the Grass is Greener

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, at least our cows would like to think so.  They are not smart enough to know the next pasture tastes just like the one they are in. 

We went out this AM to drive some wooden posts to reinforce the fence on the road side.

The cows got excited, thought we were taking them out….No, cows, get back, let us through the gate.

Hubby walked ahead to decide where he wanted the posts.  I drove the pickup with the post pounder behind.  I have done this before, so I know how close I need to be to the fence.

I watch carefully, getting in position, then I see that the “holder” of the posts is going to hit one of the fence posts.  I back up, drive ahead…Nope, still going to hit it.  Back up, try again…..Nope….Back up, try again…Nope…And I can see that now the post hole digger, and the rear fender are almost touching the barb wire fence.   (Now I know all of you people that so expertly back up big trailers and trucks are chuckling.  I know you have to think backwards when you back up, but I can never compute that in my brain!!) 

So  I beep the horn, and Hubby is quite a bit farther up the fence line….Well, I don’t have to tell you what he said….He walked back, had me back up again, just a little, then he moved the post hole holder IN, (where it should have been anyway, but I did not say that!!)

On to the pounder job, we put in about 10 or so posts, the ground is really hard driving, even with this automatic machine.  Good thing we do not have to do it with a post hole digger.

I drove the pounder home, Hubby stayed to staple the wire to the fence.

To the Cows….just a little harder now to bend the fence over when you reach thru the fence!

All’s well that ends well!! 

Dinner (Noon Meal) on a SD farm

We just got through with dinner...our noon meal..(Noon meal is traditionally called dinner in this Midwest farming community).  Our dinner was produced on this farm.  We had rib eye steak, a steamed broccoli head; a vegetable dish of onions, kale and yellow summer squash, simmered in a little bit of olive oil, and the first tomato of the season, from an Heirloom tomato, sweet and ripened on the vine.  We did have a few purchased fresh blueberries to top off the meal.  What more can I ask of life?

Farm Activity

We got up early and moved the cows in the cool of the morning from one pasture to another across the road to fresh grass.  Everything went smoothly, the cows knew where to go and the calves did not give too much trouble, started down the ditch, but I got them turned back to the gate.

I came home, hubby went back to make sure there were no stragglers left behind.

He soon came back to get me, had found a dead cow, and a calf that was a little on the skinny side.

So I am thinking, we need a Brent or a Brice (grandsons who are ropers),  but off we go in our little tracker.  We find the calf again, who is now on the move.  Hubby gets his rope and moves to the back bumper of the tracker, and I start following the calf, who does not like being chased.  Roger is hanging on for dear life, I get close, get ahead of the calf, swing in front to slow him down, and Roger throws the rope---a miss.  I try again, but the stops and starts don’t make for good throwing aims.  The calf is still on the move, Hubby yells,  "Don’t let him get into the lake bed!"  I ram over the terraces and get around the calf again, try to get him in position, and this time the throw is good.  We load him in the back, hog tie his legs, as he is not too happy.

We dump him in the barn with the two other calves, locked them all in for awhile, so the new guy won’t be hunting for a way out, hoping the two resident calves will show him where the feed and water are.  I come out of it with almost no blemishes, only a cut on one of my fingers by a knuckle from the rope, holding the rope while hubby tied him up.....forgot my gloves!

This the Geo Tracker, showing the bumper space hubby had to stand to rope the calf, while tracker is on the move.  

