Terrible Wind

We have had really bad wind all day. 32 mph gusting to around 50. Couldn't grill, plant flowers, walk or really do anything outside all day! The Memorial Service that's usually at the cemetery had to be inside the Lutheran Church. Tim & Bette Jo are visiting their daughter Kelly & family in Kansas. Bill has been feeding their dogs and the shop where they work on things is at their house. Bill found a bunch of Tim's shingles flapping in the wind today. So after we helped take flags down at the cemetery, we went to their house and Bill glued a bunch of them down. He took me with him to call 911 in case he got blown off the roof! Check out the tree trunk closely - love it!

The VFW ladies always do lunch on Memorial Day so I went and got carryout since we couldn't grill. It was maidrites (kind of like sloppy joes) or ham sandwiches (they put margarine on them??), homemade potato salad, baked beans and choice of bars (brownies, Scotcheroos, etc.).

After lunch, rather than fighting the wind, Bill stayed home, and we worked on house stuff. He installed some things in our upper kitchen cabinets that make the doors close quietly (thanks to Carl telling us about them). Our bottom cabinets were already that way. Nice! Didn't realize how much noise I was making until we don't have it! I had him pull out the stove & refrigerator so I could clean the floors. I usually do that but have seen linoleum flooring torn when moving appliances so it's better if he does it. Vacuumed on top of the cabinets and things like that. I guess you'd call it Spring Cleaning - but it just needed to be done.

Flags and Misc.

Orioles love grape jelly too (I don't know about other flavors??) so I put some out. It took them about 5 days to find it but now they're eating both the oranges and jelly. The nice thing is this little table is even closer to the window!






I finally got my big flower pots planted yesterday morning just as it started sprinkling. Mom, Diane, Lacey and I learned at the container gardening class we went to that it's good to have a thriller (something tall), fillers (your colorful flowers) and a spiller (something that hangs over your pot). I'm not a big fan of geraniums, but these pots are in a very sunny, hot area so I'm trying them this year. I still need to go buy a few more flowers.

I spotted these wildflowers when I was mowing Thurs. Pretty color!










I try to do a nice mix of colorful foods and like it when the meal looks nice on the plate. A good cook I knew said it's best to use all white plates so that your food is what you see rather than a pattern on the plate. We do have a set of all white ones, but I use plates from about 4 different sets all the time.




I made the rhubarb pie finally yesterday and shared it with Peggy, Diane, Todd, and Lacey. (Shhhhh, don't tell anybody but I even made the crust with LARD!!! What a difference that makes. Too bad it's not healthy.)





If you haven't checked on the Decorah, Iowa eaglets for a while, you better look quick! HERE They are not babies any more! Surely they will be flying off soon!

Bill and I helped put the flags above up in the cemetery last night. This is just down the road from our house - our closest neighbors. The flags are only up from Fri. evening until Mon. evening. A Memorial Day service is always on Monday with speaker and the school band.

Misc. Spring Stuff

Seems like we've been doing a lot of running around and misc. stuff lately - nothing too exciting to blog about.

Yesterday we had an appointment in Algona to get the squeaky driver's seat in the Enclave fixed, and Bill had a chiropractor appointment. It was a really rainy day to be running around in. We got a loaner Buick to drive while they worked on the Enclave. We had lunch at The Chrome and ate too much so this was my colorful supper. We're still trying to lose weight but after both losing almost 15 pounds, we're enjoying some "regular" meals out, pizza and dessert once in a while but hoping to lose a little more.

The fields are starting to turn green. I took these pictures today of the corn. It's amazing to me the way the landscape changes colors here over the year. From all white in winter (all winter usually) to brown to light green, then darker green (and lots of it) to yellow & green in Sept. to yellow and then more of a gold and then a different brown when the crops are ready to be combined.














Bill came up to where I had been mowing this afternoon so I asked him if he could cut down some branches that were sticking out in the way.









This is the new mower that Tim picked out. Good job Tim - it's nice and does a good job! Tim, Peggy and I share it to do our own yards and then also at three farms and the bin site so it'll get a lot of hours.




If you enlarge this last picture, you'll see a deer. I saw it on the way home from mowing. Usually there are two or more together but this one seemed to be alone.

