Frost! the start of Fall 2011

 Ready or not, it is here. Fall came a bit early for this part of Iowa. We had our first frost Sept 15!!  Donya saw the frost and hit the deck running to get the entrance to the patio decorated for the season. This is her favorite season, although she does it up pretty good when spring comes calling.


                                                   
We picked up the windfall apples for a treat for our horses, Dude, Skipper, Red and Bud. The horses will soon be moving into their newly repaired barn. The wind had almost destroyed it so the horses have been lounging in the old cattle shed while the repairs were under way.
                                                        
   Yum! apple pie will soon be on the menu for our guests.

Moving in.

                                                     YUM, if you are a horse.


Great weather for hay making, IF you can beat the rain. Rain was forecaste for the next afternoon

                                                   

So what if the barn is not completely done. The roof is on, and that is way better then trying to put a tarp on the hay to keep the rain off. Fred worked in the new hay loft stacking the hay while Don loaded it on the bale conveyor.
                                                   
2 loads done, with 3 more to unload. They can wait until the barn is finished since there was room to pull them in the cattle shed before the storm.

                                                  

 Howdy everyone,

 I've been told that it has been a long time since I updated my blog. How did that happen?!!  Lots has happened, but we survived it okay.

We are thrilled to announce that our silky chickens have successfully hatched out 7 little chicks. One of the hens is still sitting on a clutch of eggs, so there will be more to come.

                                                                                                                                                                     

We were unfortunate to experience a 'micro burst' that damaged our horse barn. We housed the horses in the lower cattle shed until we could 'get around' to repairing the damage. Happy to say, it is almost completed.                                                                                                                                            

                                                 

Don's new hip is working great, and is almost 6 months old. Waiting for the hip (did you know that when you get old they put you on a waiting list?!!), and then the therapy so he could learn how to use it, kind of delayed the progress on the barn.  He certainly is NOT climbing on the roof, leaving that up to Fred.

 

 

I've misplaced my camera, (they are so very small) and no way to call it.  Donya used her iphone for these photos. It is convenient to call the iphone when it is misplaced. I hope to locate the camera before we leave on our much anticipated vacation next week.  We are leaving our animals and pets in good hands with Donya, Fred and Michelle.

Difficult week?!!

Just for fun I read Cainer's horoscope on the internet. Last Friday a difficult week ahead for everyone was the lead paragraph. I think I may believe he was on to something. The computers (every one of them, and we have 7 of them around our businesses and home) seemed to be running sluggish and slow. Even the computer at the library seemed to work harder to get the information up on the screen. Talk about cars breaking down... Fred's garage was surrounded with cars that suddenly had something go wrong with them. Good for Fred, as that is how he makes a living, but bad for all those people that needed their cars 'right now!'. He would get one car off the hoist and put another one on it, while 6 more people were needing their car to be next.

It seemed a bit difficult for me at the shop as well. I found a truck seat for Allied construction that I had missed getting done. Yikes!! I'll bet they were wondering where their seat was. I am behind on the cards I promised to make (my hobby) and card club is in 3 days with me being the hostess. That means refreshments. hmmmm How will I ever get it all done.

Anyway, just for fun I am letting you all see a scrapbook page of my room mate when he was a child. It is a photo that he hated and did not want his mother to purchase from the school photo people. I love it. Rhonda, our daughter, made the page... and she has such a dry humor. The page makes me laugh.
Yep, that is Mr Donald Etter, mad at the world because they would not give him time to comb his hair before the picture was taken. (He's given me that look a couple of times, in the 50 years we have been married). Good thing looks do not kill.

We found a new bed for one of rooms in our B&B (Rosie's) while wandering around in Ikea, Minneapolis. Yea! Just like I imagined for that room, and here it was.. for real. And a price I could afford. I was happy it was very sturdy, after Fred put it together. Now I can install the rest of the decorations in that room. I just need to find where I stored everything while waiting for just the right bed frame.

Florida was cold

Back to work, again. It took me 3 days of feeling like I was in lala land after returning to Iowa last week. A week in Orlando, another week in Miami and 3 days in Kansas. Add to that some interesting side trips and .... I could get used to living like that!!!

I was excited to make contact with a cousin I had not seen in 55 years (she hadn't changed a bit), enjoyed playing with my 2 grandchildren (my goodness Emily has grown tall since last year), visited the town and battleground where my mother's Great Grandfather (Samuel Kee) was killed during the Civil War (Iuka Mississippi) and finally found the place where I had bought that awesome ham 25 years ago in Arkansas (St Joes in the Ozark Mountains.) I've been trying to remember where we had gotten it, and took a different road home each year trying to find it. The Ham is just as good as I remembered it. Yea!!

Don located a couple Allis tractors he had seen sitting in a grove a couple years ago in Kansas, so felt he had a wonderful vacation as well. It is his and Fred's new baby, but they have not committed to buying the big brother yet.
India graduates from High School as well as Junior College this spring. Fred plans on taking India's graduation car down on a trailer and bringing back the new baby tractor when they go for the celebration. The tractor is almost in Oklahoma/Missouri but actually on the Kansas line. It will just be too bad if he feels the need to buy the 'big brother' Alles tractor as well, when he only has room for the baby on the car trailer. Little boys grow up and their toys just get bigger.

I'm back!!

I feel as though I have been in another country for the past 2 months. I was greedy and came out of semi-retirement from the upholstery shop to accept another commercial job. When I inspected it, I thought it would be a 3-4 week engagement. Even with working 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week (I even worked New Years Day) it took me almost 2 months to complete the job. When I first met with the owners, they were not going to have all the booths redone. They did not tell me they had changed their minds, just started bringing them over as fast as I had room to unload them. I had to order more fabric and foam, as well as rearrange my schedule.

I visited the completed restaurant yesterday. It looks great!! They did a wonderful job with their designs and colors. The building had been neglected for many years, so it is great to see it back in service.

One of the fountain booths was on the front page of the newspaper, only because the owners were standing in front of it.
Well, Christmas came and went without me hardly noticing. I did take Christmas off from the job. But hardly stopped long enough for the Christmas parties that were booked at the barn. Donya did a great job filling in at the barn for me.

Now I am looking forward to a brief visit to Florida in February. A few things are booked at the barn between now and then, and several jobs at the shop must be completed before I go. (They were pushed back while working on the restaurant.) It is really good to sit down long enough to write on the blog again.