I've got layers. Like an onion. Only thing is I don't make your eyes burn.
But I'm not being theoretical here. No emotionally touching, soul searching post here.
Nah. I'm speaking literally.
I'm referring to layers of clothing. Chore clothes to be exact.
As many of you know (or perhaps you don't? But if you don't, you do now...Anyway, I digress.), we move our cows from our summer pasture and open walled barn to our winter freestall barn and enclosed milking facility every October.
As a side note, this day has coincidentally happened on our wedding anniversary about 4 times in the last 8 years. As an extra side note, this was not one of those years. I'm digressing again.
Back to moving cows. So we move our cows to the summer farm in mid-May and back to the winter barn in mid-October because it's just what works for us. We've got irrigated pasture for the cows to nosh on all summer long but as with most everything else, the pasture goes into hibernation once Autumn arrives and our summer barn isn't very winter-usable. It's pretty much a pole barn with curtains for walls on three sides so it's not quite so fun milking in there when we've got your usual Fall weather. Our winter barn has a fully enclosed milking facility so to go from an open room with curtains on three sides (and thus a teeny bit more exposed to wind, rain, cold, and the general chilly October weather-of which we've had surprisingly little this month so I'm not complaining.) to a smaller enclosed room without wind, cold, rain, or the general chilly October weather (see above comment in parantheses) means the temperature inside said room goes up a few degrees. I've found that moving from the summer barn to the winter barn corresponds with a loss of at least one layer of clothing. Long johns and wool socks go back in the Winter Clothing Drawer for a few more weeks. No more frozen fingers, frozen hoses, or frozen noses til hopefully January. Or later. I won't complain about not having to deal with any of those at all really.
Yes, there will come a day (and likely sooner than any of us would prefer) when I'll want my layers back but for now, I'll enjoy my chores a little bit lighter.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
Autumn Arrives
This time of year is the dusty, dirty, long-day (as in work hours not daylight) time of year. Pretty much, it's Spring Planting in reverse. The guys are busy taking crops out of the fields instead of putting them in.
It's also the time of year we start layering barn clothes because the mornings are occasionally frosty and short sleeves just aren't all that warm when the temps are in the 50's.
Leaves are changing color and the days have shortened up noticeably. It's dark when I head out for morning chores and it's dark before we're done milking in the evenings.
Yes, autumn is here and with it comes the hustle and bustle of Harvest Time, the chill in the air as Mother Nature tells us Old Man Winter is on his way, and new baby calves bawling for their milk are a sign calving season is in full swing again. Geese honk noisely as they fly overhead on their way to warmer southern climes, there's the crunch and crackle of dried grass and weeds underfoot as you wander through the fields, and I start dreaming of mugs of hot apple cider in the evenings.
In another month, we'll have harvest wrapped up, the cows will be at their winter home, and the farm work will be winding down. For now, though, I'm just enjoying these last few days of my short commute (across the driveway) and the colors that adorn the hills.
It's also the time of year we start layering barn clothes because the mornings are occasionally frosty and short sleeves just aren't all that warm when the temps are in the 50's.
Leaves are changing color and the days have shortened up noticeably. It's dark when I head out for morning chores and it's dark before we're done milking in the evenings.
Yes, autumn is here and with it comes the hustle and bustle of Harvest Time, the chill in the air as Mother Nature tells us Old Man Winter is on his way, and new baby calves bawling for their milk are a sign calving season is in full swing again. Geese honk noisely as they fly overhead on their way to warmer southern climes, there's the crunch and crackle of dried grass and weeds underfoot as you wander through the fields, and I start dreaming of mugs of hot apple cider in the evenings.
In another month, we'll have harvest wrapped up, the cows will be at their winter home, and the farm work will be winding down. For now, though, I'm just enjoying these last few days of my short commute (across the driveway) and the colors that adorn the hills.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Hatching Day Fast Approaches
I was thinking I had this whole week yet before those little beaks started popping open those eggshells but apparently my mental calendar isn't the same as the actual calendar so hatching day is any day. Sure it could still be a week but it's likely sooner. (I'll keep you updated on that.)
