Farewell to Our Beautiful Little Stella.....

STELLA

2007-2009

Uncanny!!

THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED,

TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT!

The Corn Planting is Done!

Every year there is an unofficial race to see if we can beat the year before, and while I didn't mark it on the calendar (Roger has it down somewhere) I think the corn is in about 10-11 days earlier than last year - possibly a new record for us! You have to understand, that unlike the farmers who just do crops, we have to work around our milking chores as well. Soybeans are next, and John is out prepping the fields for them right now. Yay! By the looks of the hayfields, we will be haying soon, also. Dan will be tackling the spraying, as well. Fun times ahead - read: long, long days and short tempers.

Since I have a brief reprieve - all the work with the soil-saver is done - I worked on mowing our lawn. Finally!! While it looks different, I'm not sure I would go as far as 'better', yet. Next time, I will (hopefully) have a shorter interval and use the push mower. That will depend on the haying, I am sure. Once that starts, I keep pretty busy running the chopper until we are done.

Well, I have the push mower ready to do the areas I can't do with the rider, so I had better get at it. Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine, if not calm winds. I have just about had it with the wind! It makes you tired to be out in it, even if you aren't doing that much!

Next on my agenda for free time is getting the garden in. That, and I have a weaving order waiting for a rainy day....there's always house-cleaning, but we won't talk about that.....

I checked with Roger this morning, and he says that one year (he didn't specify which one) he had all the corn in by May 9!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you all have a super-fantastic day!

For a wonderful tribute to my mother, please see my sister, Heather's blog! Beautifully done, Heather!! (the Schmit Family blog)

We had dinner at Mary's today - wonderful food and great company! The folks were there, as well as cousins David and Dianne.

Going to See the Buffalo - May 3

As usual, I am a week late getting my photos up! Oh well. Must be my MO now.

We had a wonderful day with Sam and his family last Sunday. We got there mid-morning and stuck around until after five. The weather was gorgeous, the food delicious and the time spent together, priceless! As you can see, we went over to the local Buffalo farm - cannot remember the name, but it is near Hammond, I think. Sam, of course, had to wear his barn boots and farm hat. He is quite the little farmer - or at least grandson of farmers. He really enjoys the out of doors, like most kids, and was thrilled when his parents left the patio door open so he could go in-and-out-and-in-and-out! Hunter liked that too!

Scott grilled us up some of their Lake Michigan catch, Sally cooked up some sweet corn and I tossed together a ramen and cabbage salad - we ate quite well! That and some strawberries for dessert! Yum! (Dan's contribution was occupying Sam while we were doing this!)

As always, the time went too quickly! We enjoy every minute we have with them. We also got a call from Josh while we were there, so we all joined in the conversation - that's always fun!

Thanks to the Aho family for a wonderful day - you are wonderful hosts!

This past week I pretty much lived in the tractor, when I wasn't milking cows. One field was so big it took me 4 days to get it done - I was glad to finally pull out of that one!

There were several days running that I spoke with Debora, too. Really enjoyed our visits and hearing about Thomas' kindergarten. You will have to watch their blog for news about that! :) She also made a surprising discovery in Bechhofen - she overheard some Portuguese being spoken and introduced herself to some women from Brazil, one of whom just moved to Bechhofen! They are all married to German men. I am so happy that she got to meet more people, especially ones who speak her native language! This gal also has a toddler, so that will be fun for them to connnect.

You will have to check out Mara and Mike's blog for some REALLY cute photos of Rohan, taken at their daycare's first anniversary - love them!

We had a good rain during the night, so I anticipate a day here in the house and also getting up to Amherst for the EMS Open House mid-day. A good breather!

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow and a fun weekend!

Flowers for all the special women in my life!

(photo from summer, 2008)

The Week in Review...

The fieldwork has kicked in, so my time has become quite limited for fun stuff.

After I posted last weekend's notes, we had visitors while we were eating supper on Saturday night. Jim, Tanna and Titus Bacon showed up, to help with chores! Titus is 7, and showed real aptitude for working with cows! He especially liked to push the buttons (to release the cows, and close the gates afterwards - not Dan's buttons....) and scrape away any poop that the cows dared to drop in the parlor on their way out. He also showed that he had quite a knack for coming up with names for the animals - on the spot, so to speak - although I can only remember a couple of them: #53 is now Casey, and the newest black and white kitty is Max. He would say, "what's that one's name?" and if we didn't have an answer, he would immediately follow up with "her name is _____!" I wish we could've harnessed his energy! Jim got involved moving cows in and dipping them, while Tanna was kept busy hoisting Titus up so he could hit the toggle that drops the milkers after the cow is done. That woman must have some pipes - I lifted him once! It was fun having them here and the milking went surprisingly fast. Even though Titus was very interested in taking "Max" home, Dad said no. Oh well. ;)

I don't really know where this week went, except that I finished up chopping stalks and got going on running the soil-saver. Two fields done, many to go. But....we have tomorrow off, so we are heading up to visit our oldest grandson- Sam! Oh, and Sally and Scott, too. :) There was talk of visiting a buffalo farm - that sounds like fun! I'll definitely remember my camera this time!!!

All of us, here on the farm, attended Les Jenner's funeral on Friday. It was a nice service and Steph did an admirable job of reading a very sentimental poem - a gift of love for her Grandfather. I don't think there was a dry eye in the church, least of all, hers. We also got to witness, for the first time, a military burial. Very moving, and fitting for a Retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force. We concluded the gathering by having a luncheon at Simpson's'. Very nice. I even got to see some of my more distant cousins, that Tom and I share. Another good-bye to one of the 'greatest generation'.

Watch for pictures of the fun we will be having tomorrow! Hopefully I will get them posted before next weekend! (no promises....)

Post Script:
I knew there was something I was forgetting to write about!!! We actually entertained last Sunday! Before chores in the morning, I threw a beef roast into the crock pot and my folks and Mary joined us for dinner. We don't do a lot of entertaining, ever, and even less so in the busy spring, but we had rain and it looked like a good opportunity. The crowning point of the day, though, was doing a webcam visit with Germany! My folks hadn't seen that done yet, and were thrilled to be able to see and talk with Josh, Debora and Thomas. Thomas was quite the little entertainer, too! Josh spoke of the 'flood level' in a toddler's home, and Debora was kept busy moving things out of Thomas' reach. They were in the basement 'den' and it was an area he didn't usually go, so there was much to move. Then Debora went and got a small radio that Thomas had figured out how to turn on and off. And he would dance to the music!! We couldn't really tell what type of music was playing (probably a German polka - we teased Josh that Thomas would have to take accordian lessons while he was there!), but that little guy sure has the moves! He was sitting on his knees and just working his shoulders and arms. We were curious about this, until Josh panned the video and we saw Debora doing similar moves. He wasn't watching her right then, but we knew where he got his rhythm! :) THEN she got him to stand up and dance - was that ever cute! I don't think I could explain it well enough. They said that they had a video of him dancing, so I guess we will just have to wait for them to post it. Suffice it to say, he has Brazilian blood!
Oh, and it was good to see the folks and Mary as well! Mom, Mary and I had a game of Scrabble going, but Mary got called that someone wanted to see their camper trailer they have for sale, so she had to go. Mom whopped me. That's all I'm saying....