Farming & Dirt

The past couple of days, I have seen these videos go viral!

I shared them on my Facebook page, but thought I'd share them here as well.

Just another reason why I love the farming/ranching/agriculture life!

Head over to Crystal Cattle, where she emailed the guys and got more details from them.


The next video is from DreamDirt TV.  They are from Iowa! 

How have I not heard of them before? 
After looking up where Mondamin, Iowa is...since I have never heard of it, I learned.
Far western Iowa. 

What a unique and neat treasure we have here in this great state. 

Now it's time to share it with the world!

I hope you enjoyed just a little glimpse of true agriculture.

At the Farm: More Beans!

Time for some more beans!

The last time I was at the farm, my brother was busy planting at the family farm {previous post},
in addition to 2 custom jobs {one yet to post}.

The first custom job was just down the road from the farm.
So Lindsey, Carson, and I hopped in the Ranger and took off. 
Because of that, I just brought my phone....no camera.

So the following pictures are via iPhone & 'edited' with Instagram.

In this field, there was no room to turn around the 'normal' way, 
due to there being a deep waterway at the end of the row.

So instead of turning around forward, Adam would come to a stop,

then reverse all the way around until he was facing forward in the correct direction.

He was then lined up and ready to take off again.

When I first saw it, I thought it was genius!

{So yes, dear brother, I guess I just called you a genius!}  :)

 I wanted to get a video of it, but we didn't stick around for that to happen

after dropping supper off to Adam.

We had some cows and calves to check!

Carson was more concerned about the cows and the waterer,

then to stick around and watch dad plant beans.

:)

 

At the Farm: Planting Beans!

My second favorite season....

Planting Season.

Because.....it leads to my favorite season....

Harvest Season!

:)

I was a big farmgirl, and took all these pictures using 'manual' focus.

That was a fun little adventure.

I've messed around with it before, but don't stick with it.

It's my goal to keep on using it as much as I can,

until it becomes natural.

{None of the pictures have been altered....except for the addition of the watermark.}

One of my favorite nephews joined me in the field.  He wanted to see his dad working.
Plus, he wanted to see his New Holland tractor and his Kinze planter.
{LOVE THAT KID!}

Oh, life on a farm.

I love it!

I hope you all have an enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend.

At the Farm! Friday: More Farm Kids

I must confess...

I don't share enough pictures of my older sister's kiddos.

It makes it hard when I don't see them nearly as often.

Since my mom watches my brother's 2 boys,
I always see them whenever I visit the farm.

1 week from now, I will be hanging out with these kiddos across the big muddy river!

 

 

 

It's going to be a crazy loud fun time!  :)

But I'm excited to see them!

And I hope to take lots of pictures!!

Even though they don't live on a farm now, I still consider them farm kids.

They visit the farm often enough.
Their dad and mom both grew up on farms.

Plus, both dad and mom work for John Deere.

So that makes them farm kids in my eyes. 

:)

At the Farm: Friday! Farmboy Style!

The picture story of a cute little farmboy and
how he likes to spend some of his day.....


Suited up and heading to the shop!


 

 I better help dad make sure the semi is running right.
One of these days, I might get to finally drive it!

  

Time to find my supplies for...

 ....fixing the Ranger.

 

And now it's time to lift some 'weights'.

 Oh, it looks like Grandpa needs some help!
{Whether he knows it or not.}

 Well, enough work.  It's time to play!

 {Who knew that a little stool on wheels could be such fun for a little farmboy!}

 {That boy would just roll around the shop playing 'bumper cars' with anything in the way.}  :)

Now it's time to hang out in a snow bank until I see dad!

The life of a farmboy can be pretty busy at times....but it's awesome!

Fixin' & Farmin'

So to continue my time on the farm (after spending 3.5 days at a work conference)......

When I returned, I was informed that I would get to paint the corn crib once the tin gets all on the roof. Well, to my dismay, the painting never happened. Due to some neighbor farmers hauling this week down the dead end gravel road, the crib needed a good power wash before the paint. In addition, it was too chilly and much too windy to paint. Dad said that the trees would probably end up with more paint on them then on the crib. And yup, that is probably right. Even though it was too windy for painting, all the tin got on the roof...with no help from the wind.

Since the corn crib was as done as it could be for this year (after it took 3 of us to get the tin up [well, my job was just to help hold the tin and assist with getting it on the roof before it flew away]), my brother and dad started picking corn. After returning from a shopping trip with my mom, I had the joy of helping unload 5 loads of corn. Man, is it a dirty job!

The following pictures aren't in order of how they occurred, but how I like them.

The colors in the sky last night were pretty much amazing. I just wish my camera could have more accurately captured what we saw.

Here's the main farm at sunset.

In the distance on the left is the main farm again.
This is east of the crib, looking in to our neighbor's field. To the right of the windmill we caught a buck running through the field. This buck was huge in size, but he didn't have a big rack yet.

A view from inside the corn crib.

The finished product....the corn crib with a complete roof!

The calves, doing what they do best...EAT!

My brother working, closing up a spot on the crib and then replacing
some worn/rotten wood for the doors.

A view while waiting for dad to return with another wagon load of corn.

Since I helped with unloading the corn, I wasn't able to get a picture of the process. Oh well, that happens. But, here's a glipse at what I looked like after 1 or 2 loads of corn. I think in the end I helped with 5 loads. I was pretty covered, even worse than Adam and dad!
But, that comes with the farm life.

Sadly, my time at the farm ends on Sunday evening.
I must go back to work on Monday where I have some deadlines and projects that must get done.

Oh, how I love the farm life!

Farm Kid University

Back in May, Jessica and I had our 7th & 8th grade students design their own college, based on their campus visit experience in April. There were some very creative ideas...as well as some silly ones. One of the students asked me about my college, but I didn't have one! So I went ahead and came up with one as well. And here it is. I love it!

Name: Farm Kid University

Location: Rural Iowa

Mascot: Case the fighting Deeres (Barnstormers is a fun name as well...but Iowa has an arena football time with that name.)

School colors: Red, Yellow, & Green

'Fields' of Study/Majors: Anything and everything agriculture

Extracurricular Activities: cow-tipping, tractor driving, fourwheeling, snowmobiling, bale throwing, pond fishing, creek tubing, animal wrangling, horse racing, meat & potatoes cooking and eating, and farm living

Wouldn't it be fun if this was a real University? I'd sure love it!

I was just going through some papers, preparing for an office move. That is why you are getting this now, instead of back when it happened.