It's a Winter Wonderland in May!

We ended up getting 5.5" of heavy, wet snow.  Lots of downed power lines in the area and trees weighed down and many split - or branches broken.  Bill was called out at 3:30 a.m. for power lines down north of town.  It was in the ditch and not causing any problems for people passing by so they didn't have to babysit it until the power company came.  

Lots of people in the area were without power for several hours including Peggy and Tim & Bette Jo.  Ours tried to go off twice but didn't.  Schools are closed.

The gravel roads were very slushy and mushy but the highways were all good so Bill and I made a trip to Ft. Dodge.  He had several things to get for the shed at Menard's.  We had bad luck with places being closed.  We were going to have lunch at Sports Page but it wasn't open.  Bill was wanting two things from Radio Shack in the mall but we found that it has been closed.  Then on the way home we wanted to get some ice cream at Dairy Queen in Humboldt but it was closed due to no power.  Not our day!

Something we learned with this snow storm, wet snow sounds like thunder when it slides off the roof of the new shed!   The good thing is the snow is melting fast.

Delivering May Baskets While It's Sleeting

It's hard to believe that we were working ground, planting and spraying in three fields just yesterday when we have snow tonight with 6-9" possible!  

What it looked like when I was delivering May Day baskets.

I had been thinking about doing May Day baskets off and on and then saw some ideas for some on Miss Spenser's blog yesterday.  I liked the idea of making them out of cans (like pineapple, green beans, etc.) since I had a couple of empty ones in recycling I could use.  Also, in my stamping tools, I have a Crop-A-Dile that will punch holes through anything.

I just used one sheet of 12 x 12 designer paper to cover both cans.  I attached it with sticky strip so it would hold.  I punched 2 holes in each can to tie the ribbon handles through.  Then I used my Beautiful Wings Embosslit to cut out several sizes of butterflies (color is Summer Starfruit).  I added some pearls to one butterfly and a rhinestone to another, then attached them to the covered can with glue dots.  I made a tag with the Extra Large Oval Punch and the Scallop Oval Punch and wrote Happy May Day!   All products used were Stampin' Up!  Order any time through my web site - above right.

One is for our neighbors and one for Lacey and Camry.   The only thing wrong was that it was sleeting when I went to deliver them!  We went from working ground and planting corn yesterday to getting 6-9" of snow today!  A couple of days ago I was getting the screened porch ready for the summer!

Before filling.

Filled and ready to deliver.

Snow in the porch

I picked these after taking the picture. 

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.