It’s been one year since I wrote on this blog and I decided to start it up again. We have been doing well, riding out the ups and downs like everyone else.

During last summer I noticed one of our big ash trees had a huge, old wound in the trunk, which was obscured by lilac bushes growing around it. The wound penetrated at least two-thirds through the trunk. Looking at the lilt of the tree it appeared that if it were to fall it would most likely hit our house and then possibly crash down on our septic system. A tree trimmer we hired took it down for $2,400. While walking around our acreage we noticed most of the other ash trees were dead or dying. Emerald Ash Borer has hit our part of Iowa hard and most of the ash trees in our area are dead. There are around ten or so on our property, and all need to come down, except the biggest one, which I paid to have treated. For right now that was much cheaper than having it taken down.

Our garden last year was about the worst we have ever had, very few tomatoes or peppers, but gigantic zucchinis for some reason. It was a hot, dry summer.

Fall was very short-lived, turning cold early. Shelly and I were feeling pretty ill just before Thanksgiving, and we both tested positive for Covid-19. The worst of it continued for a couple of weeks, and we both experienced lasting effects such as headaches, weakness, coughing and shortness of breath. Things have mostly cleared up by now.

Winter came on strong and windy and snowy. I had never experienced a three-day blizzard until just before last Christmas. When it was over, on Christmas Eve day, there were some snow drifts 6 feet tall along the east side of the house, across the driveway, and two in the parking lot. The west side of the machine shed was buried up to the roof. Farmer Johnson drove up that day on his tractor equipped with a bucket loader on the front and a double auger snow thrower on the back, and he was able to scoop and blow out the driveway and parking lot for us. He is a generous man who never asks anything in return. We give him and his wife baked bread and goodies, as well as produce from our garden when we can. He always says “I don’t help you to earn goodies!” and we always reply “We know! This is just what we do!”

We are really looking forward to spring and warmer weather, which should be right around the corner…as could be another snow storm.

A few weeks ago the power company showed up to replace a couple of utility poles on our road, one of which was next to our acreage. I had never seen this done so I watched them, off and on, for the couple of hours it took to do the job. There were two trucks with cherry pickers mounted on top on either side of the lines. There was a man in each of the buckets attached to the pickers, parallel with the power lines at the top of the pole. They disconnected the wires from the pole and held them suspended in place while the rest of the work below them went on. A new hole was dug next to the old pole with a large auger mounted on a crane attached to another truck. Then using the same crane they pushed on the old pole until it broke in two, the top crashing to the ground. The men in the cherry pickers continued to hold the lines in place. The rest of the pole was pulled out of the ground by a big hydraulic claw, which then grabbed the new pole and put it in the new hole. The base was filled in, the men above holding the lines attached them to the new pole, and they were done. All without us loosing power, and them working during during a windy day in below freezing temperatures.

Our first robins of the year were spotted here March 4^th, hopping around looking for food on the still frozen ground. Just a few days before that we were enjoying a small fire outside and heard the first flock of geese flying overhead. Spring approaches.