JULY 11, 2010

 We are well into the middle of summer already having passed the 4th of July a week ago. The crops look so good this year with corn more than shoulder high on the 4th and beans and small grain looking excellent. Harvesting of peas for canning has been going on for quite some time already and that crop is also quite large. We have had ample rain all season already and getting the hay crop out continues to be a challenge for a lot of farmers.

Summer church and town festivals continue every weekend and they are needed fundraisers for both. So if you have an opportunity to partake of the many in the area please do. You will meet your friends and neighbors there and find out everything that is happening in the area as well as get to enjoy some foods that you will only find at these events.

Yesterday hubby Joe took part in the all day tractor ride put together by Wally Vorwerk who farms near Gibbon. The weather was perfect and all that participated in the event had a good time.

Someone recently told me that they couldn't find their barn in the Moltke township book so while I was over in the area yesterday I checked it out and found that I had missed about 1 1/2 miles with several barns along it. So I did take photos of them and will include them in their township book. If anyone else thinks I may have missed any barns please let me know and I will be sure to check it out. I appreciate everyone's help with the project!!

I met somemore wonderful farm people yesterday, too. I had spoken with Loretta Jaus many times by email over the last few years as I wrote about their organic farm in Moltke township and as I was in the area yesterday I stopped to see if she was home. She was and her two beautiful young grandchildren were keeping her company while their parents helped with the hay baling. We had a really nice visit and it was good to finally get to meet her.

Also met a young woman who thought I might be having car trouble as I was taking some barn photos. She thought it was a really warm day to have to walk for help so it was really kind of her to offer to help. When I told her what I was doing she said that she had heard about the project and my books.

We took a little break over the 4th of July and went out to the Black Hills with our two young grandsons, Micaheal and Alex. We all had a great time camping and seeing as many sights as we could including going to the Mount Rushmore monument twice.

Well, I do hope that your summer is going well for you. It is always a busy time of the year and always way too short!

 June 12, 2010

Well, we are heading into midsummer already and it is hard to believe that we are this far into the summer so quickly. We had an early spring this year with all the snow gone by Easter which was early this year. A lot of crops went in early but it did stay cool for most of the spring. The corn and soybeans are looking good and the small grains really look good with all the cool weather and rain that we have been getting. This first part of June has seen a lot of rain with this past week seeing cold rain nearly every day. Some hay is down and has been rained on all week so it probably will not make good hay anymore.

I have been printing books as usual and especially the township books which people seem to like a lot because I can put their barn on the cover. I took copies of the township books to the annual Sibley County Historical Society Meeting which was held in New Auburn this year. They seemed to be a hit. It was a good meeting with one of our members - Steve Briggs - giving a really good presentation and slide show on a trip he made to New Guinea in search of MIA's and planes from World WarII. Rommie Petersen, the President pf the Society, always has a good program prepared for the annual meeting.

I also was invited to give a talk about the barn project at the old one room school house out at St. John's Lutheran Church in Bismarck Township north of Winthrop. Karen Klenk had invited me to bring some books and talk about what was involved in doing the Barns of Sibley County over the last 5 years. They have a celebration at the school house called "The Last Day of School" and open the school for a day for people to look at how children went to school in the county during the first part of the past century.

I still go out to take photos of the barns in the county and sort of update the photos that I already have. It also gives me a chance to visit with the farm owners and hear their stories. I do hope that people are writing down their memories of life on their farm. There are not so many left to tell those memories and it is sad to see that history go.

We also did a fun trip in early May when we drove to Arkansas to do a workshop that a great nature and wildlife photographer from that area offers to digital photographers. My 10 year old grandson accompanied me for the workshop and we both had a very good time and even learned a few things. I have a link to Tim Ernst's website on my website if you would like to look at some of his wonderful work.

Well, I do hope you all have a wonderful summer and enjoy the beautiful area that we live in. With the Good Lord's Blessing we will have good crops again this year and receive a good price for the crops and for the milk that the few dairy farms remaining in the county are able to produce. I spoke with a dairy farmer in Jessenland Township recently and she informed me that the number of dairies in Jessenland was down to two and there were only 56 left in the entire county last year. That is sad.

