Aug. 3-4 - Visit at Clay and Megan’s

Saturday morning began early with harvesting for an order Tom had with a coffee lunch shop in Storm Lake (beets, leeks, green onions, AND sweet corn to take to Clay’s!) We left the farm about 9:30, stopped to pick up Joni’s mom, Darlene, to ride along to Clay and Megan’s.  After picking her up we made our delivery and hit the road for our 2 1/2 hour drive. With only one hour left we stopped in Ogden for lunch at The Lucky Pig Pub and Grill voted Iowa’s Best Pork Tenderloin Sandwich and had the best homemade pies baked by a local woman that has been baking pies for them since they opened in 2001. I’ll vouch for the Chocolate Silk pie while Tom enjoyed his favorite raisin sour cream, Joni and her mom went with lemon meringue! We all raved about them and were able to thoroughly enjoy them because we shared the sandwich! 

We arrived at Clay and Megan’s about 2pm and found Megan had an incredible spread of food! Opps! Glad Joe and kids and Amanda and kids were able to enjoy it! 

It was hot! Even warm inside the house with so many going in and out the air conditioning was having a hard time keeping up!

Kids spent a lot of their time I. The outdoor above ground pool. While adults went to Clay’s new company building, which I was able tour last summer but they were only partially moved in and two large sections of the building were not being used yet but are now. To learn more about Clay’s wood craftmanship check out Aronson Woodworks. His work is amazing and highly sought after. 

We also got to be a part of celebrating Amanda’s son Owen’s birthday! He turned 14 last week!

Kids play area! Quite the wall of need guns!

Very special chair out of Carl Carlson’s farm. Carl was a cousin to my dad. An amazing man who suffered from polio but didn’t let that stop him from tending his farm. Chair had a Send Turkish Rocker Spring with patent from 1902. Very comfortable with original leather. 

Amanda and Grandma Darlene chatting while at Clay’s shop.

I have one o Clay’s end tables like this one but this one has a cribbage board drilled into it, with pegs behind the round circular piece on the end. These were proto types.

Celebrating Owen’s 14th birthday!

Joni, daughter Amanda and Joni’s mom Darlene reminiscing with old photos.

Aug. 2 - Afternoon with Auntie Mavis

Enjoyed my afternoon with Auntie Mavis as we looked at quilts and quilted panels. She is amazing at what she is still doing at age 97.

Auntie Mavis binding her last side! Hope to show her finished panel next week!

Aug 1 - Market Day

Market Day started out early bagging 34 one pound bags of beans, 12 one pound bags of peas by 8:15 followed by a 45 minute drive to Auburn Market to pick up two 20 pound boxes of peaches from Illinois, two 20 pound boxes of tomatoes and 4 muskmelon. The biggest and sweetest muskmelon ever! Weighed in at 11.5-13 pounds! Then met Tom at the Market Building to unload tomatoes and peaches, as he brought other unrefrigerated product to put out. Then back to the farm to clean and bunch green onions.

About 2:40 it was time to load up produce including 26 dozen sweet corn! Big Red, the truck, was loaded! As well as Joni’s can with rye bread, cookie, lemonade,  ups, signs, of course Aubree’s Grand Champion ribbon! Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of Aubree and her goodies, maybe this next week!

Great day at the market but more in line of a normal day, unlike last week that was phenomenal!

Weather report: high 80s

Truck is packed!

Kennedy on fly patrol!

No flies at our Market!

Grandpa’s helpers, Kennedy and Finley!

July 29-31 - Lunch with Karen

Today I enjoyed lunch with Karen. We got to know each other over the last 15-20 years as I work a shift or two at the Threshermens Cafe. She’s my boss! Had a delightful time catching up on the happenings of the last year and I signed up to work a shift on Saturday Aug 10 cutting pies!

After lunch we made a couple stops on the way back home, grocery store for milk and on my list was Rainier Cherries. Have shared the goodness of those cherries by buying them for 3-4 people on this visit who have never had them before! Oh so yummy and meaty!

Another stop was Walmart to pick up a bucket of perler beads for the kids to do craft projects. There were 8,500 of about 20 colors in the bucket AND they needed to be sorted! Initially I thought this is crazy! Pretty soon I was addicted to sorting and enjoying encouraging the kids in their creativity, especially 6 year old Kennedy. Great memories. 

While we were doing beads, Aubree (13 years old) was busy making 8 loaves of  Swedish Rye Bread to be sold at market on Thursday. Her Swedish Rye Bread took Grand Champion at the County Fair opening the door to go to State. At market she sold out of bread and sold many cookies and lemonade! 

31st - After researching local chiropractors I got an appointment with Dr. Morris for later in the morning. The need was great as daily increasing of pain in my lower back, down left leg with the most difficulty turning over the n bed, getting out of bed and standing up. Has happened before and yes, it was my sciatica acting up! Grrr! Got some relief after my appointment but have appointments for the next two Mondays. Hoping this helps!

Bead sorting!

Aubree’s unique method of kneading the dough!

Rolling the dough before shaping it to put in loaf pans!

Kennedy was the “kitten whisperer”! She knew how to tame the kitties!

Albert City Sunsets

Here’s a few sunset pictures from last week! I’m way behind in posting!

July 27 - Aronson. Cousin Reunion

What a grand day connecting with Aronson cousins! So special both to connect with cousins I rarely see and warmed my heart to see so many connecting with one another! Of dad’s 9 siblings there were 5 families represented from locals, to Virginia, Florida, Seattle, Council Bluffs Nebraska. In total there were 28 which included a couple second cousins.

Phil and Tom drove to the reunion in the Model A. Phil gave rides to a couple of cousins!

First cousins…Aronson family!

Phil driving between the corn sections! Do you see how tall that corn is in the back right corner? It’s a white Mexican corn he planted by special request! It is about 12 feet tall!

Phil and cousin Roger Schultz going out for a drive.

July 26 - Auntie Mavis Day

Always a favorite day when I get to spend time with Auntie Mavis! Reminiscing about old times and catching her up on my week! Plus a stop at Storm Lake and the arrival of Phil and Susan for the cousin reunion tomorrow. 

With Phil and Susan arriving of course fresh sweet corn was on the menu! Oh so good! 

It is now August 2! I am way behind in blogging and this is why I need to make daily entries because everything begins to run together and I can’t remember what I did when! Sure hoping pictures will help!

Tom instructing Phil on giving the garlic a haircut, while Tom trimmed off the stock. The 420 garlic had been curing for 2 weeks and will last until next Spring to fill orders.

Grandpa Tom enjoying time with Kennedy and Adelyn.