Every year in July, my husband and I take a few days to travel back to our farm. Yes, we are city dwellers that bought a farm. A long complicated story how we arrived at being farm owners …..but part-time farmers we are. I am sure that some people would think we were quite insane to spend the money to buy into such an “iffy” proposition.
My husband’s family settled in the northeast part of Illinois in the late 1800′s and the area is “home” for him. We are quite fortunate that while he opted not to be a full time farmer, his brother not only loves farming but agreed to “farm” our farm as well. We get the luxury of visiting from time to time without having to actually do the work. (NOTE: my brother-in-law is not only a wonderful guy is is an AWESOME farmer.)
Thought Number One: I drive the men who work on the farm nuts.
Every year I find something new to stick my nose in. This year was no different. We arrived just in time to see the crop dusting. Now to my husband and brother-in-law, this doesn’t seem overly exciting. I, on the other hand, think this is so cool.
This year, thanks to the extreme heat and dry conditions the corn crops are prone to fungus problems. Additionally, the beans are being dusted for spidermites. Again this dry, hot year is fostering pests.
The men, despite trying to get their work done, humored me and answered my multitude of questions on how the helicopter refueled and reloaded chemicals. So far this summer the three men dusting these crops have dusted more that 15,000 acres.
I asked him how long it took to land on the truck to reload. The turn around time is less than 40 seconds.
Thought Number Two - Meet Me at The Fair
For my long time readers, you might remember that Hubby and I always time one of our farm trips to coincide with the county fair. This allows us to meet up with all of our relatives in one place. It also, allows us to eat junk food for a couple of days and rationalize it by telling ourselves that we will walk off the calories hanging out at the fair.
Additionally, I love watching my two little grandkids enjoying the rural atmosphere. (They, also, are city dwellers.)
Little G-boy #2 eating ice cream. He is getting as much on his clothes as in his mouth but that isn’t bothering him.
Little G-boy #1 is pretend driving one of the antique tractors while little brother is adjusting a light.
Fishing for prizes. They both caught a fish.
Baby ducks are so cute.
G-boy #1 (in the blue shirt) got to count down the start of the demolition derby. 5-4-3-2-1 GO
Little brother didn’t mind the ice cream all over him but doesn’t like the dust from the demolition derby.
With the help of my nephew Shawn (orange shirt) and my Son-in-law, both little boys get to come down the big slide.
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