New Cow Stalls - The Project Begins

This pile of metal has been lying around the barnyard for a couple of years now, being moved from one location to another to keep them out of the way. Believe it or not, these looped metal tubes are going to form the sides of new cow stalls, and the work has finally begun. I can't wait to see how they're going to look!
This is what the old wooden stalls look like. Most of them have been broken down over the years, so the cows poop wherever they want and lie down wherever they want. Are you getting my drift? Even with keeping hay on the floors, the cows get awfully dirty and Weldon has to wash them morning and evening before we can milk.
The new metal tubes will hang from iron or cement posts, so Weldon is making one new cement post each day. This is the form he made, filled with cement.

Each one is perfectly beautiful, as you can see. He will need to make about 25 of them.

Weldon's nephew Wesley Carroll has been coming to help with the work: measuring, cutting, lifting sagging roof beams, and digging out cement, packed dirt & cow poop. It's a lot of dirty, heavy work.

Nothing is exactly square, so the whole center area needed to be dug up and laid out "just so." If you look carefully, you can see the string working as a level so that concrete footings can be poured. Weldon backed the tractor & generator into position , but only after Wesley did his best to drown a nest of wasps. I think he missed. But the work continued and now you can see the finished line of concrete and metal posts running down the center of the barn lot. The cement posts that Weldon is making will run along the sides of the barn lot ... or, that's my understanding. It's all pretty impressive.
Now this work has stopped so that the corn/sorghum harvest can be brought in. A farmer's work is never done.
Stay tuned ....

... Walk with Me ...
Weldon has 3 silos in which he stores the silage that he feeds the cattle throughout the course of the year. The last of the silos was almost empty, so he had to cut some corn last Thursday (August 27) to tide the cows over until it's really time to harvest. Walk with me as I tag along behind the workers.
The parade is just about ready to start: tractor, corn chopper, wagon, and clown.
Weldon has 4 cornfield areas on the farm, "cut up" into about 21 small patches. These fields cover about 33 acres. His dream is to "just once" farm a big flat piece of land. Today Weldon, Tim, and Jeff would be cutting in the furthest field (3/4 mile from the house), down by the Little Yadkin River. They drove the equipment down and started working while Jasmine and I walked and took some pictures along the way. This is the edge of the first field on the left side of the road.
Next is a scuppernong vine and a pretty view of Pilot Mountain.
On the right, Weldon's sister Pat has a house that she used to live in and an old house that came with the property. It's old and falling apart and I love it!
We have one neighbor at the end of the "real"road , but the wagon tracks continue to some more fields. This looks like the corn is planted too close together, but Weldon had to plant some sorghum amongst the corn to make up for all the stalks that the deer, crows, and turkeys pulled up. And in this picture , you can see where Weldon has cut the hay beside the corn field. Now it needs to be baled and brought up to the barn.
If you look carefully, you can see the smoke from the tractor in the middle of the corn field. The Little Yadkin River is nestled in those trees on the far side of the field. By the time Jazz & I got there, they had already cut one wagon load and were working on the second.
Silage in the first wagon.
Loading the second wagon.
On our way back up the hill: It was nearing 90 degrees and I think we were both panting by now. Jeff came by on his "Mule" and offered us a ride. Jazz isn't crazy about riding in strange vehicles, but she sat on my lap and didn't complain at all. I guess she knew she shouldn't look a gift mule in the mouth.
And here we are, back at the silo. The wagon has a conveyor chain that pushes the silage out and then a blower blows it into the top of the silo. This silo is 40 ft tall.
You can see an exciting video of the silage moving along the conveyor table on my Facebook page :-)
Thanks for walking with me. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

3 DAYS IN MINNESOTA

A big party in northern MN to celebrate my parent's 60th wedding anniversary and my dad's & my uncle's 80th birthdays? Neither hell nor high water could keep us away. Katie flew from NY to MSP Int'l Airport on Thursday evening and Weldon & I flew out from Greensboro on Friday morning, July 31. We met up with Anna and Marshall in the Charlotte airport. From there, we flew into Minneapolis/St.Paul and were met by Steve (my former husband) and Katie. We went to his home and visited for a while with him and his wife Teri. This was the first time for Weldon to meet them. From there, we took Grandma Esther's car (Steve had made arrangements for us to borrow it to save us some $$, thank you very much!) and headed north. We stopped for lunch in Rush City at the Firefly Bistro and then drove on to Cloquet.