My Life

This AM, June 8th, I spent a little time in the garden, planting a red rhubarb that my daughter got for me, and putting some fertilizer on the pumpkins and squash, since the soil they are in is not the most fertile.  Grandson Alex wants to to get a gigantic pumpkin from one of his plants.
It is a cool morning, and when I was finished, (well, one is never finished when you have a garden) I got a cup of coffee and sat on the bench I have in the garden.  I thought, how lucky I am, to sit here, without mosquitoes this AM, and listen to the various bird songs, to observe the trees and nature around me.  My garden has panel gates around the perimeter to keep out the deer, so I imagine myself in a safe haven, a wall God's angels have around me as I meditate.
 Is this a foretaste of the Biblical prediction when every man shall sit under his own tree in peace?  I ponder and pray for this world, the wars, the destruction, the children being abused, hungry, oppressed people, ones who are battling cancer.  I prayed for a time when every man shall have his "own tree"  You cannot know the solace and comfort just sitting like I was until you have the opportunity in your life as I have now.
I reluctantly left my garden bench to tackle all the chores waiting for me, at the same time thanking God for my life at this time, and the many blessings He has given me.
I hope anyone reading this today can find a haven for a few minutes to be thankful for the good things in their life.

Mother's Day, May 13th 2012

Four Generation picture--Had a great day with our family, plus sister and hubby, niece and her children!
Happy Mother's Day to all!

Shopping

Seen on Facebook....

Shopping with your Husband is like hunting with the Game Warden. :)

Spring is here, or summer in SD on April 1st??

April 1, 2012 in South Dakota.  It was 90 degrees today.  It should not be this warm at this time of year.  At the very least a cold rain, or most probably a spring snowstorm.  Nonetheless, I dug through my seeds and planted a row of spinach and also some lettuce.  If it comes up and then it freezes again, which everyone thinks it is going to do, then I just lose a little seed.  If not, then perhaps some spinach and lettuce in a few weeks for our table.   We shall see.  Keep tuned!!  I have also been looking for kale seed and have not located any so far.  I put in 4 kale plants last year, and that kept us in that good vegetable for a good many weeks, but the greenhouse I go to was closed for the weekend...too early yet, I know, for them to be open.
I harvested fresh asparagus from my garden, plants that I put out 2 years ago.  It is too crowded, I did not separate the roots apparently, just plopped it in the ground.  Don't know why I waited to long to start a patch in my garden.  We have "ditch" asparagus in the fence line of a couple of our fields, but it is hard to find each year before the town asparagus hunters get to it.  I also pulled a few stalks of rhubarb, cooked it for hubby, who likes to spread it over a slice of bread for a treat.

Weather

Now it is spring in SD.  We had very little snow in central SD this winter.  On March 16th, the temperature reached 80 degrees and today, St Patrick's Day, it is around 75 degrees. It was a nice day for a leisurely walk through the alfalfa and hay field.  The weather, tho, seems to me to be too warm considering we had very little moisture.  Many years on this date, we would still be digging out of the snowbanks. 
The big trucks going by send up huge clouds of dust on our gravel road. The grass is greening up, my tulips and iris are several inches tall.  The American Gold Finches that I feed are turning back to their gorgeous yellow, with black tipped wings.  The robin family has returned to my yard. Seed catalogs are waiting to be read and orders made for seed.

Snow

The wind howled during the night, sounding like a blizzard, but it was not.  We now have about an inch of snow on the ground, but it is not blowing in the air.  We are welcoming some snow to cover the dusty ground we have had all this winter, an unusually warm winter.  It was about 25 degrees this AM, so not so cold, but the wind makes it cold by blowing through you.  However, the weatherman is promising back to warmer weather by the weekend.  He says it will be 52 on Sunday.  This is unheard of in South Dakota in the winter time.

Liberty Grain

Since the fall of 2011, we have been watching a new business operation, Liberty Grain, in construction about one mile as the crow flies, from our farm.  They will be buying all grains and corn from farmers by the fall of 2012 .  They started with a bare field, now the dirt has been worked up for a railroad track 1/2 mile long to connect to the railroad that runs near the operation.  Electricity has been run to the site, so now there are also big poles to do that.   We actually could not see anything from our farm, until they brought in a large crane, and built a building.
They have a Web site, so you can follow the construction, and just recently installed a Web Cam, which is very interesting.   Roger just came in from chores and said, "Go to the Web Cam, I think they are running cement this AM".  I posted their Web Site, and you can go to the Web Cam from there. You can see the train track in the back of the Web Cam.  It looks ready for the tracks to be laid.  Take a look at the site.

