The last Field

So we finally made it through the last field of corn. It has been a long drawn out process this but we are so very glad we are done!

Sendin' all up to the bins....this goes a lot faster than takin' it all into town.

Around, and round and up it goes!

Here's the last field empty except for the last little bit at the other end that Pop is finishing up.

Harvested corn stalks are such a beautiful sight!!!

As you can see we really wanted to get the last of the corn out...After running up and down the dirt road and havin' mud holes like this to deal with there wasn't a clean spot left on any of the equipment we had at the field!!

Reasons why I'm glad we have 4-wheel drive!!!!!!!

Here's Calvin posing for the pic while unloadin' on the truck.....Caleb stole my camera from me and was the photo taker here.....

That's why we have the only picture of me from the entire harvest of me. I'm always the one behind the lens. This is my new favorite thing to drive....mainly just because it has an FM radio and AC and heat!

Headin' out to get the last little bit of corn!

Next stop...the beans.....who knows when we'll get those started!

Dottie....what a cat!!

So a little over two weeks ago before corn harvest Caleb and I had an interesting morning dealing with our cat Dottie.....I have been wanting to blog this story for a while but since we have been in the field I haven't had a chance. So.....

To start off with let me tell you a little bit about our cat, Dottie and how we came to own her. Last winter when we would go and work on our house she would randomly show up, but wouldn't let you pet her....she would just meow a lot and then run away. Then one morning we found her in the live trap we had set to catch a skunk....since I had already been sprayed once in the past year by a skunk I was really kinda glad we didn't catch one!! Well after letting her go she got to where she would let you pet her some and as the days went by she became more needy and now every time you are near she wants your full attention and she is very vocal if she doesn't get it. You may think you have a cat that meows a lot, but compared to Dottie they are quite as a mouse. Speaking of mice, she is probably one of the best mousers that I have ever seen....that's the reason why we still have her....cause on top of her being extremely annoying is is also my least favorite looking type of cat.....my favorite would be a gray and black striped then a yellow/orange striped next would be a black and white....and my least favorite would have to be a gray and white....so of course the cat that comes with the place has to be a gray and white. So like I said even though I think she is ugly she is one heck of a mouser and that's part of the reason why we were in the predicament we were in a few weeks ago.

So on Saturday morning Caleb and I get up as usual I head to the kitchen to start the process of making another batch of salsa and Caleb headed to the garage to work on our porch swing (the porch swing is another story). Well I went out to the garage to ask Caleb a question and while I was out there I wanted to pet Dottie but didn't see her laying on her box full of carpet scraps like she usually does.
I ask Caleb if she was in there cause she figured out how she could come and go as she pleased so she wasn't always in the garage....but it's very rare that she is not in there. Caleb told me that he didn't know what she was doing, but she kept coming out and going back into the corner. When he told me that I immediately thought the corner where we put the rat poison out in....is she eating the poison...why haven't you looked to see what she is doing. So I go over and look under the work bench back in the corner....I see her back there and then I see some thing kinda fuzzy so I pull the rubbermaid container that is blocking my view and there I find a large rabbit that has been massacred and beheaded. So not only did she kill this big rabbit but she drug it into the garage up through the hole that Caleb put in the garage door last year...then she jumped up on the the rubbermaid container and dropped the rabbit off the back....I would say she got her workout for the day! Well when I see this seen I just start laughing and telling Dottie that she was a good cat....one less rabbit that will be getting into my garden....Caleb on the other had stands back gagging and and saying how gross and disgusting that it is. So in most relationships the guy would step up and clean-up the mess....not the case here Caleb kinda walks away and again comments on how disgusting it was...and I go and grab the headless rabbit as well as the head and take it outside to let Dottie finish eating then I get the Clorox spray and some paper towels and proceed to clean-up the mess all the time while Caleb is standing there watching and telling me I missed a spot and there was still a little rabbit blood on the floor over here.....hummm does something seem wrong here or is it just me.

This is another one of Dottie's favorite sleeping places.

One Year Ago....

Then.....
Now....

As of today Caleb and I have been married......it's crazy how fast time flies. It has been an amazing first year and I can't wait for the next 50 years!!! I am the luckiest woman alive to be married to and in love with my very best friend!!! I couldn't ask for more and and I'm so thankful that God gave such an amazing man!!

The Door

Fall is finally here so I thought that it was time to give my front door a little face lift. Just because I don't have any grass in my front yard doesn't mean that it has to look bad!!!


