Editing creativity’s spark

You know those Monday’s where the day starts off rough (forgot to set the alarm?!) and you know you have a list of things to get done? But you forgot to write a sticky note with said list or at least a hint of what you wanted to do. Rewrites are like that.

I took last week off to focus on my other writing. Too many times it never made it on that sticky note of things to do. Or it always seemed to be the only item not crossed off and then (horrors), the sticky note was thrown away. That last, of the last, item still not crossed off.

My New Year’s resolution (or one of them) was to be more intentional with my blog this year. (This topic jogged my memory and I remembered a resolution, yay!) Being intentional, I mean as, don’t forget to write a post or to write several short ones in advance so I wouldn’t have to think about it during the busy seasons (like planting or harvest). It’s okay to write a few in advance but it got to (last year) where I felt I was skipping out on my own passion for writing and taking the ‘easy’ way out and not being real, in the moment, with life. And the agriculture life doesn’t sit still either, the farmer or the plants. I decided that a week off from blogging was in order and to be intentional (for the moment at least) about my other writing.

Rewrites are hard, scrapping some of my favorite or most-attached-to moments. Sometimes the muse, or creativity, takes a leave of absence. And the process goes something like this:

With creativity out for coffee and back who knows when, the back-to-the-drawing-board moments get real; usually with complete minutes of time with… nothing. How to jump start that creativity? Maybe jumper cables? Hmm. Maybe a little too electrifying for my taste. Coffee just makes the floor tap, I mean, my feet tap on the floor. Chocolate is a distraction unfortunately. The crackling wrappers and the plain, absolute goodness of great chocolate, you see how it’s a distraction; especially when the bag is mysteriously empty. Silence is golden but sometimes suffocating. And it begins to echo in your mind, definitely drowning out any possible creative thought. The radio lures you into singing along (in this case, Christmas carols or songs). Print-out copies are a blessing. You can scratch out lines, write ideas, and scribble arrows to move sentences (or whole paragraphs!).

Turns out just me looking at my own work wasn’t enough. The whole sentimentality thing is a strong force; plus, who doesn’t think their story is awesome? (Just maybe not in the original, original version.) My critique group is awesome! I’ve learned to better switch between artist/creator and the rewrite/editor mode. Critique groups are the mirror of truth. Many a fun word like ‘rakish’ has died one tap of the delete button at a time, sadly. However, their comments only help me shape it into the story that I’d envisioned in creativity’s spark. Paring words down like peeling an apple is truly an art; much like peeling an apple with one long, curly peel. Too easily do I get caught up in the miniscule details and drawing back to look at the story from the outside is the challenge.

So rewrites, while difficult at times and a crazy, rollercoaster ride of fun and inspiration at others; are positive change. Unless it ends up being one of those rare moments of deleeeeeeeeete; everything gone and a blank page staring back at me. Ah well. Clearly that spark of creativity was weak.

May your week be sunny, the candy canes sweet and the eggnog rich.

What no one tells you about the holidays

Clearly a big little snow

The holidays aka Christmas are a time of family, shopping, baking and radio stations stuck on repeat. There’s snow, maybe some big snowmen and ice skating. And there may or may not be hockey (typical winter sport right?).

What no one tells you about the holidays:

                Snow, no snow, big snow, little snow

                All the cleaning!

                Don’t lose your kittens

                Eating too much good food

                New Year’s resolutions are right around the corner

Okay, so December typically has snow right?! We had some snow but a warm snap melted most of it. I got so excited last night that there was a big snow system on the edge of the radar and coming our way. This crazy thought popped in my mind that I should prolong the blog writing until morning and post some good snow photos too. Yeah… that didn’t quite happen like I’d thought. The snow this morning was a little snow, mini snowflakes that danced and leaped as they fell from the foggy sky.

While I was anticipating the snow hubs was eagerly cleaning the house. Now, this phenomenon had started while I was finishing harvest in SoDak with dad. I don’t know how to explain hubs’ atypical behavior other than he likes things organized and tidy. Now when I say hubs was cleaning, I mean he was digging into closets, sorting through the cupboards (lucky for him, I’d been waiting for such a time to get rid of a few things) and prowling the garage. He even sorted through the unending collection of jackets he collects, much like those ball cap collections every farmer has. 

No, he didn’t even glance at the closet that holds his zippered hoodie jackets; claiming that he’s always cold so he has to keep them.  You’d think I’d asked him to shave an eyebrow from the look he gave me. Ah well, he was so industrious that I couldn’t force a downsize on those hoodie jackets. He and Scooter quickly volunteered to take the new donations to the local thrift store; he even cleaned the shop (!) and took a truck load to the dump and recycling center.

All his hard work and energy was repaid with a new rawhide and those bacon jerky strips he loves. Scooter never passes up opportunities for treats. Hubs got an apple pie and homemade whipped cream.

