The Barn Door

Growing

2013-05-21T01:00:00.000-05:00

I’m a novice gardener, but I’m giving it my best shot and learning along the way. I've made a lot of mistakes, like planting flowers where it’s too shady or where the soil is too rocky and watching them wither and die. I've been disappointed when bulbs and perennials didn't return the following year. But I've learned – and am learning – from those mistakes.

For instance, my son and his girlfriend built me a marvelous box garden for Mother’s Day. They seeded half of it and me as part of my gift. YIPPEE! I've wanted a box garden for a year…remember the “mistakes” I spoke of previously? Yep, well, I planted vegetables in a small space on the southwest side of our garage and they didn't get the sunshine they needed to grow. But now…I have my box garden with sunshine all day! I'm so excited!

Feeling all enthusiastic, I purchased lettuce, tomato, peas, and beans – in plants – and dug them into my new garden. After I was finished and stretched my aching back, my neighbor, a gardening expert, nicely explained that it might be a bit premature for plants due to the late frost we here in Southeastern Wisconsin can still experience. “After Memorial Day” is the rule. However, she told me that seeding now is OK because those plants will be safe from the frosty elements – unless a summer thunderstorm and hail wipes them out. She said it’s always a gamble and she gave me some extra peas and beans (seeds) that she had left over after her planting – just in case I'd jumped the warm weather.

As I buried the seeds in the soft, warm soil, I gained a greater respect for professional farmers. I thought of my ancestors, farmers in Northern Wisconsin, survived. They counted on their crops to feed their families for a year. But what happened when a terrible storm whipped over the countryside and demolished their corn, their wheat, their vegetables? What did they do when crops failed? They couldn't go to the Farmer’s Market – they WERE the Farmer’s Market. Sometimes they went bankrupt and lost their homes. Unfortunately, it still happens today.

Growing can be a frustrating process – not just growing flowers and vegetables, but personal and spiritual growing too. Every day we gain life experience in something. Think about it. What did you learn today?

Tulips

2013-05-20T00:33:00.000-05:00

Showing off the tulips around my house...
From Lisa

A couple of years ago my daughter-in-law took pictures of my flowers and made a wonderful framed collage of them for a Christmas gift. I loved it! I've planted some new ones, experimenting with a few interesting non-traditional types, and thought I'd share.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Mom!

2013-05-19T03:00:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday was Mother's Day. And although there can never be enough praise for Moms, I'm not going to talk about Mom.

I'm from the Cleveland area, and you KNOW Clevelanders are rabidly passionate sports fans. Doesn't matter what sport -- or so it seems at times. We love our teams. And we carry looooooong grudges against people who have betrayed us or insulted us. Players who were traded away are welcomed back with cheers, even when they play for "the enemy." Witness Omar Vizquel and Victor Martinez. And even Travis Hafner -- until he hit that home run for the Yankees, of course ... The ones who chose to leave, or even asked to be traded, or stole a team and went to another town ... they're lucky if all they get is booed when they dare step foot in our town again.

Right now is baseball season -- although they're already building up steam for football and basketball season, talking about trades and drafts and training and hiring new coaches and whatever! There's a lot of orange and brown in this town, even during the off-season.

As for me ... well, as far as I'm concerned, there are NO sports in Cleveland until Spring Training finally comes around. I love the Indians!

And they're doing fantastic this spring. Who wouldn't love them? Everybody loves a winner, right? (Except, of course, for the rude twits who slapped us in the face ... nuh uh, not gonna go there...)

But you know what? Even if the Tribe's record was flipped the other way, and they had more losses than wins, I'd still love them. Still cheer for them. Still clear my schedule to make sure I'm in front of the TV the next time they play. And there are a lot of Tribe fans who are the same way. Win or lose, they're OUR team. We're going to cheer for them. We're going to have hope every time they step up to the plate or run out onto the field.

That's loyalty. That's what it means to be a Cleveland sports fan. Maybe we're cock-eyed optimists (salute to Rogers & Hammerstein and South Pacific) but that's the way we are. There's always hope.

Maybe the rest of the world could learn something from Cleveland sports fans -- the ability to stay loyal no matter how many/often our hopes and dreams are disappointed. The ability to dream and believe and love, in spite of the odds and failures.

And you know what? That loyalty-in-spite-of just makes the high points all the sweeter. It's a win-win.

GO TRIBE!!!

One Tired Farm Wife

2013-05-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

They call me Mom. I call me Blessed.

I totally forgot to post on the 4^th. Hold on – gotta go grab Farmer from the field.

OK I’m back. And that is probably why I forgot to post on the 4^th.

The last two days has been ridiculous.

Yesterday I had physical therapy in the morning for my neck – been having headaches. Farmer called me and asked me to pick up large gallon sized zip locked bags. Did that.

