Daffodils in Bloom

It's a nice, warmer, sunny day and my daffodils are blooming.  Daffodils are my favorite flower so every house I've ever lived in I've planted them.  By the time they have multiplied nicely and I have *maybe* have enough to enjoy outside plus pick lots to bring inside, I usually move.  Since I don't plan on moving ever again, I'm hoping to get about 100 times this many planted here!  (maybe not quite that many ...)  These are up next to the house on the south side.  In another spot that we planted some new bulbs  last Fall, they haven't even poked out of the ground yet.

My favorite flower.

Yesterday afternoon, Bill got started working ground on a field owned by the dairy here in town.  They are anxious to get hay planted.  I took pizza out to Bill and then rode with him until that field was done about 10:00.  It was kind of a refresher for me too.  So first field down - several to go!  We're hoping to find another field dry enough to start today.  Will probably see others out today too.

This past week, Bill worked with a local electrician, Kevin Kerns - something about the first electrical box wasn't right so they had to put in a new one.  Now the inspector has to come again and the electric company to finish it up - we hope!

Bill is the one up high.

Looking Like a Farm

Even though we do live on a 100 acre farm, with the old farmhouse gone and living in a new one, and without a barn or other buildings or livestock or chickens, it didn't really "seem" like we live on a farm!  But now that we have a machine shed - with equipment being stored and worked on here, it's starting to look and feel more like a farm around here!

Bill recently got some fuel barrels painted and moved here that you can see on the north end.  You can also see our trees have some standing water.

This was my view from the bedroom a couple of days ago.  Bill was power washing the quadtrac.  I'll be in it working ground this spring once we finally have some warm, dry weather.  

Last night we had sleet that covered the ground.  We've been getting much needed off and on gentle rain the past week - about 6" total.  They say that we still need more, but I think at this point we'd rather have it warm up, get the crops planted and then have more gentle rain as needed.  (we don't want much do we?)  The farmers are starting to get antsy since we could've started planting Apr. 11th.

Tim traded semis - this is his new one sitting here.  We don't have matching trucks anymore.  They were both white with blue trailers like this one below.   We have a mix of colors anyway- some green/John Deere, some red/Case.  (many farmers have JUST John Deere or ALL Case).   

   
 

Road Trip

Yesterday, Bill and I went to eastern Iowa to pick up some trees at Kelly Tree Farm in Clarence where we got all the trees for our grove last spring.  We needed to replace one of ours and Tim wanted some more cedar trees.  He's getting some going north of his house.

I used my new Directory of Iowa's Best Ma & Pa Restaurants that I got from Our Iowa magazine to find a good place to have lunch in a little town along the way, Gwen's Restaurant in Lisbon.  Another one mentioned sounded interesting, the Sutliff Store & Tavern along the Cedar River.  With eastern Iowa having so much rain and having flooding, we drove the extra six miles (one way Bill would say) to see the Sutliff Bridge and the restaurant.  The water was high and flowing fast.   This would be a nice place to be in the summer.  You may notice there are picnic tables on the bridge.

When we were having lunch, we heard the local guys talking about all of the water problems they're dealing with the past couple of days.  We've had about 5" of nice rain in the past few days but here it has been soaking in nicely. 

I'm headed to babysit this morning so will add a little more to this later today.

really neat and long bridge

there are picnic tables on the bridge - would love to walk across it

The Sutliff Store & Tavern

lots of signed dollar bills on the ceiling

The restaurant wasn't fancy at all but reviews I read said that the food is good including their ribs.  I just went in to look around.

Exploring

The day Mom and I went to Clarion to Daisy's, we stopped and checked out things along the way.  We stopped in Goldfield at the Cheesemart.  They have lots of kinds of cheese (but made in Wisconsin) and gifts. 

We saw these super cute little cars along the way.

And we stopped at The Honey Barn also in Goldfield.  I didn't see any honey for sale, but they sure had a lot of nice fabric and pretty quilts in a neat barn!  I know I took a picture of the front of the barn too but I'm not finding it.

I always like seeing things painted on old buildings and found this Pepsi logo.

Lunch at Daisy's with Mom

My mom was recently here and one of the things we wanted to do this time was go to Clarion to Daisy's on Main.  I had been there a few months ago and it's really nice.  It's a very nice gift shop and tea room in downtown Clarion.  

Clarion is where a lot of area people go to the hospital there to have knee replacements and things like that so I had been wanting to see the hospital and the town for quite a while.  It's only an hour from our house.  The coffee shop on Main Street, Grounded, has good lunch with a big menu.  Click on the link.  I see it has a 4 1/2 stars rating on one internet site.

