Kitties Have Moved On

Miss Kitty's two kittens have left the nest; their new mother--Becky, by name--picked them up last evening (sniff, sniff.....boohoo). Becky sure looks happy, though!

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Here's two short videos of the kitties having fun with their mama, Miss Kitty, a few nights ago.....(sorry about the background noise; a fan was running to dry the glue on my son's Physics project---a toothpick bridge.). If you only have time to watch one of the videos, watch the second one.

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SkyWatch #45

Welcome to northeast Iowa!  This SkyWatch post is being guest-hosted by Buster……..he is down in the left corner of this first photo:

He and I were out walking last evening under these feathery cloud formations.

Please visit Skyley.com to find the many other links to beautiful sky photos from around the world.

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A Farmer Rests

Yesterday, as gusty winds blew across the fields surrounding our church and cemetery, a farmer was laid to rest. In the last 20 years of his life, he had endured much adversity, but he always was in church on Sunday mornings with a smile on his face. His situation was such that if you thought you were having a bad day, all you had to do was think of him and you’d realize that your problems were miniscule.

He loved cows, though he was forced to sell his dairy herd 20 years ago due to a devastating car accident in which he and his wife were seriously injured and two of their four sons left permanently and profoundly disabled. Several years ago, this farmer was again badly injured in a farm accident, requiring a lengthy recuperation. As if that wasn't enough, he was diagnosed with late-stage terminal cancer just a few weeks ago and passed away last Saturday night, at 62 years young.

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This poem written by the farmer's 13-year-old granddaughter was printed on the back of the funeral folder:

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Little Girl

four years old

on the countryside

waiting on the front porch

picking flowers

catching fireflies

waiting for a tractor ride

and she sees him coming around the bend

she's smiling

its her special time

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Little Girl

nine years old

on the countryside

waiting on the front porch

chasing chickens and

riding her bike

waiting for a game of cards

and she sees him walking up the steps

she jumps up and he shuffles the deck

she's smiling

its her special time

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Teenager

thirteen years old

on the countryside

waiting on the front porch

and she's crying

because her miracle never came

the flowers aren't in bloom

fireflies have died

and there's no more tractor rides

but she remembers those times

and she'll be waiting on the front porch

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oh, I'll be waiting

on the front porch

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I love you, Grandpa!

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Amazingly, my eyes stayed dry throughout the funeral. The lunch serving and clean-up kept everyone bustling about, busy hands masking heavy hearts. Tears came while I took a walk last evening, though…...a good time for that to happen as the warm breeze quickly dried my eyes. The most beautiful cloud in the twilight sky seemed to hover over the deceased’s farmer's earthly home; that little pointer at the lower left of the cloud is directed right at his farmstead. Hopefully, it is a sign of God's care and blessing on the grieving family remaining there.

Across the road from his farm is farm where too much trouble and sorrow took place several years ago, also; sickness and death causing another top-notch dairy herd to be dispersed and a family scattered. A beautiful farmstead is still there, but those who really cared about it are gone. That makes me sad…..thinking of the departed farmers who had so much pride wrapped up in land and livestock and then the tides of sickness, injury, and death roll in and wash it all away. That's life, I guess.

Sorry to veer into depressing territory in yesterday’s and today’s posts. I need to get a grip and think of something cheery to blog about.

I’m supposed to rejoice that the departed ones are now in heaven…..ok, I’ll try harder to do that. Mostly I miss seeing them around the community and hearing their voices. Their souls have ascended to heaven, so we are taught. That reminds me…...today is Ascension Day and we have a church service tonight in commemoration of that event in the life of Christ. Does your church have an Ascension service?

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Drying and Dying

Besides being superb for chopping rye, yesterday’s sunny, breezy conditions were perfect for drying laundry outdoors, too.  Thank goodness for that, as our dryer still languishes in an unrepaired state.

Lilacs swaying in the wind watched from overhead as I pinned the clothes to the line.  Yesterday was probably the lilacs’ peak day of beauty and fragrance.  It’ll be all downhill from here. 

