2 Months till Christmas

I'm not the least ready for Christmas so we will not talk about that anymore.

An interesting week as you all know. I remember now that hospital sitting is hard work. The best thing is Mother found out her heart is fine and that she has to take pain meds to keep her arthritis pain under control. Also found out that the life line works and she will use it if need be. All the nurses and doctors, first responders and ambulance people were great. Hope this week is more "normal".

Today is school, tomorrow Mother's dr. appt at 10:30 and I have an appt in the afternoon to see about getting my quilt machine quilted and choir practice in the evening; Wednesday is library and at night I am going to a class that Aaron Horman is teaching on FaceBook and Twitter. Looking forward to that. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Also looking forward to election next week. Then we won't have to listen to all the political ads. I work at the polls so it is a long day--from 6:00 AM to 9:30 or so PM. Hopefully lots of people come in to make the day go fast!

Harvest complete

We finished the harvest on Thursday. Thank God for no breakdowns and no combine fires. More thankful than ever because last night on the way to Tipton we saw a combine burning in the field. It was just 3 miles west of us and the combine was ablaze when we went by; fire engines there already. Made me really thankful we were done with no trouble. This combine is owned by a farmer with lots of acres; hopefully they will get a loaner and get the corn in the bin.

Wonderful trip yesterday to Ames to see all the Kibbes and Lynne too. What a sweet family and of course getting to hold Noelle was nice too. Laura is truly Martha Stewart! Thanks to Sherrie for driving.

Tonight is the silly supper at Circle. When I get home from volunteering at school this afternoon I have to pack up and head back to Lowden to church. Busy day.

Dust and bugs

At least twice a day I get to vacumn up flies, those lady bug type things and box elder bugs. I haven't had box elder bugs for a few years but they are thick this year. The lady bugs sit on the ceiling of the parlor and my bedroom and the flies are all over! It must be the hot dry weather bringing them out.

The fields are dusty. It doesn't take but a round and the combine windows are full of dust again. The corn is really dry for which we are thankful. But. Ben and I got a lesson on what to do if the combine starts on fire--like here is the fire extinguisher in this red holder and to use it you pull the pin and squeeze the lever. Take the combine out of the standing corn. After he scared the ____ out of me he left Ben and me alone in the field while he hauled corn to town. There have been a lot of combine fires in the area. I guess he heard the fire company goes out at least once a day. Word was Bob Rowold burnt up his combine. So I am paranoid now if I smell a whiff of what I might think is a fire (usually it is just the diesel smoke from Ben's tractor or I turned and it is the combine diesel smoke). Less than 200 acres to go--we will be done this week.

Bean harvest complete

We finished combining beans yesterday at 6:40 p.m. We did a few loads of corn this afternoon; tested dry enough to be put into the bin without drying. Good thing--saves on the gas bill! The corn harvest will start in earnest tomorrow, only 400 acres to go.

I was installed as a part of the search committee in church this morning. As a committee we put out a profile of our church in our search for a new pastor. We will also read the profiles of pastors who wish to come to Lowden. Big job, lots of meetings. Committee is full of good people; Aaron Horman being one. We start the night of the 13th.

2010 car cruise part 2

So, more of our ride and eat weekend--which is mainly what we did! After seeing George Stauffer's million dollar cars we visited Little Norway. We took the $10 tour and saw old buildings built by Norwegians back in the day. One interesting building was an international building at the Worlds' Fair in Chicago--built in Norway, reconstructed in Chicago, torn down again and put together (with all the pieces numbered) again in Wisconsin. Our tour guide was interesting and wore a beautiful outfit and jewelry. After that we made our way to Lodi and the Best Western motel. Very nice (and only $63.30)! Our supper meal was at Fitz's On the Lake where the speciality was prime rib and fish. I had cornflake encrusted walleye. Good--wish I had been hungry!

Sunday morning after a small breakfast at the hotel we made our way across the lake on a ferry to Merrimac. No charge for the short ride on the ferry. After all the cars were across we were on our way to Hillcrest for a brunch. We had been there before and knew it was very good. From there we went to the "World Famous Jim Delaney's Shopping Experience". A big warehouse full of everything from food, construction paper, hand cleaners, tools, door knobs--anything and everything you never knew you needed. Bill called it junk. Maybe so. We didn't buy anything!

Finally, to the highlight of our Wisconsin trip for me--the apple orchard. We were at The Oakwood Fruit Farm where I did buy apple cider doughnuts and 2 bags of apples, Honey Crisp and a new kind called Ambrosia. Of course while there you can have an apple to taste and taste a doughnut. Rick was running out of gas so the farmer gave him a couple gallons. The Cedar County cars left for home from there (a couple of us stopped in Dubuque at the casino--I won so it was ok.)

Big weekend, had a good time. Now back to farming. When I got home from school they were combining corn at Bill's mother's. I had a busy day at school from running the die cut machine to copying a music book.

2010 car cruise

This weekend was the Wisconsin car cruise. For my car geek nephews here is a list of the cars with us: a rare '82 Olds 462, '57 Chev, '59 Edsel, '68 Camero, '40 Ford, a couple Nova's, 2005 Corvette, Chev Impala, a '94 & '66 Mustang, Indie special Mustang, '55 Chev, a 60's era Dodge convertible, SSR pickup, '62 Chev, BMW, and Mercury Cougar. Those are the ones I can remember. Our first stop was New Diggings, WI, for lunch at Anton's Saloon, home of the Macho Burger. From there we took winding rustic roads. Going thru Darlington, WI we even got to be part of their Homecoming parade--it was just finishing as we got there so we were at the end of it--one person even asked if we were going to come back next year! Our destination was George Stauffer's car collection of nostaliga race cars, mostly road race cars, a Bentley, a car that had belonged to Queen Elizabeth, a collection of model cars and a brand new, one day old, red Nissan, beautiful car. His collection is worth over $100 million we were told. It is not for public tours; he let us in because he is a good friend of the guy who led our tour.

More later--I'm off to school.

Rained out

We actually started corn combining yesterday--at least for a few hours. I even got to run the combine while Larry hauled in with his semi and Bill with the straight truck and Ben running the dump cart. All this came to a quick end with the storm. We could see it coming; felt the air change and knew we had to quickly tarp the truck and get all the equipment up to the road from the waterway where it had been sitting. Just pulled on the road to take everything to Grandma Elijah's when it let loose. Corn is dry enough; tested 18 or so, but the yield isn't as good as last year.