Almost ready...

We're going to be getting up early in the morning to finish up all that we didn't get done tonight.  I was able to get the house cleaned and most of the food prepared today, but Mom was in Bismarck late and brought home some supplies, so now we need to finish up with that (and packing) in the morning.  We were just picking out a couple of hymns to sing tomorrow and were quite amused at how off our voices are tonight.  I guess we're tired!

SO, I shall bid you all good night.  I probably won't be posting until Monday sometime, just in case you wondered. 

We're off for a great time of fun and fellowship!  May God bless us, every one.

Rocks. (and Prairie Days info.)

What are their purpose?    To give farmers an alternative to dumbbells?  Hmmm...  Well, after I got home from babysitting, my mom and I did the supper dishes while the menfolk did the chores.  Then, my mom worked on laundry while the rest of us picked the rocks off of 2 hayfields.  It's always nice to have that job overwith for a while again.

Earlier today, my family went up in the pasture and sorted off 2 young cows who had lost their calves; loaded them up; then one family member hauled them to Linton to the butcher shop.  The guys worked on hay the rest of the day, until they came home around 7:00, that is.

Tomorrow, we will be busy with the usual Friday busyness, Lord willing, plus we'll get some things ready for Prairie Days (Saturday and Sunday).   I talked to Lauretta recently and she said they can't go with us this year as things have come up, but it was fun to realize that I've now known her for 1 whole year (we met Sarena about a month before we met Lauretta).  :)  There will be 2 new families in attendance though for sure (friends of ours), so that will be neat.

If anyone would like to join us at Prairie Days, you can read all about it here:  http://prairiedays.weebly.com/schedule.html

Busy days!

I'm home!  I have been since very late Sunday night actually, but life has been busy and I haven't posted here, obviously. 

Andrew and I had SUCH a great time in MN at the Sip family's Family Fun Days (I'll post pictures soon).  Then Monday, I babysat for both of the families I do a lot of babysitting for.  Tuesday was a full work-in-the-garden day and my mom and I were able to get all of our cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and some tomatoes transplanted from the greenhouse to the garden.  Today I babysat for the 3 neighbor children again.  I took them down to the Kintyre park for the morning and we played all kinds of games (hide and seek; horseshoes; basketball; frisbee; stomp the mushrooms; and catch the cotton tree fuzz).  Later, they wanted to come to my house to bounce on the trampoline, so we drove over here and, when we needed a break from jumping, we helped my mom weed the front flower bed.

The guys have been very busy with cutting hay down and baling it up.  My dad did some trucking for a neighbor too.  My mom's kept busy with her clients and housework. 

Life is good and God is great!  :)

RAIN!

*Note*  I wrote this last night, but due to the storm, we lost our Internet connection and I wasn't able to post it!

Just as I finished babysitting, the rain began to POUR from the sky! I went over to Lauretta's to give her some water and visited for a while until the rain stopped, temporarily. It rained hard again on the drive home. The guys had been moving the bulls up to pasture when it started raining, then the roads got very slippery, so we still have 3 bulls here at the farm. Thankfully, they're quiet ones. :)



My mom and Andrew went to Bismarck today again. Andrew came back sometime this afternoon, then my mom drove my car back when she came later after she was finished seeing clients. YAY, I have my car back!


I started packing this evening. Andrew and I, and maybe Jacob will be going to MN for "Family Fun Days" at the Sip family's farm for the weekend. We'll be camping in tents, so we're praying it won't rain too much while we're there---for other reasons too, of course. It wouldn't be very practical to play outdoor games in the rain!



So, my blog will probably be silent for a few days again.

God be with you 'til we meet again (and after that too).~

Hay!

My brothers cut down hay again today (they started yesterday).  Here they are, working on opposite sides of the same field...

 

 Jacob with the 9030 and MacDon header...

 Andrew with the 1486 and the new (to us) disc bine...

 Hay is such a blessing!

 I babysat for the 3 neighbor youngsters today.  They wanted to go to my house to play on the playground "Equipment" and, as it's just a mile and a half to drive, we headed to my house for several hours.  As it was hot outside, I hooked up a sprinkler and stuck it under the trampoline for some cooling off fun.  :)  That kept them busy for quite some time so I could help my mom in the kitchen a bit.

 Oh, this picture was earlier in the day when Andrew was just leaving the yard...  My dad was busy hauling grain today for a farmer.

 We had spinach leaves for lunch (along with noodles and cheese/hot dogs) and the children all wanted to try them.  They thought it was funny that you could eat those leaves--- "Like leaves from a tree".  :)

It was a nice day.

A gopher on the trampoline?

