March 7, 2010 – Real Life Marauder’s Map
For all you Harry Potter fans, here’s a real life marauder’s map! This is the “Sprint Family Locator.”
It’s available on any computer or our cell phones. This shows on a map where two of our family members are at this particular time. The girls thought it was a bit creepy for us to be able to know where they always were, but it sure comes in handy for wondering when someone will be home for dinner, knowing when to pick them up from a sporting event in Fort Dodge or Mason City, or if Dad is still moving on his ride home from Des Moines on a slippery night.
You can even zoom in to a very detailed level to locate someone – on this photo, it looks like Linda might be in a greenhouse – shocking, I know! Best of all, it just costs $5.00 month. I wonder what the implications for law enforcement are regarding placing people at the scene of a crime with all these GPS enabled phones? I can get emails at times I request for locations of any family member. We have shared the password with the kids, so they could also see where we are at. It gives them precious minutes to get the dishes done or boys out of the house when we are on our way home!
March 6, 2010 – Ewe Lamb Births with no Problem
Our second ewe has given birth without any problems. We checked the barn in the morning and these two boys were just born and still wet.
This was the birth we were most worried about since the ewe was only a year old. But as you can see, momma did just fine! She’s a very vocal mother, and makes all kinds of low muttering sounds to her lambs.
March 5, 2010 – Basement Woes Over?
After what seemed like a long time doing the kitchen dishes in a tub and not using the dishwasher, the basement plumbing is finally fixed.
This is during the throes of the replumbing. This hole will contain a sump pit and that will service the floor drains and will also accommodate part of the moving of the kitchen and dishwasher to the main septic line. We could have tried to do it cheaper and easier, but it would have meant putting the floor drains in the septic – and in the case of water in the basement, the septic drain field would be saturated, and running groundwater into it, would cause that to fail as well – so we bit the bullet and fixed both problems at once.
The hole cleaned up well – now we just have to wait for the cement to dry and see how we can rearrange the basement as there is no longer room for the chest freezer against this wall.
March 4, 2010 – Thingamajig Thursday #198
This week’s Thingamajig Thursday is a little different – see how many clues you need to get the answer.
- You’ve probably seen me on TV in the last month.
- I grew up in a house with no running water or electricity.
- I grew up a vegetarian.
- I own a 630 acre farm in New Hampshire that contains an organic farm and woodland conservation easements.
- I have five Olympic medals.
Also check out the last thingamajig answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
March 3, 2010 – Here Comes the Sun
Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it’s all right.
- George Harrison
Indeed, the only slightly sub-freezing days are slowly melting the snow and ice.
It has been a long, cold lonely winter, and it does feel like years since the sun’s been here. Amen!
March 2, 2010 – One Cat or Two?
Ora (black) and Steeeeve! (gray) enjoy lounging in the strengthening spring rays.
Do you prefer to see one cat in an old bushel basket on a sunny day?
Or do you prefer to see two cats in a basket?
March 1, 2010 – Early March Driveway
After a long winter without seeing below the ice and snow of the driveway, the first patches are appearing.
To think, one year, we put some seeds in the soil on February 28! I could tell you where the gardens are, but soil is nowhere to be seen.
February 28, 2010 – Tank Delivers!
There indeed was a reason Tank was getting so very large – she was carrying three good-sized lambs!
Here she is with two of them trying to get some milk from momma – two females and one male.
Here’s the third triplet, just hours after giving birth – Tank did it all on her 0wn – we went to the barn and the lambs were all delivered, but still wet. So far, so good on these triplets – they all seem to be nursing and we hope they continue that was so we don’t end up with a bottle lamb.
February 27, 2010 – Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference
For the last few days we’ve been attending the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI. Each year it seems to get bigger. When we first started attending, it was at a convent, then it moved to UW-La Crosse, and now at the La Crosse convention center. Nearly 3,000 attended this year’s meeting, and the La Crosse Center now seems too small.
I thought I’d just put in a shot of the river right behind the conference center since few pictures are more boring than people sitting around tables or chairs talking.
For me, the best part of the conference is sitting down for meals. The food, is, of course, outstanding and without exception, the people you meet at your lunch table are interesting and likable. This year, we seemed to meet many people who were just starting out on their farms and there to soak up information, just like I was years ago.
I’m told be people outside the organic community, that this farm conference is rare in the large number of young people that attend. I got to speak a bit with a reporter from Successful Farming magazine, a mainline farm publication and he said he’s never covered a conference with so many young people – he said it was rare to see a person under 55 at any of the other mainline farming meetings/conferences.
February 26, 2010 – Accordian Skywalk Player
I don’t imagine you can go too many places and meet an accordian player in the skywalk.
But La Crosse, Wisconsin, is evidently one such place. I knew we must be getting close to the Upper Midwest Organic Farming conference when we heard the accordian music drifting towards us.
February 25, 2010 – Thingamajig Thursday #197
Here’s this week’s thingamajig Thursday.
Also check out the last thingamajig answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
February 24, 2010 – When I was Growing Up…
When I was growing up, chocolate covered cherries came eight to a tray.
Sadly, the last box I received only had five to a tray. It takes a lot of gall to put only five chocolate covered cherries in a space designed for eight!
February 23, 2010 – Pot O’ Soup
It’s that time of year – winter drags on, colds appear.
Guess what’s for dinner?
Vat ‘o chicken soup with dumplings! Good for whatever ails you!
February 22, 2010 – Snowbanks Along Hwy 20
This weekend Linda had a speaking gig in Storm Lake, IA. We’ve had a lot of snow, but up in northwest Iowa, the snow is even more extreme.
Large stretches of Highway 20 west of Fort Dodge have long stretches with snow this tall along the north shoulder of the highway. With our current forecast of temperatures far below normal, the longer the snowpack stays in place and doesn’t incrementally melt, the more the chances of a quick meltoff and subsequent flooding are a threat. The normal highs for late February are in the mid 30’s and we haven’t seen that for a while, nor is it in the forecast for the next week or so – the danger is we’ll go from 10-15 degrees below normal to 10-15 above normal with rain and have a big, quick meltoff.
