Issue 4- Summer Days Driftin' Away

I'm officially counting down my days of summer. In the next week or so, I finish up my last summer grad class (which means doing a lot more work in the next few days), start coaching volleyball tryouts, try to squeeze in last minute appointments, try to find time to get some work done for the new school year, attend our first day for teachers (the 15th), and start school on the 18th! Whoa...that's a lot...and I don't know how I'm going to get it all done. Oh, and I forgot, Grant and I are hosting our first ever farm party for some of our friends tomorrow night. I have been getting many requests all summer from friends to come visit; since we've been SO busy all summer long, we just decided to open it up to one night of fun for any of them that could join us. Therefore, since Grant was gone all day at the Illinois State Fair, I was left to get our farm ready for our guests tomorrow night. I can now say I know how to pressure wash a house...woohoo...and boy, did the house need it. I never knew how dirty a house could get until I was the one washing it! And thanks to Grant's mom, Marsha, our lawn looks fabulous...she rides this super fast lawn mower around that I don't trust myself with! I'm sure tomorrow night will be a great last night of fun with some friends before school starts next week!

These past few months of summer were filled with many weddings (seven to be exact), two vacations (one to Michigan with Grant's family right around our 1 year anniversary (pictured above) and the other to the Northwest to experience Seattle, Oregon, the Olympic Peninsula, Victoria, BC, and Vancouver, BC.), coaching volleyball and basketball camps, preparing an advisory program for Dunlap freshman, attending an AP conference and preparing curriculum for teaching AP English this coming school year, and three grad school classes. It's been a crazy summer on and off the farm, and Grant and I both agree that we can never be this busy again over a summer. Even though I had nothing to do last summer and found myself bored, I can now say that I am back "juggling 10 different plates over my head", as my mom says, in Kristen style. While I am sad to see my summer days driftin' away, I am happy to know that I will have a set schedule very soon: teach, coach, go to grad class once a night, and enjoy my weekends when I'm not coaching or doing school work.

Since the last time I posted, I have experienced a wide variety of new farm life experiences that you might find interesting...

Grant and our brother-in-law, Jeff, took me "pole fishin' " in June during sunset on the Spoon River right by our house. I never knew that we lived on such a beautiful river!!! We slid the boat down the bank and into the river (they actually did that), we loaded all the poles into the boat, and we went up and down the river sticking poles into the river banks in hopes of catching catfish (30 poles in total). I opted out of going back at midnight to check for catfish and re-baiting the poles for fear of bugs, the dark, and scary things that come out at night. I can hardly walk Dudley when it's dark out here because it is so dark...there is NO way I'd put myself out on a river that late at night!!!

In early spring, I helped Grant calibrate a planter. He called me on my cell phone with a sweet "Please come help me so it won't take as long", and I couldn't say no. I had already had a long day of teaching in high heels (those days seem to be so much longer) and an hour walk with Dudley, so calibrating a planter was the last thing I wanted to do. But, being a good wife, I went out to the machine shed, and pretended that I was doing scientific experiments as we calibrated. I'm assuming you don't know what that means...because I didn't before doing it. Just to clarify, a planter is the tractor that plants the corn or soybeans during planting season. Before it can plant the seeds, you need to tell it how much to plant in each row and make sure that it is planting the exact amount that you want it to. Therefore, you need to do a set of "experiments" with powder to make sure that the planter computer is set the way you want it. While this should have only taken us less than two hours, after an hour, Grant realized that we had been using the wrong measurements...so over an hours worth of work was for nothing. We then had to re-do it all! After standing on concrete those two hours and climbing up and down the tractor to input measurements into the computer, my feet were ready to give up on me. At least I didn't have to calibrate in high heels!!!


Spring time brought lots of rain this year!!! Many days we were at the point that if we got any more rain much of our fields would have been flooded. Thankfully, many of the large storms that blew through Iowa went just North of us, like this picture here. That doesn't mean that parts of fields weren't flooded. We just caught a lucky break with all the rain that so many places around us got.
I can now say that I've experienced wild wind and rain storms out here in the country...something that I hate getting woken up by because I ultimately think that there is a tornado coming towards us. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up with an intense fear that I hear a tornado coming towards our house, only to look out the window at a lit up sky of lightning, rain, and wind. A few night ago, we were woken up by strong winds, fierce lighting and thunder, and loud rain...I looked outside to see our umbrella missing from our patio...it was blown all the way across our lawn next to the road. I learned my lesson: always take the patio furniture in at night!


