Fran and Heathers visit Part 2

Holly's grndmother Fran (and Judy's mother) and neice Heather have completed their second visit to the farmstead and we all enjoyed the visit. So many on my side of the family have passed and though my parents are thankfully still around I have no grandparents left alive and I have often wondered how great it would be to spend just another day with them. When your younger I think many times you dont realize how quickly life goes by and you are often wrapped up in your own life and then you find that time runs out for all the things you "meant" to do. Now that we are older we really treasure these visits and we are so glad they can share in this part of our lives. The weather wasnt too good (is it good anywhere right now?) but we visited, we ate good food, and we basically just enjoyed the peacefulness of the farm and the companionship of family. We may life simply but its visits like this that make us rich.

Mother, Grandmother, and Daughter. I think their dispositions are hereditary, all of the women on this side of the family are chipper, always interested in whats going on around them, and they just seem happy all the time.

And Heather is a very sweet person who I always enjoy being around. She loves life, helps out around the farm and loves animals. I judge a person on how they react to animals...when someone doesnt like animals or the animals dont like them I am wary.

We managed to get the sweet potatoes, pole beans, and sweet peas planted in between rain squalls.

And Heather learned to ride a four wheeler.

Holly got her first harvest of raddishes and planted more.

Bandit just likes all the attention and took a particular liking to Fran and Heather.

Fran is pretty spry for 91 but we used Holly's garden tractor mule and the garden cart to travel to the pond and other places on the farm and she likened it to a low rent hay ride.

Life is too short not to enjoy surrounding yourself with pretty women!

So I admit I am not complaining at having 4 pretty women at the farm all at once.

Heather really took to the tractor with minimal instruction. Unfortunately the big Allis Chalmers has a flat so she didnt get to drive that beast but maybe next time.

I always enjoy seeing people who have never operated a tractor do so for the first time.

A neighboring farmer invited us to fish in their farm pond since its so full of bluegills and they are trying to reduce the numbers a bit and the girls caught 25 in short order which we released into our farm pond.

I think they would have hit bare hooks and some were of a pretty good size.

And since we had the labor, I split the trees we took down and the girls stacked it. We ended up with a little more than 2 cords.

Judy taught Heather to quilt while she was here and she made this lap quilt during her stay. She did a great job and was rightfully proud of it.

And mother and daughter at the Branson airport....sure makes me happy to have had this visit.

Springfield Art Fest

For Mothers Day, Judy wanted to go to an art festival in Springfield so we all piled into the car and went not knowing what to expect and it turns out it was held on a blocked off historical area called Walnut Street. Holly and I both enjoy collecting folk art and we really had an enjoyable time looking at all of the hundreds of booths. I am also very interested in turn of the 20th century architecture (you know, when they actually built interesting buildings and homes with style and individuality) and Walnut street is full of old victorian style houses and some of them are bed and breakfasts, art studios, and other businesses including restaraunts and bars. We plan on staying in a B&B for Holly's birthday this year and exploring the area further.

So what does this picture have to do with an Art festival? Nothing. But I thought I would slip in a couple pictures of where we have been helping out on a nearby ranch. 97 head of cattle were rounded up for vaccinations and we separated the calves from the cows and though we are used to a few cattle, its another thing when the rancher tells you to wade into the herd and separate 15 head or so and get them into the chute. All I had was a fibreglass cattle stick and since the cows were already upset over being separated from their calves and these cows are Simental/Angus which go 1000lbs plus its was certainly a learning experience. These pictures are where we are rounding up the cattle and herding them across a small river. Sure beats working in an office.

4 Wheelers have taken the place of horses for the roundup.

And once they get going its a real trick to keep them going where you want them.

Its just beautiful country and we are learning a lot about handling cattle.

On to the art festival, it was in a very old section of Springfield and the gardens were beautiful. This is an old fire station.

All of the houses were unique and had porches facing the street.

The street was blocked off and each artists had their own booths. Woodworkers, potters, painters, jewelry makers...

Lots of musicians were playing and there was an abundance of great food. We ate at a Thai restaraunt in one of the old houses.

These are big old houses with lots of architectural detail but most of them also were in need of repair and I was struck at how expensive it would be to maintain one.

Unfortunately we couldnt go in any of them on this trip other than the Thai restaraunt.

Our preacher and his wife are both artists, he a potter and she a well known animal painter and they had a booth. Here is Marla, Judy and Holly.

The yards and landscaping was very impressive and peaceful.

I would hate to have to paint a house like that.

And we got a little goofy but we had fun.

This guy had miniature horses instead of a dog.

Overall we had a great time, it was warm, we ate good food, met some interesting people, and enjoyed the artists and their work.

Fran and Heather Visit and the Great Tree Caper

Fran and Heather have come for their second visit and the weather has been very uncooperative. It was in the high 80s when they arrived and now its in the mid-50s and stormy. But they are troopers and are enjoying all the activity. We also had to make a tough choice to take out the two trees that were the sentinals of our front sidewalk. One was a Tulip Poplar and the other a huge Elm and you cant have two worse trees that close to your house. They were hanging over the house and one was split down the trunk and the Elm was causing foundation issues so we decided to remove them. We will redo some of the landscaping once the 13 year Ciccada hatch is over but for now we can at least breath a little easier and not worry every time we have a storm or the wind blows.

Heather and Holly have been trying to get in some planting in between the storms. So far we have fared pretty well and not lost much but its a challenge this year.

Bandit is always close by to supervise.

Holly's grandmother Fran is 91 years old and made this trip from Seattle, she has enjoyed the calfs and farm life.

Heather is an animal lover with her own menagerie at home so feeding Maybelle was a natural.

Four generations in this picture. Makes you appreciate family and to enjoy every moment.

