Monday, January 12, 2009

After Hours

After last nights milking chores were done, my husband and son were trying to seal up some drafty cracks in the calf shed. They had an audience of curious calves and roosting chickens. See the calves' beady eyes caught in the camera's flash.
Its been awhile since the shop lights glowed during nighttime hours.

There's old bumper stickers afixed to an even older metal cabinet that ended up here last year after my father-in-law passed away. Hmm.......what do those stickers say?
Obviously, the top and bottom ones are milk-related......probably handed out years ago at a county dairy banquet. That middle one....GRIFFIN....rings no bell in my mind at all.
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The weather is headed into the deep freeze again, with snow showers and strong winds in the forecast. Great. That's why Husband is trying to close up sources of chilly drafts in the shed......in an effort to prevent the calves from getting pneumonia.
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To prove I read the newspaper, here's a link to an article in yesterday's Waterloo Courier........about a Bosnian immigrant who owns a restaurant in downtown Waterloo and has been replicating Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings on the ceilings and walls there. The project has been getting international attention; he's had visitors from all over the world, plus a couple Hollywood celebrities.....Nicholas Cage, for one. Galleria De Paco is the name of his restaurant......the website is http://www.paco-rosic.com/. Downtown Waterloo needs all the promotion it can get, let me tell you. When I was a kid, there were stores galore there; that's where we did most of our shopping. Then, in the early 70's malls and big-box stores started going up on the outskirts of town and the bustling downtown retail mecca faded away.......a scenario repeated in cities all across the country, I know.
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Have a good day!
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6 comments:

Gail said...

It is wonderful to see the rebirth of an old town.
Working into the night...what kind of job do you have????? I forgot you were a farmer for a minute!
Everyone should be required to work on a farm one week to appreciate how good the products taste and that all products do not begin in a can, bottle, box.

DesertHen said...

Good morning. Trying to make the rounds before I head off to work. Lots of catching up to do as I didn't blog or read blogs all weekend....whatever was I thinking!!

Love the nightime photos of the shed...it just goes to show that a farmers work is never done!!

Sorry to hear you are headed into the deep freeze for temps again! We are due to have temps in the 50's this week, which seems odd this time of year. The snow is all but gone here.

Very interesting story link you posted as well. Those little towns need all the help they can get!!

Happy Monday to you.......=)

Jeannelle said...

Hi, Gail,

Thanks for stopping by. I didn't do much blog surfing over the weekend.....I miss my daughter's laptop.....she went back to college, and I couldn't talk her into leaving it here for me to use. Dang.

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Hi, Deserthen,

Oh, I'm glad to hear you are getting better weather now. Oh, 50 degrees sounds heavenly.

You must have a life going on beyond blogging! Good for you.....hope you had a wonderful weekend, and have a great week!

Nancy said...

I love that picture with the chickens. I have a thing about chickens and threaten my husband that someday I'll get the 3 chickens that are allowed in town. It's too bad to see the downtown areas fading away. In my travels around a couple of years ago, I noticed that the ones that had survived had something different or interesting or provided a service no big-box store could match. Hutchinson MN comes to mind as one of the most vibrant downtown areas I've seen in years. Yes, there is a Wal-Mart on the edge of town.

Jeannelle said...

Hi, Nancy,

Really? A person can have three chickens in town?? Cool. I didn't know that.

I think you're right about what downtowns need to have in order to thrive. Waterloo is SLOWLY learning that....this restaurant is an example. What unique businesses does Hutchinson have that makes it thrive?

Egghead said...

Wow that guys painting is amazing. Hard to believe it is with spray paint. I know what you mean with the downtown areas of cities dying away because of malls and such. Pretty sad.