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| About a month ago I took a big leap and fired my boss, or, announced my 2 week notice. It's a matter of perspective. Been in the new job a couple weeks now and it's going good. I run a huge machine called a Terragator, spreading fertilizer on the fields before planting. Between that and semi driving, I hope to stay busier, and better compensated, than i have been. Going good so far. | | |
| Two Bits
A year without winter.
What a strange season it has been, too remarkable to let it go unremarked! The season for which this area is most famous has gone soft on us. Brown Christmas and record setting highs in both December and January. I bet we've not had 5 inches of snow total, and it melts each little bit that comes. Ever get all prepared for an event that fails to happen? That's me. I have the nicest, shiniest snow blower you ever saw! The tractor is tarped and ready to plug in if it were cold and even winter grade diesel fuel in the tank. But what is a guy to do? I used the new tractor to bring in next years firewood as I cut it, and had such good progress that there is now a larger woodpile than when I started the heating season.Not a misprint, the wood pile has grown in volume from Oct. to January! Never seen that before!
Several weeks ago I finished a fencing project that needed to be done come spring. It came to me that with no snow and very little frost, why wait? Setting fence post in January is a novelty that doesn't come along often. Soil was frozen about 6 inches down and after that the digging was fine. My Saturdays have been very productive, no vacation days have been burned up on snow removal, and today I had a brush pile fire going where the snow was piled 20 feet deep last year! Who could have seen that coming? The last time with so little snow would have been the winter of 07-08.
My passion for hiking and the outdoors may have found a new focus as I've become involved with the North Country Trail. This is a hiking trail in development, stretching continuously from New York to North Dakota. I'm part of the Sheyenne River Chapter. and come spring we have some miles of trail to clear and maintain.Neat people to hang out with and it's fun to watch the process behind some of this stuff. And, with all my wood cut already, I'll have time, right?
I've noticed a trend running through all my hobbies. They all resemble work! | | |
| I'm feeling the nibblings of a year end wrapup Christmas letter. So we'll explore it a bit in this format, and see where it takes me. Those close to me know I'm a critic of the genre, so you may be laying eyes on a miracle!
It has been a challenging year for we of Castleprairie. There's no other honest way put it. We have been blessed with the grace of God more times than a person would normally volunteer for. So I'm all in favor of His goodness to my family, but perhaps a bit longer time horizon between white knuckle events would be welcomed.
Speaking of miracles, ours arrived the 26th of Oct. and the 23 rd of Dec. last year. Keira Verina came first as expected, but simultaneous to the first winter storm of the year. And one for the record books as we experienced the deepest low pressure system ever encountered here! Corey and Meg had the foresight to go early ahead of the storm, and we waited it out at home till the next day.
Rosemary Elizabeth arrived 2 days before Christmas, weighing all of 3 pounds and 6 ounces. She was 36 weeks along but had stopped growing at 30 weeks. Crisis, it was time to bring her out. Fast forward to now and you see her at 16 pounds and standing and wrinkling up her face and doing all the stuff we take for granted in babies. But oh, the process of getting her here!
The winter descended with as much force of wind and snow as it could muster. The kind of winter which the old timers say "keeps the riifraff out". I know lots of non riffraff who had had their fill by the end too. Here in the yard I had run out of places to pile snow and started to fill in drive space, or haul it back outside the trees.
February 6 was the wedding of Danen and Victoria. It was a beautiful, brief ceremony tieing in perfectly with Pastor's sermon series on marriage. Those two have an apartment in town, he drives across town each day to work at the same elevator I do. And they sure have a good spirit about them for all they've been up against.
Then along came March and Dane's accident at work. He got his hand caught in a truck tarp as I was rolling it up and the arm was broken, splintered really, above the elbow. An amazing scar, some steel and therapy, plus a half years time and he has full use and motion in his hand now. By the grace of God.
With great expectation as summer began we began to plan and pack for our trip to the Yellowstone with Corey, Meg and Keira. All winter we had pored over maps and brochures, developed an itinerary, developed the budget. Two days before departure Victoria was found unconscious from some kind of seizure and was airlifted to Fargo. She came to about 10 hours later with no permanent effects, but clearly not well enough to be left alone or tend to her baby. What to do now? The plans were in place, reservations made, vacation times scheduled. No way for us to throw it all up in the air again and hope for it to land intact later. Ultimately I went on vacation with my kids and Mary stayed home and took care of everyone else. God gave her that kind of spirit and we are all blessed because of it.