You can read the rest of the story and see 150+ photos by clicking on the link below and reading the captions under the pics. There are 2 short videos of Esther talking at the end (second & third from the end), so make sure to check them out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/farmliving/Minnesota2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCNfZuuDGxJrKUg#

Lots of relatives and not much scenery, but hope you enjoy :-)

NC to NY ... and Back Again

The big (sad) day finally arrived. On Tuesday, June 2, Katie was ready to make her move to New York. In order to delay the sad part for a few days, I drove with Katie to Brooklyn to help her get settled. Heading-out day was plenty busy. First, there were lots of kitties to say goodbye to. Katie had just found and rescued these little babies just 2 days previously while we were at church. Since she found them, she had to name them: Ike and Ray. (Turns out Ray is a female, so now it's Ike and Raye.)

The "boys" were finally able to start getting in the wheat. What a relief!
Tim Lawson: Papa John:
and Mr. Farmer himself, Weldon:

While I did evening chores, Katie loaded the car. When we were ready to go (close to 11pm), we had a good strong cup of coffee, kissed Weldon goodbye, and headed out. Katie drove and it was my job to keep her awake. Personally, my eyelids never felt heavy, but we were both plenty exhausted. We stopped often to pee and stretch our legs, but what a l -- o -- n -- g drive. The sun was coming up while we were going through PA, so I enjoyed seeing a little of that beautiful countryside. The GPS didn't give us too many problems. It finally had to admit that we were right :-)

We arrived at the apartment a little before noon, a few hours longer than the maps predicted, but we did make a lot of stops. Sebastien had flown up from Miami to help with the move, and he had just exited the subway when we pulled in. Talk about timing! We unloaded the car and then found some lunch. Jamaican goodies, just around the corner from Katie's apartment. mmmmm
I hadn't had a Ting in years!
Then a quick stop at the local hardware (?) store for a broom. We didn't need any Tide, but one can always use more Time, right?!
We returned the rental car to Manhattan and stopped at a few shops before taking the subway "home."

The next morning, Thursday, all of Katie's earthly belongings were delivered by truck from Miami. The shrink-wrapped pallets were set on the sidewalk in front of the apartment and the 3 of us got everything inside the lobby and then up the elevator to the apartment. I think it went extremely well. Sebastien's body-building buddy was supposed to be there to assist us, but we got along just fine without him, thank you very much. We were pretty hard on Sebastien, but we finally convinced him that jumping wouldn't solve anything. That night we had supper in a cute little Mexican restaurant right across the street from the apartment. I had a hamburger - go figure. Sure was tasty :-)
Sebastien spent Friday with a friend and Katie and I went into the city for some r&r. We spent a couple of fun hours at MOMA and had lunch there.

After the museum, we dashed through the rain drops to visit a few shops, including a fabulous chocolate shop, a Japanese sweets shop, and maybe another Japanese grocery or two. Then it was back to the subway and back to Brooklyn.

Saturday morning we were up before 5 to make the trip to JFK. I had a good flight home, through DC, and Pat picked me up at the airport. Weldon always asks, "Did you see anyone you know?" This time I really surprised him by saying, "Yes! I saw Eddie McGee." He was flabbergasted. "You DID??" (Eddie used to go to the same church as we go to.) "Yup. He was in the movie we watched last night - Junebug. :-)" It's true and made us all laugh.... And then it was time for chores.

BUSY, BUSY

You've maybe noticed I haven't blogged in quite a while. Actually, I blog almost every day, but now I do it for money :-) Because of that and being on Facebook, it seems hard to find time to write on Farm Muse. But here I am! Let's see what I can tell you about.

