Spring in Minnesota

Boo! Yeah I am still alive and kicking, doing a little more kicking then typing though which is why the blog has suffered in substance. Not sure how that made sense but you can figure it out. How have you been? If you answered that feel free to smack yourself in the head, I can't hear your response. Now that I have your attention, however, lets get typing...

Funny how life changes eh?! One day you think you got the bull by the horns, the next you are getting taken out by a ram sheep who knocks his fun bag on your head as he runs over you. Then you get up, brush yourself off, and have a lamb roast for supper. That was Erik being philosophical, he is done now.

Wondering what I am doing with my life? No? Too bad because I am going to tell you anyways! Every morning I wake up, debate whether or not I have enough energy to take a shower, eat a bowl of cereal, do 5 sit-ups, and then spend the rest of the day sitting in a bean bag chair eating puffy cheetos. That last bit goes out to the Ward family, which one member I am out blogging (Kami Ward, 26 years old from Amboy, MN. now living at a nursing home in Mississippi).

Really though, I am still working at MPI and still loving to wake up every morning and see what new adventure I will embark on. Its pretty crazy, we went from 3 feet of snow to 55 degrees in the span of a few weeks. This leads the crew in the direction of the fields within the next week or two. The tractors are ready, the pigs are still making bi-product (poop), and this guy is ready get the diesels rolling. Is it hard to tell that farming is in the family gene pool? Sure this end of the job may stink a bit from time to time, especially when a hose breaks while you are up close seeing if it is a leak while you are talking and you end up covered head to toe to tonsils in the stinky stuff all by 7 am, but I enjoy the hard work long hours aspect of it. (That story was totally fictional and did not happen to me while tanking at the end of the fall season one crisp morning) Now that I got the bull, sorry, pig crap out of the way let me dig up something else for you...

Well this last summer I spent almost every weekend on the lake as you already know, and now that the ice is melting I cannot wait to get back out there. I got a new helmet so flipping on the wake board is definitely a possibility this summer.

This winter I made my first pilgrimage to Colorado to do some skiing. Let me tell you, that is skiing. When you listen to more then one song on your iPod on the way down , you know you are on a hill. The rest of Colorado, eh, bad impression I guess so we will have to try again on my own. The massive amounts of snow I mentioned earlier (you better remember that because that will be on the quiz later) led me to do as much snowmobiling as I used to when I was a young whipper snapper. I spend most every weekend out 'monkey-dinking around' as my grandfather used to so eloquently put it back in the day, he was the man by the way, which lead my sled to call for a sightly early retirement. Hopefully by writing this someone in my life will pass me this summer, spark up a conversation about my sled and remind me that I need to fix it before next winter.

Well this is getting terribly long and boring for 11 o'clock on a friday night so we will just end it all right here. No conclusions, no deep thoughts, so photos, no quotes, just quit it cold turkey.

So in conclusion, life changes when you least expect it. You only live life once and its a short one so you might as well surround yourself by those that make you smile, do what makes you happy, and don't forget to give the occasional hello, I am sorry for last night but it was awesome speech to the man upstairs.

I am probably going to be shot for that picture, Florida spring breaks were fun though eh?! I would also like to end this blog with a quote from a snowmobile movie:

"I don't plan to life forever, and if I do I will be a rickety old man. But in the meantime, between here and there, I am going to do everything possible, to have as much fun as possible."

Next time I do something fun I will try harder to let ya'll know, I would never quit you cold turkey.

Keep on keeping on, its what the cool kids do!

Catch ya later,

Dezza

Hello

What can I say, I get distracted. I debated ending my blogging career after departing from the great country of Australia, you know go out on top, but I guess I'll be that guy that keeps going way past his prime. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am home from Australia and have been for quite some time now. It has been many moons and even more facial hair looks, or failed attempts at such looks, since I have left and come November 11th Sarah will be here already! At least act excited for me, its kind of a big deal.

