The past 6 weeks or so have been unbelievably hectic for me. I am, for all intents and purposes, living in two places. I feel like I am moving on a weekly basis as I pack-up clothes and kit and go from the apartment to the farm, farm to the apartment. Between these commutes, I have a LOT of driving for my job. Nearly 400 miles a week at one point.
But my work has only been part of what has kept me from the blog. Another part has been applying and getting accepted to graduate school (again). I am working on my Master’s degree in Agricultural Education. The specific degree that I am seeking is a non-thesis one, which will allow me to get my teaching credentials so that I can teach at a high school or 2 year college when I am done. I started off taking a class already this summer in Ag Mechanics. I have already had classes in nearly every other area that I needed for this degree except for agricultural mechanics. So, that’s how I ended-up becoming a Briggs and Stratton Master Service Technician this summer. Also, I did a lot of welding. I really love welding, so that part wasn’t too bad, especially since we were getting to play with practically brand-new Miller welders! I found out that I have a gift for a type of oxy-acytelene that I had never gotten to play with. But small engines? Argh! I usually can’t even get a lawn mower started! However, I did well in the class despite my issues with engines in the past and now I probably could diagnose a problem even if I still can’t get it started:-) Also, I now have a rockin’ welding mask to call my own as well as a bunch of other necessary safety equipment.
Since I will be starting to go to school full-time in the autumn, I also had to find a new place to live as my apartment lease is up at the end of July. I have found a place where I can even take Meara with me(!!) that is near the Vet Med college at Iowa State. So, in addition to my weekly ‘moving’, I am actually moving at the end of the month.
I’ve also been gardening, but the massive heat wave that we’ve had here has made it pretty difficult to do. Since I am working in greenhouses and we’ve had multiple days where it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside when I am at home the very last thing on this earth that I want to do is to go outside into the heat. For anything. So the garden got a little neglected and weedy. The worst is the back garden which is the thistle patch from HELL right now. However, the tomatoes have started fruiting and we are staring down a tomatopalooza coming in the next couple of weeks as the Roma tomatoes all start becoming ripe. Also, a onionpalooza, but that isn’t as scary to me.
I’ve done a little knitting and crochet lately. Mostly it seems like I am working on baby blankets. There are a passel of babies being born to friends of mine in the next couple of months so I need to get hooking! I’ve also been doing a little knitting on my sock yarn blanket for which I have been faithfully collecting new and different types of sock yarn. If anyone out there is looking for a trading partner for mini skeins of yarn for a sock yarn blanket, give me a shout. I have a LOT:-)
But I haven’t forgotten about y’all in all of this insanity. I have a massive backlog of photos that I need to sort through and show you. Hopefully, I will get started on that this weekend. Since I don’t really have that started yet, I give you a gratuitous Sweetie Pie shot.
Sarah Jane Humke 