For the last month, Grant and I have been enjoying our own home-grown vegetables. There is such a huge difference in fresh zucchini and onions! Our tomatoes are not quiet ready yet, and we still need to dig up our potatoes. Oh, and I learned that potatoes grow in the ground and not on top. Over the past month or so I've been looking for potatoes growing from our plants. No wonder I couldn't find any...One afternoon Marsha said to me, "Any time you want to dig up your potatoes, I'm sure they're ready by now." My response: "No way, I have to dig them up?!?!" Duh, Kristen!

And lastly, a few nights ago I was outside on a beautiful evening before dinner soaking in the last rays of sun as I read one of my many grad class textbooks, and I heard two gun shots echo off of our grain bins. The first shot caught my attention and I didn't know exactly what it was; the second shot was definitely a gun shot. Grant had gone out hunting deer about an hour earlier...that was him shooting at Bambi!!! He came home unsuccessful, but it was still strange to hear gun shots off in the distance coming from the trees. That's not something you hear living in suburbia...or at least something you hope you never hear living in the suburbs or the city! (Disclaimer: It is not hunting season yet, but since we have so much crop damage from the deer, they have a permit to shoot 10 deer in the next few weeks.) For the past few weeks, I've been seeing the same mama deer with her twins running around the fields as I drive down our road during dusk...I just hope they steer clear of my husband!

...I can't think of any more examples of farm fun that I've had these past few months, but I know there are many more. My brain is full of grad school stuff at the moment, so it's hard to think of anything else besides that information. I hope you are enjoying the last days of summer as we enter into a hopefully plentiful harvest season...by the way, the crops look amazing!!! But shhh...I'm not supposed to say that...I guess it's bad luck...I don't think typing it counts!

Until next time, take care...and much love to all!!!

-Kristen

PS...If you are looking for a great read, Three Cups of Tea is an amazing book that everyone should put on their reading list. And of course, if you ladies haven't read Eat, Pray, Love, it's a must!!!

Issue 3- My New Home

In the past four months, I have started grad school at Bradley University, adopted a 2-year-old German Pincher named Dudley, turned 25, chopped off my hair, lost 15 pounds (on a good day), and survived the winter in the country …all in that order. (Oh, and Grant and I became an aunt and uncle again with the arrival of Trent Logan Stiers...my sister-in-law's new baby). Needless to say, these past four months have been filled with exciting new experiences of becoming a true student once again, changing my lifestyle to take care of a dog which is a lot more work then I thought it was going to be, and creating a home here on the farm.

Around Christmas time, I started looking around for dogs in the area that were available to adopt. After a few weeks searching on the internet, I found Dudley, a 2-year-old German Pincher that was at the Livingston Country Humane Society in Pontiac, IL. After many conversations about bringing a dog into our home, Grant and I took a trip out to Pontiac and feel in love instantly. The next weekend we went back and brought him home. After getting to know him, we’ve found that it doesn’t take much for him to make us laugh. He is such a sweetheart and is a great companion on my walks around the country roads. He’s also a good excuse to get some exercise when the last thing I want to do is go for a walk. While his energy level is higher than anyone or animal I know, he amazes me at how fast he can run away from me when he’s not on his leash, how excited he gets at trying to chase barn cats through our windows when he’s inside, and how high he jumps when he’s excited. I’ve grown to love him, Grant says he likes him, and I know my mom also has taken a liking to him since he travels with us to the suburbs. We can’t seem to figure out why he ended up at a humane society…our only guess is his bad habit of going to the bathroom in the house which is something we are constantly working on with him.

Grad school has also been an exciting experience. It’s been a nice change of pace to be a student once again. This blog is actually the result of one of my assignments for the technology class I am taking this spring. I’ve been looking forward to sharing this blog with you all, so you can more easily keep in touch with me, see what’s happening down here on the farm, and not have your email clog up with digital pictures that I send you.

In one of the pictures you can see my new hairdo! I’ve always wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love, but since I didn’t want to cut off 10”, I donated 8” to Beautiful Lengths. I just love having short hair. It’s so much easier, sassy, fun, and professional looking. My students first reaction was, “You actually look like a teacher now!” My response was, “What did I look like before?!?!”

