Comments

Just wanted to let everyone know that we've tweaked the comments process so that it's a little easier for those who don't have accounts. You can either post anonymously or use the name/url option and leave the url blank. Let us know if you still have issues. We LOVE comments and hope this encourages you to post more of them!

Also, the weather is beautiful so feel free to come out and visit us. Just give us some notice to make sure we'll be here and that the dog doesn't tear your leg off. Just kidding about the dog. Or am I...

We are tentatively planning a Farm Day on May 19th, so mark it on your calendars. More info to come.

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whooeeee...that was a storm!

So, I'm not very good at knowing when the weather changes.  I don't watch the news or read about the weather in the paper.  So, I was a little surprised by the storm that came up last night.  Although I shouldn't be, because EVERY STINKING TIME I hang up clothes to dry on the clothesline...it rains.  Trust me, I should be a Rain Maker or something.

Anyway, I was sitting outside watching the storm come up, which is the best part about living in the country.  You should try it sometime!  The wind came up very quickly and was very strong.  Come to find out later they were 50-60 mph winds and at certain gusts in Iowa up to 70 mph, which is hurricane strength. 

This is when it started to get a little squirrely...one window in the kitchen broke out with bang!  As Jon and I were trying to fix that one, we heard another BANG from upstairs.  He raced up the stairs and immediately started cussing.  (Something we need to work on before the baby comes....)  Our door in the master bedroom hasn't been shutting the past couple weeks due to humidity.  And it had flung open with a vengeance.  It took all of my strength to keep that door shut, while Jon went to find a hammer and nail to shut it.  Here's a little reenactment for you.

Granted it's daytime and the wind isn't actually blowing, but you get the picture.  And yes, those are bras on my dresser...I'm working on a very special project.  And yes are walls are disgusting, you can see where I still need to rip off the rest of the wallpaper.  But it's a huge improvement!

Here's Jon using whatever he could find to pound in a screw.  Namely a 15 pound dumbbell...

And here he is shimmying up the wall to get to the attic to stop the water from pouring in.  And again with the wallpaper...we're working on it! 

And let's not forget the three rounds of hail throughout the night = no sleep for either of us.  Apparently our neighbors were without power for about 12 hours...not us!  Ahhh...the power of living of the grid!

And all the animals are accounted for.  We will also have plenty of firewood for a bon fire this fall with all the downed tree branches.  And the highlight of my morning was listening to our rooster try to croak out a "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"  I actually thought it was Jon imitating the sound of a rooster it sounded so pathetic.  The rooster is technically only a teenager and we all know what happens when animals and people go through puberty! 

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This is exactly how I feel...

Droopy....saturated with heat...pining for water and a little reprieve from the heat...

The heat and humidity here for the past couple weeks have been pretty brutal here.  The fact that we don't have air conditioning compounds the heat and humidity.  We've employed all sorts of tricks to keeping cool.  My trick is to lay as still as possible under a fan.  It usually works pretty well, except when the humidity in the house gets over 70% and then nothing will make you feel better. 

As few clothes as possible always helps...so just call before you come to the farm...okay?

I also carry around a little spray bottle full of cold water to soak myself.  We bought a little portable air conditioner that we can run at night when we can't sleep in the humidity.  The heat isn't the problem...it's the humidity.  Of course, when we run the air conditioner we have to run the generator as well.

I just keep telling myself that fall is coming...it has to be.

Even though I may complain and curse the sun while shaking my fist at the sky, we are pretty lucky.  We are lucky in that this is our choice.  We don't have to live in a house without air conditioning, but this is what we chose to do.  We have the means to buy a portable air conditioner, pay for gas to run the generator at night or hop into our car and spend the night with family.  Other people aren't so lucky.  Whenever I think I have it bad, I just think about those people who are homeless or down on their luck, that don't have the options that we have.  Jon and I are very lucky, indeed.

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I like getting up early...

Otherwise I might miss these scenes.  The fog from overnight slowly fading away as the sun peeks its head up.  No wonder my hair is so curly in the morning when I wake up!

Side note: I'm sure my husband would scoff at me for saying I like to get up early.  Well...because I also like to sleep in...a lot....but I really do like getting up early!

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that guy... married to that girl... on a farm...

Greetings All,
I am Jamie's husband, Jon. Since we do so in all other aspects of our lives, we've decided to work together on the blog as well. When Jamie doesn't have time to post a blog (usually due to the time needed to upload pictures with the internet we have), I will try to fill in the gaps with updates from the farm. I will leave the pretty pictures and smart commentary to "a Girl on a Farm", because she is VERY good at it. Instead, I will offer a slightly different perspective with more general updates on the farm progress and happenings.

While I'm at it, I might as well start now -
We've been working tirelessly for a while now and this week was no different. What was different was we were able to see more of the fruits of our labor.

