Unbelievable

A record early fall start for the Kemnas.  This is the dairy's corn and it was starting to fall due to the drought so they wanted it combined even though the moisture in the corn itself is a little too high yet.  Bill says our corn is still standing.  Lots of other guys are combining now.

Bill in the combine, Tim in the tractor

Quick Post

I have so many more pictures to post and things I've seen lately to talk about!  

Today is the start of combining for us!  This is record early - Bill says they've never started this early - and everyone is starting with corn which is also unusual.  Other guys have been going for a few days but we didn't have any ready until now.

Still no rain and we're in the group of NW Iowa counties in a Red Alert for fire due to the super dry and hot conditions.  It was close to 100 yesterday and very windy and to be in the mid 90's today with no rain in sight.

I'm watering trees this morning while Bill & Tim are getting started combining.  You can see how much the austrees have grown already even in this record dry and hot summer thanks to lots of watering!  You can see what they looked like in the pickup.  We had to plant them about 2' in the ground and then cut them off at waist height.  Now they're taller than me.  We will still have a few windy winters with the old grove being gone until all the new trees get bigger.

new austrees

2 rows of them on the north edge since they are fast growing trees

getting tall and wide

    

Still Dry

Much of the state has received nice amounts of rain lately but still not us.  We got 2/10" a couple of days ago.  We're hoping some comes from the hurricane but it's looking like it's going to go south and east of us.

I'm mowing our yard today only because it's long around the four new trees we planted in the yard this year and have been watering, where the septic system is and we have a couple of long strips on the north side of our house.  The weeds keep growing no matter what seems like. 

There is some corn being combined east of Peggy's house today.  The colors of the landscape are changing - early! 

The American Gothic House

My most anticipated and fun stop on my trip home from Peoria across southeastern Iowa was in Eldon, Iowa to see the original American Gothic House and the pie lady, Beth Howard, who lives in the house and sells her homemade pies every weekend in the summer. She calls it the Pitchfork Pie Stand.  I had read about all of this a few months before so planned that I would come home through this area which was only a little out of the way.

First I stopped in the new looking American Gothic House Center where there was the famous painting, displays and a gift shop.  They have costumes and a pitch fork so that you can pose in front of the house - which I did.  They will take your picture for you for $2.
 
Then I went over to the actual American Gothic House to check out the pies.  Beth was on her way out for a trip to appear on Marie Osmond's show so I didn't get to meet her.  I did buy an apple pie and her signed book, Making Piece a memoir of love, loss and pie.

Her life has been interesting.  She was not happy with her marriage to a workaholic so asked him for a divorce hoping that that would get his attention.  Instead he kept working and died suddenly.  She felt like she killed him and missed him terribly.  She threw herself into making pies which is her therapy.  I won't tell you more - you'll just have to read her book!  I'm about half finished with it now.  I'm including some links HERE, HERE and HERE where you can click and read about the famous American Gothic House, see some videos of Beth, inside her house and her blog, The World Needs More Pie.  My next post will include some more pictures of my very fun visit. 

More of Southeastern Iowa

Here are a couple more stops I made on my way home from my stamping weekend in Peoria, IL.  I saw this neat little shelter with cross and benches and the tree trunk carved into praying hands outside a church near Altoona, IA.

Pretty shelter with benches

Ivy Centennial United Methodist Church

I stopped at this farm stand and brought home the best cantaloupe!  I didn't realize I was in the Muscatine area or I would've bought more than one!  Read about this area that is known for its melons HERE.  The sandy soil near the Mississippi River south of Muscatine, Iowa is ideal for growing fruit and vegetables.  

Farm stand in the Muscatine, IA area - known for Muscatine melons

Pella, Iowa

Another fun place I ran across on my trip home from Peoria was Pella, Iowa.  Uncle Neal and Aunt Jan stopped there on the way to see us the year we got married and thought I'd like it so I've always wanted to go there. They have a big Tulip Festival every spring that I'd like to go to sometime.  This year with the early warm spring, the tulips bloomed much earlier than their festival time.  The tulips line many of the streets.  You can see where they would be from the last pictures where the summer flowers now are in a row between the sidewalk and the street.

I was going through Pella on a Sun. so most things were closed.  Will have to check out all the shops another time.

 

Cedar Valley Winery

I had a great time stamping all weekend with other demonstrators in my downline in Peoria, IL, but I also had a great time on my drive home through the southeastern part of Iowa!   I had a place I planned to stop so took a little different route home, and I found some other interesting places to stop along the way.  I saw grapes growing along the road near Batavia, Iowa so stopped to take pictures and check out the winery - Cedar Valley Winery.  Click HERE to go to their web site.  I'm not a big fan of wine, but it's fun to learn about wine making and taste different ones.  I've got one spot left to fill in my pretty wine rack I bought in Carroll, IA.  For it, I'm only buying from wineries I actually visit and ones with pretty labels.  I really like the label to show their vineyard.

