Hot and dry summer

The Bluebells were beautiful early this spring, when there was plenty of moisture. And they did bloom earlier then usual.   Now... we are in a rather dry time and wishing for rain.


Donya, our resident baker, decided to get a booth for the summer at the farmer's market in New Hampton. Wednesdays and Thursdays the baked goodies smells coming from our kitchens kick starts appetites. The guys at the barn are hoping she will not sell everything in the 2 hours she sets up her tables. Last week she brought back very little along with a list of items to bake the next day for locale customers that can't get over to the market. She had ran out of flour baking for the quilt retreat so I had to make a trip to the Mennonite store to buy another 100 pounds of unbleached flour.


We can visit many Mennonite stores near the barn. Lots of green houses, a dry goods store and of course.. our favorite... the grocery store. I have not visited the furniture makers, but Don has made a few trips to their hardware stores.


A lot of the Mennonite families use horse and buggy, but there are some 'driving' Mennonites. 


It is hot and muggy, with clouds.  Please please ... rain !!

Arbor and other summer work

The arbor is almost completed.  Swinging gates, shingles, and add some potted flowers... hooray.. it is even better then the photo we had saved so many years ago!!

The gardens are finally planted, we can hardly wait for the first produce to harvest. Rhubarb has been super and we have enjoyed rhubarb muffins, coffee cake, torte, and of course.. pie.  No home garden strawberries this year, but great plans for a new strawberry bed to get planted this summer.

Donya, our chicken wrangeler, has managed to hatch out 4 batches of 'silky' babies. Mostly because we did not gather the eggs for her while she was on vacation, and 4 of her hens sat on a clutch of eggs. Thank you very much, she said to us... because you can not eat anything you name. You guessed it, she names everything.

Life is good, down on the farm.....

Indian Summer

It is that time of year again... Indian summer arrived after an September frost. A bit early for the first frost this year.  The combines are sooo big, it takes no time at all to harvest the fields. I am enjoying the return of my countryside view from the kitchen windows. 

Corn was the crop grown next to our yard this year. It was fun feeling all cozy tucked behind the corn for the summer. It is true that on a hot summer night you can hear the corn growing. It squeaks and pops as it works it's way skyward. Very entertaining experience for our city guests. Sitting on the patio, talking on their cell phones to those back home "What are you doing?" the person on the other end of the phone must be asking, "Sitting on the patio listening to the corn grow" they answer.

I had forgotten how closed in I was feeling, until I looked out this morning and could almost see New Hampton, 7 miles east of my kitchen.

Just when I thought I could no longer breath, a nice rain came along and washed all the harvesting dust out of the air. 

Life is good.

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.