Planting Delays of Nearly Biblical Proportions

 Last year, by May 1st, my Farmer had corn and soybean fields planted.  This year is a completely different story.  

It's rained, and rained, and rained some more.  Enough rain to more than make me forget about the drought we had last year and wonder if the water would ever stop.

Just like Noah and his Ark, the rains came down and the floods went up.  Way up.  

In this picture, the water should stop at the treeline.  Instead, it was nearly to the road.

This picture is taken from a bridge on my favorite running trail.  Under all of that water is a field.

This is a local creek.  But the sound of the water was deafening.  The water was moving so fast it was roaring.  And this little creek was way over its banks, flooding the neighboring fields.

I don't know when we will start planting our corn and soybean fields.  In order to get our seed in the ground, we need some warm and sunny weather to dry out these wet fields!  We're are never given more than we can handle.  Although there are days we wonder exactly how much more we need thrown our way!

A Run To Remember

I ran today. That in itself is not different than every other day.  I've run every day in April.  But today my run moved me to tears.  I'm travelling this week for a national wine marketing conference.  This is my view on my run today. 

I've run four marathons, a dozen half marathons and lots of smaller races.  What I saw in news coverage from Boston makes me physically ill. Two weeks ago I made the decision to run another marathon.  I'll never be fast enough to run Boston, but I want to run a big race. And now a group of cowards has made me nervous to run a big race.  But I am still a runner.  And I will continue down the path that has been set out for me.

Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1

But those that hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isiah 40:31

I'll keep running.  Even if I don't understand.

Wine Wednesday: V. Sattui Dry Rosato

I believe I've talked before that I love dry rose' wines! I drink them year-round and love them as a wine or as a sparkling wine!

With the warmer weather in my home state the past week, I've been throwing out the long tights and boots for short Spanx and my peeptoes!  Out goes the cube steak and mashed potato comfort food and in comes the grilled steak and asparagus.  And out goes my Cabernets and Zinfandels and in with some great summer wines!

A few years ago I had the chance to visit V. Sattui Winery in Napa Valley.  I was with The Farmer and some good friends.  The Farmer loves wine as well and we had a blast at this winery. I was meeting with the President of V. Sattui to give them a trophy they had won in the INDY International Wine Competition, a competition we run at Purdue University, and one of the largest wine competitions in the country. V. Sattui had won our Winery of the Year trophy and I had it packed in a box to give them!

After making a presentation of the trophy to the entire winery and the guests, we got a tour of the facility, let by Tom Davies, winery president. For this gentleman to take time out of his very busy schedule and give us a tour was incredible! We were given special treatment.  My thanks to them was in the amount of The Farmer's money I spent at the winery and the continued amount of wine I continue to buy!

This Dry Rosato is one of my favorite wines.  The wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignane and made in the style of rose' wines in Provence.  When I smelled and tasted this wine noticed cherry, raspberry and strawberry flavors.  It is exceptional!

And it's not cheap, although not expensive either.  At $21.75 a bottle, you can enjoy this bottle by yourself, as I did, or share with friends.  I hate sharing this wine!  And if I'm not careful, I can drink this bottle by myself in one night!  

If you get a chance to visit V. Sattui, I highly recommend you try this wine! Plan to spend the afternoon there.  When we visited, we were able to purchase lunch at the winery and sit on their lawn while listening to music. It was a lovely day I'm able to relive when enjoying this wine.

Wine Wednesday: Holman Ranch Chardonnay

I'm often asked if I only drink Indiana wine.  Since I promote Indiana's wine industry, I think it's a a valid question. And the answer is "no", I don't just drink Indiana wines. Although I do love what my home state produces!!

Recently Holman Ranch provided me some wines for review. Periodically over the next few months I will review each bottle and tell you about the winery.  This is a winery I was not familiar with prior to receiving the wines. But I am blown away by the beauty of their Carmel Valley, California location! One look at their website and you will see beautiful vineyards, wedding facilities and even olive groves. I'm going to have to order some olive oil!

The first wine I want to review is their 2010 estate grown Chardonnay.  Everyone who reads this blog knows I love Chardonnay.  Some wine snobs roll their eyes are Chardonnay.  Saying it's a basic wine, the wine only newbies drink, and so on.  I say bologna to all of that! Chardonnay can be a great wine, if made well.  And this one seems to fit that description.

I was very impressed with the information Holman Ranch.  Their media kit was well done.

Each wine had a nice piece of information about the wine, winery and vineyard.

But on to the wine.  Holman Ranch has 19 acres of vineyards, just under 2 acres are dedicate to Chardonnay grapes. The vineyards were planted in 2008.






The wine is a straw yellow in the glass.  When I smelled and tasted the wine I did get a hint of toasted oak, but no overwhelming. Many people who don't like Chardonnay say it's because winemakers turned their Chards into butter, oaken, heavy wines.  This wine is not like that. It has just enough oak to give it a toasted nose, but not so much that you feel like you are drinking wood chips!

The wine is quite acidic.  Acidity in wine is what makes your mouth water. The minute I tasted this I felt my mouth start to water! Wine acidity is great, if it's balanced. I thought this was well-balanced and enjoyed my glass very much!

This wine is full of citrus and honey flavors. And at $28/bottle I think it would be a great wine to enjoy with friends and a good meal!

Holman Ranch provided me this bottle of wine for review.  Although my love of wine and my opinions are my own.  No one can pay me to like their wine!  

Hop on the Hershey Bunny Trail this Easter!

As I sit down to write about Easter, I'm having a hard time imagining our best Sunday dresses, egg hunts and other springtime activities since I'm looking at 8 inches of snow out of my farmhouse window! 

But Easter bring a season of renewal. And is the holiday that offers the most promise. Easter is more about egg hunts and candy, although I enjoy that part very much! To me, Easter is about the promise Jesus gave us by dying on a cross. The promise of hope eternal and a life in Heaven, just for accepting His gift! 

So Easter morning will involve a joy-filled church service.  But we won't leave out the egg hunts and the candy! As a kid, my parents would dress us in our fanciest dresses for church. After church we'd hunt plastic eggs filled with candy and money. My Mom always had a few special eggs filled with dollar bills! Those were the ones I always sought hardest!

For Easter this year, we will have lunch with my parents. The past few years have involved giving all the grandkids a chance to break a pinata. It's always filled with great Hershey's candy, money and other treats. And I think it's funny to watch the kids as they dive for the candy or money. My Monkey tends to go after the money! My Panda likes the candy :)

To help fill our pinata, Hershey's send me an Easter basket filled with some of my favorite treats. I'm not a big chocolate eater, but I do love these little treats around Easter! The basket was filled with York Dark Peppermint Egg shaped Patties, Resse's Peanut Butter filled bunnies, Hershey's Cookie and Creme eggs, Hershey Kisses and Hershey Candy Coated eggs.

Hershey wants you to hop down the Hershey’s Bunny Trail! Visit CelebrateWithHersheys.com, to celebrate the fun part of Easter!  They have a lot of fun stuff like basket ideas, crafts, and recipes. And share your favorite Easter memory! It's a season of promise!

Hershey's provided me the Easter basket and the treats inside.  And while I will have to run miles and miles to work off all the calories of these little treats, Hershey's did not influence my opinion of their chocolate or the company. My love of Easter candy  is all mine!