We had a nice lunch.  We both did the "choose two" option and I had salad with egg salad sandwich and quiche.  Mom had cream of asparagus soup, tuna salad sandwich and cashew chicken.  They always make their little knotted yeast rolls which are so good and they even sell bags of extras.  This time there was a tiny muffin on our plates and a garnish of parsley leaf and orange.  The other time I went there, they had a hot pink impatience flower with parsley as the leaves behind it for garnish.  I took lots of pictures.

the menu changes weekly - follow them on Facebook to see the menus

good picture of Mom - I was able to reserve the table for 2 by the window

food  always shows up nice on white plates

the dessert choices - we passed on this day

this was next to our table - pretty!

you see this wagon as you go into the tea room and it was near our table

part of the gift shop - upstairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

view down from the railing upstairs

Thanks Mom!

My phone is back thanks to Mom so I have pictures!  Will get busy now and post the pictures of the tea room we went to while she was here and then things we did when in Florida back in January.

Bill and Tim have been working on the planter.  Per our Federal Crop Insurance, we could've started planting on April 11th this week but the soil temp. is only 33 degrees and needs to be around 55.  We just had another snow Wed. night.  This morning, Bill mentioned needing to check out the sprayer but once he tests it with water in it, it would have to be kept in Tim's heated shed so it wouldn't freeze.  Our night time temps. are still below freezing.  Our grass is barely starting to get green in places and birds are returning.  I have some daffodils up and getting ready to bloom. 

I babysat the little girls today.  After getting Camry to sleep for a nap, Lacey & I made 7 Layer Bars and some Chocolate Pecan Kisses which are meringue type cookies.  I made them for the first time with an old recipe of Mom's yesterday for Diane's birthday and they turned out good.  She has always loved "meringues".  They are so easy! 

I've been spending some time with my friend, Terri, helping her with the business things that need to be done when your spouse passes away.  I told her I'm her personal assistant like I was in my last job since many of the things we're doing are the type of things I did at work.  It's nice to be doing it with and for a friend rather than as a real job.    

Lately

My mom has been with us the past few days and went home yesterday.  Unfortunately, my cell phone rode along with her back to Indiana.  It has the pictures from the tea room we went to, etc.

This past weekend Bill and I went to Omaha for a wedding and spent one night there.  Mom babysat the girls at our house while we were gone.

Mon. after Diane got off work, us girls went to Storm Lake for pedicures at Spa Nails and ate at BozWellz.

We've had a nice amount of rain the past two days, over 2", which is great.  We will take more though.  Last night we had hail a couple of times.  It's possible we may get 1-3" of snow starting tonight.

I went to a P.E.O. social last night with Iowa wines and we all took appetizers.  I made Aunt Jan's baked corn dip.  

This morning at our library a Rolfe resident who is a former Texas police officer and professor of Criminology is going to do a program for us on Criminology.  I'm looking forward to it.  I've heard he is a good speaker and very interesting. 

Bill and Tim are working on adding some lights in Tim's shed. 

 

Don't miss out!

Stampin' Up! News

Stampin' Up! is offering a FREE SHIPPING Weekend starting this Saturday, April 6th at 12:00 AM (MT) through Monday, April 8th.  Order through my web site (above right) or by e mailing or calling me.

Every 3-5 years Stampin' Up! "refreshes" our colors to keep up with current trends.

Retiring colors are Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Bravo Burgundy, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard and River Rock.

Coming back are Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, Pool Party, Blushing Bride, Crushed Curry and Island Indigo.  These were In Colors from past years.  I hope you held on to them after they retired. 

IMPORTANT: Starting Now

• All retiring/discontinued color products (i.e. ink, paper, ribbon, accessories, etc.) will be available only while supplies last.  Be sure to order reinkers for the retiring colors if you have those ink pads. 
• Some products may not be available to the end of the current catalog period (ending May 31st).
• You'll want to stock up on your favorite out-going color products this weekend and take advantage of FREE SHIPPING going on April 6-8, 2013.

Always be sure to order direct through my web site (rather than Stampin' Up!) to get the best prices, shipping and any extra benefits offered.  Stampin' Up! does this to encourage everyone to have a relationship with a Demonstrator.   www.CindyKemna.stampinup.net

Kitchen Experimentation

Lately, people have been posting all kinds of recipes on Facebook.  I think the Pampered Chef ladies are trying new ways to advertise on social media (can't blame them - those of us who are Stampin' Up! demonstrators try too).

I made one called Taco Bake recently and it was easy and good enough to make again - if you like Mexican food.  You just brown a pound of hamburger (I always add onion to hamburger for something like this), add a packet of taco seasoning and the water it calls for plus 1/2 c. salsa (or more).  Then layer a flour tortilla in a Pam sprayed round cake pan (I used the small tortillas), a layer 1/3 of the taco meat, a layer of Mexican cheese (about 1/2 c.), tortilla, meat, cheese, tortilla, meat, cheese.  Bake at 350 for 15-20 min. or until the cheese is melted and tortilla edges are slightly brown.

I served it with some lettuce, a little salsa, sour cream and cherry tomatoes.  Green onions would've made it better.

Happy April Fool's Day