Sept 6-9 More Connections

 9/6 Quiet day tending to West Coast duties, post office mailing, and nice supper with cousin Janice Schultz. Only regret, didn’t get a picture! Air quality pretty lousy today from Canada fires, but at least it was cooler with a high of 75, air quality 140…makes me cough. Not a fan of being outside today.

9/7  Another new experience: using the tractor and tiller to til turkey manure fertilizer into the ground…turkey bones and all (then Tom doesn’t have to buy bone mill to put on!) Nice visit with 2nd cousin Delmar.

Farmers Market Day - a lot more relaxed as produce is harvest is minus sweet corn and cukes. Good day at market with consistent traffic coming through though a few were disappointed coming specifically for sweet corn and cantaloupe. But all in all a good day…went to bed feeling good and anticipation of driving 3 hours to Lincoln for a required blood drive.

9/8 Oh what a few hours difference makes! Woke at 11:30 with diarrhea and nausea! Lasted 12 hours and I lost 12 pounds! I was down for the count Friday! Never made it out of my room until 4pm, then a quiet evening as I moved from the bed to the recliner. 

9/9 Quiet the first part of the day, then out to harvest potatoes…light rain started so with the help of the grands we worked REALLY fast wanting to get the potatoes picked up and under cover before they got wet. We did it!

9/10 Participated in worship remotely at West Side this morning, such a blessing to be in worship with my family at home! The afternoon brought rain showers, time to relax and enjoy the Sabbath.

It is hard to believe I have been here 5 weeks in Albert City with only one week to go before heading on in my cross country journey.

Tom’s famous goulash he made for supper! Wow! It was good! He often makes and takes it to the field for his noon meal during harvest! 

Sept 5 Another First

Yes! Another first as cousin Tom taught me to drive a Farmall 706 to do a little (emphasis on little) deep tilling to loosen up the dirt in a couple of his sweet corn patches (16x60, he has 37 garden patches). Understand I “missed out” on spreading turkey manure today! Not sure whether to consider that “missing out”!!!

The morning also included picking 2 pints of raspberries, washing them and flash freezing them. Picked 3 pints last night. Last night picking with the help of 2 adult cats and 4 kittens all who really only wanted my attention, not for me to pick berries! This morning one of the kittens snuck away from the others and followed me. He found out he got A LOT more attention when the rest of the family wasn’t there! Helps me get my kitty fix!

Another afternoon with Auntie Mavis…such precious time together. Since I saw her Friday she decorated her apartment with Fall quilted wall hangings, decorations, plates. I got to help pick out a Fall tablecloth. It looks so nice! Our outing today included a return trip to Lee’s Quilt Shed to pick up fabric for me to use for binding around the edges of my quilt panel whenever I eventually finish it. I told Auntie Mavis “I hope it is finished by the end of my trip!”

Driving the last couple days have really seen the fields of corn and beans changing color as they get closer to harvest…have seen a few farmers starting in their fields. 

Sept 4 Labor Day pictures

Yesterday entered my 7th state in this trip…Minnesota! (Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota…and Minnesota! 

Needed to be able to post more pictures for the weekend so made an extra post. The blog only allows 5 pictures per post! 

Here are some pictures taken this morning with Sara, Ben and family . Aubrey and I playing a new game.

Sept. 3 - 4 Labor Day Sunday

We hit the road by 8am for a 2 1/2 hour drive north to Minnesota’s Lake Shetek to Ben and Sara’s cabin on the lake to celebrate their son Beckett’s 9th birthday! The day included cousin Tom’s smoked baby back ribs and a nice pontoon boat ride around the lake…it was a hot day reaching 97 degrees! Good day to be on the water…my favorite place, but today under cover! So good to spend time with Ben and Sara’s family and meet Ben’s parents and sister and family!

Hats off to Tom and Joni for sleeping in the tent tonight with 3 grands! And at 8:45 tonight it’s 83 degrees! I hope they sleep!

Labor Day Sept 4 - Wind is up this morning which makes 86 degrees at 11am very pleasant! But just as at the canal, when the wind is up, the boating is down. But the wind being up has other blessings! The biting flies are down as well as the mosquitoes! I’m reminded to “count my blessings, name them one by one!”

Sept 2 - Cousin Time!

Morning started by first picking 2 pints of raspberries, washing, drying and laying them out on parchment to flash freeze for Joni to enjoy with her morning oatmeal over the Fall and Winter months. Make some orange pudding jello salad with mandarin oranges, cool whip and marshmallow! My new favorite! And salted butter Rice Krispie cookies! 

Lunch with cousin Laura and Rod and their daughter Amy. I love that I got to spend this time with them and hear more about their life on the farm…and enjoy some special homemade rye bread!

The evening included catching up with cousin Julie and Gary on their last week…I sure wish I lived closer so I could drop in for evening visits! What a time of blessing!

Picture included is of Gary being recognized at the Albert City Fire Department’s family gathering last weekend for his 47 years serving on the ACFD! Congrats Gary! Thanks for your service!

Sept 1 - Making Memories With Auntie Mavis

Another fun Friday with Auntie Mavis as we enjoyed moon dinner at her favorite place in Storm Lake, The Villager, shopping at Fareway for a few groceries, then back to her apartment for more lessons in quilting together and seeing more of her quilt panels. We never run out of things to talk about but certainly a re-occurring topic is how much she misses being on the farm which is understandable since she was born there and lived for 88 years there. Of course she misses it! Love this precious time together!

Aug 31 - Farmers Market Day

Of course the day started “for me” (the same as the last 4 weeks on FM day) driving the Kubota while Tom picked 200 ears of sweet corn, getting close to the end of the sweet corn for this year.  Then spraying the sweet corn down with water, covering it, spraying the cover too while on the trailer to keep them cool and fresh for Market. Then I measured and bagged 15 one pound bags of beans. And soon it was time to take the first truck load up to market: potatoes, 6 boxes of tomatoes, grape tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, cabbage, carrots, beans, onions, peppers, beets (4.72 beet in pictures!), kohlrabi, green onions, last trip to market took 15 dozen sweet corn! Three trips up to market with produce and all fits in one return trip. Then it is time to sort, wash out tubs and coolers, store produce for special orders. Today a steady group coming through most of whom I have seen the last 4 weeks. Wow! Hard to imagine this was my 4th market week and sadly only 2 more! 

Supper tonight came from the garden: sweet corn, baked squash, fried eggplant, cantaloupe and tomatoes. Only a few more days of sweet corn (this crews tastebuds require only the freshest corn!) so apparently the end is in the near future for this year. 

Great way to end the day!