So, on to the life updates...

I left working on a farm in Australia to (insert drum roll) work on a farm!!!! Yay me! It is a very interesting story how this came about, and here it goes;

After two weeks of no job and losing my mind of boredom I joking asked my BFF Kami if her dad was hiring, week later I have a job. I told you it was interesting. I work for Minnesota Pork Inc., I don't have a title but I have a box in the office with my name on it, I had papers in it once so what can I say, I am kind of a big deal. (Remember my love of sarcasm) It is a great place to work though and so far I enjoy waking up everyday and going to work which is everything to me.

Everyday is a new thing for me at MPI, I recently just got my class A or truck license so I am able to do just about anything and everything that a farm can throw at me. It also lets me see some pretty cool stuff, for example Hastings Nebraska, if you ever get a chance go there. Actually don't, I'll just tell you about it and save you the drive.

The man, the myth, the legend that is Cesar Larson, owner of MPI (literally a myth and a legend, he travels and works a lot so I have seen him a total of 5 times) also owns a farm in Hastings. It consists of appx. 6 miles of old ammunition bunkers from one of the great wars a believe, Matt was the history major, 4 miles of which have been converted into hog bars and the other 2 is a game farm. Next time I go I will get some pictures to put on here but it was insane, if you stand in the middle all you see either direction is bunkers!

The reason I was down there was to do some excavating, I shouldn't have to tell you how excited that made me. Only bad news, although really not that bad for me, was that we would be fixing sewer lines coming out of the hog bars. In summary, big hole full of poop, empty poop, fix pipes, fill in with dirt, level off with bulldozer and move to the next one. I can safely say I have never been more excited to see poop flow out of a pipe as I was down there because it meant we had our grade in the pipe right so it won't back up again. Kind of like going twosies at your girlfriends and hoping it won't clog for some strange reason, except the other end of the pipe.

Now that it is fall and the crops are coming out we start running 24/6 emptying out the piggy "bi-product" from the barns and putting it in the fields, again only explained with pictures so I'll get on that. Lets move on from poop, makes my job sound fantastic.

What else do I have for ya...

Gopher football. All I can say is AMAZING. Got tickets, have been to every home game so far, lost my voice each time. Go gophers!! Rah!!

I am currently living with my sister in Mankato living the dream. I am very upset because they no longer make Count Chocula cereal, good things the Cap't will be bringing out his christmas music soon. I can't wait for christmas music. I want to ride a bull and/or buck in the rodeo. I ran a 5k for fun with absolutely no training. And I bought a new car.

As I scroll back up I can see that by this point you are either thoroughly bored or thoroughly tired, either way I will end it here.

Hope you are all doing well and go gophers!

An Australian Conversation

D:G'day Swamp how ya going?

S:Good Dezza, when we going to get some rain?

D:Yeah they reckon 20 mils in a fortnight.

S:Ah yeah.  That would be nice huh?

D:Yeah I reckon, I'll take 5 mils!

S:How about Geelong in the footy?!

D:Played bloody well there, who you barrack for?

S:Collingwood mate, struggling of late.  Is that a new ute?

D:Yeah its a ripper eh?!

S: Yeah I got to get me a new one soon.  Where you off too?

D: Heading to the pub for some smoke-o, maybe a can or two!

S: Ah fair dinkum!  Got it figured out mate!

D: Bloody-oath!   What are yaz up to?

S: yeah just finishing feeding up, couple more mobs of sheep left.

D: Ah righty-o, is your little lady in one?

S: Funny guy aren't ya dez?

D: Ah I'm just stirring mate.

S: Jobs right, no worries.

D: I better keep moving mate, we'll catch ya after!

S: Righty-o, catch ya after mate!

