God Bless the Workin' Man

I sat and thought and thought about some cute title, many song lyrics came to mind, from Alabama's 40 Hour Week, to Brooks and Dunn's Hard Workin' Man and many of the popular 'farm themed' country songs............then I thought of ballads, because I do love that man A LOT!
I would like to take you through a day with my husband. His alarm goes off at 5:25am, I know this not because I pop right out of bed with him, I think anyone who knows me, knows that I can get to 5 am way easier than I can start there! He starts his morning off with weather.com and the markets, checking out the auction websites and craigslist while eating a bowl of cereal, I promise you this is his preferred breakfast. His stomach doesn't like bacon and eggs that early and eating cereal promises that no one else has to be involved, awake and talking to him. Out the door moments after 6 to start his day. Animals are fed. Sick ones doctored, currently there's a calf who injured its leg and redresses the leg each morning. Then on to maintenance, whether its a tire that needs fixed, equipment that needs to be adjusted or greased, he gets everything ready for the day. This is of course summer time when he doesn't have to make sure everyone else is up (slightly altered schedule during the school year, he probably doesn't go out till 6:15...... )
Once things are ready to go, and by this time Jason (brother in law) has done his morning chores, they begin their day. This last week it has been chopping silage. By mid morning (this week) Cody is back home from football camp, Sam has drug himself out (he's kinda like his momma about mornings) and they pack some drinks and head out. Several loads are chopped, hauled and packed before lunch. Most of the time work stops for lunch. After the meal a quick siesta is had, AKA 20-30 minute power nap.

(OMG----it's raining outside! YAY! Sorry to get off subject, but wow!)


After lunch its back at it, David does the chopping, Jason does the packing and helps with unloading the wagons and truck. The hauling is done this year by a combination of Cody, Sam, Beth, today me, and Luke helped over the weekend. We are about to fill our bunker silo, so there will be some adjustments to switch over to the upright, the blower will need to be gotten out, etc.......

Today as I helped, I couldn't help but mentally add up all the different jobs David does. He makes marketing decisions, considers upgrades on equipment, veterinary work, shop work, repairs, the 'skill jobs' (makes me think of Cody talking about skill positions in football) keeps in his mind what he planted when and where, the variety it was, everything you ever or never needed to know about all of our tractors, combines and pieces of equipment, what grain is in the bins, whether its been checked recently, when he mowed the alfalfa last and will it be ready to be mowed again, when to move the bulls to the summer pasture, which group of cows have calved, should be calving soon, etc etc........ he blows my mind.

He can fix anything, of this I am pretty sure. We broke a brace on the silage chopper that braces the blower. He stopped, got the pickup, pulled underneath it and monkey-ed up the thing, had it off of there and we were headed to the house before I much more than got asked the silly question of can you fix it? You would think 22 years and 12 days into this thing, I would know better....... measuring tape, piece of scrap iron, cutting torch, the grinder, a chalk mark for the bolt hole needed, another drill, little more grinding, then it was hold this, close your eyes, I am gonna weld............waaa laaa....... he fabricated a new 'end' to the brace and back to the field we went.

I know that when he proposed to me, I knew I loved him, when we got married, I knew I loved him, when we had babies---loved him........... I am pretty sure that I had no idea how that love would grow exponentially, year by year, day by day.........hour by hour. Heck I even drove for him chopping silage and while I could tell from the body language I was frustrating the crap out of him, stupid dirty windows, sun glare.........yeah I have excuses. He called me on his way to a meeting, that he was probably late to, trying to get 'one more 5 minute job' done, to make sure I had everything under control while he was going to be gone and to say he loves me.

(BTW, rain already stopped........sigh)

Waiting up for my sweetie,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

Some amazing people.........

