August 2007

August has arrived and with really nice weather, the end of July was super. Last weekend we finally had some much needed rain which the crops can use. Joyfully it was a nice soaky rain without thunder, lightening or tornadoes. Today is the 8th and more rain is expected.

Last weekend the big news was the collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneaspolis. They have not recoverall all the bodies yet. makes you think how an ordinary day can change in the blink of an eye. One min you are driving home from work and the next you are struggeling to stay alive.

Jim is accomplishing so much, so far since June he has finished the radient heat in basement, put up the plates and almost finished the insulation. Installed a new hot water heater and waster softner system. Put in the filter and wiring for our new fridge and icemaker, torn out the windows in attic to get to rotten wood. He has purched table saw, work bench and router to work on those projects. He is working on taking out ceiling in front room so can start installing tubing for heat for second floor.

There is so much to do, but we know it will be years until things are done to our satisfaction. My corn and peas came up and may actually get some produce from them. My tomatoes are exceeding my expectations, now if they would just ripen so I could taste one that would be cool.
Since they are not getting mowed I am finding hollyhocks all over the place, so pretty. The roses are in riot of blooms, I was worried after the wind earlier made such a mess of them. One big project for next year will be trying to figure out how to protect them from wind.

The Clark Homestead

After reading and hearing about blogs I decided this might be a way to keep in touch with friends and family, and anyone else who would be interested.

We have finally completed our move to Iowa and most of our spare time is spent preparing for the coming winter. Last winter is an experience we do not want to revisit, power outages, frozen pipes, flooded basement. I don't think you totally appreciate the power of snow until you spend from 12:00 AM to 3:00 PM stuck in a parking lot because the roads are closed. Trying to stay warm and keep two German Shepherds happy in a car is not really my idea of heaven. Of course, traveling the next day and seeing the number of cars off the road, quite a few upside down, made our stay seem much better. We were within one exit of home when they closed the interstate.

We had left Wisconsin to head home with the van and car around 12:00 noon, after leaving Waterloo the weather started turning bad, the rest of the trip was spent traveling at 35 miles per hour. This trip usually takes us 5 hours. At times we could not see the road but kept trucking until they closed the highway. The next day when we arrived at the house it was to find the driveway blocked, I did this by trying to drive through what I thought was just a little snow, wrong. As I sat there Jim went up to check the house and came back to tell me there was 3 feet of water in the basement!! Oh, joy. Through the help of friends and strangers we were dug out, they brought heaters and sump pumps and we were bailed out and warm. It took from Sunday to Tuesday to get all the water out.

Now as I sit here and look out the window at the corn fields, all green and healthy, all that snow seems like a bad dream. The fields stretch for miles in all direction and it has been a treat watching the process of planting and growing. Much of my time is spent trying to keep things mowed and planting new, also uncovering what was here before. Yesterday brought the discovery of a patch of pretty blue flowers, don't know what they are yet.

As Jim works out of town, well out of state, his weekends are full of repairing pipes, walls etc. It always amazes me how talented he is and how he can just jump in and fix all kinds of things. I try to do my part by breaking things so he will feel appreciated, I found pieces of farm equipment by driving over them with mower. This was also my method for finding the strawberry patch, which with Jim's help was rescued from oblivion. It is now thriving, no berries, but the plants look good.

With this page I am going to try and chart our progress with the house and acreage, bloopers and triumphs. I hope you enjoy this, I think I will have fun with it and maybe even get Jim to put in a note or two.