Chermedel Diary
October 9, 2008
The magnificent 13 made the great escape Frostie busted down the gate when he heard the chainsaw start. ( I could hear Kathy yell over the top of the chainsaw) He went into a lot with Cincinnati and Whitey, where they were locked up.
One of the ponies was in the back yard of a Garnavillo resident, where Kathy and the banker and other neighbors helped to catch her and tie her up. This was about a mile and a quarter away.
I went out to a grain farmer's farm about a mile and a half out of town. The nine weanlings were all out there. I managed to catch Starburst since she was the only one with a halter on. I led her into the guys massive machine shed and the rest followed. We locked them in the shed and Kathy got there. She was shocked that they behaved so well, since most if them were not halter broke. Megan stayed there while we went home to get the pickup and trailer.
We picked the first one up in town and had not much problem with this one. She was loaded on the trailer and tied in. There were about 6 to 8 young girls that were there and they asked Kathy how many horses and ponies we had. She told them that we had around 40. She asked how many of them would be going into 4-H and about 3 of them acknowledged that they would be entering 4-H that year. She told them if they wanted that they could come out to our farm and ride and also show one at the fair. They seemed very happy about the prospect.
We thanked them and went out to the farm where Megan was watching the other 9. Kathy figured we were going to have an awful time loading them without any way to squeeze them.
Starburst came right up to me and I led her on the trailer and the rest came right on the trailer. That would almost sound like they are able to be loaded. Ha! Ha!
On the way home I asked Kathy if it was a slip of the tongue about how she asked the girls up town about being in 4-H and about coming out to ride the ponies and show them at the fair.
She just gave me a different look and asked me if when I said that after the fair that they could go along to Lexington, KY and show them at a big show.
I never answered and we both knew where we were at that point. We unloaded them and tied a gate in front of the broke down gate.
October 10, 2008
The next morning we did chores and patched the gate together. Chelsea came out and went out in the timber to check on the cattle and horses.
Later in the morning Delta came out to do some photography in the woods and I have some great pictures to share with you. The top two on this page show some ponies and fall scenery.
On the economic front the stock market once again crashed some more.
October 11, 2008
This is a beautiful fall day. Kathy & Megan finished digging the rest of the potatoes. I cut some more wood. The old body don't work as good as it once did. I have pains where I never had pains before.
October 12, 2008
Today is a beautiful beautiful Sunday morning. Kathy and I went out to Megan's &picked apples. They have a bumper crop of apples out there. We took most of the day easy
.
October 13, 2008
Today is a very warm partly cloudy Monday. It rained in the late afternoon. Kathy went to the shop. I cut wood and started out from the barn and went around the corn field. I was out there about 5 hours and was exhausted from it. I came up the road from my neighbor's Doug and Cindy Davies and my friend James Kann gave me a ride the rest of the way home. This was extremely appreciated.
10/10/08
10/10/08
10/10/08
This shows some of our crossbred cow herd on pasture. In the foreground is the purebred Buelingo herd bull. We extremely fast gaining calves out of him. If you are in need of a bull or some heifers out of him just contact us at: (563 -964-2780 or 608-326-5336 or chermede@alpinecom.net) They will also make great club or project calves for 4-H.
10/10/08.
.The above picture is of a Burr Oak in the foreground and the background shows maples and others that are displaying their true colors. Natures beauty is truly awesome. I've been many places in the country and Canada, but here on my little corner of the world I never want to leave.
October 14, 2008
Today is Tuesday and we got an early morning call from Erica that the toilet in the shop had run over during the night. It was quite hectic around here as we were going to have to get over to the shop in a hurry, but that proved not to be the case. We had figured that the basement would have been flooded, but that was not the case. We ended up getting Edwards out to fix the toilet. This just felt like a wasted day.
October 15, 2008
Today is a gorgeous Wednesday and one of the first things that happened was that I got a call from a chain where Kathy had hurt her leg when we were in Lexington and they had agreed to settle the damages. He thought that by faxing me a copy of the check that we would just sign off of the claim; however I informed him that we don't do things like that in America and then I gave him our attorney's number.
I later received a call from MOSA and they informed me that we would be receiving our organic certificate for our corn. This would be what would allow us to sell the crop at $10 @ bushel with the transportation taken care of by the buyer.
