Just a few things...

I worked on making more bird blocks and the current block lotto blocks.
Our friend Dave bought a new tractor. It's a cute little thing.

Yesterday we went to an old tractor auction. 

Lots of pretty colors.

I liked the looks of some of them.

It's the back wheels.....

I even liked this John Deere because of it's wheels.

It was this Minneapolis-Moline that had tractor joe interested and wanting to have a closer look. 

It is a pretty yellow......

Except we got there to late, this one had already sold. Some lucky person got it for $600.00.....

Then there was this adorable fixer-upper......

As we ate our lunch of maid-rites,scotcheroos and pepsi we debated. Should we bid or not? What would be our top dollar?? What would we do with it? Yard art? Fix it?

We talked ourselves out of it. It went for $525.00.....we will concentrate on finding a decent yellow Minneapolis-Moline.

I sewed some more when we got home.

I am up to 9 blocks now. I am shooting for 30. Maybe. They are turning out to be 12x12 inch trimmed blocks. It is such a mix of old, new and uglies.

town celebration......

Last weekend was our yearly town celebration. Clara Mayland was the grand marshal for the parade. Instead of making the sign with paint, I made her a wall hanging as a memento. I did some unscientific polls on how to spell marshal. So many said "LL" that I left the spelling alone. I hope it is hanging in the Care Center now. (where she lives)

Tractor joe, his two brothers, two nephews, and a friend were also in the parade.

They drove their beloved Oliver tractors.....

I was very busy picking up candy, so I missed the first one to go by.

I only have 5 Oliver pictures.

It will make tractor joe happy to have the Olivers in the blog.

just a one more.....

They needed posters for the parade too.

I borrowed a Cricut to cut out the letters for them.

And last, but not least, I made one small wall hanging to put in the auction.

It is from American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine. (June 2011)

They bundled it with some other stuff in a basket. I think the basket went for $70.00.

On Saturday morning I was on the "set up" crew for a noon meal at the park. Before I went there, I dropped off my lawn chair at Karen's. I left it by the curb and started walking back to the car.

I was thinking....I don't want to be late

how long will it take?

I needed to watch inflatable toys at 12:30

will I have time to eat?

what time will they start serving?

I got back to the car, opened the door, got in, and shut the door...

something didn't feel right

things seemed strange....

where was my steering wheel?

OMG!

I was sitting in the back seat!

Has this ever happened to you? 

I did have time to eat, they were serving steak sandwiches, potato salad, beans, chips and a cookie. There was lemonade to wash it all down. Yummy!

they say this is REALLY fun....

The first weekend in November is plow weekend. All these guys get together with their old tractors and old two bottom plows.
All they do, all weekend, is plow.
Putt putt ....back and forth....up and down...
across the field until it is all plowed.
Just for the fun of it.

They do this every year.
Except the last two years. The weather didn't cooperate and it had to be cancelled.
Rain or frozen ground just doesn't plow well.

My fearless pheasant hunting brother-in-law stopped to take pictures on his way home.
I didn't go up there this year...so thank you Jon for taking pictures!!! Tractor joe is on his tractor and his two brothers are on the front one. They are Oliver guys.

This is Rod. He is also the one who got us involved with tractor rides like day one & day two of the North Iowa Tractor Ride.

They normally aren't quite this close, but at the end of it, before all the ground is plowed they take a picture of all the tractors lined up. So they all move in close.

I think there is usually between 30 and 40 tractors out there. Red ones, orange ones and green ones. All different kinds. These guys have a blast doing this. I am pretty sure they are already talking about next year.

North Iowa Tractor Ride...day two

Southeast Minnesota is hilly and full of bluffs. Excellent scenery. It was gorgeous being on top of the hills and looking out over all the farmland.

It is also Amish country. The coolest thing I saw was the laundry hanging out to dry at one home. No one got a picture of it. It was beautiful. Lots of black, deep purples, blues and reds hanging, like flags, from the house to a pole. It was just as sunny and hot on day two. Everyone had a chance to work on farmer tans....head neck and arms taking the brunt of the sun. Sunscreen is a must have for rides.

Here I am....I was holding the camera up to get a shot of what was behind me. I never knew what I would get...this seemed to be the best one. That is Rod back there.

This was my view for 2 days....

My knees didn't get so stiff...I was able to stretch out.

Not a cloud in the sky.




Breaks were scheduled....a place to stop, get down, walk around and use a bathroom....

On day two this was a break on the side of the road.

It was perfect...if you don't mind not having a toilet to use. (I didn't, and I had to go) The corn was just right to walk into and go to the bathroom.

and....no, I didn't see any baseball players in there.

(Field of Dreams....is this heaven? No, it's Iowa)






We are almost back to Cresco....

It is hard to see, but, Bill was in front of us. He was standing, one leg up, trying to air out and cool off.






The end....

Rod has this down to an art form....he and Brian can load, and chain down tractors in no time at all. They have done this before. In fact they were going home...only to regroup and then head out the next day for another tractor ride! I was happy to stay home. I need a bigger break between rides!

It is something we will do again. Maybe next time use the Farmall, that tractor isn't as noisy (according to tractor joe). I don't know...to me they all sound the same.