Everyone gets along on this farm. We got this old blue chair at a yard sale for $15.00 and its a favorite of Bandit and Boo Boo and they have learned to share. Animals can be a pain sometimes but they add so much to our lives and I find they give me a sense of peace and well being.

These trees looked great but they were at the end of their lives and the Elm on the righ was split right down the trunk and both were hanging over the house and causing foundation issues....so they had to go.

We hired a couple local guys to take them out because; a. they know what they are doing; b. Holly and I dont like heights; c. they were insured....and; d. they were insured. They had to miss the house and garage, miss the garage, miss the power lines, and most importantly, miss Judy's many plantings around the house.

I cut up over 2 cords of wood to season for next winter and we hauled all the brush and branches to our slash pile in the back pasture.

You can see how big these were and how worried we have been. We constantly had branches landing on the driveway and had to move all the vehicles every time there was wind. The top of the poplar on the left just snapped off when the guy was trying to cut it....could have come through the roof in a strong wind and luckily he had already roped it off.

Thelma and Louise stayed in the front pasture most of the time checking things out and you can see another calf in this picture that is just over the fence. The neighboring farm has about 13 cows and calves in the pasture next to us right now and Thema and Louise have been playing with them...literally.

Thankfully Holly and Heather jumped right in and we cut, hauled and stacked all the wood and brush in less than a day.

You can really see in this picture how far over the trees were leaning and it was a little nerve wracking watching them take them down..there were a couple of close calls but no damage.

So it looks different but better than I imagined. We will plant three 20 foot maples; two in the front yard (but far enough away from the house) and one to the right of this picture, along with some Viburnum on either side of the fron walk and a big Japanese maple in the court yard between the french door and the propane tank. We will also have concrete planters filled with flowers on the old stumps.

And finally, we have a jump on cutting wood for the outside wood boiler. The larger pieces will be split with the wood splitter and the other smaller pieces have already been neatly stacked.

An Interesting Week

Its been an interesting and busy week as usual around here. I got a phone call from my old boss and Friend Jerry and we caught up on things, my old commander and friend returned safely from Afghanistan (welcome back Kyle...err Major!), and my high school girlfriend Bonnie somehow found the blog and contacted me after oh...35 years or so. I have really enjoyed catching up on what happened to everyone we used to hang out with and she was gracious enough to send me some pictures of those days which I really appreciate because I had lost everything from those days during a military move years ago. Memories came flooding back of course and I was struck by the fact that I not only had the cutest girl in the entire school I had the nicest. Well she is still very nice and father time has been very kind to her....she looks great while I have liver spots, grey hair and scars all over. But, Holly and I have been laughing at my hair and the fact that I seemed to have my shirt unbuttoned in almost all of the pictures...what was I thinking???

We also have been busy gardening between rain squalls, we put up the new garage door on the house, and we have been working on a nearby ranch rounding up cattle, giving vaccinations and getting them artificially inseminated. Its a lot more complicated than it sounds but its fascinating and even though I am over 50, I still like to learn and experience new things and the rancher takes the time to teach and explain whats going on; thanks Ken. We have also been working on getting Holly more comfortable with her 4 wheeler, she is game for anything but for some reason the 4 wheeler intimidates her. But she is determined to master it and I am enjoying seeing her progress.

Judy had a booth at the Baker Creek spring fair and sold her quilts..aint she cute?

Our garage door was an el-cheapo aluminum job with no insulation and as you can see when the automatic door opener was added they never put the metal brace across the top so it was bending and tearing.

The whole vertical brace was coming off the door.

We had dents, it wouldnt weather seal, and it just looked bad.

The replacement is double sided, insulated, and already green.

It not only looks better and seals out the weather....its so quiet when it raises and lowers.

It also has the proper top brace.

Its 2" thick and well insulated.

Now we need to paint the house (the non-rock part).

We have purple, blue, white and peach colored Iris' in full bloom right now.

I had to mow the corral and during a break Maybelle just wouldnt leave the mower alone. She rubbed on it pit the throttle cable and jumped on it.

Holly layed weed barrier and a couple inches of bark mulch around the raised beds and it looks a lot better now.

Judy spoils Maybelle and at this rate she will still be bottle feeding her next year at this time!

This is our first year asparagas so we have to let it go to fern and not harvest but its going well. We also found some wild asparagas in our new woodlot.

Everyone has had trouble with their onion sets around here but ours are doing great...

We are a little behind on planting this year due to the cold spring and all the rain but we have onions, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, raddishes, collards, brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, tomatos, aparagas, sunflowers, peas, and castor beans in the ground in addition to the herb garden.

37 tomato plants we started from seed..4 different varieties.

We compost everything possible and always have 3 or 4 piles in various stages of production. When I turned these with the tractor yesterday they were steaming hot and we find that it works much better than commercial stuff. We arent certified organic but we dont use much in the way of commercial fertilizer or insecticide/pesticides.

Right below the orchard I tilled up a pumpkin patch for Holly which she will plant in a month or so for the Halloween market.

Holly was practicing riding while checking fences.

Yesterday we helped round up and artificially inseminate 37 heifers.

You definitely need them in a head chute for this chore.

I didnt get to do this task but it was interesting to see. The silver rod in his non-gloved hand is actually a plunger with the bull semen and I guess you find the cervix with the gloved hand and guide in the semen with the other.

I was responsible for giving an injection into their neck that stimulates their reproduction system to accept the semen.

Its a peaceful farm of about 640 acres (a section) with lots of cattle and old machinery..paradice.

And finally this is one of the pictures Bonnie sent me of the two of us in 1976 or 1977. One of the few where my shirt was not unbuttoned! I look at my hair and Bee Gees songs play in my head but you know it was the 70s.

More adventures and projects next week.