poppin johnny

For those of you who don't know, and asked here is "Poppin Johnny"! Our fully restored Model H John Deere. I forget what year it is. I know, my bad. But when it runs it sounds like it is popping. So that is the name it was given. And for those of you who don't know this tractor was actually my great grand fathers first tractor. On my mothers side! Kinda cool how we got it.
 No this is not our place, it's where we had it stored temporarily. My boy loves it, and has driven it around too.
Have a great day all!

just when you think all is well

it's not!!!
 We had down pours of rain yesterday. Got about 4 inches. My earth worms are now water logged. There were tons on top of the soil trying to dry out!! hahaha. Seriously. That was quite a day, slopping around in the rain and wind to get chores done. Made it though.
Then today we've had wind. I know I've told ya all about the wind we get on this hill, and open spaces. Mostly I love the wind. But on occasion we loose things. The door to the sap house, the wall to the barn, buckets, clothes. You get the picture. Well today the kiddos and I are sitting around the table doing home school. Then Maggie starts mooing loudly and running around her pasture. I look out the window and the tractor tent is GONE! We have a portable tent for one of the tractors, not really what we want, but due to our current situation that is what we have. It's blown down the road right into the telephone poles! OH GREAT! I grab my jacket, and camera, and run down the road to assess the situation. Oh and my husband is currently working WAY out of town, you know like New Hampshire. Ya.

 Once seeing that it's not going to kill me or anyone else I run back to the house and call my beloved. I need some help. The kiddos and I are not going to be able to pull this sucker safely with all this wind. Our tractor is currently broken down. Poo. The hydraulic hose broke, just need to get the part to fix it. I called my neighbor, but he's not home, the other neighbor is still in high school and his parents are not home either. My husband made some calls. His dad is gone, his brother is at work. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm praying that it doesn't blow up into the wires and really cause damage or worse. I put the cow in the barn. She was really bothered by this whole thing and I didn't need to be chasing her on top of the tent!! I didn't want the kiddos out anywhere near this. Who knows with all this wind if it will pick up and blow the tent away into the lines.

Then I'm in the house waiting to hear back from my husband. The power goes out. AWESOME!! I sprint to get the "old fashioned" phone, you know the kind you are actually attached to the base of it! I was thinking the tent had somehow knocked the lines. And look out the window. It's still there. Suddenly everyone has to go to the bathroom, ahem, present company excused, of course. Why is it 30 seconds after the power goes out everyone had to go?! Well come to find out a tree has fallen on the power lines and knocked them clear off the lines and the power to three towns! Not my tent! Phew! My husband told me to leave it alone and his brother and a friend will come over when they get outta work and help me. Oh good. One of the other neighbors ends up coming over and helps to drag it across the field and I tied it down, three corners of it. Tied it down to secure equipment. Now it won't fly away or hit the power lines! My father, mother, brother in law, along with a friend of ours, came over late this afternoon to help me more if I needed it. I wanted them to check it and make sure it wasn't going anywhere. I guess it was secure enough. I was grateful to them for stopping by to help me out. They all got a good chuckle out of it. I guess in the big picture it was kinda funny.  I'm kinda glad the poles were there because who knows how far the wind would have taken it and what damage would have been done. I'm just glad no one got hurt.

This is how far it blew. I'm standing where the tent is supposed to be. Yup.
Oh and we got our power back two hours after it went out.
Have a great evening all!

my weekend

Me driving the tractor in front, towing the one behind!

Pretty sweet I think!
We had to move some of our equipment out of a barn. We have a John Deere tractor we bought last fall, that we had to move. Well, it didn't want to start. So I got to drive the big tractor and tow my husband down the road! Yup I told my man "I'll tow you any day baby!!" He smiled and winked at me, and I returned it! We did get it started, but I had fun driving the big tractor! I mean it's a diesel after all. I did forget to wear ear plugs and it's really loud. The previous owner put glass packs on it. It was ssssssssooooooooo cold. I was wishing I had put on my Carharts. I had some layers on, but was still cold. But once we were done moving things around we had a fire in the stove and I had a glass of iced coffee. I know I should have had hot cocoa, but I wanted coffee! That's just me though.

We had a nice Easter. Morning chores, church, home to check on the animals, to my in-laws for a late lunch. Mmmm yummy ham, Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos, well the younger ones. There were 16 of the 17 grand children at my in laws yesterday! Yup you read that right. What a family heritage my in laws have! One was home with his parents because he was sick, poor little guy. Home for evening chores, jelly bean hunt, kiddos to bed, my man and I had a glass of wine and chilled on the couch together, by the fire place! Phew! Busy, but good!

My beautiful kiddos. They each had a new outfit for Easter Sunday! They are getting so big. Wwwwaaaahhhhhh. Love them so much it hurts. I love to see the amazing young people they are becoming. What a blessing they are to us.
Have a great day all!

here 'tis

 This is our new tractor! Well OK, so it's not new per say. It's actually a fully restored 1941 John Deere H . This tractor was actually my great grandfather's first tractor. My mothers, mothers fathers tractor that he bought new! Can you believe that? It was my kiddos great great grandfathers!! Did you catch all that?!  Now how in the world did we come across this ole beauty? I'll tell you so keep reading if you like stories and a little family history!!
It all began a few years ago just to set you up for it.
 My great-Uncle Erland on my mothers side wanted to buy his fathers tractor back, he knew who had it. He had wanted it for a long time, but the man didn't want to sell. He, my uncle, was just a boy when his parents got it. Then after the man died my uncle went and asked his widow if she wanted to sell it. She decided to sell it to him. When my husband and I went for a visit Uncle Erland told Matthew he bought it. He was like a kid in a candy shop when he took Matthew to see it. At the time it was not in the condition that it is now. Unfortunately my uncle developed cancer and knew he was going to die, so he sold the tractor. All he told Matthew was that it went to a good home. Matthew has thought of my uncle often and wondered where the tractor went. Never thinking he would see it or know where it went. Then this summer my family had a family reunion. Through the course of a conversation that I was having about our farm with a relative the subject of tractors came up, and I was telling him about the one we have. Matthew was near by and heard the word tractor and he joined in the conversation after I asked him a question about ours. Well this man is the nephew of my Uncle Erland. The two men Matthew and Arvil started talking about Erland, and the tractor that was his fathers. HE HAD IT! And the implements, plow, mower, and cultavators. What?! He said that he actually wanted it gone before the winter. What?! Matthew and I looked at each other. I knew what he was thinking. We have some new ideas for our farm that we were approached with, that require another tractor, and then serendipitously one "fell" in our lap. (I just like the word serendipity, I know all things happen for a reason). Matthew and I started talking about it on the way home, and decided that we should pray about it and see about getting our duck in a row, so to speak.We had just walked through the door when the phone rang. It was Arvil saying he had called the man that wanted the tractor, but the man was unable to buy it, so we now had first refusal on it. WOW! We were not in a position to buy it just on sentiment.  We needed to be sure that it would do the jobs we needed it for.
It's been a few months and today our ":new" tractor is home!!! Not only does it have family heritage to it,  it also fits our need, price and will do what we need it to do!! What a blessing to us. We are so very thankful. It's amazing how it all worked out.