A visit to Kalona

On Saturday, Bob & Donna Schroeder took us along to Kalona. They knew the people that were having an open house at a furniture retail store. What a wonderful place full of big Amish furniture--bedroom suites, rockers, tables & chairs, and much more. They even served a free lunch of hotdogs or hot ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, fresh donuts and ice cream plus soda or water. After that we drove around to see some of the farms where Bob had collected milk when he did a milk route down there. We stopped at a farm and since they were home and invited us in we got to go into the house and visit with the couple. They have 10 children, 8 of them girls. The second oldest is getting married the end of May; they are planning on 500 people coming to their farm for the wedding. All of the food will be made there; they will set up 5 cook stoves in their machine shed and women from the neighborhood and relatives will come to make at least 75 pies, mashed potatoes and gravy; dressing; and a meat loaf made of hamburger, ground chicken and ground weiners. Mrs. Gruber or Graber (I can't remember her name for sure) was taking this all in stride--she was making homemade laundry and hand soap while we were there. The bride-to-be and her husband-to-be came (in their horse & buggy) home from going to garage sales in Kalona with their faces all red and they had to have been cold. Remember how cold and windy it was Saturday? From there we visited a greenhouse at another farm where Bob knew the people. Donna & I HAD to get some plants along with fresh eggs. At this farm they grew and butchered chickens and as we could smell, raised hogs. Such lovely people. Another stop at a country store where we bought a really, really good chocolate angel food cake, got some cheese curds at the Kalona Cheese factory and stopped for an early supper-late lunch at a tavern in Riverside. Fun day.

May already?

OK, so where has this year gone? They say the older you get, the faster the time goes? Anyone else believe this?

This past week was a busy one again. Monday I helped put the church newsletter together and had a hair cut. Tuesday Joy and I went to Independence to preview a tour we are leading for Evening Circle. We stopped at the new agriculture museum and got to see Big Bud, the biggest tractor ever! Very nice museum, a lot of interactive things for kids to do (Em & even Dallas would like it); they have baby animals including just hatched baby chicks. Baby chicks are only cute while they don't have feathers! From there we ate lunch at a place very close to the museum, we visited The Little Red Schoolhouse which we had seen advertised; but it didn't live up to our expectations--no need to go there again. It is a gift shop, but nothing different than any other place. From there we headed up to the Amish area north of Independence near Hazelton and stopped at five or so general stores, all in the country at their homes. Back to Independence and a stop at the quilt shop for me while Joy visited some other stores. We will definitely plan this for our Circle tour in June and even invite husbands as we think they will enjoy the agri museum.

Thursday I worked at school and Friday I worked at the library all day as Vicki had a vacation day. She had a list of things for me to do so that made the day go faster. Had lunch at the tavern with Bonnie and Joy. We joined the James' for supper at Lost Nation that night. Saturday was a baby shower for Buffi Sawyer Honeck and her little Jacoby. Yesterday was church; choir practice for North Cedar baccalaureate and supper at the Lowden fire station.

Now today--I've vacumned and dusted; have wash to hang out and lawn to mow.

Busy Week

The rain left us with 130 acres of corn to plant. We needed the rain though, it was too dusty. Larry said the fields were so dry it was hard to get the seed into the ground with the planter. The rain guage here said .5 inches on Saturday and yesterday I dumped out 1.2 inches.

The big news of the week? They came and installed the cable tv on Tuesday. We had been looking forward to that for nearly half a year. Now all three tv's can get a different channel (which means I don't have to see an old western if I want to watch tv). It is working well. Along with that came a higher speed internet and our phone lines run on the the fiber optic. There is also 100 minutes of long distance on our land line. We'll see if it is worth it when we get the bill! Only down side is no phone in Bill's machine shed--they are charging $16 a month for phones in outbuildings!

Off to church the help put the newsletter together. Tomorrow is a trip to Independence to see Big Bud (the huge tractor at the museum). We are going to see if we will take Evening Circle there on our tour in June.

Planting is Started

Larry was planting corn when I got home from church yesterday. We are done here at home and at the farm by Clarence. I mowed the lawn yesterday and now wish I had done the yard too; it is not as warm as yesterday. Went to school this morning and read MAP tests to 2 students. Some of those words I couldn't pronounce. Maybe you should be smarter than a 5th grader!

Ready to go

The corn planter is ready to go. The seed corn was delivered this past week. The planter is filled with insecticide. Now we need some warm weather just like the kind we had last week. Frost on the lawn yesterday and this morning.

I spent Thursday at school typing the 5th graders patriotic essays. It is an assigned class in that they have to write an essay for a Lion's Club contest. For the most part I felt the kids didn't know what "patriotic" means. I read one really good essay and the rest were so-so. Glad it isn't my job to judge them.

Friday night was the Legion's final fish fry of the year. We went with Rick and Deb and sat with Gayle Mess & her husband (I don't know her married name). They are good conversationalists and we had a good time. 221 people were served; almost more than they served at our church dinner Sunday.

I am going to start work on invitations to mother's birthday and Horman reunion this week.

Baby J's first shower

What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. What a wonderful shower Laura and Lynne put on. What wonderful food they served and games they played. Good job, nieces of mine! All those great gifts for Baby J. I know Chelsey and Greg appreciate the thoughtfulness put into everything. Also enjoyed the trip down and back; Sherrie is an awesome driver. Not even one wrong turn!

The lawn is ready to mow; maybe tomorrow. Today we "have" to go to Cedar Rapids to get parts for the Gold Wing; and also "my" toaster quit working this morning so we need a new one for "his" breakfast! Do you suppose we could work in a stop at a quilt shop?

Just read Lisa Scottoline's book, Think Twice. Very good, I highly recommend it. Not a book you can put down, so be sure you have time to read.

Reading Scholarship Applications

My newest volunteer job is being on the Margaret Dallas Scholarship Committee. 3 of us from the North Cedar School District read and rated 16 scholarship applications in the past few days. It is an interesting experience. Almost all of the apps had all A's or almost all A's on their high school transcripts. It was hard to find the best ones as they were all worthy.

My new carpet is in. After months of waiting and hours of carrying everything out of the 3 rooms; it took less than 5 hours to install the new carpet. The "new smell" is almost gone, or maybe I just don't notice it so much. My old carpet was at least 20 years old; I don't believe I will ever have to replace carpet downstairs again. Now I want carpet upstairs; maybe if I forget how much work it is!

Hope everyone had a great Easter and that Dallas is feeling well again.