catching up

Wow, Wow, Wow!!  Has it really been almost 4 months since I've posted last?  It's so hard to believe.  I really had no intention of staying away so long, but on my last post we were on our way to Texas for our granddaughter's graduation, and when we left for home, she came back with us and stayed for a couple of months before heading back to Texas to get ready for college.  In that time, we had 3 other grandchildren come to stay for a week with us as well.  We were busy, busy, busy.  Just as I was trying to catch my breath after everyone was gone, canning season started.

Our granddaughter thrived here on our farm, having lived in the city her whole life.  Though being around animals, large or small, she really took to it.  She is very calm around them and respects them.

Here she is helping to move the calves to another pasture.

We decided this year not to cut our own hay.  Hay is pretty cheap right now here in our area and seems to be everyone wants to sell hay, so that's the route we took.  One evening we unloaded the hay wagon and filled our hay mow with the bales.

While hubby did all the lifting of the bales, I sat and waited and enjoyed the view until my help was needed ;)

I didn't take a lot of photos this summer, it was just too busy and when I did remember to the moment was gone.

The strawberries were ripe when the grands were here, so strawberry rhubarb pie filling was made.

.

I still have a few more things to put up, such as potatoes, beets and making sauerkraut.  

Hope your summer has been good as ours sure was, even though I didn't get any blogging done, I couldn't give up the time spent with grandchildren here on our farm.

happy Mother’s Day

 

I’d like to wish all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day!

morning sky

 

As I was making coffee this morning I looked out and saw the sky which looked so pretty.  Everything is green and the garden is very slowly getting planted, but we have had rain lately and the lawn needs mowing and weed wacked, it seems like it's been a long time since we've had to do that.

Living on the ridge we do get some really pretty sunrises and sunsets.

hay wagon trip

We picked up a used hay wagon and though it was a 2 1/2-hour trip there, it was about a 4 to 5-hour trip home.  We couldn't really go over 40 mph and so we took back roads to get home.  Here are some random shots along the way.  I finally pulled out my Nikon camera again, I have been using my cell phone to take pictures, so it was fun doing drive-by shots, just point and shoot.

Despite the long time it took us to get home, we had a nice drive through the country and sorry for the photo overload.

it rained

Finally, we got enough rain that the rain barrel is overflowing.  I can't believe that it's been a month since I've posted last, life just got in the way (LOL).  I guess I took a little break, family came for the weekend, we had a wonderful Easter, went to church, hubby had a birthday, and I just came back from a quilting retreat.  It has been a busy, busy April.  It definitely has greened up here and we have gotten over 2 inches of rain, and more rain seems to be in the forecast though last night we had tornado warnings, but nothing came of it for us.

Now it's time for planting.

fading away

 

I had to drive through the country, (no expressways here) and saw this barn along my route.  I actually had taken a photo of this barn a few years ago but it was in so much better shape than it is now.  So many barns in this area have either collapsed, or are about to, or are in the beginning stages of eventually collapsing.  It is so sad to see these old barns not being taken care of mostly because they are not in use anymore.

There are hardly any small farms left in our area other than the Amish farms and it seems like the old barns like this one are just slowly fading away.

elephant rock

 

I went to a quilt retreat last weekend and the route I took went past the Elephant Rock.  Living in the Driftless Area you will see a lot of rock formations that still remain after the glaciers came through.

The Driftless area is also called Ocooch Mountains where it's very hilly and rugged, this is the part where I live in, up on a ridge.

late winter storm

We had a late winter snowstorm; what we call a sugar snow, but we didn't go gather any sap that ran, we are done. 

Last Wednesday we ventured out in the storm to visit with our Amish Friends.  I think we were the only ones on the road, and we got to the area where the snow really drifts over the road. It wasn't too bad when we drove through it but at one point before I pulled out my phone to take a photo it was starting to clear up.

Now we are onto the cleaning up and onto planting the gardens.

dried grapes

Walking through the yard the other day and passing the grape vines, I stopped to look at the grapes that were still on the vines all dried up and half eaten by the birds  I was thinking about how nice it will be to see grapes growing on these vines again.

This time of year I get antsy for the grass to turn green again and the trees to get new buds growing. Sugaring for us is coming to a close, we probably will boil one more time and call it good, another syrup season done and in the books.  We have kept a record of every syrup season and this season by far has yielded the least amount of syrup bottled, but we are happy with what we did get and should have enough for us until next sugaring season comes. 

country road and old barn

Years back I used to do a meme called Barn Charm and I so miss participating in that, so I'll just do my own.

I went to the post office to mail a letter.  The post office I go to is very small, so small that it's only open from 8:30-12:30 M-F and 8:30-9:45 on Saturdays.  But on my way home I took a different way.  This road was very narrow, and I could see buggy tracks, a clear sign that Amish live on this road.  I want to go back and take photos when the trees are leafed out and everything is green again.

This was not an Amish barn, but it definitely had charm to me.  There are so many barns around here very much like this one.

Despite the brown, I still see the beauty in it.