How is everyone doing?  Good? Good.  Glad.  Awesome.  Sweet.  And moving on.  Hopefully you liked my little conversation, I am sure I could have thrown more slang and stuff in there but it pretty late and I am pretty tired right now.  I just got back from working on the farm for the last couple of months and it was really fun.  I learned a lot and didn't break too much stuff so it all worked out.  The last few weeks they have been sowing like I stated and Greg (one of the main men and Sarah's uncle) and I would wake up at 6 am and then get back home for tea (supper) at about 1130 pm 7 days a week.  Good stuff I tell you.  I am really glad that I came out here and got to work on the farm, another thing on my life list to check off in the possible jobs category.

Its getting cold here, I am currently cozied up by the fire typing my life out to any one who has enough spare time to read this.  I am sorry you have to resort to this, really.  Speaking of spare time, has anyone seen my brother lately?  Sarah and I were facebook stalking him and his new women, he looks like a mountain man that just stumbled down the hill.  Facebook him, you'll see what I mean.

Is it summer there yet?  I want to get out on the lake and do some skiing and what not.  I also love the new country jams that come out for the summer, they don't really do country here.  They do do sweet techno beats, yay.  There is a town called Yea (Yay) near by too, the built a tent city after the fires there for all the people that lost there houses to go.  It was really tragic stuff, drove through there last weekend and it would have been unimaginable to see how big and fast those fires would have been.  We are heading up that way this weekend to a hotel/spa combo.  Going to get my relaxation on before I head back to the U S of A.  There is an old mining village that we are going to stop by as well, should be interesting.  Also just watched the movie Australia, if you like pearl harbor you will love this moving.  If you didn't watch it anyways.  Its a lot easier for you to watch that then me try to describe what this place is like.

Well I hope this blog has been random enough for you all, I will leave it at that for now.  I'll hit you up after I get back from the spa for the weekend where I will have time to create new topics of discussion other then my total awesomeness.  And while we are on the topic of awesomeness, my best mate mike 't-bone' bleckwehl went ahead and got engaged.  So if you are reading this mike, congrats buddy!  Can't wait to congratulate you in person!  Right-o, back to me leaving...

Miss you all and talk to you soon!

We'll catch ya after!

Ezza

Life on the Farm is Kind of Laid Back...

Helloooooo America!! How is everyone? Good? Good! Now lets move on. Let me tell you a little story about the life of Erik as a farmer, I know you are all really excited to hear about this...

It all is happening in a far away place, well from you guys at least, where gum trees are creating a canopy across back country roads. The land is dry and the air is hot, the sun gives off a firery glow as it sets in the northwest. I am sorry I cannot keep writting like that I am laughing too hard, I am sure my creative writting teacher would be so proud though. Right now on the farm it is time to sow the crops, and in order to do that you have to burn off the stubble from last years crops. This involves a few laps around the paddock (field) in a tractor with a disc first, which I have mastered. Then just light a match and let her burn!! Well sort of, a couple of guys fly around on four wheelers with little torches and start fires, then let it burn. Then there are a couple other guys who drive around in a water truck looking for trouble.

Then the sowing: enter 8 wheeled tractor, pulling two trailers, one being an 80' wide air seeder making a total length of well over 100'. It has all this computer trickery in it so that once you get out in the paddock, it drives itself! It uses sattelite GPS to go in a stright line and all you have to do is turn around once you get the the end.

Then the harrowing: enter Erik in a 6 month old tractor with a 40' wide harrow bar on the back, essentially a drag. I just cruise over all that has been sown and smooth it out as well as help cover up the seed. Sounds simple, but the dust when you turn at each end is insane! Almost got a tree the other day.

Other fun activites I have been doing involve sheering, crotching, detailing and de-nutting sheep and lambs. Sheering is a given, crotching you shave the sheepers butts so the poop doesn't stick to it, I was the guy that picked up the wool and picked out the pieces of poop so they could sell the good stuff. The poor little lambs loose thiers tails, again for the poop reason, and if they have a package, a small rubber band will take care of those.

Fencing is all done for now as well, we had to have done well over 5 miles of taking down and/or putting up fences during the hottest part of the year, talking about tanning I am really bronzing.

