Ode to Old Blue

No farm is complete without a big old truck with a trusty name.  On the White farms, its Old Blue. I love this truck. She may not have nice seat cushions. In fact, the seat cushions may have mice nests in them.  The brakes may not work, and the clutch may stick a bit. But the hydraulic bed of this old cattle truck is what makes it so valueable. Without we could not have dumped all the plaster and insulation from when we renovated our entire house.  It's been a part of every huge house project, as well as some photo shoots.  Ted wanted to sell it this past year, and thankfully Seth reminded him of how much use we get out of it, so she's safe for another year! If this truck was reliable enough to drive around, I would drive it to work every day!  Thanks for all you do, Old Blue!

Old Blue in all her rusty glory

My favorite filtering effect ever! I would love to try and claim that I sketched this, but I do think it looks amazing!

I Volunteer! I Volunteer as Tribute!

In the spirit of The Hunger Games (which if you haven't read, go read them! They're amazing!) I thought I'd do a little educational blog on what "volunteer"means in the farming world.

Volunteer corn, that is.




Katniss looked a lot better than this piddly little corn stalk

If you're out driving around rural Indiana and going by a bean field, you may notice a bunch of random corn stalks growing and think, "what's up with that?" Well, its not some new hybrid, or some really efficient way of growing beans and corn at the same time. Its what we call volunteer corn.  Since most farmers rotate the crops on their fields (example: the field next to our house was beans last year, and this year its corn, it has to do with nitrogen and mineral take up etc etc boring science stuff) sometimes a few kernels miss out on the trip into the combine and end up back in the field where they grew. So then, the next spring, they grow up along with the beans.  Most the time when you spray for weeds, this is taken care of, but not everybody goes down. 

In fact, Bristol's favorite summertime activity is running through a bean field and then attacking the volunteer corn stalks and wrestling them to the ground. She should get paid for what she does!

...and because I shamelessly use my blog as a way to post pictures of my adorable family, here's the little Bristol pistol herself! Sitting in the road, where she knows she isn't supposed to be!

Top 10 Reasons I love this life...

A few weekends ago, I ran into someone who used to live here in Grass Creek and they made the comment about how boring it is here and just trying to make the most of it. It made me sort of sad, because I really truly love it here.  Not just for the space and quiet, but for the people and family we have here.  A lot of people don't want anything to do with it here, and that's ok, but I love it and here's why:

10.  On any given morning, I can walk out to my mailbox in just pj shorts and a t shirt and not have one worry of anybody seeing me

9. Sleeping with the windows open every night and not hearing anything but crickets and the wind

8. The fish fry at the church in Kewanna and the fire station in Grass Creek = Social event of the month!

7. No matter who you pass while driving, you wave, and they always wave back. Also, what's a cop?

6. I get to spend every evening on my porch swing watching a gorgeous sunset over a field of corn that my husband planted.  It's better than any HD tv (even though we have 7 in our house...that was my husband's choice, not mine!)

5. People in the city go to gyms, fitness clubs, yoga, etc. I get a workout just by walking over to the neighbor's house to say hello

4. We save a lot of money never going out to eat because...well, there's nowhere to go!

3. I can justify wearing bib overalls, which I don't think I could do anywhere else

2. 2 words: well water. Nothing tastes better!

1. Tinkle Power: Here in the country we experience a whole new freedom than anywhere else in America.  This is the freedom to pee wherever you want. Though I'd love to say this only pertains to Seth, I can't lie, I use this freedom as well. What else am I supposed to do when I'm out running and the next standing structure is over a mile away, or when I'm riding in a bumpy tractor and no toilet nearby?  Its a great freedom to embrace!

DIY: Fall Wreaths

So, I'm not the biggest Pintrest person. I just can't jump on the bandwagon very well. So far, I've gotten on it three times. Once, when my sister helped me sign up, a second time to get ideas for Eli's 1 year old birthday party, and recently to get fall decoration ideas. Though I think it has so many great ideas, I was getting overwhelmed with all of them so I logged out and looked around my house and thought "jeez, I stink."  However, today was a different story and I decided to go ahead and just go with what I was able to make last year:

a wreath.



This was the original wreath I made with my Mom last year when we had an impromptu arts and crafts day while the men worked in the fields.

One wreath, however, turned into about 20 and my hand got a cramp from using my hot glue gun!  All you need are some wreaths, you can find them at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or any other craft store. A hot glue gun, locked and loaded, and anything you want to put on your wreath!  I play around with everything I have and do a lot of layouts until I finally settle on one. Here are some of my favorites that I made!



Grapevine wreaths, you can find them at Hobby Lobby

Some fun fall sprigs to add, pheasant feathers, and eucalyptus
 

I love these feathers so much! They have so much color to them and they're so soft! You can find fake ones at Hobby Lobby, but these are some from one of Dad's recent hunting trips

One of the first ones I made

 

 

I like this one, it has way more color!



A variation of this layout made the final cut, but I hadded a burlap bow instead of the one made of raffia

The one I hung outside! (Sorry the picture is sideways!)
 

Sorry it's sideways! But this one looked a lot better with the burlap bow!

 

Another one with the pheasant leaves. Definitely like the ones with the sunflowers and corn best!

