Here is my new flickr photo album - http://www.flickr.com/photos/iowafarmgirl/

Ooh...My first blog posting

Ok, I've decided to join the blog community. I must admit I am a bit intimidated by all of the witty writing I read on other peoples' blogs. Yikes! Oh well, this will be a way for me to provide updates from the farm.

Well, as most of you know I moved from Seattle (yes, westsiders I know that Woodinville is not the same ;)) to my hometown of Lacona, Iowa. Population as of this writing 360. There have been some character-building experiences since I got here on April 16. So here are the highlights:


The Pump House

My property is five acres and has a few outbuildings and a house built in 192?. There is a well that provides water to three pumps that I can use for watering my garden and lawn. Well, in surveying the property I found a big hole in my backyard that kinda looked like an old cave or storm shelter that was partially torn down. The hole was huge - like 4 foot deep by 6 foot wide.

I was having a big surprise birthday party for my brother the next weekend and there would be lots of small children running around so I knew I had to fill it in. I got a truck load of sand from the city sand pile and filled it in. A few weeks later I was talking to the previous home owners and found out that the hole is actually my "pump house". Yes, it's where all of the parts and controls are to run my well. Removing a truckload of sand from the hole in my backyard was added to the to-do list :(.

The Bat Story

In mid-May, my mom and I went to visit my aunt Marj in Tulsa, OK. It was a nice weekend and we drove home (9 hours) on a Monday so that I could go to a final interview with a company in Des Moines the next morning. We got home around 7pm that night and I was tired, and I realized that the burning in my throat was not allergies like I was hoping but the beginnings of a cold. So I'm starting to stress because I'm getting sick the night before an interview. I decided that I would get to bed early and hope for the best.

I let my dog Holland out to go to the bathroom before we turned in for the night and of course, he decides the time is right to run through the muddy ditch on his way in. He was a mess. So, now I'm really stressed because I should already be in bed and I now have to bathe my dog. After the hour bathing and blowdrying process, I get ready to head downstairs and put the 10 towels that I used in the washer when I hear something downstairs.

My house is small and I'm certain that I heard something so I send Holland down to check it out and he doesn't find anything. So I head down and turn on the lights, dump the towels in the washer, and then as I was heading back through the kitchen I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw a GIANT bat flying straight for my head. Did I mention this is an old house with really low ceilings. And as I screamed "NOT FUCKING POSSIBLE!" it didn't occur to me that he was flying towards the sound. So I continued to scream and he continued to dive at me until I managed to grab the phone, run out on the porch and call my parents, of course. There are perks to living close to your folks :).

They came over right away. I should mention that my dad is a city guy and my mom is a farm girl so although my dad is a burley, 5'9" man and my mom is a petite 5' woman, my mom is in charge of hunting all of the critters :). So as my dad stood in the doorway of my house, my mom searched each room with a flashlight and a tennis racket until she found the bat. We locked him in the guest bathroom for the night. The next morning we searched the bathroom and couldn't find him anywhere, until we looked in the trash can. He had buried himself in there, presumably to get away from the sunlight. So we dumped the trash can in the neighbors field. I have since learned that this happens sometimes. Not often, but in these old houses there are often holes in the siding and the bats crawl in and can't find there way out. The solution is to have a bat house. It's like a bird house but bigger. So, rest assured I now have a bat house on order from the local bat house maker. I'll post a picture when I get it.