State Fair 2014

We were able to take a day and enjoy the sites at the Iowa State Fair.  We arrived early and spent most of the day walking around, visiting with friends and watching part of a couple shows.  

We always enjoy checking out the Big Boar and the Avenue of Breeds.  

Looking at the map of John Deere locations.  

Our brother-in-law's picture was in the Hall of Law, at the State Patrol's booth.  This is from RAGBRAI this summer.  

It's been a yearly tradition now to have lunch with my college roommate and her family at the DNR Building.  

Then we tour the fish before parting ways again.  

They fixed some puzzles together and played Jeopardy at the DNR building.  

We thought we would wander over to the Poultry Barn to check out the chickens.  It was Ephraim's idea and we agreed they would be neat to see.  We get there, to the farthest corner of the fair, and the barn is empty.  Nothing there.  After doing a little checking, we find that the chickens only come to the fair for a day or two.  They don't have to stick around.  I guess we'll remember that for next time, either come on the day of the Poultry Show or don't go to the barn at all.  Shoot . . . maybe Ephraim will even show a chicken next year!

We needed a rest so we went to the Pavilion.  We didn't know it, but we were just in time for the Parade of Champions!  The kiddos enjoyed watching that.  

We trekked to the Animal Learning Center and saw piglets that were just minutes old.  

On our way to the van, we stopped at the open-air pavilion and watched the sheep herding show.  We had never seen anything like that in person so that was neat.  

Once again, a beautiful day to spend together.  Everyone had fun!

Moline Vacation

It can be hard for us to get away for a variety of reasons, but this year we were able to get away for a day and a half.  Our destination:  Moline, Illinois.  Just a few hours away, but there was plenty there for us to do and stay within our budget.  

First stop:  The John Deere Pavilion.  There is plenty to see and do there, even for our farm kids.  They enjoyed the construction equipment simulators and learning about equipment that is shipped/made worldwide.  

This was a small rice combine.  

There was a kids area that we didn't really play in.  I mean, really, we didn't drive this far to play with farm toys.  Moving on.  

Eliza enjoyed the Tree Feller/Buncher.

Emmet at the controls of the dozer simulator.  

And Ephraim taking a turn with the backhoe.  

After the pavilion, we took a short walk to get on a water taxi.  We rode the Channel Cat Taxi for about an hour.  This taxi is just that, a taxi on water with several stops.  But in our case, we got on and then off again at the same stop.  It was an easier, cheaper alternative to a riverboat cruise.  Besides, this boat went a little faster and we had a better view.  

One of the reasons we enjoyed it is because it gave us a view of the industrial side of the river.  All stuff you can't see from the road side.  We saw loading docks, tug boats, grain elevators that load barges, etc.  Cool stuff.  

At the taxi stops, we had to wait just a few minutes for any possible passengers.  The boys enjoyed asking the captain about the boat's engine :)

The boat was full when we got on but by the time we circled back around to our stop, we had the boat to ourselves, well, except for the captain and the ticket lady.  

We had supper at nearby restaurant before going to the pool.  

We spent one night at Stoney Creek Inn.  A nice hotel with a good pool and free breakfast.

Outside at the John Deere Pavilion again in the morning.  It was just a short walk from our hotel, so we stopped there one last time and to visit the gift shop.

This kid.  Each child had some of their own money to spend.  

Eliza and Ephraim bought a toy.  Eden bought a hat.  Emmet bought a nice pair of work gloves.  That was a reality check for us as parents.  He had a need for work gloves and bought them himself, rather than spend money on toys.    

I don't want to give Emmet all the credit for being resourceful and thoughtful.  Ephraim did spend some of his birthday money on a cattle whip earlier this summer.   As parents, it is our job to teach them how to spend their money and the differences between needs and wants.  I'm thinking we must doing something right.  

Eliza

Next stop:  Arsenal Island

Arsenal Island is an active army facility, an actual island on the Mississippi River.  Our first stop on the island was the Lock & Dam Museum.  We asked if there were any incoming barges and they said there would be one in an hour.  Perfect!  We enjoyed the museum for a bit and got out some snacks and ate under a shade tree to pass the time.  We were at the viewing window in plenty of time to see the barges and tugboat coming in.  What was cool about this location is the bridge above the locks--it has to rotate when a load is coming through.  

