Archive for June, 2008
June 30, 2008 – Nellie the Goat
Here Nellie sticks her head out of the barn door as if to say “what ya got for me today?”
They’ve had a smorbasboard of different foods this spring. An acquaintance of a friend keeps buying 50 lb bags of various plant materials, hoping to use them for dye. They don’t quite work out ...Read more.
June 29, 2008 – Late Cherries
The cherries are late this year, but they are here – a welcome sight after last year’s late threatening frost and this summer’s rain. The weather service announced that the first six months of 2008 were the wettest first six months of the year on record – we’ve never had a Jan-June stretch of wetter ...Read more.
June 28, 2008 – Des Moines Art Festival
Since Aunti Julie was here this weekend, we went to the Des Moines Art Fair.
Here Martin is amazed by a contraption that moves balls around a series of loops, falls, twists and turns.
You might recognize this guy from the July 21st Wind Turbine Dedication – one week at high hopes gardens, the next at the ...Read more.
June 27, 2008 – Chickens Need Rethinking
The loss of our local chicken locker threw us for a loop this year. Instead of driving 20 minutes away and taking the chickens with us when we left, the closest other locker is an hour and 20 minutes away and we needed to take two trips, once to drop them off, then another to ...Read more.
June 26, 2008 – Thingamajig Thursday #122
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig” entry.
Also check out the last thingamajig answer. Put your guess in a comment below.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Hold mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.
one year ago…”Flowerama”
June 25, 2008 – Another Interview
Linda gave another interview today, this time to a Senior at Grinnell College doing a study on the role of females on family farms.
They must have had a good time since I could hear them laughing in the distance while I puttered around with Martin.
one year ago…”Strawberry Renovation”
June 24, 2008 – Bee Swarm
This week we had a bee swarm on the farm. Bee swarms are fascinating. They occur when the hive is successful and needs to split or reproduce. We happened to see this one swarm on a fence on the boundary between our farm and the adjacent corn field.
The bees, all 35,000-50,000 of them, ...Read more.
June 23, 2008 – “EcoHeartland” Film Crew
Today we had a visit from a couple of documentary film makers, Nick and Max Cain.
They are putting together a documentary entitled “EcoHeartland” described as “Two brothers, one a filmmaker and the other an environmentalist, take a road trip across the nation to spotlight innovative environmental projects coming from the American Heartland.” We had a nice ...Read more.
June 22, 2008 – Skystream Data Logger
Today was a quiet day after the party – tearing down is so much easier than setting up. It was nice to walk around the farm in all its well-keptness and not be prone to weed or fix “one more thing.” I spent some time with the Skystream data logger.
The data logger uses ...Read more.
June 21, 2008 – Dedication of “Boreas” Wind Turbine
Today was the big day – one we thought might not happen. We were very close to postponing the party a week ago in the wake of the flooding and water in the basement that demanded all our time – but we went ahead with the triple bash of wind turbine dedication, 2nd Annual ...Read more.
June 20, 2008 – Visitors from Afar
This week we had a visit with some neighbors from the past. When we lived in Ames (I won’t say how many years ago) the family of “Dr Jay” lived next door with their three children. They were the first or one of the first “adult” friends we made as we transitioned from ...Read more.
June 19, 2008 – Claire in Washington DC: Episode 3
I had an amazing experience on this trip, both sightseeing and making new friends. It was also informative about the role of electric cooperatives, and how they serve rural consumers.
Here’s the White House, at night. There was a lot of security in D.C. It seemed commonplace to have to have to go ...Read more.
June 18, 2008 – Claire in Washington DC: Episode 2
While on the youth tour, we saw all of the famous memorials and monuments.
Here’s the Washington Monument. It was visible from everywhere in D.C.
This is a close up of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
We also visited the National Cathedral. There is some beautiful stained glass there. Of course the pictures turned out nothing ...Read more.
June 17, 2008 – Claire in Washington DC: Episode 1
I recently had the privilege of going on an amazing and free trip to Washington D.C. The trip was sponsored by my local energy co-op, Consumers Energy (thanks!). Rural electric co-ops from all over the United States could sponsor a student to go on the Rural Electric Youth Tour. There were about ...Read more.
