First In the Nation

I haven't always been a huge political fan...but I have to admit one of my favorite pastime's includes talk radio. (Plus, I turned 45 last month, so in addition I will also be working on my mid-life crisis). Being home throughout the day gives me plenty of time to follow events and happenings both locally and nationally through this medium. These past eleven months, Iowa has been gearing up steadily for the Iowa Caucuses. Before moving here, I had heard a bit about these...mostly in passing. But I could not believe the attention our tiny state got this past year from presidential hopefuls. Candidates regularly visited cities where we do our grocery shopping (to put it in perspective for you, it would be like saying Barack Obama is speaking tonight in Graham, or Granite Falls) speaking to small groups of people. Each Monday the news would start with "Huckabee will be in Waterloo this morning, while McCain is travelling to Iowa City. Obama will be at the Elementary gymnasium in Marshalltown, and Hillary will be speaking with seniors in Ames." It became so routine.

But as the caucuses got closer, I started to wonder- was this like a vote? Why were all of these candidates here?

And so I researched, listened, asked questions, and found out how to do this "caucus" thing. And yesterday, we caucused. We decided that if we were going to be in Iowa, we were not going to miss a chance to have a voice like this- where some 118,000 republicans and 230,000 democrats show up to give America a taste of what is to come.

What an experience! I am used to the kind of voting where you go, stand in a line, punch a few holes or tap a screen a few times, receive your neat little sticker and leave.

But last night, we showed up to a room full of our neighbors - some we had met, others we had not. I'm sure it was routine for them- they knew who the democrats and republicans are in the area, but I felt like I was attending a secret meeting. "Psst! It's me! I didn't know you were republican!"

It was set up like a town meeting, with a few older gentleman standing at the front, along with a secretary who took notes. The 60 or so people in the room stood to say the pledge, and then sat down in chairs, facing the front. The head of this little meeting of ours (some 60 people) asked if anyone would like to come up and speak for a candidate. There were no special representatives there from the parties- only us "local folk". A few people stood up and talked- one for John McCain, one for Fred Thompson. Can you imagine giving a speech in front of your neighborhood, attempting to persuade them to vote for your candidate? It seems so open, so vulnerable, so NOT private! Yet this is the great thing about a caucus- it's about collaboration- making sure people are informed versus voting by name recognition. Then, they handed out little scraps of paper and had us write the name of the candidate we wanted to vote for. What? No multiple choice? Only now do I realize the opportunity we squandered. I could have written down "Obama" or "Mike McCain". I wonder if those poor vote counters would have come out to ask who the hidden democrat in the group was. But no, we were mature, civilized Iowans and kept our rowdiness at bay.

At our tiny caucus, the votes were as follows:
26 Huckabee
15 Mitt Romney
14 Fred Thompson
8 John McCain
4 Ron Paul
Guillani and Hunter- none.

After the vote, people brought up different issues and such that they wanted addressed by the republican platform. It was grassroots politics at its best- a time when I actually felt like I had a voice AND what I said counted. Now, granted, this was all straw poll voting...and "suggestion" giving to the state party. But this all starts somewhere. Last night Iowa had record turnouts to their caucuses - the republicans expecting 80,000 and the dems expecting 150,000- the actual numbers ended up at 120,000 and 230,000. We met in a tiny school cafeteria (which we filled up with the 60 of us!) and the democrats met next door in the fire hall. I was amazed at how well-informed people were on the issues and the candidates. They knew who stood for what, the ins and outs of the fair tax versus the flat tax, and what the death tax was about and why we should be leery of legislation dealing with it. They discussed Social Security reform, marriage, and the preservation of life. I can see why this process is so respected in Iowa- as people here really do take it quite seriously.

Both Phil and I left feeling invigorated by the process. And after last night's results, I can't wait to see what happens in New Hampshire!

AND, if you haven't been following along, start! It's quite interesting. I know everyone knows about Hillary and Barack, but there are some good candidates on the other side of the aisle, too, like Huckabee and Thompson. This is a year to get involved!

Even in Iowa?

Luke 12:22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will
wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the
ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds
them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Luke 12:25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

When we first moved to Iowa, our parents, friends, family, were worried. Who would take care of us when we were in need? Who would be there for emergencies or help or advice or support?

We too, were worried.

