30 Days of Thankfulness-Day 17

Day 17-Small Town Living

 

We love our small town and played a little game the other day about "if you could live in any of the surrounding towns, rank them in the order in which you would prefer to live in them and why!" Well, it was clear to all of us that THIS is the town for us to live in and we wouldn't change that.  Yesterday, exemplified the small town atmosphere we love.  It is a new tradition in our town to have a Lighted Christmas Parade!

We donned our Santa hats and helped with our organizations' entries. Our local 4H Club had an entry of course!  It was last minute, but we are flexible and it was so much fun for he kids!  Love it!

The Cub Scouts had an entry involving a tractor and trailer on which the boys collected canned good for the local food drive.  Someway, somehow, we are always working for those in need in our town and that is amazing!  We have a very active food pantry and clothing closet here.  There is a lot of need in our little town, and there is a lot of giving going on as well. 

This little Boy Scout is a little goofy….but I wouldn't trade him.

Next up is the cutest little thing ever!!!  I think we need one of these out on the farm.  Ours would be a hopper bottom of course instead of a van, but we haul corn and these guys haul garage doors!  It's a tiny little tractor/trailer.  It made it's first public debut at the homecoming parade, which is where I fell in love.  You can visit the company's website here.

You can see the driver and the scale from this angle.  He's crunched in behind the cab.  Isn't it adorable?  It would take us forever to haul corn, but I'm going to vote for one of these to be added to our fleet here on the farm.  haha!
The mayor may have had the best ATV entry.  That's him in the passenger seat.  He worked all day on all of those lights and even had a reindeer mounted to the front with sparkly reins and a fully decorated Christmas tree finishing it off in the back. 
 

We heard several comments that there were so many spectators at the parade, we were wondering who in our town was left to be IN the parade.  The streets were hustling all day with local shoppers.  We were offering buggy and even camel rides.  Yes, our town has it's own camel that shows up often at festivals and most notably, our Christmas Eve service held in a barn in the middle of the country. 

 

After the parade, Santa and Mrs. Claus were there for the kids to visit.  They brought cookies and hot cocoa and the grade school children decorated the Christmas trees lining the area for Santa. Our baby wasn't going to have any part of Santa.  Had he been our oldest, I would have pushed for him to sit on Santa's lap for a photo.  Being that he is the third, I videoed his crying and used the video to entertain him later at supper. It's called Evolutional Parenting. 

Dirty little sweet face. 

I'm thankful for our little town, where we can participate in so much COMMUNITY!

...and I'm thankful for this dirty little sweet face...

 

 

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30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 15

Day 15-Raise your hands for concession stands

This post is really more about family than family farming.  But, we are a family first I guess.  Tonight we had another basketball game to attend.  I am thankful for ALOT of things about basketball games  in our little town. 

1. Great kiddos playing hoops!  I love to watch the girls play their little hearts out.  They seem like big 6th graders as they are chatting it up over pizza in your kitchen, but put them out there on the court and they look like babies.  Wahhhhh, I miss those babies! 

2.  Great parents in the stands.  In our town, games are a little social time for us parents.  We have the best time hanging out cheering on our kiddos and talking about Thirty-One parties and fertilizer and all that jazz.

3. Grade school “thugs” in the lobby.  Our school has two gyms and the little brothers and sisters all meet and hang in the lobby.  Tonight, a game of chase was going on our there with poor Miss Harrison watching on while taking money.  Miss Harrison, if you read this, please text me next time these thugs are partying it up unsupervised by their socializing parents.  We can surely stop our conversations on Thirty-One bags and fertilizer to take care of our little thugs!  Sorry!  That 8 and under sect is a wild one…:)

4. Concession stands!!  Who can resist popcorn and a pop, even if we did JUST eat a nutritious meal of gas station pizza and fried chicken.  The good ole’ FFA gets at least $5 out of us at each game!  Thanks for the snacks!

Thankfully we have MANY years of ball games in those gyms, like 15 more years of it, and I’m thankful for every one!