February 14, 2010

January of the new year has slipped by and we are well into February already. We have had a good bit of snow for the winter but not nearly as bad as some other parts of the country. Washington DC has been blanketed with a few feet as has most of the northeastern section of the country. Even Dallas has had record snow this winter.

I have been out and about only on a couple of ocasions and so I do not have many photos to add to the site today. I did go out about a week ago to deliver some books and visit with some of the great farm people that I had met in my travels while photographing the barns throughout the county. I learned that one of the barns that I had photographed several years ago in New Auburn Township had burned down on February 2nd. The barn was still in use with the owner and his family housing sheep in the barn. They lost over 70 sheep, including 43 new lambs. A very real loss for the family.  I will post a photo of the barn on this page today.

We continue to lose dairy operations in the county. The price received for milk continues to be quite low at under $15.00 average per hundreweight while the cost of producing the milk is much more than this amount. Dairy farmers work is never rewarded as well as it should be.

I will try to get out and about to capture some more of the barns in winter settings. But I am really looking forward to some warmer weather and green grass once again!!

 January 6, 2010

It has been a long time since I made a posting to this blog. Thank you to all those who still check back once in awhile to see if I have added anything to the site. Time goes by way too fast for me and I don't get back to some things as quickly as I should!  In my last post I mentioned that I was planning a trip with my two sisters to Ireland in September. Well we did go to Ireland for two weeks early in September and had just a wonderful time. We saw so many things and travelled all over County Kerry (the county that our great grand parents had emigrated from in 1850.) as well as a little bit into Counties Clare, Galway and even a foot into County Cork.

 We had the most wonderful weather while there with plenty of sunshine - something the people of Ireland had not seen most of the summer. They had record rains in July and August and more record rains with flooding after we left. The farmers over there were having a very difficult time with their hay crops and small grains.

 Since we came home I have been busy putting the whole adventure into a book for my sisters and myself so we can keep the memories of our trip fresh for a long, long time. Altogether we took over 6000 photos and choosing from them has been a challenge to put into the book. I kept a journal every day while in Ireland so that made writing for the book much easier. I completed it just around Christmas with 120 pages and hundreds of pictures and everyone who has seen it has really liked it. That makes the effort worthwhile right there! I will try to put a couple of photos of the book into this post.

I did manage to get out with all the snow and take some photos but not a lot. It has been way too cold for taking good photos. I do hope it warms up soon so that I can once again get out to do one of the things that I like to do best.

I have been kept busy with printing out the barn books to fill orders for books and a lot of people were also looking for the township books with a photo of their barn on the front and back of the book. They do turn out pretty good and everyone likes it when their barn is on the cover. 

And I have printed out more calendars than ever this year. I try to include a calendar in with the book orders this time of the year. And Joe likes to give the calendars to his clients as a 'thank you for your business' promotion at this time of year also.

The fall photos were really a bust this past year. With all the rain that we had in October the colors were really poor. The outstanding reds and oranges that we had the previous year were nowhere to be found this time.

Well, I am going to try to post a few additional photos and I wish everyone who visits this site the Happiest New Year ever this year. I will try to capture more good barn photos this year and try to talk with more of the fine farm people who live in Sibley County. I am working on putting together a children's book about the barns and if anyone has some suggestions for it I would love to hear from you. You can contact me trough my email address that is on this web site.

July 28, 2009

 An update to my website is long overdue and I will attempt to do that this evening. Time goes by very fast for me with lots of things to keep me busy all the time. I still work full time (fortunately, as so many seem to be losing their jobs through downsizing of one sort or another during a rather rough economic time) and with a couple of grandchildren here a lot - whom I love to have with us - working on the barn book - which has been completed with two different versions being published at this time. I have set up my own small publishing company - Silver Creek Publishing - and I am attempting to print the book myself as they are requested. I hope to have them listed soon on Amazon and with other booksellers. I will let you know how to search for them as soon as I get it set up.

 The book does look good and I am proud of the way it has turned out. All the wonderful people I have met through this project have encouraged me so much with what I have been attempting to do. I hope I have done justice to photographing all their barns. I will add some of the more recent photos to the site before I publish this again.

