Our Haxtun Life Blog

Hunkering Down

Susan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:05:26 GMT

The storm is coming! Okay, we tend to get a little over excited about winter storms in this part of the world. We have two good reasons for that: 1) they don't come often enough and 2) when they come they tend to blow snow sideways, leaving multiple-foot tall drifts. Despite this excitement, I remain skeptical when I hear about a forecasted storm because they miss us more often than not.

So when my family told me about the storm forecasted for this weekend, I nodded and smiled and went about my life. I remembered it just long enough this morning to go to the grocery store "just in case", but I still thought the crowd of people at the store was laughable.

Somehow, I ended up watching the news at just the right time to see the weather. I was barely paying attention as the different colors representing amount of precipitation moved across the map. I thought, "We're barely on the edge of that storm. We won't even notice it . . . Oops." That's when they put the predicted snow accumulation on the map and the number 15 was right over our county. I sat up and double-checked. Yep, fifteen inches of blowing snow heading our way.

I called my father-in-law to make sure that ABC hadn't gone horribly wrong in their predictions. He told me to prepare to be stuck indoors without power all weekend. NO!

And then the "hunkering down" commenced, as follows (let me know if I forgot anything):

Filled pitchers and pots and bottles of water because if we don't have electricity then the pump for the well doesn't run (ugh!).
Fed all the outdoor animals with a few days' rations and wished them good luck.
Brought the snow shovel into the house because it would do little good in the unattached garage!
Cleaned the kitchen because I don't want to be trapped in a house full of dirty dishes that I can't wash.
Took out the diaper trash - another stinky thing that I don't want to be trapped with.
Charged everything that is chargeable: cell phone, flashlights, laptop, camera, camcorder, dvd player (all the important things, right?).
Bathed the children and myself - again, a guard against stinkiness.
Blogged and mentally prepared to be without internet for DAYS!

Did I forget anything? Well, wish us luck and hopefully I'll still have communication with the outside world tomorrow morning . . .

Fixing the Drain

Susan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:03:47 GMT

The year is getting off to a slow start, as my lack of blog posts demonstrate. I can't believe I used to blog three times a week! Where did I come up with the material? I've started carrying my camera around everywhere, but I'm just not finding the inspiration I used to have.

Today, you are going to hear about something that I would really rather avoid . . . a broken tub stopper.

I don't do plumbing. It belongs in that grand category of things Susan just refuses to do, like skiing and plucking a chicken. But, well, I'm kind of on my own lately, so when the bath tub mysteriously stopped draining I had to buck up and investigate.

I didn't even know where to start. I couldn't see through the murky water to the drain, so I couldn't even tell how to take the drain apart! Like any reasonable person of my generation, I looked it up on the internet. Luckily, I found a few diagrams of a drain and then I found some basic tools. I managed to dissemble the drain, which made no difference.

Then I dissembled the overflow/stopper. From the overflow plate, the drain stopper is controlled by a long plastic arm, at the end of which dangles a barrel-shaped plug. When I pulled the arm out of the pipe, the barrel thing was not attached. You could probable hear me groan a mile away!

I went back to the internet to learn how to get the barrel out. The recommendation was to either fish it out with a coat hanger or go through the wall to dismantle the drain. Well, since I really like the wall . . . I made a hook out of a coat hanger. It turns out that I was really lucky to have any wire coat hangers because I had gathered them all out of the closet and put them in the bag to take to the thrift store. I thought, "Why on earth do I still have these awful wire hangers?" This is why.

I lucked out. My coat hanger hook caught the offending barrel stopper. I'm still missing the little wire that shold have been holding it to the plastic arm, but I don't think it will disrupt the drain, so I don't care. Here are the evil culprits on top of Dora:

Sigh! Now I just need to buy a new stopper thing-a-ma-jig. I hope they aren't expensive or you will hear my scream echoing throughout the nearest Home Depot.

Wakey, Wakey!

Susan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:02:03 GMT

It's yet another new year! Brush off the cobwebs and blow away the dust on the old blog because I'm back!

This morning I relieved my chicken house and my pocket book of nine roosters!

