Thoughts of our French Family and other wanderings of my mind.

I'm sure you all are as heartsick as I am about the tragic events that the cowardice terrorists brought upon Paris last weekend. Our entire family immediately thought of Jean-Pierre Deagostini and his family who live in France. I did not have JP's current email but my sister in law, Mary Ellen did and emailed him right away. 

Years ago my parents decided to host a foreign student for a month one summer and by the luck of the draw, they received Jean-Pierre. He became one of the family, we all fell in love with him and he with us. Over the years our parents, my oldest sister, Sara and hubby, Max and Denny and Mary Ellen all traveled to Europe different times to visit JP and his family who had come and visited us. JP came one summer and traveled all over the western US with one family member or another in their campers.

JP loved to come out to my acreage and ride horses, here he is on my gelding, Spook.

Then one summer he came with his new wife, Valerie, and about 8 months later they had their first daughter, Emeline and a few years later, twin daughters, Marion and Celia`. We heard on Sunday that all of the family was fine, although his oldest daughter, Emeline and her boyfriend had tickets to a concert on Monday night (tonight as I write this) at the same venue where so many innocent people were slaughtered. 

He wrote "But life has to go on, we will not change our way of living, otherwise, the terrorists would have win!

Fights against terrorist organisations (and our protection measures) will carry on...

I attach one of the latest family picture to finish on a more joyful note..."

As I was digging around in my pictures tonight, trying to find the one of JP and Spook that I knew I had, I kept finding other pictures that I had forgotten and things that I'd clipped to save and felt I needed to end this on a bit of levity.

So in no particular order....

 Mom, lower left, me upper left and Rosanne, upper middle, at a garden party with a prize for the best garden hat. Mom won hands down, Rosanne with her biker bride helmet was a close second.

Our twin boys, Smitty and Spike, orphaned at a car wash in town when their mother was killed. As soon as I heard about it, I had to bring them home. They were best buds, always entwined as they slept, it was hard to know where one left off and the other began.

Smitty sleeping in a basket of clean clothes, see his 'mitten paws?'

He was 'pouring' out of the basket, I should be so limber.

I had a plastic chicken, orange, sitting in the flower bed. Videlia, was walking by her one day, turned around, went back and proceeded to kick the crap out of her!

"You stupid chicken, all you do is stand there all day!"

She started to walk away, turned around and gave her another few kicks just for good measure!

Videlia was 20 years old when she died, and once in a while she would still lay a blue egg.

Around my 40th birthday, my family was camping at Blue Lake by Onawa and Bruce and I went down to visit. Peter, my brother in law, had a recumbent bike that I tried to ride but was unsuccessful. To keep me from getting all banged up, Rosanne, Tom and Sue duct taped pillows to my arms and legs, and slapped a helmet on my head.

Don't I look like one of those 'special kids'??

Rosanne held me up.... 

....gave me a push, I frantically pedaled.....

.....CRASH!!

I was not cut out to ride such a creation but thanks to the pillows, I didn't get hurt.

Then I ran across this........

......AWWWWWW!! See why I keep him around!

(But I never cashed it!)

Salute!!!!

Today is Veteran's Day, a day set aside to honor our veterans and active members of the military, but every day should be Veteran's Day. The first thing every morning we should thank those who have served and those in harms way for the freedoms that we take for granted. 

Bruce's golfing partner, Leo, his son, Tom, who served three tours overseas and his two daughters, Peyton, on the right, and Lilly brought us a wonderful present. A flag pallet that we set up in front of the barn.

Bruce saw the pallet the three painted for Leo and Theresa this summer when he was picking up Leo for their weekly golf outing and admired it. It is beautiful and really shows up when you drive in.

After taking pictures of the girls and their creation, they discovered the barn and Bruiser, what kid can resist playing in a barn full of hay bales.

The dogs were delighted to play with them and knocked them down several times.

The pair is standing on the room of my tack shed, contemplating jumping to the bales below, I told them it's just like dance class. Go for it!

Peyton was the first to go.....

....Lilly followed her big sister's lead....

....and landed none too gracefully. They had a ball, Tom finally had to haul them out or they would have stayed all day.

Before they left, they wanted to see the chickens so I rounded up some chicken treats for them to give out.

It was a fun morning, they can't wait to come back again and the dogs took a well deserved nap.

I salute you, Tom K., brothers, Tom, David and Denny, brother in law, Max, nephew, Mark, great nephew, Jesse, brother in law, John R., hubby Bruce (who was in reserves but never thinks of himself as veteran), friend, Elizabeth and all the other unnamed people who unselfishly gave their time to protect us.