This summer as our family has worked hard getting crops planted, hay baled and now silage chopped. We have had the privilege to see some amazing things among the groups of people we spend time with. Our rural country church had vacation bible school in June. For their daily offering, the kids generally pick a charitable organization to contribute to. This year the Central Missouri Food Bank's 'Buddy Pack' program was chosen. This story starts back long before VBS, as many of you know our kids go to church with, are in 4H with, ride the school bus with, etc etc etc the same set of kids mostly. Last fall our 4H club was presented with a program on the Buddy Pack program by a good friend of mine, Shelley Becker. She works at the food bank as their grant writer. While the parents were concerned that maybe the facts and figures were over their heads.........those kids turned around and the next meeting planned to go and volunteer at the Food Bank. One day after school the moms gathered everyone up and we went to the food bank and made some huge amount of Buddy Packs up, I wanna say about 400, in less than an hours time. The kids were thrilled, amazed and ready to go back and help again. The Buddy Pack program is near and dear to the kids' heart. They see some of their classmates helped by this program weekly throughout the school year. It makes their hearts feel good to know that they could help with their own skills in a program that they see working. The Buddy Pack program is a bag of food sent home in backpacks every Friday throughout the school year with nonperishable easy to prepare foods that are healthy for the kids to eat. This helps families who would otherwise struggle to feed their kids. I don't know the actual percentage, but I know as a substitute teacher, in a class of 20-ish students, I have seen as many as 5 or 6 qualify in a classroom. We are so thankful to live in an area that works so hard to help families with kids, get them fed! Now fast forward to summer, with that memory of helping in their minds, when asked what group could we help with our VBS offering, they shouted in unison---Buddy Packs!!! And helped they did!! I takes around $180 per kid to sponsor this program through the school year, and I think at last count its getting close to 9,000 kids that are helped in the central Missouri region. Well 30 Tulip VBS students and their families, raised $740 dollars in a weeks worth of offerings to pay a yrs worth for 4 kids to get Buddy Packs, plus a little extra!

If that was amazing enough to witness, remember how I talked about my kids hanging with the same kids in about everything that they do? Well another project my good friend Shelley is involved in is the Central Missouri Honor Flight, which takes WW2, Korean and Vietnam War veterans to Washington DC to see their monuments and to just honor them and thank them for their service to this country. This spring we had Shelley back to a 4H meeting and another program was shared, this time on the Honor Flight. After watching this program the kids thought it would be great to try and help this group as well. It was decided that we would raffle off a quilt to try and raise money to sponsor a veteran to go on this Flight. Having been given a lot of scraps by my quilting friend Dee and after going through my own stash, I came up with the idea to do a 'Patriotic' quilt, we were selling the tickets around the 4th of July, it was to raise $$$ for veterans, it seemed like the thing to do. After getting the quilt pieced, I sent to another friend of mine Jan who has a long arm quilting business. She quilted it for us. When I went to pick it up, instead of a bill there was a note that said, 'If it wasn't for 4H I probably wouldn't be sewing as a business, 4H was a big part of my life growing up and I am so proud of what you all are doing, so I am donating the quilting at no charge!' What a wonderful woman, she's that anyway, but wow, what a great way to help. During the local fairs, our 4h members sold tickets and the quilt was drawn for at the end of our county fair. The winner is already enjoying it at her house. We added up the ticket sales and found that not only do we have enough to sponsor a veteran (takes about $300) we are just a few dollars short of sponsoring TWO VETERANS..........I mentioned that on facebook the other day and I think that through more friends, we will be ready to send the Central Missouri Honor Flight a check for $600 from our 4H club.
Now as anyone who pays attention to anything at all, you know things aren't good with the economy, haven't been for a while now, certainly this summer's drought has been rough on farmers in many areas. I would guess 90% of people involved in these two projects are rural people and several were involved in both projects, with a little hustle we were able to help two very worthy causes. And what we have gotten out of these experiences have been amazing. So proud of our friends, neighbors and family. Thank you for reaching into your hearts and finding ways to help others even when much wasn't to be found in your own pockets. You are amazing!

Links to the Charities I mentioned are:
http://centralmissourihonorflight.com/       http://sharefoodbringhope.org/buddy-packs/

Wishing the silage chopping would get rained out,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

We're famous! Well sorta! :)

http://facesofagriculture.blogspot.com/2012/07/hasekamps-of-h-farms.html


We are featured today on 'Faces of Agriculture' which is a great new blog that is put together by two Midwestern ladies who are trying to 'fight the good fight' and get our stories out to the world. Keep up the good work girls!

