Cutting Alfalfa

I haven't posted much lately for two reasons.  One- I have been on vacation, and Two- there really is not a whole heck of a lot going on.

However, right before we left for vacation I had quite an exciting job....cutting alfalfa for the first time!!

I was in Watertown for the day, taking the dogs to the kennel and spending some quality time with my mom.  Right after I had dropped the dogs off, my mom and I had to run a few errands before I headed back home.  While we were out, Logan called and told me he had no help for the rest of the night and that he had to cut, rake, and bale.  In the back of my mind I was thinking, there is no way he is going to be able to get all of this done before we leave! So..the nice person I am..offered to help, and Logan took me up on this!  So I dropped my mom off at home, headed back west, and an hour later I was out cutting alfalfa.

Farm Girl Tip # 99: If you offer to help out on the farm, expect to be put to work.  You just never know what you may get yourself into!! (Although I really didn't mind this job at all!!)

Peace and Freedom

My family and I spent the 4th of July week at Pickerel Lake staying in a cabin, fishing, being on the water, being with family and friends, and enjoying fireworks.  While we were here, we met a man who has experienced more than anyone could ever experience in their lifetime.  

This man was an 80 year old man who's name was Claus.  Claus came from Germany and carries an interesting story.  When Claus was 10 years old, a Nazi soldier came to his families door, asked if Claus was there, and took him to a Hitler youth camp to be a Youth Nazi.  Claus and many other 10 year old boys gathered at this camp and cried for a week because they missed their families.  The young boys were handed a gun and began training to become Nazi soldiers and to learn everything that Hitler had wanted his empire to become.  

One day towards the end of the war, Claus had seen Eisenhower and his army coming to "rescue him" by trying to destroy Hitler's empire.  Claus had seen all of this happen right before his eyes and told himself that one day he wanted to be like Eisenhower.  After the war was over, Claus went back to his home where the Nazi soldier had come to take him and found his house to be nonexistent and his parents living in a fox hole.  This is when Claus decided that he would move to the United States.  

Claus had a family member who lived in Salem, SD and that family member was willing to take Claus in and sponsor him.  At 19, Claus made his move to the United States.  Knowing no English, this was a very hard time.  After moving to the United States, Claus served in the Korean War under his Commander in Chief, who he had seen not too many years earlier, Eisenhower.  Claus created a great life for himself and his family, and still goes back to Germany every two years to visit his family.  The part that struck me with this man was when he pointed out his American Flag.

Claus flies his American Flag every single day because it is the only flag in the entire world that stands for Peace and Freedom.  When Claus lived in Germany there was no such thing as Peace and Freedom.  Living in the United States, you are given Peace and Freedom every single day of your life.  It is something that us as Americans take for granted because we know no different. Claus had become a youth Nazi at age 10, found his house destroyed and his family gone.  Claus never knew peace and freedom until he came to the United States.  It really made me think about what I have and how lucky I am to have what I have.  

Farm Girl Tip # 98: Do you appreciate what you have?  Peace and freedom. I am proud to say that I am an American!

Busy Busy Busy

Wow! It has been a busy summer and it's already half way over! So sad to think about!! It has been a little over a month since I have posted so let me update you on the house! We have tore the old house down, dug a new basement, poured walls, filled in around the house, and visited our new house being built!  It has been so busy that I haven't really had time to post anything!

Here are a few pictures of everything that has been going on!

Here is the basement completely dug.

Pouring the forms for the basement.

Concrete trucks in my yard.  This was not the only thing--we had bobcats, backhoes, vehicles.  You name it, we probably have had it! My potatoes in my garden even got run over from all of the vehicles! :(

Wall frames leaning against the basement.  Need to be put up straight and poured.

Pouring the basement walls and foundation.

Garage--ready for the floors to be poured.

Logan and I standing in front of our new house!

The inside of our house.  Tile floor is done. Working on trim work.

Laundry room counters and cabinets done!

Kitchen cabinets, counters, and island ready to be installed.