Thank you.

Thank a veteran today.

Edited to add words of wisdom from Bruce, we were out stacking split wood, listening to a Veteran's Day program on the radio. He said, "Now, more than ever people need to be thankful to live here, looking at all the chaos in the world."

AMEN!!

The little shed that could.....

....be useful once again!

This is the story of a little white shed that resided on the outskirts of the small town of Larrabee, while kids were growing up it was a playhouse, a fort, a library and when the kids outgrew it, a junk catcher. I was listening to 'Swap Shop' one day, a free service on our local radio station to buy, sell or giveaway unwanted items and heard the shed advertised to give away.

FREE?? I love FREE!!

I hot-footed it to Larrabee to check out the little shed, it has it's issues but was structurally sound. My niece, Kaiza, was a little girl and I envisioned making it into a playhouse for her, I was very excited! I hired a local guy to move it to the farm, right in front of Leo's shop for easy building, for the mere pittance of $50.

And it sat......well, you just don't jump in without a plan. And boy did I have plans! I wanted to put in a loft and a little seating area with a cute little table and chairs I purchased. I also bought a cute little cabinet to hold all of Kaiza's treasures while she was playing in her playhouse.

But first the roof needed to be replaced, I procrastinated, I wasn't a carpenter so I guess I kept thinking that some night the fairies would magically appear and put a new roof on it, it didn't happen. I still had plans, I just knew it would make the cutest playhouse but then reality struck. I came to the conclusion that Kaiza was not the type of kid to play by herself. She would not use the playhouse like I imagined.

So it sat.....one day my oldest sister, Sara and hubby, Max were here, Sara spotted the playhouse and fell in love with it. Their great granddaughter, Hannah, would LOVE it. I thought about it, for a total of 10 seconds and said, yes, Hannah could have the playhouse. We loaded it onto their trailer and away the little white shed went to Denison.

Where it got a new roof and skids underneath to facilitate moving, and then it sat. Another two years went by, Hannah grew up and out of the playhouse mode so Sara and Max asked me if I wanted it back. How could I refuse, it would make a cute garden shed, they loaded it back on the trailer and brought it here. I leveled a spot in the back yard, put down bridge planks for it it set on and Bruce carefully moved it into place.

Where it sat, it had a new roof but still needed new siding, windows and door. I'm still not a carpenter so I procrastinated more, two years more. We were planning on going out to WI so my chore girl, Jillian, drove over to go through chores with me. She has a small flock of chickens and they needed a coop upgrade. She was telling me about a coop made of pallets she saw on Pinterest and was trying to get her dad, Tim, to build it. After she left, I looked over at my little shed and the lightbulb went on. I called Tim and said I had their new coop should he accept the challenge. He came over the next night, I pointed out the good, new roof and skids, the bad, and the just plain ugly in other places. He couldn't accept it soon enough, he said trying to build a coop out of pallets was a nightmare!

As soon as we had a break in the farming, Bruce loaded the little shed on the pallet forks of the tractor....

....well, he tried to load from the front but the pallet forks were trying to pop out the floor so we went to plan B. He loaded from the side and that worked well except he was driving blind! We only had about a mile of gravel so I drove the gator along side and guided him.

We met our neighbor, another Tim, mowing the roadside so of course we had to stop and talk, meanwhile taking up half the road with the shed. Finally someone else came along so Tim had to turn around the mow the other direction and we continued on.

Tim wanted the shed parked by the garage to make it easy access to tools and power, Jaylene just shook her head. She said it would still be sitting there next spring, she of so little faith!!

The next day I drove past their house on the way to town and the little shed was already looking better, the worst end had new siding on it and the door in that I took over. I was so impressed! Tim really went to town, he put new siding on each side, Jillian painted, new windows were put in and the entire shed insulated inside with new nest boxes. It was ready for occupancy.

Last week we took the tractor over to move it to it's permanent location. This time we knew it had to be loaded from the side.

Up and away....

....Bruce carried his precious load with me directing the little shed to it's final resting place.

Jillian was grinning from ear to ear and not just because her boyfriend was here to celebrate the auspicious occasion.

Bruce and I were just as happy, me that I no longer had to look at the unfinished building and Bruce, that he could breath a sigh of relief that one day I wouldn't say, "Oh, honey.......!!

And I have no doubt the little red shed is happy also, it's useful once again, not sitting out with the weather with wind blowing through the windows and the holes in the siding.

It does have to put up with chicken poop but there are trade-offs to everything.

As he shall sow, so shall he break down...