Farmer modified, forget the hand crank bolts

Don’t lose your kittens. I know it’s hard because cats are difficult creatures to herd and they’re always right there to trip you up on the pretense of showing affection (and leaving hair on your pants). The middle of the week was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, above freezing in other words. So he decides to let the kittens out of the shop to play outside and sunbathe. At lunch time he comes in with a worried look. He’d lost the kittens. 

Three of these kittens we’d gotten young and had to bottle feed them. The other two had only been with us a short month. After all the hard work and time we’d put into these little buggers we didn’t want them to disappear on us. Hubs and Scooter, who was a terrible tracker with his nose, tramped the wind break for an hour before finding the kittens. Kittens who were happily playing in a set of tires stacked behind the machine shed. Scooter, the silly pup, didn’t see them until hubs pointed them out. Crunchy leaves, sticks and trees oh my were apparently such fun to tramp through and pounce on. Herding cats are tough but hanging on to squirming kittens with claws is a challenge.

Chow time is the war for food

As with any holiday, good food abounds. It seems as if there’s always a turkey or ham to be found and the traditional accompanying sides. If you’re really fortunate though, there’s lutefisk (boiled, not baked, to perfection) with melted butter to drizzle over it, perhaps rumegrot (a warm, sweet custard), lefse (a delicate and thin potato bread that’s spread with butter and dusted with cinnamon sugar; and maybe a few non-standard cookies like krumkake (a rolled, fluted almond flavored cookie) or rosettes (a delicate, deep-fried cookie and gently doused in sugar for a frosted look). I do miss lefse as the one attempt (so far) to make it gluten-free was a dismal failure. It ended up more like mini pancake sizes than the big pizza pan size, before it’s folded and cut into smaller serving sizes. I steal a bite from hubs when he gets a piece.

Scooter watching tv & the dog in the movie

Of course, the New Year and typical resolutions quickly follow the Christmas holiday. But does anyone really think of their resolutions (current or new to come) during the holiday? I know I don’t. I usually forget about whatever I had resolved to do by March. Unfortunately that elephant-like memory kicks in January 1 about what my previous resolution was. Usually it’s a good effort on the ‘x’ resolution; I can’t even tell you right now what this year’s is. Maybe it was a resolution not to have a resolution. An easy win, eh?

 

May your holiday shopping be enjoyable, the presents hidden (or under the tree), and your snowman building skills on point.

Time flies

Wintry prairie view

Before you know it, it’s Monday and the weekend turned into the week. Throw in a holiday and it feels more like a Wednesday than the first day of the week. Of course, it’s Cyber Monday and sadly I didn’t spend my day shopping. Instead, I attempted to conquer the chaos of post-holiday travel and accumulated bookwork. Yeah, the bookwork didn’t get too far because, well, it’s Monday. And who wants to do bookwork right after a holiday? (Hand not raised.)

Thanksgiving was fun in a whirlwind let’s-clean-everything-and-bake-everything-eat-wash-too-many-dishes and then finally collapse. The fun part was probably due more to an out-of-town cousin joining the festivities and all of us cousins playing a card game, Ligretto. If you don’t have good eye-hand coordination resign yourself to having a negative score (cards leftover in your deck count double, in the negative). Surprisingly, because hey a migraine wanted in on the fun too, I managed to win. No, no applause, really I mean it. A lot of laughter was shared over our mutual inability to pick up cards quickly as the tablecloth invariably came with the card.

Somehow, Thanksgiving speedily came and went; now the calendar is informing me that it’s hubs’ and my second anniversary tomorrow. Wow, does time fly. It feels like it was July just a week ago and harvest a couple days ago. I have to say I’m getting the hang of this thing called travel for my almost-monthly visits back home. Still, long hours of driving get dull so lucky for me I have a co-pilot for most of the road trips to SoDak.

Looking back, it was an interesting year, from the anniversary time clock, that is. I have driven through more auction lots (coincidentally on or right before an anniversary), gone on ‘dates’ to crop scout or check out potential equipment purchases. Side note, some of those equipment review ‘dates’ were booooooring because some old-school Mennonite or Hutterites will not talk to women. You might as well not even be there. Guess my opinion wasn’t needed, right? At least there was good convo and coffee before and after those sketch encounters. Ah well, hubs did well though, he randomly bought flowers (or had flowers waiting when I came home from planting/harvest) and will cook the occasional meal. I taught him well, haha. And we actually made plans for a vacation this year. T minus one month!

He really wanted a goofy photo :)

And speaking of time moving on fast forward, Christmas is the next target up. Who has their shopping done? One of my best friends had her’s done in August, it’s disgusting really, and is half done for next Christmas! I consider myself ahead of the game if I’m making an ideas list in July and saunter through the shopping process. Casual-like because Black Friday shopping is amusing to watch but insanity if you’re wading through it.

May you have survived Black Friday (your wallet too), indulged in the candy cane mochas and start December (this Friday yikes!) with gratitude for (fill in the blank). Me, gratitude for family.

