Working Hard on the Homestead

In March of this year, I took on the roll of Clarke County Farmers Market President, just in case I thought I might have some spare time on my hands.  Our local farmers market is fairly small, averaging about ten vendors per market, but they are all enthusiastic about their products and love to talk to our customers about how they are produced.  And more than that, they are a community of friendly neighbors who work together, help each other and want to make the market an awesome place to be.  I have so enjoyed getting to know these people better, introducing some new things this summer, such as partnering with local fitness groups and dietitians and being a part of a statewide scavenger hunt for school aged children through Iowa Farm to School. 

11 puppies

At about this same time, hubby managed to cut his hand so badly at work that they sent him to the hospital for stitches, we were trying to look for homes for 11 puppies and we were finishing re-siding the house and two other buildings.  Needless to say, between hubby's already busy work schedule and injury, I did a lot more work myself on the siding than I expected. 

wild violets

In April and May the farm was starting to look more like spring.  Flowers started blooming, we received all our new chicks and ducklings and our new trees began to arrive.  The kids were great helpers getting the boxes ready for the new little birds.  Unfortunately, due to several different circumstances, we lost most of the babies early on.  We still have a few new chicks and one new duck though.  The kids were pretty upset, but it was a learning experience for all of us.  Luckily the older chickens are still happy, healthy and producing more eggs than we can eat.  (They have been big sellers at the farmers market!)

Towards the end of May we discovered our first ripe strawberries in the garden!  The strawberries were followed by wild black raspberries, mulberries, red raspberries and black currants.  All the rain and sunshine helping the fruit to ripen was also helping the weeds grow like crazy.  It didn't take long for the kiddos to be tired of helping mom pull weeds in the garden.  And I have to admit, I wasn't so keen on pulling any more weeds either!

 It seemed like, no sooner had we gotten our new cherry and peach trees into the ground that we were hit with a pretty big storm.  On June 24th there were sever thunderstorms, large hail, strong winds and funnel clouds.  Many throughout central and southern Iowa experienced damage to their property.  We lost a large apple tree (the kids favorite one, of course!) and several limbs fell off others.  Our small trees were untouched though, thank goodness!!

fallen apple tree

This is where the summer gets really fun!  For nearly three weeks, my mom, stepdad, their two kids and my niece were here to replace the roof on the house.  Hubby and I helped as we were able, but the work was nearly all done by my parents and kids ages 7 and up (the 3 and 4 year old would have loved to be up on the roof too...)  No one can quite tell a story like my stepdad, so here is an excerpt from an email he wrote about the experience:

"MAN, was that ever a project.  Got'r done in two weeks flat though... Had to use a lot of child labor to get it done.  Debra ran the "all child roofing demo and shingling crew" pretty much non-stop from 8 am till 9 pm, with short breaks in between.  That's the problem with kids . . . you have to stop to feed them.  Ages 7 (Addy), 9 (Lily), 12 (Natalie), 13 (Nicolas), and 16 (Kaci).  Good thing the child labor laws are fairly lax in Iowa.  (They all did wonderful, with a little complaining from time to time.)  I was in charge of initial damage assessment, equipment and material procurement, general project oversight, deck rehabilitation and rafter tail repair.  The work project (after planning and material procurement) took 13 full days, hard labor with one day off in between.  I personally packed 122 shingle bundles (60# a whack), up a ladder to the top of the roof on my shoulder (thats 7,320# total).  Nicolas and I unload (by hand) the first half of the removed shingles from a flat bed trailer in over 100 degree temps.  I estimated it would take "an hour or two", but it took over five hours and we must have drank over 5 gallons of water.  Total tonnage off loaded:  4.8 tons.  Debra worked with the other kids on top of the roof in the 100 degree heat and high humidity to proceed with demo of the remaining shingles (two layers deep).  It was a great weight loss program.  I lost 8 pounds in two weeks!  Back down to my high school wresting weight.  Now that's what I call a vacation baby."

It now feels like we have a few major projects to cross off the list... But they are quickly replaced by new projects.  