I’ll be missing posting tomorrow, because I’ll be BUSY having a little bit of Mommy Fun!  But will post twice on Saturday!  I’ve got some wonderful things to share in the next few days about Farm Family Thankfulness so stop back by! Thanks for reading and I’d love to hear what you are all thankful for in the comments section. 

 

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30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 14

Day 14-The Circle of Life on the Farm

 

Imagine pulling in to the driveway and seeing this every day.  The cutest white cats the world has to offer.

 

I’ve talked about our mama cat, Snowball in previous posts.  She is a super mama.  She has 2-3 litters of kittens every year and has even fostered a litter for a neighbor.  She is loving and nurturing and she is firm when she needs to be.  Often when she is weaning kittens, she is pregnant (glorious!) When the kittens try to nurse, she gets a testy. HSSSS and swat!  I know the feeling Snowy. Git them kids away! Mama has had it! Snowball is a great mouser as well as a great mother. In fact, I just found a mouse yesterday that she probably took care of!  We need mousers here.  This place would be crawling with rodents if we didn’t have cats around.  In fact, recently my father-in-law was asking me how many cats we had, because it’s mouse season and our cat population is a little low. 

Luckily, just today I found Snowball’s most recent litter.  She had them in an old barrel in the shop.  She is always happy to share them with me. I get to love on them before their eyes are open! Here are our current farm cat stats:

Kittens: 2 white, 1 grey, 1 white/tabby---2 females, 2 males

Big Cats: 4 white, 3 females, 1 male

Total Cats: 8 total, 6 white, 2 not white, 5 females, 3 males

I keep track of the important stuff around here, I know you can all tell!

I’m thankful that my kids get to see the circle of life here on the farm, though I feel like they are getting a little hardened to it all.  They rarely name the farm cats anymore, and taming them isn’t always a priority.  Wild kittens are better for the mouse population anyway.   The coyote population and natural selection seem to keep our cat population around 5-7 most of the time.  However, we have been up to as many as 18.  That was the “Summer of the Cat.” 

During the “Summer of the Cat,” it became obvious this farm is too small for that many cats and weird, strange, murky, mean stuff was brewing that summer I tell ya.  You could cut the tension with a knife over in the cattle barn where the tom cats prowled.

The kids see the cute white kittens frolicking on the patio, but they also see the other end, the kitten they named and fell in love with disappears and is never to be seen again.  They will grow up with a different picture of what a pet cat is than I did growing up in town.  Town cats are house cats, they lounged in our living room window and lived in our homes for what seemed like most of my childhood.  They were fat, they ate from a can.  Farm cats come and go, they are skinny, they eat mice and dog food and sleep in the hay.  I think I’d rather be a house cat, how about you?!  Yikes.

Weird post, weird phenomenon. Farm life, just as it is!

 

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30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 13

Day 13-Romantic Afternoons with My Main Squeeze

Who can recognize this sight?  Well it's not a lovely hotel room on the Mexican shore or fine dining at a romantic Italian Bistro.  It's the view from the backseat of a big rig.  This is what quality time with my husband looks like during the heat of harvest.

On this day, we were more than half way through harvest and he needed me to tend to some work on his cell phone.  I take care of all of that for him (ain't I a keeper?)  Well, he certainly can't stop hauling grain for me to fix his phone, and he can't be without his phone as the guys are constantly calling etc.  So, the baby and I saddled up to the 18 wheeler and took a spin to Filson elevator while I helped him out.

The baby got shotgun, so that left me the back seat, which is a bed.  On this day, I fixed the phone, cranked the air in the rear and tried to take a nap and enjoy the ride!

If you've ever ridden sideways down the highway in a bumpy big rig, you may have guessed that not only was this NOT a romantic afternoon with my husband in a semi during harvest, but it was also a nauseating ride!  Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy!!

You won't find me complaining or turning down the next ride down the long stretch of highway. Or maybe more like down the country road to the corn field, because during harvest time, any time spent together counts as quality family time, even if it's in the cab of a tractor trailer! Roll on 18 wheeler....roll on!