Cats and kittens are always a hot topic around here. Spitz had 4 babies early this spring, and all are doing well. These pictures were taken on March 31:
Maggie, Tobie,
Dottie, Rambo.
Rambo has moved to Florida, but we hear he has made the adjustment quite nicely.

Carson had 3 babies back in January. I posted a video of one of them earlier this year, but they're all grown up now. Lightning, Samantha, & Obama:
Carson has new babies in the junk pile. Katie and I saw them (sort of) and there are at least four. After we found them, Carson moved them and we haven't found them again. She's so sneaky.

Marshall came up for a few days over Easter and Spring Break.
Steve Carroll hid the eggs,
Maria & Beth Carroll and Marshall found the eggs,
and Kathryn & Haylee stopped by later in the afternoon.
A trip to the farm isn't complete without driving the bobcat,
playing with the kittens,
teaching Weldon something new (pop rocks),
and reading bedtime stories.

Katie has been spending some time here on the farm while making arrangements to move to NY. Before flying to NY to hunt for an apartment, we visited Anna and Marshall in Charlotte .
Weldon was sure glad to see me when I got home :-)

On Mother's Day we had a surprise visit from Scott, Jennifer, and Aniston. Aniston loved Dottie, but we couldn't convince them they needed another cat.
Scott was here, really! I just didn't get a picture of him.

Katie had a successful trip to NY, finding an apartment in Brooklyn. She's busy packing and so am I. I'm driving up with her in a few days to help her get moved in. Then I'll fly back home. I've really become a gadabout in my old age, haven't I???

I know this blog is called Farm Muse but I don't write much about the farm. I think I'll have Weldon "ghost write" a spot to tell you how difficult and disappointing things have been. Of course, it has finally stopped raining so he will finally be able to harvest the wheat, if he can finally get some parts for the machinery. So he'll finally be too busy to write and tell you his sad story. The good news is, we keep on laughing and smiling and enjoying each other and life. YAY!!

MY MINI-VACATION ... Part Two: Miami
I forgot to mention that it was rainy and cold when I left home on Saturday morning. I hadn't gone very far when I realized the heater in the car wasn't working. Fortunately, I had a jacket and gloves in the car but, by the time I got to Anna's, I was just about frozen. I didn't realize how cold my toes were until I got in the house, and when Marshall hugged me, he exclaimed, "Grandma is COLD!!"

So, I left the cold rain of Charlotte behind and flew into the warm sunshine of Ft. Lauderdale. Katie picked me up and our first stop was a Japanese grocery store that also had a sushi bar. We had a nice little lunch and then strolled through the store looking at all the Japanese goodies (and weirdies). We bought these green tea treats and enjoyed them later. They have a spongy, gooshy texture (like marshmallows) and have red bean paste inside. Is that right, Katie?? Anyway ... Yummy! We stopped to get gas and then home to Miami Beach. That evening, Sebastien (a friend from our Haiti days) took us out to a Japanese restaurant. Katie can probably tell you what everyone ordered, but what I know for sure is that I didn't have sushi. I had cooked pork and Japanese veggies in some kind of delicious sauce and white sticky rice. Katie and I shared green tea ice cream for dessert. Here are Sebastien and his girlfriend Neysa, and Katie who actually knows how to use chopsticks. I guess everyone knew how to use chopsticks, except me. The waitress noticed and brought me a fork :-) It was so pleasant to be walking wherever we went and not getting cold or wet.

On Monday, Katie had to work (she works from home), so I took out my Japan stuff and pictures from 2 years ago and got everything organized and put into empty scrapbook pages. A lot of good memories, and when I have some time to start scrapbooking again, it'll be smooth sailing. After Katie had had enough of work, we walked to Cheeseburger Baby and had ... cheeseburgers, baby! and fries. Wow! Talk about delish!! It was almost painful to walk home, but so worth it :-)

On Tuesday we went to see Slumdog Millionaire. What a fabulous movie. It affected me the same way as reading Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt ... awful but wonderful. Our evening meal was at a cute little French cafe, Cafe a la Folie. We knew we were going to have dessert, so we ordered sparingly. I had French onion soup and Katie had a wonderful salad, and they brought out some crusty yummy rolls, of course. We shared our entrees with one another and then each ordered creme brulee. What can I say?? We're like little piggies when it comes to good food.