Here's a few of them yesterday looking mighty cocky. Above, you can see one crowing in the back. They crow a lot. They would start at 4am every morning. Why 4am? I never could figure that out.

This was the "mean one". He never actually did anything mean, but look at that evil eye he's giving me! He's destined to be a nasty bugger.

Anyhow, some local chicken farmers from Wisdom's Natural Poultry took pity on me. They were getting in a bunch of new layers (chickens that lay eggs) and asked if they could have my extra roosters to fertilize their eggs. Apparently, customers prefer to eat fertile eggs - who knew! So this morning a few ladies came to catch my roosters and haul them away.

It was a pretty impressive show, but my camera battery died after only one sorry shot of the ladies bending over the chicken crates with their back-ends in the air. I figured they didn't want me to share that photo. I just wish I could have caught a photo of Cindy Wisdom with her chicken catching stick. It's just a long piece of metal with a bend at the end. She pulled them out of my chicken coop by the leg with that thing. Those roosters were all crow until she showed up and then they were cowering behind the hens!

One rooster started running off behind Cindy and then, whoosh! It went up into the air feet first like it was flying backwards. Cindy had caught it with her stick, but she was so slick I barely saw her move!

So, all but three of the roosters are off to a new home. Of the three that stayed, one got loose during the chase, one I chose to keep, and the third appeared from behind all the hens after Cindy left - sneaky boy! I really don't need three roosters . . . anyone want a feathered alarm clock that goes off at 4am?

In other news, main street Haxtun is under construction! I hear they will be replacing the old water pipes and then refinishing the street - yay!

2010 Pictoral Review

Susan — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:59:00 GMT

Here's a few highlights from our last year. Some you all have seen and some you missed because I disappeared for several months (I am so sorry for that, by the way).

In 2010 . . .

Our guineas started reproducing .

Roy had a wind turbine up and running for a customer at the very start of the year - it produced 26,700 kW-hours by last night. By the end of the summer, he had also installed our personal wind turbine and solar panels. He also became a certified energy auditor, providing low cost audits to northeast Colorado (call for yours today! ).

Roy dug a big hole and made it pretty, among other projects.

We traveled quite a bit. Twice to California to visit my family. One trip to Pennsylvania for a funeral - a beautiful trip, but sad, of course. A great little vacation to Palisade, CO . And a weekend in Rapid City, South Dakota for the National Farmer's Union Annual Convention .

I cut all my hair off and I really wondered, "Why didn't I do this 10 years ago?"

We struggled with skunks , watched a litter of kittens grow up, and Kearney got to meet a deer . . . taking that picture through a screen door at the crack of dawn didn't work so well, but I think you get the gist.

And the wind blew a bit.

We found out about our next little one .

And I got bigger and bigger and bigger!

I helped establish Haxtun's Farmers Market - look for it next summer!

Melise turned 2 and got a very cool spotted purple elephant cake.

Melise won first place for her wagon in the kiddie parade at Haxtun's Corn Festival.

Roy's veggies won some ribbons, too.

Roy helped Melise build her first snowman .

Christmas flew by in a flurry of wrapping paper.

And we ended the year in a dismal snow storm.

Now where do we go? Well, 2011 started with a beautiful blue sky, albeit a little cold still. But I have high hopes for this year. Our baby is due close to the end of January, so there is an adventure soon to come! I'm sure other adventures will find their way to us. I will post as often as I am able, but I imagine that I won't be very reliable for the next few months - I do hope you understand!

Farewell 2010

Susan — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:16:00 GMT

Dear 2010,

You were a challenging year. I can't say that I'm sorry to see you go. If it is any sort of message to you, I didn't shower, brush my hair, or put on nice clothes for our good-bye. The wind is whipping around outside and the snow drifts are building as if you are putting on one last hoorah. Well, I am ignoring it all as I peck away at the last few chores of the year.

Oh, I shouldn't be so mean. You weren't a wholly bad year. After all, you've watched my Melise develop in so many beautiful ways. She was barely a baby when we met you and now she's practically a kid. She became Daddy's little girl this year, too, which gives me deep pleasure.

Roy's job situation improved this year and part of our personal business was given a much needed boost. His understanding for the renewable energy industry is shining through in so many ways.