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30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 12

Day 12-Crafting time on the farm

 

My little girl, since age 1, has always been a crafty girl.  She is a table-top activity kind of kid.  Give her a worksheet or 25 at age 2 and she was doing a happy dance! 

 

Several times in her life, we have made corn husk dolls.  I have linked up with a few corn husk doll related sites for you to look at.  Unfortunately, I’m not a keeper of things, so I don’t have one of our actual dolls to show you here. 

They are surprisingly easy to make and turn out so, so cute!

Even the rough and tumble son of mine has made corn husk “action figures” with us.  His usually end up drop kicking the other “action figures,” but hey, it’s quality time right?

 

Here are a few links to get you started. 

Luckily, we have an abundance of shucks to make our dolls.  This year is slipping by and we haven’t picked up our husks to make our dolls yet!  Hey kids, get the heck out there in the field with your flashlights and get us shucks!  It’s crafting time!

There’s always someone out there who shows us up…. show-offs!  These are some high level corn husk dolls here!  I’m betting even dear daughter crafter won’t want to tackle these.  They are adorable.  Pinterest is such a wonderful place!!

What are some of your favorite farm-friendly crafts? 

 

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LiveJournal Tags: 30 days of thankful,corn,kids,crafts

30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 11

Day 11- Veteran’s Day

I would feel like a crummy American if my post today wasn’t about my gratitude for the men and women that have served our nation. We have so many things to be thankful for, and I am thankful for our vets everyday, but today the post HAS to be about those who gave and are currently giving.

Everyday I am thankful to live in America.  Everyday I am thankful for what God has given me and my family.

We had a special service at church today in honor of those who have served.  Some of our dear friends’ boys sang a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that stirred me.  Three brothers’ voices melding together in a familiar song on a special day.  It was good. 

Life is good. 

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30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 10

Day 10-Rain, it's a love/hate relationship.

Today we are nearing the end of harvest.  Seriously, after this, things get a little more normal around here.  After they get the corn and beans out of the field, there is still work to be done to officially be done with harvest.

I do this big countdown of harvest, and I really ought to change my ways because I count down until the last soybean is in the hopper and then  I celebrate!  The happy dance, the dun-dun-dun-dun done song!  But every cotton pickin' year, my bubble is burst the very next day!  HARVEST ISN'T OVER until the field work is done.  That includes plowing, spraying for winter annuals and anhydrous application.  We finished my big hoo-ha harvest way, way back way in early October.  The guys are really hoping to push and finish up with all the field work and anhydrous ahead of the rain they are calling for tomorrow.  It's been about a month of post-harvest harvest activities.  That's almost as long as the official harvest of taking out the crops.  I mustn't forget about that next year!

To be brutally honest, I'm all done and ready for them to be done.  In true Monica form, I've petered out just a tad too early....:)

I've called Justin now like 4 times today, hoping somehow that the answer will change and he'll decide sitting on the couch with me or hanging some photos of the kids on the living room wall will suddenly take precedence over finishing harvest.  Silly me!  He has assured me that I will be fast asleep before he slips into bed tired from a 18 hour work day.  Sending him emonji texts full of silly icons has seemed to help pass the time.

They really, really want to finish up before the rain comes.  It will be a huge relief to have ALL of the field work done and behind us and then LET IT RAIN!

I almost can't contain myself.  We just need to finish up and be done.  The end of harvest means I GET TO SEE MY HUSBAND!  THE KIDS GET TO HANG WITH THEIR DAD!

If the rain comes early, they have to quit, but they won't be done= bad.  But then we get to see him early=good.  I don't want it to rain, I do want it to rain.  They want rain, then it's too wet.  We watch the weather like it's actually interesting!  I think my husband has 3 apps on his phone for the weather and is glued to it on the tv.

See what I mean by love/hate.  It's truly love/hate.  Our entire life revolves around rain and temperature and frost and forecast.  Our livelihood depends on it. Sweet rain! Danged rain!

Harvest 2012, you truly are almost behind us!

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