On the right is the bridge with two lanes of traffic below and two train tracks above.  In the middle is the portion of the bridge that has to rotate for the river traffic.  Everyone thought that was pretty cool to see it rotate.  

They had an indoor and an outdoor viewing area.  Neither were crowded on this particular morning.  It was interesting to be so close to the barges and the tugboat and to watch those men do their job to get through the locks safely.  They do not have a lot of room to spare going through the locks!

A view of the tugboat.

A view of the barges.  This one was smaller, just six barges hooked together.  

 On its way down the Mississippi.

It was a little confusing at this location, because the river here is East to West and in general, we only think of the Mississippi River as flowing North to South.  

At Memorial Park, we had a picnic lunch and then viewed the old tanks and cannons on display.

We visited the Rock Island Arsenal Museum.  It is the second oldest US Army museum in the US.  It had an impressive collection of firearms and many displays about military and area history.  

On the island are also two cemeteries:  a Confederate Cemetery and a cemetery for veterans.  

It is free to visit all the places on the island, but it is an active military base so you'll need your picture ID and picture taking is limited.  

We made a quick stop to the Black Hawk State Historical Site.  There is a small museum there that depicts the Sauk and Mesquakie Indians between 1750 and 1830 in life-sized dioramas.  

After that, our next stop was the Buffalo Bill Museum in Le Claire, Iowa, just north of Davenport.  

Buffalo Bill a/k/a William Cody was born in Le Claire.  The museum was kind of a hodge-podge of Buffalo Bill artifacts, an old steam boat, pioneer and Mississippi River items.  

Eden was thrilled to find a small corner of the museum dedicated to Little Miss Sure Shot or Annie Oakley.  We've read some books about Annie so the children recognized her right away!

Eliza is holding a clipboard, a scavenger hunt that they had to fill out to get a small prize from the museum.  

This was the Wild West part of the museum.  

The boys also had a scavenger hunt to fill out.  Part of the museum had Iowa artifacts and notable Iowan engineers and inventors.  

The steamboat was 100 years old AND we could walk through most all of it.  

While we were on it we saw a barge and tugboat going down river.  

Oh dear, Emmet's at the controls!

It was worth the stop if you're in the area.  It wasn't expensive to tour and the children enjoyed it.  

We had an enjoyable day and a half away.  

All the places we stopped were either free or very affordable.  

Many memories were made!

Court, again.

Monday, July 28 found us in court again.  This time it would be for the sentencing hearing for the defendant charged with the burglary of our home January 2013.  He is the one who wanted the jury trial in May and was found guilty.  The sentencing was set for 9am.  

The children came with us.  

The windows into the courtroom were low, obviously since the girls have to bend over to see inside.  They were our spies to see if the attorneys had arrived yet.  

Are we in church or a courtroom?  Am I the only one who finds the irony in this?  I'm sure there's a story here, I just don't know it.  We especially liked the 1970s green carpet in the hymnal rack. 

We had three pages to read to this guy.  Seth started out with our victim impact statement.  Then I finished it up.  We looked right at the defendant.  He looked at us with no expression, no emotion.  His attorney was incredibly rude through our whole statement.  He shuffled papers and pretended to be busy with his papers. Our speech is below, in its entirety.  It might be long, but it's worth the reading.  We demanded answers and got nothing.  The defendant didn't even talk to the judge other than to say that he understood what was happening.  

He's being sent away.  He got 10 years on the Burglary charge.

Here's what we read.  Some of it is the same from our other two appearances in court.  But made this one a bit more strongly worded.  

Your Honor, counsel & defendant:

We are Seth and Jennifer and our family is the victim in this case.  We write this today on behalf ourselves and our family.