 This week is the start of the Sibley County Fair in Arlington. I hope to display the books at the Sibley County Historical Museum's booth which is located in the small one room schoolhouse that is situated on the fairgrounds. They will have lots of information and displays from the museum there throughout the fair for all to enjoy. Please stop by if you are going to the fair. The fair begins on Thursday and runs though Sunday.

 We have been having a wonderful summer here in our area this year. The crops look very good and the garden has been super abundant. My husband Joe has been doing the gardening this summer and he planted an awfully large garden for just the two of us! We have been enjoying fresh peas and green beans for about a month already. Now the cucumbers and tomatoes are beginning and so is the sweet corn. Freezers are full already and I have been sharing the extra with people where I work and with whoever would like to have fresh vegetables.

There have been plenty of area festivals and events to attend also. With the grandkids in tow we have been to church festivals, Bar B Q Days in Belle Plaine, tractor shows and parades with Joe's Allis Chalmers tractors, swimming with the boys and of course 4th of July and a 70th birthday party for Joe hosted by our children. It has indeed been a busy summer (Ithink most of that was just at the end of June and beginning of July).

My 2 remaining sisters and I are planning a trip to Ireland in September so that is occupying some of my time also. We are really looking forward to spending the time together and walking on the soil where our great grandparents emigrated from before 1850. This will be the first time that any of us has been across the pond so we hope it all goes well.

I continue to take photographs of barns around the county and I am still looking for stories to go with those barns. So if you do have a story or know of someone who does have an interesting story about their barn I really would like to hear it. I can always update with a second book and add these stories.

 I will try to stay a little more current with updates and I really would like to hear from anyone who stumbles across this site. 

October 10, 2008

 Summer has rapidly turned into fall with all its spectacular color here in the county, especially along the Minnesota River Valley. I have been out as often as I can to try to capture some of the beauty before it disappears and is replaced by barren fields and landscapes. The colors do not seem to last nearly long enough this time of year and it is amazing how fast the summer disappeared again. The crops do look very good in the area. We seem to have had ample moisture throughout the growing season and a late frost gave the crops a chance to mature after a late start for the planting season. I haven't heard what yields are like for the corn and beans but I believe it will be good for most farmers in the county. With some good drying weather it won't take long at all to finish the harvest. 

I have posted a few new photos to the site so I do hope you enjoy them. I have completed photographing the barns that remain in Sibley County and have close to 1100 barns in total for the 17 townships. I think I have captured about 95% of the barns and I am working on putting them into a book.  

July 9, 2008

Well, I am getting ever closer to finishing this project that I began almost 3 years ago now. I have met so many wonderful people along the journey and photographed around 1000 different barns and I have enjoyed every moment of it! The last Sunday in June I finished photographing the barns in Severance Township. I have 64 barns from that particular area and I know that I missed out on several that were recently taken down. I do hope  that someone else recorded the last days of those barns.

I have just a small section of Cornish Township to finish at this point. I will need to do this fairly soon as the corn will soon be high enough to obscure any barns from the road for good photos of them. 

I am continuing to place the barn photographs into their respective townships in Publisher and am seeking out stories on the barns as I get the opportunity. I recently attended a program that the Sibley County Historical Society presented on the David Kahle farm south of Gaylord which featured Pete Pinske giving a very informative talk about the family business of Pinske Built Barns. It was a perfect summer evening with around a hundred people taking in the event and enjoying the potluck dinner that was served by members of the historical society. Mr. Pinske gave a demonstration of how the early barns were built and the tools that were used in the construction of the round roof barns that were their specialty. He also presented a Powerpoint slide show in the hayloft of the Kahle barn that showed the evolution of the barn building business of the Pinskes.

Summer is going by fast and the crops are really beginning to stretch out. The corn is shoulder high or better in most places by now and this year there are more fields of spring wheat than there have been in many years. The prices for the crops remain high and the farmers are hoping for good weather to see them through the rest of the summer with ample rain and no hail or strong winds to damage the crops. 

I will add a few new photos from my travels through Severance township. And again, if you have any stories to go with any of the barns, please feel free to contact me. I would love to hear from you.