But Hatching Day almost didn't have a chance. Last night we had a pretty strong thunderstorm roll through and dumped 1 inch of water on us in about 20 minutes. I guess the lightening and thunder were pretty impressive and the wind blew REALLY hard but this exhausted mom slept through every flash and boom and howl and downpoured raindrop so I can't vouch for that. I'm just going off of what the husband and my mother in law said.
Anyway, said storm dumped some much needed rain on the area but it also dumped some trees which landed on power lines and we were without electricity for almost 5 hours as a result. I slept through the storm but woke around 4 to a pitch black bedroom and my first thought after I realized the power was out wasn't 'I wonder if a tree fell on the line' or 'I hope my greenhouse isn't halfway down the driveway' or anything so mundane. No, my very first thought is as follows.
"Hmmm. Power is out so that means no lights, no electricity, no power to my incubator which means the temperature has dropped WHICH MEANS MY NEARLY READY TO HATCH CHICKS MAY BE DEAD!" *cue frantic search for a flashlight or cellphone so I could check the temperature* (the flashlight was oh so nicely provided by the half asleep husband.)
The temperature had dropped by about 20 degrees over the course of 4 hours and my stomach sank but I did my best to keep what heat was in there staying in there. I wrapped my heavy cozy robe around the incubator, dug out some of those hand warmer packets to hopefully keep the temperature from dropping more, and crawled back into bed with little hope left.
Much to my surprise, a quick check this morning showed there's still live baby chicks in those eggs and I'm still hopeful that my egg-speriment will be a success.
So here's to hoping my eight little eggs reveal eight little chicks soon.
But Hatching Day almost didn't have a chance. Last night we had a pretty strong thunderstorm roll through and dumped 1 inch of water on us in about 20 minutes. I guess the lightening and thunder were pretty impressive and the wind blew REALLY hard but this exhausted mom slept through every flash and boom and howl and downpoured raindrop so I can't vouch for that. I'm just going off of what the husband and my mother in law said.
Anyway, said storm dumped some much needed rain on the area but it also dumped some trees which landed on power lines and we were without electricity for almost 5 hours as a result. I slept through the storm but woke around 4 to a pitch black bedroom and my first thought after I realized the power was out wasn't 'I wonder if a tree fell on the line' or 'I hope my greenhouse isn't halfway down the driveway' or anything so mundane. No, my very first thought is as follows.
"Hmmm. Power is out so that means no lights, no electricity, no power to my incubator which means the temperature has dropped WHICH MEANS MY NEARLY READY TO HATCH CHICKS MAY BE DEAD!" *cue frantic search for a flashlight or cellphone so I could check the temperature* (the flashlight was oh so nicely provided by the half asleep husband.)
The temperature had dropped by about 20 degrees over the course of 4 hours and my stomach sank but I did my best to keep what heat was in there staying in there. I wrapped my heavy cozy robe around the incubator, dug out some of those hand warmer packets to hopefully keep the temperature from dropping more, and crawled back into bed with little hope left.
Much to my surprise, a quick check this morning showed there's still live baby chicks in those eggs and I'm still hopeful that my egg-speriment will be a success.
So here's to hoping my eight little eggs reveal eight little chicks soon.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Egg-scellent Experiment
For quite a while now, I've been wanting to add to my puny 3-hens-1-rooster sized flock and about a month ago, I thought my wish had come true when one said hens went broody. Broody hens are amazing for farm wives who want more chickens on the cheap (or is it 'cheep'?) with little to no effort on their part. Only trouble was my broody hen who looked oh so comfy on her little nest set inside an old car tire also looked oh so yummy to a hungry predator (maybe time to have the coon hunters come pay a night-time visit again...) and while she escaped with a few less feathers, she abandoned her nest only a few days after she'd started a-settin' on it. I was able to borrow an incubator from my mother-in-law though and I figured if I could find where my chickens are laying their eggs right now (it's definitely not in the coop much to my dismay), I could hatch them on my own. But no amount of hunting high and low (well, mostly low) has yielded the location of said nest(s) so I decided to order eggs instead and started researching hatcheries.
