Celebrate!

Bill was home before me tonight - he is done!!! He says he's taking the anhydrous rig back tomorrow and not doing anything else but watch the NASCAR race! It's been a long, muddy fall this year. We are very lucky to be done thanks to friends and family helping.

The elevators around here were not open today. I saw lots of tractor lights in the fields when I came home tonight. I also just about hit a deer. Luckily it got halfway across the road and decided to turn around as I was braking.

I went to a NW Iowa Women's Conference at church today. After an opening session, they had a nice lunch of turkey salad, potato soup, muffins and decorated cookie for us. Cindy Finch was the speaker with music by Jill Pearson and her band. Tonight we had another meal of a very nice salad, pork loin, baked potatoes, cinnamon apple ring, green beans and cake. There was a concert open to everyone at 7:00.

Bill's Dad

Bill's dad passed away 2 years ago today - a day after his birthday, just a little over 4 months after we got married and just 3 weeks after my dad died. It was a rough Fall!

He had supposedly retired from farming but still helped a lot with spring planting and he was the combine operator in Fall. Bill and Tim have had to change how they do things including different equipment so that 2 of them can do what 3 did.



So I didn't get to know him very well (and I don't have many pictures of him) but do know that Bill does some things just like his dad. I used to think Tim looked like him - and he does walk like him when he's in a hurry. :)



Here he is with Peggy and the twins and ready to go on a tour around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Peggy & my parents when they came to Indy- to see where I came from.

Stamping Excitement

Demonstrators are all excited today - we can see the upcoming Occasions mini catalog online (demos only). There are a couple of new products that we're going to be selling that everyone's getting excited about! For now, our newest product is My Digital Studio. With it you can do scrapbooks, calendars, cards, videos & more using our colors, papers, etc. - and your pictures you have on your computer! Go to my Stampin' Up! web site (top right here) and look under Products to learn more about it!

There is a long line of trucks and wagons at the elevator today - and we're glad we're not in it! Bill, with Carl's help, started putting anhydrous (fertilizer) on the bean fields yesterday. The corn fields don't get it (don't ask me why 'cause I don't know yet!). Took food out to Bill last night. He got home after 9:00.

Bill & Carl had lunch here today. I made a frozen hash browns, ham & Swiss cheese casserole, green beans, homemade honey wheat bread and pumpkin pie. The house sure smelled good this morning!

Will probably be taking food to Bill tonight. He doesn't want me to ride with him when he's doing anhydrous. It's kind of dangerous. When I just Googled it, one site says "The properties of this fertilizer make it one of the most potentially dangerous chemicals used in agriculture. If a hose ruptures or a valve is unintentionally opened, the high pressure from the tank can cause ammonia to spray into your eyes, face, and other parts of your body before you can react. Anhydrous ammonia is caustic and causes severe chemical burns. Body tissues that contain a high percentage of water, such as the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract, are very easily burned. Victims exposed to even small amounts of ammonia require immediate treatment with large quantities of water to minimize the damage."

Starting to think about Thanksgiving. Having Bill's family here - first time to have Thanksgiving in our new house and only my 2nd turkey ever (the 1st one turned out ok but that's been years ago) so I'm THANKFUL my mom will be here to help and supervise!!

Happy Veterans Day

We got finished with combining and stalk chopping Mon. night! Carl finished the ripping yesterday. They all got started on cleaning up equipment including vacuuming inside the cabs, power washing the outside, scraping mud off, etc. I caught up on paying bills, laundry, etc. and met Bill, Pam & Carl at Ropa's for lunch, then went to my P.E.O. meeting at 1:30.

Bill's planning on getting started applying anhydrous to the bean ground today which I think he said is about 900 acres and would take him 3-4 days to do with the right weather. They get the tanks from West Bend. While Bill is applying one tank (pulls it with the red 4 wheel drive tractor), Carl or Tim go get a 2nd tank with a pickup so that it'll be waiting when the first one runs out. Then they go back & forth getting them refilled. Depending on how many other guys are needing them, they can maybe get 3-4 at the end of the day so that Bill can run with them after closing time. This all needs to be done before the ground freezes.

The following is being shared on Facebook today.

To all our fighting men and women: "A Veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including life." That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it." - Author Unknown...

Almost Done Combining

80 acres to go! We could get done today but Bill is not betting on it. Will depend on the elevator. Bill called Dave last night to come down and run the ripper today. We are so lucky to have the help we do.

This is the little ladder on the side of the grain bins that the guys have to climb up and down quite a bit. This year a guy from our town fell from the top and last year someone form our church did. Imagine how they'd be slick if it's raining or on a frosty morning. There are a lot of dangerous things about grain bins.

Yesterday Carl, Kyle, Bill & I had an omelet, sausage & cinnamon roll lunch at the community center put on by the Shared Ministry Church. I stopped chopping stalks about 6:00. I was only able to do 7 rows at a time (instead of 8) and in A4 instead of B2. This variety of corn just has a lot of leaves and tough stalks. Bill says he won't buy it again! The rest quit at about 8:30 after filling one drying bin all day and then moving the auger to another bin.

We had 70's weather which was great but warm weather causes other problems for farmers! My tractor started overheating and so did one of the semis. Tim says we normally don't have warm weather for Harvest and that things work better in the normal cool Fall temps.!

Guess I missed a nail biter Colts game but they won and are still undefeated! I'll watch it at some point!

The End is in Sight

This year I learned how to fuel up the tractor. The gas cap is on top of the front of the tractor so filling it involves finding a way to climb up on top of the tire so that you can see in when it's full! You can't just listen for it to get full because the gas tank is too loud when running!


Bill & Tim put little cameras on the back of the grain cart and on the end of the auger. Pam can watch a TV screen in the tractor to see when her cart is full and also see where she needs to dump in the semi and when it's full.

Got a lot done the past 2 days with being able to haul to West Bend's elevator after Rolfe's closed. Rolfe closed at 2:00 Fri. and noon yesterday. West Bend stayed open until 7:30 and 6:30 so that really helped. Both are closed today so will be going to 2 drying bins which usually takes longer.

We'll be working in a field with about 100 acres left so won't get it done today. Jim has ripped all weekend keeping that caught up and Kyle will be today. I'll be chopping stalks right behind the combine.

Bill is getting equipment greased, serviced and ready to go. I'm going to church and hope we all meet at the community center for an omelet meal for lunch, then get to work in the field. Taping the Colts game!!