Hobbit Names

From here is a small diversion: http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/, TGF's name is Togo Hamwich of Buckleberry Fern, which is really interesting because my name (using my maiden name) is Daisy Hamwich of Buckleberry Fern....How did they know we were married????

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve Dinner was hosted. It was successful yet again this year. 2 Bottles of wine consumed, "Thank you Uncle Bill" for giving Dick that wonderful bottle of Cab from Little Mary's winery, it was very, very, very good.

I don't have a family pic this year, we just didn't take one, but I do have a picture of MG on Christmas Eve.

This is an overview of the scene on Christmas morning.

From the bottom of TGF's little Republican heart, please accept our best wishes for a Merry Christmas.


P.S. I refuse to apolgize for wishing anyone Merry Christmas, we here at TGF are Christian, (Catholic to be specific) and we make no apologies for that, HOWEVER, We wish anyone who celebrates the best celebration of whatever sort you might celebrate.

And the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down...

And Piglet started bailing....so the song goes from the Winnie the Pooh movie. It has been raining here, not that we don't need it, but in typical fashion, we just don't need it right now. TGF is trying to haul out the bins and the roads are no longer frozen and the ground surrounding the bins is no longer frozen. We're talking ruts that are about 18 inches deep. Not a good thing near the bins nor on the gravel (yes, we still have gravel out here) roads. In short, no hauling, we're shut down.

Oh My.....

Have I not posted since Thanksgiving? A quick peruse of the blog confims it. What have we been up to at TGF since Thanksgiving? Well, hauling grain mostly. Thank heavens the bins are full and we are in the process of trucking it to the river to trade the yellow grains for green backs. I often wonder why this must be done in the most frigid temps. I did ask TGF about this and he mumbled something about the ground has to be frozen to support the weight of the truck, contracts are due in December, yadda, yadda, yadda. It is a cold and miserable job although at first glance it looks as simple as pushing the green button (green=go, red=stop) on the unload auger. Sometimes it is that simple, other times things must be thawed with a torch (a BIG torch), tractors must be plugged in to warm them, rats have to be evacuated from the augers, there is a lot of outside work and most of the time it is fairly miserable even when one is well dressed for the work.

Speaking of weather, we received our first big snowstorm of Winter 2006 on December 1. It was only maybe 8 inches or so, but man did it blow. School was cancelled, I stayed home from work. I will refrain from relating the entire story here in the blog for fear of reprisal from TGF, but lets just say it began with no shovel. The temps were frigid for a week or so (see above paragraph), but today it is about 45 degrees outside which has brought the fog. Hopefully it will get rid of the snow and dry off before it freezes again and makes ice. The farm looks pretty bleak, I hate dirty snow.

I don't know if I'll get Christmas cards out in the mail this year, but I am enjoying receiving the cards, pictures and letters that we receive from friends far and near. A simple plea, however, please include mom and dad with the family picture. I love to see how the kids and dogs have grown, but want to see the whole family.

Speaking of pictures, TGF loves Eggnog, no one else here will even touch the stuff, so each holiday season he buys himself a carton and nurses it until it goes bad. Seems that we have a new EggNog drinker here at TGF. Michael Seems to think it's ok, so good that we call this..... GOT EGGNOG?