Snapshots of a Kansas Farm

1. Lose weight -  I am down 20 pounds since Christmas!  I am not sure if it is noticeable, but I feel better! I have lost 8 lbs since starting my goal after Christmas!

2. Get in the best shape of my life - My elliptical and treadmill is still out of commission, but now we are waiting to move it into the basement when it is finished.  Hopefully that will be done in the next month!  Instead of working out inside, I have been taking more walks and even try jogging some! Unfortunately our exercise equipment is out of commission while the floor in My Purple Palace is waiting to be finished.
3. Eat healthier - I haven't eaten many more vegetables, but there is definitely an improvement in the quality of food I eat!  I hope to eat more green beans and carrots this year! (Small steps for the picky eater)

4. Stay in touch with friends better - I think I have done better.  I try to message or text friends occasionally to see how they are doing.  There is still room for improvement.  Now that we are grown up, my friends are scattered all over the state, country, and world.  Facebook, texting, etc. help, but how often do we not take the time to actually have a conversation?
5. Keep the house ready for company at all times - The house is pretty clean right now.  I might be getting the hang of this housewife thing!  I currently have the house as clean as it can be for having one room completely emptied into the living room!

6. Do one load of laundry - This hasn't been happening, but I try to do just one load a day so I am not overwhelmed.  (Thanks for the idea, Kelly!)

7. Do the dishes every morning - When I am home in the morning, I usually get the dishes cleaned.  It makes the day so much better!  It sure makes the kitchen feel better to have everything clean and put away!

8. Take a picture of something with my camera...EVERY DAY -  This is probably my worst category.  I rarely get my camera out for everyday life when I have my cellphone with me at all times.  I want to have a record of everything that happens this year!

9. Learn a new skill each month - I have started making dishcloths, dish scrubbies, and coasters, as well as learned the ripple stitch.  To practice sewing I converted to sewing my fabric strips together.  Sometime this year I am going to tackle some curtains. :) I am going to learn a new crochet stitch or pattern and maybe pick up sewing!

10. Cook at least one new recipe a month - I don't know if I have tried a new recipe each month, but I have done my best!  I am a picky eater so I tend to cook in my comfort zone. 

11. Write more - I haven't found a pen pal yet.  Anyone want a pen pal? I would like to start writing a letter with a friend, like a pen pal!

12. Finish our house projects - We have the purple room finished!  The basement is about half done and the second bathroom is prepped for a new layer of mud.  The work is being completed slowly.  We have a long list!  It is all written down and ready to have projects checked off the list.

13. Have an open house for friends and family when our house is finished - We still have a long way to go.  I would love to get it all done this year, but I doubt that will happen.  Goal for 2015? I would love to have my family and friends come up to see our house when it is finished!  Be ready for an invite!

14. Get more involved in the community -  I have gotten more involved through church and my barn quilt block classes.  I love meeting new people!  Vacation Bible School at our church this summer is being planned by a friend in the church and me.  Hopefully it will be a success!  We want to get more involved in the community and church this year!

And an obvious goal for life, cherish every day with Redbeard, Scraggly, Andie, and Custer - I have enjoyed every day with the four guys in our house!  I am very lucky to call them my family!  I must enjoy every day this year!

Last weekend we made it to one year of marriage!  It is hard to believe how fast time flies when you are having fun!  We spent the weekend celebrating another marriage, my parent's 25th wedding anniversary.  Somehow we managed to plan a surprise party and keep them out of the loop until they walked in on Saturday night!  We had a blast spending time with my family and their friends.   Over sixty people showed up to celebrate.  Thank you to everyone who came!

Thanks to my aunt for making a barn quilt block on the cake!

We made them toast like 25 years ago!

The next day (our actual anniversary) we celebrated at Dairy Queen with my parents.  Doesn't get much better than a chicken strip basket!

My parents got us two apple trees for our anniversary.  They will look great next to our pear trees.  The orchard is growing!  There is some significance to getting apple trees.  Our first dance song was "Hey Pretty Girl" by Kip Moore.  In the song he sings, "plant some roots and some apple trees."  My mom wanted to be clever and give us some apple trees to plant in our orchard.  The trees are planted and a post is soon to come!

We are so happy to be a seasoned married couple of one whole year!  We look forward to many years to come with each other!

The long days have been easier for Redbeard this year.  He takes our (not so) little Custer with him.  The boys have so much fun in the field!

So I will sit back and enjoy the last moments of the Winter schedule and look forward to great opportunities for farm photography!