Sarah came up this last weekend for easter. I got her out in the tractor for a bit and then we spent a day cutting and splitting wood for the winter. The the end of the day we were both just covered in durt and dust, shes cute. But now I am ready to catch up on cutting wood at home.

I hope everyone had a good easter, from what I gather it sounds like it has been nice up there. The uncle and aunt that I am staying with on the farm as well as one of Sarah's cousins are coming over in July for a wedding and are planning on stopping by so hopefully you all can meet them.

The sun goes down earlier everyday so now I can say what I need to say at a sooner day. It has been a while since the last time I wrote but miss you all even more! See you soon!!

Erik (Ezza down here I guess)

Ordinary - Not good, like when I crashed the dirtbike I felt pretty ordinary. (By the way I forgot to tell you I crashed Sam's dirtbike and partially tore my MCL, but I am already healed up and back to working so no worries!!)

Rooted - Screwed up, that fence Erik hit is rooted!

Cowboy Up!

Howdy ya'll!

Alright, enough of that.  So its hot here, not going to lie to you about that one.  More fires started up yesterday again but none within 10 miles of where we are at so don't worry one bit.  We are pretty well protected by the concrete wonders of the suburbs.  The fires were the worst disaster that Victoria/Australia has ever seen.  Over 200 people died and a whole bunch of towns went the way of Hinkley, MN. and are totally destroyed.  (If you have no idea what I am talking about, read a book.)

I suppose you are now finding yourself wondering why I titled this blog-tastic page the way that I did, well wait no longer!!  I am heading up to the farm to help out.  Sarah's uncle is really sick right now, they are not sure if he has shingles in his head or if it is something else but he can't really do much of anything, so I am going to pretend like I know what I am doing and head up there.  If you have known me for any substantial amount of time, you know what I have always wanted to be a farmer, thus my extensive collection of toy tractors/trucks/barns/animals/etc.

I am heading up there today to get started, but the trip up should be some good pictures of where the fires went through for all of you, it looks like a tornado went through it just burnt up everything that wasn't metal.  I have never seen anything like that first hand so I am sure it will be a shock.

Well the ride is here so it is time to throw on the boots and wrangle up some sheep!  Talk to you all soon, keep on keeping on!

Bugga - Crap, you would be surprised how much you hear this down here.  If a hose breaks while Sarah's mom is gardening you get an "Ahhhh Bugga!!"

The Ring of Fire

G'Day!  Yeah I finally broke down and used the old g'day, it won't happen again.  If you have seen the news you may have heard that Victoria is pretty much on fire, I believe it was over 40 of them burning at one time.  So far 35 people have died and over 600 homes are gone, including an entire town.  Yesterday when they started it was 117 degreed outside with really strong winds, hot winds actually that burned your eyes which I have never seen before.  They say that most of them have been deliberately lit which is just really sad news.

On to better things...

It finally rained last night which brought a 30 degree temperature change, it was hot, thats all I can really say.  I have a friend at home who always makes sure that I know how much snowmobiling he is getting in and all of the things that he has done to his sled, I know you just misses me and wants me to be jealous that I am not there showing him how to ride so I forgive him   But it does make me miss the snow, being here for the winter made me realize that I need the season change.  It makes it easier to see where the year is going and brings a certain freshness to each month.  If you were wondering, I could still out ride you Dom.

On a bit of a sad note quick, one of my very good friends lost his brother this month who was also a friend of mine.  So if you find yourself talking to the big guy up stairs, say a little prayer for Travis and the friends and family that will miss him so much.  Northfield really needs to figure something out.

It has been bloody hot (they do say bloody, almost as a swear word I guess)  so there really has been no desire to do anything.  We have gone to a few markets since my last post which are always nice and you never know exactly what you will find.  Good way to get gifts for some lucky blog followers!!  See it does pay off boring yourself by reading this, thanks!

