Window Wells

We had two of our window wells fill up with water during one of the many rainstorms we have had this summer and one window leaked water into the spare bedroom in the basement so we had a little investigating to do.

We dug down to the tile line to find out what the problem was....

Chad is 6' 5 " and when we got done digging, he could not see out of the hole...
and of course he picked one of the hottest days of the summer, also my birthday, to do the work.

We had no pea rock down to the tile line (just mostly clay) so we filled it with pea rock so it could drain properly....and have not had a leak since, even though we have had several more rain storms since, so I think it is fixed.

I did not take pictures of the other window well. That one was under the deck and was a PAIN to work on!!!!!

Hail Damage

We had some really bad storms roll through the area on Saturday. We were pretty lucky, only have one corn field damaged, one bean field destroyed and a window cracked in the house. Some people were not so lucky and had a lot of their fields destroyed. Please remember them in your prayers.

Our corn field that was damaged.

One corn field that was destroyed in our area.

Trees blown down all over the county.

Girls Camping Trip

I went camping with 3 of my best friends from high school last week. Jodi is moving to another state so it was our farewell/send off party for her. Jodi, Michelle and Michele

Jodi, talking on the phone to her "love".....she spent a lot of time on the phone to him!

Michele "helping" me with the fire.

Jodi and Michelle getting the fire going.

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We had such a good time even though we got stormed on one night.

We spent hours reminiscing, laughing, telling stories and listening to music. Michelle downloaded 5 hours of 80's music onto her Ipod touch. It was so great to listen to music from our era. It brought back LOTS of good memories!

Thanks girls for the great time and best of luck Jodi in California!

"New" Tractor

We got our "new" (new to us but it is used) tractor delivered today.

We traded in one of our other ones on it, one that I drive alot. I am kinda sad to see the old one go but Chad and the salesman both tell me that I am going to LOVE this one. I will let you know if they are right after spending some time in this one.

New pigs have arrived!

We got our first group of wean-to finish pigs on Monday night.

The pigs all settled in and ready to sleep....and I was too as it was about midnight at this point.

Frazzled Farm Family.....Chad and Jeremy in back, Courtney and me in front.
We are a little worn out and sweaty at this point. It was 84 degrees in the barn and we had all been up for 17 hours at this point.

Courtney thought the little pigs were so cute.

And so did Jeremy's girlfriend Stephanie.

Piglets

We are getting some itty bitty pigs in tomorrow. We usually get them in at 40# but are trying the wean (around 14#) to finish option this group. It has been a little extra work getting the barns ready for smaller pigs but that's where the industry is going so we are giving it a "trial run" before signing any new contracts. It's been so long since we have had pigs that small around here but I do remember how cute they can be. I will try to take some pictures to post.

Lets see....other things going on around here:

Crops are planted and the corn is sprayed. Working on getting the beans sprayed if it would ever stop raining.

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Started cutting the hay but once again, the rain has been ongoing.

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Courtney has orientation tomorrow for college and needs at least one parent along. She will learn about the classes she needs to be taking, financial aid, food plans, dorm life, etc. I am hoping we will be done in time to get home and help get the pigs in.

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Jeremy took a short trip to the cities with our seed reps (thanks Win and Wayne) and a few other farmers. They went to a Twins game and then toured a Syngenta place. Jeremy had a great time and he really needed to get away, he has been working really hard for us lately!

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Most of the cows have been hauled to pasture. Still have a few more to haul and would like to buy a few more pair yet too but haven't had time to hit the sale barns.

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I am still working as a waitress and helping out on the farm. It gets really hectic at times and I don't know if I can keep doing both but for the time being I am going keep trying.

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Courtney got a job in town at the local Cenex and loves it! She isn't around to help on the farm as much which has put a strain on the rest of us but her heart just isn't in the farm and we know that.

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Well, until next time.....take care!

Fishing

We had a couple of days with a few hours to spare so we took the kids fishing.

We took Courtney's best friend Tayler (who is like a daughter to us) along with on our fishing expedition. She did not have a license so she was the official "net girl". She would run the net when we caught one and was determined to take them off the hook too. Here is a picture of Chad helping her get one off the hook.

Here is Tayler with her first fish taken off the hook. She was so proud of herself.







Here is how Courtney spends most of her time fishing....trying to get her line out of the tree.





Here she is standing a the front of the boat while Chad tries to get her close enough to get the lure out of the tree. One thing is for sure, ever since Courtney was little, there has never been a dull day of fishing for us.



We are hoping to have a few more hours spare because Chad loves to go fishing and it is so nice to get off the farm and be together as a family.