Busy day at our house, sorry for the short post.

Gathering up 'everything' and headed out to tackle the day,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

What's going on in your world?

The Prom, Cody and Sarah, April 2012



Mother's Day 2012, Sam and Cody standing, Seth, Jenna, Riddick and Trinity sitting



Working with calves, summer 2012

First attempt at Senior pictures


What a busy late spring and first half of summer it has been at our house. School no more than got out for summer and the big boys, went right to work hauling hay, for customers and for us. Cody ran a hay crew again this summer and stayed pretty busy till this dry drought of a summer burnt up all the hay in the area. Cody and Sam have both helped David and Jason so much this summer, plus found time to do most of the pre-fair time prep with the cattle. I think David has only had to clip one calf this summer and that was a demonstration for his 4H beef project kids. What young men  I have living in my house. They get up and are in town most mornings before 6am to lift weights in prep for the fall football season, then come home and ask what needs to be done. They blow my mind. Hard to wrap my brain around the fact that in a few more weeks, I will have an 18 year old MAN at my house, wow! And a little over a year from now, Sam will get his learners permit, what the heck, what happened to my little boys, of course as I look UP at them both, I know, they've grown up, but I can still complain a little can't I?

Wanted to share some newer pictures and give everyone a quick glimpse into what's going on with us. It's busy, like normal, and I really have to say, would I like it any other way? Probably not. Big news we will be featured on 'Faces of Agriculture' tomorrow. I will jump back on here tomorrow and share the link, but in case I forget, their website is http://www.facesofagriculture.blogspot.com/
County Fair begins tomorrow and yesterday was one month till State Fair, someone please slow this ride down please!
Praying for rain but otherwise loving life,
From Tulip,
KH
:)

Didn't realize JUST how long it has been since I blogged!

Hello folks~

I really didn't fall off the face of the earth, looks like since I last blogged its been 10 months!!! OMG!!! Wow............. well to catch up, lets see, we finally finished our house. We had a great big party last summer to celebrate (the house and me turning 40!) We got busy and back at life, 4 kids in 4 different school buildings, me subbing, here and there and everywhere. The boys combined for three football games a week last fall. I have gotten back to sewing (see the pictures!) I have been sewing for gifts, sewing custom orders, and just sewing some for us. I feel kinda rusty at blogging, duh, I haven't done it in a while.

Let's see what's currently going on with us? Kids have a dozen calves in the barn in preparation for another summer of showing. (I wasn't kidding, actually there might be a bakers dozen!) We just were out there combing, brushing, walking some of them. So far unfortunately they know David better than the kids, but we are working on it. I am about to begin a sewing series. Teaching 6 different beginner/quick quilts over the next several months. Plus I have about 3 or 4 sewing jobs (quilts) for others in the works. PLanning to use several of the samples from the series as Christmas gifts, so I guess I have already begun my Christmas sewing in MARCH! WOW!

Well, gonna cut this one short, busy day, mostly just wanted to share some pictures and see if I remembered 'how' to blog.........hopefully the next post will be sooner!

Enjoying the beautiful Spring day,

From Tulip~

KH

A few new house pictures

As we are getting closer to the end of the remodelling, or I like to hope that we are, I thought that I would add a few pictures and give an update. As of today, I have 2.5 partially working bathrooms, YAY! We have all the flooring that we are going to finish done for now. We have fell in love with how well the refinished 'old original flooring' looks, so have plans to have our flooring contractor return in August while we are at the State Fair and finish the dining and living room. We have purchased a new area rug and will have take up the old carpet and prepare the floor for him to do this while we are gone. Looking forward to it! We carpeted the three new kids rooms, haven't made any decisions on the two bedrooms that are in the orginal house, they both have hard wood under them and carpet that isn't in that good of shape, we could use new flooring in our kitchen as well..............so when we figure out if we have used up our loan money, that will probably help us decide what flors get more work and which things get added to the 'to-do' list....... hoping we can afford to do them all. I can't wait to get kids reshuffled to their rooms, the odds and ends 'projects' for updating their furniture done, etc............but is it ever ALL done, nope, not so far. Guessing that won't ever change either! Well I have door frames that need to be varnshed calling me from the basement, I should probably go and spend some time with them.

