by Mary Lou
Republic County WIFE

September 1, 2001

As you read my activities for this day, you will notice my activities aren't those of an active farmer or farm wife.  Our son is now the active farmer in our family since my husband's death and his wife and family are doing the farmer's assistant things that I used to do.  I still live in my country home and keep very busy maintaining the yard and garden.

After breakfast and scanning the newspaper, I took my morning bike ride. With many things to do, I sometimes don't think I have time for a four mile ride, but it is a good way to begin the day and it keeps me strong and fit to get lots done.  It is beautiful in the early morning.  Now the wild sunflowers are blooming along the roadside and for a week have remained perfect.  The milo, which is the feed grain that grows best on dry land that can't be watered, is beginning to mature and get color.  Most of it will be coper colored. Yesterday morning I didn't get my ride in, so I walked after the beautiful full moon came up. That was nice too.

My morning project each morning lately has been working on getting some grass seeded and watered in little spots where it died over the cold winter last year.  Before I could plant, I had to get rid of low growing weeds that had filled in the spots that had no grass.  It has been a big project because I have a big yard, but some of the grass is coming up and I need to keep the ground wet so it will grow.  I work until about ll:00 a.m. when it begins to get hot, then come inside, turn on the air conditioner and read the mail.

My lunch included some nice fresh vegetables from the garden including some sweet corn.  Since he was in high school, my son has been in charge of planting sweet corn in a patch near my house.  He plants two or three long rows at a time of different varieties and that way it matures so we can eat sweet corn all of July and August and even a little now in Sept. Sweet corn never tastes so good as when you go to the patch and pick it and cook it to eat right away.

I spent most of the afternoon doing desk work and making necessary telephone calls. Things had piled up on my desk because I've been gone. One thing I worked on is 4-H.  I am a community leader and at this time of the year our kids are completing record books to record the projects they accomplished during the year. The first year members usually need some help, so I am getting that organized. We also are starting our after school 4-H for the younger kids and that needed to get organized. They will be coming to my house for a nature scavenger hunt and hopefully a cook out if it rains so things are green enough in our camp fire area to build a fire.

In the evening I picked beans and watered my garden.  The beans had a lot of bug holes in them and that makes a lot of work when you go to prepare them and have to cut out the little holes.  Last time I picked them, I pretended it wasn't that bad because I don't like to spray.  This time after getting the beans picked, I spayed them with Sevin, a chemical that will kill the bugs if you hit them but doesn't harm people if you don't pick any beans for 3 days. I wash the beans carefully before I prepare them.

It's is a lot of trouble to spray. You have to mix the Sevin carefully in the right amount and make sure the sprayer isn't plugged up.  Then it needs to be cleaned out and hung up properly to drain so it will work the next time.  I put on special clothes so I don't get any of the chemical on me and then I take a shower right away.   It will be worth the effort the next time I pick beans that don't have holes in them.  When they are nice, I like to share them with my friends and neighbors.

I got a telephone call when I got in from my cousin and her daughters.  We had been on a neat vacation together and they had received the pictures I sent them of our adventures. We had a lot more laughs remembering the fun.