Cedar Valley Winery & tasting room

 

 

Look at the Stuff!

It's been a busy week around here.  My Mom arrived here soon after I left for Peoria.  Diane needed a babysitter desperately.  She was the personal attendant for a wedding that weekend.  Soon after I got back from Peoria, Bill left for his annual prairie dog hunting trip to South Dakota.  Mom & I babysat again this weekend while Diane was in a wedding.  Mom left today and Bill got home.

Lacey with her pretty mommy

  
We have had some nice, windows open weather the past few days and some very light scattered showers.  Today we had some rain a couple of times that added up to half a tenth here at our house.  So far the crops are hanging in there.

Back to my Peoria trip - check out these pictures of my stamping friends but mostly check out how much stamping STUFF we haul in to a room for the weekend!  You really can't tell HOW much from the pictures!   There was lots of stuff behind us on chairs and on the floor too!  Wish I would've taken a picture of the bare room after we cleaned up late Sat. night!

Rochelle, Phyllis & Debbie P. and my stamping spot

Rochelle from St. Louis

Debbie D. from Carmel and one of her creations

Trip to Peoria and Back

I've been working for several months on things for my stamping weekend in Peoria.  Once we're back from one of our weekends, we start looking for ideas for the next year.  Then we have to wait until the new Stampin' Up! catalog comes out in early summer so that we'll use all current products for the cards, scrapbooks and other things we make.  

We make five cards for everyone going - there are eight of us.  So that's 40 cards to make before leaving.  Then we also take 3 non-card projects which can be anything from a stamped tile, mini scrapbook, stamped tea towel, candle, etc.  So many possibilities.  So that's 24 of those to make and take.  We also print out lots of the other ideas we've found on the Internet on blogs, our Stampin' Up! demonstrators' site - Stampin' Connection, Splitcoaststampers, etc.  

Then all weekend we stamp, making lots more samples to show our customers.  We came home with 84 new cards this time plus more 3-D items!

   

These are the things I took:  a purse that can hold a gift card or candy or something else, a votive candle holder with butterflies on it, the purple Tea for Two holds two tea bags in pockets inside, an explosion box that when you open it up the sides drop down and you add pictures on each section and this one holds a little tea light birthday cake and then the five cards for each.  

Explosion Box - StampAcademy.com

 

 

Wouldn't this be fun to give to someone and when they open it up, it drops open and they see 12 different pictures inside along with that little birthday cake!

Tea Light birthday cake

Purse from StampAcademy.com

Stampin' Up! Two by Two stamp and watercoloring

I got this card idea from a demonstrator from Germany

Quilt card with vintage button

Holiday Frame embossing folder & Joyous Celebrations

Dress pattern from StampAcademy.com

I'm Back

I've been gone since Thurs. on a stamping weekend with 7 other Stampin' Up! Demonstrators. Three of them live near St. Louis, two in southern Illinois and two in Indiana.   We met in Peoria and made lots of beautiful cards, mini scrapbooks and other things.   They were nice enough to meet me in Peoria, Illinois so that I wouldn't have to drive so far.

Then today I went on an adventure on my way home.  I got to drive through the beautiful southeastern part of Iowa which I had not seen yet.  I made several fun stops today.  Lots of pictures to post!  Will try to get a blog post done tomorrow after getting some catch up sleep.  Here's a sneak peek of one of my stops.

 

Dangerous Job

The other day, I was coming come from taking some papers to Bill up at Tim's shop and saw this crop duster working (or spray plane as they call them here).  I stopped and watched for a while.  I always say that Dad should've done this.  He loved flying and liked doing crazy things in his planes. 

Yesterday Bill & I went out to look at some fields to see if they need to be sprayed.  He was looking for spider mites that normally would be knocked off with rain that we haven't had.  Or, they usually have to spray for aphids which would also kill the spider mites.  But it's been too dry for aphids this summer. We were saying that it's been nice to not have mosquitoes or other bugs this year.  He is out spraying a couple of fields this afternoon. 

Getting Ready

Bill and Tim are getting the combine and other equipment ready for harvest.  We may be going early this year due to the drought.  Bill said that today there was a parade of equipment going north and south past Tim's house/shop.  New equipment, equipment going to West Bend John Deere or Case for repairs or to be checked out and equipment coming back. 

I had never seen the snouts of the corn head up before and what's "inside" of them - lots of moving parts.