Easier Seed Handling (part 1)

Bill & Tim bought this fork lift when Glenn sold his shop last year. Having it has made it possible for them to go ahead and get several boxes of seed to have ready for planting (2nd picture). Before having the forklift, they had to just get two boxes at a time. That's how many fit on this seed tender. (some can hold 4)

The black boxes hold the equivalent of 50 bags. Before getting the seed tender 2 years ago, they had to lift and empty all of those bags into the planter! They would need to get and handle 1300 bags of bean seed and 700+ bags of corn seed!!! The seed tender and these boxes have really saved wear and tear on their backs - wow!

They do still have to handle a few bags to make the quantity for a field come out right. (3rd picture) The next blog post will show getting the seed from the boxes into the 2 yellow tanks on the planter (Bill says the tanks are officially called central commodity system or CCS).

Diane called me yesterday a little after 6:00 am asking if I could come to their house by 7:00 to stay with Lacey who had been vomiting and had a fever. The post office didn't have a sub available for her and Todd was in Des Moines at school for work. Lacey's still not keeping anything down today. Diane took her to the dr. this afternoon. They want her to bring her back tomorrow if she isn't better.

Today was a mostly sunny day with little breeze but still way too wet to do any work in the fields. We were all able to cut grass starting yesterday.

I thought this was kind of interesting the first time I saw it. They just pile up the empty seed bags in the field and burn them.

Below is a video showing lifting an empty box off the seed tender with the forklift. Click on the arrow to view.

Happy Mother's Day

These are the Mother's Day cards I made for our moms.

The Stampin' Up! products I used are the Cottage Wall Designer Paper, the Big Shot Top Note Die and Cherry Blossom Embosslit, Rich Razzleberry and Orchid Opulence card stock, Beautiful Wings Embosslit for the tiny butterly, and gold brads. On the 1st one, I used a punch for the leaves and Little Leaves Sizzlet for the leaves on the 2nd one.

For the words on the 1st card, I stamped and punched out with the Word Window Punch and then punched with the Modern Label Punch for the layer behind. These flowers and leaves would look great on spring & summer scrapbook pages too!

Bill spent the afternoon yesterday with nephew, Matthew, riding with him while he rolled beans.

Nephews Rob, Ross & Reed came over in the afternoon and then we went to Pizza Hut and to see the new movie, Iron Man 2. Stopped at DQ for Blizzards after. Got home in time to see the end of the NASCAR race with Bill.

Bill is getting back to planting some beans this afternoon even though it got down to 29 last night and will only be in the low 50's the next few days. He only has about 250 acres to go.

Rain Delay & Tire Problems

We've had rain again - enough to stop field work. Bill says he could be done in two full, good days but the weather forecast isn't looking good for that any time soon.

Yesterday was one of those days. I started out by going to Case IH in Spencer (about an hour away) for tractor parts (4 wheel drive). Which isn't all bad since there's a Walmart there and Del's Nursery. Bill requested something from Walmart and said I didn't have to rush back so that was nice. I made it back a little before noon. Came by the house to drop purchases off and heat up leftovers for our lunch to take out to where Bill was planting. Was glad I had leftovers including main dish and 2 vegetables!

After lunch I picked up the mower and headed to our house to cut the grass. Not too far down the road, I had shredded a tire on the trailer that Bill said was most likely flat when I pulled out - not good. I got a ride (kind of like hitch hiking but I knew the guy that came by!) back to Peggy's house where my Pilot was. Went and got Bill. He took off the shredded tire, found another old one, sent me to the tire store and he went back to planting. I went back to get him after I had the "fixed tire", he put it on and went back to planting, and I cut the grass at our house.

I was planning to do the bin site next, then on to Zeman's and be done before the rain came! But halfway there the trailer started shaking bad and sure enough, another shredded tire - same one! This happened by the highway and Bill didn't answer his cell phone (probably no service) so I decided I shouldn't leave the mower there right by the highway & other reasons) so I drove the mower to Peggy's (about 1 1/4 miles). She gave me a ride back to the field Bill was still in. I rode with him until Tim came to the rescue with a NEW tire he had off of something else. He then followed me to Peggy's where I parked it!

Then I went to the seed dealer for some bags of bean seed. They don't use many bags now with the new planter (they get them in bulk in big boxes) but to finish up fields and have the amounts come out right, they need some bags. The bags are 50 lbs.

One of the farmers there at the Pioneer seed dealer's thought it was interesting that I had on a DeKalb jacket! I explained that the elevator was giving Bill a "free" jacket the first year I was here and asked what size I wanted, color, etc. I finally got it about 2 years later! In the meantime they gave me a lighter weight one which is what I had on yesterday. This guy said "at least they give stuff" because I guess the Pioneer guy doesn't!

