Its' Time!

 Time for what you ask? Here's your clue... I am no longer at home. And before you get too carried away with your guesses, no, Barb did not kick me out of the house!

While you ponder on your guesses I have lots of other things to talk about. Like our son Forrest who has been on the road the past several years with his wife Somer and daughter Lily. Well, they have bought a house and are settling down! They bought a house in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Someplace we have never been, but will be in the future!

Somer has a job at a hospital in the area and Forrest got a job with an electrical company. Lily is now playing soccer locally in the area, a co-ed team. In fact, here is a video of a goal she got last weekend!

Since Dino and Lisa left, we have been busy working on projects again. The first was to carry on with the skylight and vent projects in the camper. Barb had removed all the caulk, now it was my turn to take the skylight and vent out and put in the new ones. The vent was pretty straight forward and I was done with that in about an hour. The skylight was another matter as we could not find one to fit the size of the opening of the old one. As a result, I had to fur out the opening to accommodate the smaller size of the new one. Probably about a 2-hour project. We still have to caulk it in, but for the most part we can cross that project off the list. 

In other news, the robins and gold finches have returned! No meadow larks yet, but I am sure they are not far behind. Here is your quiz for the day, how many gold finches do you think are in this picture? Answer later in this post. 

Did you count this gold finches? I got 25 which I have circled in red. I may have missed one or two though. Man, these guys are hungry. They eat a full birder feeders worth of sunflower seeds every day! No kidding, we have been filling it up every day. The red feeder in the middle they do not touch. 

I also got down to the windmill and put a cover over half of the smaller waterer protecting the float from the deer. As soon as I was done the birds started using it!

Speaking of birds, we had a little excitement last week when I heard a sound coming from our fireplace. Well, Zoey heard it first, but when I investigated, I saw a bird looking back at me through the glass. A blackbird. A very small blackbird. I went and got two fishing nets, held them around the door and slowly opened it. This bird did not even try to fly to escape, it just walked into the net like it knew I was there to help it. I then gently picked it up to see that it was not a blackbird at all, it was a bluebird covered in soot. I opened the door, opened my hand and it flew away. A good feeling knowing that bluebirds area always in pairs and it would soon be reunited with its mate. 

Before I knew it, it was time. Time to load up the camper and head to North Dakota for spring planting. 8 hours later I was there and in no time I was in another vehicle heading to supper with Farmer Bob and DeAnne (thanks Bob!). It was great to see them and catch up.

The next day I jumped right into it. We did not get into the field planting that day, in fact, we have not planted since I have been here. But that does not mean there is not something to do. There is always things to do, like replace some hoses on the seeder. 

Replace the fuel filters on the fuel tanks. 

Clean bins, this view is of the inside of the grain bin. 

Fuel trucks

The list really never ends. That was my first day and I actually got my, "I broke something moment" out of the way in the first few hours when I was moving some pallets from under the sprayer and clipped the water separator on the bottom of the fuel filter. Snapped that baby clean off and a drizzle of diesel fuel started to hit the floor. I got a bucket under it quickly and got the fuel shut off. That is actually on my list for today. Replace that part. Nothing like creating your own work to keep yourself busy!

Day 2 was cold and windy. Ty and Dylan took both of the semi's to a not so local seed dealer to pick up some seed. 

I opted to bundle up and hit some tree rows cutting down trees where they are encroaching on daily operations. 11 or 12 trees, 3 different fields, I would cut them down, grab them with the grapple bucket and carry them to a field edge where they will be out of the way.  

When the boys got back from with the semi's we put that seed into a bin. 

Chris's dad, (Bob S) arrived Friday evening just in time for a quick happy hour!

That night we got together for a game of poker. Probably the only opportunity we will get as once we are in the field seeding, we will be busy from sunrise to well into the night; 10, 11, 12:00 at night putting seed into the ground as quickly as we can. 

Farmer Bob, in addition to his other activities, has been driving bus both morning and night filling in for another driver who is out right now. DeAnne has her class B as well and fills in now and again too. Holly has kept me well fed with suppers and DeAnne was nice enough to mend some coveralls that I ripped opens when the chainsaw jumped and caught an edge of my pants. It is really a team effort with no one role taken for granted. We all get along really well which is really a blessing. 

With warmer weather forecasted in the next few days we loaded up the trucks with fertilizer and seed and transferred them over to the seeder. 

It's about to get busy. It's time!