Author Archive
May 18, 2012 – Hog Barn Refresh
There’s only two sides of buildings that haven’t been painted since we moved in. The north side of the old wooden machine shed, andt this, the east side of the hog barn.
Since Claire is one to keep busy, I put her in charge of taking care of it (except for the high parts).
May 17, 2012 – Another Barn Destoyed
Another classic turn of the century barn was put to rest. This is what the place where the barn used to be three days ago looks like now.
Usually it’s the same story – some equipment comes, digs a big hole, pushes the destroyed barn into the hole, covers it up, and then corn/beans are planted on top of it.
In the fifteen of so years we’ve been here, this is the sixth barn within two mile of our place to lose the turn of the century barn.
May 15, 2012 – What I do at Work
Click to see how I feel when I explain what I do at work…
May 12, 2012 – Who’s on First?
Today was Martin’s first speech competition. The category is Duo Interpretation. He and a classmate did a reprise of Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First.”
May 9, 2012 – Big Gardening Day on the Farm
It was a great “getting things done on the farm day.” It was the first day that Linda and Claire were home all day, so the garden and other things were transformed.
First, Claire volunteered to clean out winter from the hen house. About five overflowing loader buckets (liberally soaked with water to aid the composting process) and the hen house was ready for fresh bedding, and next year’s compost is on the way.
Many plants and seeds and mulch found their way into the garden as well. We got the recycled lumber tarps out of the barn, Linda planted a bunch of peppers and tomatoes. I went to the neighbors via the bumpy dirt trail between the crop fields and retrieved two loads of loose straw from the loft of their barn and put the tomato cages on, pounded the stakes in, spread the mulch and wet it all down.
This photo shows some hearty garlic on the right, a cattle panel trellis that we put up this weekend. It has pole beans on the outside and lettuce and spinach underneath, hopefully to last a bit longer into the summer with the shade of the beans. To the left of the trellis is some space reserved for viney plants before a row of tomatoes. It’s nice to have that mulched portion of the garden already weeded for the whole season!
At the end of the day, I took some time to pull thistles from the pasture. It appears that last year’s pulling them out by had greatly reduced the population in the paddock we tested last year. We’ll continue that on the other paddocks this year.
April 30, 2012 – Emma at World Food Prize Iowa Youth Institute
Emma was selected to attend the Iowa Youth Institute sponsored by the World Food Prize. She worked diligently on a paper regarding water security in Jordan.
Here’s a link to the story for more details. Many luminaries attended,including the President of Iowa State, CEO of Pioneer, and Governor Branstad. Most everyone except the Governor stayed on course in addressing the youth except the Governor couldn’t help but make his pitch for Lean Textured Beef whatever.
April 29, 2012 – The Prom Goes on Forever…
It’s a tradition in Marshalltown to have a band concert the day after prom.
On the downside, the kids are wiped out after staying up through the after-prom party. On the upside, everyone gets to wear their prom gear for another formal event!
April 28, 2012 – Prom Night
It’s prom night.
Here’s Emma and Tyler before prom at dinner.
Emma with all her peeps just before heading off to prom.
April 27, 2012 – Beautiful Lettuce
It’s prime lettuce season.
Doesn’t this look yummy?
April 26, 2012 – Computer Meltdown
I’ve been absent for a while – but I have a good excuse – two of them in fact! First, my desktop computer died. The most likely culprit was a bad power supply, so I ordered a new power supply and a new iMac all-in-one as a backup in case it wasn’t the power supply.
The new power supply didn’t work, so it was a good thing that this box recently arrived.
The meltdown also came in the middle of a contract writing project that was nearing a deadline. So between those two things, I haven’t been breathing too much lately. Perhaps things will decelerate to more manageable pace for a few days and I can get caught up.
April 18, 2012 – Cedar Strip Canoe Finds a Home
Today, the watercraft fleet had a welcome addition when this red cedar strip canoe found a new home.
The canoe was sitting lonely in a farm shed somewhere in Jasper county. She hadn’t been in the water for over a decade and we were lucky enough to be picked as her new home.
Shes’ 18′ long and was made in the late 80′s with western red cedar and not seen much water since then.
Despite this annoying imperfection in the hull, a good refinishing should take care of this stain on an otherwise serviceable canoe!
April 15, 2012 – Farewell to a Music Legend
When I heard Glen Campbell was coming to Ames on his farewell tour, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see him play. Sure he has the onset of dementia and needs a teleprompter to remember the lyrics, but he’s got three of his kids in the band and a keyboard player of 35 years to help him along. One of my favorite songs of the night was “Try a Little Kindness.” This video is linked from an earlier concert.
His disease didn’t affect his playing as much as his singing. Here’s a little Dueling Banjo action as evidience.
All in all, it was a nice evening. I don’t ever remember people with such big contented smiles leaving a concert before. If we could all be so lucky to have the chance to take our family along on one last journey of doing what we love to do best, with the full understanding that this is the last go-round, but being able to savor every moment along the way.
April 12, 2012 – Cold Weather Finally Returns
After getting May weather in March, so far April has been more like March. We’ve had three nights in a row with frost, down to about 25 on our unofficial outdoor thermometer.
Some of the trees handled it better than others. This walnut got nipped – all the mulberries turned crispy. Many of the cherry and peach trees have already blossomed, so I’m hopeful the newly fertilized fruit bodies can withstand frost better than the anthers and stamens in a flowering bud, but time will tell how the fruit trees fared. It would be a bummer to have a season without apples, peaches, cherries,a nd pears!
April 2, 2012 – Love is in the Air!
The toads in the small pond are reckless today. Paying no attention to casual viewers and not even trying to hide from intruders. Here it is, a minute of toads trying to be tadpole daddies.