I am talking about Bruce, of course, what he was sowing was anhydrous ammonia into the bean ground so next year our corn will grow tall, strong and vivid green. My job is to haul the tanks from town. We started Tuesday and I hauled tanks till dark so Bruce would have plenty to work with while I was off on a mission Wednesday morning with two friends from the garden club.

Orange City, IA has a tulip festival each May, after the tulip foliage dies down, they are all dug and stored somewhere, the beds replanted with colorful annuals, and the public is invited to 'OCTBGDs' (Orange City Tulip Bulb Giveaway Days), I just made that up but I think they should adopt it. I have never gone but Eva knew I was interested so she let me know it started on Wednesday. Sara was driving and I begged a ride and the three of us set off with bags of bags.

The bulbs are spread out in huge wooden trays in the interior of the band shell on the corner of the OC park.

Did I say HUGE TRAYS?

There were three rows of these trays, each one labeled with the color but no other statistics, it was like Christmas in there!! On the way up Sara asked Eva if she thought she could get 15 or 20. Eva snorted, "Bags!" I said, "You mean you would drive all the way to OC to get 15 or 20 bulbs?" Sara said she didn't want to be greedy.

Let me tell you, Sara was whipping bags out and filling them with the best, I think I even saw her elbow a little old lady out of the way!

(I just made that up also but it would have been funny and totally out of character, I think.)

I kept telling myself, remember you have to plant these!! After leaving the building with bulging bags, we headed for the bakery, we needed sustenance after that and preparing for the work ahead of us, a card store, locker famous for their meats and the Staples Outlet Store. If you need a winter coat, shirts, back pack, etc., head to OC and shop the store. I got a name brand back pack for all my photography equipment, everything for a mere $15, of course that means it weighs about 50# but when I have it, I won't be wishing I'd left this or that home.

We were just leaving the store when Eva received a text from another garden clubber who asked her to pick up a 'few' bulbs also so back we went to the band shell. I chose to stay in the truck while Sara and Eva went in to shop and people watch. I saw a young woman come out with her hands full of bulbs, she went to her car, rummaged around and came out with a Frisbee. Frisbee? Well it is a park, maybe she was going to play? Instead she went back inside the band shell and came out later with her Frisbee loaded with tulip bulbs, guess she doesn't keep extra bags in her car!

Finally we were on the way home, I called Bruce from our car to ask how things were going and things were not going. He was merrily driving along when he heard a noise and the tractor lost power. Upon further investigation, he discovered, to his dismay, a chunk of the fan blade broke off, cutting some hoses and belts, disabling the McCormick.

But you know it could always be worse, right? It could have gone through the radiator, but didn't. He called the dealer at Lawton, they ordered what he needed and said it might be there the next afternoon. The rest of the day was spent in odd jobs, cutting and splitting wood since a cold front was coming in. Rain was supposed to accompany it so I was vacuuming up leaves for my compost pile and kept thinking of all the bulbs I had to plant. Every so often the leaf vac needed a time out so I dug some holes for the bulbs but then it would run again or I needed to stack some wood to dry so I never actually planted any. But I reasoned that I can plant bulbs in the rain but can't vac leaves in the rain.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It was getting dark and we had a shed to move for the neighbors, that will be my next blog, so I didn't get any planted. Thursday morning I was headed to my sister, Rosanne's house, so I threw in the bag of bulbs, hoping to pawn some off on her. I took my working clothes as an incentive, she dug and I planted. Next spring she should have a few bright spots around her house. She fed me and I left for home. Halfway home I received a phone call from Bruce, "I'm going again!!" That was very good news, the other good news was even though it got cold, it did not rain. I hauled an empty tank to town and another one back home. Since I had my 50# photography backpack in the truck, really, I never leave home without it now, I pulled over to the side of the road, partly into a field driveway, hauled out my big, honking lens and mono-pod to take pictures of Bruce out in the field.

I love my lens! That tree is the half way mark of our pasture, a big owl lives there and someday I'm going to catch him in flight.

See that house in the background, it is 2 miles away!

You can see their machine shed and even the skid loader if the picture was larger.

Not that I'm spying on the neighbors, I don't think I can catch them in their skivvies out in the yard, I'm just always amazed when I download the pictures, how far away it captures. In the larger picture the windmills even show up and they are several miles north of us.

But back to Bruce, I was happily snapping away, here he is turning around at the end of the field, be thankful you are not downwind when the anhydrous puffs, that stuff is nasty! And to think that is what the drug meth is made of, who in their right mind would think that is a good idea?? As my sister, Rosanne, says, "They aren't in their right mind."

Obviously.

