Things that I have missed writing about:
-- Summertime showed up. Beginning just before Memorial Day weekend, the weather took a definite turn from cool to hot.
-- My birthday -- I am now officially middle aged, or at least what I always considered to be the middle -- I am now 50 years old. Kelli & Ben had us over and Kelli cooked a nice bbq dinner for us in the back yard so I didn't have to cook on my birthday. The dessert was awesome too, as always -- a mint ice cream and chocolate dessert instead of a cake. I bought myself a mini notebook computer "for my birthday," just because I wanted one. We can use it when we travel for internet and email and marketing (as long as there is wi-fi wherever we are), at least that is the theory, and it's sort of fun to have around for wireless stuff upstairs too.
-- I have been to Kirkland twice now for helping Dayna out while she is casted. The little one took some of her first steps while I was there last time, and I understand that she is now in the "walking as a preferred mode of transportation" most of the time now. I will be heading back over there on Monday so will get to see the progress. Definitely the upside to this wrist surgery thing, for me anyway. We made some strawberry jam on one of the trips (Danelle cut the berries),
and Thea enjoyed some cherries.
-- Lou and I were in Minnesota earlier this week, to a Lutheran retreat center called Mt. Carmel at Alexandria, on a lake like all good camps in MN would be. It is probably his 5th year to attend this and maybe my 3rd -- there is a theological conference in June each year, so we get to see folks we haven't seen in a long time and learn stuff together. A little on the cooler side this year but I tend to get along better that way than if it's too hot and humid.
The new chapel (it's really big for a chapel)
The dining room, and below, a view of the lake
Nice place... wish the mosquitoes were smaller...-- Part of that trip turned out to be an hour or so at Cenex-Harvest States headquarters for a tour and talk a little to the folks there about the possibility of Lou running for the board of directors. The local co-op board that he's been part of for a lot of years now thinks he ought to go for it, and it's very intriguing (and flattering, CHS is #72 in the Fortune 500), but it would be something that we would have to plan life around for the first time ever. There would be fixed dates for meetings and absences from home, and so anything else that comes up those same dates would be missed ... this may have been our last year at Mt. Carmel since it's always the first week in June, and CHS board meetings are the first week of each month. If he is elected. And so we will see how it all turns out -- elections are at the annual meeting in December.
-- Nicholas' second birthday, yesterday. We all missed that one, actually. The good news there is that he is young enough not to care much about it. Kelli has been busy packing and trying to keep the house clean for realty open houses so that the house will sell asap. The new house is nearly done (final inspection ought to pass next week) and so it's almost moving time -- who has time for a birthday?? They were in Kansas at a wedding this past weekend too -- Nicholas' first airplane rides -- so that was a fun thing to do for his birthday. Kelli made a cake for dessert at lunch today and he was way more interested in the ice cream than the cake. Next year, ice cream cake it is! Maybe there will be a joint housewarming/birthday bash when they get moved to the new place and Kelli's parents can come over for both too. Here is a pic of Nicholas riding the lawn mower with Papa Oo, and also one "touching pig nose."
-- Today I got the air conditioning and other electrical stuff fixed in the van. It was a broken wire, so hardly any materials cost but $200 in labor as it was way in there, of course. That's just the way it is if I wanted that stuff to work ever again. Last week it had a pin hole in a radiator hose, and that got fixed quickly before we had to drive to Seattle for our flight to Minnesota. Hoping that is enough car repairs for a few months! The house a/c is still not fixed -- I need to call our neighborly pump man/electrician friend but lately we are only home 2-3 days at a time (or me, at least) so a couple fans and open windows overnight have been acceptable. So glad it cools down overnight in our area here.
-- Farm field work continues at a fevered pace. Some chopping before our KS and MN trips, and Kit did one over the weekend when we were all gone. Dammer-diking (to put pits in the corn rows to hold water) continues before the corn gets too tall to fit under the drawbar. And planting a field of beans -- a first for us here but maybe we'll add that to the mix. "Dry, edible beans" is all I know about that, as far as what kind -- maybe pintos or ?? I haven't seen the seed and will have to write more on that later.
-- Swine flu. Somewhere in there someone decided to name a flu virus after an animal that had nothing to do with it, but the hog markets were affected just the same as people misunderstood and foreign country governments even banned the importation of pork products from the USA. Grr. So the hog market is in the toilet in a big way, and continues to drop even today yet. We have cut back on the numbers here to minimize the number of pigs we sell on the open market price basis -- we make some money selling to the locals one pig at a time and to a couple of others who buy a small load from us to resell in their local areas for wedding and graduation and harvest barbecues. Right now that is what is keeping us going. There will be a lot of hog farmers getting out of the business this year, voluntarily or because their bankers cut them off, though. The dairies are also in a bad way these days. Tough times for livestock producers.
And so -- I am trying to catch up from being gone so much, and then I am gone again. Really, it would be so much easier to just blog a paragraph or two every two days, wouldn't it, than trying to catch up on here all at once? What is it that Paul says in the Bible -- the good that I would, I do not ...
I like Facebook since I only need to do a sentence a day to feel "caught up" there ... and don't feel obligated to post pictures, which seem to take more time for me than they ought to. But I will try to do better, pictures or not, as I do like reading the blogs of others who keep current.
I may try to add a few pictures to this one in the next 2 days, we'll see. Thanks for being patient with me.
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You have indeed been busy!! Seeing the grandkids often is a bonus though :)) I checked out Kelly's blog to see the new house progress - looks beautiful. It finally got warm here too - +28 today - great for camping and spending the afternoon at the lake.
ReplyDeleteWe wondered how this whole pandemic/flu thing was affecting you. It reminds us of how BSE hit the beef industry in Canada. Good luck to Lou and the seeking election thing. Reminds me of Bob's time with Dairy Farmers of Canada. There was alot of juggling, countless flights and meetings - and great friendships along the way!
"See" you soon - back here anyway!