One Tired Farm Wife

They call me Mom. I call me Blessed.

I totally forgot to post on the 4^th. Hold on – gotta go grab Farmer from the field.

OK I’m back. And that is probably why I forgot to post on the 4^th.

The last two days has been ridiculous.

Yesterday I had physical therapy in the morning for my neck – been having headaches. Farmer called me and asked me to pick up large gallon sized zip locked bags. Did that.

 I stopped at the bank on the way home. Was almost home when Farmer called again and asked me to go pick up one of the farm computers. It was being repaired.

After I nabbed it, I dropped it off at the farm office and went in to run the payroll report. Well the printer ran out of paper. No problem. I would add to it and finish the job. Didn’t work. So I called Son #3 our IT guy.

“You can’t let the printer run out of paper. Now you have to shut the computer down and then start it back up. BUT, you can’t shut it down until 12:20 when they are washing the parlor. The BEBs come in and the computer reads their ankle bracelets and stores a lot of info. I had to wait until the BEBs were done being milked.  So, payroll was put on hold and I came home.

I decided to mow down the road at the house where our intern from Michigan State is staying. She’s living and working on our farm until the first part of August.

I stopped at the parlor when I was done and finished the payroll report.

Back at home I started to “do” payroll which is a whole ‘nother story for a whole ‘nother time.

Another phone call from the farm. Can you take these feed samples to UPS? Gotta get there before they close.

I dropped everything and delivered a bag of feed to the UPS store. I didn’t bother to explain what it was.

When I came home it was time to get ready to go to church. Joyce Meyer was having a conference and I had to work at the book store. It was great. I felt normal, until I got three more phone calls to bring this or that and I reminded them for the 789^th time I wasn’t home.

It was a late evening and I had to get up early to deliver our intern to another farm.

As I dragged myself out of bed this morning and was trying to get presentable, Farmer said “Oh, you don’t need to take Casey today. They are going to pick her up.”

I was so close to causing bodily harm it wasn’t funny.

I started working on payroll again. Then I realized I had to mow my lawn and my son – he’s having back issues. I decided I better get it done before my daughter-in-law needed it for the farm. We share the mower. So I did mine and his and finished just in time to go to the chiropractor. It felt good to get things back in place.

I stopped at Sam’s on the way home for a couple of things. $230.00 later I headed home.

Farmer met me at the door. “How nice and helpful” I thought.

“You gotta go to the mill and get yeast and feed. I have to get back out in the field. And, you have to take my good truck.”

“Crap” I thought. First of all I was soooo tired. I just wanted a 10 minute nap. But, nooooo they were waiting for the stuff. Secondly, I hate driving his truck. He treats it better than me and I just know there’s going to be an incident one day and it won’t be pretty.

I picked up and delivered the feed and went back home to finish payroll.

Finally payroll was done. I delivered the checks to the barn and spoke to my daughter-in-law who normally mows the lawn. She had been in the field so I started mowing the lawn at the barn for her. We have about 6 acres all told. She will be gone tomorrow so I will finish it tomorrow. I was heading home from the farm and I called Farmer to see if he needed anything. Yes, food.

Another delivery and now it is 9:00 PM and I am home.  I am sort of waiting for that phone call to pick Farmer up yet tonight.

Hoping to get this done so I can have flowers this year. We shall see.

My kitchen looks like a Sam’s display room, the laundry is crawling out the door, my back porch is a poor example of a flower nursery (with sick plants), the window box by our side door has been demolished and there is brick debris scattered, the pool is open but full of algae, but our weed garden is flourishing.

This is Phil and Kay in our pool. I love Duck Dynasty, hence the names.

Oh, I almost forgot. I am trying to raise 5 duck eggs. Miss Kay came and laid the eggs under the playroom window and then she and Phil took off.

Son #2 brought over his incubator and it has an automatic egg turner – thank goodness or those eggs would have been better on toast. And he then added pressure by bringing over 6 chicken eggs to see if I could make that work too.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I am too tired to be creative and write a clever blog. And, I had pictures to go with this. Plain and simple. I am one tired farm wife.

You can keep up with our everyday happenings at www.afarmwife.com or follow on face book https://www.facebook.com/AFarmWife?ref=tn_tnmn

 

Fish Fry at the Schwabenof

Fish fry Fridays! If you grew up in the Milwaukee area like me, you're probably very familiar with the Friday fish fries around town. One of my favorites is the one at the Schwabenof.

I vaguely remember going there as a kid, and now my family and I make the occasional stop there on a Friday, too. The décor, food, and prices all have that old school charm that I love about living here.