 

 

 



 

 

So there's one of my fall projects! I have a few more that I'll (hopefully) get to later and be able to post! They will involve the fruits of our harvest as well as the leftovers...get excited! I'm hoping that all of this fall decorating will help me brush up my skills to be REALLY ready for my favorite season of all: Christmas! :) Nothing like Christmas on the farm....but more of that to come later!

 

Something that made me smile...

Tonight I finally got to go for a walk.  The wheel on my super awesome jogging stroller went flat and I had to wait all week for it to get fixed.

On the 3.5 mile loop that I walk, I pass 4 houses, and more often than not, I'm stopping at each house to  talk to the neighbors so they can see Eli, visit, talk about crop yields, etc. Usually I end up smiling and nodding about a lot of what they talk about because I usually don't know half the people they're talking about, or anything about "the crops of '87" which was apparently a bad one.  I love it though, because I feel like I have motivation to do the whole lap, because people are expecting me.

The last 2 houses I pass are located catty corner to one another along an intersection of 2 of the roads.  One of the houses is up on a hill, and the other is back behind a grove of trees. These are my favorite houses because almost every night the little boy from the house on the hill, and the little boy from the house behind the trees walk outside and YELL really loudly to one another to discuss their plans for tomorrow.  It's basically a conversation straight from the He Man Woman Haters from The Little Rascals. They can't be more than 6 years old, and they are really cute! They talk about whose house they'll play at tomorrow, if their mom said they can stay for dinner, and what toy they'll be bringing over.  It makes me so happy to see that not all kids resort to using their mom's cell phone.  I remember when my childhood best friend and I would ride our bikes to each other's houses just to ask if they could come over to play.

My favorite part about the little boys' meeting tonight was when Eli and I started to approach the house on the hill, the little boy that lived their yelled, "Hey! Baby Lady is coming!"  and the other little boy said "Tell her hi.....wait, don't! I'm shy!" Then they started yelling more about stuff and they were having trouble hearing so the little boy on the hill said to me "Hey will you tell him I said I gotta go put on socks and I'll be right back?" Oh man, they are so cute and they make me wish we had someone that lived closer with a little boy that Eli could yell back and forth too.

It's the little things like this that make me so thankful to live where we do!

Things I've learned from mowing

Living in the country where we do, its a given that when you talk about your yard you really mean "acres and acres of grass" that may or may not have weeds, holes dug by your dog, tractor tracks from farm equipment being driven through it, as well as the unusual lawn ornaments like barns, grain bins, and augers. I've had unsuccesful adventures in mowing our huge lawn in the past, but Seth decided last night that today on my day off I should add mowing to my long list of things like, laundry, cleaning, laundry, cooking, laundry, taking care of a 7 month baby that just learned to crawl last night, etc.  He is so thoughtful!  My refresher course on the mower led to me enjoying a couple Lime-A-Rita's last night, a delicious drink that I strongly encourage anyone legal drinking age to thouroughly enjoy! So instead of the night ending with me feeling confident and prepared to take on the task of mowing the lawn it ended with me texting friends things such as: "limRita so good, yummy! alcohol! drinkity drink, come hav some w/me?" Please don't judge. I'm a mom now. This means my tolerance for alcohol is that of a 13 year old boy sneaking his first beer from his dad's stash in the garage.

Anyways, I want to share the things I've learned from mowing. Here goes!

1. Don't cut corners. Literally. I didn't mean to cut them, I just can't figure out how to steer the stupid zero turn radius thing. Which leads me to point #2
2. Don't just go in reverse to try to mow down the corner you just cut. For some reason the PTO doesn't operate in reverse so when you're done you see tons of triangular shaped tufts of dune grass covering your yard.
3. It's ok to be a little rude when you mow. Out here in Grass Creek, when a car goes by, you wave. When you wave while driving the Grasshopper, you then turn so sharp and hard that you get whiplash and people just end up laughing at you. So instead I just started smiling really big in hopes that they wouldn't think I was being mean...but, I'm pretty sure I looked even creepier with a big fake smile on my face full of grass.
4. Make sure to clean up all dog toys, corn stalks, and fill in all holes dug by the dog.
5. Always remember to look how wide your mowing deck REALLY is. If you don't, you'll end up running into a telephone pole in your yard and knocking it completely down. True story.
6. Don't forget about low hanging branches that you've been asking your husband nicely all summer ot trim back.  They will hit you in the face, it will hurt, and it will leave a mark!
7. Never shut the mower off next to the house because it will backfire loudly and wake the baby that you just spent an hour trying to get down for a nap.
8. Always leave a little bit of mowing left for your husband like the trimming, or a tricky place down by the road. This accomplishes two things: 1. It makes him feel manly and like you can't do anything without him 2. It excuses you from the task of clean up and loading up the lawnmower on the trailer. See, I'm not as dumb as I look!

I am always hoping if I mess up mowing enough, Seth will realize I should not do it anymore and do it himself. This worked for a while, but then my father-in-law and brother-in-law started coming over and doing it and that made me feel really guilty, which is why I did it again today. Just finished up....now where are those Lime-A-Ritas?

Legend of the Black Thumb: The Final Chapter

Well, I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with my landscaping this summer! It got a little scary there for a bit with the 2 months with no rain, as well as me not ever wanting to weed.  However, I did it! Here's proof!

not to shabby!

I think this was taken after our first rain of the whole summer

I was a muddy mess!

my favorites are the gladiolas

Next year I've decided to go ahead and do landscaping on the other side of the house and maybe add another tree or two! We'll see how it goes!