North Iowa Tractor Ride 2010...day one

We finished our first tractor ride!!

these are the cell phone pictures that I took.....

We were only gone 48 hours....But I feel like we were gone for days and days and went a lot further than we did. Here we have Brian, tractor joe, Rod and Bill.... We all met in Cresco, IA on Thursday. It ended up with 170-something tractors participating. They had 4 sections.....from the slowest group, which always left first... to the fastest group, which always left last. We were in the fastest group.

Hang on to your hats....I lost my hat once when a gust of wind took it. Bill stopped to pick it up.
I got it back when we stopped for a minute to check our brakes on the tractor...
they were smokin' hot!!!

I am still not sure of the problem...but it was easily fixed. We discovered that we would like one of the slower groups better. The faster you go, the louder the tractor. It was hard to talk without yelling at each other.

we said "WHAT?" a lot....and did a lot of pointing. At a slower pace it was easier to talk.

On the first day we were in front of Bill and Rod. It was hard taking pictures. There was lots of bouncing in my seat.

I had the cooler, my backpack and me all seatbelted down on the bench. There were times I was airborn back there. The first time it was OMG!!!....then you just kinda get used to it happening every once in awhile.

We left at 9:00 am and arrived in Lanesboro, Mn about 3:30 in the afternoon. It was very hot and humid...waiting in line for fuel was another chance for more sweating. Not much wind to help cool a person off.
Out on the road you didn't feel the heat as much.

I had put a quilt on the back of the bench.

Then we had to find the place we had made reservations for...



It took a bit of searching...finally we found the door sandwiched between two shops.

Check in was at the Amish Experience shop.



Then off to our room....

Right behind that door is a set of steps...24 of them and right at the top was our room. I kept reminding myself of all the great exercise I was getting each time I went up them.


There were 3 rooms, each with a bed and bathroom. The rooms all shared a livingroom area and one beautiful kitchen.

It was stocked with everything you would need to make breakfast. We loved it. Our roomies were Rod's in-laws and we all ate together at the table, talking about the ride so far.

Just about all the decorations were for sale...there were price tags hanging on different things, including these chairs. Amish built, they had $169.00 on them. I don't know if that was per chair or pair of them...we didn't buy anything, not even a postcard.

I will do day two next time!!

oliver ready....

We are going on a tractor ride....

It goes from Cresco, IA up to Lanesboro, MN and back

We spend the night in Lanesboro.

...there will be 150 tractors of all kinds...... putt*puttin along the road.

We have never done this before.

Rod has.

He put an old pickup bench on the back of the Oliver. That is where I will be sitting...just like Rod is in the picture.

(Tractor joe took the picture while he and Rod were working on it.

It is blurry, but he was so excited for me to see it. I told him that people will think he was drinking when he took it. He assured me it was after he took the picture that they had a beer.) The kitty's name is Cleo.

trash to treasure

Tractor joe put up new paneling in our breezeway.

(hopefully I will get the before and after pictures blogged)

This is about a light for the little room.

I painted the old light a copper color.

I was the only one who liked it.

Everyone else disliked it.

They just weren't sure about it.

There had to be something else tucked away.

Tractor joe remembered an old base and globe up in the garage.

A dirty rusty old base.

Cornelious quickly painted it with some farm machinery paint.

...a silvery metal color.

Now it was my turn to dislike.

Hate is such a strong word.

It still needed some doctoring. There had to be a better plan.

especially with it's globe.....yuck!

It screamed 1960's institutional blahhhh.

I couldn't bear the thought of such an ugly light going up.

More thinking and talking....

We didn't have much paint to chose from.

The glossy white, the black, the clover white paint cans were empty.

There was some meadow green yet...

the color of an Oliver....

and what it

what if...........

what if we put the word "OLIVER" on the globe

and what if we did paint the base meadow green?





It would become the most incredible light in the world.

One of kind....something we all loved now.
I am just tickled pink by our results.

and it was almost free, if you don't count the price of the light bulb.

Sunday adventures....

The big guy's birthday is coming up this week.

We thought we would run down to Kmart to buy a gift for him. This sign greeted us at the door.



OH OH....we needed electronics....luckily everything was still there and we were able to get what we wanted.

Relief...

But I wanted sox and underwear for myself and Crispy.

Would we find that anywhere???

It was really empty in clothes area.

But look!!

.... a whole wall of women's undies were still hanging there.
I don't think tractor joe has ever spent much time looking in this department. He had to help me find the size and style I wanted.

He said, "I had no idea there were so many different kinds to choose from." He was able to find what we were looking for and off we went to our next goal....

Crispy needs new boxers, he didn't fair so well. There were no plaid boxers to found. (if there is a chance they will be used for a sewing project someday....we want "cute" plaids)

He will just have to wait until we get somewhere else or Kmart is able to restock the shelves.

Most of the sox were still out and we both get to wear socks that don't have hole again.

I wanted to get a picture of how high the water was in the river by Kmart, but missed the shot...

instead I found myself parked next to this tractor.

We need a bumper sticker that says we brake and stare lovingly at old tractors.