Look who stopped by our house last night. Mr. Obama and the Mrs.
Archive for October, 2010
Campaigning In Western Kansas
Posted in Family on October 31, 2010| 4 Comments »
Way Back Wednesday
Posted in Family, Way Back Wednesday on October 27, 2010| 2 Comments »
In the spring of 1988 I made my first communion. Our Priest was the nicest man and church didn’t seem like such a drag. He was a young guy who would play softball with us and just a regular guy. The Priest we got after him was a different story. He was very old Catholic and did everything by the book. He made the 1 1/2 hours on Sunday take forever and a day.
In our family first communions are a big deal. My parents had a shin dig the night before with all the family. Here I am with my Grandpa and Grandma R. They are my dad’s parents. She is the grandma that goes sticker happy with the pictures.
On the way out of church with my parents. That’s my favorite uncle to the left side taking pictures.
Still busy at work. Another few weeks of 50 hour work weeks then I should be slowing down and back to blogging. Happy Wednesday!
Grain Bin in the Making
Posted in Farming on October 22, 2010| 4 Comments »
I’ve mentioned earlier this week that we are super busy at work taking confection sunflowers in. The company I work for contracted many pounds of flowers. However, we don’t have room at our plant or the 6 receiving stations across Northeast Colorado, Southwest Nebraska, and Western Kansas to store all the pounds. One of the construction businesses here in our town built us some bins to rent. They have the first one completed and it is filled to the top with our sunflower seeds. The second one should be ready to take on seeds this weekend. The third one the cement is just being poured. Which is what I got to witness today. I say witness, but really it was a short break of running out the back door to see what was going on between the piles of tickets on my desk.
This is the finished bin that we are unloading in already. It will hold 7.5 million pounds of flowers. In my line of work we go by pounds and not bushels for our sunflowers.
They dig this big cone-shaped pit. Then the workers circle it with rebar and then rebar it up and down so it looks like squares all around this thing. I should mention here that this pit alone will hold 1.5 million pounds. I’m not kidding pouring this is a massive job. In a world that is full of technology, pouring concrete in a grain bin pit is MANUAL labor. Each guy shovels it down to the next. You wouldn’t believe how fast they are in doing this either. I say fast but the whole pit takes 10 hours to pour. During those 10 hours they will pour 400 cubic yards of concrete.
The guys on the left are the shovelers, the guy up on top center (my cousin and supervisor of the crew) uses the steel beam to flatten out the cement. Then the two guys on the ladder use those flat paddle things to smooth out the cement. The paddle things look like what you put plaster on walls with. I just can’t think of what it’s called.
The real kicker is once they start pouring the cement they can’t quit. It has to be finished right then. My bosses and I went to watch for a bit and those guys run up and down that rebar like they stairs. I know this picture doesn’t do it justice but those are some steep walls to be climbing. Imagine standing on rebar throwing cement all day long. I told my lady boss that I would like to see the shoulders on the guys that are on the ladder. Imagine how muscular they are from hanging off a ladder and smoothing concrete 5 days a week. Imagine how hard that would be to do. Just think how careful you have to be when plastering a wall and getting it even and these guys are doing the ground work for a 7.3 million dollar grain bin.
The cement they pour in here is very dry and so by the time they circle around to meet the other side the first part is already turning white.
My Dad is the shop foreman for the company who owns, built and poured these bins and he told me this is a small one compared to some they’ve done. He said their biggest pit is three times this size. After seeing how much work was put into this I will never again complain about having 100 tickets on my desk every morning. lol
Happy Friday everyone!
Shoot Me: 34 of 52
Posted in Picture Challenge on October 21, 2010| 7 Comments »
Hosted By Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans
Post a picture of you (yes YOU) with a child, spouse, friend or even by yourself every Thursday. You’ll be glad you did!
Last night we celebrated my Mom’s 6th year of being cancer free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How freaking awesome is that? Here Mildred and I are trying not to bust the buttons off our jeans from eating so much.
Did you notice I have bangs? Mildred cut me some last Saturday. It had been 4 years since I’ve had real bangs. She threatened to give me a mullet, but since I was a paying customer she thought twice. lol
Congrats Mommie Dearest we are so very proud of you and love you!
Our trees are growing
Posted in Farming on October 19, 2010| 1 Comment »
Last week TNT and I worked on the tree row. After wheat drilling we still had a 1/2 a tank of fertilizer so TNT thought why not give the 2 year old Cedar trees a nutritious drink.
*First picture is of where my garden was this summer.
*Can’t you hear him saying, “you and your damn camera?”
Before we got the lines in for the irrigation I was hauling buckets to each one of the pine trees. Talk about a long afternoon. But they are in and the trees look great.
Most of the cedars are waist-high, but some are as tall as me. The Australian Pines we planted this past spring are on the right. They are about 1 1/2 feet tall.
Old Pickup Take 2
Posted in Pictures on October 18, 2010| 2 Comments »
This past Spring my mother called attention to a cool old pickup on the outskirts of town. I was out taking pictures on Saturday morning and thought, “I wonder what that pickup looks like now?”
I love the Spring one the best. But wait I love the fall colors on this one. I guess I’ll say I love them both. Plain and simple!!! 🙂
Had a very busy weekend. Saturday, Mildred cut me some bangs. We’re talking major BANGS!!!! Saturday afternoon, TNT and I washed the semi, the grain trailer, the grain cart and one of the tandem trucks. I was a tired lady come evening. Yesterday I cleaned the basement. I had kept all papers from the classes I took at the JUCO and then at the university. They went up in flames yesterday and I loved it! lol
I probably won’t have much time to visit your blogs this week. I am elbows deep in sunflower harvest and I have piles and piles of receiving tickets that have to be worked up, entered into the system and then settled. Hopefully this week will go fast.
Last Garden Update
Posted in Farming on October 15, 2010| 2 Comments »
Hard to believe just a few months ago I was just planting the garden.
Then I had sugar snap peas, zucchini and squash coming out of my ears.
As much time as I spent in the garden this summer I was glad to see it stop producing. Is it wrong that this is a welcomed sight for me. 
Now the question is what to plant next spring cause you know I already have Spring fever!
Happy Friday all!
Shoot Me: 33 of 52
Posted in Picture Challenge on October 14, 2010| 7 Comments »
Hosted By Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans
Post a picture of you (yes YOU) with a child, spouse, friend or even by yourself every Thursday. You’ll be glad you did!
On the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend TNT and I stopped at the lake to see his family. The nephew was playing with the air hose.
Since it wasn’t windy “enough” already he thought my hair should get tangled even more.
Fall Crop Pictures
Posted in Lake Time, Pictures on October 12, 2010| 2 Comments »
Corn on the top two pictures and soybeans on the bottom two.
I found out this morning that my butterfly picture has been selected as KSN news Shot of the Day for this Friday. My pic and name will be displayed on their FB fan page and shown on TV during the early morning show between 6:45 & 7. Super excited for that!
Fall is Upon Us
Posted in Pictures on October 10, 2010| 2 Comments »
Anyone who has ever read my blog will know how much I love Summer time. Usually the oncoming of Fall makes me sad that I know warm weather will leave us. However, on a recent trip to the lake I was reminded just how beautiful Fall is.
Life in the Slow Lane 