The rarest and most useless machine ever.

AKA, the annual visit of the city street sweeper!  We got to see it smear, er, sweep up, debris yesterday.  It also happens to be Skyler's favorite municipal vehicle.  It's really not the street sweeper's fault, the operator plays a huge role in making the machine work properly.  Too bad ours was daydreaming and avoiding big piles of leaves!  Sigh...

Waiting while eating an apple.  It had already gone East and started back West on our side of the street.

"There it is!"

I opened his blinds and window so he could hear and see it better.  (We had to run outside when it was on the other side of the street.)

See you next year!

Our little artist.

Over the weekend Skyler drew each one of us.  Me, Mommy, Eddy cat, Maizey dog, and himself.  He did this without any help other than us giving him the paper and chalk.  I'm thinking he's a left handed, right brained artist!  He even drew our insurance agent last night while he was here revising our insurance policies.  :)

Mommy labeled each drawing so we would remember.  Skyler will walk up and name each person on the drawing.  Pretty good!

Not one of my better ideas...

Since it's too cold to play outside, and Skyler wanted to "play in some dirt", we improvised and used some corn instead.  "That shouldn't be too messy" I thought.  Wrong!  In typical Skyler fashion, he managed to spread it all over the house!  A couple of hours later, it was all cleaned up and put away.  Glad he got some entertainment out of it.

The plan was to try and contain everything in the bin.

Dumping into the bin worked!

Repeat!

Staying warm.

It's 7(!) degrees outside our house this morning.  The pets and child are doing what the can to stay warm and cozy.

Ta da!

Skyler and Mommy played in the snow and built a couple of snowmen yesterday.  It must have been a good time, they were out for over an hour!

One of the first things Styler said yesterday was "we need a carrot for his nose".

He was pretty proud.

Waiting...

For there to be enough snow today so he can "build a snowman!"

7:00 am.  Is your kid watching it snow?

Using all of her 320 ponies!

Our friend Wayne texted that he was running his John Deere 8320R to pull his Krause Dominator disc ripper yesterday morning.  After getting Skyler a quick bite to eat, we were off.  It was snowing off and on, but oh so toasty in the climate controlled Command View cab!  This is a brand new tractor, only showing 32 hours on the meter.  We were pulling in 9th gear, engine lugged down to 1700 RPM, (from a rated 2100 rpm) and pulling 122% of the rated 320 horsepower!  After an hour or so, Wayne handed over the wheel to me and I made a few rounds.  Basically, I just raised and lowered the Dominator and disengaged and re-engaged the autosteer (GPS).  We probably would have lasted at least another hour, but Skyler was starting to fall asleep on Wayne's lap.  Something about a cab and a kid, there's no fighting the sleepiness!

First pass.  Notice the sea gulls.  Skyler was thrilled by them.

Front duals clawing for traction.

Gloomy day.  Nice inside though.

Nice and straight!

LED light next to the oil drum sized exhaust.  This tractor is EPA final Tier 4.  Meaning that the air leaving the exhaust is cleaner than the air entering the intake.

Antelope came over to see what we were doing.

And then walked back.

What a beauty!

Off he goes!  These new tractors don't even smoke under load!

Hard to believe that this is right in the Salt Lake valley.

"Bye Wayne!"  Skyler shouted as we drove away.  :)

Because we didn't last until it got dark, these next few pics Wayne sent us.  The new tractor has all LED lights on it and it is BRIGHT!

After we left, it was time to change ripper points.  The points were still hot when we pulled the tillage tool out and walked back to inspect them!

Lights on!

Wow!

They really do turn night into day!  Look at that!

360 degree illumination!  The new Command Center screen is reflection in the rear window.  Apple helped Deere design it.  Talk about perfection, Apple and John Deere, like a dream come true!

"Woo, woo!"

We're still enjoying the IKEA train at our house.  Skyler helped build this yesterday.

Pretty sure the neighbors can hear him using his "whistle" while he plays.  :)

Thanks Dad.

And thank you to everyone else who served to protect our great country.  I realize that yesterday was Veteran's Day but like everything else on this blog, things happen a day late.

Some sweet railroad war propaganda I saw yesterday.

Continuing the cleaning theme...

I started cleaning up the basement yesterday.  Skyler was helping until he spotted a scooter.  Now the basement is a scooter track!

Zooming!

This went on for nearly an hour.  He was down there first thing this morning.

Ah, clean blinds.

Altair and I tackled cleaning the blinds in our house yesterday afternoon while Skyler had a nap.  I used the pressure washer to clean them.  We would remove one set from a window, rig it to the step ladder, and fire away with the pressure washer!  It worked so well!  (no pics, I didn't want my precious new iPhone 6 plus anywhere near water)  One more step closer to being ready for Thanksgiving.

Since there were no pictures of the blinds, I leave you this today.

This applied both yesterday and Saturday,  I got a ride in both days.  :)

A tip to the midwest without having to go there.

There's a new Tractor Supply Co. store in Utah!  It's only 60 miles away in Brigham City instead of 900 miles to Lincoln Nebraska!  We went there yesterday to check it out and pick up a few things.  It's just like the one in Lincoln!  We also ate lunch at the "Maid Rite Diner" in Layton.  Maid Rite is from Iowa (and we didn't even have to drive to Iowa to eat there) and features the Maid Rite loose meat sandwich.  Delicious!  They even had made from scratch Mac and Cheese for Skyler!

Ahh, this is going to be great!

There's even an exercise area for your pets!  (And boy.)

An added bonus was seeing a new JD 7R planting some winter wheat on the way back!

Inside the Maid Rite, very classy and cool!  They were playing 50's & 60's Rock and Roll music.  Note tin ceiling.

A birthday at the bike shop.

We headed down to our favorite bike shop (Saturday Cycles) yesterday to deliver a cake to the owner Mark.  It was his birthday.  Altair made a home made cake complete with beets, almonds, chocolate, and avocado based frosting.  It was a huge hit!  We brought some Uintah 801 beer and everyone had a great time.  I think Mark was floored, it didn't look like anyone had done anything for him and it was nearly closing time when we left.  Skyler even got a little bell for his little bike.  :)

Finished cake in front of our tandem.  We're picking it up next weekend for a demo.

Skyler playing on the stump out front of the shop.

Enjoying some cake on the stump.  I took him outside so we wouldn't make a mess in the shop.

Annual combine ride.

I got a call from Ken yesterday around noon that he was moving on the corn maze.  Skyler and I were off!  Time to combine corn!

Unloading 100 bushels of 28% moisture corn.  This is considered "high moisture" corn.  Used for cattle feed.  It gets ground and fermented.

Standing in the cab.

Looking out.

Looking out front.

Unloading into a vintage military 6x6 truck. 

Someone was having a great day!

Riding in the vintage truck.

Still happy!

"C'mon, another truck to ride in!"

I had had enough corn dust so we got out.

Ready...

On the move!

Lots of smashed pumpkins.  What does a pumpkin smell like Skyler?  "Eggs!"  Hmm, not sure about that one.

Here it comes!

4 rows at a time.

"Bye Kenny!" is what Skyler was shouting.

One more pic in front of the Freightliner.  The sun was a little bright.  :)

A sincere thanks to Ken for calling me and letting us tag along.  Skyler had a wonderful time!