The Orioles

I haven't seen many exciting things to take pictures of lately - except my new feathered friends, the Orioles. I've definitely been enjoying watching them. They look like pudgy robins except orange! This feeder that holds two orange halves is right outside our great room window. I have several other feeders to get out. Now that we got 1" of rain last night, it'll be easier to get the poles in the ground.

Bill got done planting all of the beans this week and replanting in areas where they had tile work done. Tim finished rolling the beans. All just in time for the rain, which was needed.

I got most of the windows washed and screens put in. Now bring on the nice weather! It's been a cold spring. The leaves on many of our trees are still not all the way open. Lilacs are just blooming. It's a windy day today as it is a lot in the spring here.

Bill and Tim are now working on fixing things that broke during planting. Peggy's pickup is in the shop today, Bill's working on his, they have a couple of intakes to fix thanks to me. I need to get the Buick in for a bad squeak in the driver's seat. Bill needs to get to Algona for a hair cut. I need to go to the cell phone store.

The Goodwill truck is in the area again so I'm cleaning out more old, unused things. I even found a home yesterday for some of Bill's worn out jeans! Diane's babysitter makes blankets with them! I like it when somebody can get some good out of things like that!

Rhubarb is ready. I picked some this week that I need to make a pie with today. Unfortunately, Bill doesn't like anything with rhubarb in it. I'll share with Diane - she loves it. Grandma & Grandpa R. always had good stuff in their yard - lots of tulips and daffodils, apple trees to climb and the applesauce she made with those transparent apples was so good, Lilies of the Valley, grapes and black raspberries that Grandma made jelly with, rhubarb and gooseberries for pies, hollyhocks and all the other things they planted in the vegetable garden. Now that we're situated in the new house, I'm working on getting some of these things going in our yard.

Possible Frost Tonight

I brought my pansies in - again. Chance of frost tonight.

I went to church this morning. It was good to be back after missing a few Sundays. We got a little rain yesterday so it's still too wet for Bill to finish the last two fields. So after lunch, he and I headed for Ft. Dodge. We had a fairly long list of things to get at Walmart, Menard's, Sears, Younkers and Office Max. I wanted to stop at Hobby Lobby too but Bill remembered that they're closed on Sundays.

Got home around 6:00 and unloaded and put everything away. Bill carried up the heavy, old TV that had died in the basement and took it out to our burn/bury stuff in hole so that's nice to have that done. He fixed/glued my broken goldfinch feeder.

Then he asked me if I wanted to ride along - he was going to go check the corn and beans to see how much they're up so he could worry about the possible frost. This reminded me of the summers I stayed with Grandpa & Grandma Dunk in southern Indiana. Most evenings we would go for a drive to "check the crops". And then end up at the Tasty Treat for ice cream.

Spring Things

When I recently went to the Garden Extravaganza in Pocahontas, I bought this simple Oriole feeder. You just stick two orange halves on the spikes on it. The same day I put it out this week, a male Oriole showed up! Wow, what an impressively bright bird! We don't have many Cardinals around here (the Indiana state bird), and I'm kind of sad about that but hope to put out the black sunflower seeds and attract some. But if not, I'll be happy with Orioles, goldfinches and hummingbirds. Click HERE to see photos of Baltimore Orioles.

I can't wait to get all of my feeders up now that our landscaping is done. The three hostas I transplanted from Diane's have opened up and are looking nice back by the patio.

These tulips are new this year and are in the front. I need to get some mulch down in this area.




Bill and I were in the same field (140 acres) last evening - I was working the last half and he was planting the first half - until it started raining. I took this picture of the wall cloud when I got home. We ended up only getting 3/10" - could use a little more to get all the crops that have been planted growing. We just have one more small field to go after it dries out. Bill & Tim are having some guys put in some tile for drainage in that field so have to wait until they're done.

I LOVE the new quad trac tractor. Even though it's huge, it's so easy to operate and smooth to ride in. Sad that my job for this Spring is over already. I wish field work was more of an all year thing!

Carl did get his cherry pie for lunch the day after he helped me with the intake problem!

This past few days I was on the road a lot. One day I was at the seed dealer's with the seed tender about four times. The video below is of Joe loading a box of seed onto the seed tender. The guys used to have to lift, open and dump many, many 50-60 pound bags of seed into the planter until they started using these big boxes.

More Signs of Spring

The temperature got up over 80 today so the leaves on the trees should be popping out fast in the next couple of days. Tomorrow is supposed to be around 90. Whew.

