Sunshine Equals Spring Chores

While fall is my overall favorite season (love cool weather and harvest time), spring is a very close second. I love the transition from winter coats and sweaters (though wish I could wear tights all year round) to jackets and sandals (or at least shoes without socks).

However, I feel like we went from winter directly to late spring/early summer this year. Temperatures in Indiana have been warm, really warm in the month of March and they don't seem to be waning as we enter April.

The warm weather has meant several things around here...spring flowers and trees are blooming, lawn mowers are mowing and farmers are farming!

It's time for farmers to put away their insulated coveralls and heavy Carhartt jackets and luckily for my dad, Carhartt sent him this great short-sleeved work shirt just in time for the warm spring temperatures. 

I have to admit that he has worn this short-sleeved, button-down classic plaid shirt as much OFF the farm as he has ON the farm. He says it is super (maybe my word, not his) comfortable and fits great. Note that it has a pocket, which I have been told by more than one farmer is a MUST...needed to hold pens, glasses, notebooks, checkbooks, etc.

On this particular warm (note the nephew in shorts and sandals above) spring day, dad was catching up on a few spring chores before he gets busy in the fields in a few weeks.

 Climbing into the trusty John Deere.

 I think this look was saying "I'm getting tired of my favorite daughter following me around."

(I may have added the "favorite" to that thought.)

 The backhoe has been busy cleaning up the farmstead this spring.

 Here he was just showing off...spinning the seat around. 

 Dad has several grain bins on the farm, which means loading the semi to sell some corn.

(Or maybe it was soybeans that day...I can't remember.)

 "Hey Papaw, what are you doing? Can I help?"

 "Papaw, are you done yet? Can I ride in the semi? Can we take a Gator ride?"

(Can you tell the nephew asks questions...a lot?)

Finished...time to go check the bins.

 Farmers can't be afraid of heights.

All done. Watch your step!

As you can see, my dad is one busy, busy guy and his new Carhartt shirt was the right gear to wear on a very warm, yet typical spring day at the farm.

Head over to the Real Farmwives of America to check out some of the other great new gear from Carhartt's new spring line AND for a giveaway sponsored by Carthartt!

Disclaimer: Carhartt provided me - my dad - the free product, but the opinions and photos in this post are my own (well, and my dad's), of course.

Cookies, Clematis and Combines

Cookies

I was craving homemade cookies this weekend and I just watched the second episode of The Pioneer Woman's show on Food Network.

Because of the above, I made these...

I remembered reading about Monster Cookies on one of the blogs I frequent but it was before I started Pinning in and every recipe I may ever want to try. This meant I had to do some searching and I finally came upon PW's recipe on the Tasty Kitchen site.

If you have never used Tasty Kitchen to look up a recipe, I highly recommend it. Lots of great bloggers and others post their favorite recipes there.

Clematis
My sweet autumn clematis has started to bloom!

Can't wait to see it in full bloom!

Combines
As I was driving by the farm (also known as Grandma's house...even though my baby sister and her family live there now) and noticed this...

as sure of a sign that harvest is right around the corner as the turning corn and soybeans in the field around us! We were thinking that harvest was going to be late this year because all the rain this spring caused Dad and other farmers in Indiana to plant late. However, we didn't get much any rain in July and August so the crops have already started to turn. 

Looks as if they either plan to start with soybeans (the bean head is on the combine...the corn head looks more like fingers) OR they are just cleaning it up while they have some time.

Harvest was early last year and it went VERY fast so I only got to ride with Dad once the whole harvest...I'm definitely going to be in the cab more often this year...if I can persuade my nephews to give me a turn in the jump seat!

Dirt Pudding for my Farmer Dad

After church this morning, I asked my dad what dessert he'd like for our Father's Day celebration.

He said Dirt Pudding.

This confused me a bit because that's NOT a dessert our family makes...ever.

But, hey, it's his day so I said OK and headed to the store for some milk, Oreos and vanilla pudding! Luckily, Walgreens has the small packs of Oreos on sale for 99 cents this week and I had a coupon for $1 off two packages. SCORE!

Then I headed home to jump on the Internet to find the recipe. I found a recipe for Dirt Cake I on allrecipes.com that looked good. Then I read the comments and found some suggestions on tweak it a bit so I took those, as well as made some of my own.

Before I got started, I had to crush the Oreos...unfortunately I don't have a full-size food processor but my mini one did the job just fine.

It took a bit longer but my mini-processor is much easier to store than the full-size ones!

Here's the final product. I added a small John Deere tractor in honor of my dad. If I had some green icing or green food coloring, it would have been fun to add a "field" to the top as well...maybe next year.

I think he enjoyed it, as did the rest of the family! So I'm sharing the recipe on here so others can enjoy it (and so I have it if I ever want to make it again).

Here's the recipe...

Dirt Pudding/Cake
3 T. butter/margarine, softened (I may have used 4 T. since I had a half stick in the fridge.)
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
2 (3.5 oz.) packages instant pudding mix
3 1/2 c. milk
2 (12 oz.) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (I used 1 1/2 containers because I NEEDED to eat the rest with a spoon right after I finished making this.)
32 oz. chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling, chopped very fine in food processor (white cream will disappear)

Mix butter and cream cheese in bowl. In a large bowl, combine milk and pudding mix with a whisk. Then add the whipped topping. Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.

Layer in a trifle bowl (or a flower pot or other pretty dish), starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers. Chill until ready to serve.

If you put it into a flower pot, you can add an artificial flower or gummy worms or plastic trowel.