Then I stumbled on a link that gave me an idea. Apparently, some people have had luck hatching store bought eggs. That sounded easy and cheap-both of which appeal to me very much.
Now it's not like you can try hatching any old eggs from the grocery store. Most eggs in the average carton are from laying barns and there aren't roosters running around doing their 'duty' so the eggs aren't fertilized. But if you can find eggs labeled 'free range' and from a more local source (think farmer's markets), there's a chance the facility won't have taken the roosters out of the hen house. There's an easy way to check for fertilization-crack a few eggs open and look for a little yellow bulls-eye blob in the yolk-and if you are lucky, you'll have a nice hatchable bunch of eggs.
Egg-cited by this prospect and in possession of not only an empty incubator but 3 dozen free-range eggs purchased just a few hours prior at my organic and local food grocery store, I decided to try it out. After all, if it doesn't work, I could chalk it up to test run and order incubating eggs from a hatchery.
So here we are. Day 5 of the grand Incubating Eggs-periment, a newly purchased automatic egg turner (that just arrived today) all set up and running, and a quick candling of a few eggs last night showed promising results so far. We'll likely have a few duds in the bunch but if all goes well (and with a healthy dose of luck), in about 16 days I'll have several little yellow fluff balls peeping around.
I just hope that they aren't all roosters...
Then I stumbled on a link that gave me an idea. Apparently, some people have had luck hatching store bought eggs. That sounded easy and cheap-both of which appeal to me very much.
Now it's not like you can try hatching any old eggs from the grocery store. Most eggs in the average carton are from laying barns and there aren't roosters running around doing their 'duty' so the eggs aren't fertilized. But if you can find eggs labeled 'free range' and from a more local source (think farmer's markets), there's a chance the facility won't have taken the roosters out of the hen house. There's an easy way to check for fertilization-crack a few eggs open and look for a little yellow bulls-eye blob in the yolk-and if you are lucky, you'll have a nice hatchable bunch of eggs.
Egg-cited by this prospect and in possession of not only an empty incubator but 3 dozen free-range eggs purchased just a few hours prior at my organic and local food grocery store, I decided to try it out. After all, if it doesn't work, I could chalk it up to test run and order incubating eggs from a hatchery.
So here we are. Day 5 of the grand Incubating Eggs-periment, a newly purchased automatic egg turner (that just arrived today) all set up and running, and a quick candling of a few eggs last night showed promising results so far. We'll likely have a few duds in the bunch but if all goes well (and with a healthy dose of luck), in about 16 days I'll have several little yellow fluff balls peeping around.
I just hope that they aren't all roosters...
Friday, April 17, 2015
Ahhh....Spring Breezes
I love these sunny warm days. The grass is growing, the trees are budding out, and the air smells so new and fresh. (AAHHHCCHHOOO...Pardon me. I get spring allergies and I've been a touch sneezy the last few weeks...)
But best of all, the days are warm enough to do something I absolutely love. (Well, I love it for the first few weeks and then it's like 'meh...') So what is it that I adore doing this time of year?
Hint: It's something you do outside on gorgeous sunshiney days. And it's not gardening-which I can't do even if I wanted to...Usually my garden is a mudpit this time of year but thanks to the dryness outside, my poor garden is mostly dust right now.
Answer: Hanging clothes on the clothesline.
Yes, I actually like hanging clothes outside. For one, who doesn't love the scent of line-dried clothes? Best. Smell. EVER. Second, it gets me out of the house for a few minutes. Even on the days when I have a counter full of dishes, a heap of clothes to wash, and a pile of bookkeeping to tend to, I know I can sneak outside for a few moments and catch some sunshine because there's clothes to hang. Third, I get my Vitamin D dose for the day because I'm out in the sun. Can't argue with that, right?