Landscape

Driving the 3 short miles from town to home leads me to these thoughts. 

The landscape is so brown and dreary.

We have no snow, and as you look around you see bare brown trees with no leaves.

The fields and farm yards are full of brown bales and stacks of brown bales, some waiting their turn to be hauled to the farm feed yard for winter forage.

The brown and crispy grass in the pastures has long been eaten down and dried up.
The brown ditch grasses that grew tall this summer are waving bravely rustling in the wind. 
The amber brown corn stalks, now stripped of their crop of ears, stand at various heights in their fields.
The remaining corn leaves flutter across the brown gravel road.  
Another corn field has its stalks turned under by machinery back into the ground, so black dirt is the main attraction there.

Farm yards like ours are brown as well, the grass and creeping jenny in hibernation.  

Even the cedar and pine trees lose most of their color, and look a dark greenish brown. 

No relief or color anywhere you look as you drive along.

I will welcome snow to give some relief to the sights of the brown countryside in South Dakota.

Veterans Day

Our small town honored the Veterans with a program at the School.  It was inspiring.  All the students were in attendance, watched the Color Guard post the colors, honoring all the Veterans in attendance.  The very small children came down front, and led the crowd in the Pledge to the Flag.  The middle school band played 2 patriotic pieces, the High School band played the Star Spangled Banner, the drum and the cymbals giving us goosebumps on this day. The HS choir sang a beautiful song, and the oral interp kids read 3 poems written by one of them about her brother, who is serving overseas.   A young man gave an account of how he went into the service, got an education working on airplanes, and also graduated from an Auto Mechanics schooling.  He came back to our town, and is working here, along with his wife.  The grade school students were paying attention, esp the boys, as they asked questions about the airplanes, what he did, did he like it, and so on.  They asked impressive questions. The emcee filled in with several informational tidbits.  It ended with retiring of the colors, and I think the students and the crowd learned much about respecting those men, and the flag they carried.
Thank you to the Veterans and those serving and giving their lives for USA!

4 Generation Quilt

Referring to the quilt we made a couple of weeks ago.  This picture shows Kim, with 96 yr old Grandpa Jim, after she clipped all the seams and put through the washer and dryer to blossom and bloom.  It looks great.

Bucket List

Do you have a Bucket List?  My daughter has one.  On her list was a wish to make a quilt with her Mother, her Grandmother and her Daughter.  This week she was able to cross that wish off her list.  We four all got together at 96 year old Grandma Belle's house.  On Thursday night, after BLT's, we dove into a big sack of flannel, and cut 232--8-inch squares and 116 flannel squares, 6 inches. The next AM, after breakfast and coffee,  a beef roast and trimmings in the oven for dinner, we fired up sewing machines and got started sewing.  We made several visits to 96 year old Grandpa Jim at the Manor, and he wanted to know why we were slacking off!  That was in the AM, in the PM we also took a break and had coffee and cookies with him.  We laid it out on the floor, sometimes not getting all the squares back where we started, but by 6PM, we sewed the last seam. Amy has not done much sewing, and spent the day at the machine, as well as helping with the design decisions. I became the machine technician, the "layer outer", did some sewing.  Kim sewed, did the final sewing all around the outside, with Grandma Belle did the ironing, helped with putting squares together, and made the final seam.  Kim has to clip all the raw edges yet, and run it through a washer so it will end being a "raggy" quilt.  A good day of memories!  This picture is before the fringing has been done.

Ruger

Troy, Kimmie and Alex left on Sunday after a weekend of hunting. To leave from here means a rough ride for 1 1/2 mile where the road is torn up to make a new road for Liberty Grain Co.

They were gone about 5  minutes, when Roger saw 2 knives on the end of the counter.  We had been kidding about them all weekend as both Troy and Roger have one, but Troy's was here in a drawer and he thought Roger was claiming it.   Troy had taken his birds uncleaned, so he would have needed or could use the knife when he got home.  Roger called him, Troy said,  “No, I’m not coming back for the knife.”