Sarah and I decided to throw a superbowl party for ourselves.  Of course half of the game was spent by me trying to describe what was going on to her and her family, but the punter for the Cardinals played footy down here so they were intrigued.  Let me just tell you, football makes no sense.  I love it and loved playing it but it has a lot of little rules that we all just know about and are used to the staring in and stopping, but it sucks to explain.  It was on at 10am here so we DVRed it and watched it at night with a plate of nachos, meatballs, and some beef dip, just like home.  To spice it up a little we picked teams, obviously she wanted the cardinals, and I came out victorious with the Steelers.

Well I suppose you have suffered enough, still waiting on the call to head up to the mines so when that does actually happen I'll make sure to let you know.  Still waiting on my Monster energies to show up, but I suppose they would explode in the plane, have to check into that.  Hope everyone is enjoying the snow and talk to you again soon!

Australian terms:  Hey mate where is the bloke with the ute so we can get a chook for the barbie and some stubbies from the bottle shop?

Hey friend where is the guy with the truck so we can get a chicken for the grill and some beers from the liquor store?

Australia Day

Hello and happy Australia day mates!  Just another day off for the hard working Australians today, except for me as I was busy digging trenches and concreting stuff out in the yard at the Chamber residence.  It has been wicked hot here lately, early last week had 3 days above the 100 degree marker and this week has been solid 90's solidly solid.  Not sure what was with the solids there but just go with it.  On Tuesday, or Wednesday I really can't remember, of last week we went to watch the Australian open.  There are over 20 courts that have games going on pretty much all day long so you get an outdoor ticket and can walk around and watch all the different matches that are going on.  The good part about going early in the open is that you can see the big start out on the outside courts where later in the tournament they are all inside the arena's which you need to get different more expensive tickets for.  We say some girl play, can't pretend to spell her name but she was 10th in the world followed by Marat Safin who has won the open before and is ranked 26th.  Just going to tell you that what you see on TV is nothing like watching it live, they hit the ball so hard on every shot it is just insane.  The serves were over 200 km/h.  It was a fun day and came with a nice little sun burn.  Jelena Dokic is a big story for Australians here in the open and was finding myself jumping up and down every time she wins, its on TV all day so it is pretty easy to get into.

What else do I have for you...  Talked to the boss man Monday and a week or two and I will be shipped off to Port Headland to carry around a shovel and follow around machinery all day long.  May not have seemed like it but I am really excited for it, I should hopefully learn a lot which can hopefully help me out when I get back home (yes I will be back!)

Here is a story for you... I went out to move Sarah's mums (not mom, mum, don't ask me its what they do here) car.  So I open the door which is hard to do being that I always end up going to the wrong door, and what do I find?  A spider, not a Minnesota-esk type spider, this bad boy look like a tarantula!  It had a solid 6 inch leg span and was all furry, I hate spiders.

Not much else has really been happening here since my last installment of the worlds greatest blog.  Just riding a lot of mountain bike, trying to get used to working in the heat, and hanging out with Sarah.  That reminds me, we did go to a market last Sunday.  It takes place right along the river in downtown Melbourne.  There are restaurants all along the river as well its really cool actually.  There was some pretty good stuff there but nothing really worth getting that excited about.  One guy was selling hand painted pictures of Australian pubs (like in crocodile dundee, if you haven't watched it I would just for the laughs) but left the name blank so that you could have it say what every you want it too.  We got one and called it the Stoney Bears Pub.  Sarah's family calls her bears due to her love of carebears growing up.  The band list includes The Wet Bandits with Eric Clapton.  Hey we can dream can't we?

Well I suppose I best be off.  Just waiting for the plane ticket to show up so I can head out!  Talk to you all soon before that day comes.  Thanks for reading and hope it wasn't boring.

Erik

Ta = Thank you

Fairdinkum = use in place of 'oh really?' and 'fair enough' and I WILL be bringing this one back with me!