You've GOT to be kidding ...

Nope, I'm serious. Halloween lilac blooms

 Mom had me take a picture to prove it.

Oh, and I found THE WAY to get the Sweet Gum balls out of the rain gutter.  Climb up on the roof with my new Hitachi leaf blower. stick the nozzle in the gutter and walk.  Although it is better if there isn't water in the rain gutter.....

I didn't try taking any pictures. Staying on the roof seemed more important.

Odd wonderings ...

I see Union Hospital is having a a free dinner and presentation  about living with diabetes including learning about effective self-management, developing a balanced, healthy lifestyle and overcoming fears surrounding diabetes.   I always wonder about odd things, like will the menu be "diabetic friendly"?

(from http://tribstar.com/features/x783643880/Union-Hospital-to-offer-free-diabetes-events):

Union Hospital’s Diabetes Education Center will observe Diabetes Awareness Month with activities.

The public is invited to a free dinner and presentation titled “Taking Control with Curtis Story” on Nov. 7. Story is a member of the sanofi-aventis A1C Champions Program, which is a patient led approach to diabetes education. He will share his personal experience about living with diabetes including learning about effective self-management, developing a balanced, healthy lifestyle and overcoming fears surrounding diabetes. The event will be at the Landsbaum Center for Health Education on Union Hospital’s campus at 1433 N. 61⁄2 St., in Terre Haute and starts at 5:30 p.m. with an opportunity to meet vendors. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. and speaker presentations begin at 6:15 p.m. Call the Diabetes Education Center at (812) 238-7577 to reserve a seat.


On Nov. 15, the center will offer a pre-diabetes class from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Union Hospital Professional Office Building, Suite 503, 1530 N. Seventh St. The class is designed for people who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance. The cost is $40 and will include a personalized meal plan, physical activity guide, glucose monitor, complication awareness, healthcare resource information and more. Call (812) 238-7577 to register. Low-income assistance is available.

I guess $40 isn't too bad for that if they include a monitor.  I'm kind of like a friend.  He has trouble trusting most of the nutritionists he sees because they seem to  usually be overweight.

Union also has its Annual Spirituality and Health Conference coming up. I'm kind of going "Umm... O  K ...."  I guess Union Hospital’s Chaplain’s Office is hosting its for care givers to provide support in individuals’ personal grief experiences.  It just sounds odd for the hospital to be offering.

I found Jim a trail to go walking on.

Not really.  I don't think his Mom could handle thinking about him doing it.  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsGC0lZ-5g8&feature=player_embedded.  I'm kind of like Mrs B from SE Iowa, "Who in the dickens built it, and how???? "  There is an article I just found at http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin27d.htm, but I haven't had time to read it.

I did it! I bought a book!

I did it! I bought a digital book this morning! And my wife didn't have to show me how!

I know, some thing of me as a techno geek, but in reality my "geekness' means I barely know how to do what I need to in order to do what I have to get done. But Sue, with her own laptop and Kindle is mega bytes farther along than I am. However, I stumbled through it all and bought Danny Hone's book, Lord of the Harvest.  I then got a Nook app and downloaded it to the iPad.   Some day I 'll be as technically proficient as a 12 year old.

You can order one by clicking on the book title.  It links to Barnes and Noble's web site. 

Not that I have time to read it for the next month as I'm studying my Emergency Medical Responder book

 

Windmills

We found a fascinating little place NW of Poland, Indiana.  Maybe I should back up and start at the beginning.

Friday it was apparent we were not likely to get in the field.  So I took a "personal day" and Sue and I played hookey.  We didn't have any plans other than being together and away from home and the farm.  We left Darwin and went north.  Went through several big cities like Dennison, Elbridge, etc. We started east and got to Clinton and decided we wanted to avoid the Covered Bridge Festival as much as possible.  So at Lyford we went east.  We looked at a lot of pretty country.  ended up in Brazil for lunch.  I'd heard of Eddie's Sandwich Shop

(See the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128063055082) Little is the operative word.  Good food, fun place to be, but don't figure on a large family dinner there.  We stopped at a yard sale, then headed toward Poland on Rt 42.  We're near Poland when we spy a sign along the road pointing toward the Windmills at Riverside Farm. We took up this winding little road and end up at a fascinating place.  He has something like 55 windmills up.

Some are from the 1830's and safe inside the barn.

Some looked more familiar

Next weekend is the close of his season.  I'd put it on my list of place to visit next summer.

He has a huge web site at http://www.windmill-parts.com/id20.html  Visit it for history, parts, photos, etc.

