A brown egg at last!!!!!!

Tonight, while I was milking Sally, my dad brought me a "present"-----the first egg from our chickens we raised this year.  :)    Oh happy day!   It looks so tiny tucked in the egg carton beside all the large white eggs.  It's a start though!

Outside of that excitement, it was another quiet day.  I reorganized the pantry somewhat and my dad brought in a boxful of very dirty jars that have been sitting in the Quonset ever since someone gave them to us a few years back.  We finally are in need of them now, so I had the incentive to wash the dreadful things.  After scrubbing and scrubbing them in hot soapy water, I put them in the dishwasher to just be sure that they're clean!

My dad worked on his semi all afternoon.  This morning he checked cows, then went to town to put money in the bank; fill all the gas jugs; and to get his ear washed out as it was plugged again and the nurse in Bismarck did not get it open last week when she tried.  He says it's so nice to hear again...  Oh, and he changed the oil in my car!  :) 

I washed some laundry and hung it out to dry; ground up the tomato soup vegetables and added the rest of the ingredients, then cooked and canned it; then I was in need of a project, so I washed all of the cupboards and entryway doors/paneling and oiled the wood. 

We talked to my mom on the phone just a little bit ago and she said they were just returning from seeing the closing ceremony at Mount Rushmore.  I'm so glad they got to go and see that!   I know I was there once when I was a little girl, but it would be nice to go see it again, someday.  At least now I can see pictures of some of my family there.  :)

Another quiet day...

It was a very easy-paced day today.  My dad worked out in the shop and I worked in the kitchen.  The telephone did not ring even once today!  As I said, it was quiet....

This afternoon the weather was almost warm and I went out for a bit to wash some windows.  While in the kitchen, I made more Greek yogurt, ice cream, and tomato soup, plus chicken and sage-dressing for supper.  I picked new flowers for the windowsill; ordered a wedding present on-line for some friends; and wrote a letter to mail.  Later still, I played piano for a while...

This evening, my dad and I watched a Jane Austin movie (Persuasion) and found it exceedingly dull----compared to Pride and Prejudice, that is.  Still, the costumes were lovely and the scenery exceptional. 

We called and talked to Jacob and my mom for a little while.  They're having quite a lot of fun down there and I hope they'll remember to come home on Wednesday.  ;) 

Time with grandparents...

My grandma had called my dad a couple days ago and asked for his help with fixing a wire that had broke on Grandpa's wheelchair lift for their Tahoe.  They use it every other day to take Grandpa to and from dialysis.  So, we decided to go help with that today. 

First, we did the morning chores (I milk the cow and goats and my dad does everything else) and my dad drove up to the pasture and checked the cows, then after getting cleaned up, we headed for Bismarck.  I had never seen where Grandpa goes to have his dialysis done, so that was a new experience.  He still had almost 2 hours to sit (dialysis takes about 4 hours each time), so we took Grandma to Perkins for lunch.  We all 3 had pancakes.  :) 

When we got back to the clinic, my dad fixed the 2 wires that were broke (or near breaking) and was done in about 10 minutes!   It's nice to be around people who know what they're doing. 

After watching Grandpa get unhooked from the machine, and helping them to their vehicle, we visited for a while, then my dad and I went and took a tour through the Centennial Homes lot. :)  The salesman, Mike, showing us around grew up by Braddock, so it was neat to have someone ask: 

"Where are you from?",

and to have him know exactly where we meant when we replied,

"Kintyre". 

Oh, I forgot to say that I got to see my OLD friend, Lindsey today (we were friends/neighbors when we were 3 years old but haven't seen each other since my high-school graduation)!   She works in Grandpa's dialysis center and was on duty today!!!   She's even engaged to be married next August.  :)

It was a good day. 

"Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of family and OLD friends!"

A quiet house tonight...

It was a very busy morning here, what with packing clothes/equipment/appleseed-things/food for the threesome; plus, a couple from Bismarck came for water this morning; I reviewed/edited my mom's presentation-slides; and then Andrew sold his smaller truck to a couple who came, so yes, it was a busy start to the day.

