Baling Hay and Hand Signals

We put up our first field of hay this evening. I had the privilege of driving the tractor and hubby stacked the wagon. As I drove, I realized how many hand signals my husband has and how hard I have to think to keep them straight.

First was three fingers in the air. That represented putting the tractor in third gear. Then he worked his index finger in a quick circle. That means give the tractor more RPMs. A thumbs up means you have it right. Of course, an index finger across the throat means shut off the baler. A hand in the air with fingers together means stop the tractor.....but five fingers spread apart means put it in fifth gear. Sort of reminds you of the directions Charlie Brown gave the cast in the Christmas special.

As you are trying to pay attention to the hay going into the pick-up without missing the windrow, you also have to be watching behind for the next hand signal. Other than a crick in my neck from looking back and forth, I am no worse for the wear and we have 32 bales of hay in the barn.

Oh, and one last hand signal. As you are turning into your driveway, you see the guy on the baler waving his arms and pointing to the north. That means go up to the storage barn and wait, because he wants to put the tractor and baler away.

Planted!!!

A full two weeks ahead of last year, my garden is in!! Much of the day Saturday was spent by hubby spreading manure on the garden spot. Then he plowed it on Sunday. The kids had a great time collecting worms from the freshly turned furrows. Too bad we don't have a fishing spot. They could have put those worms to good use!

Hubby put even more manure on the garden on Monday and put Thomas on the tractor to disc it up and get it ready for planting. Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I went to Gleis and got our plants and the rest of the needed seeds. The weather forecast said there could be frost, so we didn't put anything in last night.

This morning, the kids would have been out there at 8am, but it was still 40 degrees out. I thought it better to wait for the afternoon. So after lunch, off we went, and in a matter of a couple hours, everything was planted. Considering how big the spot ended up this year, I filled it up better than I expected. With the late start a year ago, I skipped putting in some things that we made sure we got in this year.

It is dry enough this spring that I went ahead and started the sprinkler on the tomato plants. Now we keep up with the weeds and look forward to great things from the garden in a couple months.

Keeping all my hats on straight...

With my busy life, I wear a lot of different hats. Today was a jam-packed day, with lots of stuff to keep up with.

This morning started out pretty typical. I took care of a couple loads of laundry, sorted a ton of clothes, and gave the kids their marching orders for the morning. That covers the wife and mother hat. A call came in from my hubby regarding some business stuff, so that meant I was wearing my Milo Electric hat. I slipped my Knolltop Morgans hat on long enough to call the vet and schedule an ultrasound for Christy tomorrow. We need to find out if she is in foal or not.

Then I got my AgriAutomation hat out. It was a bit dusty since I don't put that one on very often. This is my dads company and he is in Oklahoma right now and needed to get new business cards made before the World Pork Expo in June (yes, this just proves there is a convention for everything). I got the materials around for that project and switched to yet another one.

I have only worn this one once. I filled in for the regular Dairy Leaders Committee secretary at the last meeting back in February. We have a meeting tomorrow night and I still hadn't emailed the minutes from February to the 4-H office to get printed up for review. Tomorrow night, neighbor Melissa will be back on the job and I can give her that hat back.

Then I donned my fair director hat and headed to Hillsdale. My brother would say I put on my crown, since he refers to me at the "fair queen", but it really is just one more hat. I had a lunch meeting regarding fund raising. Got a free lunch out of the deal, so that was cool.

The AgriAutomation hat went back on long enough to drop off the business card stuff at the printer. They promised me a proof on my fax machine within 24 hours and then I can place the order and stuff that hat away for a while.

I buzzed back home and got my wife and mom hat back on in order to finish laundry, straighten up the kitchen, help Suzanna with a sewing project she is starting and answer at least half a dozen questions from Thomas. I even slipped the horse trainer Mike hat on long enough to look something up on the internet for him.

That is when I discovered I forgot a hat!!! My hubby called and asked if I had run two errands for him while in Hillsdale. Oops!!! I managed to get all the way to town and back and never gave a second thought to going to Apex to pay the bill or making sure he didn't need me to pick anything up from American Copper & Brass. So this hat thing isn't perfect, but if I can keep them straight, life goes pretty easy. Oh, gotta go hubby just called and I have to take care of something in the office. On with another hat!!!!!!

Weekend wrap-up....

We had a busy and productive weekend. That always pleases my hubby. He is the kind of guy that makes a list in his head that is about two pages long and has hopes to get everything on it done. In reality, it is possible to get the first two things completed!

Friday night was the piano recital, and that went off without a hitch. Thomas was a little iffy on Thursday, but managed to pull it together when it counted. Kathryn was excited, as much over the dress she got to wear as the performance. She was able to wear her dress from the princess birthday party back in January and that was perfect in her mind. She played her song beautifully too.