During the long drive from Washington to Iowa, Phil's mom talked through her fears with her big brother- Uncle Jim. After she was through, Jim smiled at her, and said "Sis, believe it or not, God is in Iowa, too."

As humans- and especially Americans - we like to be in control. We like to know that whatever happens, we will be taken care of - and we like to leave no chance or situation where that might not be the case. We have health insurance, life insurance, car insurance. We have the government. We have the US. We often, however, leave God out of the picture.

But the beautiful thing is, He can take care of you. HE WILL take care of you. And better than the insurance companies. Better than the government.

Let me give an example. And let me just say- this is only an example, because I could name many more times we have been taken care of -better than the lilies of the field.

Last week, we gave Ryan his 15 month shots. The doctor explained that he would most likely run a temperature within about a week. The temperature set in last night. We gave him some tylenol, an early bedtime, and he slept well. This morning, he woke up, and was lethargic. Nothing new for a baby with a temperature. But he was very hot. So we spent the day in a rocking chair with him, taking turns with a cool cloth and a fan. A few times his temperature was high enough where we put him into a cool bath to take it back down

At 1:00pm, after about three hours of sitting with Ryan, I relinquished him to Phil. I went into the kitchen to start some dishes. I made a phone call to Amanda, who recently had her baby. I had not had a chance to call her until this time. Two minutes into the call, I heard Phil yell from the other room. I ran in to see what was wrong, but he was gone. Upstairs, Philip had Ryan in the bath: he was having a siezure.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I hung up with Amanda, and got on the phone with 911. All I could do was pray as the first responders and the ambulance were on the way. When the siezure finally stopped, Ryan went limp, exhausted. His parents, however, were very shaken- no, closer to panicked. What was wrong with our baby? Were we doing the right things? How could we know if he was OK?

The next thing we knew, Ryan started to cry. The 911 dispatch informed us that this was a good sign- a normal thing for a baby to do after such an event. She let us go to comfort our baby and wait for the EMT's. The long wait was broken with the ring of the phone. A sweet voice asked "Is this Tracy?" It was a woman from our church- she is what they call a "first responder" in a neighboring city, and had heard our name over the emergency system. She called to see what was going on and to ask if I wanted her to come out. She tried to put my fears to rest, asking questions and telling me we had done the right things. I started to breathe for the first time since it all began. We heard sirens as she was talking to us. No matter how strong I felt in the moment, the caring voice of a friend in a time of crisis brought tears to my eyes.

We took turns holding Ryan tight until the ambulance came. They checked him out, but wanted us to take him into the emergency room or the doctor to make sure there was nothing else going on. Though we had brought his temperature down in the bath, it was starting to rise again, and his heartbeat was too fast for their liking.

The ambulance crew stuck around until we knew our doctor could see Ryan. Instead of patching us through to scheduling, our doctor had come on the phone herself to tell me that she would be happy to check out Ryan, but from our details, she was sure he was fine. Though still shaken, it was nice hearing from someone experienced that our baby was OK. The ambulance followed us the whole way to make sure he was safe for the ride.

The information we got from his doctor helped to alay our fears further. She explained how these convulsions this can happen to small kids once in awhile during high fevers, and we don't need to worry about lasting effects. Now that he has had one, he is more likely to have them, so we need to keep a close eye on him. Other than that, he will be fine. We felt extremely tired, but blessed. A situation like this always brings things into focus.

Just last night, we had been lamenting over all of the projects on our to-do list. We had both looked at this daunting list- with items ranging from "absolute must- do" to "should be done before winter". The biggest, most frightening thing on the list was a leak that had started on one of our basement pipes. Phil had tried to fix it once, but had not been able to stop it. Since it was right where the new plumbing had tied into the old plumbing, he was worried we were going to have to taclkle the upstairs plumbing- something we were not yet ready to do- financially or mentally. As this water has been dripping into buckets, we have been dreading addressing the issue. And there are other things on the list- you know, build a kitchen, etc.

But when something like this happens to your precious baby, you are able to bring yourself back to reality. Oh how we take something like our health so for granted. We are never as thankful for what we already have until it is threatened.

Tired and subdued, we left the doctor's office, picked up some motrin and tylenol for Ryan, and headed home. We finally smiled about the fact that we were faced with such a heavy load. While still overwhelmed, at least we knew we were all safe.

As we drove into the driveway, we noticed a blue paper pinched in our screen door. Phil jumped out to see what it was.