My dad went grain-cleaning most of the day and made it home just in time to help me with the barn chores at 7:00pm. 

I spent the day cleaning the whole house and then cooking/baking and making/canning tomato soup.  It was a good day!   Oh, and the others made it safely to Rapid City and are getting settled in at their hotel. 

This house is really, really quiet.

Getting ready...

Tomorrow morning will be busy as we'll be getting things ready for my mom and both my brothers to be gone for parts of 6 days!  They're heading down to Rapid City, SD.  Andrew will be helping with an Appleseed shoot down there 2 of the days.  My mom will be one of the presenters at "The Great Radionics Expo" and Jacob will be along to help run their booth and to take in the workshops.  It sounds pretty big.   Andrew will be the "Technical man" when he isn't gone at the Appleseed.  Hopefully they'll have a little time to see some neat things while they're down there....

Meanwhile, my dad and I will be keeping things running smoothly at home.  That's the plan anyway, the smoothly part.

Today I babysat and it was a sad day as Johanna is feeling very sick.  :(  We spent a lot of time in the rocking chair....  Poor girl!  I'm praying for that whole family to be able to sleep tonight.

Pictures from Hristiyan's visit here....

The night before he left, my brothers took Hristiyan down to the range to get some target practice in.  :)  I went down to get pictures once I had the enchiladas in the oven...

 

 It was cold outside, so I observed from the car for a while...

 ...as did somebody else!

 He looks pretty happy, and he should be, as he shot very well!

 Trying out the old rifle...

 Jacob, doing the same...

 :)

 This was when I had the boys help me in the chicken barn...

 The nests we put up...  Now maybe they'll start laying some eggs?????

We miss you, Hristiyan!  It is quieter around here too.  I'm not saying that that's a good or a bad thing, just stating a fact.   ;)

Making cookies and dancing in circles...

...Those were Johanna's dreams for the day----and her dreams came true.  

We played outside for a while too, hopping over the cracks in the sidewalk and picking fluffy dandelions, making a wish and blowing the seeds far and wide.  Little girls are so much fun!   They're even getting to the point where they'll let me play with their hair, quickly.

When Paula got home from work, we had a nice talk while the girls dug holes in some nearby dirt.  It was nice to get caught up a little bit...

I don't even know what happened at home today, but I'm sure they were all busy.  :)

Last day...

We learned this evening that Hristiyan's grandparents will be ready to pick him up early tomorrow morning, so I guess this was his last day with us for this year.  It was lots of fun having him here once again---he even helped make the work fun!  

Today, I had Jacob and Hristiyan helping me with putting some fencing up in the barn so we could let the chickens out of their smaller pen into the bigger part of the barn and yet have them contained.  We also moved a different nesting box in and mounted it, which was a challenge, as it started to fall apart when we finally got it up on the wall!  They also helped me dig our little potato harvest and hauled some zucchini into the house.  Hristiyan wasn't too fond of digging in the dirt (with the spiders and worms crawling everywhere), but he thinks chicken butchering would be fun!  Go figure....   :)

Later, when Andrew was back from hauling hay home, the 3 young guys went down to the range to shoot some targets.  I went down to snap some pictures of them after I finished making the tortillas and then getting the chicken enchiladas in the oven for supper.

Later still, (after supper and chores) we young people had fun getting ready for a photo-shoot featuring Hristiyan, and then doing it.  There will be pictures coming here in the near future....

My mom had a full day in Bismarck and my dad ran up to Bismarck later for some parts he needed for the semi right away. 

We enjoyed having our cousin here and will look forward to next years visit.  ;)

  

A fun evening!

This morning and early afternoon, we did get some work done, but then we had a fun time with friends over!  :) 

 

The next 2 pictures were taken at the park yesterday...

 

 We played lots of volleyball until supper time today, then after a quick bite to eat, we headed for the shop for some ping-pong and visiting time...

 Our cousin and a friend of our friends'...

 For some reason, my camera is turning out a lot of fuzzy pictures here lately.  I wonder if I have something set wrong?  Hmmmmm.....

Oh, Hrisityan, if you're reading this right after I post it, it's time to get to sleep!  ;)   (...and cousin Kristi, thank you for the comment!  I plan to write back, one of these days...)