I love this creeping phlox! I had always wanted some so finally planted some at the old house. Moved it temporarily while the new house was being built and then got it moved in front of the new house last year. It's blooming great in it's new home to be enjoyed every year now! Might have to get some of the pink and white too. Just wish it bloomed like this all summer.

The ruffled pansies have really grown.







This is Peggy's asparagus patch and the spears are really popping up fast with this warm weather. We got to have some last night and at lunch today - yum! I checked ours that's in the ditch and had 3 spears to pick today. I don't think we'll be eating any from the ditch from now on though. There have been articles with concern about the chemicals that are sprayed on the fields and then it runs off into the ditches and that this is maybe causing some cancers. No sense chancing that when Peggy has plenty and shares!

There sure were lots of people looking for it in the ditches this evening though! And they were mostly guys. I'm surprised that many guys would want to eat asparagus! Maybe they like the fun of finding it - I do! It's kind of like mushroom hunting.

We had just a little rain this morning but not enough to slow the farmers down. The weather forecast is for severe weather tomorrow night after the 90 degree day.

I had an appointment in Poky this morning, a stop at the bank and grocery and then basically had the day off today except for making lunch for Bill and Carl. We had pork loin, cheese potatoes, asparagus, corn, rolls and Texas Cake. After lunch I took Carl to his tractor, and this evening took supper out to Bill and got the seed tender moved for him. Got caught up on some cleaning here at the house today. Bill is still planting tonight. With the auto steer it makes it easier for everybody to work after dark.

Busy, Busy

The weather has been great! The leaves on the trees are starting to come out finally and tulips are blooming. We've finished planting corn, and Bill has gotten 160 acres of beans done starting today.

I've been learning new things while doing the go-pher job the past couple of days. Bill said his dad never liked being the one to run here and there. He thought he wasn't getting enough done. Somebody's gotta do it.

Yesterday and today I mowed at our house and two other places. Today I went to the seed dealer twice with the seed tender. The second time I got to watch them treat the bean seed with a fungicide. All I know about that is that it turned them from soy bean tan color to green! The kid doing this for me also needed me to lift him up high with their fork lift so he could attach something to the end of an auger. That was easy - just had to push one lever.

Was sent to Manson (about 25 miles south) with a 20' trailer to return some seed and get some more. Bill says that's a next step closer to driving a semi!

Carl has been working ground and Tim has been spraying. We all meet coming and going on the road along with lots of others! We'd kind of like to have a light rain for what has been planted and for a little bit of a break, but the ground is working so nice and things are going well so will be happy either way.

Pella Tulip Time is going on this weekend with perfect weather for it. Many years it's cold for it. Click HERE to read more about it. This is in Pella, Iowa. I hope to make it to it some time. I've been to Holland, Michigan at tulip time before - beautiful.

Sounds like I'm going to be busy again tomorrow so Happy Mothers Day Mom!! And to my Mother In Law, my sisters-in-law, my niece, my aunts, and all the other mothers reading.

Girls' Fun Day

It worked out that Mom could stay another day so Diane & girls and us could go to a class at Del's Garden Center on container gardening with annuals. We had lunch first at Don Jose's in Emmetsburg. I really like how it's decorated and the food is good too.










This very large rooster was at Del's! Diane wanted it for her yard since they have chickens until we saw the price ($799)! After the class we went to Walmart in Spencer and Hy-Vee grocery.


Yesterday I worked ground at the Hoop 80 field. Carl had done the edges for me and went around all the intakes but one. On my first round, I managed to barely hit that one with the end of the cultivator and popped it off. I stopped and moved it out of the way so it wouldn't get chewed up or damage anything by running over it. The bad thing is I then drove over the hole!!! Carl had to come out and probe and try to find it. LUCKILY he did find the hole very quickly - whew! I owe him a cherry pie.

Seems like today I was given jobs of driving around in pickups instead of the tractor! I was in the tractor for about an hour until it started to rain. (all went very well) I had been told if it even started to sprinkle to get to the pickup and get it under cover ASAP because there was Aztec in the back that couldn't get wet. As soon as I got it to the shed, the rain stopped. So I waited at Tim & Bette Jo's for about 45 min. without a job. Bill came to fuel up the planter tractor and then he and I jumped in Tim's Gator to go get the pickup that was left in the field Bill had just got done planting in. I drove the Gator for the first time (from previous posts you've read that I want one). I was home for a couple hours, did some laundry and got some supper together for Bill and took that out when he called. Went back and forth bringing him seed so he could get started in a different field (Tim's). Now I'm home for the night and he will be in a couple of hours. He worked until after midnight last night since we were supposed to get a bunch of rain during the night. But it missed us luckily!