One of the best gifts of the year was the promise of another baby, due in just a few weeks. Of course, it does speak to your character that you've left the hardest part of the pregnancy for 2011 to deal with. Well, this next year will also get all the glory for our littlest one!

All-in-all 2010 will be remembered as a year that wrung us dry in many ways, but we can be proud that we stuck together, worked hard, and found every opportunity to smile.

Farewell old year!

Scrap Quilt Contest 2010

Susan — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 12:48:00 GMT

Every year during the Haxtun Corn Festival , the High Plains Heritage Quilters hosts a quilt show. A large variety of quilts are on display and many awards are given in various categories. This year, there is a new contest that I wanted to help advertise:

Ann Olson Scrap Quilt Award

Ann Olson was an early member of the High Plains Heritage Quilters who recently passed away. They are holding the scrap quilt contest in her honor. Her granddaughter, Vicky Olson, will present the plaque to the winner, see details below.

What is a scrap quilt?
Really, it is the original type of quilt, which women would make from leftover patches of fabric or from old clothes. It was a type of thriftiness that became an art. Many women still make scrap quilts when they have built up a lot of fabric scraps from other projects. A scrap quilt is often made from a large variety of prints and textures, which makes them a little more colorful and interesting. A simple repetitive pattern is often used.

Here's Melise rolling around on a scrap quilt.

Contest Details
To enter a quilt in the contest, bring it to the Haxtun Community Center (see map ) by 8:30am Thursday, September 23 or contact Kathy at 774-7338 before that day. Winner will be announced and presented a plaque at 4pm on Saturday, September 25 at the same location. To enter a quilt you only need to be the owner of it, not necessarily the maker, so bring those heirloom quilts that your great-great-granny made!

Quilt Show info:
All quilts will be on display Saturday, September 25 from 8:30 to 4:30pm at the Haxtun Community Center (see map ), except during the parade that starts at 10am on main street.

Melise playing with scraps of fabric on another scrap quilt. That quilter had quite the collection of red prints!

Haxtun Corn Festival 2010 Schedule of Events

Susan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:52:00 GMT

The Haxtun Corn Festival is just around the corner! Here's the schedule of activities, as seen in the Haxtun-Fleming Herald, so everyone can plan their day!

Haxtun 89th Annual Corn Festival

Saturday, September 25, 2010
Entry to the festival is free and booths are set-up on main street most of the day.
(map of Haxtun)

7 am - Fireman's breakfast in the Fire Hall

8 am - J.Jeffryes Memorial Run/Walk (Starting line on main street )

8:30 am - 4:30 pm - High Plains Heritage Quilt Show at the Haxtun Community Center

8:30 am - Awards for runners on main street ; Parade registration at Haxtun Community Center & lineup at grade school parking lot

9 am - Parade judging at grade school parking lot

9:45 am - Kiddie Parade (no motorized vehicles)

10 am - 89th Annual Corn Festival Parade on main street

Following parade on main street : Pedal Tractor Pull; Carnival booths; Food Court; Vendors

11 am - Paymaster at Haxtun Town Hall till noon; FFA Auction

Noon - Hot Dog Eating Contest
            - Beer Garden south of Town Hall open until 4pm

12:30 pm - Little Miss and Mr. Corn Festivall on main street (Pre-registration required)

1 pm - Street games begin, followed by live music
           - Johnny Miller Memorial 2-Cylinder Tractor Pull
           - Five Point Pitch Tournament

5 pm - Demolition Derby at Haxtun Arena (THE BEST!)

6-9 pm - Alumni meeting at Haxtun High School gym

9 pm - Dance at Haxtun American Legion

Other events: Crop & garden show, flower show, Cooking with Corn Contest & Cake decorating

Sunday, September 27, 2009

8 am - Shotgun Start at F&H Golf Course

10 am - Antique tractor pull - Platte Valley Points Pull

For more info, contact the Haxtun Chamber of Commerce at 774-6104

Check out last year's festival !