Giving thanks for harvest end

Dressed for comfort in layers for Last Day of Harvest. PC to Dad

Inhale the frost-edged air and exhale an opaque, silvery plume. Delicate, fantastic designs swirl and dance over crisp leaves and up ramrod-straight stalks. Ears of corn rest in their husk jackets safe from the frost. Below the tassels, golden leaves pause in their gentle wave like banners frozen in a moment.

My last day of harvest for 2017 started with such a day. I had to take a couple of minutes to enjoy the novelty and wonder how frost always turns out such ethereal beauty. It gave my combine a different look, especially the windshield. As the frost retreated in the warmth of the sleepy sun it was time to begin the process of starting the combine. It most definitely grumbled to life and took its dear sweet time to warm up and defrost.

This was one of my favorite final days of harvest. Why? Well, it was such a beautiful day and I could cruise to the finish line. Now the cruise was more of a casual saunter with the time to be picky to make sure the cut was excellent. It has to look good from the road, don't ya know.

I saved the final round for Dad so he could officially end harvest. Also, I thought he deserved a little fun time. What better way to end harvest than with the last, easy round on a gorgeous day? As we’re cruising and eating up the final rows, I look over. I see a fat opossum (with a bad hair day) in a waddling jog on the other side of this baby draw, racing us. (I thought he was cheating since he was running between the rows, ha.) The monitor shows a ground speed of 3.5 mph and this dude is keeping up with us. We estimated he kept up the good fight, er, race for about 100 feet before the lack of oxygen on his part sidelined him. Mouth breathers. Everyone knows you’re supposed to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth for an efficient breathing strategy.

How did harvest yield? Well, like everyone says, better than expected. If you’re looking for specific numbers, well, you should know by now that farmers are coy when it comes to that. Similar to back in the day when ladies would flutter their ornate fans as they danced around a question (or flirtation).

A nice sight, minus the dirty windows of course

Best part? Done before Thanksgiving. It’s kind of unfortunate for me because then I’m at Mom’s mercy for doing the weird little jobs for food prep.(You can only have so many chefs in the kitchen.) I’d rather clean the house and set the table. Then I don’t have to wash the hordes of dishes that mysteriously appear after the feast. And this is after the dishwasher is filled. Yikes. The dog said he would clean only so many plates and then he would have to take a nap. I’m kidding, I don’t let the dog help ‘clean’ the plates. That is for fairy tales.

Well, I’m off to begin the pre-cleaning of the actual cleaning process of the house. If I’m quick-like, I might get to work outside and get the combine prepped for winter storage. Ahh, the life of a motivator. Sometimes I wish I was a tad bit more lazy but then I would be bored.

May your harvest wrap-up be sweet, (American) Thanksgiving a time with family and the pie outstanding. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Time to put my feet up, ish. Still work to do. (repost from Insta & FB)

Badgering corn

Bone-chilling cold wind slapped at my face. It didn’t say hi or playfully nip at my nose. It was rude really. Oh my goodness, that north arctic air was my motivation to stay INSIDE the cab and never leave. 

One of the few visible sunsets this week

In true SD fashion, for weather, the brisk autumn air fled in the night and left the field wide open for the light breeze (30+ mph) from the north. I was overjoyed to open my weather app and read that the outside air felt like 6F but it was actually 23F. Yup, my favorite weather temps for harvest right there. Guess I should’ve packed my parka for work.

It’s been awhile but I’m back in the corn! The rumbling of corn ears passing through the feeder house under my feet is disconcerting, especially when a slug of them run through and play knock-knock along the way. Seeing the shelled corn in the grain tank, a gorgeous dark gold, is so satisfying.

While I was finishing the last round of corn on this field I saw a furry animal running away from me. I thought of hubs and grabbed my phone, swiped for the camera and attempted to get a decent photo. Well, this guy was running away! In this awkward side-to-side lumbering trot. So I did the logical thing and speeded up. I was going 5.5 mph and I didn’t dare look at my screen to see the losses monitors. Still, this animal, which I now realized was an infamous badger, was pulling away from me. I did my best but this is the best photo I got while in a moving combine and a subject that wouldn’t stop and pose. 

Silly badger

 There’s something artistic and beautiful about a well-combined field, be it soybeans, corn or another commodity. I enjoy as each round passes, more corn stalks are chopped and shelled corn blooms in the grain tank and the vista of gleaming, dark gold harvested field expands. 

Clouds shuffled off and an uber bright sun gleamed above. Thankfully, a warmer air had blown in from the south. As the morning wore off I noticed the haze that seemed creep in along the horizon.

Then the moisture on the screen started to creep up. Dad, in the semi, reported that the neighbors were parking and quitting for the day. Well, you can only haul in so much corn at a high moisture (like one truck load) before admitting it’s better to stop for lunch and hope the humidity drops. Apparently the corn was sucking up the air humidity like a child gulps down chocolate milk.

Noon hour goes by and it’s even more hazy outside than when we stopped. So what do you do? Well, I go for coffee. :)

And a big thank you for your service to all veterans for your service. Semper fi.

May your week be the lull before the storm called Thanksgiving, your harvest roll into the finish (if it hasn’t already) and the coffee be plentiful.

Me and the pup