On the evening of January 2, 2013, we arrived home to find our home burglarized.  Our locked doors were compromised.  Multiple items were stolen.  This was a terrifying experience and our children saw the terror firsthand.  After dialing 911 we began to notice what was missing.  Some items that had no value but others that were priceless.  Where was our laptop?  Where was our son’s Bible?  Where was my Grandma’s jewelry?  Where was Grandpa’s firearms?  A firearm that he did backbreaking farm work to buy?  After returning home from WWII, he picked up down corn, in 20 8 weather, by hand to buy that gun and passed it on to my husband.  You and your buddies stole it on the day he died!  Think about that for a minute.  We were at the funeral home making funeral plans while you ransacked our home!  That’s just cruel and heartless.  

We have been psychologically impacted.  We are more aware of what is going on in our neighborhood.  We leave lights on in the house, day and night.  We leave our outside lights on, day and night.  We are worried the burglars will return to our location.  Our whole neighborhood is on alert.  

The crime has changed our lifestyle in some ways.  We are more aware of our surroundings and how we leave the house.  I am more anxious when the children are outside playing.  I am more anxious when the children and I are home alone in the evenings and during the daytime if Seth is gone.  We take note of any vehicle in the neighborhood going slow.  The children say “At least they didn’t take _______” or “Glad we weren’t home.”  They also say “Doesn’t he know that stealing is wrong.”  If a 5-year old knows that stealing is wrong then what’s wrong with you?  I’m sorry that you thought you could get away with this.  I’d like to know, would this have happened if we had been home?  

Being the victim of a crime was not something on our “bucket list.”  We did not deserve to be targeted by burglars.  We considered our home safe and now we are not so sure.  Our children are worried it will happen again.  In fact, I am worried it will happen again.  The headache of working with our insurance for the stolen items has been a pain.  The loss of some very sentimental items has been heartbreaking and devastating.  The burglars had no right to steal a Bible, family firearms,  our banking information and jewelry among many other items.  I would like to know why we were targeted.  What possessed you and the other defendants to pick our home?

You are young yet.  Please make this your last crime.  I am glad  you don’t get probation and am hopeful you’ll take the next several years to turn your life around.  Do not victimize anyone else.  Is that what you want—to be in a courtroom every six months?  I know you are not new to the world of crime.  I wish you were getting the stiffest penalty possible.  Yes, I favor imprisonment because I do not think you will stop unless locked up.  Giving you and your co-defendants probation will not and obviously did not stop you from committing more crimes.

I was not impressed by your coherts or co-defendants’ responses  to my pleas for answers.  The one could barely talk and the other one “doesn’t remember.”  Will you be the one to be a gentleman and do the right thing?  Answer my questions.  Or are you going to keep on pretending that you didn’t do this crime.  We know the truth.  The jury saw the truth.  Will you?  Can you take the right and honest path now?  

With all that being said, I want to conclude by telling you that we have forgiven you for this crime.  We have not forgotten but we have forgiven.  Because of that, we are able to move on with our lives.  It is not easy.  And we still question “why us?”.  And we might still be a little bitter over the items that were lost or damaged or still unrecovered.  If you could be most helpful in telling your attorney where my son’s Bible is, I would be forever grateful.  We need closure.  That was a special Bible presented to him during a ceremony as he entered 3^rd grade.  Is it in a ditch?  Was it trashed?  Or are you reading it?  We also would like to know where Grandpa’s firearms are and the location of my Grandma’s jewelry.  Can you tell your attorney what you know?  Can you do that for us?  Think about it for a minute what you did to our family.  I do not think I’m asking for too much.  

I could go on and on.  What’s it like having the victim and family confronting you?  Does it make you uncomfortable putting a face to your crime?  Or are you cruel and heartless with no emotion?  Not very many criminals have their victims address them in court so I think you should consider yourself one of the lucky ones.  One last time, here’s what I want to know?  Can you remember all these or do you need to write them down?  I’m serious.  I want answers to all these questions.  

Would this have happened if we’d been home?  

Why were we targeted?  

Where is the Bible?  

Where is the jewelry?  

What happened to the firearms?  

How do you feel?  Can you sleep at night?  

Again, one last plea to make this your last time in a courtroom and to turn your life around.  There is nothing wrong with being a productive, law-abiding member of society.  

Sincerely,

  

July

July was a memorable month for us.  We attended two local VBS programs and had county fair right in the middle of the month.  Here are some snapshots of our days.  

More zucchini.  And more.  And more.  We've had it baked, fried, dehydrated and shredded!