So I the ribbon I got after the season last year, went a stole some corn stalks from the field and set my pumpkins and the gourds I got from a friend out and when it was all said and done this is what I have.....

Even though fall is not my favorite season I absolutely love all the decorations for this time of the year. I think it is because it is based around farming. This is the time of the year that all farmers can't wait for. The time when they get to collect the fruits of their labor.

What to do when you have tomatoes coming out your ears......

So this year I was finally somewhere that I could plant my first solo garden. I really haven't done much in a garden since the summer right after my freshman year of college when I moved back to mom and dad's and helped with my mom's garden there.....so it's only been seven years. So after we finally got moved into our house and I finally got the ground tilled up where I was gonna put my garden, I could start planting my veggies. When I got to planting my tomatoes I did what I have always done....plant two full rows through the garden. That's what your suppose to do right??? I mean that's what we always did going up. The main difference between now and then is....back then there were six people in that house and five of them loved eating tomatoes....and now there are two people living in this house and only one of them loves eating tomatoes and it's not me. So you are probably asking yourself....if she doesn't like tomatoes then why is she growing so many?? If you think like my dad then, first I'm sorry ;) and second you would tell me I'm un-American since I don't like eating a fresh garden tomato with salt on it. The thing is I will try a bite of a tomato every year and every year I think they are gross. Now if you were to take that same tomato, cook it and and some other ingredients into it I would love to eat it.....it's just those fresh raw tomatoes that I can't stand to eat.....yet I still plant enough to feed a small country. O-well I love to grow the nasty things and then make all kinds of good things out of them.....especially yummy salsa!!!

This is just part of one plant that as you can see is fully loaded with some good ol' maters!!

Here is some of the first tomatoes that I picked. That is a box that I got about 26 lbs of peaches in and it worked great for tomatoes.....I guessed that I would have 20-25 lbs each time I would fill it and I have filled it at least five maybe six time so you do the math.....that's a few tomatoes!!!


The first ones I got to picked were soo pretty.....the ones got a lot of rain on them and they started to crack more.....but when you are making tomato juice and salsa does it really matter what they look like...not really!!

So with most of my tomatoes I have been making salsa....cause I really like salsa. I have been trying to find the best recipe for it and well I think I know what all to put in to it.....it's the different amounts of each where I have the problems cause I really don't measure but I will try to give you the recipe as best as I can!

You start off will a lot of tomatoes.....and this is for a big batch of salsa.....enough to do a canner full of 9 pint jars.....I used about half of my peach box....so 10-13lbs of tomatoes. I really just started cutting the cores out of them and when I thought I had enough I stopped. You need to remove skin from all the tomatoes....and the easiest way to do that is by blanching them....and for those who don't know what that is well.....it is when you take the tomato and place it into boiling hot water for about 30sec or until the skin starts cracking....and then you take it out with a slotted spoon and place it into ice cold water. After that the skin will pretty much just fall off. This process can also be used with peaches.....which is great when you are wanting to do a batch for frozen sliced peaches.....yum yum.....the best with a little sugar on top.....if you were are mine and Caleb's wedding last year then you would know what I was talking about!!! Anyways back to the salsa.....you need to take the core out of the tomatoes and take the skin off.....it doesn't matter which order but it's a lot easier before they are skinned cause they are not as slimy!!


After you have the skin off you need to get all the seeds out....the only reason for this so your salsa isn't super runny and juicy. If you leave the seeds in it will be more like tomato juice than chunky salsa. this would have to be the worst part of it...it takes forever....so put the radio on a good station or put a good CD in and get to work!! The way that I get the seeds out is by cutting the tomatoes in to quarters and then use a spoon and dig out the seeds.

Then after you get all the seeds out you chop the tomatoes into chunks.....it's at this point that you realize there is not near as much as you thought there would be.

Next I always go to chopping up the onions.....for a batch this big I always use 2 medium red onions. You want to finely chop them.
If you have ever done much with red onions then you know they will make your eyes burn an water like crazy when you start to cut them up.....something that mom and I have figured out is that if you wear contacts while chipping them up they really don't bother you.....but for those that don't wear contacts all I can think of is getting a pair of swimming goggles or some other type of goggles to wear cause it is terrible other wise.....or if you have a food processor...which I don't that would work great for chopping up all these veggies.... and things would go a lot faster too!!