It said "Phil, Your water is shut off. Be right back with plumbing parts. -Mike"

We had not mentioned this leak to anyone. Not a soul. Mike is the neighbor farmer we talked about two posts ago- the one who mowed down our hay.

When he showed back up, we heard the rest of the story. Mike had heard from three different people that the Grossmann baby had a siezure. He called three area hospitals, to see if he could find us. When he couldn't track us down, he came to our house. He opened the door to yell at us, and heard dripping in the basement. He came in to investigate- noted the leak, and shut off our water. Then, he went to get a neighbor who knew how to do plumbing.

Within ten minutes of us being home, our plumbing was fixed.

I called Amanda back to let her know what had happened, and that we were all OK. She, too, had been filled in through other people in the community. They, too, had called three hospitals to see if they could find us to come and sit with us.

We believe that most of the surrounding towns know about that cute Washington baby by now. Word gets around quick despite the long distances between the homes.

Ryan, upon coming home, is acting normal again. He started making little squeals, and even smiled at the men while they were repairing the plumbing. He toddled around, still weak but much more himself.

We can have insurance, but no insurance company could have provided the sweet phone call, the caring community, or the plumbers. No, that is not something we could have asked for, nor would we have even known how.

It was as if God was saying "Yes, I am still here. And I will take care of you. Even in Iowa."

Here Piggy Piggy

Spring means baby everything! It's really been neat to see small calves, baby pigs, and even lambs out in the fields. I actually saw the first perfect little rows of leaves in one farmers field yesterday- corn is on it's way!

We had the privilege of visiting one pig farm in Zearing - the woman who owns the farm goes to our church, and let us take a tour. They had probably five different areas where they held pigs- each for different purposes. The fields are for birthing and raising the pigs for the first few days. The pig shown here was three days old. You can see in the background all the tiny little "houses" on the field. Each one will hold a mamma and her litter until they are ready to go into the "finishing shed". Anyway, this family has three feilds of these little houses- must be 200 or so on each field. It looks like a million, though! They also grow beans and corn - a true Iowan family if I do say so myself!

These are what the piglets look like (these ones are about two days old) next to their moms. Those pigs get huge!





We decided we had better get started on our own garden, and well, the whole hand-spading thing just didn't cut it. One of the "guys" Phil works with, Rob, was extremely generous and brought over this plow as well as a disc that works on Phil's tractor. They are old, but they still work! He just had them in his side yard, and said we could keep them! So nice!

Let me tell you, after spading, Phil and I were both thrilled to see this thing move dirt! We had tried to rototill it up, and being such hard dirt back here, that was nearly impossible. The plow just cut through and turned it over right quick. It took Phil about a day to get his plot turned over, and then ran the disc over it a bunch of times. We ended up with dirt that has a bit of grass still in it (you just can't tear up that much sod and expect it to disappear, although one could wish!) but very workable. Our tilled up space equals 110X111 feet, or a little less than a third of an acre. Some would say we are a bit optimistic on our gardening expectations. =)





















The picture below is tough to see, but I wanted to give you an idea for the feel of the size. Phil is that tiny white speck in the middle of the picture - he is planting pea stakes in one corner of the garden. I am taking the picture from the other corner of the garden. Needless to say, we have peas, potatoes, asparagas, watermelon, and little else in the garden just yet. It's a bit overwhelming!
Also, it is important to note that Ryan has been a huge help with the garden. Being the best "resident weeder" and "wheelbarrow holder-downer", well, who could ask for better help?

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.

An Iowan Pace

Now I’m back sitting here in the rat race,
Wishing I was still living at an Iowan pace.
Grossmann Farms is where I’d like to be,
Eating yummy bread and drinking iced tea!

-Satisfied Guest Tycen, Grossmann Farms






This past weekend we had four good friends from Washington come back to stay with us. I think all of us thoroughly enjoyed our way-too-short visit. It's been awhile since I posted, so we have a lot of ground to cover.

We visited the Amana Colonies (although it closed about 15 minutes after we got there... it was still neat to see). We should have taken more pictures of the place itself, but we did get a picture of this old well pump and you can kind of see the front of a house in this picture. Ok, we did a bad job of being tourists, you can just say it.