Since it's sunny & warm with just enough of a breeze to keep the air flowing through the open doors and windows, my clotheslines are set up, and I've got a load of clothes in the washer, I'm off to get my Vitamin D for the day.
But best of all, the days are warm enough to do something I absolutely love. (Well, I love it for the first few weeks and then it's like 'meh...') So what is it that I adore doing this time of year?
Hint: It's something you do outside on gorgeous sunshiney days. And it's not gardening-which I can't do even if I wanted to...Usually my garden is a mudpit this time of year but thanks to the dryness outside, my poor garden is mostly dust right now.
Answer: Hanging clothes on the clothesline.
Yes, I actually like hanging clothes outside. For one, who doesn't love the scent of line-dried clothes? Best. Smell. EVER. Second, it gets me out of the house for a few minutes. Even on the days when I have a counter full of dishes, a heap of clothes to wash, and a pile of bookkeeping to tend to, I know I can sneak outside for a few moments and catch some sunshine because there's clothes to hang. Third, I get my Vitamin D dose for the day because I'm out in the sun. Can't argue with that, right?
Since it's sunny & warm with just enough of a breeze to keep the air flowing through the open doors and windows, my clotheslines are set up, and I've got a load of clothes in the washer, I'm off to get my Vitamin D for the day.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
April Showers bring May Flowers...Hopefully...
Usually, this time of year we are knee deep (or so it seems) in mud and muck. My driveway is notorious for becoming a quarter mile mud run with the spring thaw and my usual footwear is a pair of rubber boots for the entire month of April. However, this year that is not the case. No overflowing ditches, no mud puddles masquerading as ponds, no sloppy slippery sticky muck everywhere. Sure we had a few days of mush but nothing like normal.
So no mud. No muck. No slop. You are probably asking why I'm complaining about this then if it's nothing like usual. Well, here's the reason. If it's not muddy right now, it means everything is dry as d.u.s.t. and when everything is dry as dust it means there's probably alot of it in the air...especially when a vehicle drives by or the wind starts whippin'.
Now I live in the country and as such, I know to expect a certain amount of dust on everything. My vehicles all have the ubiquitous two tone paint job you see on cars and trucks that spend lots of time driving down dirt roads...You know what I mean-dirt brown over halfway up the sides and dust sliding down the back window. Interiors covered in a film of what looks like cocoa powder. (When your kids tell you they just look for the dirtiest van in the parking lot at the store, you understand how dusty it is.) I don't wash the outside of my windows because I know in less than a day, they'll be back to dusty/unwashed looking. A light covering of dust settles on everything in the house and no matter how often you sweep/vaccuum, there's always more of the stuff hiding in the cracks. So I get it. Country life is dusty.
BUT that doesn't mean I like seeing dust in APRIL. May through October? Sure. It's expected because it's usually warm enough to keep the roads dry most of the time. But April is not supposed to be an arid month. (August, yes. April, nuh-uh.) And all this dryness has an impact on our fieldwork too. Do me a favor. Take a butter knife, go outside and try dragging it through that parched dry dirt. Doesn't really go through all that well, right? Now, give that dirt patch a good soaking with a hose, wait a few hours, and try it again. It's alot easier, isn't it? That's because moisture is necessary to loosen the soil. Now imagine a plow trying to do what your butter knife did in that dry hard dirt and you'll see where I was going with that. On another note, what's usually the first thing you do after you plant your garden seeds? Give them a good long drink of water. Fertilizers often need moisture to help break them down/dissolve them enough to work them into the soil. So moist soil is must right now and we don't have it. We didn't have the snow cover to help insulate the fields and later melt into much needed water. Winter is a very drying season so that pulled water from the soil for months. We haven't had rain hardly at all yet so things have remained bone dry.
We do have a fair number of fields under irrigation now but not all of them are and some of them desperately need some rain in order to even start working in them.
It's not easy farming because you are so dependent on the weather for your livelihood. We have to hope for rain in the amounts we need and that it comes when we could use it the most while not interfering with the planting/tending/harvesting of our crops. We have to hope for an equal balance of warm sunny days and humid hot days so differing crops can grow to their highest yields. We have to hope for a lack of damaging hail and high winds. And this month is certainly one of those months that we're hoping for the right weather when we need it.