10/10/08
This is a self image that Delta took of herself. You still have the background colors. I don't know how she did this, but she took 156 pictures in about an hour and a half. (Note: as the seasons change so will the pictures we post)
10/16/08
This is a beautiful fall Thursday. I had Bobby run me a moisture test on the corn and it was still quite high in moisture. It was testing between 25% and 28%, so I will test it again in about a week. I saw the article in the local paper about our runaway ponies; however the report made it sound like someone else caught them and returned them to us.
Kathy got the organic certificate at the shop.
We took Megan, Chelsea and Delta to a talent show in Boscobel, WI this evening and they did stand up comedy. They were great.
10/17/08
This is a dreary Friday. It is cold and damp and has rained a good part of the afternoon. I changed the big round baler over for cornstalk bales. I took the baler over to Andy's to have the pickup slip clutch welded.
10/10/08
God's Masterpieces never quit. This is part of the reason that I never want to go off of Chermedel. He has painted the landscape and makes everything beautiful. This is beyond what man could ever do.
October 18, 2008.
Today is Saturday a very beautiful warm Saturday. I went to Bobby's to bale cornstalks. I got 19 baled today and then the baler broke down and I'm not sure what is wrong with it. Kathy got back from work and we went to the firemen's fish fry. It was excellent.
October 19, 2008
Today is Sunday and it is sunny and fairly windy. I hauled 18 of the big bales home today and we fed some of them. Everything sure liked them.
October 20, 2008
Today is a windy chilly Monday. I have the baler diagnosed and all of the bearings in the pickup are gone. What a thankless job. You have to tear the baler almost the whole way apart. I have maybe an hour left to get the baler tore the rest of the way apart.
10/10/08
More of God''s majestic handy work. It is just gorgeous.
October 21, 2008.
Today is a fairly nice Tuesday. It is my 60th birthday. Kathy and I finish tearing the baler apart in the morning. We go to Maquoketa for the parts. We stopped in Dubuque on our way back. Erica, Delta and Alex brought my Imperial car back in the evening the, after they worked all day putting on the gas tank. I guess it does pay to lose your temper. This car was layed up for around three months. .
October 22, 2008
Today is a fairly windy day. Alex and Delta showed up this morning like Alex said he would to help me fix the big baler. We got it put back together in the late afternoon and I went up to Bobby's to bale corn stalks with it. I got 10 Big bales of corn stalks baled, which was all I had raked. It worked real good.
Today is a fairly windy day. I went out and raked corn stalks this morning. I went home for dinner about noon and went back to the field in the afternoon with the big baler. I baled until about 3 p.m when I got rained out. I got 22 bales made and it was all nonstop baling. I guess the baler is fixed real good this time.
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October 23, 2008
10/10/08
October 24, 2008
Today was a cold rainy day and it seemed to rain and drizzle all day long. The photo above Shows some of our hunters or sport ponies enjoying a fall day in the timber. Our leaf prime will be over now when this rain subsides..
October 25, 2008
Today is Saturday and a continuation of yesterday's rainy weather. It is still chilly. and miserable with on and off rain. Like they always say in Iowa "If you don't like the weather just wait 24 hours and you will get different weather."
October 26,2008.
This is a very blustery day. It is very cold with a 40 - 45 mile per hour wind. Even the cattle and horses don't want to go out and pasture in these kinds of conditions. I started to go to the field to rake corn stalks, but I turned around and went back home. I guess turning 60 has turned me into sort of a pansy..
10/10/08
The above photo shows the ponies & horses living in harmony with the cattle in the background. They all love the fall season just like the people do. This will all change soon.
10/27/08
Today is a nice day with a quite a bit of wind, but a lot less than yesterday. This Monday I had gotten 27 big bales baled at Bobby's, but with the wind I had a lot of trouble with keeping the twine from getting in the bales.
10/28/08
This morning was the coldest of the season so far. The water hoses did not thaw out until about noon.Today was a very nice, beautiful day with a very light westerly wind. I baled corn stalks going from east to west. I had no trouble at all and got 45 big bales done. The livestock all enjoyed this weather.
10/29/08
Today is a beautiful Wednesday and I have gotten 63 big bales of corn stalks baled at Bobby's . The horses, cattle & ponies are all enjoying this terrific weather.
10/30/08
This is a gorgeous fall Thursday and I have gotten another 33 big bales baled at Bobby's . You probably notice that I am doing a formatting change here. It is too time consuming to border around the dates.
10/31/08
Today is Halloween and a nice Friday. Andy Schaefers moved in today with his combine and started harvesting the corn. A semi was loaded today and the corn was taken up to north of here to a poultry set up. The facility raises 35,000 broilers and also sells eggs. It is an all organic facility.