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Yesterday morning while I was way out in the field videotaping the rye chopping, I happened to look back toward the house just in time to see a FedEx truck leaving our place in a cloud of dust.  Hmm……I wasn’t expecting any deliveries, so had no idea what the driver might have dropped off.

When I got back to the house later, my daughter had just come down from upstairs and she excitedly said, “Do you have my package?”  I didn’t, and I wondered what she was talking about.  She proceeded to tell me she had just received an email from FedEx saying they had left a package for her “at the front door”.  It contained a plane ticket and and other important paperwork for her trip abroad this summer.

We searched the area “at the front door” and found no sign of a package.  We checked around the other doors,  under the bushes by the house, in the garage, in the car, in the pickup……no sign of a package.  The dogs couldn’t have carried it off because they had been out in the field with me.  The gang of cats parked outside the house door were of no help, they simply directed wide-eyed stares at us.

My daughter found the package’s tracking number and I called the FedEx 800 number to explain the problem.  The representative was very helpful and said she would contact the driver to come back to our house or give us a call.  Meanwhile, I worked on getting lunch ready for the guys and Daughter headed to Waterloo to run errands. 

When Husband came in later to eat, I told him about the FedEx truck coming here, but apparently leaving no package.  Right away, he said, “There’s something hanging on the Morton Building door.”  What?? The “Morton Building” is a machinery shed beyond the garage……not near the house at all.  Sure enough, though, the FedEx package was hanging on the shed door behind some long grass.  So that was the “front door” the driver had referred to in the email??  Goodness……was he unable to tell the difference between the machine shed and the house??

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On a somber note, I will be helping at a funeral lunch at our church today.  The deceased was in his early 60’s, seemingly healthy until less than a month ago when he was diagnosed with cancer.  Three Sundays ago his name was mentioned in the church service prayers and now he’s passed away already.  His death doesn’t seem right at all---as if death ever does---he and his family have carried a heavy load over the past 25 years and his sudden tragic death seems to be the ultimate insult added to injury.

Last night a group of us living and hopefully healthy church members met to set up tables for the funeral lunch.  On my way there, I could see the deceased farmer’s fields and farm buildings.  His tractor was sitting behind a shed…..I have no idea if he felt well enough to do any fieldwork this spring.  Our church congregation is not especially close……there are several extended family groups and you don’t know much about the groups you’re not a part of.  I’m guessing that’s typical of a rural/small town church where the same close-knit families have been in attendance for generations. 

My sister’s father-in-law passed away a few months ago and his gravestone has just been installed.  Here’s the inscription on the back of it……the first line of Emily Dickinson’s famous poem:

I didn’t mean to cast a pall on your day.  Have a good one!

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Rye & Lilacs

Today:

Lilacs are in their short-lived prime.......(I wish you could lean in and enjoy a whiff of the lovely fragrance.):

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Today:

Chopping rye.......

And, bagging the chopped rye, which will be fed to the cows later in the year.....(Do not, I repeat, DO NOT lean into those spinning power-take-off shafts!):

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Have great afternoon!

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P.S. - I enjoyed this article about prairie plants from Sunday's Des Moines Register.

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Journey To Orchard

Did you know there is a tiny town by the name of “Orchard” in Iowa? The DOT map lists the population there as 88. My mom, my sister, and I visited there on Sunday during our cemetery tour. Maybe its location was a factor in Orchard remaining small in size……it sits on a county road, a few miles off the beaten tracks of busy highways 218 and 9. The railroad runs through it, northwest to southeast, however.

As we neared Orchard from the east, we slowed up for Mennonite girls on bicycles, then steered sideways to allow farm implements nearly as wide as the road to pass by. A well-kept-up Congregational Church with a nifty bellfry welcomed us once we entered the city limits.

Reminders of the past sat along Main Street……several old, abandoned storefronts. The Orchard Farmers Co-op appeared to still be doing business, however.

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Our reason for visiting Orchard was to find the local cemetery, of course, which was not a difficult task. It was waiting quietly for us just west of town, amidst trees and farm fields.