So while I usually spend the month of April bemoaning the mess outside and how sloppy it is, this year I'm trying something new. Pardon me. I need to go look up 'rain dancing'...
So no mud. No muck. No slop. You are probably asking why I'm complaining about this then if it's nothing like usual. Well, here's the reason. If it's not muddy right now, it means everything is dry as d.u.s.t. and when everything is dry as dust it means there's probably alot of it in the air...especially when a vehicle drives by or the wind starts whippin'.
Now I live in the country and as such, I know to expect a certain amount of dust on everything. My vehicles all have the ubiquitous two tone paint job you see on cars and trucks that spend lots of time driving down dirt roads...You know what I mean-dirt brown over halfway up the sides and dust sliding down the back window. Interiors covered in a film of what looks like cocoa powder. (When your kids tell you they just look for the dirtiest van in the parking lot at the store, you understand how dusty it is.) I don't wash the outside of my windows because I know in less than a day, they'll be back to dusty/unwashed looking. A light covering of dust settles on everything in the house and no matter how often you sweep/vaccuum, there's always more of the stuff hiding in the cracks. So I get it. Country life is dusty.
BUT that doesn't mean I like seeing dust in APRIL. May through October? Sure. It's expected because it's usually warm enough to keep the roads dry most of the time. But April is not supposed to be an arid month. (August, yes. April, nuh-uh.) And all this dryness has an impact on our fieldwork too. Do me a favor. Take a butter knife, go outside and try dragging it through that parched dry dirt. Doesn't really go through all that well, right? Now, give that dirt patch a good soaking with a hose, wait a few hours, and try it again. It's alot easier, isn't it? That's because moisture is necessary to loosen the soil. Now imagine a plow trying to do what your butter knife did in that dry hard dirt and you'll see where I was going with that. On another note, what's usually the first thing you do after you plant your garden seeds? Give them a good long drink of water. Fertilizers often need moisture to help break them down/dissolve them enough to work them into the soil. So moist soil is must right now and we don't have it. We didn't have the snow cover to help insulate the fields and later melt into much needed water. Winter is a very drying season so that pulled water from the soil for months. We haven't had rain hardly at all yet so things have remained bone dry.
We do have a fair number of fields under irrigation now but not all of them are and some of them desperately need some rain in order to even start working in them.
It's not easy farming because you are so dependent on the weather for your livelihood. We have to hope for rain in the amounts we need and that it comes when we could use it the most while not interfering with the planting/tending/harvesting of our crops. We have to hope for an equal balance of warm sunny days and humid hot days so differing crops can grow to their highest yields. We have to hope for a lack of damaging hail and high winds. And this month is certainly one of those months that we're hoping for the right weather when we need it.
So while I usually spend the month of April bemoaning the mess outside and how sloppy it is, this year I'm trying something new. Pardon me. I need to go look up 'rain dancing'...
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Winring? Sprinter?
What do you call this season? We're not 'technically' into Spring yet according to the calendar but when the temps are consistently above 40, the snow is disappearing daily, and the kids start playing outside without jackets, then it's certainly not Winter anymore. Right?
What do you call this season? When the driveway becomes a mudbog of epic proportions, my only shoe option is a pair of rubber mud boots, and we have a temporary sidewalk going from the house to the main vehicle to bridge the soupy mucky mess that is my parking area?
Yes, what do you call this season? This season when we have more than a hint of spring in the air, mud almost as far as the eye can see, yet you wake up in the morning (as I did this morning in fact) and are greeted with a dusting of s.n.o.w. and ice covered puddles.
This in-between stage when Winter is struggling to stick around yet Spring is nudging that old man out the door. If you mush the seasons together and delete the awkward sounding letters in the middle (sort of like how celeb couples are nicknamed), you are left with two options-Winring or Sprinter. What's your opinion?
Winring?