11/01/08
Another beautiful Saturday and we finished up the combining. We loaded another semi and this will be weighed and sampled on Monday. The corn was excellent and a $10 per bushel is a very handsome price. After planting this crop I had drug the ground with a harrow 5 times pre-emergence and had cultivated it 3 times. We also spent many hours pulling weeds by hand. This all paid off quite well.
11/02/08
Today is Sunday and a beautiful day. The two year old hunters and 5 calves went out on pasture to the field to the east. This is the one across the road from my neighbors Doug and Cindy Davies. I baled 10 bales of corn stalks at Bobby's and made 12 at home across the road from the buildings.
11/03/08
Today is another gorgeous Monday, which is enhanced by Chelsea helping me fence. We are going around the field across the road to make it ready for the cattle and the mares and Baley to go out on pasture.
11/04/08
Today is a beautiful Tuesday and Kathy & I finished working on the fence for most of the day. By the time we got done we were almost crawling on our hands and knees. Nothing works as good as it did years ago. I moved the bales off this field in the late afternoon after we went to town to vote. Megan came out that night and helped us move the stock cows to their new pasture. This was after dark, but my calling is just like the pied piper to the cows as they followed me.
11/05/08
Took Baley and 14 mares across the road this cloudy Wednesday morning. He seemed real possessive of his harem as he would snake across the field driving his mares together. This is lessening the chores around here. By the time we finished this endeavor Kathy was limping quite severely.
11/06/08
Today is a nice but windy Thursday. I got 4 big bales on the field by Davies baled, but that was all as I ran the big drive chain off the baler. Previous to this incident I had broke a belt on the end, but was able to keep baling. The belt next to this belt has about a two inch chunk out of it. Before this I had a wheel bearing go out of a dolly wheel on the rake. They are shipping me one from Del-Clay implement by the mail. Some days are just made for break downs. I managed to knock out a full link out of the chain and I had to get the skid loader around so I could get up high enough to feed the chain on. Like I said previously simple tasks are much harder when we get older.
11/07/08
Today was a surprising Friday morning with snow on the ground. I went to the shop and installed a railing at the entrance. It snowed on and off most of the day.
The above photo shows some of the limestone formations we have here.
11/08/08
Today is a snowy cold day. We have some snow on the ground from yesterday. Megan went with Kathy and I when we went to Maquoketa to have two of the belts spliced for the big baler. We also stopped in Dubuque for mineral, salt blocks at Theisen's. The other stop we made was at Sam's club.
11/09/08
Today is a very chilly Sunday with a mostly cloudy sky. We had tried out the block heater on the skid loader and find that it is working very well. Sam (Delta's Dog) was tied up today since he was herding cattle into a round bunch in the field. His accomplice was his aunt Jill. Jill is a registered Border Collie. They were not able to herd the ponies and horses into a circle as they had been able to do with the cattle. Things would have been different if we had even one calf out there with the cows and bull.
The above photo shows Summer Wine a weanling filly
not in appreciation of the upcoming winter season.
This was shot on a very windy and dreary day.
Summer Wine is the Hunter Sport Pony Filly
of Rocking H Baley X Moonshine
11/10/08
Today was a sunny, gorgeous, but chilly Monday. Chelsea and Erica came out and helped me put the repaired belts back in the baler. I went out and baled 11 bales in the field next to Davies.. This was not the easiest of tasks since the hunters had spread the windrows all over. They thought that I was playing a game with them. They would run ahead and then just plain stop. The field was getting soft before I got done baling. I hauled the bales in and put them in the lot next to the north hut. I didn't get done until after dark. The field was full of different sized deer and they paid no more attention to me than what the calves and Hunter/Jumper Sports ponies did.
11/11/08
Today is Tuesday Veteran's Day, my sister Cindy's birthday. It is a very dreary, cold day. I hauled a load of hay home from Bobby's, but had to quit when the rain started to fall harder. It was coming earlier as mixed sleet and freezing rain. This is not a gorgeous day. It is sort of reminiscent of the November day when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I can also remember the day he was buried. I was fall plowing on that day and it was just like summer all day.
11/12/08
Today is a very foggy and drizzly day. It is a day suitable for ducks. Even the cattle, hunters & horses are sick of it. The weanling hunters almost run you over as you try to bring them in at night. They are so cute the way they eat all the windfall apples.