Getting Around Phillips County: Towns and Highways

Susan — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:30:00 GMT

There is a definite difference in the way directions are given in a rural area versus in a city, especially if a farmer is giving them. Growing up in a city environment, I can tell you that for the first twenty years of my life I only gave directions in terms of street names or highway numbers, number of blocks or minutes to travel in a given direction, and whether you should turn right or left. In the country, directions are given by local features ("so-and-so's" place), miles to travel, and by north-south-east-west. So I thought I'd do a quick tutorial to help new residents familiarize themselves with navigation in our county . . . As I got to writing this quick tutorial, I realized it will take a few blogs to cover everything, so this is number one in the series: Towns and Highways!

Here's a basic map of Phillips County and the surrounding area. The county border is that pea green line. As you can see, Haxtun is on the western edge of the county. Holyoke, 20 miles east of us, is the biggest town in our county with about 5,000 people and is the county seat (meaning it has the court house and county offices). Amherst (on Hwy 23 east of Holyoke) and Paoli are the two other towns in the county with very small populations, probably less than 100.

The layout around here is really pretty basic once you get used to it. When you're trying to orient yourself, especially when talking to a local, you should keep a picture in your head of the two highways that pass through Haxtun, 6 and 59, and the cities that they connect us to. Highway 6 runs west to Sterling and east to Holyoke. Highway 59 runs north to Sedgwick and south to Yuma.

It's also helpful to be familiar with the highways that connect the surrounding cities. This is what I picture in my head:

Anyone who has looked at a real map should be laughing now because my drawing is OVERLY simplistic. Most of these highways run at diagonals and have large turns at correction lines (I'll explain that in another blog), but my quick-and-dirty map can help get you where you're going.

Now, let me describe the towns in the neighboring counties quickly for you.

Sterling and Fleming (just west of Haxtun on Hwy 6) are in Logan County. Sterling is a larger city than any in our county. It is a bit of a shopping hub for northeast Colorado because it has Walmart, Home Depot, and lots of fast food. It's also on the interstate, which is always handy. Fleming is a very small community that has put forth a lot of effort to keep its town alive with a nice downtown and school. It is home of the locally famous Bully's Restaurant (hmm, their website appears to be down, but check back later for more info on their rocky mountain oyster and steak nights!).

Sedgwick, Ovid and Julesburg are north of us in Sedgwick County. Julesburg is the county seat (if you haven't guessed, this is a very big deal in rural counties because the county seat has more services available and a better chance of surviving the years). It's on the interstate and has a few nice shops downtown and restaurants. Sedgwick and Ovid are both very small with little services to offer. However, they each have restaurants worth sampling. Lucy's just off the interstate by Sedgwick is a greasy spoon that is a favorite in the county. The Stockade in Ovid is similar, but with a little more variety, including a full bar. There is also a mexican restaurant in Ovid, but I've never tried it.

Yuma and Wray are in Yuma County. Both are thriving communities. They have very different characters, but plenty of services and shops to offer in both towns. I would especially recommend taking a walk down Wray's main street.

Stay tuned for my next segment on "Getting Around Phillips County: County Roads and Rural Addresses"!

Wheat Harvest 2010

Susan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:59:00 GMT

I just realized that I never reported on the wheat harvest this year. Let me give you the review in hindsight!

First, harvest was late. We had mild temperatures at the start of the summer with some extra moisture. While water is great when the wheat is growing, it isn't very helpful when you're waiting for the heads to ripen and dry. Harvest normally happens around the beginning of July, but this year was put off until about the middle of the month. This is actually the second year in a row that harvest started late - is it a new trend?

Harvest seemed to pass smoothly for our family without any major hiccups . . . except for that combine being broken down for two days . . . otherwise, all ran smoothly! For more details about wheat harvest, check out my post from last year's harvest.

Although the crops had looked pretty nice in their fields, many farmers were unpleasantly surprised to find they had frost damage, rust (fungus), and mosaic (virus). All those things lower the yields of the crops and their quality. It doesn't make us feel any better that our pain was shared with other farmers in our area. Did any crop yield the desired 60 bushels per acre? I don't know, but I doubt it.