Sprinter?
Or should we just forget the mish-mash name and simply call this in-between season Mud?
What do you call this season? When the driveway becomes a mudbog of epic proportions, my only shoe option is a pair of rubber mud boots, and we have a temporary sidewalk going from the house to the main vehicle to bridge the soupy mucky mess that is my parking area?
Yes, what do you call this season? This season when we have more than a hint of spring in the air, mud almost as far as the eye can see, yet you wake up in the morning (as I did this morning in fact) and are greeted with a dusting of s.n.o.w. and ice covered puddles.
This in-between stage when Winter is struggling to stick around yet Spring is nudging that old man out the door. If you mush the seasons together and delete the awkward sounding letters in the middle (sort of like how celeb couples are nicknamed), you are left with two options-Winring or Sprinter. What's your opinion?
Winring?
Sprinter?
Or should we just forget the mish-mash name and simply call this in-between season Mud?
Thursday, February 19, 2015
SLOW time of year
It's that season. Slow. Everything is slower. The cold makes the days stretch on (well except when you get your appointment card from the accountant and your appointment day was set 2 weeks earlier than it normal and instead of a month to prep for tax time, you have 10 days. Then time seems to FLY!) and if there's little sun that day too? Then it's just endless. The van grumbles and rumbles and takes extra time to warm up, I have to watch how I walk outside because no one likes to slip and fall (especially if, as I discovered, your landing pad is a 5 gallon bucket...Ouch) so no quick hops/skips/jumps for me, and the lower the temp, the slower the cow.
Yes, it's slow season for us. So what does a farmer do when he can't be cutting hay, plowing fields, or planting corn? What do we do before the busy-ness of Spring comes along and calves are being born, machinery is being prepped, and we start counting down the days til tractors can get back in the fields?
Simple. We slow down. House projects get done (or at least further progress is/should be made), books get read, hills get skiied/slid down, cocoa gets sipped, snowmen get made, and who knows, we may even get a vacation in. Because our year is flip-flopped and our busy time is most peoples vacation time (can't make hay in January but you sure can in June and July, right?), this is our season to relax, sit back, and enjoy the days cold though they may be.
Because, before we know it, Spring gets sprung and we'll be back to busy, busy, busy business.
Yes, it's slow season for us. So what does a farmer do when he can't be cutting hay, plowing fields, or planting corn? What do we do before the busy-ness of Spring comes along and calves are being born, machinery is being prepped, and we start counting down the days til tractors can get back in the fields?
Simple. We slow down. House projects get done (or at least further progress is/should be made), books get read, hills get skiied/slid down, cocoa gets sipped, snowmen get made, and who knows, we may even get a vacation in. Because our year is flip-flopped and our busy time is most peoples vacation time (can't make hay in January but you sure can in June and July, right?), this is our season to relax, sit back, and enjoy the days cold though they may be.
Because, before we know it, Spring gets sprung and we'll be back to busy, busy, busy business.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Driveway Drivel
Driving V.E.R.Y. cautiously to the barn last night (and equally slowly home) should have been a big hint.
Slip sliding out to the van this morning should have clued me in even more.
The fact that the traction control kicked in as soon as I put the van in reverse should have decided it.
But I wasn't about to let something as simple as ice keep me home today. I had an appointment to make, a fridge that was emptying out, and thanks to a week's worth of tax time book keeping/number entering/receipt sorting/all that good stuff (Yes dear, I'm still working on those books. I just took a fifteen minute break from typing on one computer to type on the other. I'll be back to the books as soon as I finish this blog post.) a steadily increasing case of cabin fever. No way was I staying home for anything short of a dead vehicle or a sick kid.
And to be perfectly honest, the ice was mostly on our driveway and the dirt roads. Once you are on the highway, it's smooth sailing...er driving...
So I braved the ice rink that leads from the road to my house and off I went.
And off I went indeed. Or nearly so.
Backing out of my parking spot involved me putting the van into reverse and sliding it backwards about 10 feet. Traction control promptly decided to control traction and my van moved in the proper direction after that. Except when the traction control decided to turn traitor.