11/13/08
Today is Thursday and I worked inside in the morning. It was warm and when I went outside in the afternoon I was going to aplit some wood that was laying around in the yard, but it decided to rain. We had heavy rains in the evening and early night. The hunter weanlings almost ran me over in the dark as they wanted to get inside to eat their supper.
The Weanling Sassy is enjoying some of the
final days of fall before we go into the winter season.
Sassy is the Weanling Sports Pony Hunter of
Baley X Spicy Suprise
11/14/08
Today is a gloomy Friday. Chelsea was out this morning and she checked on the mares that are out on pasture. She helped me split the wood around the buildings. It is too wet to go to the field or out in the timber to cut wood. We had low amounts of rain throughout the morning. The temperature is starting to fall and it is supposed to get fairly cold overnight.
11/15/08
Today is Saturday and I have hauled 60 big bales home from Bobbies. It is fairly warm.
11/16/08
Today is a gorgeous, warm, sunny Sunday and I hauled 24 big bales home from Bobby's, but had to quit early because it is getting quite smeary from melting.
11/17/08
Today is a cold Monday, but the field thaws when the sun comes out; however I managed to get 54 big bales hauled home today.
Sam (Delta's dog) & Bear are enjoying a fall swim.
Bear was sold to a lady from Guttenberg.
Her husband and herself are engaged in farming.
11/18/08
Today is Tuesday and Kathy & I hauled in two big loads of wood, which I had cut earlier in the late summer & early fall. The first load came from the west half of field 3 down in the timber part and the second load came from the east half of that field to the south. The Hunters and calves are covered with cockleburs.
11/19/08
Today is a very warm Indian Summer day in the morning and it turns bitterly cold in the afternoon. I hauled the last 48 big bales from Bobby's and the last two loads it was very cold. The cattle, horses, sport ponies & hunters do not seem to notice the change in weather conditions. They were all fine in the morning as many of them were sunning themselves.
11/20/08
Today is a very cold & windy Thursday I went over to the shop and Rick tried to fix the Chrysler, but it never held. I did get the steps installed at the shop.
The above photo shows the weanling Hunters at one of their meals.
They are truly an athletic bunch and should make excellent Hunter/Jumper
Sports Ponies.
11/21/08
Today is a very cold day, but still highly survivable. The cattle & ponies are holed up in the hollers. Sam (Delta's dog) & Jill (Carl's Dog) have rounded the stock cows up into a tight circle in the field. The horses and Hunters are just watching in disbelief as they seemingly dare the dogs to try that with them.
11/22/08
This is a nice and cold Saturday with a dusting of snow on the ground from Friday. I finished baling the big bales for the season and baled 6 big bales off of field 3 and hauled them in the lot next to the corn crib. I had to hurry, because one bale that I had made the Hunters/Jumpers were trying to overhaul and take apart. Kathy & I cut and hauled wood from the west side of field 3 that were the big elms that had went down. The Hunter/Jumpers are sure an inquisitive lot and they watched to make sure we shut the gates. If we had not I'm sure they would have made life miserable for us. I went to bed at about 6:30 tonight and slept soundly until about 11:30, when I woke up I had pains in every joint and could not sleep anymore.
11/23/08
Today was a fairly nice day, but I felt like I was living in the twilight zone from the lack of sleep. I figured out that it must have been that I had tried to wean myself off of ibuprofen. We cut and hauled the rest of the wood home from the big elms that had went down west of field 3. I took a nap in the late afternoon and loaded up on the ibuprofen. I got up in the evening and stayed up until 11:30 and then took more ibuprofen.
11/24/08
Today is a chilly Monday morning with about an inch of snow. I slept good and full through the night so I think that my messed up nights and days might well be past. I hooked onto the splitter and split all the big wood we had laying around. It made more wood than what I thought.
11/25/08
Today is a warmer Tuesday I cut wood today. The older age seems to enhance the joint problems I have. The 2 year old Hunters and calves look on in consternation wondering what I am doing.
11/27/08
Today is a beautiful Wednesday with nice warm temperatures. I went and cut up some trees for fire wood. Of course my inquisitive Hunters and calves had to check everything out.
11/27/08
Today is Thanksgiving day and Megan, Chelsea,and Delta went with Kathy and I to my sisters for Dinner. Derek & Brooke were also there as it was sunny, but chilly. In the after dark hours it got quite cold.
