Ho ho ho!

With Dan riding with me for the last 2.2 miles, I achieved my 1500 mile riding goal for 2013.  Dan wore shorts.

Ping pong wars

Karen was so pleased one night when she beat Dan twice...until she learned he was playing with his left hand.

 Joel plays ping pong Thai style.

Christmas Eve - the choir, as Pastor called them, played 7 songs. Dan had no French horn music so Brianna, our next door neighbor, played her trumpet parts over the phone. I then tapped out the first note of each song on our out-of-tune piano. Then we called music teacher Mary to figure out how to transpose from trumpet to out-of-tune piano to French horn.

Finger-licking sticky bun preparation on Christmas Eve.

 Pursuit

 Joel counted 15 bald eagles on our hike at Starved Rock State Park. We made it out to Lasalle Canyon to see the ice fall.

Photo by Tom. He claimed that the image in the viewer kept drifting right, hence the slightly off-kilter picture.

We knew something was up when Shadow, while on night watch, was being troubled by an intruder.  Dan and I discovered the intruder in the barn when we went to feed the cats - a possum.

It's gone now.

 New barn addition

 Burn pile

Checking up on the cook in the kitchen. This usually involves adjusting pan locations over the fire, turning the fire up or down, some stirring, and advice.

AARP membership...what was I thinking?

I joined AARP because Marta and Amy said I can get some good hotel rates, not to mention this riveting reading that comes in the mail! Tom finds all of this so funny. 

Late afternoon Midwestern sky in December

Washington, IL - the town that was struck by an EF-4 tornado in November.

Washington, IL - the upright piano survived. We live 60 miles east of Washington on Rt. 24.

Washington, IL water tower. The power lines and poles were replaced right away.

Winter wheat on the organic 80.

Big Grey, taken back in September.

Tom is grilling up some salmon in the storm.

We awoke to 7 inches of snow!

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.