The color we chose was Almond Sugar for the walls.  As I have said on my recent post, How to Renovate Your House Without Going Crazy (Housewives of Rural America),  the first brush stroke is always a shock.  Our first impression of our new wall color was peach...far from what we wanted. 

We have been working hard on the floor.  The frustrating part is summed up in the words, "hurry up and wait."  We rush to get the next step done and then we have to wait hours, a day, or even days to start the next step.  We finally got the floor stripped completely and ready to stain.

Here is the finished product. Two coats of stain and three coats of polyurethane.

And my bright closet with red oak stained floors!

Now we have to wait for one whole week before putting everything back in the room!  I am so ready!  Everything from this room is in the living room!  The cats love the new places to sit, but I am tired of weaving through a dresser and rocking chair to get to our room!  A big thank you to Redbeard for doing all the hard work and Bobbi at Ace Hardware in Phillipsburg for helping us get all the necessary items to finish our floors!

 http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/out-there/2013/11/what-happened-our-quail-observations-old-quail-hunter.

The article is basically his opinion of what happened to the quail population in Texas. His reason for the quail numbers decreasing is the use of herbicides. He believes the herbicides reduce the amount of seeds available for the quail to eat.  This shouldn't be a total surprise because one reason to use herbicides is to reduce the seed bank in agricultural fields. 

I won't repeat the entire article, you can view the link. What I'm getting at is that I don't think the author knows as much about pesticides as he thinks he does. He says that herbicides kill insects and can harm humans. Well, not exactly. Herbicides kill plants. Insecticides kill insects. Herbicides cannot kill insects. Maybe it was a typo on his part. I don't know. I will admit there are a few herbicides that can harm humans. But for the most part, those herbicides are not used anymore. Some of the comments on the webpage were bashing Roundup for being toxic and harmful and wiping out fields, when in fact Roundup is one of, if not, the safest herbicides farmers use. Its mode of action is an amino acid inhibitor. More specifically it is an EPSP inhibitor. I won't bore you with the details of that, but what Roundup inhibits only exists in plants! Also, the farmers of today are much smarter about their herbicide use. You might have heard of "Farmer Logic." That is, if x lbs of atrazine per acre will kill weeds good, then 2x lbs per acre will be even better. Those high, probably off label rates can contribute to runoff into streams and could potentially contaminate surface waters. However, research has indicated that lower rates of atrazine can actually increase the herbicide efficacy and reduces runoff potential. Farmers are realizing this and practicing it!

Now don't get me wrong, I wish I had more quail around to hunt. I love to eat quail. I love hunting quail.  One of my best hunting experiences was hunting quail with my dad. We started out walking on a cold brisk mid-morning hunt with our two labs, Blackie and Jade. A fair amount of walking was involved. We saw a couple different coveys and ended up with 6 birds total. We each shot 3 times and never missed. The dogs worked like professionals in flushing and retrieving. It was about as good a quail hunt as I've ever been on. My point is, I like quail hunting as much as the next guy. But I also like to eat. I can't shoot enough quail to live off of each year. The world can't be fed on shooting quail. The world needs proper herbicide use to raise enough food.  By 2050, there will be about 9 billion people on Earth.  We need genetically engineered crops and herbicides in order to feed the mouths of the world.  (Here's an interesting tidbit: For those that say that all herbicides are unnatural, just take a look at the herbicide known as Callisto, or active ingredient mesotrione. It was actually discovered from a tree that didn't have anything growing under it.  A scientist noticed this and looked for the reason.  They found the tree was putting out its own natural chemical for defense against competing plants). 

He mentioned his frustration with Quail Unlimited because they won't spray their plots with herbicides.  He thought if they sprayed the areas, they would find that herbicides were hurting quail.  What I think he fails to realize is most of the time there isn't a need for a herbicide application on a wildlife area.  Why kill the plants that the quail use for a habitat?  

One way that herbicide usage could impact quail has to do with the efficiency of farming.  Technology has advanced so much over the years that farmers are able to produce more food.  They are able to get more done in the same time.  Wouldn't you if you could?  There are pastures that are ripped up to make crop fields so that more wheat, corn, soybeans, etc can be grown.  The habitats are getting somewhat smaller in that case.  Urbanization has also taken away good wildlife habitats.  There are so many reasons that could contribute.

Also, the purpose of this post was not to suggest to people to bash and rail against the author. I don't think he necessarily has a political agenda or anything against herbicides. I think he is just a hunter that longs for the quail population of years past.  Maybe there are more reasons for the declining quail population. Maybe the quail are going through a rough patch right now. Who really knows?