11/28/08
Today is Friday and I stayed in most of the day working on other projects. It is not the warmest of fall days.
11/29/08
Today is a nice Saturday & Kathy & I hauled up two big spreader loads of wood. We are probably getting about 1/4 of the amount of wood we are going to need for this winter.
11/30/08
Kathy and I went down to the woods and skidded up down trees and logs for me to cut up. This is a Sunday with some moderating temperatures..
This is Kathy's dog Lily posing for a picture.
She is a Border Collie and part of our family.
10/10/08
11/09/08
11/09/08.
10/1010/10/08
.10/10/08
11/29/08
The Month of December was cold and we had a lot of snow. I took the diary part very loose with nothing much out of the ordinary to report, except for the frozen water pipes and snow removal.
January proved to be quite a challenge. I frostbit the tip of one finger when I was knocking out the ice for the mares and Baley on a stock tank. I had a hole in one glove and that was where the finger was.
The finger turned pure black and had me worried for a while, but it amounted only to what a blood blister would have. The only thing about this was that even after the black blister dried up and peeled the finger stayed sore for quite a long time. We found out that Delta had made the Dean's list at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore, Wisconsin in Criminal Justice - Law Enforcement.
March 3rd we went to the Southwest Wisconsin Technical College and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College foundation, Inc. fifteenth annual Scholarship & Awards Ceremony. Delta received a $300 scholarship from Bloyer/Fifrick Family Scholarship.
Kathy & I were extremely surprised & honored at what Delta had written about us as follows:
Personal Information: "I grew up on a farm in Garnavillo, Iowa; my parents are Carl and Kathy Stickfort. Although I grew up in Iowa, I went to school in Prairie du Chien, WI, where I graduated and later moved. I graduated from Prairie Christian Academy. My parents have sacrificed everything to get me to where I am today, They are the hardest working people I know; they are my inspiration for life! They are the reason I love life as much as I do. I love almost all sports; my hobbies include, but are not limited to: horseback riding, taking care of animals, volleyball, soccer, tennis, roller-skating, rollerblading, biking and anything fun and fast paced."
On Saturday March 7th we received about 21/2" of rain overnight and much to our dismay we found that the basement was flooded noticing that the outlet from the septic tank was frozen. This brought about like the old days of using an out house. Along with the frozen water from January's cold snap freezing up the water for the horses across the road and for the ponies along with the steers in the steer lot that made the necessity to move about 300 feet of garden hose around every morning.
We went to dig dig out the end of the septic outlet with the help of Delta. Even though she is a college student she worked very hard in helping us. The old adage about taking the farm boy off the farm and that you can't take the farm out of the boy even applies to the farm girls. Getting this dug free was not to be as we had much frost to go through.
Every bit of clothing that we had was soaked as we went in and changed outfits due to the continuing rain falling.
March 6th was no more kind than what Saturday was. Erica came out right away in the morning and we put in 10 big bales to the livestock. I know what it is when they talk about the frontier women and I was blessed with that fact of my wife Kathy and all of my daughters. We came in with all of our clothes soaked again.
We had heard on the early morning news that a location in California named a tent city was gaining 1,200 more people in population per day from the depression that we are currently in the middle of.
Erica stayed for breakfast and dinner and we all talked about how great it was to be living in rural Iowa. The big factor is that we have options. In the inner cities these people have none. Kathy and I agreed with the problems we were having were nothing compared to the homeless.
Case in point, here in Iowa we had many people displaced with last years flooding. Guess what? The politicians did not even care. No one seems to give a tinkers damn about some of these people. I remember last August or September when I called up a state legislator and asked him what they were doing to help these people in the Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and other areas that were waiting to get funds to repair or replace these homes.
His response to these questions was that the funds were available and that all these people had to do was to apply for the help.
I had told him as an elected servant, that him and the other ones that were in the state house had a moral and political duty to their constituents to cone to the aid and service of these displaced people. I told him that they were not doing their jobs and were in need of being replaced. I asked him what they were supposed to do when the 30 below zero temperatures came? He seemed to not care.
This is a picture of 4 generations. In the foreground from left to right is Nickolas and Kylie Hull. The second row is Kathy Stickfort next to her mother Donna Svendsen who passed away on the 23rd of September 2007.
The back row is Nathan and his mother Kimberly Hull. Kim is married to Roy Hull and they farm in the rural Gratiot, Wisconsin area.
Donna had been from the Monroe, Wisconsin areaa. She is sadly missed by her family and friends.