We were looking for the grave of Elihu Orchard who had married Mary Blue, a sister of my mother’s great-grandmother, Emma Blue Wilkin. My mother’s father’s middle name was Elihu, bestowed on him in honor of his great-uncle. In the printed Wilkin history I have, it states that Elihu Orchard was known as “Uncle Tip” because he had fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe, but obviously, that is incorrect because Tippecanoe took place in 1811 and Elihu Orchard wasn’t born until 30 years after that. Perhaps his father, Moses Orchard, the founder of the town of Orchard, had taken part in that battle. Or else, Elihu’s nickname originated for a different reason. He was a soldier in the Civil War and the family history says he was involved “in the siege of a Spanish fort and Blakly Mobile”, whatever that means. (That can be Sempringham’s puzzle to work on, if he wishes.)

That’s my mom!

This next photo of a child’s gravestone is being included because of its design……the fallen bird with one wing up against a cross. That’s what it appeared to be, anyway. I’d not seen anything like that before.

By the time we were done wandering around the Orchard Cemetery, the afternoon was still young enough that we decided to attempt finding Riverside Cemetery in Charles City. After asking for directions, we found it easily, and what a sprawling and well-cared-for place it is, located on 49 wooded acres along the east bank of the Cedar River, north of downtown Charles City. There was statuary in the old sections of the cemetery……too bad the faces are so mottled……these statues evidently were in vogue as cemetery decor back in the early 1900’s.

We were looking for the grave of Emma and Mary Blue’s mother, Catherine VanAmberge Blue Trussler, who had come to Iowa from New York State. There wasn’t enough time for us to do a thorough search for her stone, though, because the cemetery is so immense. The caretakers’ office has all the grave locations on file, but it isn’t open on Sundays.

There were some unusual gravestones there……these final photos show three that have a tree or log theme:

Someday, maybe I will return to Riverside Cemetery to do a more in-depth search.

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Mom, Sis, and I truly had a wonderful day together---lots of laughter and reminiscing. The weather was pleasant---almost warm---with sunny skies overhead.

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[P.S. – Emma Blue was married to Minard Artemus (Art) Wilkin who had a photography business in Charles City back in the 1800’s. His father, Ira Wilkin, worked with daguerreotypes in various places in the Midwest. I would love to find an old photo with either of their names on it. If you ever find one, may I get a copy of it? Please, pretty please!]

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Have a great day!

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Cuttin' Thru The Rye

Raw---blurry, even---footage of what’s happening on the dairy farm today: Husband is cutting the rye. Tomorrow---weather permitting---the cut swaths of rye will be chopped, blown into a silage wagon, and then blown into a plastic bag. The bagged rye silage will be fed to the cows later in the year.

(I don't know why the above text decided to link to the photo.)

Here’s a video. There was a strong wind blowing, so turn down the volume to avoid hearing the annoying noise from that.

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Meet Me In Grundy Center

You may be familiar with “Solomon Grundy, Born on Monday……”, but have you ever heard of Grundy Center, Iowa? The town of 2500 is the county seat of Grundy County, home to some of the best farmland in the world, so they say.

I was in Grundy Center last Friday afternoon and evening for the district track meet. Raindrops began falling shortly after the field events commenced at 4 p.m. I was umbrella-less, having somehow managed to forget mine at home.

That absent-mindedness provided the perfect excuse for a brief foray into Grundy’s downtown, where I found a $2 umbrella at the locally-owned drug store. You get what you pay for---the umbrella proved to be uncloseable, once opened---but it did keep my head and shoulders mostly dry for the next few hours. Before heading back to Spartan Field, I snapped a few photos near the limestone courthouse. This statuary gal resembles her famous counterpart who stands in New York Harbor. The face seems quite different, though…..maybe they are distant cousins.

It behooved me to not waste much time downtown, or I would miss seeing my son run and jump, but here’s one more architectural feature along Grundy Center’s main thoroughfare:

I hustled back to the track meet and for the next several hours this was the view above my head:

Oh, look, its our friendly, neighborhood Earth Science teachers. They had forgotten their umbrellas, too, and had just bought these blue ones at the Dollar General Store on the edge of Grundy. Haha……I got a better deal than they did…..their umbrellas cost $5 apiece! Smiley-Guy on the left used to drive the milk truck which comes to our farm every other day; he and I would often discuss field rocks and prairie flowers. Then, all of a sudden last year, he decided to put his college degree to use and become a science teacher. How could he do such a thing! I miss our conversations.