Our area was blessed with a complete double rainbow one evening.  The pictures don't do it justice at all.  

While watching the rainbow, Eliza was being goofy in the mirror of the truck.  

I had already posted our chopping oats experience from the 4th of July.  The night before, the kiddos and I were able to get away and watch the fireworks with my parents and my sister's family.  We watched them in Otley, where we were able to sit pretty close to the action.  The children chose alternative seating ;p

Seems like we're always building new fence or improving the fences that we have.  We've expanded the calf pen so the calves have more room to romp and we have less to mow.  

The girls making lion masks at Fremont VBS.  

I had to judge Clothing Selection and Fashion Revue in Monroe County for an afternoon, so my parents helped out by watching the kiddos.  I dropped them off where Dad volunteers twice a week making these PET carts.  The children had the "job" of test driving some before they are disassembled and shipped overseas.  

Farmgirl cutie!

This was "Take your heifer to trombone lessons" Day.  You didn't get the memo?  Sorry.  Here's how this went.  Seth had one last heifer to calve.  We'd had a few calving issues as most farmers do when you're dealing with livestock.  We made the difficult choice to send this bred heifer to the sale barn.  Seth was busy in the sprayer so that meant that the children and I had to bring her to the Knoxville Sale Barn.  Sure.  We can do that.  Right after Ephraim's trombone lesson.  Seth loaded her up and we made a stop for the lesson and then headed to Knoxville where we dropped her off and came home.  I'm thankful it was an uneventful trip.  

Wrapping up the week at Fremont VBS.  

Eliza loves her cats.  And her pajamas.  

Hugging another cat.  

Our peas did fairly well and I was able to get some in the freezer before we ate them all!

Ok.  Now would be the time to look way and buzz past the next three pictures if you are squeamish or don't like to see how a chicken makes it to your dinner table.  

We're now at the end of July and it is time for Ephraim's broilers to be butchered.  Thankfully, the Poultry Superintendent opened up her yard to this activity and was able to teach us the steps.  Yes, she taught us.  She did not DO it for us.  I take that back.  She did slit the neck.  I didn't do that.  

This is a Whizbang Feather Plucker.  Once the bird has been bled out, we dip it in scalding water for 4 seconds, cut off the feet and then put it in the Whizbang.  We turned it on and it plucked most of the feathers within two minutes.  From there, we went to the butcher table to gut the bird.  

Now back to something more pleasant.  Another local VBS for a week.  They had 40+ kids and it was a great time for everyone.

From the garden, we've been busy with beans, cucumbers and zucchini.

Everyone needs to help snap beans.  

Sometimes they try to make the mundane job a little more fun.  

Back to Cedar VBS, they had a potluck on Friday night and then a program complete with songs and a message.  

One thing we love at Cedar VBS is the song "All God's Critters."  It has a lot of verses and is an energetic song about all of God's critters have a place in the choir.  

On the last Saturday of July, we had a day of doing sweet corn.  Everyone has a job to do and everyone works hard to put this tasty vegetable in our freezer so we can eat until next summer.  

The boys are always thrilled to find out that there's at least one or two jobs that involve the 4-wheeler.  We had to haul the corn up from the patch to the house.  AND they got to haul the husks and cobs down to the cows in the pasture.  

Eliza was busy husking for a while and then she was busy washing the ears inside.  

Still husking.  They all know that the husking job gets done quicker if we all help until the end.  

I've done 3 different batches of sweet corn and have 80+ quarts in the freezer.  I hope to do another smaller batch and then we should be good until next July.  

In between all the corn, we've been busy picking and snapping beans for the canner.  

I froze and dehydrated a bunch of zucchini.  

I made a ton of pickle relish.  

I think that might be showing up in some grab bag gifts this Christmas.  

You can't feed your family on relish quite like you can beans and corn ;p

We are thankful for the bounty that comes from a garden and we're thankful that we know how to preserve it for the year.  With the price of groceries going up at the store, it helps to know we have some self-sufficiency skills.  

That wraps up our July:  VBS x 2, Fair, gardening, farming, etc.  

Stay tuned for our day away vacation and our day in court with the burglar.