See Traction Control and I have a love/hate relationship. 90% of the time, it's great. That's when it's OFF. The other 10% of the time, when I actually do need it? Not so much. It likes to think my wheels should go straight instead of turn even though there's a corner right in front of me. Or that the ditch is so much more inviting than the road. Or my wheels are spinning too fast so let's slow them down and make Jill stop right in the middle of that piddly little snow drift that doesn't even come to the bumper but is covering a 2 inch thick layer of ice so once she's stopped she can't go anywhere and it'll take her and her husband a good half hour to get the van unstuck. Yeah, Traction Control and I are frenemies.
So I should have KNOWN to turn off the darn thing before I left. But I didn't.
And here's where I'll admit that my annually expanding experience with vehicles, icy surfaces, and snowbanks came in very handy. Despite how the previous paragraphs sound, I did NOT go in the ditch. I made it to town and back without incident. I will say having the van do a 90 degree power slide around the corner of the driveway unintentionally (impressive when you consider I was doing about 5mph at the time) was a teensy bit thrilling but I don't care to repeat the experience. I think it's just tempting fate (and those ditches!) to try it purposefully.
And the next time I leave, I'm turning off Traction Control before I leave my parking spot. I have this nasty suspicion that computer program/gadget doodad was only playing Cat/Mouse with me today. Next time I may not be so lucky...
Slip sliding out to the van this morning should have clued me in even more.
The fact that the traction control kicked in as soon as I put the van in reverse should have decided it.
But I wasn't about to let something as simple as ice keep me home today. I had an appointment to make, a fridge that was emptying out, and thanks to a week's worth of tax time book keeping/number entering/receipt sorting/all that good stuff (Yes dear, I'm still working on those books. I just took a fifteen minute break from typing on one computer to type on the other. I'll be back to the books as soon as I finish this blog post.) a steadily increasing case of cabin fever. No way was I staying home for anything short of a dead vehicle or a sick kid.
And to be perfectly honest, the ice was mostly on our driveway and the dirt roads. Once you are on the highway, it's smooth sailing...er driving...
So I braved the ice rink that leads from the road to my house and off I went.
And off I went indeed. Or nearly so.
Backing out of my parking spot involved me putting the van into reverse and sliding it backwards about 10 feet. Traction control promptly decided to control traction and my van moved in the proper direction after that. Except when the traction control decided to turn traitor.
See Traction Control and I have a love/hate relationship. 90% of the time, it's great. That's when it's OFF. The other 10% of the time, when I actually do need it? Not so much. It likes to think my wheels should go straight instead of turn even though there's a corner right in front of me. Or that the ditch is so much more inviting than the road. Or my wheels are spinning too fast so let's slow them down and make Jill stop right in the middle of that piddly little snow drift that doesn't even come to the bumper but is covering a 2 inch thick layer of ice so once she's stopped she can't go anywhere and it'll take her and her husband a good half hour to get the van unstuck. Yeah, Traction Control and I are frenemies.
So I should have KNOWN to turn off the darn thing before I left. But I didn't.
And here's where I'll admit that my annually expanding experience with vehicles, icy surfaces, and snowbanks came in very handy. Despite how the previous paragraphs sound, I did NOT go in the ditch. I made it to town and back without incident. I will say having the van do a 90 degree power slide around the corner of the driveway unintentionally (impressive when you consider I was doing about 5mph at the time) was a teensy bit thrilling but I don't care to repeat the experience. I think it's just tempting fate (and those ditches!) to try it purposefully.
And the next time I leave, I'm turning off Traction Control before I leave my parking spot. I have this nasty suspicion that computer program/gadget doodad was only playing Cat/Mouse with me today. Next time I may not be so lucky...
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Last Year in Review
Looks like it's been a while since I last posted. Ooops. As usual, I guess. This is just part of my personality and anyone who knows me should know this. I'm horrid about remembering birthdays (including my husband's as well as my own), I usually get the last of my Christmas cards out after New Years (still have a buncha them to do so par for the course), and I tend to forget things quite easily.
