The Boys of Fall



Sixth Grade


Tonight we attended our final Football Banquet.  G2 started playing club football at age 11.  This year his final season was cut short by his truck accident on Oct. 10.  It's hard to wear a mouth guard when you have 23 stiches inside your mouth. Known more for his strength than his speed, he has always been a lineman. Football gave him a head start on making new friends when he made the transition from elementary school to middle school.  Football gave him a sense of belonging.  Football taught him about hard work, self discipline, and teamwork.  He loved being a part of it.







In Action at the Homecoming Game.




G2 is #73. His buddy here is 6'4" and weighs in at 315!



The Seniors who played all four years of High School received their Helmet Awards tonight.

Boy the time went fast.  It seems like yesterday when I was arranging carpools for those first practices.  Now it's only a memory. We will miss those beautiful autumn evenings spent in the stands cheering on the boys.  We will miss our football family - the parents of all of the other boys.  We will not miss the inevitable game spent huddled under three blankets and an umbrella!

This is just one of the many "lasts" during G2's Senior year.  We are encouraging him to enjoy them all.  And I'm trying to hold up and not dissolve into tears at every event...

Out with the old

 The thing about 150 year old log cabins is that the pioneers who originally built them didn't have much of a need for big closets.  And thus the inception of the bi-annual "Great Closet Clean-Out".

Here is the pile that will go to the local charity resale shop.

These are the tubs containing the shorts and t-shirts (sigh) that will go to the attic.

And here is the neatly stocked closet. Ready for winter (sigh).

My Love/Hate Relationship With Weight Watchers

Now before all of the Weight Watchers corporate types get all huffy let me just say that the reason I love (get that? L-O-V-E!) Weight Watchers is that it really works.  Yes sir-ee Bob, if you follow the plan it really does work.  I originally joined Weight Watchers on-line (there isn't a live meeting that is convenient for me in my little corner of America's Dairyland) about 5 years ago.  I was very diligent and lost about 35 pounds, which brought me to my goal weight.  Now comes the thing I hate about Weight Watchers...in order for it to work you gotta follow the plan!

Since that original success I have gained (and lost) those same 35 pounds 3 times. Yes, 3 (1-2-3) times!  Yikes.  And yes, I know, I know, that yo-yo business is not good for a person.   The thing is, every time I've lost the weight I get a little smug and lazy and think that I don't need to keep track of everything I eat.  I start to believe that I can keep the weight off just by "thinking" about what I eat.  And then I start to think that one little candy bar, plus one little smidgen of brownie, plus one little bag of popcorn, plus one little handful of Fritos, plus one little...you get the idea...won't hurt.  And pretty soon I'm having all of those extra little handfuls every single evening and then BOOM, there I am, back up 30 pounds and not able to fit into any of my pants.

So here I am, back at the begining.  I've gone back on the plan and am within 10 pounds of my goal.  BUT, once again I'm getting a little bit smug and haven't been as diligent about recording what I've eaten as I should.  I'm vowing to get better.  I'm vowing to not put on all of those extra pounds again.  I'm vowing to stick with the plan!

(There are no "show and tell" pictures to accompany this entry because that's just too embarrasing!)

Finished At Last

Today all of the corn combining is finished.  YIPPEE!!

G3 and a couple of friends in the field. 

The corn in this particular field was not as tall as some, but overall we had excellent yields.  The weather really cooperated right up until last week when we had two days of terrific wind.  The couple of fields that were left suffered a lot of damage and the big guy had his hands full navigating the combine through the downed stalks.

This is our trusty combine.

Big G did a lot of the combining himself, but we did hire another guy to custom combine some fields that are located further away from the home base.  We work over 1,200 acres of owned and rented land.  This year we raised wheat, oats, alfalfa, corn and soybeans.

It's a very good feeling to watch the "fruits" of our labor pouring into the trucks.

Most of our crops are used to feed our own animals.  However, we do sell some feed to a few local producers and some crops were marketed directly.

A Little Background

Hubby's Great-Grandfather, Balthasar (don't you just love those old names?) settled on our little piece of America's Dairyland in 1879.  He started out with 10 cows.  Our children are the fifth generation to live in the very log cabin where Balthasar first lived! 

Today about 600 cows live and work on the farm.  300 of those are currently milking cows.  On average each cow produces 80 pounds, or about 9 gallons, of milk per day.  The cows are milked in a Boumatic double 8 parallel parlor three times per day starting at 4:30am, 11:30am, and 8:00pm.  The majority of milking cows are housed in a 100' x 192' freestall barn.   The remainder share a 118' x 272' freestall barn with the younger animals and dry cows.

 


 

It Shouldn't Have Happened - But It Did

The Three G's - Summer 2007

He never just came into a room.  He made an entrance.  He was his Dad's dimples and his Mom's dark brown eyes.  He was the apple of both of his Grandmother's eyes.  His dad was "Pops" and I was "Ellen".  After a couple of false starts he had decided that he wanted to be a dairy farmer, just like the four generations before him.  He had a girl that he loved and was going to marry.  He had finally pulled it all together and was looking forward to a fine future.

On October 15, 2008 he and another farm hand were getting a piece of farm equipment ready to store for the winter.  It was a chopper box, for those of you in the know about these things.  He was inside the box greasing.  It happened in an instant, and he was gone.  What I remember most about that day were the looks on the faces of every fireman and EMT who were on the scene.  He was a friend to all of those guys.  Although they are well trained for these kind of events, they still never expect it to happen to a buddy.

In the two years since we have tried to look for anything positive that has come out of our sadness.  Many a farmer has told us that they are more aware when working on equipment.  We hope they never forget.  Our nephew recently got a degree in industrial safety and works in that field.  He is, we believe, more passionate about his work now. We hope others will be positively effected by that passion.

We keep going, one day at a time.  He is always in our thoughts and in our hearts.  We love that boy!

20 Years - Who knew?

October, 1990

20 years ago today I married the man of my dreams.  We are as different as night and day.  He's a farm boy through and through, with a work ethic like no other.  I'm a city girl with a bent for procrastination.  Our friends questioned our sanity.  20 years later he still makes my heart go pit-a-pat.  He's my rock, my anchor.  There is no doubt that my life would have been a whole lot duller if I hadn't met him.  I Love this man!