Archive for March, 2005
March 31, 2005 – The Court at High Hopes
Now that we are on the cusp of the NCAA college basketball championship, it’s time to show the world one of the best home court advantages in the known universe. Sure, they talk about Hilton Colieum, Phog Allen Fieldhouse – but for my money, they all pale in difficulty when compared the Court at ...Read more.
March 30, 2005 – Rhubarb!
Looks like the rhubarb is ready to take off:
It’s a low energy day. I’m fighting a cold and don’t have the usual get up and go. So we vacuumed under all the couches, pruned some of the windbreak trees to a single leader. Here’s a before photo:
Here’s an after photo showing a single ...Read more.
March 29, 2005 – Blowin in the Wind
As today was a town day, I’ll leave you with another spring first:
I gave up yesterday on cutting up the rest of the trunks the power line guys cut down. They’re getting a bit big, but yesterday got one last load:
March 28, 2005 – Martin-Daddy Day
Today is another of the ever-popular Martin-Daddy Days. This morning we were errand boys – first emptying the truck of mulch. Martin and I were “mulch guys” and we delivered the load to his playground to be. Then we gathered up a pick-up load of garbage (something the previous owners found hard ...Read more.
March 27, 2005 – A Good Day’s Work
It was a warm calm day and a laundry list of things were completed. We moved 62 of the cattle panel fencing and some of the poles to the pasture. We had them on a small hay wagon, but it was dicey hauling it as the panels were too long and tractor couldn’t ...Read more.
March 26, 2005 – Easter in Minnesota
We drove to Rochester on Friday night and all siblings convened at Moms. The day was full of sledding, dying easter eggs, and eating. Rachel and Martin in particular hit it off.
March 26 2005 – More Snow
Photo courtesy of Emma! She is captivated how the roof barn and sky melt together! I’m calling this the “Robin Snow” meaning the last snow of the year (typically after the robins return, we get at least some snow). Now we are less confident that the goat is near due after talking ...Read more.
March 24, 2005 – Goat Early?
When we were gone a few days ago and called home to see how things were, it was reported that “something was coming out of the goat.” Since she is pregnant, we assume it was the mucous plug and now she can birth anytime (about 2 weeks ahead of schedule).
This may complicate Easter plans ...Read more.
March 23, 2005 – Retreat Conclusions
We’ve only been gone less than 36 hours – but it was two full days, a night away and drive-bys of 100’s of farms – most not doing too well. Rural southeastern Iowa is not a particularly prosperous part of the U.S. It was quite jarring driving up from the south to Iowa ...Read more.
March 22, 2005 – Vacation Begins!
Ah, just what you hope for – it’s about 30 degrees and overcast, with wind gusts of 35 mph and a 90% chance of rain this afternoon. It’s not quite tropical, but as the old saying goes, “whatever the weather, we’ll weather the weather, whether we like it or not.” In all truth, it won’t ...Read more.
March 21, 2005 – Vacation or Fence?
You know you are a real farmer when you’d rather spend your money on a new fence than a caribbean vacation! I started building the fence for this year’s tree planting. I ultimately decided on the cattle panels as they will be most flexible and “always on” even though they are a bit pricey. Today, ...Read more.
March 20, 2005 – Seed Starting
Today was the first day of spring and it was warm enough to do all the seed starting outside. It was much better than doing it in the house – all the mess stayed outside. Linda supervised the soil mixing, which was earnestly performed by Martin and Emma.
The chickens are laying like nuts – ...Read more.
March 19, 2005 – Worn Out
If not for a phone call, I was about out for the night on the couch I’m finally tuckered out. Another class day. Today we had a volunteer with a 25-ft 5th wheel trailer offer to help us haul the 100 cattle panels (4 gauge gridded wire fence sections 16 feet long) ...Read more.
March 18, 2005 – No Snow!
Just to the north of us, winter has re-appeared. Instead of the nearly 2 feet of snow, here in tropical central Iowa we enjoyed 50 degrees.
Since my laptop went on the fritz, I went into the office this morning (my laptop has needed 2 new motherboards and a new hard drive and my ...Read more.
