Archive for December, 2005
December 17, 2005 – Neighborhood Barns
This barn is just off the blacktop two miles west of our place. The top line says “Homeland” the bottom line says “Aberdeenangus Cattle.” I like it when people paint the name of their farm or their favorite breed on their barn. I didn’t immediately recognize what “Aberdeenangus” meant, as it wasn’t familiar to me.
A quick google search reveals the name to be “Aberdeen Angus” (the space between Aberdeen and Angus makes all the difference). The cows are originally a small, stocky lowline breed from Scotland. Here’s a bit of history about the Aberdeen Angus from New Zealand. It’s also listed as one of the most rare breeds according to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Now, I have another mission to find out the history of this farm and if any of these cattle remain.
December 16, 2005 – Boomwhacker
Last night was concert night at school. Emma is playing the green “Boomwhacker” in this shot. 
She also had a flute solo in the band portion of the show. Claire also had a vocal solo for the chorus.
December 15, 2005 – Thingamajig Thursday #2
Here’s this week’s “What is it” entry. Enter your guesses in the comments and don’t forget to review last week’s answer.
The answer…
It’s the catch part of the gate latch to the chicken yard.
December 14, 2005 – Frosty-n-Marty
Yet another snowy day. It’s been at least 2 weeks since I’ve been able to drive to work on dry roads. At least the last snow was a “warm” snow and one we could work with to make snowmen.
December 13, 2005 – Baby’s 14th Christmas
After we decorated the tree, Claire found the “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament.
Claire thought it was time for an update, so she made another hand-made ornament. 
Putting up the Christmas tree has always been a test of marital commitment. From the selection of the tree all through the tottering placement of the tree in the house. The tree initially stayed up for two days this year, before a crash awoke me at 2:00 am. I thought the window on the corn stove may have shattered or a window broke from the gutter filled with ice. A drowsy reconnaissance downstairs revealed the windows and stove were all intact, but I didn’t notice the Christmas tree prone on the floor until coming down for breakfast. Of course, by that time, the water in the stand had a good, long time to soak into the early gifts. (Another reason not to get the wrapping done too early!)
December 12, 2005 – The Road to Osage
This morning I drove up to Osage to pick up a quarter beef from Sugar Creek Farm. Our usual supplier, Dick Thompson from Boone didn’t have any available until late spring.
On the way to Osage, I took Iowa’s backroads and brought the camera and found at least three items of interest:
Near Osage, there was a bean field next to a timber that must have had 200 wild turkeys foraging in the snow. There were groups spread out over 40 acres or so and this was all I could get in one shot.
A farmer along the way has spent a lot of time and energy displaying his tractors – an Oliver 70 up on posts high above the ground and what looks like a Ford 8N or 9N in a greenhouse-type enclosure.
Finally, a photograph that is somehow indicative of yesterday’s news that the President’s job satisfaction rating has dropped from a percentage in the 80s immediately after 9-11 to 38% today.
December 11, 2005 – Goats with Attitude
I’m not sure what this goat is trying to say, but she looks like she’s got a bit of a swagger to her.
Even more goats came over to be bred by Billy. Billy and Ringo have been very cozy lately – Ringo wagging her tail furiously and sticking around Billy. The goats do not like to go out on the snow – there are very few tracks out in the snow.
December 10, 2005 – O Christmas Tree
Today we went to cut our tree. Martin told me that the Christmas trees we planted aren’t big enough yet to cut! Selecting the tree is always the hardest.
We all point to our favorite tree.
Here I am hard at work cutting the tree down. Notice the shameless grandma readying a snowball at a defenseless grandchild!
December 9, 2005 – Winter Barn
The winter wonderland continues with what seems like daily light snow and very cold. Here’s another shot of our barn from the road through the pines.
December 8, 2005 – Thursday Thingamajig #1
As winter approaches and activity on the farm slows down, I take this opportunity to introduce a new feature “Thingamajig Thursday.” This feature will challenge you by showing a photograph of part of an object or a close-up of a common farmstead object. Your job is to guess. Put your guess is a comment. I’ll give you the answer as soon as someone guesses it or the following Thursday.
I’ll start out kind of easy for the first week.
The answer is the frostless outdoor hydrant handle. Here’s a full-size view.
December 7, 2005 – Snow on the Roof
The cold snap continues – we are about 25 degrees below normal – lows in the teens below zero. The snow has stayed on the barn nearly a week now – this is longer than any of the last few winters.
Usually, snow is soon followed by a warm day and it doesn’t take much of a warm day for the metal barn roof to shed its load of snow – usually in one or a few big “Swooshes” when the snow slides off in one big avalanche. You don’t want to be near the barn when that happens – it would knock you over and bury you. I’ve been lucky enough to see it happen a time or two. The first time it happened, I heard it and couldn’t figure out what made the noise until I saw the big piles of snow by the barn.
December 6, 2005 – Corn Stubble
A study in black and white of the current landscape.
It was another work day and the roads were slick this am – the interstate was blocked in Des Moines, so I had to drive through town to get to work.
December 5, 2005 – Frosty Morning
It was another sub-zero morning – but with it was lots of beauty with the snow, sun, and ice mixed together.
I’ve had to crank up the corn stove a notch – it burns more corn, but puts out more heat. Today is an errand day – bringing the van in for some work, picking up the buying club food order and picking up the van among other things. The goats finally ventured out of the barn today – but not too far. They must be bored in the barn.
December 4, 2005 – Hike to the Past
This afternoon in the 2 degree heat, the kids and I headed out to the nearly forgotten town of Capron. We took a couple of sleds and two dogs.
Today, Capron is nothing more than a grove of trees about a half-mile nearly due west of our farm – in the middle of a section.
Here the kids are perched on part of the remaining railroad grade with our farm over their right shoulder. (I love the meandering paths in the snow.)
Our neighbor has a railroad schedule that shows Capron as one of the stops of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad if I’m not mistaken. I can’t find anything about Capron on Google except for listings of Iowa towns, and there is very little in the history of Marshall County book about it.
This old sign is about all that’s visible of the place in the snow. It was an invigorating walk in the weather, but Claire is now stewing a story in her head about it.
It is strange to visit past human settlements. Strange to imagine being able to hop on a train less than a half mile from our farm at the turn of the century and get to Chicago. Now we have to drive over an hour and a half to get to a train station!