I was home today, so my mom and I spent some time weeding in the greenhouse and hung out several loads of laundry on the wash-line.   Later, I put on some gloves and cleaned up the bones the dogs had drug up by the house again, then picked up the rooster my dad had accidentally run over the other day and put it in an old seed bag.  Lastly, I threw away the dead gopher that was on the big trampoline.  What we can't figure out is how a gopher got on the trampoline???  The dogs and cats never go on there and I've never seen a gopher in the yard.  Hmmmm....   My dad wondered if maybe a hawk flew overhead and dropped it---right onto the trampoline net?  It was strange and gross.

But, anyway, the rest of the day was nice.  It was actually hot outside!  We did a lot of watering in the greenhouse too.  Also, I moved my dwarf fruit trees and some other plants outside on the deck.  I'm pretty sure we're past the freezing nights now.   :)

Puppies are adorable!!!

I spent the first part of the day with "My" girls, Johanna and Tracy.  We played with balloons and drew pictures and made meatballs....   Then, when Paula got home, I went over to Lauretta's place to give her something and then she told me that she was just going to go see their new Great Pyrenees puppies that her sister found yesterday.  I joined her on the hunt.   We knew that they were under the old house on that place, but it was very dark down there and we could only hear them, so we crawled back out and went for a flashlight.  After we returned, Lauretta found the cute little things quickly and we spent some time holding them.  I didn't have my camera along, but they looked very much like this:

They were SO adorable and chunky!  In 6 weeks, they'll be worth about $600 a piece.  I'm glad I was able to play with them for free.  ;) 

Cupcake and wedding pictures!

My mom said she'd help with the cupcakes by putting the liners in the pans....  ;)

 

 Here are the 2 ways I decorated the cupcakes...  The hearts are made out of chocolate that I melted and moulded.

 205 cupcakes---ready to go!

 When the cupcakes didn't turn out well, or if they just rose funny in the oven, I decorated them differently for dessert for our guys.  They didn't mind a bit eating imperfect cupcakes!

 The bride requested a cow be put on the cake somewhere to surprise her new husband (he's a farmer/rancher).  SO, I put it on the back where the 2 of them could see it best....

 Here is what it looked like with their cake topper on...

 The cake table...

The wedding that we went to this afternoon was SO beautiful!!!   We have been friends of the bride/her family for over 10 years, and knew many others there, so it was a special time.  My brother, Andrew loves photography, so he took over 800 pictures there (I haven't even seen any of them yet).  I thought I should take at least 1 of him, so here it is:

 The groom and the brides' mother...  It was such a gorgeous day for an outdoor wedding!

 The bride's grandparents... 

 We knew both of these young people too...

 The ushers, unrolling the white "Carpet"...

 The Bible boy...

 Adorable flower girls!  (One is the sister of the bride.)

 Finally---the bride, Esther, and her dad...

 The service was very lovely.  As you may see in this picture, there were several Amish people there.  The groom had been Amish, but is not anymore.  I had never seen any Amish in person before, so it was neat to talk to one mother while we were in the going-to-get-the-yummy-tacos food line.  I wish now that I'd taken a picture of all the Amish hats lined up on top of the coat-rack...all identical...

 May they live happily ever after!

"...'til death do us part".

I love weddings!  They are the beginning of new families on this earth---such an exciting moment in history.  :)  I pray that this new family will follow the Lord's ways all of their days and teach their future children to do the same...

My family helped me pile all the cupcake boxes in my little (air conditioned) car around 2:00 and I headed for Napoleon.   After driving there very carefully (especially over the railroad tracks 3 times), and after unloading all of the boxes and the small cake (and yes, I have pictures, but they're not uploaded yet), I filled the cupcake stands with, yes, cupcakes.  I had some spare time then, so I drove to the park and read a while, then went to the wedding.

  It was so nice to see my former coworker friend, Lisa looking so happy and beautiful!  I also visited with Clarissa there for a while and saw a few other people I knew.  We had invited some company over for the evening (plus my mom and I are on a very strict part of our new diet, so I knew there wouldn't be much of anything I could eat at the reception), so I went home after the ceremony.    Our company ended up not coming, so my parents and I went for a nice walk down to the south triangle in the road, then made some supper and watched The Waltons. 

It was a very nice day!

Let the weddings begin!

This will be a fun weekend!  I'm going to a former-coworker's wedding tomorrow (she's the one I made the cupcakes and cake for) and then to a home schooling friend's wedding on Sunday.  :) 

We had another friend come out to our farm today for several gallons of Kangen water.  She feels SO much better on it now that she didn't want to wait 3 or 4 more days to get some more water and made the 60 mile journey to our farm to pick it up.  The boys were also able to fix a problem on her car, so that was nice.

Our menfolk have been very busy in their shop, getting everything moved around so Andrew can put his car-lift up permanently.  It looks REALLY nice in there now!  I'll try to get a picture of it soon.
If anyone wants to see how to make an easy camo-cake for all of your hunting friends, I saw this page today and thought I'd share it here: http://cakecentral.com/b/tutorial/camouflage-buttercream?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_content=camo-buttercream&utm_campaign=tutorial.  I may try it someday...