The three guys did a lot of work outside. They took down at least two trees, and moved nearly all of the wood to the other side of the property and split most of it. The outside looks a lot different now. I think they all took some tractor and chainsaw time, and cleaned up the border of our property a lot.

















While the boys were outside, the women were inside working. We made a great pancake breakfast, three loaves of bread, cinnamon rolls, the kind of dinner rolls that need to rise, a pork roast, and cookies for desert. I think we all got a small taste of what those Amish and pioneer women used to go through when cooking. We were so worn out at the end of the day, and we still had dishes to do. We would have to admit, the food was wonderful, though!

We had a bonfire last Saturday, trying to burn up some of the branches the guys took down. It was very neat, but very hot. Something we could not have done in Mountlake Terrace!

While we were at the bonfire, I noticed something interesting; there were lights in the field next to us. It is spring, or "plowin season" out here, so we have seen a lot more trucks on the road, and even a few farmers here and there. However, with the amount of turned-over ground, we definitely do not see as many as we should out working their tractors. Taking a look around, I noticed more and more of these lights.

They were tractors- at 10pm at night! I asked Amanda and Chuck why they would be plowing in the dark like that when we didn't see them during the day. They explained that many corn farmers also have pigs. So, when it is plowing season, they tend the pigs during the day, and they plow through the night. I guess it goes on for about a month and a half, depending on the size of their farm. No doubt farmers know how to work.
So, this is a bad picture, but since I rarely see tractors out plowing in the day, I thought at least you could see a tractor plowing at night.



And, no Washintonian gets through a 6 day trip without wondering where the nearest Starbucks is...so we took them past our Iowan version of the famous coffee company. They weren't too impressed...but I bet they even serve coffee! Says quite a bit for brand recognition, doesn't it!












Before everyone got here, we needed to paint and un-carpet two of the bedrooms upstairs. It was a rush job, and and we sacrificed a night of sleep to get there, but I can't believe how well the rooms turned out. I am still looking for the "before" pictures, but at the very least, here are the "after pictures". The first one is of the master bedroom, the second is of the room that will soon be Ryan's.


You don't get a very good view of this room, but you can get the idea of the colors...etc. I will be searching for my before pictures, as that does make for the complete story.

Phil is in his play tonight, the Living Last Supper. He is playing "Philip," and we have decided that he might just get up there and tell his own story rather than that of the disciple. Anyway, two more days until the weekend...we will try and get some planting done this weekend. My calendar says that we are supposed to plant between March and April, and you know, we missed the boat on the March plantings. It was so quiet around here, we really should do more!

Small Town

Anything missing, here?

You know you are really in the country when a postcard shows up that has no street address. I mean, I know we are the only "Grossmanns" in Clemons, but really, it's not like we have been here forever.

It has been strange that people we meet from a town fifteen miles away know who was in the house before you. They know who used to live down the road and what your neighbors do for a living. I have learned more about my neighbors from people I have met at the library than from the people themselves.

I suppose that for some people this gets old- because not only do they know you, but they know most everything about you. At this stage, however, I find it comforting. I have something in common with people I meet for the first time. For example, the people who sent this postcard are from New Providence Hardware, (about 15 miles away) where we bought our stove. The owner delivered the stove, and told me how he grew up just down the road, where there used to be a house. He used to come over to this house and sit with the old owners. She made him cookies. He has worked on our house before, done some plumbing and heating.

Now, if this was the first or only occurrence of an odd coincidence, that would be one thing. But it seems like everyone we talk to (ok, most people) have some tie to us. The man who installed our cable internet is friends with the old owner's grandson. The gun shop where we transferred Phil's firearms from home had an owner who knew what our septic tank was and how to take care of it, because it is older and they were made different back then.

There is just something kind of homey when after only four months of living here, I actually recognize people in town. Not that it is a huge town, mind you. And, we go further than our actual "hometown", because it has only a post office. For fun, you can check out the Zearing homepage. It lists all of the businesses and fun attractions. The funny part is that in town, there are only about 3 actual businesses - I think the others are out of people's homes.

www.zearing.net As the homepage boasts, it is home to more than 700 people and businesses!

I also thought I would post a picture of Ryan after his very first haircut. You know you are a first time mom when you have your baby's hair in a baggie...for who knows what reason. He looks so grown up without all of those long hairs. It took both Calli and I chasing him down to complete the project!