The traditional fish fry is all you can eat for $11.95. Or, you can get all you can eat fried chicken for that price. Or, you can combine the two! 

The value is awesome and the décor is what I like to call cheesily awesome, meaning that it has the sense of humor and charming-ness that folks in Wisconsin have. I love to listen to the thick Midwestern accents there (because, ya know, I couldn't possibly have one of those myself) and check out the families who come to enjoy their Friday night tradition.

Where's your favorite place to grab a fish fry?

A Girl of the Limberlost

When I was a little girl growing up in Kansas, I got to spend a delicious week each summer all by myself at my grandparents' house. This was a treat for me because I was the oldest of 4 children and since my siblings were extremely active and rambunctious, I craved solitude. Plus, I had a loving, doting grandmother, who taught me all sorts of wonderful things about gardening, making pies, and canning peaches. Grandma and Grandpa truly lived off the land and I only wish I'd paid more attention back then.

Another treat for me that week was when we would "go to town." Grandma would put on some lipstick, a little rouge and put on a nice dress. Because she wore a dress, I did too. We would go to Woolworth's for a cherry coke at the lunch counter and then do a little banking and grocery shopping. Our trip always ended with a stop at the year-round "basement sale" at a local church.

That basement sale was a delicious treasure trove for me because tucked in a dark corner was a box of old books. Grandma let me pick as many as I wanted, and one year I picked up a book that would stick with me for the rest of my life.

That book was A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. This picture is of the same edition I found in that church basement. I still have it today.

I read that book over and over again. I identified with the main character for so many reasons. For one thing, the main character was a young girl who loved playing the violin. I did, too. She also loved nature, playing in the woods, and collecting things such as pretty butterflies and moths, and had a little pet owl long before Harry Potter was even thought of. I didn't have a pet owl, but I did have a little pet dog that I talked to the same as she did her owl.

She was raised by a single parent and had never met her father. I was raised by my father and stepmother and had never met my mother. She had less than an ideal childhood. My own childhood was challenging, and I felt Elnora was truly a kindred spirit. I read that book over and over again, and went on to collect first editions of Gene Stratton Porter. I decided after reading that book that I, too, would one day be a writer.

Gene Stratton Porter

Imagine my delight 14 years ago when  I learned that God had moved me smack dab in the middle of Indiana in Gene Straton Porter country. In fact, our local library has original pictures that she took herself of little vultures hatching. Taking pictures in those days was extremely time consuming and complicated. The equipment was very heavy and she had to trudge through mosquito-infested swamps and wetlands to find unsuspecting wildlife, and then sit for hours to capture a picture at the right moment with a camera that had to stay still with the shutter open for a number of minutes. She was made of tough stuff! She wrote an exhaustive book on moths (moths!) and several about birds. Her first editions are collectors items now.

As a little girl, Gene Stratton Porter lived near me close to Lagro, Indiana. (I live in North Manchester.) The Salamonie forest is nearby, and I like to imagine her playing freely in those woods the way my own children did growing up.

When she married she moved to Geneva. I have been to the home she had built there many times. It's one of my favorite spots to visit on a ride on my motorcycle. Here is a picture of my husband's motorcycle with mine in front of her house right after we got caught in a rainstorm. I also took my kids and students there, and read from A Girl of the Limberlost on the porch in front of the very picture window she wrote in front of. That was some heady stuff for this ardent fan, let me tell you!

GSP loved nature and took countless pictures of birds, moths and other creatures of the Limberlost area. She developed her own film in a bathtub and had her own darkroom. She was a progressive lady for her time, and a staunch environmentalist before being an environmentalist was politically correct. When Standard Oil came in and cut down the trees, it ruined many of the wetlands. Part of her passion for getting pictures was to preserve the wildlife of the area before it was gone forever.  Now in Geneva, restoration of the Limberlost has occurred, and a wonderful wetland area has been restored.  (Click here for more info.)

I will share more about this wonderful woman next month. In the meantime, why not crack open Limberlost or Laddie (my two favorites). I'd love to discuss them with you!

Tell me, what childhood book had a strong, lasting impact on you?

 Karla Akins is author of the best-selling Jacques Cartier (that went #1 on Amazon in its category), O Canada! Her Story and  Sacagawea. Her debut novel The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots  is due out August 2013. When she's not writing she dreams of riding her motorcycle through the Smoky Mountains.

Will Claire Get Paid?

'Claire stared at her boss. How could he do this to her? She’d worked so hard the last couple of weeks getting the project done on time and well. Now he tells her she won’t be receiving her salary. Oh, the company had the money for it. They had cut her a check, but now they weren’t going to give it to her. They wanted her labor and talent for free.