I try to keep this separate from the farm page

I try to keep this separate from the farm page, but sometimes that is difficult for me.  I get out of bed farming in my head, I work on the farm all day, and quite often end up dozing off in my office chair doing farm related work. So what have I been doing besides farming? Let me ponder a minute ...

Tuesday evening we had one of our twice a month fire department meetings.  But that kind of became a farm thing, as we ran out to our shed and looked at a combine for possible trouble spots.

One of the things I am involved in I can't take much credit for is our Wednesday evening youth class at church.  This is my favorite age group, ranging from about 6th grade through High School.   Michael Leighty is the teacher.  My job is to be the old guy.  Sometimes we get help in that department from Jon Ledermann ... except he really isn't old enough to qualify. We have been running in excess of 10 kids a week, sometimes more like 15.  When you consider maybe 5 or 6 of those are regular's on Sunday it seems to be working.

We try and be rather informal.  They have been in class at school all day, they don't need more of the same.  So we don't enforce behavior expectations quite as strict as might be expected at school or on Sunday morning.  Basically Michael tries to teach a lesson and I try to put a spin on it that makes the kids think.  A question was asked last Wednesday, and the answer was of course "Jesus" ... to which one of our regulars responded "That's a Sunday School answer". You are going "What?"  Let me explain.

We learn there are certain answers that usually work.  For instance in Church we learn a "Church vocabulary"  I've gotten onto my kids before for giving pat answers, answers using words we wouldn't use in every day life, "Sunday School answers" instead of using words and terminology we would normally use.

I hope we are building these kids into a community.  It would just be fantastic to help these kids develop into a group of friends who look out for and support each other.  Maybe I expect too much, but you can't reach what you don't try for.

So what else non-farm stuff have I done?  Oh!  Aman and I took down a TV tower.  The house Dale and Carolyn Poorman moved into had a TV tower they wanted removed.  I told them months ago we would do it for them, but for various reasons never got around to it.  We were setting twiddling our thumbs this week, so we took it down.

Guess where I was?  Hmm..I just realized we left that pipe laying in the yard.


I'm contemplating playing hookey Friday the 14th.  We can't do field work, and I hate to start any projects during farming season.  We'll see.  I better wind this up before I start waxing philosophical  Although sometimes your philosophy needs a good waxing.

Building a waterway

The overflow for our pond had gotten to the place it needed maintenance.  That is one of the problems with a grass waterway.  If it does its job the grass holds sediment, which then forces water around it negating its effect.  So we did some looking and measuring and figuring and called Robert to bring his play toys.

 He did some pushing and digging and rebuilt the waterway

 After he finished shaping it we seeded it,

harrowed it in,

And put down a straw blanket.

and Voila! a new waterway is made.

This weekend we had rain,  so we'll we how it works.

This was a first for me ....

Let's see, how many firsts this weekend?  First time I ever went on a trip after we started harvest, first time I have been in Milwaukee ... or Sheboygan, first time I have stayed a vacation rental house, first time to be on the beach of Lake Michigan, first time to meet several people, ... oh yeah, and first time I ever went to my son's wedding.

Yep, Jim Bob got married.

Probably been quite a while since anyone called him that.  It was small, a little different, kind of what you might expect knowing Jim.

I took about 150 pictures.  3 of them might even turn out OK. Let me share a few.  Let's start with important stuff.  This is Jim and Heidi exchanging vows.

It was really on the beach

The guest list was rather small.  Family and a few close friends.  Ike and Garrett made it.

What is she pointing at?  Most likely it was Ike's daughter, Miss Margo.  She was the hit of the event.  Here she is with the daughter of another of their friends. And I forgot to ask how she spells her name, but I do know it is her 12th birthday.

She also led the group in a song during the ceremony.

 Lovely young lady my fuzzy photos do not do justice to.  And speaking of fuzzy photos, what is a wedding without awkward family photos?

Yes, maybe I should have use some mousse.  As you can tell by my hands in my pockets and the expression on my face, I REALLY wasn't ready for the shot.

 Here we are with Heid's mom

This is a brother and sisters shot.

Velvet, Heidi, Jim, Becky, Jill

The happy couple with Heidi's sister Velvet and her mom Winnie

 Oh, and a photo of Shades and Little Shades.  David really likes hanging out with Aunt Jill

  I had to get a photo of Jim's boutineer.  If you look closely one of the components is milo! Ok, so I'm weird.  I found it amusing.

And of course I didn't comment (yeah, right)

But the flowers were beautiful

The weather was nearly perfect, the fellowship was good, it just couldn't have been much better.  But now I have a daughter-in-law.  Somehow that makes me sound older than having a son-in-law