Nauvoo Craft Show

Craft show at the Nauvoo grade school gym tomorrow. 9-4! I'll have pies, noodles, muffins, edible decorations, dance hoops, craft supplies and more! Mary Lou is sending a bunch of stuff from the Art-n-Needlework shop. My friend Gwen has all kinds of cute Made in Nauvoo stuff. Who knows what all else will be there. Come explore for those last minute Christmas gifts!

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

And one more! This is video of filling the truck so it can go to the elevator!

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

The Dance From Inside the Tractor

Wooo-hooo! Cold outside and snow is covering everything, but the skies are clear and this video loaded on the second attempt! This video is taken from inside the tractor as the tractor/agar wagon and combine dance.

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

Portable Calving Pen Care Corral

Anybody need a portable calving pen? We bought this about 3 years ago, but never had any cause to use it. Don't have any cows right now and probably won't for quite a while so we'd like to sell it. Click on my ebay site in the right hand column for more info or to bid.

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

A Trip to the Elevator

Hi Folks! I wanted to upload another video from riding with Grampa in the corn field, but the weather isn't co-operating tonight. There's a big snow storm blowing in and right now it's pretty cloudy. With this satellite internet, video's apparently take just perfect weather. It will probably be a few days before I can upload another.

In the meantime, I did take a trip to the elevator with Grampa the other day and snapped lots of still shots which are uploading just fine so here we go!

Grampa Tom driving the truck.

Our destination. Grampa said to make sure to tell you all that I helped build the second bin you see way back when I first moved to Nauvoo, about 28 years ago. My career in construction was short lived. I wasn't very good at it.

Grampa stops to take the tarp off the top of the truck.

He gets in line to have the truck probed and weighed.

Grampa says I have to get a picture of the barge filling. He says it's something that is hard to catch.

Here the truck is probed and weighed. The corn will be tested for moisture and contaminates like weed seeds, mold, insects and other factors.

This cute little contraption is where the sample goes. Somehow it measures all this stuff. Think maybe there's a genie in there doing all this work?

Grampa gets in line to dump the truck.

Just a few pictures to try to give you a feel for the massiveness of this place. A camera really can't do it justice.

The doors on the truck are opened and the corn is dumped into a conveyor that will take it to whatever bin it is destined for.

Grampa goes back to have the truck weighed again.

The barge has loaded by now and putts away.

Hope you enjoyed our trip to the elevator. Let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully I'll be able to post the videos in a few days.

God Bless You All!

~ Grama Sue

Whoo-hoo! I've figured out how to use my new camera to take videos and post it!

This video is about the delicate dance two humungus pieces of machinery do in the midst of bumpy corn field. I've actually got 3 videos about the process of getting corn out of the fields, but I'll have to do 3 different posts, probably over 3 days. My 'puter takes a long time to upload and my internet subscription is limited as to how much I can do each day. Don't want to over load things so ... hopefully tomorrow! \

~ God BlessYou All,

Grama Sue

Goals for Today

I have 2 goals for today. One is to sweep and mop my kitchen. The other is to write something on this blog! Both are way, way, way overdue. Things have slowed down a bit and I figured out how to reformat my computer. It finally works well enough to load pictures - so - I'm back!

The markets are basically over. I'm still doing the Burlington Farmer's Market from 4-7pm on Thursdays inside at the Hotel Burlington (3rd and Valley) and you might occasionally see me hanging out with my die-hard friend Lou (pictured above) in Hamilton on Wednesday afternoons or Saturday mornings if it's nice. Lou needs some company and I'm not working any other paying job at the moment so I might as well. I've done a couple of craft shows as well. They haven't been to lucrative. I had a goal of doing one a month this winter, but I don't know if it's worth it. Haven't lost any money, but breaking even: is it worth all that work? I enjoy it, so I'm on the fence right now about whether or not I ought to continue. It could get better if the economy improves, and I am able to do some PR work promoting our eggs ... I don't know, we'll see.

Grampa Tom got done working for the seed company last week, but now he's helping Lane get his crops out. If you look clear down the road, in this picture, you can see where he's working today. Part of the corn is cut and there are a couple of John Deere specks on the corner. I'm still trying to figure out how to work my new camera so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

The gardens are pretty much gone. We do have a little spinach and swiss chard under plastic yet and a few late herbs. I've been down in the back and Grampa's been gone, so things are still pretty much a mess, but the chickens love it!

We sold all the lambs early in November, but as you can see, we should be having more soon.

Molly and Lady are doing great! Molly went into heat about a month after I last posted so either she lost a litter or she was just }"pms"ing. Anyway, I hope we don't have a litter coming now. Lady went into heat too after Molly. We will see what happens. We are going to get them both fixed soon! Molly is so funny. She has a real sweet tooth. I have to watch her when I am transferring pies or cookies into or out of the car because she will steal them.We haven't had any more problems with them killing chicken's, although they did let a couple of stray dogs come take out a few the other day. I came home to them just laying in the yard as the stray dogs gleefully ran after chickens and the cats! They won't put up with a raccoon or a coyote, but they'll just let another dog reek havoc. They love other dogs and it was like they were just laying there saying, "Boy, are you guys in BIG trouble."

Ol' Blue has made his peace with the girls. The girls pretty much rule outside, but they've made friends. He likes to romp around with Lady and he's taught Molly all about stealing eggs from the hen house. He and Bear (the female black cat) are still best buds too. He's the only animal that is welcome in the house so that's some consolation. The tom cat thinks he ought to be allowed in the house too, but I'm adamant about making my house a cat spray free zone. I can still smell the remnants of the last tomcat territory war in one of my bedrooms. Grampa Tom says I'm crazy, but he can't smell nasty stuff. The other two cats are still around, but I didn't see them as I was out taking pictures.

Well, so much for my rambling! On to the kitchen! If I had some grow lamps, I wouldn't bother cleaning. It would be easier just to plant it, but my house is to dark for plants

God Bless You All!

~Love, Grama Sue