It literally took a decision every day to choose to enjoy what we could from the trip, and we pulled it off. Corey has a fantastic eye for spotting wildlife and over the six days in the park we saw all the major species, including 9 bear sightings! My once in a lifetime highlight was to walk down all the steps to the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone with my 8 month old grandbaby strapped on my back! Keira the jelly bean was a charmer all week, while cutting her first tooth. We should have charged people for the privilege of oogling her!
By way of farm report, the stormy, snowy winter devolved into a stormy, rainy summer. No hay was made till after the Fourth. Unbelievable. The 10th of July, aside from being Duchess' birthday, will be remembered for 120 MPH winds that took out thousands of trees in our fair city. Hail devastated our garden, but no structure damage. Our Jersey cow Abigail gave birth to a peaked looking calf who was not long for this world, after which Abigail went down the road to the sale barn. Her partner, Angel, has done me much better with a fine girl calf and a gallon or so of milk faithfully each day. A skunk got into the chickens in late summer and cleaned us out of broilers in one night. On the other hand our 1200 bale goal of hay was made. the wood pile stacked up adequately and we never spent a summer night chasing cows who had gotten out! We still feel the loss of our great white guardian Maggie. An epic run was made Memorial Day to pick up another Pyrenees out in western ND, but alas ,Odin didn't work out, didn't want to stay home. So here we are with the coyotes circling yet closer.
Son Ryan has mostly become a resident of the big city of Fargo. He has held several jobs in that area, and we hear about his adventures from a distance now. It is a joy when he and Amanda can make the occasional trip back to the farm, and I love to swap ideas and current events with him on the phone.
And then in September, a strange thing happened. After raining every third day all summer, it quit. Totally. We went into harvest in one of the driest autumns ever experienced. What started out looking like a bad harvest became fairly respectable. I've had time to organize the farm and garden and the land has been put to bed for the year.
Victoria's health has been stable presently, although the anti-seizure meds leave her pretty wiped out at times. Grandma is pretty much on call as a back-up. Rosemary is our little M-n-M, an incredibly tiny little bundle of miracle. Having been through so many concerns with her, it's hard at times to just relax and breathe in the moment. But Poppa dearly loves to take her the rounds at church during the morning greeting time. She has cut about 8 teeth and is standing on her own, not quite walking. When things are not to her liking, her nose scrunches up and you get the "Elmer Fudd face"!
The biggest news this month would be the arrival of a snow solution, in the form of a brand new compact tractor with a snow blower. No Dad, it's not John Deere green. But this shiny orange Kubota was more in line with our little economy, and I expect many years of snow blowing and hay making and wood hauling with it. Other guys get to their late 40s and get boats or bikes or big toys. Make my midlife crisis therapy a tractor!
All in all, we're doing good for the shape we're in. Everything that has come before has contributed to a rock solid assurance that we'll get through what comes next, too. I'd say the missus and I are as balanced as we've been in years, and that's saying quite a lot. Contentment is worth striving for, and hanging on to, once achieved. We wish you a Happy Christmas and a richly blessed New Year! Rick and Mary | | |
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 Finally, a sunny tractor picture day .My tractor is Mac cuz he's such a little bulldog and we've been to the woods today!
at our house, when the little sheltie, Snickers. needs a bath- I'm the one in charge.
That was tonight and it's so funny to see him shake himself dry! | | |
| From yellowstone.com- In 1981, David Allen Kirwin, a 24-year-old Californian, died from three-degree burns over his entire body. He dove head-first into Celestine Pool’s 202 degree water, attempting to rescue a friend’s dog.
The book I'm reading on our first national park elaborates on this headline a little bit. Must confess I found it hard to believe, but the sources hold up. The dog died in the pool and was expelled in a later steam explosion as the geyser pool's chemistry was unbalanced by the oil of the dogs fat.
It's not smart to fool with Mother Nature! | | |
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