Our road is not very busy, I was pulled off to the side and suddenly heard a loud noise, looked up to see the school bus thundering down the road toward me. Wouldn't you think he would slow up just a little??  NOOOOOOOO! The dust was flying, I quickly pulled the camera inside the truck cab but couldn't get the window up to avoid the dust. That was not very neighborly!

Well, I'm coming to the end of a very chatty blog, it is quite chilly outside and windy but the sun is shining and we get dinner out today, thanks to our neighbor, Jon. He was the recipient of a 'Feed the Farmer' promotion at the Agronomy Center in Paullina and invited us to partake also. Several years ago we were chosen and invited the entire Fuhrman family to eat with us so he is returning the favor.

I must get dressed and go do battle with the bulbs, unfortunately they are not going to plant themselves. 

Now that would be something, a self planting bulb, like a self defrosting freezer? 

Hmmmmmm.....

Three's Company, Four's a Crowd??

I've been watching the drama in the chicken coop with the little Serama hen who was raised with her four foster sisters, the Wyandottes. 

She tagged around with her bigger sisters all summer, seeming to be unaware that she was different.

Anyone remember the movie, The Jerk? It was kind of like that.

One night I went to shut the coop up and couldn't find her, fearing the worst I looked around and found her sitting on the highest perch with Larry the 3rd and his two little hens. She was sitting a respectful distance from her cousins, just trying to fit in.

She grew up.....

....and Larry the 3rd seemed to take notice, one night she had the coveted spot to his right.

That did not set well and the next night she was booted back to her original spot.

I wasn't privy to what went on lately but she has been exiled, forced to the other side of the rafter.

"And you STAY over there, you Shamed Hussy!"

These hens don't put up with someone coming in and trying to steal their man.

What it really reminds me of is being back in school and the cliques. If you weren't one of the popular girls, you were nobody.

Maybe she will attach herself to the new family of chicks when they get older, there is strength in numbers.

Fencing......and fencing........and more fencing.....

It's that time of year, the crops are out and it's time to do some temporary fencing at the pond so the cows can clean it up.

This is my big strong hubby hammering an electric fence post in the hard, rock strewn ground, who has a sore wrist and it started causing him such pain that I took over the job.

But did he take a picture of me??? NOOOOOOOOO!

(But I'm past that now.)

Here are our faithful dogs, Mollie and Murphy, running and chasing anything that moves in their new, classy, camo vests. The vests drastically cut down on the number of stickers they bring home.

And, have you ever seen a tongue like Murphy's?

This is my big, strong hubby wiring the electric fence onto an insulator nailed to a light pole.

This is my big, strong hubby rolling up some rogue barbed wire that we found laying on the ground next to where we were stringing the electric fence.

He was the one with the leather gloves or I would have been right in there helping.

Honest.

This is my big strong hubby driving the little Deutz tractor with the fence roller upper, I think it's really called a wire winder, fastened to the back while I followed along on foot, hooking the fence into the insulators on the posts.

The wire winder was one of the dowry presents my big, strong, hubby received when we married and it's the only one left on the farm. Another was my pickup, we sold it and built a grain bin. The other was my Farmall tractor and loader which we traded in on yet another tractor that is also long gone from the farm.

I think he came out smelling like a rose, right?

Anyway, back to the fencing, we were all done fastening the wire when Bruce got a call from his buddy, Freddy Boy, that he needed some help so I was to finish hooking the details and let the cattle in. The details amounted to tying the wires from the fences we just put up to the existing electric fence that runs around the pasture. But first you better unplug the electric fencer, otherwise it is a very shocking experience!

I did that, tied the wires on, plugged the electric fencer back in, used a big screw driver with a wooden handle and checked for spark and viola! It was a success!! 

Time to get the cattle. They had been watching me drive back and forth along the pasture fence so they knew something was up.

When they saw me open the pasture gate, I didn't even have to call, the ladies came on the run. They love going to a new field.

Our faithful and gutless dogs watched in horror at the thundering herd headed our way and planned their escape.

"UH, do you see what I see? We better beat it to the gator."

With me in the drivers seat and the two chicken dogs in the back, looking anxiously over their shoulders at the herd of cows, we drove down the lane to the gate at the road that was still open.

The cows didn't stop till they reached the corn field, then set to work finding that elusive ear of corn that escaped the combine.

Our job was done.......until the next morning when Bruce drove over to check the fence and found it down in a couple of places where the deer probably ran through. I took some plastic grocery bags over, at least they are good for something, cut each one in half and tied them along the fence in places where I thought would make it more visible.

