I'm Off Again......

I have only been home one week, and I am getting
ready to go again. My bags are still unpacked from the last trip.
I will just rearrange a few things, and add some more
summer clothes and I"ll be done.

My friend Gail and I are off the Florida.
We are driving and we need to be in Fort Lauderdale on the 13th.
We will pick up her daughter, and then we will go to Fort Myers
for the rest of the trip. I'll fly home on the 17th.

Yes, I am a bum!

But doesn't this look more appealling than Ohio.
I am really feeling the effects of the cold weather.
I need sunshine. Now if I can only convince Dave
he needs sunshine too!

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday
I came across a blog that had a link to beautiful sky photos.
This is my first attempt at adding a link to my blog.
It may not work, but I will give it a try.

Here is the sky over Medina Twp. this fall.
I am not sure what this type of cloud formations are called
but the sky was full of them and they looked very odd.
The sun was shining and there wasn't any rain coming from the clouds.

Every Friday new sky photos are posted.

I'm Back........

On November 20th, we left the cold and snow of Medina
for warmer temperatures. Our adventure took us through
6 states in 12 days and 1800 miles later we made it home.


We stayed at the Beach houses in North Carolina.
Dawn and Joanne always cooked up a feast. Lauri looks on at all the food.
Friends from Georgia, and South Carolina joined us for Thanksgiving.


Dave and Chris enjoyed the beach and the sunshine and the
opportunity to rest.


Dave made a new friend when we visited old friends in
Albemarle, NC


Dinner with old friends was great. Cindy and I began our
friendship in 1974 as Pen Pals.


The sunsets over the sound were spectacular.

Lauri and Tiffany met some old friends on

Ocracoke Island.

Dave and I enjoyed the sun and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Thank goodness it was closed for climbing for the season!

The weather was perfect for flip flops!

The waves were perfect for surfing!

When we first looked out into the ocean, we thought these were seals,

until they stood up and rode their boards!

Yes, this house really exists. The movie "Nights in Rodanthe", written by

Nicholas Sparks, was filmed in Rodanthe, where the beach houses are.

The house is located at the end of the road. It is abandoned because it is

slowly being washed into the ocean. It looked much nicer in the film.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the most famous lighthouse

on the island.

Ocracoke Lighthouse is less famous, but watches

over the island that Blackbeard the Pirate was known

to hide out near.

When we weren't relaxing or sightseeing,or eating, we went "junking"

for used car parts. This is one of Dave's hobbies.

We went to several junk yards, excuse me, auto recyclers,

looking for replacement parts for the farm trucks. We found

2 fenders and a door!

Snowy Days......

I have been very busy getting things ready for the change of seasons. I had help from Adam, and we got all the things in the yard put up in the barn, the garden cleaned up and the chicken coops ready for winter.

JUST IN TIME!!! The snow arrived last night and it is still coming down. Some of the bridges are icey, and some of the snow is sticking to the ground.

I think this looks so much better than snow!

This is Crest View III. This is were Dave and I stay with Tiffany and Chris. We also refer to this as the "little house" It has 3 bedrooms and 3 baths and a Florida room with a hot tub all on one level. It is closer to the sound, not ocean front or ocean side. It is really cozy.No computer access! Limited cell phone reception! PEACE and QUIET!!!!

I don't think I am ready for the snow...... so we are going to escape the cold weather for a few days and head to the Beach!!! There is nothing like Thanksgiving at the Beach..... The Outer Banks are so peacful and relaxing...and there is no snow! On our way down, we will be looking for farm equipment, and visiting friends in Albemarle, NC ( yes, the home of Kelly Pickler, American Idol)

This is Crest View Winds. It has 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, it faces the ocean. It has an outdoor hot tub and has three floors. We refer to this one as the "Big House" This is were the rest of the family and friends stay. Some are coming from GA, SC, VA and NY.