Every year, farmers plant a crop and do their best to tend it until harvest. No matter how much sweat and hope the farmer puts into the crop, the actual production depends more on weather and natural phenomenon than on the actions of the farmer, though. So the farmer waits most of the year, hoping that frost, hail, or disease doesn't wipe it all out. Finally they reach harvest and take that first sample to the grain elevator . . . Did all their work pay off or will they have another hard year? I think farming is one of the hardest jobs and requires the most faith. Many people out there think that the family farmer is gone, but they're still here, still trying to provide a staple and some years barely making ends meet. I hope if you ever meet a farmer, you will give a nod of support and maybe even strike up a conversation - they have an interesting perspective on the world!

Keet Adventures

Susan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:25:00 GMT

I went out to do my normal chores at the start of this week and got a pleasant surprise. Melise and I were kneeling next to the chicken house getting ready to collect eggs when a pair of guineas went walking past. Somewhere in the back of my brain I knew something was not normal. I glanced up quickly and then looked back at my work . . . then I looked up again because I had seen a bunch of little fluffy things gathered at the feet of the guineas - keets!

Keets are baby guineas, in case you didn't know. To see more about keets go here .

Well, we had been missing two guineas for about a month, which is the time it takes for eggs to hatch. Roy had looked everywhere for a nest and hadn't found one. He said he could hear them calling at night, so he knew they were still there. We weren't sure if they had turned wild or what, but now we know!

So what did I do when I saw the keets? I ran to get my camera, of course!

This was the best picture I got because the little things move so quickly that the camera didn't want to focus on them. The movement also made them hard to count. I see 15 in this picture, but while I was out there I counted anywhere from 17-20. I may have counted a few keets twice . . .

As we sat there admiring the keets, another curious visitor appeared.

That's our cat Franky on the right and the keets are on the left (they're hard to see, I know). I thought about shooing Franky away, but then I decided to see how the guineas would react to him.

In the above picture you can see Franky start to stalk forward. The mother hen is in the middle of the adult guineas with her back to us. What you can't tell from the picture is that she is lowering her head and raising her wings in preparation to attack . . .

Suddenly, the hen flew at Franky claws first and they disappeared in a blur of fur and feathers!

It only lasted a second because Franky took off running. Neither were injured and Franky got the message!

Moments later, all was calm again as seen in the picture below. By the way, that is the male and female together as mating pairs almost always tend to be while they guard nests and keets.

The guineas have seemed to watch out for their own pretty well until this morning. Roy and I woke up before 6am to a lot of "buckwheat!" (that's the call of the female), warning crows from the males, and cries of distress from a keet. By the time we got out, we found another of our cats, Noni, with a dead keet. We were both pretty upset. We went looking for the other keets, but couldn't find them. Roy thought he saw the parent guineas returning to their nest, which we've decided is south of our house by an old, fallen down barn.

We gave up looking for the keets and went back in the house. After a few minutes, we heard some keets crying. Roy ran out to discover that they were scattered all over our yard, across two or three acres, hiding in various places. The best we can guess is that something attacked the little guinea family and they scattered, which is instinctual behavior. After everything calmed down, the keets started calling out for mom and trying to make their way back to the group. So Roy started the slow project of retrieving them while I kept the cats distracted.

It was a difficult process because a keet would only cry when it thought no one was around. As soon as Roy would get really close, the keet would fall silent, so he would have to look for the little camouflaged bodies in tall grasses. Not easy. When he did get a hold of a keet, he deposited them in the dense lilac bushes next to the chicken house. A guinea hen came along after a little bit and took charge of them. What's interesting is that we're pretty sure that this hen is not the original mom. We're guessing that she recently turned broody , which made her willing to adopt!

Keeping the stray keets safe from the cats was also difficult. There are seven adult cats and just one of me, so I couldn't watch them all. They are much better bird hunters than we are, of course, plus they're faster and quieter, so catching a keet for them is easy. We lost one more to a cat and rescued three or four from close encounters. Don't judge the cats too hard. They're only following their instincts and those same instincts keep the rodent population down, which is why we keep cats in the first place.

In the end, 10-12 keets ended up under the adoptive hen! Roy caught most of them, but some found their way on their own or with a little help from the adult guineas who seemed to herd the keets in the right direction. We've seen them a few times throughout the day, grazing happily. We still have hopes that the original guinea mom is hiding at her nest with a few more keets. We'll see what the future holds!