City Slickers

In 1971 my grandparents fled the big city and purchased 27 acres outside a small town.  A few months later my grandpa wrote a letter to my grandma's brother in Maryland, detailing all the challenges they had faced.  I wish I had the letter to share with you.  Luckily some of the stories live on.

the old farmhouse

The house that stood on the farm when my grandparents moved in was old.  It was a two story farmhouse, heated by a large black stove in the living room and had an outhouse sitting nearby.  As you might imagine, snowy winters in Iowa are not very warm.  And when you live in an older house with minimal to no insulation and a heat stove that is far from a central heating system - that means the far away bedrooms upstairs were not nearly as toasty as the living room.  They probably wore warm jammies and added another blanket to their beds.  Maybe even snuggled up to their sister to keep warm.  But what happens when you head downstairs to the bathroom in the middle of the night?  Well if you lived in this particular house, you discover that snow is drifting in underneath the wall of the modern bathroom that was added onto the house.  And that the water in the toilet has frozen!  Yes, true story, it happened in my grandparents old farm house!

the old outhouse

Earlier this summer I shared some of our challenges and misadventures (here) in adjusting to farm life.  Summer quickly turned to fall and winter.  It has now been seven months living in Iowa and though we are settling in and adjusting to our new routines, it seems like the misadventures never end.

The Weather.  

When the girls started school at the end of August, temperatures were in the high 90s/low 100s, which is higher than the average 78-84* for that time of year.  Since the schools are not equipped with air conditioning, the kids were released early every day for the first two weeks.  The snowfall in October and November was a welcome change from the humid summer weather.  Winter break rolled around and the kids could barely last an hour all bundled up outside (picture Ralphie and Randy in a Christmas Story).  Everyone was looking forward to school starting back up when suddenly the Polar Vortex appeared and sent temperatures plunging to near record lows at -13*.  If that wasn't cold enough, the extreme wind chills dropped the outside air to -40*.  School was canceled for two days.

 

The Vehicles.  

Back in October on a drizzly evening, as we headed home from gymnastics, my minivan slowly drifted to a stop on the side of the interstate.  Lights were flickering and I could tell the battery was not fulfilling its duties.  Turns out the alternator was a goner.  Hubby and I changed the alternator the next day on the side of the interstate in the rain (me in my flip flops).  I thought the car and I came to an understanding after this episode, but two months later, on our way home from a Girl Scouts' Christmas potluck, again the lights start flickering and I know what's coming.  I tried to make it all the way home before the battery died, but instead we slowly came to a stop on the side of the road.  Just me and four kids.  In the dark.  During winter in Iowa.  Fortunately there was a house super close by that we were able to walk and wait for hubby to drive over and get us.  And here's where it gets funnier.  Hubby arrives and hooks up the minivan to be jump started.  If we can charge the battery and just get home, he can hopefully put the belt back on.  But his car runs out of gas.  We're again stuck on the side of the road with all four kids in the dark and cold.  Hubby had a nice 1.5 mile walk home to get a gas can.

 

The Plumbing.   

In the upstairs bathroom toilet there was a little doohickey that broke.  Since hubby previously worked as a plumber and is generally all around handy, he decided to fix it.  Apparently there was something about this set up that he was not familiar with, so he went to the downstairs bathroom to compare.  Somewhere along the lines, the same doohickey broke in the downstairs toilet!  (Lucky for us there is a third toilet in the guest room).  Hubby had to make a trip to the hardware store, where apparently the people working there were unfamiliar with the pieces he was looking for.  Hubby was finally able to get the toilets back together after a bit of work with the hardware store, so things were back to normal.  Until the upstairs toilet developed an unrelated leak.  A leak that was so small, no one noticed it until it had loosed the glue under the linoleum and the bathroom floor began to bubble up. 

 

The Germs.   

My freshman year of college I lived in the dorms.  The heating system apparently did a great job recycling air throughout the dorm building because it seemed like as soon as one person was sick, everyone in the building was sick.  Being cooped up in the house this chilly winter, I am reminded of those days.  I am fairly certain that every single germ the girls have come into contact with at school comes directly home to their little brother. The same little brother that loves to snuggle, stick his fingers in your mouth, lick your chapstick and share your drinks.  In other words, he likes to share those germs.  This has been the winter of endless colds!

Through it all, we still stand by our decision to move to the farm...but we are really looking forward to spring, when we can air out the house, get our hands dirty in the garden and I can start feeding the kids outside so I don't have to sweep the kitchen so often!