So there you go! It sure is coming along quite well! Like I said before, lots is happening and it is a very busy but exciting time!

  

Light 'Er Up

I know some of you have been waiting for this post all day today, so here it is!!

Today marks the day we destroyed the old house.  Just a little background--this house was built in 1905 and it was added onto twice.  That means the actual house was 109 years old!!

  It all started at 9:30 this morning when the tree removal crew hopped into their machines and started destroying the house.  They ran one backhoe to demolish the house.  They started on one side of the house in the middle and pushed the walls in.  They then moved to the other side of the house and pushed in the middle on that side.  Then they moved to each corner of the house and eventually the roof caved in.  I've never seen a house destroyed before, but this was the way to do it.  There was no need to just go right for the roof, but to start in the middle and work out towards the corners and the roof will just fall in on its own. 

Let me tell you...when they were tearing the house down, I questioned myself as to how I lived in this place for a year----it DEFINITELY was true love!!  The asbestos, dirt, dust, mold, and MICE was just unreal!  When the ceiling fell down, it was amazing
at how dirty the insulation was.  We figured most of this dirt was from the dirty 30's that got trapped in the house.  It was really mind-blowing as to how much dirt was in this house!!

After the entire house was demolished, Shay (Logan's brother), Roger (Logan's dad), and a fireman threw a few matches on the house.  The house lit up, and really did not take long to burn down.  109 year old wood burns pretty fast!! 

It was kind of sad to see this house go because it has always been the farm house, the house Roger's grew up in, and mine and Logan's first house, but we know that the road ahead of us holds so much more than we can even imagine.  The new house will be here before we know it and there are great memories to be made in the new house, just like the memories made in this house.

**So now that my sentimental speech is done, we can get to the pictures.  I took about 50 pictures and a few videos, so here are the highlights from the day!

Farm Girl Tip #97: When you are ready to burn down your house, call everyone you know! Everyone loves to see a nice fire...and mice run!

Wedding Trees

Since Logan and I are preparing for a wedding, and we have knocked down 17 trees in our yard, my mom and I have come up with some good decoration ideas involving trees for our wedding reception.  

My parents and brother came out this past weekend to chop up a few trees for the wedding! Of course, this event did not take only an hour or two, but about 4.5 hours! My family came down with their 30 year old chainsaw that ran perfectly fine.  My dad started cutting trees when Logan pulled out their chainsaw.  My dad's chainsaw started acting up, so he used Logan's.  We were moving right along until this chainsaw ran out of gas.  So my dad filled it up and it started acting up too!  He ended up spending a half hour trying to get the chainsaw to work when we decided we should go get a new one.  It was 4:20 and Runnings closed at 5:00.  Needless to say, we buzzed up to Aberdeen and got to Runnings with 7 minutes to spare and ended up with a new chainsaw.  

Once we got home, it took us another half hour to get the new chainsaw running, but once we got it going, man did we get some tree cutting business done!!  Below are a few pictures from the tree cutting event, but I am not going to show any pictures of what we actually cut down...I'm keeping it a secret until the wedding!  I'll give you a hint...think birch branches and lots of pieces of tree trunk! :)

Farm Girl Tip #96: If you want trees for wedding decorations, just cut down some trees in your yard and use them! It will mean so much more if you cut your own down!!

Toothbrushes....

Logan and I have moved up to his parents place to stay while our house is being built and our old one is being tore down.  While we were here tonight, I was helping Michelle clean up from supper.  I went to put something in the dishwasher and noticed toothbrushes in the dishwasher.  I was quite confused by this, so I had to ask if those were really toothbrushes in the dishwasher! Sure enough, they were! Michelle tells me that once a year she takes the toothbrushes from the camper and sanitizes them by washing them in the dishwasher.  Let me tell you, you really do learn something new everyday! 

Farm Girl Tip #95: If you need your toothbrushes sanitized, I guess you can put them in the dishwasher! I still am quite confused by this....