Also, scroll down to the picture of our living room - I added a picture of what it looked like before we move in. We loved that carpet!

Spring is Coming!

We are starting to see the grass come up green once again, which means that spring is not far away! You can see patches in our lawn, as well as in the ditches when you are driving. It is really exciting to see the ground wake up again! We are anxious to turn over our garden and get things planted. Phil has been burning the long grass based on a recommendation from "the guys" at work. It went so fast and took out the majority of the long patches of grass. I asked Phil what he had planned on doing before (because we didn't really know you could burn acres of grass like that) and he admitted he had planned on turning it al over by hand. Wow...and I thought I was ambitious!

I guess the burning is also supposed to take care of mice/rat homes (ick!) that they make during the winter in the folded over grass. I am thankful we have gotten rid of them!

Yard cleanup is still going to take awhile. We have a bunch of old tools and stuff in piles out there. We talked to a scrap metal guy who is going to come and take what we don't want...but now Phil has to decide what he can use and what is just junk. We have a few old grain harvesters, an old broken windmill...it's amazing what you can store on 5 acres! And we haven't even started on the old pig shed! So, that will be our next challenge. Ongoing, of course, with our other inside projects.

And along with Spring comes storms...

We had our first "go to the basement" scare last night. If you are faint of heart about storms, don't read any further. Around 2pm I checked email and saw that there was a storm watch for a few counties. Pretty normal around here. They have really great alerts regarding storms/tornadoes and when we can expect them. So, out of curiosity, I kept watching. As the afternoon progressed, there were 17 counties under tornado watches (none of them being mine, but I kept a very close eye on that website, you can bet!) Around 6:40pm, there were 27 counties on storm watches/ tornado warnings. At 7pm, Uncle Jim (bless him!) called to make sure we had heard there was a storm headed our way. He said that there were possible 70 - 90 mile an hour winds expected, and to not be afraid to head to the basement if we needed to.

So I once again checked online, and sure enough, there was our county, under "storm warning". I was thinking, hey, no big deal. No tornado, no worries, right? Phil remembers the lightning storms from when he was a kid, so was all excited to go out and watch. We sat in our front room, where two of the walls are windows, and watched lightning like I had never seen before. It looked like fireworks off in the distance, brilliant white. Being 7pm, the sky was a dark blue still, and we enjoyed the thrill of a storm for awhile. Then, all of a sudden, the sky went black, and the wind started howling loud. I went from a little excited to terrified, and got Ryan up from bed and went to the basement with Phil. We weren't down there more than five minutes when everything calmed down. It was a short, fast storm, but man it was a little ominous. And we didn't even have a tornado warning!

So, we came upstairs and watched the weather radar online for awhile, thankful that they had such great coverage of storms, that we knew when it was coming, and when it was over. I can't imagine living here back when you had no weather service to tell you when to expect snow, hail, showers, or tornados. I have them sending me emails when there is a watch or a warning in one of my surrounding counties, and of course for DesMoines where we have family. I was amazed at how accurate they were with timing and expectations of the storm. See the email below:

The NWS in des moines has issued asevere thunderstorm
warning for: marshall county in central iowa.Until 730 pm cst..

At 644 pm cst, national weather service doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm
capable of producing destructive winds in excess of 70 mph. This storm was
located 9 miles southeast of nevada, or 25 miles northeast of des moines, and moving northeast at 45 mph.The severe thunderstorm will be, 5 miles northwest of rhodes by 655 pm cst. Near state center by 700 pm cst. Near clemons by 705 pm cst. Near albion by 715 pm cst. Near liscomb by 720 pm cst.The locations of st. Anthony and marshalltown airport are also in the path of this severe thunderstorm.A tornado watch remains in effect until 1000 pm cst Thursday evening for southwestern iowa.This storm has a history of producing strong winds across northern polk and southern story counties.

And their assessment was actually really accurate. So, all in all, the "storm" was nothing any seasoned "iowan" would have written home about, but for us new to the area, it proved to be a bit of excitement. I suppose it all comes with the "spring" territory. So, while I am really excited about the whole garden planting thing, I am a little anxious about the storms bringing the rain that will help our garden grow!

In other, more light hearted news, I have been baking! (I know, big shock!) Calli taught me how to make bread and cinnamon rolls...yum! Just had to make sure that oven really works, right?

Fresh from the "oven" at Grossmann Farms!