Thinking I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and hoping its not a train,

From Tulip~

KH

:)

PS--the picture of the 'hallway' is the original old hard wood floor, the pic with wood flooring AND carpet is all new stuff, and the vanity is in our new 'half bath'

Looking Forward

SUMMER'S COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know it is. Early indicators have come and gone. Cool days are fewer. Lawns have come to life. Our gorgeous and lush green pastures are generously sprinkled with beautiful black baby calves.

School is winding down. End of the year events are occuring daily. The Chapter FFA Banquet is history. So is the Prom. The coming week begins class picnics and field trips. Graduation is but a few days away and marks the culmination of the public school career. Goodbyes and tears, but also a celebration of life and its forever changing pattern.

The kids are spending more time in the barn. They are getting to know their summer romance--the show calves. While Summer does mean swimming, fishing, camps, and BBQ; for my family summer means fairs and cattle shows. We don't go on a traditional 'tourist-type' vacation. Instead, we take ours a day or two at a time all summer long. We put together our gypsy caravan--the stock trailer, the calves, lawn chairs, coolers, cookies, watermelon and so much more. I just can't wait.

By the end of most seasons I am always excited to embrace the next one. Winter was long and painful. Spring was sort of non-existent, and definitely short. The pains of winter have slightly dulled, but always present. Certainly realizing that new normal isn't necessarily a great thing. But I know there's someone who is so proud of our crooked rows of veggies in the garden and the black calves that will walk all over our yard daily and love the warm of summer at Hasekamp Farms.......

Two more weeks of school, then we will happily embrace---SUMMER,

From Tulip~

KH

:)

May the 3rd is a Special Day

I think if I did my math correctly today would have been my Uncle Hank's 54th birthday. It's been 18yrs since he's been gone, and sometimes its hard to keep track of everyone's exact age in a large family. But this is one birthday that's easy to remember. My Uncle Hank was a special person in my life. My parents are the oldest and second oldest siblings in their families, so I have not only one, but two uncles that weren't gobs older than I was, Uncle Hank was 14 when I was born and Steve (he doesn't even get called uncle, sorry Steve) were sort of my big brothers.
My Uncle Hank was my dad's youngest sibling and only brother. While he loves his sisters, he and Uncle Hank were very close, so through that relationship, we were all pretty close. Now Dad and Uncle Hank liked hunting together and fishing and about all things outdoors. The love Uncle Hank and I shared was softball. I always looked forward to getting together with him and Aunt K and their boys as they came along, because chances are, a softball game would errupt. While it might be as basic as 'batting practice' which he was always great at helping me per-fect my stance or whatever issue I was having as I evolved as kid in the game. Or it might be an Angle Family Reunion most of which in my growing up years were held at Wilson Park in Granite City IL. There you can be 100% sure a baseball game would happen. Some of my happiest memories of childhood are of softball games and Uncle Hank was there.
Uncle Hank loved sports of every kind. He and Dad would always have to discuss the Missouri Illinois border wars game. They enjoyed MU football games, we all went to several St. Louis Cardinals games when I was a kid, back when you could carry in your picnic basket and cooler. He loved hockey, wrestling, and even played a little golf. Once his boys were born and got old enough to start playing sports, he added soccer to his long list of sports that he loved. I am not sure that there was ever a sport he didn't try if given the opportunity.
We lost him entirely too soon. He passed February of 93 at the age of 35 yrs old. He was playing a hockey game at the time. Loved his sports right up to the end. I think of him when I play ball with my kids. I think of him EVERY time I watch, Field of Dreams, another thing we both loved, that movie. I think of him (and Grandma Angle as well) when I listen to StL Cardinal baseball on the radio. I think of him when Missouri and Illinois play each other. And many other times. When you lose someone you love, normal is never the same, a good friend told me that and she was so right.
His family has progressed through this life in so many ways that he would be proud of I am sure. I think of 7 yrs ago today, when we all found out he would have been a grandpa, to the Angle Tripletts. I remember thinking at the time how Chris and Amy tried so hard to have a family and of all days to find out for sure, they did on his birthday and he sent them triple the blessings. Happy Birthday Uncle Hank, I know you are playing ball or fishing up there, the weather is perfect and someday we will play together again.
This is the Day the Lord has made, let us Rejoice and be Glad in it,
From Tulip~
KH
:)

