Friday, February 22, 2019

Day 127, "Every picture has a story"
This is not a picture of our farm equipment but it certainly could be.  We had a Jayhawk haystacker and it mounted on the front end of our M tractor.  It allowed us to make the biggest and baddest hay stacks in the country.  Ours did have rubber wheels, not iron.  I do not think Dad every allowed anyone but himself to use it.  If you wanted to turn the stacker to the left you turned the front end of the tractor to the right.  We would rake the hay into rows by going round and round the field and making rows of hay.  We we would drive over the rows and make bunches of hay which Dad would pick up with the Jayhawk.  He would then drive over to the hay stack that we were making and pull a lever to move the front end up.  When it was up far enough he would drive forward a bit and pull.  The front end would buckle and dump the hay on the stack.  He would then back up and lower the front end.  As it hit the ground it would catch and away he would go to get more hay.  I often had the GREAT job of driving the Ford tractor with the rake behind.  I would drive all over the field and catch left hay in the rake and when the it was full I would drive over a bunch of hay and put the rope to trip it.  I am sure our rake, which we pulled with the Ford, was a make shift rake that was used with horses.  When I was growing up on the farm we were almost the only ones making hay stacks as bales had come into being.  We never owned a baler.

I had the most fun playing tennis this morning.  I played with 3 other guys who are pretty equal in skill.  We just had a great time with some very super volleys.  I, just for the fun of it, am trying out a lighter racquet and I am afraid I kind of like it.  I do not need a new racquet BUT.  

Terry and I went to Wells Fargo today.  We had done a transfer and did not like what Wells Fargo did so needed to go in and talk to them.  My opinion of Wells Fargo, well one may not want to hear BUT it is nice to have a bank in Naples as well as St. Paul.  We do not do much there but it is convenient to be able to do  business in FL as well as MN.  

Terry and I put on our annual brat/burger villa party yesterday and it was a great success.  I think we had 35 people there and they seemed to have a great time.  We purchased the meat etc. so we put out a bucket for donations to cover the cost.  Amazing, we received MORE than our cost.  I will just say the extra will kind of cover the sweat we put into it.  I was so lazy when all was over last night so I spent a couple of hours this morning getting dishes washed and then grill and tables back where they belong.  That is the only party where we do the meat so our next one will not be so much work.  I get kind of tired of doing that kind of thing but it is so much fun when people enjoy it.

I received word yesterday from cousin Lauren that cousin Erlene's brother Sam died of leukemia.  He lived on the west coast.  I actually do not remember the last time I saw him, maybe 60+ years ago.  Terry and I visited his grandma, Ruth Gregerson a few years ago.  Ruth is now in a home with not much memory left.  When we stopped in to visit she was so excited.  We could not call ahead  of time as we did not have a phone number and she lived with her daughter Erlene.  I suspect Sam was maybe my age or younger.  Ruth is the daughter of Ansel who was Mom's oldest brother.  I am guessing Ansel was 20 years older than Mom.  Ruth was in Mom and Dad's wedding as she was Mom's neice.

Next week I will have 3 league matches.  I am scheduled into our Tuesday 70+ one and then my team has a regular Wednesday one and a make up on Friday.  Should be fun.  I was surprised that I will be playing on Tuesday as the captain usually plays guys every other week and I played this week.  

I did a different thing this morning.  I was so tired from the party yesterday that I fell asleep on the couch.  I then went to bed but woke up at 3.  I could not stay up at that hour but I felt IF I fell asleep I may over sleep my 7:30 tennis.  I needed my alarm on but I did not want it to wake Terry so I went into the other bedroom and sure enough I fell asleep and needed the alarm to wake me up at 6:45.  That was enough time to wake up and get ready but not enough time for my FP.  SO I enjoyed my FP after tennis, a change of things for sure.  

Of course no FP tonight so will sign off.


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