And then it was Wednesday already, my going home day - and it was raining a little. Before heading to the airport, we decided to go to IKEA in Ft. Lauderdale. Although a new IKEA just opened in Charlotte, I had never been to one, so we had a good time checking out all the stuff. And, of course, we had to be a little silly. There was a mirrored vanity and the doors were also mirrored on the inside, so we stuck our heads in and took a pic. And I thought this sink would be good for Weldon to wash up in when we get our new wash/laundry room done. Time to check out and head to the airport. So sad :-(

I got to there in plenty of time, especially considering my flight was delayed by an hour!! Anna was waiting for me when I arrived in Charlotte (about 6pm). We went back to her place, I picked up my overnight bag, and I drove on home. Aren't little getaways grand?!

MY MINI-VACATION ... Part One: Charlotte

On March 4th, Katie sent me an email to tell me that Jet Blue was having a sale on flights to Ft. Lauderdale. Did I want to come for a visit? Well, duh!!! After a quick consultation with Weldon, I started searching for a flight. I had already planned to be at Anna's on March 14, so I decided to fly out of Charlotte on the 15th and return on the 18th. I didn't want to stay away too long, because I feel guilty knowing that Edith does my milking chores when I'm gone (with never a complaining word, I might add).

Saturday with Anna and Marshall was a lot of fun, as always. March 10th was Marshall's 10th birthday, so we had to take a little trip to Target (surprise!!) so he could spend some of his birthday money from Katie, Edith, Pat and Great Grandma Schmidt. He bought 2 shirts, body wash, and a video game.
Other than that, we just enjoyed our time together at home. We played Uno and made pizza from scratch, using a pizza crust recipe that I used when the girls were little.

Are you ready for a long, goofy story about the recipe? If not, simply skip the next paragraph.

In February, a friend of Katie's sent me an email, saying that Katie had told him about the fantastic pizza dough recipe I have and could I send it to him. Well, I was stumped. I wrote to Katie, What recipe??? She didn't remember exactly, except that we always used it in Haiti, it called for whole wheat flour but we used white, and the recipe card was in my green plastic recipe box. So ... I look through the box. No recipe. I ask Anna. She remembered it had honey in it and the recipe was in my green plastic recipe box. Searched again. No recipe. I don't quite remember how it happened, but I mentioned the pizza crust on Facebook and a gal we worked with in Haiti wrote, "I use your pizza crust recipe all the time. Everyone in Haiti always said I made the best pizza." What??? You have THE recipe?? Yes! so she emailed it to me. When I got it, the name of the recipe was GRAHAM FLOUR PIZZA CRUST. Hmmmm... little bells going off in my head. I remembered going through my recipe box some time ago and thinking, "graham flour?! like, who buys that any more??" so I thought I must have thrown out the recipe without even looking at it. I thought I also had a graham flour bread recipe, so I decided to look through the box once more and if there were NO graham flour recipes, I would know that that's what had happened. And, lo and behold, there's the Graham Flour Pizza Crust recipe, big as (3x5) life. We all had a good laugh.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.

So here are some pictures of us making and eating the pizza. Sure enough, it was fantastic!! :-)


We had a lazy Sunday morning together and then they took me to the airport. After that, they went to a birthday party for Marshall. The party was originally scheduled for Saturday (which was why I was planning to be in Charlotte on the 14th), but was then changed to Sunday (after I had already bought my ticket to Florida). Needless to say, I missed the party. Anna sent me pictures, so I'll include a few of them for your enjoyment.
Isn't this the cutest cake?! That's Marshall's wrestling picture :-)
Anna made him a quilt. Marshall had actually picked out the fabrics and the pattern he liked. Pretty cool, huh?

Part two of this mini-travelogue (Miami) will be posted within a couple of days. Trust me.