Aug 30- Mowing, Open House and More

Great morning with 3 hours on the Zipper (zero turn mower) finishing up the mowing for perhaps another week and a half. Took a little getting used to it but it sure does the tight spots well! Did loose my hat in the process as I didn’t quite “clear” a low branch and put a small “dent” in the bark of a tree. Could do more mowing in the grove, will see what tomorrow brings. Follow up: finished mowing the grove after errands.

Then we were off to a Wells Ag Open House = free lunch! Lunch was pork burger, beans , chips, water and M&M Cooke. We started a tour but it was like listening to a foreign language. Basically this farmer started an Ag  company that sells fertilizer chemical and seeds to farmers. Huge “containers” (don’t know what else to call them) that store chemicals that farmers need. The BBQ grill on wheels built by Cousin Tom used for many years by the Pork Producers that Tom was a part of. One pipe used was from Tom’s liquid manure spreader! Those Aronson’s are so resourceful!

Then on to Auburn (Iowa) to pick up peaches and cantaloupe from a Farmers Market that gets its produce from Amish farmers. Tom will add this to his FM tomorrow. Time to blog for a short time before heading to dinner with cousins Dick and Sandy Aronson! Love making these connections! Such a blessing! (Follow up: wonderful pizza supper at Ruthvan Bully’s Bar & Grill!  Best part the conversation of course!)  And then a drive around Lost Island lake with a beautiful sunset.

Nice chat with niece Erika wishing her a Happy Birthday! So love my nieces!

Farming Tidbits:

- Saw the first harvesting of the season today! Corn was being chopped (the stock and the cob) for silage to feed cattle…we stopped along the road to watch as they quickly filled 2 trailers. Then the combine needed to wait for a returning trailer to fill. Silage is taken to a silo, bunker or bagged.

- Mowing today I knew I had to be watchful for kittens but didn’t expect to have to watch out for mice and frogs! Tom later told me sometimes he tries to catch up with the mice! Tom! Shame on you! Other times he has run over a den of baby bunnies…I won’t give further details! Just glad that didn’t happen to me!

- Did you know on the local radio station they used to announce when someone had a baby, or someone died? Ok I get that, but they used to also announce when someone was admitted to the hospital! 🤪 AND  when they were discharged!!! Now that is hard for this city girl to comprehend! When they were dismissed from the hospital friends and family knew they might be in need of meals people and would drop off some food!

Aug 29 - Mowing & Music

 The morning started off great with using the utility tractor and mowing for 3 hours! I do love mowing! (And yes Rehm family, it all started with mowing with you all years ago!)

Then it was off to Remsen to visit college classmate Carol and her husband Greg Law. Upon arriving I got to jump right in and help in the making of salsa! Another first! Great time of catching up on each others lives as we cut up onions, peppers, garlic (tomatoes were already done). Then it was off LeMars to dinner and a concert by The Brown Family with tonight’s theme Oh, My Iowa (all the music was about Iowa, some that came from Iowa or connected to Iowa). Such a fun relaxing evening! Another new experience! If I were in the area I’d love to another concert: patriotic, Gospel hymns, Celtic, Christmas. Check them out! (Did you know LeMars is the ice cream capital of the world? True fact! It’s where they make Blue Bunny ice cream and “used to” make Butter Brickle my favorite!

After the concert I then had an hour plus drive back to the farm…but it was nearly a full moon so lovely drive!

Opps! Before leaving for Carol’s I helped shuck a few ears of corn for Tom and Joni to put up some freezer corn. Tom had quite the setup outside: corn started in a cooler, put in boiling water heated on the grill, moved to a tub with cold water coming up from the bottom, drains the warmer water off the top for an initial cooling, then moved to a cooler with ice water, finally to a cookie rack and covered with a tea towel. Once process was completed, moved inside for cutting off the cob and bagging. (Couldn’t cut it off the cob outside, way too many flies!)

