May 2025 – Valerie's Voice

The Field

We moved into our new home in December. All winter I looked forward to seeing a tractor in the field behind us this spring, preparing the field for planting.

I first saw the tractor in back of our house at 7:40 pm on Monday evening.

We’ve been doing some traveling and I thought maybe I might miss it this year, but last night the tractor came through, tilling the soil. He started late in the day, and kept going into the night with his lights on, but he didn’t finish the job.

The darker soil is two swaths from the tractor.

It was fun to see the lights on the tractor, while he worked in the field at night, 8:55 pm.

He was back the next morning to finish the tilling.

It was interesting to see the wide swath of land that was tilled in one run. And I was amazed at how fast the tractor traveled. I had fun watching it while trying to take some pictures. The ground is dry and the tilling produced a lot of dust. It was hard to see the tractor through the dust at times.

We’ll wait to see what is planted…there has been corn in the field the past two years. Maybe they’ll alternate this year, and plant soy beans.

The tractor pulling a seed planter. 3:30 pm Tuesday.

To my delight, he came back in the afternoon to plant. I wonder what is in those yellow seed box containers?

Like the tiller, the planter is a huge piece of equipment.

And then… there were two! It keeps getting more and more interesting. I did not grow up on a farm and so I have really enjoyed seeing this basic, yet key principle, of farming up close.

It just keeps getting better…3:55 pm Tuesday…there were two tractors in the same field.

I did some tilling of my own and planted zinnia seeds along the field in our back yard…hopefully the zinnias will come up too.

Now we definitely need to wash the windows!

Happy Mother’s Day

Thinking about two mothers today; my own mom and her best friend. Here’s a fun little poem I wrote about the two of them in 2013.

Two Friends

Back in the 50’s
When life was pretty good
In NE Mpls up sprang
A special neighborhood.

Children gathered daily
Going outside to play
Fathers off to work
Moms at home to stay.

Friendships were forming
…Everyone was new…
Some lasting fifty years or more
Wow – who knew???

Two special families
Lived across the street
Two special women
Destined to meet.

Raising their children
Having driveway coffee breaks
Always checking on each other
Vacationing to many lakes.

Their daughters grew up
Becoming lasting friends
Sharing McKinley Street stories
No more playing pretend.

Marriages, then grandkids
Time was marching on
But playing Bridge and having lunch
Kept their connection strong.

Four years ago God took the first
And now He’s taken the other
But memories will linger on
Loving memories of our mothers.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Pig Races and More

We had a nice trip to California, to visit our son and his family.

We took walks along the ocean and to parks, the grandkids rode their bikes, we went to the harbor, and enjoyed the ocean scenes.

We made home-made cards and lemonade (from the lemons off their tree) with the grandkids. Later the grandkids had fun setting up a lemonade stand on their driveway in front of their house.

And, we took the grandchildren to a carnival. That’s where we watched the pig races. At the carnival we went on a few rides (including a pony ride) looked at animals in the animal barn, ate a picnic lunch and finished just in time for the Pig Races.

I am on the roller coaster with our granddaughter.

There was a race track set up for the pig race, and the show began. Eight adorable pigs (I don’t know what kind they were) were trained to run this horseshoe-shaped track. Four pigs at a time were let out to run from one end to the other where their reward of food awaited them. Spectators, young and old, gather all along the racetrack to watch and “squeal” with delight! There is a second race with four more pigs. The first-place winner and runner-up of the two races competed in the final race for the championship title. The spectators were broken into four cheering sections for the final race. I’m sad to say our pig, Strawberry, did not win.

Children loved to watch and cheer the pigs on, but I think adults enjoyed it too. Just maybe…we might enjoy the races most because we’re with the grandkids.

(Unfortunately, I was not in a good spot to take photos of the pig races.)