"Anti-I-Over"; "The Penny"; and "Evolution Vs. God"....

My brothers and I took Hristiyan down to the Kintyre park this afternoon as that building is just the right size to play "Anti-I-Over" over.  :)  I was trying to figure out what the name means by doing a search on-line, but didn't come up with anything, other than that it's a game that's been played as far back as the late 1800s and that it has several different name variations.  Here is a link to a page with several good old-time game instructions----not necessarily just for children:  http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/fa73l.htm

We 4 also played Dutch Blitz and this evening we all watched "The Penny" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Penny-Tom-Lodewyck/dp/B004UR1RBU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379820113&sr=8-2&keywords=the+penny) as Hristiyan likes action/police stories....

After our main church-time was over, we also watched/rewatched "Evolution Vs. God" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0u3-2CGOMQ .

Lots of good things today!  :)

He made it. :)

Andrew went up to Steele and met up with my mom's uncle and aunt and Hristiyan and brought our cousin home with him.  It hasn't been quiet in the house since!  ;)  He says he's tired from the 12 hour drive here, but he knows how to hide his tiredness very well...

It was a good day of everyone working together.  The menfolk worked on their projects quite a while in the shop and then helped my mom with mowing the lawn which has actually turned back to a beautiful, healthy green color!!!  I did a lot of cooking and baking and house-cleaning.  My mom had sessions to do for 3 clients, so that took up most of her afternoon.  Jacob helped me finish up the lasagna-garden project we have going in the front flower bed.  He hooked up his snowmobile trailer to the 4-wheeler and we loaded the hay on there so we didn't have to carry it so far, so that was very helpful!

I'm so grateful that it's now the weekend!  Let the fun begin.  :)

A picnic...

Johanna, Tracy Jo and I hauled our dishes and food outside for a picnic as it was almost warm at noon today and we wanted to enjoy the novelty of picnics in North Dakota as long as we can.  :)  Well, that's why I agreed to it, I'm not sure why they wanted to do it?

Andrew and my mom were in Bismarck today again---running errands and working.  I'm not even sure what my dad and Jacob were up to, but I'm sure they were busy. 

Here's something I saw on Facebook tonight that I wanted to share with you all..... A bit of food for thought: 

Counting down the hours...

My brothers' and my second-cousin-through-adoption, Hristiyan (from WI) is coming to stay with us for several days soon!  He's been literally counting down the hours.  :)  One of us will pick him up on Friday, whenever his grandparents make it to Steele.  They are then going on to visit other relatives and will pick Hristiyan up on their way back home.  We were hoping to have an Appleseed event in Jamestown this weekend, but now that has been cancelled due to not being able to get a shoot boss.  I'm sure we can have fun target-shooting with Hristiyan regardless...

The menfolk worked outside most of the day.  My mom and Jacob did some schoolwork too for a while.  I spent the day in the kitchen cooking up all kinds of things.  :)    I made a gallons worth of milk into Greek yogurt; we picked a bunch of tomatoes and I made them into a big pot of tomato soup to can; I emptied and refilled the dehydrator trays with apple-fruit-leather; then cut up a box of apples and made that into apple butter which is in the slow-cooker overnight.  My mom and I also made a huge pot of beef stock and turned the beef into stew with dumplings for supper.  I made my mom and I 2 different chocolaty desserts we can have and stay on plan.  Then, I made the guys a recipe I saw in the Penzey's Spices catalog for fruit cookies, using some of the candied fruit I had leftover from making Chris and Sarena's fruitcake.  The guys said the cookies were ok (with frosting on) and that it would be alright if I make them again in a couple of months.  ;)

Andrew washed the supper dishes because my mom milked his cow.  He said he got experienced at washing dishes at camp.   :) 

Life is good.

Johanna was planning her birthday party today...