Aug 28 - Sioux Falls to Albert City

Left Sioux Falls at 9am for a relaxing 2 1/2 hour drive on county roads to Albert City. Quick stop at the farm and then enjoyed a lovely lunch with my new friend Karen Feeley. Karen has been my boss at the Threshermans Cafe for the last 20 years. Each year I volunteer to work 1-2 three hour shifts over the course of the three day event. And, each year I receive a warm greeting from Karen. Side note: years ago she convinced me to keep posting sunset pictures as she shared how they often brought peace and serenity to an often a hectic week. So…I kept taking them and posting them! This year since I was going to be here for a month after Threshermens I asked if she might like to go to lunch…today was the day! What fun to learn her story, similarly serving in an administrative job in her church, about her family and sharing our faith stories. So fun to share in fellowship together! Good meal too of chicken salad and a side order of beet salad (the beets coming from cousin Tom’s garden) this was at Coffee Tree in Storm Lake.

In the late afternoon went out on the gravel road to watch up close a crop duster seeding cover crop to stop soil erosion and when the seed grows it stops the dust from blowing. (Copied from Google: According to Practical Farmers, studies have shown that cover crop plants can help farmers protect their land’s soil and water quality, reduce chemical input costs, improve farm resiliency, boost yields, increase the amount of forage available, and improve wildlife habitat.) Always learning!!!

Another great day!

 

Aug 27 - Part 2: Sioux Falls visit

After walking the campus of NW and driving the streets of Orange City a couple of times, I began another hour of driving to Sioux Falls to visit classmate Jolene and her husband Mike Hilbrands both MW graduates. We had a delightful afternoon of catching up on each others lives, remember NW days and friends. I learned during our afternoon visit Jolene’s birthday was the day before and the family was coming to dinner to celebrate! What fun to meet again their 3 daughters, son and their spouses and all 11 grands, the youngest 2 month old twins boys! Jolene and Mike are blessed to have all their kids living in the area and are very active in the grands lives watching several throughout the week. So fun to see the grands having such a fun time together. Wow energy times 10!

I had another first in driving vehicles as I’m the midst of Jolene taking me on a little tour in their 4x4 Ranger, I asked if I could drive! She graciously and enthusiastically said “sure”! The switch was made and what fun to drive us back to the house! She is one “cool  and popular grandma” when she picks up the kids from school in the Ranger!!!

Mike and Jolene convinced me to spend the night, concerned for my safety with all the deer that are out at night in the area. Good thing I packed an emergency overnight bag! Thanks for your gracious hospitality and for letting me celebrate with you! 

Aug 27 Remember When…

Today a special day of remembering…college days at Northwestern. I left the farm in Albert City at 6:45am to drive to Orange City and attend First Reformed Church of OC 8:30 service. Blessed by the music and the elder preaching, as they currently are searching for a new pastor. Surprise blessing was seeing, introducing myself and being remembered by Ron DeJong who recruited me to Northwestern 50 years ago! I thought I recognized him after the service as I was leaving the sanctuary, but wasn’t sure…so said a little loudly”Ron, Ron DeJong” and… he turned around! Had a nice conversation with Ron and his wife Bonnie.

Then I walked the Northwestern Campus (oh how the campus has grown!) AND Orange City has grown. I think it has probably been 35 years since I was last there! It warms my heart how NW has remained faithful in their Christian walk, continues to widen their offerings of studies and is thriving when many other colleges and universities are struggling.

Short story and description of picture and a specific memory that remains vivid: The picture with the road with two cars…48 years ago on a cold wintery afternoon with several inches of snow on the ground and on the road, I was driving a carload of girls in my Chevy Vega hatchback and someone in the back seat yelled “how are we going to get up that hill??!!”  I said “what hill??” “That one!”…as they pointed to where the cars are driving in the picture. My response: “ that’s not a hill! That’s hardly an incline!” I then had to explain that Seattle is made up of 7 HILLS, real HILLS! And that is why if Seattle gets even 1” of snow the whole city comes to a stop! We all got a good laugh that day…and yes, we made it up the incline without a problem.

Aug 23-26 Albert City - Sac City

Drive from Treynor to Albert City took a slight detour by Auburn Iowa to pick up 1 lug of peaches and 10 cantaloupe (ended up running out of both on Market Day, really hard to predict the buyer! Two weeks ago bought 20 and we had too many!) Driving temp outside registered on the car at 101, with humidity felt like 112! Thank goodness for air conditioning! 