Roger and I looked around again, and more minutes go by, and I notice on the kitchen table, Troy’s contacts and eye solution.  I call Troy.  “Troy, you forgot your contacts.”  Troy says, “Oh, oh, well I don’t wear them much during the week, I am not coming back.”

So now, Roger and I look around again, more minutes go by.  Suddenly we look down, and there lies Ruger, Troy's hunting dog, on his rug by the living room, totally relaxed and stretched out after his hard weekend of hunting.   We say together,  “Oh my word, they forgot Ruger!”

Ruger looks at us with his big brown eyes, but does not move.  Roger and I cannot stop laughing.

We call Troy. “ Now what did we forget!?” Troy says.  I say, “Well,  Ruger is laying here looking at us!  I hear Kimmie say,  “We forgot Ruger??!!”   Troy says, “We will come back.”  So back they come, through the construction.   They must have been 15-20 miles away by that time. 

Troy picks up his knife, his contacts, and we rouse Ruger for the ride home.  Ruger stretches, gives Troy a look as if to say,  "I worked hard all weekend and you go off and forget me!"

As they drove down the road, Roger and I were still laughing at the sight of Ruger watching us walk around the house looking for “forgotten” items.

Pheasant Hunting in SD

Family Day at our farm.  Hunters and Troy's dog Ruger had a great time. The weather was ideal, and they got their limit!

Pumpkins

Fun with pumpkins!  We picked our Big Max pumpkins, that got no care except for the rains we had this season.  We had 3 that were 50#, others that ran close to that size.  We put some on the front step, Alex and his Dad took some to their house. I painted faces on them, we brought in a big round bale and some cornstalks, and arranged a display near our well traveled road.

Next year, hmmm.  I heard suggestions to use some Miracle Grow, and to scratch a name on the fruit when it was small and watch it grow.  Any other ideas?

Rain

Welcome to the rain we have had the past two days!  A slow drizzle, now amounting to .90 inches, and it is soaking into the ground.  The fields have been so dry as they combined soybeans, sometimes the dust was blinding on the nearby roads.  All the corn is still in the field, except for what has been cut for silage, but the now dried up husks are protecting the bright yellow kernels, yet to be combined and sold.  A fire at the edge of our small town on the day before this rain was a scare for everyone. Several farmers took tractors and dics to the site, and helped the firemen by blackening the dirt beyond the dry cattail slough, and cutting into the ground where the burn was, put a stop to the danger to the nearby houses.  The fire was apparently started by a spark from a vehicle passing by on the nearby interstate. 

Apples and Tomatoes

Yesterday I took care of the ripe tomatoes.  I still have them trickling in, a few at a time.  Some vines, for some reason have not frosted yet, but they only have small ones left on them.   Just cooked up a big pan, sieved them, and stuck them in the freezer.  Will taste good this winter, as I use tomatoes in a lot of dishes, mmm, chili, rice or macaroni dishes, stews, soups.  I also had a 5 gallon pail of apples.  They are a variety of Red Delicious, and wind blew every last one of them off the tree.  (It was a small crop this year!)  The deer stop and munch every day on their trek thru the yard, too.  I put the good ones in the frig, and the rest I ran thru the peeler, doused them with a little sugar and cinnamon mixture and put them in the dehydrator.  Really made the house smell good.  They are ready this AM to be jarred up.

Beet Pickles

Harvest from the garden--a row of ruby red beets.  They were all sizes, in a raised bed, so the watering on them was inconsistent.  I cooked, peeled, and then cut them up.  I made a brine of 2C vinegar, 2C water, 2C sugar, added a couple of cinnamon sticks, a dozen cloves, 2 small onions and 2 t. allspice, cooked for 10 minutes or so and jarred them up.  I did not process them, so put in 3 tight lidded quart jars in the refrigerator.  Beets are not my favorite vegetable, altho we have eaten several meals of buttered beets.  However, they are good for your body, so even with the sugar on them, they should make a good addition to a winter meal.