Other family members will be joining us at the beach.... Mick and Adam will be staying home and takling care of the cows, and chickens. And yes we are leaving you all with the snow!

I will update the blog when I return......have a great Thanksgiving!

And What Do You Do on Your Day Off ?

So what do you do on your day off ? We seem to have an addiction to auctions. Dave likes tractor, truck and equipment auctions and I like animal and produce auctions. We have been to other types of auctions, but the used equipment auctions seem to be the ones we attend regularly. You never know what you might find.

On Wednesday, we traveled to London, Ohio , just east of Columbus for the Tri Green Equipment Auction. Dave is always looking for used equipment for the farm. He was in the market for a gravity wagon to hold the soybeans and corn that he is picking.

The auction is a very interesting place. It is full of men, not all of them attractive either.

Rough hard working men that are also looking for a bargain.

They tend to be a little pushy, leaving their manners at home. There is chew and spitting involved and eating from one of those traveling kitchens.

There are very few women that accompany these men.

I am one of those women.

Anything to spend time with Dave, who seems to work 24/7 and when he isn't working, he's sleeping. This trip meant I had him in the truck for about 5 hours of uninterrupted time to talk and be with him.

So I gathered up my Carhartts, sweatshirts, & boots, packed some snacks and the dogs

and off we went at 6AM.

While you all had grey skies and snow here at home, we enjoyed plenty of sunshine dotted with a few puffy clouds. It was cold and windy and the Carhartts came in handy but we really did have a good time.

One of the things we saw that was interesting and we tried to bid on was a 3 point hitch, PTO driven Buzz Saw.

We thought this would be great for cutting firewood. The bidding went a lot higher than we were willing to pay.


We bid on several items, but all the prices were higher than we thought we could afford, so we came home empty handed. I think this was the first time we ever left an auction without a thing!


The best part of going to the auction is stopping in Plain City at the Der Dutchman for lunch. Although I packed snacks, and we did a drive through McD's in Delaware on our way in to town in the morning, we are staving by the time we finish the auction. We stopped at about 2 pm for lunch. They have the best fried chicken and hot buffet that I have seen. Plus they have pie. We ate so much at the buffet that we had to take our pie to go. Then we have the 2 hour drive home and all I want to do is sleep. I drove while Dave took a cat nap. A State Highway Patrol car followed me most of the way home on I71.
Through the construction and all the trucks on the freeway.
He made me nervous.
We stopped for gas in Ashland, it was only $2.09 a gallon and filled up. Dave drove the rest of the way home.
All in all it was a good way to spend a day off!

Pictures of Fall

I tried to get some decent foliage pictures, but the trees are not cooperating. This one is overlooking the pastures at the Richfield Farm

The cows were very interested in what I was doing. I also had the dogs with me and the cows were on alert to protect the calf 'Tommy"! Tommy was the calf that was born and caused all the trouble with Mick's torn ACL.

Here is Chris, hard at work in the combine, picking soybeans.

Tommy, our farm manager, is checking the beans as they are unloaded into the grain bins for storage.

The corn is almost ready for picking.

My DIL Tiffany decided that we needed to make caramel apples. Dave loves those gourmet ones that have all the stuff on them and you have to cut them with a knife to eat them.

We decided that we could do just as nice of a job. We found a recipe on line at

www.werthers-original.us Their caramels are so much better than the old square ones we used to use. The recipe was easy to follow and the apples turned out delicious. I wanted candied apples, so we also made a batch of those. All together we made about 3 dozen apples. Tiffany will take most of them to school on Monday, for her teacher friends. The rest we will eat here. They do not store well so we are eating them up!

Ciemen and his Friends

Ciemen The Chicken Dog Beani and Turbo in the snow


Ciemen and Tubo
Turbo

We have two dogs, and my neighbor Kim, has one. They recently lost one of their older dogs, Thor.
We also have neighbors....not always the best neighbors, but we cope. One in particular is lacking any sense when it comes to dogs. Our dogs are well behaved and run around our two adjoining yards.....until crabby neighbor called the dog warden and said there were vicious dogs in the neighborhood. I have a Border Collie who obsessive/compulsive when it comes to playing stick, a small Shepard mix that Mick rescued while he was at college, and Kim has a big and goofy Boxer mix.


