Hello, Darling, It's Winter!

Nancy's mom took us out to the GC tonight. I believe the meal was enjoyed by all. Now we are just sitting around with the after-effects of our gluttony. I just made barbecues (sloppy joes or slush burgers) for the birthday party meal tomorrow. It is now simmering and I'll be making the final ingredient adjustments until the taste is right.

I think we mentioned that on my trip back from South Dakota recently I stopped in at my parent's farm near Strasburg. They had received some nice snow the day before. Ma and pa were at a funeral that day, and when I got there they weren't home yet. So I decided to hike out and take some pictures in the farm's grove of trees.

It had been a long time since I'd been back in there, and man have things changed! The area was fairly open at ground level before but now some of the larger trees have died and it has filled in with a lot of young trees (Chinese Elm, I suppose). It was kind of hard to figure out a path to get around to where I wanted to go.

At least there were no mountain lion tracks. I think I would have high-tailed it out of there if I would have seen some of those!

The scenery was pretty with the snow covering almost everything. That's why I decided to take the trek with my camera.


In here is an old Massey combine, believe it or not. I'm looking directly at the front of the combine. A lot of those young trees have grown around this, too.

Here is a picture to get a better view of the unit.

This is a front wheel with the ladder visible. I think the rear wheels of all combines today are bigger than this.

The operator seat or station - they didn't have a cab on this one. It's probably hard to visualize but the steering wheel is at the upper left area.

This is the front light for the combine. I was surprised the chrome was in such good condition.

There seem to be a lot of woodpeckers back here. Either that or there are a couple of very busy ones. They like all of the dead trees.

This is my dad's Ford coupe. At least I think it was his. I don't know what year it is, either. I have to check with dad and I'll update when I find out. Okay, after talking with my dad I found out this was his dad's car and it is a 1938 Ford 2-door.

I don't think there should be any worry about someone stealing this car. There is no way anybody could get back here with something to pull or haul it out.

Hey, this should be fun! There is an owl in this photo. See if you can find it. I'm guessing you'd have to click on the photo for a bigger version to have any chance to spot Owly. Unfortunately, there are no prizes in this game.

I think this photo would be a lot more spooky if it were night and there was a full moon in the opening.