Saturday was the day to bale hay. Bale hay???? Yes, in our case we set up the hay elevator in the mow, with the baler outside the barn and cleaned up about 40 bales worth of broken bales and loose hay. If you hadn't noticed, we are running tight on hay and every bale will save us from having to buy any. Hopefully, we will be cutting hay within a couple weeks and the hay crisis will be over.

Saturday night, I made a rhubarb pie for a church dinner and we all watched an old movie. We still try to do our Netflix movies, but as summer comes on, it gets harder to get inside to watch them.

Sunday was church, a dinner afterward and a second service after dinner. On the way up the driveway, we stopped at the barn to check on Sami. In the midst of the weekend, she had decided to try bloating. We had her in the barn to see if her stomach would settle down. It worked and she looked much better.

In the meantime, Thomas went to the pasture to take a peak at Breezy who was due to foal in the next few days. He reported back that she had "wax on her nibbles". Wax, to non-horse people, is actually drops of colostrum which leaks and then dries on the mares teats. It is a good indicator that the foal will be arriving soon. That observation led to a bit of a frenzy around the farm. As is typical here, animals had to get shifted around so that Breezy could have her stall for the impending arrival. We quickly finished nailing the metal roof down on the calf hutch, put up a small outside run for Bella and Rodney and moved them to their new home. We bedded up the stall for Breezy and settled her in for the night.

Our work was not in vain, since she laid down and safely delivered a beautiful bay filly at about 12:45. Momma was on her feet within a short time, the filly was up within 15 minutes and found her dinner by 1:30. I stayed to make sure Breezy was okay and tucked myself into bed at about 3:00. Once again I am awed by the whole process.

So today Thomas and Kathryn are taking a make-up lesson with their piano teacher. Tonight Kathryn starts back with her dog 4-H. And so starts the first full week of summer vacation.

Time to celebrate.....

School is out for the summer. Yes, it may seem early to most, but we also started the 3rd week in August. As the weather has gotten nice, it has been harder for the kids to sit in a classroom all day.

I am so grateful for the school our kids are able to attend. We had an awards assembly on Tuesday night, and it is so special to hear each teacher speak of how they love our children and feel blessed by God to be able to serve him at the school. And the kids love these teachers just as much. Even in the high school students the evidence of their love and respect is obvious.

So now we head into summer, with a much slower schedule. I look forward to that. We will still have lots of stuff to do, but more of it should be close to home. Tonight Thomas and Kathryn have their piano recital. Next Sunday will be Suzanna's violin recital. We start dog 4-H on Monday night. And of course it is time to get a garden in and work up a couple new flower beds. Suzanna will begin getting her heifers ready for the summer show at Michigan State. And of course, we are planning to get away for a couple long weekends in the camper too. Needless to say, we won't be lacking in things to do.


Welcome, Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A little crazy, but you have to love 'em

A wedding happened in the neighborhood today. A girl who lives across the road and up just a bit had her wedding in the front yard, and my daughters caught wind of what was up. Therefore they set up an observation plan early this morning. The next thing I knew, they were up on top of the chicken coop (don't ask!) and had their binoculars out watching the arrivals and decorating. They even ate their lunch up there. Suzanna came to the house to make it while Kathryn stayed on watch duty.

At one point, I looked out to see what they were up to. Too my surprise, they were no longer atop the chicken coop, but had moved down to the end of our driveway and had set up shop down there. I called them back up, I just felt that might be a bit over the top!!! I got a report that they had put out streamers, there were lots of cars, the road dust was blowing over the wedding scene every time a car went by and the brides dress had no sleeves.

Just another day of simple country living. Not much happens around here.

The crew goes to the zoo

School is quickly wrapping up for my gang. We will be done next Thursday. Each spring their go on a field trip and this year was the Toledo Zoo. In the past, I have either driven or ridden with other parents to attend these field trips, but this year, with the price of gas, I decided the $3 to ride the bus was a good deal. But consider 40 kids, excited to be on a bus, and how loud they can get. I kept reminding myself of the savings, but my ears didn't think it was a bargan.

First up, was pictures for the yearbook. The lower picture is the 3rd and 4th graders. Sorry, they thought they were done when I snapped it. The upper picture is the 5th and 6th graders. From here it was off to view the zoo.

The kids and I joined up with two other families and off we went to see the sights. Suzanna had

been to this zoo before, so she was "the expert". It was a first for Thomas and Kathryn, and they were thrilled with everything. Each look at things so differently. Suzanna is a "stroller", and likes to read the information the zoo provides about the animals. Thomas on the other hand is on a speed tour. He would fly through and look at everything all at once and be done and ready to go to the next display. Kathryn, as is typical, was somewhere in the middle of the two, taking her time in some places and rushing along with a freind at the next display.