So many projects, so little time........

I was cleaned up a little in our office today, or at least attempting to rearrange the stacks so that it looks as if I have cleaned. And in that process I got very distracted with fabric, it happens, to me A LOT. See our farm office is ALSO my sewing room, maybe not for much longer, haven't decided where its going to be, or if the sewing stays and some of the other misc that also occupies our office will go, time will tell. Because much of my free time has been taken up with errands and chores related to remodelling our house, I haven't gotten the time to sew near as much as I would like. Not that it has stopped my 100mph creative side of my brain from taking a pit stop, oh no. So here are some recent sewing updates to share. Recently sent to the quilter were Marshall's Farm Quilt and a Graduation Quilt, that also served as sample for a recent sewing class. Currently in the works, Mom's birthday quilt is being bound, when I get five minutes to sit WHEN it is daylight outside, so yes you ppl who know her birthday is in June, and for those who might not know the whole story, this quilt was LAST YEARS gift! YIKES, but my momma got a lot of my time, handquilted, which next to NEVER happens! :) A tote that I am not really sure who is getting, I have a person or two in mind, we'll see. Another tote that has a potential 'owner' its one of those, why did I start out making this project this way, kinda things, I am stipple quilting it on my machine, which just typing the words stipple made my shoulders momentarily ache....... Let's see have special orders for a Apron for Jennifer, that she has been waiting on very patiently for quite some time, Lanyards for Billie Sue, and Graduation quilts........oh my, let's see there's Sloane, hers is about done, there's Jon, hopefully soon I will be able to say his is about done and then there's poor Andrew, I have your fabric buddy, and my rotary cutter is just sitting there itching to start cutting, hopefully soon. Let's see while I am on the subject of quilts, lets just throw out a Wedding Gift and my sweet Aunt E's birthday........ those are just the ones that are leaving our house that are in process. I have two friends wanting quilts made, hopefull Betsy and Toma, you will be on my list for summer! Now for my hopes, dreams and plans for this house.........Jenna and I have been making her a quilt for a while now, she's doing most of the sewing, so its taken a while, made one for Sam last fall that will go on his bed, Cody's is cut out and a few squares are made, and poor little ol' Seffy, well sweet pea, your fabric is here, and your momma hopes to complete your quilt before you lose interest in the cute western cowboy fabric that has been purchased for this project. Oh, there are many other projects in the works, in my mind yet, like the fabric that I purchased for someone very special to me. I bought the fabric thinking of her, and lo and behold she recently announced a quilt giving occasion that is coming up in her life, so need to put the stack of fabric to work......

Now for our house and the sewing that I have in mind creating for it. Guess I should have mentioned in the 'quilt' list, I would like to get a quilt made for our bed. I have certainly had the fabric long enough, I wanted to make it for our 20th wedding anniversary which was LAST summer, MAYBE I will get starting cutting it out before our anniversary THIS summer, who knows???? I have fabric for Jenna's curtains, Seth's curtains and ours. Not sure what is going on in Sam and Cody's rooms, but the backlog of unsewn fabric is getting tall enough that I am not feeling to bad about not having purchased theirs yet. All of these projects makes me look so forward to summer, not so much because I think that there's any chance that the kids will help me with them, or actually in my anal retentiveness I would let them. I know when summer hits, I will be able to work on MY schedule, and sew until dawn if I choose to and not have to worry about the early morning, can you sub today call?