We are very good about keeping our dogs in line.....but the neighbor just likes to make trouble.....not only with the dogs, but other things too! Fortunately he goes to Florida for 6 months...BYE BYE!


Anyway we made our own dog park in our back yard and the dogs have a great time running together. They chase the chickens, the bunnies, the ground hogs and the raccoons and swim in the pond. It is a dog's life!


My neighbor Kim is so funny....she made her dog, Ciemen, a chicken costume for Halloween and had his picture taken. Ciemen also has sleep overs with my dogs when Kim has to work nights so he isn't alone.

The Yellow Bedroom

The Yellow Bedroom. The room is finally livable, the painting is done, the blinds are hung, and the bedding is on the bed. Tiffany and Jen helped me put some finishing touches on the walls. It is a product called Tatoauge. It comes in sheets and you can cut it to fit your area and you rub it on the wall with a tongue depressor, pull off the top sheet and it looks like you hand painted the wall.







I love the way the bed frame turned out, Mick did a great job. The bedding is OK, not what I wanted at first, but one that fit my budget. I still need too work an a few more throw pillows.










I am going to stick with the blinds for now, I like the Tatouage over the corner of the window, so I don't think I will do any other kind of window treatment, unless I see something that really sticks out.





























But I love the way the floors came out. They really are beautiful. And yes that is a milk can that I used for the base of the table on the left. I have one more piece that I am working on. I have an old pedal sewing machine stand, minus the machine, that I am painting white. I think I will use it for a TV stand.

More on Bess

Bess was on Chris' Graduation Cake!








Long after Chris left Garfield Elementary, he would bring Bess back to school and share her with the students. This is Mrs. Novotny's 3rd grade class. Mrs. Novonty was Chris' 3rd grade teacher.







Bess with Mrs. Bell at Garfield Elementary





Chris also took the time to take Bess to Canavan Elementary where Tiffany teaches. Bess loved being the star of the show. She is being kissed by Principal Karen McGinty










Chris and Bess at school.







Chris has 2 special girls in his life, one was Bess and the other is Tiffany, his wife.
This is one of my favorite pictures.










Bess was a fine show cow!



We all will miss her, especially her friend Sweetie.

In Memory Of Bess

When you lose a pet, it can be as hard as losing any other loved one. Last night Chris' beloved cow, Bess died. Bess was 15 years old. Bess was born in March 1993. Ten years after Chris was born. They shared the same birth month. He knew she was special! Bess became a part of Chris' life when she was 1 year old as his first heifer project. She was a flashy cow, roan in color.

Chris showed Bess at the Medina County Fair, where Bess won many awards including Supreme Champion Heifer. He showed her at the Ohio State Fair, and other smaller county shows.
Chris spent many hours with Bess, grooming, feeding and taking care of her. In the summer time, Bess lived at our house, and in the winter Bess lived at Grandma's farm, where the barns where bigger.
Chris always took Bess for rides in his trailer. Bess loved to go for trailer rides, from one farm to another. Bess also loved apples.



Chris always made sure he brought Bess a treat, whether it was apples, pretzels, cookies, graham crackers or Pumpkin Pie.





Chris also liked to dress Bess up. The Medina County Fair held a Cow Dress Up Contest every year. I would have to make all the costumes for the cows.

This is the year they went as the "Moos Brothers"





This is the year that they went as Santa Cows, after a book that grandma had bought them

"Mooey Christmas" was on our Christmas cards that year





And this is Chris with Bess. He took his graduation pictures with Bess.

Bess will be buried at the farm, with all the other beloved pets.
She will be missed.