You say you haven’t seen enough evidence of the alleged rain at the track meet……well, this next shot is offered as more proof. By evening’s end, my shoes and pant-legs were thoroughly mud-caked.

At this district meet, first and second-place finishers in all events earn a trip to the state track meet in Des Moines. One of the relays my son was in came in second by .03 seconds, though to my eyes it looked like they were third. Apparently, the eyeballs don’t have it when it comes to calling close races. The relay boys are ecstatic….they’ll be headed to Des Moines in a few days, and if I can find my way there, too, you’ll have to tolerate a blog report from Drake Stadium.

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Accompanying me to the track meet were four baskets filled with wet laundry. I gambled that a town the size of Grundy Center would have a laundromat and I was not disappointed. The only question in my mind was: What brand of farm implements were sold in the past here in Petersen's building?

Standing under several towering larch trees in the City Park was this one-room schoolhouse, labeled “Colfax #9”. It is also known as “The Herb Quick School”. John Herbert Quick grew up in Grundy County in the mid-to-late 1800’s and eventually authored several books. From childhood days, he had dreamed of being a writer: “I cannot remember when things that I saw and experienced did not appeal to me as the stuff of writing.” (Sounds like a blogger-wannabe.)

On my way to Grundy Center, I had dropped my daughter off at UNI for her Camp Adventure lifeguard training. After the track meet, I picked her up at Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop on “The Hill” near campus. Yeah, the scene is somewhat blurry, but what do you expect with “Extremely Fast Delivery”!

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I'm writing this on Sunday night after a long day of cemetery-touring; a report about that will be filed in the next post. There’s just never-ending excitement around here. Have a nice day!

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THEOLOGY ON A TOMBSTONE

Today, my mom, my sister, and I will spend time prowling around in cemeteries…….weather permitting.  We’ll be hunting for gravestones of long-passed family members; now is a good time to do that, with Memorial Day approaching.

Old cemeteries are fascinating places……quiet and peaceful, too.  I enjoy pondering the tombstones, with their displays of meaningful artwork.  Below is an engraving that sums up Christian---and, more specifically, Lutheran---theology in a single scene.  Clinging to the Cross of Christ.  It graces an old gravestone in a Lutheran cemetery near Readlyn.  This was the first time I’d seen this particular design used. 

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Have a pleasant Sunday!  If you have any extra warm weather sitting around gathering dust, send it to Iowa!

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Blossom Catch-up

A backlog of recent flower photos were clamoring to see the light of day on the blog……

So, this post is where they landed.

Have a nice weekend!

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P.S. - This opinion article contains food for thought for us bloggers. Do we tend to “overshare” on our blogs? Do we engage in exhibitionism? Are we blogging to compensate for the absence of face-to-face, real-life interaction with other human beings? Think deeply on that and take necessary measures, which might include continuing to blog.

Navigating the online communication highway can be tricky, like groping blindly in the dark.  It lacks the visual and the auditory, the awareness of facial expressions, body language, and voice inflections as in a face-to-face conversation. I sometimes have the wrong-headed tendency to view things as humorous that might not be seen that way by someone else. In a face-to-face encounter, I can usually maneuver carefully enough to express my point-of-view and prompt laughter in the other person eventually. We can laugh together then---a joyful experience! Online, its a different story;  on the flat, lifeless computer screen I might carelessly type a message that offends someone. I may think I’m laughing WITH them when actually they believe I am laughing AT them. No one is particularly fond of being laughed AT.

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Its excruciating for me to type this next sentence:  My blogging time will be infringed on this weekend due to previously-scheduled real-life interactions with human beings, no less. Visitors will be at my home today, and tomorrow I'm planning to attend church and then go cemetery-touring with my mom and sister (weather permitting).

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Can you tell where I was last evening?  And, rain was falling…..AGAIN!  More about that on Monday.

