8 inches of rain

Although nothing compared to the hurricane that hit Texas, the remnants of Ike blew through here as a tropical depression.

We got 8 inches of rain over the weekend and a few gusts of about 25 miles an hour. Farther downstate, however, they were hit by 75-mph gusts and no rain.

Here the ground was so dry that today, Tuesday, almost all the puddles are gone, creeks are down and DH plans to go out and mow hay.

It was probably too much too late for much of our corn and soybeans. Big sigh. We had hoped for a good year with the beans. All the corn will go to the cattle and poultry with little if any to sell as cash grain.

But with a diversified farm, if one venture goes sideways, maybe another one will pop up as a winner.

A fish story ...

We went to my folks' place over Labor Day and I went fishing with the boys and my dad.

Over the summer the kids fished in their pond quite a bit. They knew all the best places and DS1 could identify all the different kinds of fish.

I used my grandma's pole and reel with a life-like artificial night-crawler, cast out into deep water near the area where there seemed to be a lot of action. My dad, AKA Pop, thought the big fish gravitated towards the sunny shallows after minnows.

I caught and released four bass in a row. The biggest was about 10 inches and the others were about six inches long.

The last one got the hook in its jaw so deeply that I sent to boys around the pond to Pop for some pliers. Until they could come back I put the fish back in teh water, still on my line. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do.

While this six-inch bass was zig-zagging and I was watching the boys, out of the corner of my eye I saw something big and dark lunge through the water with a tremendous splash, hit my fish still on the line and then whoosh -- I had nothing left.

I screamed like a girl.

What was that?!

Pop and the boys wondered if it was a catfish. I wondered if that young bass got away or got eaten for dinner. My brother's fiancee suggested it was the Loch Ness monster. If you'd see the algae on the pond, Loch Mess is more like it.

Anyway, that's one of the things I like about fishing -- being outside, on the water, seeing nature. Every cast is a fresh start, fresh hope. And here my analogy fails b/c sometimes at the very end a big catfish comes along and changes everything!

First day of school!

Wow ... first day of school. Our oldest cowboyed up and is trying to stay cheerful about going to middle school, a source of worry all summer. Our middle one is coasting, looking forward to bigger and better math problems. Our youngest could barely balance his big ol' back pack. Loaded with boxes of Cheezits, Kleenex, gym shoes, crayons, glue, markers and a whole handful of Number 2 pencils, the backpack weighed more than him. Of course DH imagined the first-graders going down like dominoes if one went down under the weight of his or her backpack! What visual!

Praying for rain ...

We've reached a critical time in development of our soybeans, which we hoped would be our big cash crop this year. They are setting pods and filling the pods right now and need water to do so. But we haven't had rain for about a month. Praying for rain ...

I should have been ...

I should have been cleaning house and doing laundry -- but, instead, we went to the blueberry marsh and picked 15 pounds of berries. We're close to the end of the season, so I believe this variety was "Jersey Giant." Some of the branches looked like they carried clusters of grapes.

The farm owner should weigh the boys in and weigh them as they go out. I have no idea how many pounds of free berries the kids ate!

We had to stop at the grocery and the feed mill on the way home.

Interruptions keep coming. Instead of cleaning, I helped unload more hay then went to the butcher's and picked up the rest of a whole hog we got from a neighbor. I raise a bunch of chickens for her and her boys raise hogs in 4-H. Then we trade. Works for us!

Needless to say, no laundry got done today. Maybe tomorrow. Well, maybe not, because I have to go back to the restaurant.

Hay, hay, hay ...

It's been too dry, but, we're getting some good alfalfa made. When DH is in the highly mechanized part of it, mowing, raking and baling, I enjoy the commotion and the scent of new mown hay.

However, the bales must go from the wagons up into the hay mow somehow. So we all help unload wagons, put the bales on the elevator (think of a conveyor belt) and DH and the boys stack it in the mow.

We have a century-old bank barn. The oldest parts are pegged together. The newer areas, such as a granary and the doorway to the cow stable, is done with square-headed nails. The mow is actually the whole top floor of the barn. From floor to roof peak is 30 or 40 feet, stacked to the rafters and beyond with hay and straw.

It sounds and looks overwhelming, but, like a lot of worthwhile projects, we do it a little bit at a time and "keep everlastingly at it."

Welcome to the Farm

Well, here we are, needing rain again! In the middle of summer, our corn could use up to an inch of rain per week.

Our farm is located in the upper Midwest, about an hour from Lake Michigan. That's often a good thing, providing pop-up showers, lake effect snow and also, fun day trips.

We now have three generations of [insert Dutchy name here] on the farm. Sorry -- I guess I'm a little leery of sharing too much information. That would be Grandpa, DH and DS#1 all farming together right now. DD and DS#2 and I are all involved, too, at various times.

We raise beef cattle, hay, wheat, soybeans, corn, a few chickens and sometimes we raise Cain.