Misc. Pics from Today

Tim knocking dirt off the ripper

My ride

Pam dumping corn from the grain cart into the semi.  Carl waving in the truck.

Bill dumping corn directly from the combine into the semi.

Tim fixing the ripper for me - lost a bolt - lots of rocks in this field.

Bill washing the windows on the combine this morning.

We had a good day today.  They combined an 85 acre field.  I finished a field and then got more than 3/4 of the 85 acre field done so I'm right behind them!  We were all in the same field half of the day.  Lots of the farmers combine everything and then start doing the ripping and other field work.  We like to do the ripping right behind the combine if possible and are lucky to have enough help so that we can get fields totally done as we go.

My tractor has a new radio in it, and I found that it has a CD player so when we had that little bit of rain the other day, I went to the library and got some books on CD.  I'm really liking that!  

The weather was real nice today - sunny and in the 70's.  We worked until about 8:30.  Looks like another nice, warm day tomorrow and then a cool down.

Back to Work!

We've been on a little rain delay for the half inch of gentle rain we got Wed. afternoon, but today is a beautiful day - sunny and in the 70's - so everybody is busy combining and hauling again.  Our guys were waiting until after lunch to start a field of seed beans.  They require special care like making sure the combine and trucks are completely cleaned out from past loads.  The grain bin(s) they go into have to be spotless too.  Most others are still working on corn.  We have about 16 more fields of corn to do but when beans get ready, they need to be combined.  This is a weird year and there will be switching back and forth.

Bill sent me to West Bend John Deere after lunch for a bolt.   Now I'm going back to the field I had just started on Wed. afternoon.  I had made it alllllllll the way around the field once - by the FENCE - (whew - but getting easier), had set the angle and gone back & forth a few times when the rain started.  

I headed to the grocery, the library for books on CD I can listen to in the tractor and was able to have a hair appointment yesterday.  Saw lots of other people out catching up on errands in the rain.

 

Harvest is Happening!

Lots of action in the fields all over now.  I started ripping on Sat. and all went well, I thought.  I had a huge rock pop up but all the parts of the ripper seemed to be there.  (I should've taken a picture of the rock!)  The next morning Bill found that something was broken and things were bent.  

The elevator was not going to be open on Sun. so everyone decided it might be a good day to go to the Spencer Fair.  It's a county fair, but people around here go to it more than they go to the Iowa State Fair.   The weather was going to be perfect for fair going.

I had a ticket to go to a tea in Dakota City so had to miss going to the fair with Bill, but the tea was nice too.  The theme was "The Language of the Fan".   Fans used to be used for communication like fanning slowly meant "I am married" and fanning quickly meant "I am engaged".  The fan placed near the heart meant "You have won my love".  The tea was in a neat old house that is part of the Humboldt County Museum.  There is a pretty, old church and other buildings on the grounds.

Bill spent all morning and an hour or so after lunch today fixing the ripper so I didn't get started in the field until about 3:00.  Bette Jo started her harvest meals for the crew today (yum!).  

The others finished up a field today and moved across the road to another one this evening.  Bill says they will switch to beans sometime tomorrow.  They have just one field of beans ready so far.  It'll take me a couple days to finish the corn fields they've done and catch up.   

Rain - Finally!

It's getting exciting around here - we started combining (corn) on Aug. 31st AND we got 9/10" of rain the night before last!  We had not gotten more than 2/10 for weeks.  This 9/10 was just around our house and town though.  Peggy and Tim got closer to only a quarter of an inch and lots of what we farm is up that way.  But, that meant that even after the rain they could still combine the next day (yesterday) later in the afternoon.  There was lots of wind (we were to expect 60 mph and it sounded like it) and a bunch of big tree limbs were down in town but amazingly most of the corn is still standing.  Depending on the time of season, a big wind like that could blow the corn over which is very bad.   

This is a very strange year with the drought.  Normally the beans are ready first but this year the corn is ready first.  The is the earliest start of harvest that anyone can remember!  You would think we'd be excited that we'll be done early in this warm weather before bad weather hits - but you never know.  We could have a wet fall or . . . ??  Just hoping for no field fires this year.  There were several last year and it's much drier now.     

Today is going to be my first day in the tractor ripping.  Wish me luck!    

Trip To Omaha

Right after Mom was here and Bill got back from his hunting trip, we headed to Omaha, NE for the funeral of our brother-in-law Dave's mother.  She had been battling broken bones every year for 13 years and lately infections too.  Her message to me - one who doesn't like milk - was "take your calcium".  I'm hoping all that DQ ice cream we ate growing up helped!   Jo and Dave's dad were active in their church so the church was full and her service was very nice.  She will be missed by many. 

Bills' brother, Jim, was at the funeral too.  Peggy was unable to go as she was on a bus trip to Hershey, PA, New York City, Niagara Falls and a few other places.  

Here are some pictures of windmills we saw on the way down and a shot of the Loess Hills.  There is a big wind farm about eight miles south of our house too.  Makes sense since Iowa can be pretty windy.  We enjoy the summers when we don't have much wind.  

Loess Hills

Uncle Bill and niece, Taylor

Uncle Bill and niece, Ryanne (LOVE her outfit!)

Uncle Bill with the twins (blurry)

  

American Gothic House Con't.

Back to my stop in Eldon, Iowa at the American Gothic House and Pitchfork Pie Stand.  Since I was the only one in the house at the time, I was lucky enough to get a little tour of the main floor of the house.  Here are pictures showing the Pie Lady, Beth Howard's, tiny kitchen where she's now baking about 100 pies per weekend to sell in the summer.  She spends most of the week getting ready to sell pies on the weekend with having to go to a bigger town (Ottumwa) to get LOTS of fruit and other supplies, has to order the boxes and other things (if you buy a whole pie, they box it and tie it with a red checkered fabric) and peel lots of fruit and makes lots of crusts.  Luckily she does usually have helpers since the number of pies needed keeps going up. 

The lady you see in the picture was a volunteer (also a P.E.O. member!).  She told me that Kohler donated the new sink and Maytag donated a new stove.  I have "Liked" Beth's "The World Needs More Pie" page on Facebook and read that unfortunately the self cleaning feature of this oven doesn't work very well and today the oven handle even fell off while she's making lots of pie for the last weekend open of the year!  

It turns out that the ladies working in the visitor center the day I stopped are P.E.O. members too (one of these ladies has visited our Rolfe P.E.O. Chapter!) AND one of them loves rubber stamping!  So I had to take in my box of things my friends and I had just made on our power stamping weekend in Peoria!  They loved looking at it all!  

Just tonight I finished reading Beth's book, Making Piece, a memoir of love, loss and pie.  It was definitely nice to read her story especially after visiting the American Gothic House recently and because I make pie.  It's about her husband's death and her guilt and grief, all of her travels and places she's lived, how she learns how to make pie, and eventually judges pie at the Iowa State Fair and ends up living at The American Gothic House, near Ottumwa where she grew up.  I hope some of you will read it too.  It will be interesting to see how long she rents the American Gothic House.

By the way, the couple in the famous painting are not husband and wife!

I think the house needs some flowers and rocking chairs on the porch.

Beth painted the cabinets red and Kohler donated the sink.

She just has one normal size oven to bake all those pies in.

She is a writer.  The door is to the narrow, winding staircase.

Beth had to leave, so this is a volunteer selling pies and books.

The visitor center volunteers who are also P.E.O. members and the one on the right is a stamper!

They loved looking at all of my stamped items I was bringing home from Peoria!

Beth's brother painted this for the town.

Cute little Eldon library.

Apple crumb pie for Bill - I tried a slice of chess pie while there.