More circus pictures!

The girl's favorite animals at the petting zoo were the goats, or at least, they stood by them the longest, so I'm guessing they were their favorite.  :) 

 The blue-cotton-candy-eating-machine, er, child...

 The dog act...

 Johanna, lighting up the tent...

 This man went for a swing---very high up, then did some tricks besides!

 I really like this picture of Paula and Johanna!

 Paula said she'd take a picture of Johanna and I with my camera, but Johanna was not too happy with that plan, as she had been having fun with my camera and wasn't quite finished with it obviously...

 This man walked on the tight-rope like it was 3 feet wide.  He later rode a unicycle on it too.

 Here's the tumbling lady...   She would get up to the top of the rope, then rolled and flipped her way down the rope.  It was very amazing.  I wish now that I'd taken a picture of the hula-hoop lady who could hoola-hoop about 50? hoops all at the same time!

 Watching...

The horses!

Today was a busy day in the kitchen for me.   I'm in the process of making 200 cupcakes and a small cake for a wedding on Saturday.  Tomorrow will be a busy day too!  If you think of it, I'd appreciate prayer that all turns out beautifully!  :)

The guys all went up to Steele for BEK's annual supper/meeting.  My mom and I are on a special part of our new way of eating (the "Fuel Pull cycle" of  "Trim Healthy Mama" http://www.amazon.com/Trim-Healthy-Mama-Pearl-Barrett/dp/0988775115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371183233&sr=8-1&keywords=trim+healthy+mama ) and knew there would not be much we could eat there, so stayed home and did the chores so the guys didn't have to rush home.

I have many more pictures to share with you all, but tomorrow will be here soon and I should get to bed, so the photos will wait.

We went to the circus! :)

(I hope you don't mind my taking your picture, Paula!  :)  I haven't imported mine yet...)

We had a very fun afternoon...  Paula was able to get off of work early, and Zach (his name is Tracy too, so it's less confusing to call him Zach) needed things in Bismarck, so we all piled into their new vehicle and went to town.  

 Zach dropped we "Girls" off at the circus tent and went to run errands.  We had the most amazing seats in the tent (the VERY front row!  Great job, Paula!) and enjoyed all of the action in front of us.  We even bought some (expensive!) popcorn and cotton candy for the girls.   Johanna and Tracy Jo did get tired after sitting for about an hour and a half, so we went for a walk until Zach came to pick us up again.

They then took me out to one of their favorite restaurants, "China Star" and the food was delicious!  I tasted 5 or 6 different kinds of chicken and they were all yummy.  :) 

Next stop:  Home.  .....Their home, and then I went on to mine.  

Fun times!~

Fun on the merry-go-round...

I brought Johanna and Tracy Josephine over to our house for most of the morning today.  They LOVED seeing the chicks and finding 1 egg.  Their next favorite thing was riding/pushing the merry-go-round and also pushing the empty swings, just for the sake of pushing them, I guess.   :)  Then too, they loved the toys in the toy box, and watching my fish in the aquarium, and plunking away on the piano....  They're so fun.

I got home in time to help prepare supper tonight, then my mom and I folded laundry while my brothers did the barn chores and my dad worked in the shop some more.  They're trying to get the front area cleaned out so Andrew can install the vehicle hoist he bought last year.  It will require some doing (cement work), but will be so nice for the menfolk when it's set up. 

My dad was happy to get his red convertible sold today, as the money is needed for other things.  He delivered the car to Steele and enjoyed his last ride with the top down, the wind blowing freely all around him.  Yesterday, Andrew had a gentleman come look at his Charger and he's pretty sure it will be sold by the weekend.  SO, he'll be kind of happy about that too.  :)  It's a fun car to have, but he wants to get some other fancy car now I guess and, yes, needs the money. 

Mr. F. and his 3 children stopped in today for slings for their rifles (Andrew had to order them in).  It looked like they were playing ping-pong too when I got home, but I had things to do in the house, so didn't join them.

Jacob has his snowmobile back at home again and it is still not working.  I think he knows what's wrong with it now and hopefully will have it in running order by this Winter!  That's been a frustrating project for him.

I moved the sprinkler in the greenhouse this evening and was amazed at how fast things are growing in there!!!  I think we'll be doing some transplanting to the garden here shortly.

Well, that's a quick update on things around here.   I'm looking forward to tomorrow afternoon, but I'll tell you why later....

Sprinkler fun!

The girls and I went outside after naptime today and, as it was actually very warm out, we took their sprinkler along with us.  It's the kind that's about 12' long and has lots of little flexible hoses poking out of it which can flop around with the pressure of the water or, as Tracy Jo figured out, can be aimed at your babysitter and sister.  :) They were soaking wet (and I wasn't very dry either) after a while of that, so we had to go inside to change and dry off a bit.  Tracy Jo cried, as she LOVES water! 