I stopped at the bank on the way home. Was almost home when Farmer called again and asked me to go pick up one of the farm computers. It was being repaired.

After I nabbed it, I dropped it off at the farm office and went in to run the payroll report. Well the printer ran out of paper. No problem. I would add to it and finish the job. Didn’t work. So I called Son #3 our IT guy.

“You can’t let the printer run out of paper. Now you have to shut the computer down and then start it back up. BUT, you can’t shut it down until 12:20 when they are washing the parlor. The BEBs come in and the computer reads their ankle bracelets and stores a lot of info. I had to wait until the BEBs were done being milked. So, payroll was put on hold and I came home.

I decided to mow down the road at the house where our intern from Michigan State is staying. She’s living and working on our farm until the first part of August.

I stopped at the parlor when I was done and finished the payroll report.

Back at home I started to “do” payroll which is a whole ‘nother story for a whole ‘nother time.

Another phone call from the farm. Can you take these feed samples to UPS? Gotta get there before they close.

I dropped everything and delivered a bag of feed to the UPS store. I didn’t bother to explain what it was.

When I came home it was time to get ready to go to church. Joyce Meyer was having a conference and I had to work at the book store. It was great. I felt normal, until I got three more phone calls to bring this or that and I reminded them for the 789^th time I wasn’t home.

It was a late evening and I had to get up early to deliver our intern to another farm.

As I dragged myself out of bed this morning and was trying to get presentable, Farmer said “Oh, you don’t need to take Casey today. They are going to pick her up.”

I was so close to causing bodily harm it wasn’t funny.

I started working on payroll again. Then I realized I had to mow my lawn and my son – he’s having back issues. I decided I better get it done before my daughter-in-law needed it for the farm. We share the mower. So I did mine and his and finished just in time to go to the chiropractor. It felt good to get things back in place.

I stopped at Sam’s on the way home for a couple of things. $230.00 later I headed home.

Farmer met me at the door. “How nice and helpful” I thought.

“You gotta go to the mill and get yeast and feed. I have to get back out in the field. And, you have to take my good truck.”

“Crap” I thought. First of all I was soooo tired. I just wanted a 10 minute nap. But, nooooo they were waiting for the stuff. Secondly, I hate driving his truck. He treats it better than me and I just know there’s going to be an incident one day and it won’t be pretty.

I picked up and delivered the feed and went back home to finish payroll.

Finally payroll was done. I delivered the checks to the barn and spoke to my daughter-in-law who normally mows the lawn. She had been in the field so I started mowing the lawn at the barn for her. We have about 6 acres all told. She will be gone tomorrow so I will finish it tomorrow. I was heading home from the farm and I called Farmer to see if he needed anything. Yes, food.

Another delivery and now it is 9:00 PM and I am home. I am sort of waiting for that phone call to pick Farmer up yet tonight.

Hoping to get this done so I can have flowers this year. We shall see.

My kitchen looks like a Sam’s display room, the laundry is crawling out the door, my back porch is a poor example of a flower nursery (with sick plants), the window box by our side door has been demolished and there is brick debris scattered, the pool is open but full of algae, but our weed garden is flourishing.

This is Phil and Kay in our pool. I love Duck Dynasty, hence the names.

Oh, I almost forgot. I am trying to raise 5 duck eggs. Miss Kay came and laid the eggs under the playroom window and then she and Phil took off.

Son #2 brought over his incubator and it has an automatic egg turner – thank goodness or those eggs would have been better on toast. And he then added pressure by bringing over 6 chicken eggs to see if I could make that work too.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I am too tired to be creative and write a clever blog. And, I had pictures to go with this. Plain and simple. I am one tired farm wife.

You can keep up with our everyday happenings at www.afarmwife.com or follow on face book https://www.facebook.com/AFarmWife?ref=tn_tnmn

Fish Fry at the Schwabenof

2013-05-17T08:50:00.000-05:00

Fish fry Fridays! If you grew up in the Milwaukee area like me, you're probably very familiar with the Friday fish fries around town. One of my favorites is the one at the Schwabenof.

I vaguely remember going there as a kid, and now my family and I make the occasional stop there on a Friday, too. The décor, food, and prices all have that old school charm that I love about living here.

The traditional fish fry is all you can eat for $11.95. Or, you can get all you can eat fried chicken for that price. Or, you can combine the two!

The value is awesome and the décor is what I like to call cheesily awesome, meaning that it has the sense of humor and charming-ness that folks in Wisconsin have. I love to listen to the thick Midwestern accents there (because, ya know, I couldn't possibly have one of those myself) and check out the families who come to enjoy their Friday night tradition.

Where's your favorite place to grab a fish fry?