out of the miry clay: life on the farm

Showing posts with label life on the farm. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Friday, June 26, 2015

the May that got away

…without a single blog post!

Revisiting the April 30 early morning photos taken by the Cowgirl…

Mmmoooooo, says Hallelujah.

C-A-T’s kittens were also born on April 30!

May 2 baking for a benefit auction:

Saturday also means garden work for the Cattleman and Tim – tilling for new strawberry bed I think.

May 3 – no pics of our little friend N who spent the afternoon with us while her parents took her brother on an animal adventure.

May 6 – the Popper and Hallelujah’s calf Hydrangea

May 8 – I attended my niece’s graduation from Iowa Central Community College. Interesting contrast from Bible college commencement ceremonies. :-)

May 9 – Daniel arrived safely home from N.Carolina! {after stressing and laboring with luggage handling and baggage fees}

May 10 – MOTHER’S DAY. We had a late lunch/early supper at my brother’s house with much of my extended family.

May 12 – Kate arrived home with three of her cousins {Jeremy, Andrew & Cheri}. Cheri helped put together the strawberry shortcake.

May 13 – goofy Liberty.

May 16 – Planting strawberries!

May 18 – The cows are grazing the rye in limited sections, so that they ‘clean their plate’ pretty well!

Daniel and crew also helped transplant the spreading columbine from the front of the house to the NW side. {Also accumulated several pots of geraniums for decorating graves at the cemetery for Memorial Day.}

May 19 – Bridal shower for Alexis {complete with our flourless chocolate cakes – yum – and wise advice from her Aunt Cathy}

May 21 – Tim hired a local guy to haul a LOT of sand and dirt from the back pasture’s sandpit for filling in the low ground and the shed.

Kate & I drove to Wisconsin to bring Abby home from college {She stayed for the 2-week summer school block.} We spent the night with Tim’s sisters Janice & Mary and also got to visit with his niece Kim who lives next door.

Thursday eve was also a big decision time for the City Slicker as it was agreed by all that her Plan B for summer was to come home with us! Friday we packed the Suburban very full of their s.t.u.f.f. and made the drive home… late.

May 23 – We introduced the City Slicker to extended family and friends as we attended an anniversary party for my brother and sis-in-law in Fort Dodge AND a graduation open house for sweet Emily from church in Des Moines. The City Slicker saw lots of Iowa farm ground as we drove and drove some more… when she wasn’t napping.

May 25 {Memorial Day} – I think it was mostly a work-at-home sort of day, but the City Slicker also wants to help everyone to improve their volleyball skills this summer.

May 27 – Abby & the City Slicker helped our friend Sarah work on packing up their house as they prepared to move to temp housing on their way to a new church ministry in Missouri later this summer.

May 28 – ‘normal’ Thursday routine with final piano and violin lessons for summer.

Abby & the City Slicker also went to train for volunteer work at a local horse therapy center.

May 29 – They dug the net out of storage for a ‘real’ game.

May 30 – Piano Recital! {with a large number of students}

And a photo shoot with irresistible ‘perfect’ lighting.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

with a nod to a daybook

Whichever daybook prompts come to mind I guess… with help from my photo files.

Outside now – Accuweather says it is 45F with a real feel of 33F. And I think our window thermometer would agree. We’ve had a pretty strong round of thunderstorms roll through here again this morning, so it is cold and wet – and muddy of course.

But so far my forsythia is keeping its blooms so I am thankful for temps above freezing.

Actually there has been a lot happening outside here on the farm…

Sunday morning {Easter} our calving season officially began!

Patty took first place honors with the arrival of Anastasia {which Abby tells us means ‘resurrection’ in Greek}. Later in the day Keiko’s calf Lily arrived.

And sometime early Monday morning, Valerie’s bull calf Hus arrived as well.

Hallelujah’s new calf was born on Tuesday, whom the Popper has named Hydrangea. We are thankful for the new shed that has offered some shelter from the rains this week.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Looking further back to the previous week – Mr. W. came to disk our field on March 30

Inside the house, Abby’s amaryllis is blooming very nicely

And you can see some of the forest of growing things that are longing for the great outdoors – and this was almost 10 days ago, so they are bigger now of course!

The Popper’s daffodil is trying to bloom too.

This radish sorta got overlooked in my window box of greens – and overgrown. Can you see how huge it is?? I should have taken another photo with size reference before they ate the spicy thing, but alas, I did not. You will just have to believe me. It was huge.

