl was excited about this day’s plan is probably an understatement! Especially when the first thing that you see when you get there was his favorite team – the Cincinnati Reds.
After seeing a lot of other baseball stuff that included Babe Ruth’s uniform and gloves, Kelcie and stopped for a quick picture with a chicken. 
And of course how I can resist this opportunity below? But I think I look more like one of the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz than a baseball player don’t you? 🙂 
A fun night with the kids friends and some games was on the schedule for the evening and even though we’re not the fastest drawer on our phones for some of the games we played, we did hold our own!
Sunday was a trip to Massachusetts to check out the Berkshire Mountains and the Norman Rockwell Museum. 
I honestly couldn’t believe how many pictures and stuff that Norman Rockwell did and even though there was a ton of great pictures in the museum, this one was definitely was my favorite. 
And this was the second favorite. 
One the way home we stopped off where the Erie Canal started. 
We were lucky to see a couple of years ago where 2nd channel of the Panama Canal was being made, so this was totally cool to see this today too!
There was some time to also get in some tourist shopping in and then before you know it we were heading back to Iowa on Monday.
But on the flight home I was thinking just how lucky we were. Seeing all the kids within the last two weeks – and well you just can’t get any better than that! 
The weather is still holding out and even though I’ve got about a million things to get done in the house, I’ve been spending time outside just checking out what needs to be done to get it ready for Spring.
So here’s a couple of pictures that I took when I was trying to look busy 🙂
Daryl has been emptying out the bin to get it ready for the upcoming season, so hearing the auger with corn hitting it has been a common noise on our farm.
The last amount of snow is trying to hang on even if it means staying in the shade of the fence line
And I checked out the milkweeds where I saw that Praying Mantis last year while mowing the lawn. I thought I read that they will lay their eggs on the milkweed in the fall, but I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Maybe I also didn’t know what I was looking for either! But when I was looking at the milkweeds they were kinda pretty. OK, that might be a weird thing to say, but just take a look
Sunday – Funday!
Today we were finally able to head down to the kids to visit them at their apartment. It seems like we haven’t seen them forever, so spending some time with them was just what we needed! Even though we were only there for a couple of hours, it’ll hold us over until they’ll be home for Easter. Yup, it was definitely a great afternoon!
The weather was really nice today, the sun was shining and no wind. Yup, my kind of day! So with Spring just around the corner, the chickens were finally able to get out of jail! Whooohooo!!
See when the first really cold weather comes around in the late fall, we start corralling the chickens up to get them all in the chicken house for the winter. Of course it’s never that easy because there are some that just think that they need to stay in the machine shed or barn until we catch them. I know that they also know that they are going to be in the shed for the winter, but they just want to make it a point that they want us to work for it! And seriously we do it because we have fox, possum, bald eagles, and chicken hawks in our area and our chickens would be the prime target in the dead of winter when everyone is out hunting!
So as I opened the door this afternoon the chickens just took their time and were very leery of stepping outside. I guess that’s why they call them chickens right?
But very slowly they made their way out and once they all got out they were some happy chickens! 
With Easter just around the corner, we’ve been having a great time this past few weeks being Roamin’ Catholics. Now if you don’t know what is a Roamin’ Catholic – well let me explain!
A Roamin’ Catholic can be an individual or in our case Daryl and I and my brother and sister in law heading out every Friday night during Lent to see where we can find some good fish to eat for supper.
We’ve been doing this for the past couple of years and it’s been just ton’s of fun! With our Community mostly Catholic, it gives us a lot of opportunity to go to a different place for supper each Friday. Now sometimes we stay close to our farms, and sometimes we head out for a drive. And in all the years that we’ve been doing this I don’t think we’ve ever gone to the same place twice!
Now of course it’s also a good reason to head out for the night to see what else is going on, but that’s just a perk of being a Roamin’ Catholic during Lent 🙂
I’m not sure if this is the case in everyone’s house, but when you live on a farm and it’s time to do laundry it’s anyone’s guess just what will be in the pocket of a farmer.
Now in our house, it’s normally either a pile of paper towels, some sheet metal screws, for sure there’s going to be a vise gripe, and occasionally a fuse or two (not sure why?)
So when Daryl needed his dress shirt washed the other day I was kind of wondering just what I was going to find in those pockets. I mean I thought for sure that there shouldn’t be a vise gripe in there but just what treasures would I have to clean out of the pockets this time?
And to my surprise it was something that you don’t normally find! It was a picture that we had taken in one of those photo booths at a wedding and we both completely forgot about it until now. To be honest I don’t think I even seen it at the wedding. Oh well, it’s no longer lingering in a pocket somewhere and is now it’s on our refrigerator. And as we head out of the house tonight with Daryl’s clean shirt, you just never know what you’ll come across in a pocket!
I had good intentions the other day to stay focused when I went into the grocery store. Well I had pretty good intentions anyway.
And guess how long that lasted? Well I didn’t even get into the store when my eyes glazed over and even though there was no way that I needed the product that was displayed just as you opened the first doors to the store – I stood and with an excited reach, I grabbed as many as I could get into my greedy little hands.
Yup, the seeds are out! Whoopppeeee!!!
So I got some peas, flowers, tomatoes, and then some more flowers 🙂
The greenhouse has taken a terrible beating this fall and winter, so I’m a long way from actually planting anything. But when I get it all put together, and I get some more seeds in my next town run, I’ll be ready!
