Just another day on the farm

While it doesn't really seem right that the first picture of Phil's tractor is on the website without Phil, I know he would be proud that it is these two guys driving it. During their visit, they would go out and work even when Phil wasn't here! I thought it would be neat for you to see a picture of his old farm tractor - 1961 to be exact. Not a day goes by that Phil isn't outside tending to something on that tractor. On Easter, I ran inside after church to make some rolls to bring to dinner at our Pastor's house. I asked Phil to watch Ryan for me while I was doing so, to you know, take a walk around the yard or whatnot. When I came back out , ready to go, Ryan was back in his carseat. I asked Phil how their walk went, and he said "Ryan really enjoyed his Easter Day Tractor Ride." You can imagine my reaction...

And then this morning, when I had gotten over the "momma's fear" of her one year old on a tractor, I told Phil that I was really bummed I had missed a great picture opportunity with Ryan's first tractor ride. Phil said he enjoyed being up so high, looking at everything. Ha. I bet he did. Too bad he will be thirty before his mom lets him back up there!

I also wanted to put up a picture I just got in the mail from Sonja of we three womenfolk and our baked goods from our big day of cooking. Note Ryan trying to sample the cinnamon rolls! Sneaky! From left to right, it's Tifani, Me, Ryan, and Sonja.

On Saturday we had another round of storms. In researching all of this, I am learning that these are very common...and that this is also very early in the season (it usuall lasts unyil mid-summer. I thought I would give you a small idea of the feel of an Iowa thunderstorm.

Saturday afternoon, Phil and Ryan sitting and enjoying the front yard. They looked so tiny to me compared yo the acres of land around them!

Three hours later, a storm has rolled in. Though it is still evening, most of the sky is dark.


The clouds take on many sizes and shapes- the wind picks up sharply. Though a storm here will last many hours, there are only bursts of rain. You can see the storm move over you if it's day or evening. Phil and I joked that during the day, it is like watching a movie- we just sit there in our front room exclaiming "oh! do you see those clouds? Did you see that bit of lightning?!" for hours.
As the storm goes on and the hour gets late, you can see the many forms of lightning from miles around. It is so far off that you can see 50 or 100 strikes without ever hearing thunder from it. Instead of one strike, often they come in bursts of three or four one right after anohter. There are long streaks of lightning like the one pictured below that never touch the ground, but just go parallel with it. It really is captivating.


Now, if you are like Phil and I, we are also checking the web constantly - where is the storm now? How much further do we have to go? I've said it before and I will say it again, thank goodness for the technology we have nowadays!

On a lighter note, we need to start our planting. We have received all of our seeds and starter plants except for the raspberries. We turned over our strawberry bed with some spades early on Saturday. Got ourselves a patch 18 feet wide by 30 feet long - enough for six rows of strawberries. Phil ran a rototiller over the patch yesterday to try and break up the clumps. The dirt back here is so hard - great for growing but a lot of work for tilling! I am going to go out now and rake it, trying to get the rest of the grass out.

I am most excited for the asparagas plants we got - they are only supposed to take one year to come up instead of the normal three. I just have no patience when it comes to growing things! We also got many other things- from corn to peas, carrots, squash, and pumpkins. If even half of what we got comes up I will be thrilled. Though I have never been one to enjoy the outdoors, it certainly calls to me in this weather. It is hard to stay indoors and vacuum when the sun is shining and the sky is bright blue.

Though it was tough work, it was that Amish blood in Phil that kept him turning over that ground by hand. I am praying that we get ourselves a plow this week- I think it would make it much easier on us! We tried to run the tiller through unbroken ground, and it just won't work very well. The dirt is too tough- and this tiller has an 8 horse motor on it! So, instead of heading out to spade our planned one acre of land, I am just going to keep hoping on this plow coming through! For now, though, we need to get those strawberries in the ground before the raspberries show up!

In the picture above - all of our seeds - the stuff on the right is our strawberries - 100 plants in all.