On the way back, I stopped by home and made us some sandwiches and went back to where Bill was - with food and seed. We ate and it started to rain. He kept planting and managed to get the field done. He said he made 11 calls and received 9 yesterday - most after lunch! It was a crazy day for us and Tim & Bette Jo too. They had been gone and got home to find out that her dad had gone in the hospital.

Today, I've been at home doing what I do better - I made homemade spaghetti sauce for lunch and to freeze and baked brownies. We're getting pizza tonight! It's been rainy and very windy today.

Sunset with Rain in the Distance

This was the sunset we watched last night from the field. I took Bill a ham & cheese sandwich, some chips and rice & raisin dessert (see below). After he ate, I rode with him until he was done which was only until he reached an area that was too wet to plant. His pickup was at his mom's so he needed a ride. I think we got home about 8:30.

While riding, I told him that I wish he had some kind of field work to do most of the year instead of a few weeks in the spring and fall since I like field work - both riding or doing it. He looked at me a little funny and said I should've married a farmer from California! :)

Even though my tooth was better yesterday morning, I ended up calling the dentist after lunch to have it checked out. They were full for the day but they thought I should be seen and squeezed me in, so I went to Laurens at 4:00. It turns out my tooth was abscessed and had been for quite a while. The dentist "opened it up" as she called it, drained it and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. I have to have a root canal in 2 weeks in Ft. Dodge.

When leaving Laurens, I stopped at their grocery since I had never been in it. I like to check out things like that in all the towns around. It seems quite a bit bigger than ours. They had a deli which is always nice. I found a small container of the rice & raisin dessert that I took to Bill - he really liked it! It was like a rice pudding with raisins and cinnamon.

Very windy again today - up to 50 mph gusts - and a few sprinkles this afternoon. They're saying maybe frost later this week. Not good since the corn is barely up.

Back to the Fields

It's a sunny and breezy day so Tim has been working ground and Bill hopes to plant beans after lunch if it's dry enough!

We're having crock pot whole chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed asparagus, and vanilla pudding/banana tarts for lunch today.

This picture shows you that our trees are just leafing out here. When I was in Indiana a month ago, they already were there.


I checked my 2 spots in our ditch for asparagus this morning. I started harvesting "my spots" a few days ago - about 4-6 spears a day so far on warmer, sunny days. The ones in this picture are lighter green than what I had seen, but Diane tells me it comes in all shades of green and some purple.

I didn't get to work on my purses yesterday because I had a really bad toothache all afternoon and night. Have an appointment with the dentist this afternoon.

Mark Dickey is going to fix a few places with the siding on the house today. We moved in a year ago this week so need to have them come back and get any repairs done since a year is about what the new house warranty is.

I've just added a new feature to the blog. Toward the bottom right you can now click there on any of my labels like if you want to see all of the recipes together, click on Recipes. If you're only interested in my stamping or farming posts, you can click on those labels.

Rag Quilt Purses

Yesterday I got busy working on my Rag Quilt Purse projects again. When I was at Mom's, I got the purse part made of the first one but not the handles (2nd picture). Just getting back to it here. I got all of the batting cut (3rd picture) and the 2 patterns of fabric (4th photo) run through the Big Shot (last photo) for a 2nd purse.

Today I started trying to sew. I say it that way because this sewing machine was Grandma R.'s, and I had not ever used it yet! She would've used it last about 4 years ago! It took me a while to figure out what the settings needed to be, find a different foot and throat plate, put in a new needle, fill a bobbin, etc. It seemed a little sluggish at first (probably needs to be oiled!), but it's sewing pretty good now.

Grandma would be really happy that I'm using her sewing machine. She put lots of hours on it. I think she probably would've made rag quilt purses for all the girls in the family for Christmas too! Every year she always made something for us like crocheted scarves, cross stitch pictures, doilies and covered hangers.

I haven't really sewn since 4-H, except for fixing things here and there, so that's been years ago. I never liked making those aprons and skirts we had to make in 4-H!

The Big Shot is a product that I sell through Stampin' Up! (see right column) When these rag quilt purses became hot a few months ago, I thought "I can do that - it's just all straight stitching"! Sure enough - it's easy and fun!

You can put a long strip of fabric 5" wide folded up through the Big Shot using the scalloped square die we also sell (in the last photo), and cut 6-8 squares at a time!

I'll post pictures of the finished purses in the next couple of days!

I'm excited to get these done so that I can make Diane a baby quilt with these scalloped squares! It'll be fast and easy and very soft. Shhhhh, it's a surprise! It'll be a surprise to me too if I get it done, but I think I can!

*** let me know if you're interested in buying a Big Shot so you can do these fun things too! It's a great machine for scrapbooking, card making, fabric projects and lots more.