Special Day

Recently we went to Blue Earth, MN for a special day - our niece and nephew's First Communion.  

Dave & Karen (Dad & Mom), Ryanne and the twins

the twins with Memaw (Bill's mom, Peggy)

After church, we went back to their house for lunch, cake and opening gifts.

Jim & Bill, Taylor & Matthew

 The kids did really well and were also very patient with all the pictures!  Nice day!

I Missed It!

I had been watching a horse about to give birth via a web cam for a few days HERE and getting the owner's updates on Facebook.  Monday night I watched until about midnight. They were saying that she had all the signs she could give birth "soon" but they had been saying she was very close for a few days.  Watching the web cam she was still standing around and eating so I went to bed.  You guessed it - she had it about an hour later!  

The web cam is going to be up for about a week per the owner so you can check in and watch her with her mother in the barn and out in the pasture.   They live in Maryland.

HERE is a link to the story of how the birth happened including pictures.  Very interesting.

Finished! And Good Restaurant Find

We got finished with planting on Sun. and rolling and spraying yesterday!  So far this year is already better than last year.  Last year we had lots of" just wet enough to not be able to do anything" weather, and we and others didn't get to plant some fields AT ALL.  So it is good to have everything planted this year.  

Yesterday I went to Bible Study and then the four of us went out for lunch to Carnegie Cafe in Lake City.  What a treat!  The food was very good and so was our waitress plus the atmosphere.  This is an old library on the town square turned into a restaurant.  The decor is very nice too.  I loved the Apple of my Eye Salad which included really tasty grilled chicken, sliced strawberries, almonds and cheese on greens with a secret dressing served with a "sister roll" that was unusual and very good.

tables outside the old library, now cafe

my Apple of my Eye 1/2 Salad, sister roll and French Onion Soup

me, Deanne, Sandi, Deb

 

some of the decor - our table was there in the corner

After lunch, we walked around the town square and checked out the flower shop and other shops there.  Really nice day.

Another Web Cam to Watch

If you enjoy watching the eagle cams waiting for eaglets to hatch and then grow up and fly away, here's another web cam for you.  A horse is about to give birth any time and you can watch!  I'm hoping to see it since I haven't seen anything being born!  They say that she is showing lots of signs that it should be soon (but they've been saying that for a few days).

http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=mcmjotte

I'm waiting for the call to go pick up Tim and deliver him to wherever he needs to be next and then I'll head out to field cultivate the last two fields.  Bill is finishing planting beans here at our house.  We have a sunny, chilly day (46 so far).  It's supposed to be the same tomorrow with chance of rain Mon. so we're hoping to get done tomorrow. 

There's my call . . .

Fun Spring Porch Decor

We've had about 2" of rain the past five days or so and are trying to patiently wait for the fields to dry to get back out there.  We have our corn planted and have been working on the beans.  We have about three more days of planting to go to be done - about 700 acres.  Some of the corn is starting to come up.  Temperatures are still cool and our furnace is running at night for sure.

Spring is finally slowly arriving.  The leaves are just barely starting to come out, the grass has been greening up and a few people have cut their grass.  I'm going to cut ours for the first time today.  

Another sign of spring is what I've been watching on our front porch.  A pair of robins started building a nest in the corner of our porch swing!

They did a real neat job and they were fast!  As soon as the nest was done, the female layed four blue eggs within two days.  

I Googled info. about robins' nests and found out that they normally lay four eggs.  It takes about two weeks for them to hatch and then about two weeks for them to fly away.  It's been fun watching the process, and I wonder if they will come back and build a nest in the same spot next year.

The beautiful Orioles are also back.  They are such a bright orange and black.  I love to see them.  The feeder for them is right near the robins' nest so I can see them both from the couch or chairs in our living room. 

Busy Planting

The ground is barely dry enough to get some fields planted, but rain is forecast for several days starting tonight so we have been working as fast as we can.  Today has been very windy and only around 61 degrees.

The day before yesterday while field cultivating, I got into a fence in a corner for the first time and pulled an old wooden post out and the first section of fence.  I was happy I was able to walk to Peggy's house and get a tool to snip what was holding it all on one of the front sweeps and get going again.  Glad Bill or Tim didn't have to stop what they were doing and come help, especially since they didn't have vehicles so I would've had to go get them too.

Today the first field I was in, everything went so smooth and nice.  Then the next one not as well (but not bad).  Bill is still out planting now in the dark (it's 9:30 here).  He's not having fun in the field he's in but hopes to get it done tonight in case we do get all that rain.

This picture was taken from the planter tractor this evening.  Bill's filling up the planter with seed from the seed tender (pulled by the pickup).  The seed tenders are a great invention.  It saves the farmer from having to physically carry and open lots of heavy bags of seed.