But there's many things I managed to NOT forget over the last year. Here's a recap of 2014 on our farm.
The farm was busy. Well, when is it not? But you know what I mean. We fought rain, snow, sun, and pretty much everything you typically get weatherwise in a year but the fields got planted, the crops got tended, it all got harvested, and it looks like we had a pretty decent year. Not phenomenal but decent. Can't ask for more than that, right?
We started renovating our house again and while progress seems to be agonizingly slow, progress IS being made. The plan is to finish wiring the basement this winter, move the bedrooms downstairs, and then start working on the upstairs. We're still looking at a few years before the whole project is done but what's a few more years when we've been doing this for the last 7 years? :) However, until we can move the bedrooms, our bed shares space with the couch in the living room.
Another big change was in our family. Baby girl joined us in early July and she has been a joy ever since. Her big brother and big sister simply adore her, and spend hours every day talking to her, reading to her, playing with her, and just generally entertaining her. It was an adjustment for me to have a newborn again because until R came along, my 'baby' was going on 3 but it wasn't long until it all started coming back to me. R is now 6 months old, oh so curious about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g., babbling up a storm, and trying to roll over & sit up. V & A are growing by leaps and bounds too. V will be 5 in just a few weeks and is still farm kid through and through. It's not uncommon for him to ask if he can go with Daddy and be a bit sad when he can't. A hates being left behind because she's Daddy little shadow too. It just amazes me that my almost 5 year old and my 3 year old know more about farm machinery and how it operates than I do but it's like they are little sponges. They just absorb so much when they are out with L in the field, in the barn, checking irrigators, wherever. My kids love farm life and I hope they always appreciate it this much, whether they stay in the agricultural industry or not.
The rest were mundane, ordinary things. We worked on a few building projects here and there on the farms, still have two dogs keeping the rabbits out of my garden and coons out of the chicken coop, the cows are still milking, calves are still being born, and we even squeezed in a trip or two. It's been mostly life as usual.
But there's many things I managed to NOT forget over the last year. Here's a recap of 2014 on our farm.
The farm was busy. Well, when is it not? But you know what I mean. We fought rain, snow, sun, and pretty much everything you typically get weatherwise in a year but the fields got planted, the crops got tended, it all got harvested, and it looks like we had a pretty decent year. Not phenomenal but decent. Can't ask for more than that, right?
We started renovating our house again and while progress seems to be agonizingly slow, progress IS being made. The plan is to finish wiring the basement this winter, move the bedrooms downstairs, and then start working on the upstairs. We're still looking at a few years before the whole project is done but what's a few more years when we've been doing this for the last 7 years? :) However, until we can move the bedrooms, our bed shares space with the couch in the living room.
Another big change was in our family. Baby girl joined us in early July and she has been a joy ever since. Her big brother and big sister simply adore her, and spend hours every day talking to her, reading to her, playing with her, and just generally entertaining her. It was an adjustment for me to have a newborn again because until R came along, my 'baby' was going on 3 but it wasn't long until it all started coming back to me. R is now 6 months old, oh so curious about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g., babbling up a storm, and trying to roll over & sit up. V & A are growing by leaps and bounds too. V will be 5 in just a few weeks and is still farm kid through and through. It's not uncommon for him to ask if he can go with Daddy and be a bit sad when he can't. A hates being left behind because she's Daddy little shadow too. It just amazes me that my almost 5 year old and my 3 year old know more about farm machinery and how it operates than I do but it's like they are little sponges. They just absorb so much when they are out with L in the field, in the barn, checking irrigators, wherever. My kids love farm life and I hope they always appreciate it this much, whether they stay in the agricultural industry or not.
The rest were mundane, ordinary things. We worked on a few building projects here and there on the farms, still have two dogs keeping the rabbits out of my garden and coons out of the chicken coop, the cows are still milking, calves are still being born, and we even squeezed in a trip or two. It's been mostly life as usual.
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