Loss...

A few days ago, this family lost their horse, Sadie. One morning she just lied down and was gone. My husband thinks Sadie was between 20-25 years old. I guess he's got to look it up or ask his dad for sure. But it's sad to lose an animal, especially a horse that you grew up with. I hear that Sadie was such a good horse. The family was sad to hear that she was gone, but it was probably time. She was getting really old. I was talking to my sister in law who said that her family was saddened by the news. Her 8 year old son asked if they would be able to travel from out of state to come up for the funeral. Too cute. Horses are amazing animals, and this one has a lot of memories with this family.

I took a few pictures a while ago. I don't really have any recent ones, but these will work. The grandkids loved to go for rides around the house with Sadie.

In those last pictures, you can see her daughter, Deni, in the background.

I thought that Deni would be a little distraught when her mother died. I thought maybe she would stay close to her. But she didn't act any differently. Or so I thought. I soon found out I was wrong.

My husband got the tractor so that he could lift Sadie's body and take her out of the pasture. He drove in and then he called me to see if I could come and help keep Deni from running out of the gate. I didn't think that would be a big deal since Deni likes to run away from people anyway.

So I went out there and Deni was VERY concerned that my husband was taking her mother out of the pasture. It was so sad. Deni was running all over the place and neighing as loud as she could. She was quite upset. And she wasn't scared of me anymore! The farmer drove out of the gate and Deni almost got out. Luckily I wasn't trampled, and luckily I was able to keep her in and hurry and shut the gate. Deni was not happy as the tractor drove away. Poor horse! She kept that up for a while, but by morning she was calm again. Now she seems okay, but it was quite the day. Sadie will be missed by this family!

Postal Diggers

The other day, my brother-in-law called. He wanted to know if he could borrow something from my husband, as long as he wasn't using it. The cowboy wasn't there at the moment, so I told him, that I'm sure he could borrow it since they belonged to the family farm.

He asked for some "postal diggers."

Well... I had absolutely no idea what "postal diggers" were, but I still thought it would be fine, so I said, "Sure. I'm sure it's fine if you use them.

Later on that day, when my husband came home for lunch, I told him that his brother called and was borrowing the "postal diggers." He nodded in understanding.

I said, "Is that right? At least I think that's what he said over the phone. He said, "Postal diggers."

"Yep," my husband replied.

Confused I asked, "What in the world are postal diggers?"

He smiled and said slowly, "You mean, Post Hole Diggers? You know, like when I go and build fence. That's how you dig the hole for the posts."

So there you have it. Post Hole Diggers.

Not some diggers that have gone postal, nor do these diggers have anything to do with USPS. Just in case you were wondering...

Another View

My mom came to visit shortly after we moved away from her to live on this farm. When she came in the house, she looked out the window and said, "Well, with this kind of view, why would you ever want to move back?"

And it's true. Isn't this an absolutely amazing view from our front window? I plopped myself down on the couch yesterday afternoon, then decided I better get my camera so I could show you all.

I particularly like this view too...

The timing was impeccable.

Tee hee... good thing he never checks this blog!

Sunset

We have some pretty awesome sunsets around here. And you can tell when a good one is brewing because the inside of the house turns pink. The skies also start to show a pink hue

Then...

I wish my camera could do it justice...

And my favorite: "Reflection on the Sewer Ponds."

Beautiful, isn't it?

(The sunset, not the sewer ponds...)

Ox in the Mire

Or in our case, "Pivot in the Mud."

Last Sunday, just before dark, my husband asked me to come and help him while he pulled the pivot out of the mud. Again, this is a pivot:

And one of the wheels was stuck deep in the mud so the pivot was not pivoting....

So I got in the "outfit" :) ....the old pick-up truck that was my husband's grandmother's truck and drove down to the field where the pivot was.

Now, here is an important detail. It was POURING RAIN outside.

I pulled up to the control panel that had huge warning labels of "Possible Electric Shock"

....while my husband put a chain on the part of the pivot that was stuck, and connected it to a tractor. When he gave me the word, I pushed a few buttons, and he started pulling on the pivot with his tractor/chain combo.

After a few minutes, and lots of rain, the pivot was unstuck. It wasn't so bad.

So I got back in the pick-up and tried to drive out of the field. But now I was stuck in the mud! The cowboy tried to push me out, but once we got it to budge, it got stuck again. Good thing we already had a tractor and chain because now it was dark. My husband had to find a place to hook on the chain, which happened to be on the back of the truck. Then he pulled me out of the field, while I had to steer in reverse, in the dark and in the rain.

That's about as much adventure as this farmer's wife can handle in one day.

The end.

Outfits

First of all... Outfits.

I always hear farmers talking about their outfits.

"Did you see my new outfit?"... "I saw his new outfit yesterday.".....
"I was wondering about your outfit."....."Did you see that outfit?!"....."Hey, that's a pretty nice outfit you have there."

I thought it was pretty strange to hear cowboys talking about their clothes... so often. I thought all that really mattered were wranglers and boots.

Well....come to find out that "my" kind of outfit, is not "their" kind of outfit.

Definition of a farmer's outfit: the type of vehicle(s) you drive

Oooo.. That makes sense now!

Oh Just a Few Random Things...

I'm pretty behind on this blog. Some of the reasons include:

Trying to save our plants from being killed by the frost....

Yes, we bundle them up in blankets, don't you do the same on those cold nights?

Look how shivered, and wilted they are! No! Don't die!

Please!

And other BIG reasons include HARVEST TIME!

The cowboy has been spending his time harvesting wheat, fixing the combine (big machine you have to have to harvest the wheat, unless you want to pick each stem and shake it yerself), cutting hay, fixing something, baling straw, fixing the combine again.

It's been busy.

And then even with all of that, he has time to do this:

Pretty much, he's in charge of the canning. Is anyone else's husband like this? I mean, I don't mind it, but usually the wife is in charge, right?

It's kinda nice to have him doing all the work, and I just get to stand and peel tomatoes. :)

And voila! (Here's half of them, at least!)

What you do not see pictured yet are our many jars of pears, peaches, and jams. Plums and applesauce to come. I've tried drying peaches and apples too. The apples worked out, but the peaches did not....There's a learning curve here.. for this new farmer's wife! (Don't even ask me about my beans. That's a touchy subject...)

Oh, and the other thing? Moley, the cat, is not doing her job! We've been catching a lot of these critters. I'm not so happy about that.

Not only are they gross, but my 2 yr old usually sleeps on the floor and ever since one ran across the room, I will not put him on the floor. So he's been in my bed for a month. Darn mice. I want my bed back!