Farm Days

This last weekend we took the 3 hour trip to one of Travis' old coworker's family farm. He was begging for us to join him. It was good to get away, for a bit.

Is it mandatory for all farms to have 1 red barn? I'm not complaining, I love the color red!

The farm didn’t have animals, but they did have a lot of old things to look at, history, and squash to pick. 

If you lived on a farm what animals would you wish you could have? I'd love horses, goats, chickens, alpacas, a few farm cats, and a few farm dogs. Mrs Allergy sufferer can have animals if they are outside. Right?

I did ask Tom, our friend if he had his wife and son hidden in his trunk. I was bummed that they didn’t come along. His wife is from Russia. Since she wasn’t there to define herself I made jokes about how he’s really married to a spy. I’ve watched too many episodes of The Americans. We made Tom watch the first episode during breakfast. Not typically a show one would watch with children, but hey it's given us more reasons to talk about sex more openly. Really Tom's wife was back home with their dog and their son is only 11. He had a friend thing to do. 

I guess these go unused on their farm:

I think this is my favorite shot:

It was in Iowa, and one thing is for sure, all farms in Nebraska and Iowa are usually full of corn. 

What made this farm special is that it was owned by the same family, for many generations, they had relatives that owned areas all around it, and that it was right by the lake. What water hobbies would you take up if you lived there? I'd like to fish, and go paddle boating. 

 

They rent out their land for other farmers to grow things. At this time pumpkins and other squashes were there. Tom said after Halloween they sit there and rot. We could take what we wanted. I took too much. Fully intending on canning pumpkin puree, but I found out that it's not a good idea to do that. Ya learn something new everyday. Reason? Every squash has a different water content. Pumpkin puree in the store has all the water content removed practically. It's best to cook, puree, and put it in ice cube trays to freeze. 

Tom drove us around to show us all his family's property, and let Travis take Mica and Isaak down to see a special spot I never did see. Mica's driving. I'd like to say he learned how to drive a stick shift, but I don't think he drove it long enough to learn the standard H. 

Isaak's big about wearing these coveralls. Funny because he hated them when I bought him a one when he was about the age of 5. He thinks they are artsy. Kids say he looks like Michael Meyers or a farmer. I think he looks like one in the Blue Man Group (without the make-up), or an auto mechanic. 

Travis with Mica. They took one of me, but I look so out of it and I'm not posting it. 

We found a few of these caterpillars. I heard they mean either we have a long winter ahead, or a short one. I don't know that I believe such tales, but if you do we found them. 

We got to stay in their old farm house. Lots of cool things, but I like the door handles the most. 

Have you been to a farm lately? 

Danish America in Elk Horn, Iowa #travel #vacation

I wasn't planning on stopping in Elk Horn, Iowa. I saw the sign for, "Museum of Danish America" and said, "Let's go!" So we did. Who could pass up a windmill that looks like this:

We went before anything was open. Technically we didn't go to the museum. Just stopping to stretch our legs, mixed with having a good view was what we all needed.

Do you like windmills? 

I know some people are anti turbines. They are costly to fix, and birds can fly into them. Technology is getting better, so hopefully kinks will work themselves out. They put out a lot of energy. Oddly I find windmills of any kind fascinating.

What kind of house is this?

I don't even know what to call this house. It's not a sod house. There is living grasses and mosses growing on the roof. Whatever it is, I wish it was in my backyard.

I think the kid's wish they had it in our backyard too!

Here's the backside of it:

What's a spot you didn't expect to stop at, and really ended up enjoying?

Disclaimer: This is not a paid review. I got no compensation, for writing this post. All opinions are my own. 

WW: Hitchcock Nature Center {Linky}

First off a big Happy Birthday goes out to my husband that's 41 years old today!

Now on with the post...A few weeks ago we went to Hitchcock Nature Center in Iowa. It's only $2 to get into the park. There's a lot of explore. It's located on the Loess Hills.

The first thing we did was climb their observation tower.

Here's the view:

Here are 3 of the 4 of us. Isaak wasn't in the mood for getting his picture taken.

Looking down from the tower:

We went hiking on a trail and saw some pretty close-ups:

I could have take 500 photos of these poisonous berries:

A hungry little caterpillar:

A field of flowers:

The boys really enjoyed hiking. I on the other hand was lagging behind. I was fasting for a medial procedure (all is ok). I don't do well with fasting though. I just wanted to faint. I took my time by taking photos.

We got to one more spot with a really pretty view.

 Mica was the only one that would let me take his photo. He's my handsome knight.

Do you like to go hiking? Is there a place within driving distance to hike at from where you live?

Last Night This Happened...

I was at work and I could hear the weather radio beeping in my boss' office. Sure enough we were going to get hammered with a storm.

I think everyone in the word has experienced some crazy weather in the last 3 years. The last 2 years we've been in a drought, and the year before that we had major flooding going on. I'm not sure what this year will be like.

Not very many people around here take storms too seriously. Many go buy beer, and sit outside to watch.

Daddy called me at work 10 minutes before I was to leave, "Do you realize employers are letting their workers off early to escape the storm?" I said, "Well 10 minutes isn't going to change too much. I don't want to leave right now. It's raining hard anyhow."

I left at 5. I was driving into the storm, but there wasn't much I could do about it. If I were to have left early I would have gotten pounded by rain, and if I were to have waited I would have gotten pounded by rain. It was a windy drive home! Traffic was light. My husband must of been right about employers letting their employees off early.

I came home to this:

At least they were practicing being safe. If we were to have needed to go somewhere I think they would have needed life jackets over helmets.

This is what some of Omaha, Council Bluffs, and Blair looked like:

 That's our airport. They had to cancel all flights last night.

 That's hail folks!

A car lot has an estimate of $15 million worth of damages!

All photos gotten from the KETV news website.

We didn't get hail by our house, but many others did. 

• Hail smashed my co-workers window in his jeep. 


• Our home didn't have any water problems, but many did. 


• The town over from us is declared an emergency zone by their governor. 


• A car lot had damage on every single car on their lot. I was surprised when the news interviewed him, and he was so calm. Then I chuckled this morning when the same car lot had a commercial on TV this morning. No one is going to be buying cars from them for a little while. 


• Firefighters had to rescue people out of their homes by boat. The water was too shallow for the boats motors to turn on, but too deep to walk in safely. A 18 month old was shown crying in one of the boats. How scary!


• Power was and is still out in many homes. 


• Trees are down in many areas. 


• Creeks looked like thin rivers.

While I'm glad nothing happened to me, or my family (which most of them even aunts and uncles live here), I'm sad for others that have water damage, and can't get in their homes safely.

4 things are for sure:

• Roof and siding companies will be busy.
• Tree removal services will be called.
• Insurance companies will be swamped. 
• Car places that were out of the storms way will be getting a lot of business.