My short haircut also accompanies my improved waistline. Grant convinced me to go on the Atkins Diet with him on January 2nd. I was very resistant at first but then realized that it would be easier if I just tried it since I would be the one grocery shopping and trying to plan meals for his diet. The first few weeks it was difficult to change my way of thinking about food and eating, but it made me realize how “un-smart” my food choices were before. I don’t want to say that I was unhealthy before or ate too many sweets because that wasn’t the case. Instead, I’ve changed my food choices to include much more protein and vegetables instead of all those carbohydrates I was eating. By cutting out carbs, I realized right away how much more energy I had during the day, how much lighter I felt, and how I didn’t ever get hungry. All in all, it’s been a wonderful change of lifestyle and choices, and I love feeling healthy.

Now that the spring weather is finally here, I’m eager for the summer to begin. I don’t think we will have any more snow, so I can say that I survived my first winter living in the country. I didn’t think there would be anything too it, but I was completely unaware how different it would be from living in the city or suburbs. I never realized that streets may go unplowed all day, drifts can get up to 3 feet, roads can freeze over instantly when the conditions are just right, fog can be so dense that you can’t see more than 2 feet in front of you, and that my car can’t make it up hills in the snow (or even down the roads). I spent many stressful drives to and from work in my little Pontiac, and I’m happy that I no longer have to worry about the snow/ice/sleet/fog forecast.

The sun shinning through our bedroom shades before we get up is also a nice change. The change in weather also means a change in Grant’s work schedule. It’s been too wet outside to start spring planting, but within a week or so he will get busy once again. I figured if I survived harvest season, planting season will be a cinch. It’s been so nice to spend time together without me coaching basketball. We’ve been able to take trips up to the suburbs together, go out on dates, and watch Lost, The Office, American Idol, and many more of our tv shows at night. Our new addition of TiVo this past winter will also help Grant keep up with our shows this spring, since he won’t be getting home until the later evening hours. While he is out in the fields, I plan on joining him on some evenings, working on grad school assignments, and spending time with Dudley.

After reading through this addition of Farm Notes, I realize that I say that I “love” a lot of things that have changed in my life. That must be because that I love my life down here on the farm. I just went to lunch with a friend in the suburbs last weekend, and I was telling her how last spring at this time I was nervous for my move into a whole different way of life away from my friends and family. Despite those worries and fears that I had last spring and summer, I now know that the change has been wonderful for my soul. My grandmother sent me a newspaper article a few months ago that was titled “Finding a home and restfulness on Friday night”. In the article, it talked about how in our society we are so caught up in our busy lives that when we are sitting at home on a Friday night we tend to wish we were out being busy enjoying the social scene. Yet, “what we really want at the end of the day is home, ease, quiet, rest, someone to be comfortable with, some place to be comfortable in, a home.” Everyday, I find that I am “at home” and in love with the home that Grant and I have created in our little piece of heaven out here in the country. I do miss the people who were a part of my old home, but I am comforted knowing that here in little Dahinda my soul is quiet and at rest without the busyness and stress of my old way of life...and with that, I am truly happy. I hope you can find time to give your soul quiet and rest wherever you find yourself in your life.


**If you would like to respond to this blog, you can click on Comments (right below this posting) or email me at my email address. Comments can be seen by anyone that reads my blog, so be aware of that. Hope to hear from you!

Issue 2- Happy Holidays!

It’s almost Christmas and it hasn’t even hit me yet. I think it’s because teaching up until the last Friday before Christmas doesn’t really give me a chance to get in the “Christmas spirit”. (My teacher friends know exactly what I mean!) Instead, I’ve been thinking about writing two finals, one that was 200 questions long, getting grades finalized before leaving for break, and planning for our return in January since it’ll be a new semester. This is the first time as a teacher that my students took final exams before the break, so it’s taken some getting used to with all the preparation that needed to take place while I was still finishing up my regular units. But, I can’t complain…it’s the last day of finals, and I’m almost set free. Yes, I am at school right now typing this. My students are in my class in a “review session” that the school builds into the exam week. The review session consists of some of my students showing up to “study” and “review” but it’s really just them quizzing each other and chatting about their winter break plans. I can’t blame them. I can hardly focus and I’m their teacher!

