Cruise

 I have never been to the Caribbean Islands, and probably would never have planned a trip there on my own.  I have been on one cruise, our Alaskan cruise a couple years ago.  We enjoyed the cruise, but didn't have a burning desire to become cruisers.  One of the marketing firms that I subscribe to, Roach Ag Marketing, puts on a marketing cruise each winter for clients.  This year, they had an 11 day cruise planned to the Eastern Caribbean that stopped at six different Islands.  This sounded like a great opportunity to see a sampling of the Caribbean, enjoy a cruise, enjoy warm weather, and meet some farmers from around the Midwest.  We signed up and off we went.

We flew from Peoria to Ft. Lauderdale through Chicago.  We went a day early in case of weather or flight delays.  We spent the extra day Ubering around Ft. Lauderdale including visiting the beach.  It was our first experience using Uber, and all went well.  We feel like we have joined the modern world now!  We boarded the Celebrity Ascent on Feb. 23 and found our stateroom and made the required visit to our muster station.  It is a fairly new boat, very nice, and holds around 3200 passengers plus about 1400 crew.  When Ed and Peggy heard about our trip, they asked if they could join us.  As they are experienced cruisers, and have been to the Caribbean, we said yes.  We were able to split our time between the farm group (about 75 in that group) and Ed and Peggy.  

  We docked at Basseterre, St. Kitts for our first Island stop.  Ed and Peggy rented a car and we drove the full circle route around the Island.  They drive on the left hand side of the road down there, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car!  I'm glad Peggy did the driving as the roads are also very narrow. Some of the highlights of St. Kitts were the old plantation house we toured, the Brimstone Hill Fort, and the surf along the rocky coast.

Our second Island stop was Antigua.  We took a bus tour of the Island with the farm group.  We spent the most time on a boat tour at Falmouth Harbor and toured Nelson's Dockyards.   Admiral Horatio Nelson of the British Royal Navy spent several years stationed here during his career.  The British Royal Family also had a home here where they would vacation in the winter.  It is now a hub for sailing races and regattas.  There were lots of luxury yachts docked there for the winter. 

Next stop was Castries, St. Lucia.  We took a catamaran tour with Ed and Peggy which included snorkeling. The water was a little rough, but I was able to see colorful fish and coral as I snorkeled.  They also took us to see the world famous Pitons; two volcanic mountain spires.

We next docked at Bridgetown, Barbados.  We took a bus tour to a rain forest botanical garden.  We stopped at Haymans Market which used to be a sugar processing plant.  Now it is a museum, shops, and restaurants.  We drove along the West coast of the Island where all the beaches and resorts are.  Barbados beaches are all public beaches, not privately owned like most of the Islands.  Their beaches are also beautiful white sand beaches.

When we pulled into port at Roseau, Dominica, there was smoke rising from the downtown area.  They had had a fire overnight and some of the streets were blocked off.  We took a bus tour through a rain forest, to a waterfall, and another botanical garden.  We also did some shopping before heading back to the ship.

Our last Island stop was at Phillipsburg, St. Maarten.  We left the ship with our farmer group and headed for Orient Beach.  It was a beautiful beach and had beautiful blue water.  They had lounge chairs and Umbrellas set up for all of us, so we relaxed in the sun and walked the beach.  They served us a nice meal at the resort then spent more time on the beach after lunch.  We shopped awhile before we boarded ship again.

On every Island and tour, we were offered Rum Punch which is their specialty drink on the Islands.  We tasted it but weren't impressed.  While on the ship, we spent time visiting and playing games with Ed and Peggy.  I took naps and read.  We went to some off the game "shows" and played some of the trivia games.  We checked out some of the entertainment in the theater, but not greatly impressed.  The four sea days I attended the marketing seminars.  We ate a LOT of good food.  Every type of food you could want.  The dinners in the evening were excellent with lots of choices including prime rib, lobster, oxtail, steaks, fish, chops, and about anything else you could want.  Lots of appetizers and lots of desert choices.  We even had fried octopus!  We ate with the farm group four evenings, and with Ed and Peggy the other evenings.  And we usually topped off the evenings with ice cream.