Back outside, Tim & the Cattleman spread some seed before the first rain came

Of course we’ve had daily days – our school year is wrapping up. {woot} All three have finished their math courses. The Cattleman finished English. He and the Popper both completed research papers. The Cowgirl must still be working on hers. We finished reading from our TruthQuest Guide as well as spines – ahead of schedule – love that. So we will enjoy reading Co. Aytch. Oh, and we finished our 2014 photo book at Shutterfly – it arrived in the mail earlier this week. The Popper already broke a string on her ‘new’ violin, so I will have to do something about that soon – as in, today if possible. I am attempting {one day’s efforts so far} to make use of a free online budget application that Dave Ramsey promotes – Every Dollar. We shall see how far I go with that little project.

The past week or so I have been glued to my little laptop watching another health-related seminar. This one is called The Truth about Cancer: The Quest for the Cures Continues. (<—click for hyperlink) I think I have 3 episodes left to watch. It’s one of those online seminars you can view for free for 24 hours before the next episode takes its place. {Each day’s episode is only about an hour, so it’s not an all-day commitment!} Anyway IF you are at all interested, the currently available episode 9 is to include doctors who have battled cancer with alternative solutions themselves. The one thought I will leave with you, even if you don’t choose to look it up: Cancer is a symptom of a sick body. If you can keep your immune system strong enough, the idea is that God made our bodies to heal themselves – or keep from getting the terrible disease. The doctors interviewed have varying views of whether you can completely avoid ‘conventional’ chemo/radiation, but I am a firm believer in the Hippocratic oath of “First do no harm.”

{putting my soap box back in the closet now…}

:::Great News of the Day:::

According to FlightView, our Kate has less than five hours remaining on her flight from Beijing to Chicago!!

Sooo on that note, I’ve got places to go and things to do! {It’s also violin & piano lesson/groceries & errands day before we take a drive to the DsM airport after supper.}

Ciao for now!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

still in catch-up mode

Now that it’s the END of September, and I’ve spent many blogger hours sharing our life that was August… it must be time to talk about the current month while it’s still sorta current.

Since I have been a bit more active on facebook, I will borrow from my timeline there as well as the beloved wall calendar hanging at my desk. And the camera of course [gotta love date/time stamps].

:::WEEK ONE:::

Tim & the Cattleman spent much of Labor Day outside…

A lovely throw-back to 1968-ish, which my SIL posted on fb ~

I did get an appointment with my dentist and learned for sure that my crown was still in place. \o/ What I lost was a major-huge filling in the next tooth. The good news is that said dentist was amazed to learn how many years ago she’d placed that filling, while promising me I’d be back soon to crown that tooth. I guess I like a challenge. But I didn’t argue with her this time, just thanked her for the temp filling that has kept me over-eating for the past several weeks. I have a 90-minute appointment in another week to prep the tooth for a crown. [I’m seriously not looking forward to that, which anyone with a small jaw and TMJ-tendencies can understand why. Ninety minutes?!]
I shipped a package to Abby with whatever little things the girls left behind (?) I don’t really remember now, probably in the TMI category anyway. I also memorized the phone number for a local computer repair guy… who still has Abby’s laptop in his possession. [I finally begged Tim to knock on his door last week since he quit answering the phone – probably has caller ID. ha ha] Anyhoo, I guess it should be a matter of prayer, trusting that God will work a minor techno miracle. And hopefully we have all learned the valuable lesson and won’t need to repeat it. Um, and hopefully we will get her laptop back before Christmas.
We officially started the new SCHOOL year at home. And piano lessons. I shipped a smaller package to Daniel since I refused to mail his ceramic mug with the reasoning that he could buy a new one at the college bookstore for less than I could ship his favorite one from home. [hard hearted? Don’t worry, my mom will make up for it… just wait and see.]
More garden produce. And the Cowgirl decided to bake a cake {one layer} and make use of the fondant Kate mixed up in May… along with frosting roses from the freezer. Maybe that was the night Tim & I went out for dinner with friends? [Ah yes. fyi, you can use a visa statement for a journal prompt as well]

Sunrise ~ September 6

Someone borrowed my camera… moooo

:::WEEK TWO:::

Salsa! And a birthday gift for Kate…

the Cattleman cooked supper ~ Farmhouse BBQ Biscuits. With extra biscuits for breakfast!

the Popper still loves to study science, but literature is her new favorite class. The joys of junior high.

And that was just Monday. On Tuesday, I shipped Kate’s b-day package. Then Tim’s niece brought her daughter up for a visit {while her hubby was on a tree-trimming job near DesMoines}

The new shed = storage for hay. And potatoes in the rafters! {hmm, they must have baled hay during week one? Oh yes, and the Cattleman missed the first piano lesson because he was raking… and the girls needed to shop fabric.}

Wednesday. Happiness is… a fresh hair cut. Then canvassing one-fourth of Cambridge while the chilly wind blows my hair around. It’s a wild life, folks.