Love Comes to noTTafarm

A kiss for luck before the work begins...

Two of our favorite lovebirds visited on Saturday.  I'm sure my big brother Mark and his wife LuAnn were hoping for a leisurely day in the countryside.  However, after the obligatory guided tour and a quick lunch, we put them to work!

First on the agenda was the barn.  Mark and LuAnn came to Omaha armed with two big brooms to tackle the task of sweeping.  Aside from layers of dust and cobwebs, the barn was littered with a variety of animal droppings, hardware bits, and remnants of odds 'n' ends.

Mark's Boots Are Made for Workin'

Sweeping the barn's loft was a bit trickier.  In addition to finding piles of dirt to eliminate, a variety of cracks and knot holes allowed an unpleasant shower of ick to rain down on the first-floor workers.  I didn't blame Mark and LuAnn for taking a break and enjoying some fresh air.

The dust mask was Scott's best friend as he swept the loft.

 When the sweeping was basically complete, we moved on to the next bit of fun.

"What else ya got?  Sweeping is child's play."

Hey, I know...let's cut down a tree!
Mark and Scott decided that one Chinese elm tree had to go.  It was growing too close to the barn and too close to another Chinese elm.

The arrow points to the doomed tree.

Felling this tree seemed like a quick job for an afternoon.  But, of course, once it hit the ground, that tree was huge!  Scott ran the chainsaw and Mark guided the tree to the open area with a series of ropes.

Notching the trunk.

Mark was in charge of the ropes.

Got it down without crushing LuAnn and Kristin and/or the Barn.

The mighty hunters with their prey.

LuAnn discusses the craft ideas inspired by the trunk's extracted wedge.  All she needs is a little paint and a "watermelon slice" will be born!  Too bad her boys have outgrown 4-H.

I even got off my butt and did some work!  I climbed up and swept a few years worth of leaves and muck off the roof.  

Finally, our work was done for the day.  The evening's weather was perfect for grilling steaks and dining outdoors. The night was complete with a bonfire and S'mores. 

Mark and LuAnn relaxed with a walk to check out the Longhorns next door.

The perfect end to a wonderful day at noTTafarm!

We are so lucky to have such a great family!  

A Great Big THANK YOU to Mark and LuAnn for spending the day with us and working so hard!! 

Sunday Photography

What's a girl to do when her husband takes 3 1/2 hours to stain a picnic table?  "Target" was calling to me from 72nd Street but the weather was so nice and the sky was so blue, noTTafarm convinced me to explore.  So, I put the telephoto lens on the Canon and went for a little jaunt.

The foliage on the western trail is beginning to turn.

Tall grass on the east side.

Aha!  Look! It's our feral friend, Bibbers, taking a cat nap in the warm sun ~ curled up in the grass on the east side.

I know thistles are the enemy but their fluff is pretty.

Pretty!

The east pasture has recently been mowed and yielded five big rolls of grass.

The south porch in the late afternoon sun.

Sunday = Fun Day

Sunday was another clear, blue, 60-ish degree day - just right for staining the picnic table.  You may recall that Scott and Carl built the world's best picnic table a few weeks back.  The treated lumber has now had time to dry so Scott first sanded (no rough edges) then treated the table with some weatherproof, protective (and colorful!) stain. 

This table has a lot of surface area!  

He used nearly a half gallon of stain.

Finishing touches!

Sunday Afternoon Turkeys

We arrived at noTTafarm around 1:45 Sunday afternoon.  A group (flock? gaggle?) of turkeys greeted us with a happy chorus of gobbles* as they sauntered through the yard west of the house.

*The turkeys may or may not have spoken to us.

Dig, Tote, Stack, Repeat.

While Scott played with the oversized Tonka toy, Carl and I dug bricks out of the front flower bed.  I started at around 8:30 AM Saturday and by 12:30, I was pooped.  I toted 357 (actual number!  not an exaggeration!) old pavers which Scott guesses weigh 5 pounds each.  Carl got "lucky" and moved the smaller pavers, totaling an impressive 312.  On Sunday, I found and moved 87 more from the flower bed north of the house.  Why would anyone bury pavers in the flower bed, 3-deep?

They're all stacked neatly next to the barn, ready for a future landscaping project.

Saturday Morning Cow

Of all of the neighboring longhorns, this one is my favorite because of its color.  He greeted us with a happy moo when we arrived at 8:15 Saturday morning. 

(He may or not be a he . . .nor did he necessarily make any sounds . . . but wouldn't it be neat if he did?)

Wild Dingo Sighting!

My effort to bring back Meryl Streep's infamous line "The dingo ate my baby!" from the classic 1988 movie, A Cry in the Dark, fell on on deaf ears Friday afternoon.  The mighty roar of the rented Toro Dingo filled the air as Scott and I took a few hours of vacation to enjoy a beautiful October day at noTTafarm.  The Dingo was the perfect tool to use to begin grading the corn crib site, the first step toward total corn crib rehabilitation.

Scott rented the Dingo for 24 hours/8 hours of running time.

 

Luckily, Scott is a Dingo expert! He used his instinct and knowledge gained from his Toro mower to get it working.



Scott and the Dingo moved so much dirt . . . if he had just used a shovel, it would have taken a week.



Dumping the dirt in the new pile behind the barn.  Anyone need any dirt?  Come and get it!



The Dingo was also handy for transporting big chunks of concrete to a new concrete dump.  Anyone need any used concrete chunks?  Come and get 'em!

Another pile of dirt was created on the north side (back) of the corn crib.  Scott pushed out about 8 inches of dirt in the crib's center bay.



The Dingo easily knocked over three tree stumps that were behind the corn crib.



Grading complete!

Scott used the Dingo from about 2PM Friday til it was dark...then we were out at noTTafarm bright and early Saturday to finish up so he could return it by the noon deadline.