We enjoyed our time on the cruise and may cruise again.  I was worried about getting seasick, but with precautions I never had any problems.  It was only really rough one night and day.  Back in Ft. Lauderdale, we exited the boat at about 8:30 in the morning. When we were in the Ft. Lauderdale airport getting ready to fly home, we waited in the TSA line 45 minutes.  All passengers had to walk slowly two by two at intervals down an aisle while a drug sniffing dog circled us.  That was a first.  Then a severe thunderstorm in Chicago delayed our flight 2 hours.  When we got to O'Hare, our Peoria flight had been cancelled.  We got booked on a later flight that kept getting delayed, but we finally made it home by midnight.

About a week and a half after we were home we had a good old fashion March snowstorm.  We had enough snow and wind that Logan and I went out a couple days later on a Tuesday and dug a snow cave.  By Thursday, the temperature was in the 70's and the snow all melted.

And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.           Mark 4:1

California 26

 I am wearing my skunk boots again.  The smell has dissipated.  There are still some nocturnal animals out and about, but I haven't gone after them.

We attended the Camper and Boat show at the Civic Center, but it wasn't very large.  It did get us in the mood for camping again, be we don't have a camper or a vehicle to pull one.  So, we will probably just dream.

We hadn't been to California to visit our Brother-in-law/Sister-in-law since Amy and Alan's wedding.  I have points to use, so we booked a flight to Sacramento to visit them in January.  We missed the coldest week of the year here in Illinois, and enjoyed mild weather in Sacramento.  Temperature there was in the 40's at night and the 60's during the day.  They have a grapefruit tree in their back yard, so every morning we picked fresh grapefruit to add to breakfast.

We had good flights both ways, and enjoyed staying with with Ed and Peggy.  We did several sight seeing trips during our stay.  We drove past Folsom Prison, and we may have started singing a Johnny Cash song.  We took a day to visit the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historical Park where gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848.  This discovery sparked the 49's gold rush.

We toured old town Sacramento one day also.  It was a fast growing town during the Gold Rush, but was built on low lying ground between two rivers.  After it flooded once, they built a levy around it.  It flooded again after the levy broke, so they raised the levy and raised all the streets ten feet.  This caused the first floor of all the buildings to become the basements.  The second floor became the main level, and you would have to go downstairs to get to the first level. So, many of the buildings were jacked up ten feet to road level, which made for a lot of underground dungeon-like basements.

On our last full day in California, we drove to San Francisco.  We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge coming and going.  We hiked around Land's End, and then we spent some time at Great Beach.  The water was freezing, but we waded anyway.  On our way back, we stopped at Muir Woods.  Its is a forest of giant coastal redwood trees.  I am always impressed by the size and age of these magnificent trees. We spent an hour hiking among the trees.

 

We had a very enjoyable time with Ed & Peggy, Amy & Alan, and their sons.

Back home again, I've been finishing up taxes, making crop plans for spring, and attending farm meetings. 

  

Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth.                                                  I Chronicles 16:33

A Smelly New Year

 We had three snows late November and first half of December.  We had over twelve inches total.  I was able to pull Jack and Logan on a sled with the UTV on one nice day.  Then the week before Christmas it warmed up, the snow melted, and the ground thawed.  It felt like spring had come early.  But we have already had as much snow as some of our recent past winter totals.

I've always tried to keep a cat or two in the cold storage part of my largest machine shed.  I keep a small food dish and a heated water bowl for them.  They can come and go, but I like having them around to keep the mice and birds out.  I hadn't seen the cat for awhile, but the food kept disappearing.  I had my suspicions, so I checked in several times a day.  One day my suspicions were confirmed.  I stepped into the shed and an opossum scurried away from the cat food.  I put the food into my live trap and checked back the next morning.  To my surprise, there was a skunk in the trap!  It was not happy to be there!  I moved slowly and picked up the trap from the closed door side so it couldn't see my and carefully walked it outside and set it in the snow.  I retrieved my rifle and dispatched the skunk and left it there for the next day.  I did not see or realize that the skunk had sprayed, but he must have because my boots started smelling of skunk.  I left them in the garage, and the smell started seeping into the house.  The old farmers wife came home and as soon as she opened the garage door the odor hit her!  I took the boots out to the shed and scrubbed them daily with a disinfectant solution.  They still have a hint of skunk, but it fades with time.  I do believe I will be able to keep them and wear them again. 