Old to New

If you have read a few previous posts, you can see that Logan and I are getting a new house! We have removed trees, packed up, seen too many mice (dead and alive), and moved out.  This post is just to showcase the old house compared to the new house!

Here is the old house.  Honestly, I'm not sure how I lived here for a year and how Logan lived here for 2 years.  This place is DISGUSTING!! I don't even know where to begin on explaining how bad it is.  Between dirt, mice, and water leaks, it was time to move out and destroy.

This was taken on a day when I was packing up and hauling stuff to the box.  I would back the pickup right up to the door and haul out!

Here is the new house.  I CANNOT wait to live in this baby!! Especially compared to what I've been living in for the past year!

Farm Girl Tip #94: When it's time to move, DO IT! If you have mice, water leaks, and dirt that you can't even clean up anymore...Call Steinmentz in Watertown and have them build you a new house! It really is simple!

Tree Demolition

Whew!! These past 2 weeks have been crazy! I have finished school for the summer, moved out of a house, and moved into a different house.  Logan and I are finally starting to get settled in and are ready to burn the house down and get ready for our new house!! 

Along with moving out of the house, we have also been tearing trees out! We tore out 17 trees and WOW does the yard look great!! All of the trees we tore out would have been in the way of the new house, so yes, we had to take all of these trees out! This really opened up the yard and will make the house look real nice!!  

Here are some before and after pictures of the house without trees!  Hopefully I have labeled the pictures in a way that is easy to understand!  I wouldn't want to confuse you!! :)

Here is the front view of the house:

Before:

After:

Side View of the house:

Before (The trees hid the ugly house):

After: (There is so much more room for activities!!)

Looking from the road:

Before: 

After view:

After view of the soon to be backyard:

--There wasn't much back here, just a few trees. I don't have a before picture of this.

And of course, I can't forget to showcase the beautiful house! This was a before picture, as you can tell by the trees peeking over the house, and the tree on the right back side of the house. It sure is a beaut!!

Farm Girl Tip #93: Tree demolition is quite exciting!!  If you are in need of some entertainment, call your local tree guy and have him come dig up 17 trees in your yard! And who knows, maybe you can save some of the branches for decorations for a special event!! 

****More to come on this in a future post!!****

The Box

Well our house is progressing right along, and with that in mind, the time has come for us to start to move out of this house.  Yesterday, we received a big box to put all of our stuff in.  According to the people, this box is mouse proof and I sure hope they are right!!

Since we now have a big box sitting in our yard, I have started the packing process! I was absolutely exhausted yesterday, and it didn't even look like I made a dent in the box!!  I guess that is probably ok since we have LOTS of big items that still need to fit in here!!

When I said the house is progressing along, I meant that it was progressing quite quickly!! Here are a few pictures of the house!

This is the back of the house.

 Here is the front of the house.

 And here is the back of the house with shingles on it!

Farm Girl Tip #92: When your house is in the shingling stage, you know it's time you should probably start moving out of your old house.  P.S. It's really creepy looking in places you have never looked before to see if you should keep anything.  You never know what you might find...

Spring At The Farm

Yesterday was a nice South Dakota spring day...with wind of course!  I got home from school, and decided to plant part of my garden.  I planted my potatoes and carrots in my freshly tilled garden.  I had a little company the entire time watching me as I did all of the work!

Then a little while later, Logan was thirsty and invited me to bring him some water and food.  If I did that I could ride with him for a while.  Since I was not doing a whole heck of a lot, I decided this would be a good bargain!  I brought him water, pop, chips, and freshly baked cookies.  (Real healthy huh?!) In turn, I got to ride along in the planter until he finished the field.  Then he kicked me out because he had to plant the headlands (around the edges of the field) and he needed to do that by himself with no one in the planter.  How rude!!

Farm Girl Tip #91: You never know when you will get a nice day to plant your garden so do it even if it's windy.  Invite your dog to come keep you company, too!! Also, when you are ever invited out to the field, take advantage of it.  It's always so relaxing and peaceful!