This holiday season will be my first one as a married woman. We are heading up to the suburbs on Christmas Eve and staying there for a few days. No more wishing that Grant and I could be together on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Before we were married we always wanted to be with our own families and said we would save that experience for when we were married. Our first Christmas two years ago, I surprised Grant on Christmas Day night when he was at his grandparent’s house. Instead of leaving the next morning, I decided I couldn’t stand being away from him on Christmas day, so I drove from my dad’s house to my apartment in the city, packed up my bags and gathered gifts, and took the three hour drive down to see him. While I truly did try to surprise him, he figured something was going on when I called him from my car and he asked to talk to my dad to wish him a Merry Christmas. I can’t remember the excuse I gave him, but I tried my hardest to pretend that I was still at home instead of an hour away from surprising him. No more surprises now that we’re married though. That went out the window once we got married! We joke about that all the time! And the extravagant gift buying for each other no longer takes place…funny how that happens! This Christmas, I bought him exactly what he picked out from Eddie Bauer and he’s doing the same for me. A bit more thought went into the gifts he’s buying me, but with basketball season this year, I have had little time for creativity!

Oh the joys of coaching basketball! I forgot how long the season actually is. Actually, that’s a lie, no one can forget the 3.5 months of coaching when it gets dark by 4:30pm, the cold buses that we sit on for way too long, the lack of Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, and how the snow makes the drive home double what it normally takes. I am coaching the sophomore girls team, and it’s been pretty fun, just exhausting. We have one more game tonight before Winter Break officially begins, and then I’m free from basketball for at least a week. That’s just enough time to get reenergized for another long month and a half before the season ends in February.

Because of basketball season, I have not had the “time” that did before to continue to write my Farm Notes. I anticipated writing one every month, but right now, it’s looking like these issues will be written quarterly. My 2008 Resolution will be to really try my hardest to write my Farm Notes once a month to keep my loyal readers informed about what’s going on down here in little Dahinda, IL.

Here’s an update of what has happened in the last three months:

After my first issue in September, I received rave reviews! Then, as the months past, friends would say, “I loved your Farm Notes, but I haven’t gotten once since the first one.” The gilt slipped in and I would have to reply, “Yes, I’m sorry, I need to get one out sometime soon!” Well, soon is three months later. Don’t get me wrong, I have wanted to write another issue, but the time factor, or lack there of, has been the problem.

In October, I filled Grant’s pick up truck to the brim and out the back with corn stalks and straw bails. Why, you may ask?! Well, I thought it would be a new business venture to sell the corn stalks that grow right outside my house to my parents’ neighbors in the suburbs. So, my mother-in-law, Marsha, and I went outside of my house to the river bottom one afternoon and cut over 100 stalks of corn with corn knives that I swear are from the 1920’s! My sister-in-law, Joanie, and her daughter, Sidney, tried to help, but after Sidney got stung by a bee it was a bit hard. Grant and Marsha then loaded up the pickup truck with the corn and straw, and I headed up on I-80 and I-55 with a loaded down pick up truck with corn sticking out the back. I can’t tell you how many strange looks I got from the Friday night commuters. On Saturday, my step-mom, Amy, and I spent over two hours delivering the corn and straw to the neighbors that had put in orders through Amy. For the first year, it was a decent and “fun” business adventure. However, next year, to make it worth the gas, time, and effort, I’ll need to take more orders. Keep that in mind if you want corn and straw bails when next fall comes around! (I never thought I’d say this, but that experience kinda shows that I’m turning into a farm girl! Who would have thought?!)

The weekend after the corn and straw adventure, my mom, aunt, and grandma came down to the farm on Friday night. It was the first family visit since the wedding. It so happened that it was the Scenic Drive Weekend in our area, so we spent our Saturday shopping the craft shows in the small towns that were on the Scenic Drive. We also tried out a fancy restaurant on the river in Peoria and had a wine tasting at the neighboring vineyard 15 miles from our house. Thank you Grandma Rosemary for treating each of us to a bottle of wine from the vineyard! Grant and I drank it that Sunday night with our dinner, and it was delicious!!! Anytime anyone wants to visit me on the farm, I’ll make sure to take you to the winery!

