Home, Home on the Range

Dan came home from college for the first time last weekend! It has been great to see him!

Some students paid a visit to the farm a few weeks ago!

Yikes!

Papa Del's Pizza in Champaign!

The family

Thanksgiving

November 2013

The fall colors have been beautiful! This red maple was originally planted in front of our red barn, and we could never enjoy its color! A few years ago Tom dug it up and switched places with a yellow maple. The farm aesthetics are much improved as a result.

We went to the folk and roots festival in Urbana last weekend.  I attended a songwriting workshop where the leader wanted us to sing songs we've written and then critique them. I got to play "The Pharmacy." While it was well-received, I think I'll keep my day job.

Tom's organic farm is planted in winter wheat!  Next June it will be a golden sea.

Shadow slept soundly as these deer walked across our lawn.

 The new addition to the barn is underway.  This is looking south.

The builders say it will be finished by Thanksgiving.

Lazy dog napping in the sun.

Carolyn's severed finger cookies were a Halloween hit!

Flip Phone Fanatics and other Fall Follies

Our new faculty member, Tracy, and her husband hosted a cookout for all of us.  It was there that Tom discovered another person who also loves a flip phone. Of course, Tracy has mastered all the tricks of T9 messaging (she is younger than him after all). Tom, on the other hand, has mastered how to say a lot with a little. His typical replies to my often protracted text messages are:  Yo, Gr8, F9, and K.

Checking on the soybeans to see if they are ready to combine.

The farmer getting ready to start his day.

Family weekend at the University of Colorado/Boulder. As usual, Dan frowned at my desire to take his picture.

CU - Oregon game! So fun to be with them!

Grocery store with some attitude

On my walk back from the grocery store I encountered this and 3 other deer munching grass in someone's front yard.

Brackett Hall is where Dan resides.  The view from his window is of the football stadium just across the street.

Looking at Mt. Sanita in the distance, it appears Dan is thinking "we're hiking up that?"  

Nearing the summit.

On the summit. It was so clear we could see Denver!

Then it was off to a conference in Houston. Amy and I met up with Whitney, a soon-to-be graduate, finishing her internship at the Texas Medical Center.

Gearing up for harvest

This is the cutter bar sickle on the combine soybean head.  Don't worry, I don't know what any of that means, either.  Basically, Tom replaced all those little snippers which open and shut to cut the soybean plants.

This is a corn crib I came across on one of my bike rides.

And this is 2.1 miles from our house along the slab.

Tom's sisters and brother-in-law came by to pick apples, sit a spell on the porch, and have some dinner!

Tom is using his big boy toy, a dirt mover, to prepare the ground for his new farm driveway and shed addition. Dan and I highly disapproved of him taking out all the grass but we were overruled. The shed will be built this fall.

This bag of FORB is really wildflower seeds from the federal government. Apparently the government doesn't want it to be known that they are in the business of doling out wildflowers seeds as cover crop, so they call it FORB.  This is an experimental sample Tom will plant in the tall grass around the house.  

Less laundry, more butter: Adjusting to the empty nest...

Maddox was born on Monday, August 26th to Noelle and Brock!  Congratulations!

Dominic was born on Tuesday, August 27th to my niece Erin and Dustin. Dom ended up with pneumonia and had to spend several days under the oxygen tent, but it sounds like he'll go home tomorrow. Congratulations!

Dan is always wondering how the cats are doing. They love to give the impression they are grossly underfed.

Dan sends pictures from college to make us jealous. One day he sent a picture of his walk to class which featured the beautiful quad and mountains in the background. Another day he sent a picture of a baby bear hanging out in a tree in downtown Boulder. So I try to counter with pictures of things that will make Dan jealous like these beautiful and tasty homegrown tomatoes.

A farmer out standing in his organic field.

Sunset on road 600 North next to the organic 80.

Empty nester tending to the wine cabinet.

Empty nester trying to figure out what to do with all those tomatoes.

Salmon sushi

My YELP app directed us to this spot in NW Illinois for a little swill and sustenance.  No, we didn't ride a motorcycle here...nor did we get tattoos.

Is this a hummingbird or a moth?  Whatever it is, I feel like a skilled cell phone photographer snapping this pic!

The mighty Mississippi with Iowa in the background.

Goodbye Illinois, Hello Colorado!

Tom took this picture the night before Dan's departure to start school at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  I think Dan is ready for this new chapter of his life...and so is his dad, "I've been raisin' kids for 36 years!"  His mother, however, is a different story. Wow!

Good ole Joel snapped some pics of the move.

Worldly possessions.

Karen, Joel, and Dan will be studying on campus for the next few years. I told them they should occasionally meet in the middle of campus to hold hands and sing Kum Bye Yah.

Dan's room is in the basement level. No AC so maybe the lower level will be cooler.  His roommate arrives tomorrow and is from Colorado.

Movers and shakers

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my gal pals and I went kayaking today after work. I needed to have something to do to take my mind of the activities unfolding in Boulder. It was a lot of fun!  We saw lots of blue herons. And, of course, we're all quite proficient kayakers! ;)