The Winter So Far

Typically the months of January, February, and part of March are meeting months.  Joe and I attend meetings the learn about crop insurance, crop inputs like fertilizer and crop protection products, marketing our crops, as well as new technologies.  But this winter January, February, and March so far have been the months of meetings AND snow days.  I'm pretty sure the boys have not had a full week of school since before Christmas. 

With the regular snow storms showing up like clock work the boys have been keeping their rooms pretty tidy and the piano practiced.  But, Mom isn't keeping up with all of her work with extra bodies roaming the house and farm during the week days. (I had to throw in a third person sentence in for Joe)  Yesterday was one of those days.  School was called off for yet another snow storm.  While it was a nice snow in the fact that it did not blow around and the snow plow guys did a great job of keeping up it, winter is getting old. 

So here are some pictures of what we did during yet another snow day:



I'm pretty sure #1 son spent the entire day picking out
and designing his class ring.  It doesn't seem possible
the my little guy should be old enough to order a class ring.



#2 building a barge with Legos (I think he was told
to pick up Legos if I remember correctly)

I made a poppy seed cake from scratch that was darn good if I don't say so myself.  Poppy seed muffins are Joe's favorite, however, not yesterday as the cake was in a 9x13 pan instead of little cupcake papers.

Here is the conversation.  I'm in red and Joe is blue: 
"So, how do you like the cake?"  "It's not bad."  "So, what's wrong with it?"  "Nothing.  Why do you ask?"  "Well, you said not bad which means not good.  So what's wrong with it?"  "Well usually you make this in the little round cupcake papers."  "This is more environmentally friendly."  "I like the little round cupcakes."  "It's faster to make a cake in a pan than messing around with cupcake papers and tin."  "So what did you do this morning?"  A long pause.  "If I ever decide to make poppy seed cake again and put it in cupcake papers will it taste better?"  "I think so."

Thus, ended lunch conversation between Joe and I.



 

#3 coloring Shrinky Dinks

 

Joe moving snow

 



 

Waiting on those Shrinky Dinks



 

He Has Risen!

Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

Happy Easter!

Inadequate Parents

Tonight Joe was reading #3 a bedtime story about bunnies and he made a comment about doing the Bunny Hop.  Of course #3 had no idea what that was so Joe and I proceeded to do the Bunny Hop for the boys.  After a couple of times around the bedroom I started to improvise by saying "boing, boing, boing" when we would get to the three hops forward.  I know, pretty crazy of me.  At that point #3 announces, "that is an onomatopoeia!" 

Immediately I thought this can't be good.  I looked at #1 and asked him what his brother was talking about.  Instead of answering me #1 took off for his room obviously not wanting to have one of "those family discussions about good choices".  I asked #3 where he learned this word and he said at school.  Then, I looked at #2 - he just smiled and went back to reading The Three Muskateers.  My #3 then informed us that Ms. M, his Kindergarten teacher, told him what an onomatopoeia is.  This was a great relief knowing that I would not be getting a call or email from the school informing me that my kindergartener was using a bad word in school.   #3 then explained to his college educated parents that an onomatopoeia is a word that is a sound "kinda like achoo or Mom's boing". 

Of course this made no sense to Joe nor I so I bunny hopped down to the computer and Googled onomatopoeia.  I still retain some of my old phonics skills from first grade so Google was able to decipher what I was looking for.  Thank goodness there is Google otherwise I would be looking through my dictionary for the next three days.  Here is the official definition from Webster's Dictionary:
Onomatopoeia - The formation of a word by imitating the natural sound associated with the object or action involved; echoism.

I am so glad #3 learned something today.  I'm sure the Bunny Hop will take him far in life!

                                                        



CommonGround

Dawn Caldwell, a fellow CommonGround volunteer from Nebraska, did an interview with Consumer Ag Connection Radio.  Below is a link to a part of this interview.  Dawn does a great job explaining why we are involved with the CommonGround initiative.

http://www.agweb.com/multimedia/sharing-commonground-with-consumers-part-4/

Great job Dawn!

Weekend on The Farm

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning.  It's a far cry from the 70F weather we had last weekend.

It's not the April 15th Blizzard of '72, '73, '74 or whatever year it was but it was definately Mother Nature's way of saying that it's a little early to be planting corn.

Last weekend we had
temperatures in the 70's with sunny conditions which was great for NH3, seeding alfalfa, and pulling fence lines.  It definately spoiled us.



Today, the sun came out and finished melting the snow but it definately is not warm out.  But, it is warm enough to clean out the calf pens.  Once planting breaks loose there will not be a lot of time get the corners of the pens clean so today it is serious, deep cleaning get all the nitty-gritty cleaned up.

 This is one of the chores that the boys hate to do.  I remember hating it when I was growing up but it is one of those character building jobs on the farm. 
It's also a great way to work off some of that extra energy that boys always seem to accumulate in the spring.

Miss America

I'm not a big fan of beauty pagents or the likes of but I need to give Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, from Nebraska, credit.  Please take time to read her brief but well written essay about US agriculture.  I found it on Fox News.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/15/miss-america-teresa-scanlon-americans-stake-success-farmers-ranchers/

Spring Has Sprung!

I am happy to announce that son #1's cow had her calf 4:15 pm, yesterday afternoon.  Mother and daughter are doing fine.  Patty (Named in honor of St. Patricks Day) was kicking up her heels in the pen this morning!






Mom cleaning up Patty

Are you my mother?

Son #2 reported he saw eight robins while doing chores last night!  I think the old wives tale goes that the robin has to get snow on it's tail three times before spring is fully here.  If that is the case - let it snow!!

Now how does this work?