We live five miles south of Garrison so yesterday morning we had a startling awakening before daylight. As soon as we could see we began cleanup of branches and limbs and a half a pear tree which took us all day and this morning to complete. We were without electricity for over five hours yesterday and didn't have phone service this morning so I couldn't get on the internet. That's minor compared to the devastation that happened in Garrison and Vinton.
The last couple weeks have been busy. We finally got the two crops in one hay made the last day of June and first day of July. The event went off without any problems this time with the machinery unless we counted the heat. Everyone is telling me we couldn't make hay without hot weather, but did it have to be that hot?
My computer stopped working about then. I had to wait until after the fourth to take it into the repairman. The computer shut itself off each time I started it. The repairman opened the computer and showed me inside. Fifty percent of the dust that sifted in through our window screens had sucked into the computer fans. Blowing the dust away wasn't hard, and I will be doing that myself from now on. The repairman started the computer to see if it would work all right. He remarked that it was slow. I'm used to that, but he has high speed. The problem was too many anti-virus programs which I had installed for added security. That's not a good thing. He said leave the computer and come back later after he deleted all but one program. Later, the repairman said he found viruses that made their way in while the anti-viruses were busy fussing with each other. He needed more time. Three days later I called. He might have the computer running smoothly by late afternoon. He was installing me an anti-virus program and still looking to see if he missed anything. I picked the computer up and haven't found much difference in performance, but then like I said I'm used to it.
One day while I was computer free my brother, sister-in-law, their grandson, Avery, and his cousin, Emily, both 9 years old, spent the day with us. Years back, nieces and nephews enjoyed a tour of my animals and some hands on fun in the country. Now the great nieces and nephews are doing the same. Children haven't an opportunity to see a variety of farm animals like they could in the past on diversified farms. Animals are raised in confinement buildings and feed lots. Ask a child where eggs come from and the reply might be out of a carton Mom bought at the grocery store. The Benton County Farm Bureau women have had a farm day at the fair grounds for years for elementary children. Twenty years ago when I helped with the farm tour we had the kids bused to farms. I set the Keystone third graders up to see a dairy farm. The farmer handed out small cartons of white and chocolate milk from the Dairy Association as the kids came off the bus. The students followed the farmer through his dairy barn, listening as he talked about the milking routine. In a lot attached to the barn, he showed them his herd. A boy held up his hand. He wanted to know which cow gave the chocolate milk he just drank.
Our young neighbor graduated from high school and left the first of June for Africa. He will stay there until the first of August. He has a blog post with pictures on word press. If you'd like to see Mbita Kenya on Lake Victoria, the farmers AJ has met in his volunteer work as part of the Borlaug-Ruan International Internship Program for the International Centre for Insect Phyisology and Ecology and students from a school he volunteers at in his free time go to anthonywenndtwordpress.com AJ is a very descriptive writer, and his adventures are fun to read about. He's having quite an experience, interviewing farmers and absorbing the culture.
Now next week I'm going to go back to posting about my books and first chapters.
No comments:
Post a Comment