Christmas Eve we had our traditional oyster stew supper for my Mom and Aunt Pearline.  Any other family that didn't have plans were welcome.  Christmas day was laid back, and then the next two days we had our kids and grandkids.  It was a crowded, busy, noisy, and joyful time.  We had lots of food, gifts, games, a Christmas pageant, and general family fun.  One afternoon we all drove down to Firefly woods to explore the progress of the new house.  There were a few muddy, dirty kids when we got back. We had two more Christmas gatherings in early January. 

My oldest male cousin Boyd passed away just before Christmas.  He was 91.  He was a doctor who spent most of his career doing diabetes research and was on the faculty at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.  As recent as last year, he flew by himself to Japan to give a talk at a conference on diabetes.  We drove up to Chicago for the visitation on the Sunday after Christmas.  We drove all the way up in wind and rain, and all the way home in high winds and cold.  It was not easy traveling.  We were able to spend some time visiting with his family while we were there, so we were thankful to be there.  In the last six months, we saw and visited with Boyd three times.  We rarely have seen him that often.  When Boyd was attending medical school in Iowa, he would often drive to Central Illinois and spend the weekend with us. I was very young at the time, but he would help dad on the farm.

Fast forward a number of years, and Boyd and Lois were married, and had small children. Our families went camping together.  One evening while singing hymns around the campfire, out of the darkness came a skunk!  He wandered around our group and the fire.  We all just stayed still and kept singing and eventually he wandered away back into the darkness. 

Two skunk stories in one blog post!

I came across this poem shortly after the funeral.  Author unknown.

 

What Then?

 

When the plants of our mighty cities
Have turned out their last finished work;
When our merchants have sold their last yardage
And have dismissed the last tired clerk,
When our banks have raked in their last dollar
And paid out their last dividend;
When the Judge of the earth says, “Closed for the night.”
And asks for a balance – what then?

When the choir has sung its last anthem,
the preacher has made his last prayer,
When the people have heard their last sermon
and the sound has died out on the air;
When the Bible lies closed on the altar,
And the pews are all empty of men,
And each one stands facing his record –
And the Great Book is opened – what then?

 

When the actors have played their last drama,
And the mimic has made his last pun;
When the film has flashed its last picture,
And the scoreboard displayed its last run,
When the crowds seeking pleasure have vanished
And gone out in the darkness again –
When the Trumpet of the Ages has sounded,
And we stand up before Him – what then?

 

When the bugle’s call sinks into silence,
And the long-marching columns stand still;
When the captain has given his last orders,
And they’ve captured the last fort and hill,
And the flag has been hauled in from the masthead,
And the wounded afield have checked in,
And a world that rejected its Savior,
Is asked for a reason – what then?

 

“Therefore be ye also ready:
for in such an hour as ye think not
the Son of man cometh.” [Matthew 24:44]

Thankful

 Prior to harvest, I bought a new (used) tractor and field cultivator.  One of my neighbors retired this year and was selling his machinery.  I had been looking to upgrade my tillage tractor, and he had just what I was looking for.  It was a low hour machine at the right price, and I moved up about 100 horsepower and fifteen years of age.  I advertised my old tractor, but didn't expect much interest until after harvest.  I had it advertised on an online farm machinery site, an ag newspaper, and Facebook Marketplace.  After harvest, the interest came from Marketplace.  A dairy farmer from Wisconsin bought the tractor and a farmer from Missouri bought the field cultivator.  We had enough good weather after harvest that I was able to finish all the tillage that I needed done with my new tractor.

I had been shopping for a UTV (side by side) for a couple years.  I had the old farmers wife convinced that I needed one.  I just couldn't find one in my price range that was made in America and that I could get parts and service for locally.  This fall I found two advertised.  One in Iowa City, and the other in Bloomington.  The one in Iowa had more options, but the one in Bloomington had the right price.  The seller in Bloomington agreed to deliver it to the farm, so now we are the proud owners.  I think the old farmers wife and the grandkids have spent more time with it than I have!