Some upcoming projects I am dreaming of are a Sunflower purse for my sweet neighbor Janey who loves her sunflowers. It's a fun project that included the Clover Yoyo templates that I purchased at Material Girl Quilt Shop. I have fabric, well fleece for a 'football blanket' for us. It's black and white pawprints, and plans for that are to have some thing warm to either sit on or under at football games this fall, of which we will likely be attending 3 per week throughout Sept and Oct and hoping to see a few in Nov as well, yes it will be a 'season pass' year for us, with Sam in Middle School and Cody probably playing both JV and Varsity, but I look forward to it.

Well I think I have rambled on until my pics uploaded, if what I THINK I uploaded is all here, you should be seeing pics of Seth's fabric for his cowboy quilt, Andrew's 'batiks' which I am planning to sew into a 'Contemporary Nine' and the fabrics for one of the quilts I am dreaming of making, that one doesn't have a pattern yet............. Okay back to the real world for me, more 'remodelling stuff' and this week I am baking up a storm for a catering job, so its not likely that I will progress on any of this for a few days, but I have enjoyed thinking about it while adding this post.

Hearing the timer go off and loving the smell of cookies~

From Tulip,

KH

:)

Easter 2011, just some thoughts

Easter
The time of renewal.
The time of new life for Christians in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.

Easter brings about such precious memories. Some of my earliest ones are of Easter baskets, a new dress and a bonnet, probably not unlike most children. I fondly remember one year when we hosted an Egg Hunt. I remember Mom making baskets out of construction paper. It was a lot of times a weekend that Grandma Angle came to visit, sometimes some of my Angle cousins as well. I still have a few ceramic eggs that Grandma gave us in the era. I remember the year I got a stamp collecting kit which started a childhood love of history and government that was the basis of my interest in both still today. Memories of family dinners with Grandma Barnes making her traditional Angel Food Cake, but decorated with green coconut 'grass' and jelly beans.

As I got older, I too, began to embrace the joy of cooking and crafting in preparation of Easter. The first time I attended Hasekamp Easter, I made my first 'Easter' cake to bring along, covered in coconut and decorated to look like a bunny. (I HATE coconut, LOL) After growing up and marrying, Church Services switched from Sturgeon First Christian to Tulip Christian Church. The tradition at Tulip was an egg hunt at the end of Sunday School Class. The first year we were married, David was Sunday School Superintendent. We learned the hard way not to wait to buy Easter candy. In the following years we started being green before it was the in thing to do, we bought the plastic eggs to fill and recycled them year after year.

After we started our own family, we started some of our own traditions. We dye Easter eggs. We make Easter Story cookies. In the last several years we have hosted a large family dinner, at supper time. For the first several years it was only our own children hunting the eggs, but in the last few years the hunters have grown, now our nieces and nephews hunt with the kids. It's sometimes the first 'outside' gathering we have had, so we like to barbeque or fry fish, that has sort of become a tradition as well as Easter Bunny Kathy gets all the kids new swimming suits.

Our children have offered many Easter memories. One that comes to mind would be the Easter of 2002. Our family was getting ready to grow although no one knew it. YET. During the childrens sermon, our pastor at the time Bobby Stanford started his lesson with 'Have you ever had a secret?' To which Samuel (then about 3 and half) frantically raised his hand and began 'Pawecha Bob, Pawecha Bob' Trying to ignore him a little, Bob tried to begin the lesson, Sam wouldn't be denied, so he called on him. Sam blurted out loudly and plainly 'My Momma has a BABY in her Belly!' You could have heard a pin drop. Eyes looked around at us from all over the church. The look on Bob's face was priceless. He looked out at the congregation, repeated his original question, 'Have you ever had a secret? How do I top that?' :)

Easter memories are sweet ones. That's probably why this year not getting to add to them has made me so sad. I did however look forward to this mornings' message of hope in the Resurrection, can still hear the music and congregation singing while Susie played 'Up from the Grave, He Arose'

Still learning to accept 'new normal' and not particularly thrilled with it,

From Tulip~

KH