'Her boss had accepted her project. Read it over and commented on how good it was. Even wanted her to do another one right away. He had one all ready planned. But he still wasn’t going to pay her for the last two weeks.'

Sound like a plausible scenario? I think the first thing Claire would do is contact the BBB or labor board making a complaint against the company. Or maybe the media reporting how they were stealing her talent, time, labor and  finished product. After she cried of course. She is a woman after all.

Her family and friends would urge her to quit. They wouldn’t stand for her her work to be stolen. Claire had put a lot of time and dedication to the company.

As a self published author this happens to me each month on Amazon. The company isn’t directly at fault but they have a policy which encourages just this sort of thing happening to both traditional and self publishers.

I watch the sales stats of my books on a daily basis. It’s not a complicated chart. Just how many of each book were sold, the number returned and a total sold. It’s disheartening when people buy the book then return it for a full refund within seven days.

It could be that they don’t like it and don’t want it in their library. I think it is more likely they buy the book with no intention of keeping it after they have read it.

As a self published author I have no recourse. Large traditional publishing houses know the percentage they will lose to returns and build that into the price of the book. I can’t do that. My prices must be lower than other authors in order to get my name out there.
Since I began writing I have worked hard to write interesting stories, learning the craft and editing well to release good novels. My Cottonwood series, which will be continuing, is being well received. Healing Love has won two awards: Authorstand.com gave it first place in the religious fiction genre and from elitawards.com it received a silver. I give all the praise to God for this as without Him I can do nothing.

I sincerely hope none of the readers of this blog are doing this to me or other authors. While I don’t need the royalties to put food on the table I know several authors who do. I would hope if you do you will rethink continuing this practice. Borrow from Amazon or your local library. If a friend has read the print version, borrow it. Just be sure to give it back. They might like to reread it.

 ∫  ∫  ∫  ∫  ∫  ∫  ∫  ∫  ∫
Sophie Dawson writes Christian fiction. She lives with her husband and cat on a farm in western Illinois. Her Cottonwood Series novels have been Indie Book of the Day and Healing Love received first place in the genre in AuthorStand.com’s 2012 contest and a second in eLit 2012 contest.
Sophie blogs one a week on her website sophie-dawson.com as well as barndoor.net in edition to AuthorCulture.com.
With three books in the works she hopes to have two of them released by June 2013.

Black Gold, Texas -- er, North Dakota -- Tea

The days of the wild west are not over. Boom times and all that go with them mark our nation's history, whether it was in the rush for gold, land, logs, or oil and other minerals. Nowadays it's happening again in the unlikely wide open spaces of North Dakota, where men and a few women, too, are flooding in seeking good pay and a hopeful future.

A year ago our son Cade headed out there to see what he could make of it. This old covered wagon -- I mean, truck and camper -- is what he called home.

After living in this contraption for about a month, parking it in whatever store lot or pull-off he could find without getting kicked out, he got hired by one of the oil companies popping rigs up all over the western plains. This year, his brother Quinn joined him. They are a lot like the pioneers of a hundred years ago, going out there to try and make some seed money -- enough to give them something to build on when they return to northern Wisconsin in another year or two.

Both guys work on rigs similar to this one, in that white box up there in the sky. This mom appreciates your prayers for them.

So what's it really like out there in the new wild west? We wanted to know, so we went for a visit. Besides signs along the way heralding travelers to come see "Salem Sue, the World's Biggest Holstein Cow" and the famed "Enchanted Highway", here's the sort of sign we saw the most.

It's easy to understand why so many fellows are heading out there to look for work. Most of the Help Wanted signs we saw were in small local business establishments cropping up to handle the influx of new population. Restaurants, convenience stores, area businesses... It's a dream spot for a young person looking for entry-level work with decent pay. When Cade got married in March and took his wife out there from Minnesota, she got hired by a local restaurant one evening when they'd only gone there to eat dinner. Quinn's wife is finishing a semester of school this week back here in Wisconsin and will move out there in a few days. She had an over-the-phone interview for employment at a nursing home and will have a job waiting for her when she arrives.

Lots of other guys have gone from our area to work out there doing everything from trucking to carpentry to geology. It's an open market. There, where we were in Dickinson, ND, we saw a lot of new housing going up (more jobs!) to accommodate the influx.

 
We had a nice chat about our nation and its economy at one of the local hunting and fishing shops. The proprietor said, "Oh, so you're from Wisconsin, huh? We've got so many guys working here from Wisconsin, there must only be women and children left back there."

Well, not quite, but I'm pretty sure it was a Midwesterner who coined the phrase, You have to make hay while the sun shines! So a lot of Wisconsinites from up here in the Northland are jumping on this opportunity in North Dakota.