Uncle Russell passed away mid November.  He was the non-local uncle that we spent the most time with growing up.  We went back and forth a lot as Uncle Russell farmed the farm that Dad and my Uncle Roy bought in Iowa.  Dad and Russ spent a lot of time doing books and settling up while us kids played together.  Later, they were both ministers and enjoyed their spiritual discussions together.  Dad and Mom traveled with Russ and Karoline a lot, and us kids would spend a week at each others farms in the summer.  Russ was easy to visit with, wise, and didn't know a stranger.  He was the last surviving male (sibling or in-law) in the Metzger family.  He was 100 years old, and had his mind up until the end.  I will miss him.

We didn't want to drive out to the funeral and back in one day, so we went as far as Ft. Madison and spent the night.  The Bloomfield pulpit were all mentored by Uncle Russ, and they had a very nice funeral service for him.  On the way home, we stopped at the Milton Creamery for cheese, and the Dutchman's Store in Cantril to do some shopping. I think we could have had a Metzger reunion in the Dutchman's Store, as everyone else who drove out for the funeral also stopped there.

Bob and Jenny got a late start on the new house they are building.  So as soon as I finished my tillage, I started helping with the framing.  The head carpenter agreed to use my cheap labor, so I've enjoyed relearning old skills.  When I was a young man with a growing family, I worked as a carpenter's laborer part time for a few years.  I worked for Steffen Construction and Quality Builders.  Fast forward many, many years and now I'm an old man who forgot most of what I learned back then.  Plus, power tools and materials have improved since then.  But, I am enjoying the work and the crew is patient with me. The first couple of weeks was nice weather, but the last week or so we worked in drizzle and then snow. The ground wasn't frozen, so it was muddy still under the snow.  But we managed to get the last trusses set this week and soon they should get the house closed in against the weather.

 I hadn't been to the dentist for nine years!  I had good intentions but just never got around to making an appointment.  I knew I had a couple molars that lost fillings and were cracked.  But since they didn't bother my eating, I ignored them.  Well, the dentist told me I had three molars that were in too bad of shape to save.  They needed extraction.  I asked the dentist to get me the first available appointment with the oral surgeons. They got me right in; the afternoon before Thanksgiving!  Fortunately, the extractions went well.  It took several hours to get the bleeding to stop, but I was thankful that I didn't have much pain to deal with.  I was limited to soft foods for Thanksgiving and a couple days after.  Six days later, I was able to eat a Wiegand steak dinner with no problems! 

                                                                                                                                                                      I found the following prayer on Facebook, but don't know the author.                      

And the priest's custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand;          I Samuel 2:14

Overdue Update

 Time Flies.

We spent a day in Burlington for our annual picnic and birthday party for a granddaughter.  This year we were at both Dankwardt and Crapo parks.  The kids really enjoyed the big playground at Dankwardt and the hike to the cave and waterfall in Crapo. And as usual, they ended up getting wet and dirty.  We drove out in the morning and came back home in the evening this time.  We enjoyed our time together and the parks, food, party, and fellowship. 

A week later, we travelled with Paul and Jean to Lester for the Metzger cousins reunion.  It was planned by the central Illinois and Bloomfield cousins, but held in Lester.  There were 88 grandchildren born to Fred and Carrie's 14 children, but only 84 lived to adulthood.  Ten have passed away and some couldn't make it, so we ended up with 52 first cousins in attendance plus spouses. We cousins had lunch together, followed by a program. In the evening we invited the next generation to join us, which a good number did.  We realized how we are really all aging!  The oldest cousin is 91, and the youngest is 50.  We also had a silent auction of cousin Charlie's Jersey cow and Metzger items collection. We came home with some items we probably don't need!  We enjoyed our weekend and wished we could have spent a little more time out there.  