We saw all there was to see, made the necessary stop at the souvenier shop and headed back to the bus. We were all tired and Kathryn managed to fall asleep on the way home. We were able to praise the Lord that the rain that had treated to ruin the day held off until we were in the buses and on our way home.

I really appreciated that the teachers and principal tied all that we had seen to Gods wonderful creation. You can't look at a hippo or a rhino and not recognize that God has a sense of humor. God wants us to enjoy his creation and the zoo was a wonderful way to do just that. Of course, many in the world would like to say that all we saw there evolved from something else, but what on earth was a rhino before it became a rhino????

How do they do that????

As I have confessed in the past, I can't back a truck and trailer. Well, I can, but it would take me about 45 minutes to go 10 feet and I couldn't have anyone watching me while I try. So far the pray for a circular driveway or find a man to help me out system has worked. I can remember my dad backing the truck and goose neck livestock trailer into spots that were so narrow he'd have inches on either side. My hubby is the same way.

Sunday afternoon, hubby and I need to move equipment around in the storage barn so that the tractor way in the back was in the front. I am the watch the sides and help back up and hitch person in these projects. Hubby can back up to stuff to hitch up and have it right there on one try. Me, it would be back and forth at least three times. The haybine is very wide, compared to the barn door and is awkward to work with. Never fear, he still knows just how to shimmy it back and forth to get it through the doorway...leaving the doors and trim on the barn and all the shields on the haybine.

Then it was time to put it all back. Quick and easy, everything was backed back into a spot. It didn't take 20 tries. He knew how much to move the wheel one way or the other to get it right where he wanted it. So is it instinct or practice, practice, practice????? I suspect it is a little of both, plus he is so much more patient then I will ever be.

Auction Shocker.....

My moms folks went to estate auctions for years. It was a favorite thing for them to do and my brother and I loved going along with them. We had a group of auction friends, who all came with parents and grandparents like us, and had a great time running around, being silly, like kids can be.

A common purchase at these auctions were boxes of stuff. It could be the stuff from some one's junk drawer, a bunch of odds and ends, soaps and cleaners, old tin cans full of nails. You just never knew all the goodies you had until you got home and went through them. Grandma loved costume jewelry, so she usually grabbed up boxes of that sort of stuff. When we went through grandma and grandpa's house after they had passed away, we got to make new boxes of stuff that the auctioneer who had probably sold most of it to them got to sell to someone else. Mom did keep most of her jewelry, and through the years has sorted through it and given different items to the kids.

Kathryn recently came home with a few new items. She took one ring to school yesterday morning and when she got in the car in the afternoon, she was grumbling about the ring. She told me the ring had a picture of a naked lady inside it. Mind you, this ring didn't look like anything special, a simple clear stone on a ring of very worn metal with a bent band. I said "what are you talking about?" She explained that there is a little hole on the side of the ring that when you look inside you can see a naked lady. I asked for the ring, looked inside the hole and OH MY, she was right! It was a peepshow ring. I had no idea such things even existed!! Of course the other two in the car instantly caught on to what was up and requested an opportunity to look and see as well. NO! was my answer. We headed to moms for an afternoon visit, and I sent all the kids off to various places in the house and then showed mom the offending object. She was equally as shocked, having no idea what she had sent home with Kathryn. Needless to say, the ring is gone and the shock has begun to wear off.

Modesty in a world that doesn't care.....

I am frustrated. I have an 11 year old daughter that needs spring clothes and the world thinks she should show her midriff, chest and most of her legs! I don't happen to agree. It is impossible to find clothes that will fit her and cover her appropriately. This is not a new problem. For some reason the fashion powers-that-be decided when girls go from 6X to 7-8, they no longer need to be covered up. It is time to be provocative, and to be quite frank, TRASHY! We are trying to raise daughters that are modest, and unworldly. It just isn't easy in a world which puts value in all the wrong things.

In the past, I have been able to find patterns and make a few dresses that work for church. This year a run through four pattern books yeilded nothing but frustration. I couldn't even find one that with some alterations, would be acceptable. Thankfully, school clothes are never an issue, they wear uniforms and the company they come from is a Christian-owned company and they have the modesty thing covered. Everyday clothes aren't a huge deal. She is happy in jeans and a tee shirt. It all comes down to church clothes.

So what am I doing to remedy this situation? I am resizing a nice dress pattern that I have made for her in the past and hopefully it will work. Have I ever done this before? No, but you know what they say, desperate times lead to desperate measures.

Maybe someday there will be a mass fashion revolt and hems will get longer, shirts will cover belly buttons, jeans waistlines will be at the waist and shirts will actually cover what they were meant to cover. No I really don't expect it, but I will fight it in my own way in my little corner of the world.