First Day on the Job

Last night we were hoping to get a good night's sleep. A couple of night's ago, there was fire call - alarm going off at the Care Center. That was a false alarm. Then we had a night of not much sleep due to Bill's cold. Last night his pager went off at 2 am - shed fire in town. I was picturing a garage being on fire near a house or two. Turns out it was not too close to any other buildings but did burn all the way to the foundation. Took about an hour. Luckily I went back to sleep.

This morning I had a meeting with two ladies here re: P.E.O.

Carl worked the ground around the edges of Peggy's field and then I was called out to take over. This was my first time driving the new quad trac and only second time working ground. It was fun! This new tractor is so nice! You just push a button to shift (don't even have to put the clutch in). All the levers operate so smoooooth. I did have a little problem with the first intake - got too close and hit it a little - it's now leaning. Bill's going to check for damage in the morning. :(

Two deer ran across the field and I saw a tiny mouse.

Carl was able to get water for Tim for the sprayer and seed for Bill since I was working ground.

Tim was trying to spray but ended up having a problem with the GPS I think. A guy will be out in the morning to work on it. Otherwise, don't know what the plan for tomorrow is yet. Rain is in the forecast for the end of the week but conditions sure are nice right now.

May Day Baskets

Last week, Mom, Terri and I made about 12 May Day baskets. At our last P.E.O. meeting, the program was about May Day and we all then made a May basket and were asked to deliver it on May Day. Terri and I decided it would be too hard to decide on just one person to give one to so we wanted to make more.




These are made with school lunch milk cartons and covered with bright tissue paper. Terri found some Chinese take out containers at Hobby Lobby that were the perfect size and pretty colors too. They're filled with some grass and candy.




I took one to our neighbors who have a little girl and to a woman who has recently had knee and back surgery and we farm for them. Terri and her husband delivered the rest.

Mom and I went with Diane and girls to the class on annual flowers at Del's in Spencer (about an hour away). We had lunch and went to Walmart, Menard's and a nice grocery. We have to stock up on things, and we really enjoy going to a nice, big grocery when we get the chance! Will post pictures of our day tomorrow.

Bill and Tim had more problems yesterday. The new tractor quit running and they had a planter problem. Bill and I hardly slept last night because of his cold. Hope things start running smooth today. Mom headed home this morning so it will seem quiet around here for a while. She has a 10 hour drive ahead of her.

Osama Bin Laden is finally dead!! An important time in history.

It's a Start

After a cold April, the guys finally got started planting later yesterday after a fire run. Another farmer's shed burned that had lots of hay in it but they did save 4 little pigs.

Here Bill is unfolding the planter. This will be the first time using Auto Steer for the planter. Tim was working ground in the next field over.

Bill only made it down one side of the field when he lost the air conditioning and the tractor started getting very hot fast. The fan clutch went out of the 8300 tractor. This was at about 6:30 on a Sat. evening but he called the John Deere parts guy who went to the shop to see if they had a new clutch and they did. Luckily they will answer their cell phones at night and do things like this when it's the busy season. It's good that the farmers can work on their own equipment too.

Mom & I had just gotten back to town after going to see the Prom Grand March in Pocahontas with Diane & girls and had stopped at home to make some sandwiches to take to Bill. We got to the field just as he and Tim were getting to the field. Bill sent us to Tim's house to bring his pickup to the field. Just as we got back with it, he called and said he had a problem with the tractor and to not leave yet. We were sent to West Bend for the part that was left out for us while Bill & Tim got the bad clutch taken off.

Bill always says that the first couple of days in Spring or Fall usually never go right and that was true yesterday. Although Tim was having a good time running the new quad trac working ground! Bill has a bad head cold as of yesterday too.

Today is windy but sunny. Bill had planted 25 acres when I talked to him a little while ago. This is my last day off before I get started working ground and Mom's last day here so we are going to a class on annual flowers in Spencer at Del's, the really nice nursery in the area, with Diane and girls.

Happy May Day! Mom and my friend Terri and I made about 12 May baskets this week that we will deliver today. Pictures tomorrow.