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Dairy Headlines by Fred & Bessie

The time has come……for Fred and Bessie to be packed carefully in their mailing box and sent home to Flea in Oklahoma. While gathering the bubble wrap and foam I happened to notice that Bessie was whispering something into Fred’s ear. Pretty soon they both approached me with a request……they wanted to host a blogpost of dairy headlines before they left our farm. I agreed.

F & B invited the house cow herd to be their “studio audience”……so to speak…..er, moo. The house cows were tickled to be featured on the blog for once.

The list of dairy headlines was written on cue cards for Fred and Bessie to use. First up is a sampling of current stories from the well-known dairy magazine, Hoard’s Dairyman, published in Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin:

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FARMLAND VALUES IN IOWA HAVE DROPPED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TEN YEARS, down from $5619/acre last September, to the current average price of $5297/acre.

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A NOVEL ENTITLED “BULL JUSTICE”---BY GLEN JENSEN---HAS BEEN PUBLISHED. The main character is a dairy herdsman who formerly served a term in a reformatory.

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WITH LOW MILK PRICES, WATCH FOR SIGNS OF DEPRESSION……(in people, that is)

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WHO STAYS? WHO GOES DRY? WHO GOES FOR GOOD?

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GET YOUR PASTURES READY FOR SUMMER GRAZING

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WILL $4 CORN SHIFT MILK PRODUCTION BACK EAST?

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CALVES ARE WHAT THEY EAT

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Whew…..that was quite a list! Fred and Bessie need a short break……to catch their breath……and, to catch up on kissing!

Ok……next we’ll hear some headlines from the Dairy Star newspaper, published in Sauk Centre, Minnesota:

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NEW DAIRY BILL INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS BY SENATORS ARLEN SPECTER (D-PA) AND ROBERT CASEY (D-PA). THE BILL IS KNOWN AS “THE FEDERAL MILK MARKETING IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2009”……(Since 1981, dairy farmers have been subjected to several unorthodox pricing formulas that created severe roller-coaster rides for the dairy farmers’ milk prices.) DAIRY FARMERS ARE URGED TO CONTACT THEIR U.S.SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES IN SUPPORT OF THIS BILL.

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FROM HIRED MAN TO HERD OWNER

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WHAT DAIRY FAMILIES CAN DO AMIDST LOW MILK PRICES

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WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT COW “FRIENDSHIP”? Social status within a herd may affect feeding behavior. Also, cows seem to pair up in order to groom each other with “social licking”. (Fred & Bessie could readily relate to this one.)

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TIPS FOR SAVING ELECTRICITY ON YOUR FARM

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MINNESOTA BECOMES FIRST IN NATION TO REQUIRE 5% BIODIESEL IN ITS DIESEL FUEL SUPPLY….(While biodiesel has been produced mostly from soybeans to date, some Minnesota producers are now processing or are moving toward processing biodiesel from alternative sources such as animal fats, spent cooking oils, or even algae.)

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Well, I don’t know about you, but I found these headlines to be interesting and informative. Whether the house cows listened very closely is anyone’s guess. You can never tell with cows. Most likely, grooming each other was the main subject on their minds, anyway.

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Well……the time has come……time for Fred and Bessie to be drawn together for one last kiss here on our Iowa dairy farm.

Eventually, I pried the two apart and bundled them carefully into layers of bubble-wrap and foam. They’ll be deprived of contact with each other until they reach Flea’s house. Wow……by then Fred and Bessie will REALLY be in the mood to resume their lip-locking!

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Good-bye, Fred & Bessie! We enjoyed your company!

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SkyWatch #44

Welcome to northeast Iowa skies!  Apple trees have been blossoming…..

As have thunderstorms……

Thank you for visiting this SkyWatch Friday post.  Visit skyley.blogspot.com to find links to beautiful skies from around the world.

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Clothes-Dryer Blues

Can you tell where I spent some time yesterday afternoon? My shadow hasn’t darkened the door of such a place for many, many years, as I had no need to go there. That changed on Tuesday when my clothes-dryer took a negative turn and went kaput. Wouldn’t you know it, we’re currently in a rainy spell, too, preventing the hanging of laundry outdoors on the clothesline. There are lines in the basement, but its damp down there, making for a poor drying environment.