• Our house is finally starting to get a bit more organized. Which is very important because it is hard to not be stressed if you come home to a house in disarray.
• We cleaned up the chicken coop and have started making notes of the things we would like to differently when we brood poultry the next time. (e.g., put the water for the ducklings over a wire floor to prevent constant messing of the bedding; use a hover brooder instead of just the lamps; don't use cardboard as liners/dividers for ducks)
• We have had tremendous support from our family and Easter weekend was no different. We were able to put up more interior fencing for the cows and we went ahead and separated the bulls from the cows and combined the heifers with the cows, in preparation of calving. Which should be any day.
• We finally found a great source for our organic pig and poultry feed. Mike Ostry out of Bruno does a great job and is very reasonable. I'd be happy to pass his contact info along to anyone who's interested.
• We swapped generators this week (used to charge the batteries when we are low on power). The other one we were using was very nice but we weren't able to take advantage of all it's power because a circuit breaker kept tripping. So we went to a smaller one that will use less fuel and actually produces a bit more power. We are still looking into ways to get all the power out of it that it's rated for.
  
• We have also asked Dixon Power Systems to give us a quote for adding solar. Mr. Dixon installed the wind turbine so he is very familiar with our situation and has been extremely helpful with us learning the system. We hope to have somewhere between .5 - 2 kW's of PV Solar installed in the next few months.

We look forward to seeing your questions and comments on our posts. Please don't be shy, we really enjoy the feedback. If you're not sure how to comment, send us an email and we can help you.

That's All Folks!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Farmer Jon (I had my name as "a Guy on a farm" but thought it might be too easy to get the two of us confused.)

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Poking around the farm...

There is so much cool stuff around this farm.  Farms definately accumulate stuff, especially when you are 100 years old.  So, I decided to take a few pics for everyone to see.

Now this is not 100 years old, but it's definately something that we needed!  A farm truck!  It needs a few repairs but the price was right.



Here's the machine shed.  As you can see there is an old totem pole, just hanging out...

Here is the owner's restored John Deere tractor.

Here is an old pull behind combine...pretty cool stuff.

An old planter.  We had troubles identifying some of the machinery.  But some of our (ahem) more experienced members of our family knew what most of it was.

Jon told me he installed indoor plumbing in the machine shed...

The next two are my favorites.  Here is an old woodstove.  I just love it, the coloring is still shining through.  I would have been very proud to cook on that if I received it new.

This one I'm not as sure what it is...maybe a boiler or just an ornate wood stove.  Either way, it's sooo cool.  Both of these things would look so neat if they were restored.  Things just aren't made like they used to.

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What is this business?

I don't think I ordered any of this...

Oh Nebraska, from this..

to this in four days....only in Nebraska...

Hopefully this stuff melts fast!

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Commuting, wind energy humor and old iPods

It actually hasn't been that bad commuting.  I forgot how much I enjoy driving in a car listening to good music.  I found my iPod which survived the move.  I honestly don't know how this thing is still ticking.  It's an original 4G iPod.  Which means it's all black and white baby....  But it keeps working and it has a TON of songs on there.  I've had it for almost 8 years, is that a record for iPods?

Every time I head to Lincoln, I curse myself silently for forgetting my camera.  The view on the drive there is so awesome.  Just open sky and fields.  I pinch myself every day because I'm so lucky to be able to live where we do.  I will try and remember my camera so I can capture the view.

As you can tell, Internet is still slow going.  We have our new broadband key on its way on Monday, which should help the situation.  I'm dying to post more pictures, but our upload speed is so slow it will take me forever.

I shared a little bit of wind energy humor today on Twitter.  The wind has stopped blowing for a couple days and we were sucking battery power.  We were down to about 75% before I left for work on Wednesday.  And then the wind came!  I know people here in Nebraska always complain about the wind, but I have never been more grateful for that wind.  Our batteries went back to full and I actually got to use a few appliances that we hadn't been using.  Namely, a toaster.  I did a little happy dance yesterday morning while I was making my toast, because I was so excited.  And I used my blow dryer without feeling guilty.  It's great to have excess power!  My contribution for wind energy humor was changing the old saying of  "Make hay while the sun still shines" into "Make toast while the wind still blows". 

We are slowing getting into a routine around here, which is great.  Our lives have been a little chaotic since the move and we've been struggling to get back on track.  Cows are all great, no calves yet.  Chickens and turkeys will be coming next month.  Jon is trying to talk me into adding some more animals, but I'm not so sure.  Bear with me people and I promise more pictures of the farm will be coming next week!

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Sunset

Sometimes it's good to stop and remember why you're doing what you're doing...for us that was sitting down to enjoy the sunset.  One of the major reasons I wanted to move to the country was because I couldn't see the sky in town and I missed it. 

And guess who the happiest dog in the world is right now?  Max!  He always has to find the biggest sticks to drag around and he's so happy when he's doing it, his tail is curled all the way around.

Still slow going with the internet.  Our mobile broadband is not working out as we had planned.  It's hard to make that transition from Turbo speed internet to slooooowwww internet.

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