Next I use 7 jalapenos. Cut the tops off and then cut in half. After cutting in half use a spoon to take all the seeds out. If you want a little bit of a kick use the seeds from 1 1/2 peppers and that will give you just the right amount of bite.....but if you are like my mom and husband than you don't want to use any of the seeds and it still tastes great

next you you will want to mince 4-5 cloves of garlic

Next you will want to juice 4 lime and put this in the mix....it probably is about a 1/4 c .....I add the pulp too cause it's not gonna hurt anything.

You also need to add in salt....about 3-4-5 teaspoons.....whatever you think tastes good!

After that I will mix all these together and then cook them on medium heat for about 10 min stirring occasionally.

Than after the 10 min I add in about 1/4 - 1/3 c cilantro that has been finally chopped. You will also need to add in about 1 - 2 teaspoons of oregano and about 1-2teaspoons of cumin. You might want to taste along the way to make sure you like what you have.

After you have added everything in then cook it for another 5 min then start putting it into jars and place it in the canner at 5 lbs of pressure for 7min. now if your not going to put it into a canner then you might want to cook it for another 10-15 min after adding the last few ingredients.


Now all that's left to do is get you a bag of good tortilla chips and something good to drink and have you a snack!!

if ya got any question on it just ask me!!!

I found NEMO!!

Last Thursday Caleb and I headed south to Tulsa to see some of our good friends. Caleb's college roommate Jason and his wife Kelly were in Tulsa for the weekend for a friends wedding. They live out in Denver, CO, so since we hadn't seen them in almost a year and they were so close we thought that we would head down and hang out with them for the afternoon. After eating some delicious burgers at a Red Robin we went over the the Oklahoma State Aquarium and got to see some cool fishies!!

Our first stop when we got there was the shark tank....it was feeding time....and we were glad it wasn't us!! I don't know for sure what kind of shark this one but we called it a catfish one cause it had a couple of whisker on the bottom of his mouth and had the color of a channel cat!

After the sharks we found Nemo...who knew he was in Tulsa and not P.Sherman Wallabyway Sydney.....if Disney would have asked we could have told them!! ;)

I don't know what this guy was but it was cool....those are actually fins....the little guy is a terrible swimmer but when moves around it walks around on its fins...its pretty cool to see and the little guy kinda looks like a frog.

I'm not sure what this guys are but the looked cool!

There were a few different kinds of jellies but these were the prettiest!


I think this was either a tiger or lion fish.....kinda ugly and kinda cool lookin'


This was an albino red-eared slider...they are what you usually see out in your ponds and are closely related to a paint turtle...they are also usually mistaken for them too! In one of our ponds we have about 30 of these guys.

These guys are a couple of my favorite kinds of turtles...alligator snappers. The big turtle weighed 120lbs and they said one average the gain about a lb a year so 120 yr old turtle how cool is that!!

After going through the aquarium we went outside and visited while Kelly looked for some place where we could get some ice cream. We finally found a Brahms near buy and got some good ice cream....yummy!!! It wasn't the most beautiful day out side but we had a blast hangin' out with some great friends and hopefully we don't have to wait another year before get to see them again!!

It has started!!!!

So last Friday it started....you may ask what 'it' is.....well I'm talking about corn harvest! We have been waiting to start harvest for about a month now. Corn planting was really late last spring and we have had a really cool summer, with a lot of rain here lately, when you add all that together it equals a very late start to harvest!!!

The corn in this field was doing really good....here's Pop going by with a hopper full

The semi is headin' back as the combine is dumping into the grain cart. We had just started in this field. So we still had a ways to go

Here the grain cart, that we purchased on out last trip up to NE Missouri, hard at work. It takes some getting use to for everyone when you start dumping on the go!

We were really excited about our new grain cart....it is big and awesome!!!

When the grain cart is dumping if possible, someone needs to be up on the truck watchin' cause the tractor driver can't see how full the truck is getting very easily.

Here's Caleb with another new toy of ours. I haven't got to drive it yet, but it is awesome!! It makes the trips into the elevator a lot quicker and more worth while.

Here's the crew minus one...well actually minus two...Pop is finishing up the last little bit out in the field and I am taking the picture. That's my truck that's behind the guys. I love driving it, cause it's a piece of cake!! The only thing I don't like about it is that it has a small door in the back and it takes forever to unload!

The semi unloads a lot faster.....it takes about the same amount of time to unload 900+ bushels from the semi as it does to unload 600 bushels from my truck.

Here's the current pile of corn in the open storage building at the elevator.


We have harvested some corn, but it's just scratching the surface of what we need to do....now we have to wait for all the rain from today to dry back up so we can get back at it! and as soon as we get rolling we won't stop!!