Farmers Market Day (24) was a good day! I drove the Kubota as Tom picked 15 dozen corn and tossed each ear directly in the basket on the trailer I was pulling! Goes so much quicker this way! So glad to be a little help. (Turns out Tom had to go picked 3 more dozen corn to fill the demand today!) I think this Farmers Market had the most people coming through in the hour and a half it was open 3:30-5:00 with a guestimation of 50-60 people on one very hot day! Day ended with dinner in Trusdale at the bar for Thursday night breasted chicken! Mmm good! Best part enjoyed it with cousins Gary & Julie, Dick and Sandy, Tom & Joni and Jon’s mom.

Auntie Mavis Day (25) Another fun day spent  sharing stories, running errands, stopping by Albert City’s one gift shop The Straw Horse ( not sure how I have been here 3 weeks and just now made my first visit! Such a fun store with a lovely variety of quality gifts.), picking up a burger to go and eating it at the park overlooking Storm Lake and finally Lesson 2 on quilting together (and a picture to prove it!). The start of our visit had me successfully getting her new TV working again(not sure what I did to fix it but it was working when I left!) 

Pamper Day (26) Today was pamper day for me (pedicure) and my car (a much needed bath)!  This afternoon had a nice visit with cousin Dave and Shar. Oh how I love making connections!

Still enjoying sunsets! 

Aug 21-22 - Treynor

On my drive from Albert City to Treynor I got double dinged with rocks from a truck just outside of Harlan (GRRR!!!) so I detoured directly to Council Bluffs Car Doctor had repaired and back on the road again! It has been HOT! Outside temp 99 degrees with humidity feels like 112!!!  At 7:30 this morning it is already 80 degrees! Hoping it cools off by Saturday into the 80s as the high!

Except for yesterday morning going out early to pick tomatoes, cukes, zucchini and water the days have been spent inside in the air conditioned house! But still lots of memories as Bennett and I have played farming with blocks and farm animals or built roads and houses with the blocks and cars. We enjoyed special morning snuggles and reading books. Every time I would take a drink from my water bottle I would encourage 2 year old Bennett to join me! Soon he would find his water bottle, take a sip and encourage Auntie Karol to also take a sip! By the end of the day he was the one
regularly encouraging me to sip on water and of course that then called for a “Cheers! And clinking of water bottles!” Such a fun age! 

Bennett didn’t get all of my attention as there was time to hold and cuddle with 4 weeks old Dawson as well! Special memories!

Tuesday enjoyed a special visit from Brittany and baby Kason! So much fun to begin to get to know the next generation! 

Aug 19 - Part 3 Aronson Woodworks

 Here are pictures I promised!

Aug 19 - Part 2 Aronson Woodworks

What an amazing tour we received of Aronson Woodworks new shop expansion from owner Clayton, cousin Tom and Joni’s eldest son. Clay designs and crafts furniture from reclaimed ash wood. The finished project is truly amazing! Clay explained the process of designing, cutting, gluing, planing, sanding, painting, squeegee, finishing of each piece. Clay has refined his craft to a level I’ve never seen! Clay and his wife Megan are an amazing team! Check out his work at http://aronsonwoodworks.com.  Check out Part 3 for pictures of his work!

Once again the conversations were such a blessing! 

Aug 20 Sunday in the afternoon we made our way back to Albert City but first a detour stopping for a visit with Tom’s cousin Laurie and her husband Dale who live on Lake Panorama. So special to meet someone new that you experience an immediate connection! When the neighbors called them to see if they wanted to go for a ride on their pontoon boat, we were invited and for what was a very warm day the best place is to be on the water! I felt so at home on the water for the next hour as we toured the lake shore seeing some amazing homes on this private lake. 

Check out sawstop online to learn more!

New painting booths!

Largest piece of sandpaper I’ve ever seen!

Planer/sander

Aug 19 Part 1 - Drive to Des Moines

 The day started early as we left the house by 8:15 to pick up Joni’s mom on he way to driving Emma (Joe and Victoria’s) to meet up with her mom and dad, then on to Joe and Megan’s in the country outside Des Moines. 