After a very wet July, we had a very dry August and September.  I think I received a total of one inch of rain for both months.  Harvest started mid September, and soybeans especially matured faster than normal.  I think it was the first time in my farming career that we harvested group 3.4 and 3.5 soybeans in September.  I sowed my wheat on the first day of October into dry dirt, but we have had a couple rains since and it is up and growing.  With no rain delays, we made very good harvest progress.  Because of the extremely dry conditions, fire was a constant worry.  One evening while we were shutting down, nephew Tate ( Fire and Rescue Squad) was called to a field fire west of the Goodfield Grade School.  We have a farm there!  We headed over, and realized it was my cousin Dale's field next to ours.  His combine had a smoldering fire and some burning chaff had some field spots burning.  They had the fire under control when we arrived, but there were still smoldering bunches of chaff in various spots in the machine.  Lots of water was applied and finally no smoke detected.  He had a mechanic check it out the next day, and fortunately nothing was damaged.  They had stopped as soon as they smelled smoke and quick action saved it.  Our dealership told us they lost five customer combines to fire this fall.

The third weekend of October was niece Kacie's wedding in Indiana. We had to take a Saturday off of harvesting to make the trip to Leo.  We checked into our hotel in Fort Wayne, and a group of us were going to walk to Culver's (across the parking lot) for supper.  It was threatening rain, so I drove our van over in case we needed it to get back.  On the one block drive back to the hotel, I started hearing a groaning noise and smelling oil, then lost power steering.  Saturday night at a hotel in Indiana and our vehicle is out of condition!  I called three 24 hour mobile mechanics, but none answered the phone or returned messages.  We made arrangements to get to the church and wedding with other family.  First thing Sunday morning, I called a repair shop that was open on Sunday and was told they couldn't fit me in.  So that meant staying an extra night and hoping to find someone to work on it Monday morning.  We had planned to head back after the reception, but now we couldn't.  So we stayed to the end of the reception and bummed a ride back to the hotel.  At 7:30 Monday morning I called a recommended shop just 4 blocks from our hotel.  They said yes they would look at it right away and yes, I should be able to drive it that far without further damage.  It's not easy driving these modern cars without power steering, but I got it there.  They diagnosed the problem and told me we needed a whole new rack and pinion kit.  They said it would take at least five hours to get the parts and do the repairs.  Their driver brought me back to the hotel, and family that was just getting ready to head for home gave us a ride to the Klop house.  We were able to spend time with Loren and Rita and hang out with some family.  At three in the afternoon the shop called that the van was ready to go.  Rita gave us a ride back into town, and we were on the road for home by four o'clock.  So, obviously, I missed another day of harvest.

Anyway, the weekend was nice and we enjoyed watching Kacie get married!  She has a lot friends from her many jobs, travels, and exploits over the years, so the wedding was huge.  I kinda played the introvert and kept to the edges or helped with grandkids.  The reception was in an old GE factory that was recently converted to an entertainment and venue center in old downtown Ft. Wayne.  It was an interesting building that they are making great use of.  Congratulations John and Kacie!

When we got home, it was discovered that my brother and nephew's organic corn had blown down over the weekend while we were gone.  And, I had to call for my first service call of the season for the combine.  It turned out to be a half day delay.  We put the downed corn reel on the combine, and another neighbor brought a combine.  The two of us harvested what we could, but we just couldn't make it through much of the corn.  Calls were made to other farmers who had special heads for flat corn. Two more machines came to take our place.  One of the machines in particular was able to pick up most of the corn and get it into the machine, but only working from about noon until just before dark.  So it took using four combines over four days to get one field harvested!

I had saved my last 30 acres of corn to finish filling my bins.  My grain dryer broke down the day after we got back from the wedding, and it took until Saturday to get it up and running.  I still had wet corn waiting to dry, so we decided to pick what was left and take it to the elevator instead of waiting for the dryer to catch up.  So we finished harvest Saturday afternoon.  But, we discovered some broken wheel studs on the combine, so there is more work and expense to come.  