She will have a purple cake and lots of presents and balloons.  Imagine that!  Actually, she was sure her birthday party was today, and it took some convincing and showing her days on the calendar until she believed otherwise.  Once she realized her birthday wasn't yet, then it was time to play princesses and castles...  Tracy Jo loved drawing with chalk on the driveway and was trying to name off different shapes I was drawing.   Both girls LOVED the tomatoes that we picked and ate a snack of just tomatoes.  I wish I were as brave as they as I still do not enjoy just eating tomatoes raw.

Here at home, the guys got the backhoe attachment working and went out to the pasture to have some fun.  They dug up some rocks the size of our dining room table (which is good sized), but then had some trouble with the mount(?) starting to bend, so now they have to figure out a way to reinforce it.

My mom had a client here, and made a huge pot of beef broth to can tomorrow.

Tomorrow sounds like a busy day already.  I'll be home and there's lots to do in the garden.  :) 

Labor Day family camp PICTURES! :)

I finally had some time to upload a ton of pictures to share with you all. 

 

Andrew, Lauretta and I went over to the Crystal Springs campground Friday morning to help with the prep. work for camp.  Andrew helped several people with re-shingling one of the buildings there and part of the chapel too.

 

Lauretta and I helped some other young ladies with weeding flower beds (deadheading marigolds too) and paths and later I helped 5 other young ladies with cleaning the 12 showers/sinks/toilets in the girl's dorm bathrooms.  We had fun!  Here Hannah K. (Glory and Grace blog on my sidebar) and I were relaxing while waiting for the 15 minutes to be up for the chemical we sprayed in the showers...  :)  We look like we don't like each other with how far apart we're sitting, but we really do!  A certain somebody had just been sitting between us when she got up to get this silly picture and we were too tired to move.  Ha ha ha...

That afternoon, several people had fun on the lake.  I went out in a paddle-boat with Lauretta and a little girl we picked up along the way.  It was harder to steer that thing than I'd thought it would be! 

Later that evening was game night (until 11:00pm when the gym opened up for volleyball).  I don't think there was one night that we got to bed before 1:00am.  Then, in the mornings, Lauretta and I had Miranda over for a fun time of doing hair/makeup.  :)  The room we had was just perfect for us as it had 2 separate rooms.  That way, Andrew had his own room and Lauretta and I shared a room that first night and we just added people when more of my family came. 

Mr. Gregg Harris ( http://www.nobleinstitute.org/#/welcome) was the main-speaker at camp this time.  His messages were so encouraging and they really made you think about where your life is headed.  My mom, Lauretta and I had a good talk with Mr. Harris on Sunday about some issues that were on our hearts.  He seems to be a very wise man.  Sadly, I don't have a picture of him speaking, as I left my camera in our room during the meetings.

Saturday morning, my parents and Jacob arrived---just in time for brunch! 

That afternoon, there was some time for soft-ball (Dad and Andrew played) and volleyball and more water fun too.  Lauretta and I had a ride behind Kris S. on his Jet-ski.  We were on a 2-person tube and we got quite the ride!  I was pretty sure we were going to be flying out of that thing a couple of times, but we never did.  We did a lot of jumping over the waves from the Jet-ski though!  :)  My dad and Lauretta and I also went in a canoe around the island that's in the lake.   Next, several of us went down the water-slide a few times.  That was a lot of fun!!

Relaxing, visiting with friends, and watching soft-ball from the shade of the big tree...

Friends...  Maria U, Hannah K, and Anna U.

Volleyball is a forever favorite game at camp!  Saturday night, there was some time for rollerskating in the gym too, but my pictures of that turned out all blurry as it was a lot darker in the room at that time and people were moving so quickly.  :)

 

In the dining area...

This was during the game night.  During meals, there was another whole row of tables in that big open space.  Everyone took turns helping with clean-up.  The moms mostly got a break from clean-up though, so that was nice for them to have a break...

Some people were brave and went water skiing...

Sunday afternoon was loads of fun!  There were about 20 teams and each team had a little under 2 hours to build and decorate a cardboard boat that would need to hold 2 people.  Each team was supplied with one utility knife and 2 rolls of packing tape. 

A nice resting place...

We were paired up with another smaller-sized family.  Here the moms in our team are discussing ideas for a Bible verse to put on the boat...

Selecting cardboard...

