“I’d rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.” ― George Washington
Decades ago I impulsively went to a garage sale at a house I drove by on my way to the grocery store twelve miles away. I was looking over the items on a table in the driveway. A man sauntered up to me. He had on a tight-fitting shirt unbuttoned to the middle of his chest. He wore diamond rings on each of his fingers and had gold chains displayed around his neck. He checked his gold watch for the time.
There are several pieces of equipment we use to put in the crop. For planting corn, we use a 9-shank John Deere chisel plow (1996), a 28-foot John Deere soil finisher (1988) and a John Deere 4-row planter (1985). We use three different tractors; a John Deere 4755 (1992), a John Deere 4040 (1980) and a John Deere 4440 (1979).
Continue reading “Preparation is the Key and Hannah’s Irish Soda Bread”
March is a good time to figure out the garden. It’s too cold and windy to do much else. There are several garden catalogs that arrive in the mail every winter. So much to choose from!
There are those who believe in leveraging. You know, using debt to asset ratio, leaning heavily on the debt more than the assets. There are others who believe in using a pencil to figure out if you can pay for things with the income you have.
Back in the day, if you wanted to say something unkind about the cooking skills of someone, you would say scornfully, “Why he/she doesn’t even know how to boil an egg!”
Snow in the winter. It’s a given in Iowa. It can start as early as October and can last until April. Snow days are built into the school calendar and four-wheel drive in your car or truck is a good thing to have.
Continue reading “Japanese Zen Snow Garden in Iowa and Oatmeal Meatballs”
It’s dark when you get up in the morning. It’s dark when you come home from work. Winter darkness. It creeps up on you.
Continue reading “Early Darkness and Hot Orange Spice Tea and Chili”
I have to profess my love. I love our chickens. We started raising chickens when my oldest daughter, now thirty-one, was in the fourth grade. She brought home her class project and we didn’t have a place to put it. So we built a small chicken house. A one thousand dollar chicken house for a $1.50 chicken. That turned out to be a rooster.
I’m not kidding.
Continue reading “Chickens, It’s Cold Outside! And Chicken Rice Roger”