 If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.                                                   Exodus 22:6

Back to Grand Bear

 We took our family back to Grand Bear Resort for a four day vacation.  You might remember that the last time we did that, the place burned down the afternoon we left!  All the cabins that burned are rebuilt, but weren't open yet.  We had to rent three smaller cabins instead of two big ones.  We spent the first day with all of us hiking at Starved Rock State Park.  I love hiking with the grandkids.  I like seeing them have fun outside in nature.  Grand Bear has an indoor water park, so the kids spent a lot of time there, especially the second day when it rained.  I spent an afternoon hiking on my own after the rain stopped.  We had a lot of good food and a fun time together.

We managed to get all of the grandchildren to stand/sit together halfway cooperatively for a group picture!

The corn is maturing rapidly from the heat we have had this summer.  I don't know if harvest will be early, but it won't start late.  I picked the rest of the peaches and pears.  We need some cold nights to sweeten up the apples.

The City of Washington is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year.  We didn't attend much of the festivities, but I did go to the antique tractor pull last Saturday.  Son#1 entered the Massey Harris 44.  He plowed the sweet corn patch with it the day before to make sure it was in pulling condition.  Either the clutch slipped or something else happened, because it stopped before it pulled down.  We need to figure out what the problem was before we try it again.

My mom turned 97 this month!  I can't imagine being that old (and probably don't have to worry about it).  We had a party for the local relatives, and some that were able to make it from out of town.  We wish her continued health and quality of life.  Her dad, my grandfather, lived to be 104!

For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.               Proverbs 3:2

 

Time Flies (?) when it's Hot!

 It's been a long time!

I dug out my smoker and smoked ribs for Father's Day.  We were hosted by D#2.  They turned out very good!  As was all the other food that day.  I rarely use the smoker, but there are definitely some recipes that I would like to try sometime when I am motivated and have time.

Ed and Peggy came for a week long visit as part of a much longer trip out to the east coast.  They stayed with us part of the week and at Steve and Renee's the rest of the time.  We had Denny and Emily and Lee and Alice (cousins) over one of the evenings.  It was good catching up with everyone.  

We ate at the Pickled Radish one of the evenings.

On the last Sunday afternoon that they were around, we had planned for a picnic so they could spend some time with our whole family.  Son#2 and family came from Iowa, so all of our kids and grandchildren were here.  It turned out to be a very hot and humid day, so we were able to rent the Walnut Creek Family Center for our gathering instead of the park.  It was much more comfortable, but I think our 15 grandchildren were a little overwhelming to the company!

Back in the 1970's, I put together an expensive, high quality stereo system.  Today, everyone just has all their music on their phone or an iPod.  But I still like the old system and want to keep it alive.  My CD player stopped working last year, and I finally got around to finding a place that repairs old stereo components.  After getting an repair estimate from the small shop in Chicago that I found, I wasn't sure if it was worth the money.  But the repairman told me my Pioneer CD player was one of the good ones that was still made in Japan and that I wouldn't find that quality anymore.  So I bit the bullet and I again have a fully functioning system.

Our big family vacation was back in the Ozarks this year for four days.  There were several niece's and nephew's families that were not able  to make it, so the turnout was a little smaller than usual.  It was hot and humid, so I didn't spend a lot of time outside.  It also rained a couple of the days, but it didn't seem to slow the grandkids down much.  They still got in a lot of swimming, and several of the older ones learned how to water ski for the first time.  We tried a new resort this year.  It wasn't first class, but the price was reasonable and it fit our needs with enough rooms and a large room to gather in and eat together.

We had a very good cherry crop this year, with all the cherries our family wanted.  The peach and pear crops look like they will also be good.  Sweet corn has been good, with all of our families getting what they needed for "putting up".  Picking and shucking all that corn was a hot, sticky job.  I can still find a few eating ears, but the majority is getting too hard now.

I walked a fair amount of soybeans this year to cut out volunteer corn.  I don't know why I had so much.  We had a very dry spring and early summer, so I snapped a picture of the cracks in the soil while walking beans one day.

Since then, we have had an abundance of rain and the crops all look lush and beautiful.  This is in spite of the fact that the month of July has been very hot and extremely humid.  It is very hard to get much work done outside these days.  It's been "three-shirt days" and it isn't even August yet!

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.                                                  II Corinthians 9:11