When I got home, after getting some supper on the table for the guys (my mom was in Bismarck all day and just got back a few minutes ago) I worked some more on my disastrous room, changing my clothes around---making a donate pile and shop-rag pile out of a few of them.  :)  It's looking a little more organized now.

The guys were busy at home, working on things.  My dad and Andrew did go to Hazelton and Linton (reporting acres and picking up their pallet full of sturdy baler twine!) this morning too, but beyond that, I'm not sure what they did because I wasn't here.  Oh, I did hear that something had broken on the bull-water-fountain across the road and my dad fixed it after noticing water where there shouldn't be any...

Bread and blue cupcakes...

I baked bread today and the blue cupcakes turned out well.  :) 
Jacob also climbed up in the attic and got our Summer clothes down for us.  My room looks like a tornado went through it tonight and was successful at making a disaster. 

The guys worked on the 9030 which was having wheel problems, then Dad and Andrew mowed all of the lawn again.  It looks and smells so nice now!

Another rain day...

The bulls sound irritated by the rain. 

 

They are bellering loudly---louder than usual (or maybe they're just closer than usual?).  It seems like, whenever the sun goes down, the bulls start making their bullish noises. 

We spent part of the afternoon in digging out old hymn books and going through a few of them, finding new treasure (songs).  Then, we re-listened to a message by Pastor S. M. Davis.  After that, some of my family members took naps and others played games and got caught up somewhat on blogs and things.  It was a peaceful day--until the bulls piped up again.  :) 

Meanwhile, up in the pasture, the cows are getting nice and fat on all that green grass!  (Disclaimer:  This is not one of our cows...)

 

I want to experiment with making blue cupcakes tomorrow.  Should be fun!

The rhubarb is large...

This morning, before heading for work, I picked some rhubarb for a friend.  I was AMAZED at how long the stalks are already.  I guess it's time to make some pie and sauce! 

I took care of Johanna and Tracy Jo again today.  We spent a good portion of their waking hours out of doors as it was a very pleasant day---not too hot, not too cold.  The warmness was just perfect.

When I got home, I helped clean the house and made supper.  I guess Mom was busy with sessions and things, so we did a quick cleanup job and had a late supper.   My dad took my car to Napoleon today as I needed gas in it again.  Then, he went to Bismarck to get his back readjusted and to run some farm-related errands. 

I haven't been in the greenhouse for 3 days now and am curious how much everything has grown... Tomorrow morning, after chores, I plan to take a self-guided garden/greenhouse tour.  Want to join me?  ;)

Home again, home again.

It was fun to be gone, and it's also great to be home again.  Andrew and I enjoyed spending Wednesday afternoon helping the K. family prepare for Rinnah's graduation.  We were able to accomplish so much that there was a little time to get in a few games of speed Scrabble.  :)  The graduation ceremony was so nice and the food was so yummy as well.  It got to be quite late by the time everyone finished visiting and we did all of the cleanup (which included some fun balloon popping!).  We said goodbye to Miss Graduate around midnight (their time) when she hopped in the vehicle with her older sister and headed for Canada for the Summer.   Once we were back at the K's home, we stayed up a while longer visiting and talking over the day...   Andrew and I stayed overnight at the K's house, woke up early, then enjoyed a delicious breakfast/devotional time with Mr. & Mrs. K, Reanna and Josiah.  Andrew took hundreds of pictures for the K's, so hopefully I can get some of those posted soon. 

We headed for home after breakfast (about a 3 hour drive) and I hopped in my little car right away and drove to Zach and Paula's house to watch the girls for a few hours.  When Paula got home, I drove to Lauretta's place to visit, as it had been a while since we had a good talk. We made up for it and, 5 hours later, I drove home. 

My mom had made it home from Bismarck not too long before that, so I was able to help her put the groceries away and then we all had family prayer time. 

And now, it's time for SLEEP!  Hooray!  ;)

Appleseed pictures from May 31st-June 1st, 2013~

 

It was SUCH a good day today...  We planted most of the garden (all that we can do until the plants in the greenhouse are large enough to be transplanted in the large garden).  My dad hauled grain.  My mom mowed lawn.  Andrew "drug" the driveway.  Jacob helped me plant potatoes.  I watered the greenhouse....  It was a good day.

 

I uploaded the best pictures from our Appleseed shoot, but don't have time to caption them.  Here they are just the same...

 

My mom, Andrew and I will be heading to Dickinson in the morning to help prepare for, then attend a graduation. (The graduate is pictured 8 photos below).  ;)   We'll be spending the night, so my blog will be silent again for a while.

 

God be with you 'til we meet again!