Gale the adventurer...

I was hauling a load of beans past the roadside park today a fella was waving big at me, I waved and kept going. But a few minutes later Roger got the same emphatic wave and being the nice fella he is he stopped to see what the guy wanted. His name was Gale and he and his twin brother wanted to see the big machines running in the big fields. Roger said they could come take a look at what we were doing. So Gale headed to the field. I got the pleasure to visit with Gale.
Gale and his twin brother Dale had driven over 500 miles yesterday "mostly on 2 lane black tops and gravels, that's what we do" to see us Midwesterners bring in the harvest. They slept in the car at the roadside park, ate their cereal there then flagged down a hapless famer(us) to show them the big machines in the big fields. So I gave Gale a ride and it was great. Gale, the older of the two twins, is in his young 70s and informed me they do these trips all the time across America. They eat canned food, sleep on pads in the seat of their car "as comfortable as a recliner, we like roughing it". The car was a late model Chevy cobalt it gets 50mpg and they had a water pump, alternator, fuel pump and who knows what other spare parts in the trunk to keep them going "we can always find somebody to put them on!". These guys were the real deal of intrepid travelers!
Dale loved the ride and had great things to say, more than once he mentioned "This is a treat, a 30ft cutter head, three zero feet, wow what a treat!"

Things you might have missed this summer part 5... We picked

a pyramid of sweet corn for the freezer and fed the corn bones to the cows when the job was done.

Thing you might have missed this summer part 4... We poured

concrete for new cattle waters and fill some holes. And we poured rocks out of our boots when things started to rub us the wrong way.

Things you might have missed this summer part 3... We cut

big heads of broccoli and a few trees that went down in the wind. The grapple makes tree cutting much easier but we have yet to get a big enough head of broccoli that we need the use it in the garden.

Things you might have missed this summer part 2... Neighbors

Get it "neigh"bors, you know, it is the sound a horse makes. The. Budweiser Clydesdales were or neighbors for a night or two. And some young hen pheasants are now locals.

Things you may have missed this summer 1... it rained

water early and lots of it. And it rained soybeans if you were in the right place at the right time.

Solo at the stick...

First solo run to feed. He said "I just did it like I saw you do it. I shook the bucket and everything!". And FYI... he did do it just like we do it. Even beeped the horn at the stubborn ladies.

Somebody....

Is pickin' and shellin' today.

A new operator...

starts on the mower. It is how I started and many others. Rule 1. Be safe, don't run over your foot or break something! Rule 2. Get all the grass, don't leave strips or bunches around trees. Rule 3. Try and make it look good, you have to look at, until it grows back, in 3 days with the amount of rain we have had.

This 8 year old has a high motivation to get the job done. It is fun to watch kids make decisions on how to turn around or go around objects, quick thinking is needed when the engine is running and you are moving.

A warning to heavy equipment operators...

This is what children at play look like. Watch for this when driving into our yard.

Lost a good hand....

Poochy the farm dog passed away yesterday, just days before her 14th birthday. She will be missed. She did things right; didn't run away, barked when stock got out at night, barked at coyotes, ate anything you presented to her, barked at anybody who drove in the yard to let us know. She would sleep between the house and the road most nights under the boys bedroom window, she knew any two legged danger would come from the road. The neighbors 1 mile away never loaded hogs in the evening without us knowing by her barks. She could sleep in a snow drift at 5° with a stiff 20mph wind and have sweet dreams. She would snatch a milk bone from your hand every morning but if you tossed her a tbone scrap after supper she wouldn't even look at you until you turned and walked away, too proud to show you that she enjoyed your leftover scraps.

Perhaps Simons prayer last night said it best. "Dear Word.... I woved poochy... she wived a wong time... I weally woved her... Amen."

Well said Simon, her is a pic of you loving on her a week or so ago.

170 chickens....

Declucked, plucked, shucked, and tucked in freezers across NE Iowa. Your grandma probably did more in a day but that is good for us to do that many and get them wrapped and in folks freezers.

The boyz worked hard, and it is tough dirty work. I wouldn't be more proud if they were star ball players or just showed a champion steer. That cute girl was there too........... would have got her number if she had slowed down to clean some gizzards....

The Corner Market

The Corner Market strikes again. This guy had melon while dad fixed the busted planter. Everybody won and the beans got planted. But just so you know the melon was exceptional so go get one!

Dirty teeth....

Went to get the cows up and it was a bit muddy. It was flying every where! It was fun! They way they were smiling and yelling can't believe they didn't have mud on their teeth.

Delay...

This is called a planting delay. But all fixed and planted now!

Sprout!

Planted this bugger on May 5 near Maynard. Saw two others poking through the ground, perhaps my removal of one will reduce the field yield by 33%?

Psychological torture?

I am not sure if this is acceptable according to the Geneva Convention?

Snow packed...

At 2:30 pm today we officially ran out of places to push snow to in the yard. No more corners, nooks or crannies. I am only half kidding.... 3+ inches forecasted for Thursday.......

A couple hams....

Thought it was warming up. But it was still a bit brisk when we did chores tonight. Just the thought of 40° next week warms the soul. These 2 hams didn't seem to mind the cold.

8 Hearts...

Watch it if you play 500 with this guy. He is a bidder.

Crazy ideas...

What goes through our heads sometimes? Why do we think we need to suddenly go get firewood when is is -13° F and the wind is ripping out of the NW at 30 mph and it is 8am. The answer is simple, sometimes we just have to prove we can do it even when others recommend against it, and especially if you are 7 or 10 years old.

We made their bed for them....

Rolled out a bale in the feed lot. The critters need a warm bed on these cols days.

Making feed...

A recent shot of grabbing a bale of ryelage in a blizzard. They weigh about 1300 lbs each, without snow on them.

This little silage fork

I ran some numbers on this fork. It has pitched well over 30 tons of silage the last few months. Pretty good piece of equipment. It starts even when -20°, the fuel is corn flakes or bacon which we grow around here and it never gels up. Not sure the resale value as it has some age and hours to it, but we are not looking to trade anytime soon.

Bucket destruction....

I don't recommend leaving a bucket full of water out when the temp. goes to -13° F.........

Rye bag....

Cracked open the ryelage bag this week, no mold. Happy cows in need of some good feed with all this cold weather.

Ground feed.... ground blizzard...

1° F..... finally warm enough to grind feed. We kind of have a perpetual ground blizzard around here if the wind blows over 10 mph. All that white in the background is suspended and blowing snow. I wonder how many thousands of tons of feed have gone through that window into the feed shed?

Silo fill gauge....

We installed this fill gauge so you could see how full the silo is. If you go inside it is an incredible shrinking tube with the extreme cold we have been having as the walls freeze up. Makes us have to climb it every 3 days.

Fun in the snow

Smiles all around here. Though they gave some super model a hard time for taking her kid on an ATV a while back with out helmets. Sometimes a little danger is good for the heart.... but maybe not the skull.

Warmth brought to you by...

A couple hard working kids to haul wood for the fire.

24 hours in iowa

This was taken a little over a month ago. One morning and then the next.