Here is some of what I learned on the drive:

• Corn takes 99-107 days to mature in Albert City area) of course needs to mature for harvest before the first freeze. Based off heat unit days! Not just number of days. 2 cups of shell corn and moisture test it to be 20% or less dry.  Ideally take 15% from field to the grain elevator. Break ear in half and look at side view of kernel and it changes color, if black layered it is ready for frost cuz it is fully mature.
• Soybeans are in groups 1-4, group 2 (Albert City area) would be considered early and should be ready in 2-3 weeks. The leaves all have to fall off with just the brown stalk remaining for harvest.
• Conservation Reserve Program where government pays you not to farm the land but you still pay taxes on it. It’s part of soil conservation, clean water plan. Categories:  Highly erodible, wetlands, butterfly fields, buffer strips along the creeks. Farmer agrees to maintain the land. If you want to be considered for the program you submit a bid for what you want to be paid and it will either be accepted or rejected. Some of the wetland programs are for up to 99 years. 
• Farm buildings as we drove: hog buildings, usually just 1 building holding 1200 or double wide 2400; turkeys are 4-5 big long buildings with side walls are curtains (maybe 10,000 to a building, typical turkey farm might have 20,000) ; chickens are 2-3 long buildings with lots of fans (one farm near Rembrandt has about 5 million chickens!!!) 
• Alfalfa is cut every 4 weeks and if first cut is early enough you can get 4 cuttings, ditch or grass pasture is only cut once
• Karol’s new YouTube video: Learning to farm as a city slicker (or cousin Tom calls me a “highway farmer”)
• On most of the 2 1/2 hour drive we were serenaded by 3 year old Emma singing Boom Chick a Boom or the one that really went on forever was one her grandpa taught her on the mile drive into town for morning or afternoon coffee…”This is the way to the coffee shop, the coffee shop, this is the way to the coffee shop…and then it moves to donut shop, taffy shop, potato shop, bean shop, onion shop” you get the idea! This probably went on for an hour! So much fun! Never a dull moment with the grands!
• One sandwich, many names! Sloppy Joe, Made Rights, Beef burger, Taverns, loose meat sandwiches

All this on the way to 2 1/2 hour drive! Lots of conversation in the front seat!

Heard locusts last night loud and clear! Six weeks till frost!

Picture with corn damaged is the results of locusts.

Picture of the valley is the view from where I wrote this post at Clay and Megan’s.

91 degrees at noon, 64 % humidity 

This post may have been more than you bargained for but hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for Part 2!

Aug 18 - A Day with Auntie Mavis

 I have been waiting for this day for the last 2 years…spending a day with my Auntie Mavis (her husband was youngest brother to my dad), besides being my auntie I was blessed to have them as godparents! So many special memories over the years! And…we are still making memories together!

Today our day began by going to the Lee’s Quilt Shed where Auntie Mavis was in her “element” and I was so far out of mine! But she was very patient with me as we looked through quilt panels to choose from. I chose one she had already done, saw it last week, and she found one she liked for her next project. First picture has her checking my pinning skills! I started hand stitching and finished 3 petals! It’s a start! 

Quotes from Auntie Mavis: Think outline, outline, outline! Me: Got it! Outline, outline, outline!

Me: My stitches aren’t even! 

Auntie Mavis: My mom always said “Doesn’t matter cuz you can’t see it from a trottin’ horse!!”  😊

Such fun looking at her quilt panels, learning from her years of quilting! A dream come true!

Aug. 17 Market Day

 Remember this day 2 years ago when my life took a detour with diagnosis of need for additional tests, surgery and then chemo from a second bout with endometrial cancer that had moved to the lymph nodes.  Grateful to the Lord, a great medical team at Swedish Cancer Care to be in remission. Praying for dear friends whose lives are touched by cancer.

Today was Farmers Market day which meant driving the Kubota with trailer as Tom picked corn. This week we had granddaughter Emma helping us! Then we parked the corn in the shade and gave it a good bath, then covered it to keep it cool. Then it was time to package up and take the first load to market.

I got to have another 1st experience of learning to drive a small utility tractor with a mower attached! I mowed for a couple hours before noon dinner. In fact it was hard to stop! When I finished a section I would see another adjacent area and think “oh I’ll just do that quick before I stop!” Well I thought that several times and just kept mowing! Finished up the job after supper, even getting to watch the sunset which brought to a close another 5 star day!

Left the farm about 2:45 to load corn and set up for Market. When we opened at 3:30 this week there were 12 in line. In the first 10 minutes 20 shoppers coming through each shopping early to get the specific produce they were looking for. Great market day with a steady flow of shoppers. Then it was time to pack up, unpack, store and wash coolers for next week. I love market days!