The next picture shows the difference between the first product and the winner.  On the left is where we started with the Zinsser and then used 3M Safest Stripper and when that didn't work we finished up with Citristrip.  In the middle where the wood looks healthiest is where we used just Citristrip.  I love the results!

Hello pretty wood underneath (left) and goodbye to the yellow finish. (right)

When we get the whole floor stripped I will wash the floor up and post about the progress to then.  After the floor is washed and prepped, we will put a product called Restor-a-Finish to recolor the wood.  Then it will be time to add Polycrylic which will not yellow over time.  (Woohoo!)

To see previous posts about this room:
My purple palace
Wood Floors Prepared

It is a new year!  Time to put goals on paper to forget or fail at, right?  This year is different.  (I hope!) I have goals and I intend to keep up with it!  Will you join my challenge?  Use my goals or edit them to fit you!  I plan to give updates along the way.

2013 was a great year, let's make this one even better!

1. Lose weight - I have lost 8 lbs since starting my goal after Christmas!
2. Get in the best shape of my life - Unfortunately our exercise equipment is out of commission while the floor in My Purple Palace is waiting to be finished.
3. Eat healthier - I hope to eat more green beans and carrots this year! (Small steps for the picky eater)
4. Stay in touch with friends better - Now that we are grown up, my friends are scattered all over the state, country, and world.  Facebook, texting, etc. help, but how often do we not take the time to actually have a conversation.
5. Keep the house ready for company at all times - I currently have the house as clean as it can be for having one room completely emptied into the living room!

6. Do one load of laundry - (Thanks for the idea, Kelly!)

7. Do the dishes every morning - It sure makes the kitchen feel better to have everything clean and put away!

8. Take a picture of something with my camera...EVERY DAY - I want to have a record of everything that happens this year!

9. Learn a new skill each month - I am going to learn a new crochet stitch or pattern and maybe pick up sewing!

10. Cook at least one new recipe a month - I am a picky eater so I tend to cook in my comfort zone. 

11. Write more - I would like to start writing a letter with a friend, like a pen pal!

12. Finish our house projects - We have a long list!  It is all written down and ready to have projects checked off the list.

13. Have an open house for friends and family when our house is finished - I would love to have my family and friends come up to see our house when it is finished!  Be ready for an invite!

14. Get more involved in the community - We want to get more involved in the community and church this year!

And an obvious goal for life, cherish every day with Redbeard, Scraggly, Andie, and Custer - I am very lucky to call them my family!  I must enjoy every day this year!

Join me on my year long journey to be a better me by January 1, 2015!

Floors vacuumed and supplies out and ready!

I am excited for all the scratches and imperfections to be history!  Hopefully we know what we are doing!

My mom found grey curtains that work perfectly with the purple walls!  Redbeard put them up for me and I love them!

My new curtains are finally up!  Woohoo!

 Next up I will share the products we are using to make my dream room complete!

For a look at the process, check out My Purple Palace.

Now to show what the snow has messed up in 24 hours.  Sunday we were supposed to have a potluck at church to celebrate new members.  That means us.  Our transfer to First Lutheran is finally complete.  It was hard to say goodbye to St. Paul's, but that is part of growing up.  I knew the recent snow would interfere with our plans.  Redbeard has cattle to give food and water to and with snow and frigid temperatures that means chopping a lot of ice.  Plus, the roads were less than ideal.  

While he was off tending to cattle, I made a dish for the potluck.  I decided macaroni and cheese would be a good addition to the potluck since I didn't have any eggs left to make a dessert.  In a short thirty minutes, I let the noodles stick to the pan and boil its slimy noodle juice onto the stove.  Yuck!  I was trying to do too many things at once.  Next time I will focus only on the noodles.  I blame it on the yucky snow!  It has me going crazy!

Redbeard finally got home right before 11 and church starts at 10:30.  We hopped in the truck and made the trip to town.  We entered right as they started playing the closing song, but at least we made it for the potluck.  Better late than never, right?

Here is what the roads looked like on our way to church

We had a great time at the potluck.  I think it was the best potluck I have ever attended!  Between cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, beef and pepperoni Pizza Hut pizza, and Hawaiian rolls, I was stuffed!  I didn't even eat supper last night!

The road on the way back from church...much better, but still not great.

After church and the potluck, Redbeard and I went out to give a few bunches of cattle some more water.  They sure drink a lot, even though it is cold out!  Custer came along for the ride and loved every minute of it!

I blame my long, cold, yucky day on the snow and my long-time hatred for it.  It causes problems in our days, but it is nice to go chop ice and feed with Redbeard and Custer even though it is cold.