By Thanksgiving, Grant completed another successful and bountiful harvest season! We did it!!! I survived my first season as a “farmer’s widow” (as the ladies around here call us women married to farmers during the harvest/planting seasons). Grant had many late nights for a few months, but I made sure to visit him in the tractor a few nights a week. There’s nothing like the bonding time you get when you’re with someone in a small space from anywhere from a few minutes to six hours. The harvest season flew by, since I was also spending my time helping out the Varsity Volleyball team at school. With Grant gone most nights, I had lots of time to watch tv and read before going to bed. It was very relaxing! But then basketball season started in November and that time no longer existed. Now, Grant is the one that gets home by 5pm, and I’m the one with the late nights. Hopefully, next school year we will have our schedules figured out where we both can be home at the same time!

My new home in little Dahinda is really starting to feel like home with the beautiful Christmas tree in our living room and a wonderful husband to come home to. I hope this second issue of Farm Notes finds you all healthy, happy, and in anticipation for the celebration of the birth of Christ and the joys of being with family and friends. Until my next Farm Notes, Merry Christmas and Happy 2008!

-Kristen Strom

I attached three pictures of our home. One is of a beautiful sunset the evening my grandmother, Caroline McGivern past away, and the other two are of our home and farm!

Issue 1- My First Farm Notes

Country living is not what I thought it would be. I had my doubts about moving out to the middle of corn and soybean fields after living the complete opposite lifestyle in the city and suburbs, but these past three months have proven me wrong. I do not see country living as “boring” or uneventful as I once thought. Instead, I associate living “out in the country” as a way to be at peace with oneself, life, God, and nature. There is time to think. What a thought… time to actually sit and think! I never knew that to be possible. In my previous life, that of the Kristen who was the city girl, I would say that I was “bored” if I had ten minutes to kill before heading off to my next scheduled event just after crossing the last one of my list. (Oh, that list that just went on and on. Even if I had crossed off half of the things I needed to do, a few more bullet points would appear out of nowhere. Now, I do not have a list. Instead, I have a few things that need to get done once a week when I head into town before heading home after work, but it’s the basics: go buy groceries....umm...did I say “few”...that’s really it.) I now am no longer “bored” but just content. Content with having time to read a good book before I go to bed, content with chatting on a phone with a friend while doing nothing else but paying full attention to the conversation, content with looking out my window and seeing maybe one car drive by at night, content with driving to and from work watching the sun rise and set over the fields without the worry of traffic, content with having my bowl of cereal for breakfast just as I watch the morning fog lift off the tops of the corn stalks, content with life, content with love, and content with myself.

Those first few weeks after the wedding stress/bliss/excitement calmed down, I found myself, guess what, bored. I was miserable sitting in my new house trying to find things to do to keep me busy. I would go for walks by myself through the corn-lined roads only to get really lonely because I didn’t have anything but corn to look at. I woke up every morning before opening my eyes with the thought, ‘Please, please, please let me be in my apartment in the city so I can just walk downstairs and out the door to go do something besides being bored.’ But every morning I would wake up to my new room, in my new house, with a husband already hard at work, to a house waiting for my boredom. You could say I was bored before I even woke up…how lame is that?!

But now I am not bored. I am relaxed and at peace with my new life and lifestyle. I have school to keep me busy during the day (which by the way, I love my job and my new students), but at night I can go home and relax without being stressed about having lots of school work to get done. Let’s just say, this weekend was the first weekend I’ve brought work home (for all my teacher friends, you know how big of a deal that is)!!! I have the opportunity to really develop my relationship with my best friend, my husband, even if that means sitting in a tractor with him when he is busy at work during this harvest season. And I have a peace in my heart that I’ve never experienced before. A peace that tells me that this is where God wants me to be right now.

So yes, country living isn’t what I thought it would be. I went through detox of my once hectic lifestyle and the period of desperately missing my friends and family. But now, I am happy with the opportunity to really get to know myself. I was scared to be alone without the people who I always counted on to make me happy, but now I find my happiness and company in the little things. The corn surrounding my house and my life is my constant reminder that you reap what you sow. I would like to think that I am sowing my new life into the heart of what it means to be alive, and I think that I have already started to reap the happiness of getting to know myself and what life is really all about.

…I’ll let you know how it goes!

-Kristen