Yesterday over lunch, Husband mentioned that he needed some items from the Farm & Fleet store at Cedar Falls. The gears in my mind began to work. I had three baskets of wet laundry sitting in the basement……maybe we could take them along to Cedar Falls and find a laundromat. I checked the phone book, but could find no listings for laundromats in CF. Then I did a Google search and found the address of one right near the route to Farm & Fleet. Good deal.

When I was growing up, all the small towns in our area had laundromats, but they don’t anymore. I recall going with my mom to the one in Dunkerton a few times, probably when our washer was on the blink. This laundromat in Cedar Falls yesterday was clean and well-cared-for. Husband helped carry the laundry in and then he went on to Farm & Fleet. The laundromat manager was the only one in the premises; she was polishing the tops of washing machines. She showed me how to operate the dryers……25 cents for each 8 minutes of drying time. I filled three dryers with laundry and pressed the buttons to start the clothes a-tumbling.

The manager and I chatted for awhile……she was very talkative and interesting. She told me about her house being ruined in the flood last summer, and moving into a newly-built home just a few weeks ago. The FEMA trailer she and her husband had lived in for many months was being removed from their property on this very day! She talked about the frustrating mix-ups and rigamarole they had dealt with in the flood’s aftermath, while trying to get needed help. At some point, I mentioned the old laundromat that used to be in Dunkerton and she nodded and said yes she remembered it, too, and she was quite sure it had succombed to the flood of 1993 when Crane Creek invaded Dunkerton’s downtown.

Our conversation waned when another customer came in. I sat down to read and soon discovered that the laundromat is a perfect place for that and wished I could spend the whole afternoon there. The droning hum of the washers and dryers was relaxing, almost hypnotic.

At some point, two men came in, filled and started two washing machines, and then left again. The manager and another woman customer talked for quite awhile…..about cemeteries, surgeries, and families who don’t eat supper together. The manager also mentioned an upcoming trip she was planning to another town where she would most definitely stop and see the “laundry-mat”, as she called it.

I enjoyed reading my book about the four forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, and strong and weak nuclear forces. (Go ahead and think I’m nuts, but this stuff is really interesting.) These four forces work together in perfect balance to keep the universe running. The relationship between these forces is “so finely tuned as to allow for things to be just as they are, from the smallest to the largest objects, governed by laws that keep things in a cohesive state. One minor tweak and it would be utter chaos.” Fascinating, eh?! One minor tweak…….

Later, when Husband and I were driving along in rush hour traffic in Cedar Falls and Waterloo, I was thinking of what an alien being would see if he were gazing down on the city from high up above. He would see the lines of traffic, flowing in an organized manner. He might wonder, “How does that happen? How does it all stay organized?” Over time, if he studied the situation more closely and deeply, he would discover that there are laws governing the way the traffic moves. Just as scientists have learned about the laws of nature over the centuries.

In this next photo are tools near and dear to my heart……my laundry baskets!! (I had to be discreet and keep a low profile while taking these photos. I didn’t want the manager to see me using the camera. What kind of person would take pictures in a laundromat??)

Too soon, my laundry loads were dry and ready to be folded. By then, Husband had returned and he helped fold the towels and clothes…….that has got to be a first!!

Our disabled dryer at home will not be repaired until late NEXT week. Oh, my. I hope the sun comes out pretty soon or I may be making another trip to this laundromat, which I probably wouldn’t mind at all, considering the pleasant time I enjoyed there yesterday.

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A nice surprise was in the mailbox when we arrived home…..the bars of goats’ milk soap I had ordered recently from http://anniesgoathill.blogspot.com/, in Ohio. Unless Mary is putting on a huge pretension as she writes her blogposts, it is apparent she dearly loves making goats’ milk soap. Her shop must smell heavenly, because these soaps have lovely scents and are making my house smell wonderful!

Have a great day!

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P.S. - If you decide to leave a comment.....please mention when you last were in a laundromat.

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