Trying to figure out what to do!  Mainly, the guys worked on building the boat...

...and the girls worked on decorating it.

Sadly, my dad was not with us this day (he did chores/hauled water to the cows Sunday/Monday so  the rest of us could stay the rest of the time!). 

We just barely finished our boat in time!

It was fun, once we got started and had some ideas...

Making a cardboard oar...

Finishing touches...  Our boat was named "Victory".  It had a horse-head on the front of it and streamers in the corners.  We had part of the Bible verse, Proverbs 21:31 on our "Flag":

"The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance and victory are of the Lord."

 

Hauling our little ship to the water...

We girls made some armor and helmets for Andrew and Barak (oh, and a sword) who were our designated boat rowers...

Here they are!  They were both supposed to keep a straight face.  Barak just couldn't do it.  ;)

There were so many creative boats!!!

This boat (the U. family's) and one other (the Geiger's) held up the best and won both races...

All the team-leaders getting instructions for the great race...  See all the oars lined up on the sand?

Can you find my friend Miranda in this picture?  Hint:  She's right by her sister.  ;)

I liked the M.  family's design!

Everyone getting ready...

Our team is in the middle here (with Jacob taking his shoes off)...

These next few pictures were taken by a friend.  If you look closely, you can see some of us...

This is back to when we were designing "Victory"...

Getting ready to launch the boats...

We were apparently a little too eager to give our 2 guys a good start and gave them a huge push before Andrew was fully seated.  This apparently caused him to loose balance and our lovely boat quickly tipped over!  oops...  Awww, well, it was fun anyway.  They were able to get back in the soggy boat and stayed up for a while longer.

See our boat?

After a few of the boats crossed the finish line, the Sip family said everyone was supposed to swamp the other's boats (basically, get the other boats down by throwing water in them or by whatever means you wanted to try). 

That was pretty funny to watch...

My mom...

Others watching/cheering...

Once somebody's boat was down, they went back out and helped pull cardboard out of the lake...

That's a lot of soggy cardboard!

Andrew...

Lauretta....

Mom and Jacob...  :)

After all the cardboard was loaded into a truck, there was a baptism for 3 young ladies...

A special time!

Lauretta enjoyed her time at camp and got to be good friends with several of my friends.  :)  Here she and Anna U. are heading for the water to go tubing together on the more difficult tube!  This was Monday (Labor Day)...

I, meanwhile, went for another peaceful canoe ride with Tiera M..  Andrew is also getting ready for a canoe ride here...

Somebody gave us a helping launch (I don't even know who he was, but everyone is so nice and helpful there)...

That's Tiera and I going by the people waiting for rides behind the Jet-ski.  (See Lauretta and Anna?)

Canoeing was SO much fun!  I'd never gone before this camp...although the boys and I used to row in inflatable rafts in the creek when we lived at our other farm.

Of course, we had to make sure to stay away from these people while in our little boat, as we didn't want to get "Swamped"!

My mom really wanted to go canoeing too, so Lauretta and I took her for a long ride around the island and then off to a side of the lake that we'd never been to before. 

That's the island in the background of this picture...  It's pretty large.  Andrew and our friend, Nate explored the island and found some chokecherries on it.  :)

Later, I snapped this picture of my mom and Mrs. U, Mrs. T, and Mrs. M.---enjoying a good talk in the shade!

This looked hard to do...?

Mrs. Sip and Mrs. K. went for a paddle-boat ride.  :)  That's Andrew and Nate U. in the water...

A cute little fella...

Relaxing...

Oh, here's a picture of the water slide.  It's actually larger than what you can see, as there are more twists and turns you can't see in this picture.  :)

Of course, the ping-pong table was always super busy too.  (That's me watching the action early Monday morning--half asleep like.)

 

 

Once again, we say thank you to the Sip family for hosting such a great get-together!!!  May God bless you all tremendously!~

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today was a babysitting day for me and I took the 3 young people to the Kintyre park for a couple hours when Amelia got home from school. 

 

The guys worked on the backhoe attachment and my mom had a yummy supper on its way to being ready when I got home, so it was a good day.  My dad also did another grain-cleaning job this morning.