My job was done.......until the next morning when it was my turn to check the fence because Bruce was gone and I found it down in several places, DARN DEER!!!! After replacing insulators that were long gone, re-stretching the fence and checking for spark, I was done.

The next day was Bruce's turn to check the fence and all was well, for one thing, our corn is out, the neighbor east of the pond has his corn out so we thought the deer had left for greener pastures like they do every fall when there is no more corn left around us.

The day after that, yesterday morning, again all was well at the pond but we did notice that the neighbor to the north was doing his corn and he must have flushed out an entire herd of deer. Bruce and I were sitting in the living room last night when the phone rang, it was our neighbor, Bill, who just drove past the pond with a tractor and two wagons and there was a white faced cow in the road.

OH MAN!!

Bruce drove the 4-wheeler and I took the car after grabbing my big, honking light and drove over. While Bruce chased her with the 4-wheeler, I opened the gate and kept the other cows at bay who wanted to go join her out in freedom. Finally we got her back in the field and then went to see the damage, most of the electric fence was on the ground, it looked like a herd of elephants went through it. So with the head light from the 4-wheeler and my big, honking light, we fixed fence at 9 PM and went home, hoping for the best.

Bruce went over bright and early and found our steer, that escaped into the pasture this summer and a cow across the fence into the forbidden area. When he went to get them in, the steer walked up to the fence and calmly pushed through it.

ALL RIGHT!! It just takes one rebellious bovine to ruin it for everyone!! He rounded up the herd and drove them out of the pond, slamming the gate behind them.

"Don't let the gate hit you in the a, err, butt, on the way out!!"

 Now all that is left is to roll up the wire and pull the fence posts, storing both until next year and the memories of this years debacle fades.

Oh the joys of having cattle.

Ole and Lena

No, this isn't a corny joke about the Norwegian couple with their side kick, Sven. After the untimely death of Morris, we needed a couple of farm cats to keep the place from being overrun with vermin. I was at the vets office and asked if they had any cats up for adoption, I wanted a pair of young, neutered cats, hopefully a male and female about the same age.

Brooke piped up and said she had a male cat, Ole, about 1 1/2 years old, looking for a home. He was living in her dad's shop because their other farm cats beat him up. They also had a pretty little grey striped female with a white bib and 4 white socks. I told Steve to spay her and I'd pick both cats up in a week, after we were back from WI.

I got both cats and put them in Leo's shop to get acquainted with each other and me, Lena is the little social butterfly, Ole went into hiding. After a week of no Ole, I put the game camera out there to make sure he didn't escape through the 2 X 3" hole I did find. I was very relieved to see him come out at night to eat and the next day I found where he was hiding and hauled his sorry butt out.

 He was a big teddy bear, we sat in the chair and he loved all over me. I put Ole down and he promptly went into hiding again. He would not come out. Everyday I'd drag him out of whatever hiding place he chose, we'd have a lovefest, then Ole would go back into hiding.

Darn cat!

After two weeks, I decided enough was enough and opened the big door to the shop and let the cats out. Well, I let Lena out, the little social butterfly immediately took over the farm, nothing fazes her and she set up housekeeping in Bruce's old shop. She has quite a vocabulary so it's easy to find her, just stop and listen.

Ole, as was expected, disappeared, I did see him once up in the old forge shop but he was freaked out and ran from me. After that, neither of us saw hide nor hair of him but I couldn't believe he was gone.

Harvest started, either Bruce or I made sure Lena was fed everyday and occasionally I would check some of the buildings for any sign of Ole but came up empty. Then, just last week, we drove in the driveway and a yellow cat looked up from the food bowl, took one look at us and bolted into the brush on the back side of the garage.

It took me a few moments to realize we had just had an Ole sighting!!! I brought out the trusty game camera and set it up by the food bowl and left it overnight.

The next morning when I downloaded the SD card, bingo! Ole, caught on tape!

Lena spends a lot of time at the food bowl, she is licking her lips after snacking on a particularly tasty morsel.

Upon further inspection, I found we had other visitors to the food bowl, this was a partial shop of a disappointed raccoon who found the bowl empty.

Ole again, visiting under the cover or darkness.

Lena checking to see if the food fairy visited and filled the bowl.

Lena keeps a sharp eye out for any intruders who might be after her food.

Like this possum out for an early morning stroll.

Lena patiently waiting for Bruce to come and replenish the cat chow.

I was surprised at how fast the cat food disappeared and now I know, Ole is alive and well and either he will tame down and come to accept us or he will remain aloof and grudgingly come to the food bowl.

Either way, he has the run of the place and hopefully is busy hunting in his free time and that is what we wanted.

Long live Ole and Lena, the king and queen of the farm.