The church my boys and their wives attend in Dickinson is seeing fast growth too. With the population on the rise, the demand for more classroom space and a high school addition on their Christian school has gotten critical. They were just breaking ground while we were there, and the new addition is already more than half paid for. Yeah, God!

So just how much oil is coming out of North Dakota? If this line of semis waiting to unload at the B.O.E. -- the Bakken Oil Express -- is any indication, I'd say a LOT.

Semis coming and going...

...as far as the eye could see.

Boy, we saw a lot of these loaded train tankers heading east!

And still, the natural beauty of the wide open spaces is maintained. This wild life recreation area sits on the edge of town, only a quarter mile from the B.O.E. 

My guys are enjoying their work out there. They're praising God for good jobs, safety, hunting and fishing, and a promising outlook for the future when they can say farewell to the hard, long hours bringing up that North Dakota tea.

Blessings~

Naomi

http://www.naomimusch.com

Rediscovering northern Wisconsin

by Peggy Blann Phifer

First of all, let me say how delighted I am to be a new contributor here at The Barn Door. Thank you, Lisa Lickel, for the opportunity. I’ll be here on the 11th of every month with . . . something. Lisa said I could be as versatile as I choose, and since I’m somewhat of a spontaneous person, what come off this keyboard will be, um, interesting. I hope.

Some of you may know that I’ve recently (November ‘12) returned to northern Wisconsin after a 33-year absence. I spent those 33 years in, of all places, Las Vegas, Nevada. The decision to come “home” was brought about by several issues, the most drastic being the death of my husband in October. With him gone, and no immediate family there, my daughter convinced me—with very little effort—to move back to Wisconsin. It made sense. All my children and their families live here.

As it turned out, this was not the best time, nor year, to come back! One of the worst winters on record, or so I’m told. From the day I moved in on November 21, I barely saw anything about my new home except . . . snow! And more snow. And then more snow!

The Blizzard of May 2, 2013.

That was only 9 days ago. Today, most of that awful, heavy snow has disappeared except for areas the sun doesn’t reach. And I’m discovering lots of things around the house that are so exciting!

A 14’ x 7’ by 3’ fish pond with waterfall that runs year-round. A heater is put in the pond through the winter. There were four or five goldfish in there when I moved in. Don’t see them now.

A cluster of daffodils. An azalea. Hydrangea. Day lilies. Lilac. Water lilies. Pond iris. Dogwood. Barberry. Flowering crab. Sedum. Black-eyed Susan.

Rabbits, deer, turkey’s, and squirrels. And a resident black bear or two, though I’ve yet to see them. But my neighbor assures me they are there. In the woods surrounding my house on two sides.

I put up a bird feeder (see snow picture) outside my office window so I could watch the various native birds. But when my landlady was here Tuesday afternoon, she warned me that said bears love bird feeders. Uh, oh. Not sure I’m eager to see a bear mauling that feeder a bare four feet away with only a single pane window between him and me! Or after dark when I take the dog out for a walk.

Oh, yeah, the pond I mentioned above? My landlady told me they used to have Koi in there, but, said bear eventually made a meal out of them while she watched. This pond is just a few feet away from the second set of windows in my office. With the windows open, I can hear the lovely sound of the mini-waterfall.

I have no other pictures to share right now. Other than the haze of new growth, there’s nothing open with any color yet. But I’ll be sure to share next time.

Again, thanks for giving me this opportunity. I am very grateful that God has guided me back home. And the fresh contact and interaction with my children and grand-children is a blessing to cherish.

Till next time!

Those Little Yellow Flowers - Then and Now

When my native Michigander husband (to-be, at the time) moved to California, one of the things about the Golden State that made him laugh and shake his head was the freeway (that's highway to Midwesterners) medians.

You see, many of them in our area of So Cal had flowers between the westbound and eastbound lanes - and the north and southbound as well. Cultivated, watered flowers.

Photo Credit

Not so odd, you might say. But what if I told you that the flowers that grew there were some of the most-hated species by gardeners? That they were, in fact, WEEDS?

A little odder, eh? And what if I told you I didn't even know they were weeds until I moved to West Michigan in my late 20's? I just thought they were pretty yellow flowers. :)
I've been living in Michigan for almost 19 years now, and when I looked out my front window the other day, I began to wonder if some of that naivete, and appreciation for the beauty of weeds, hadn't lingered in my heart for almost a couple decades.

Sometimes a young love is hard to abandon.

And by the way- my husband plans to pull out the weedkiller pretty quick.

Blog
Facebook
Twitter