Motherless...

Today, after the noon meal, my mom packed her bags and headed south to be with her dad.  She said he recognized her, so I'm so glad for that.  She plans to stay for a while, perhaps until he passes on.  They're letting her stay in a recliner at the nursing home, so please pray that she's able to get some rest now.  Grandpa is resting too, thankfully. 

Meanwhile, things are very busy on the farm now.  The guys got the Ford pickup fixed so we can once again have something for chasing/checking cows besides the 4-wheeler.  Dad and Andrew will be gone cleaning again in full swing tomorrow.  Jacob will need to watch the cows while I babysit.  I worked on planting the greenhouse today (after my brothers got the tiller going for me after it's long winter break).  It felt so good to dig in the dirt once again!!!!  I think I have spring fever...

I'm really enjoying having....

.....a Smart-phone!  One of the big reasons is that I have a camera with me almost all of the time now and I have a way to easily post the pictures to my computer or Facebook!  Technology can indeed be a blessing and a pleasure.  :)

 

I took these cattle pictures after milking Sally tonight.

 

 My dad was feeding them their supper...

 While checking the big pasture for cows/calves, I decided to investigate Crocus Hill more closely than I have been and, lo and behold, this is what I found there!!!  What a beautiful glimpse of SPRING!

 I was over babysitting most of the day.  We started the morning playing cowgirls and ended the afternoon by dressing up like clowns---somewhat anyway.  (See the red dots on their noses?  That's the best we could find for a red nose.)

 Tracy's dot kept falling off so, Johanna being the big helper that she is, kept sticking it back on for her...

 Now doesn't that face just make you smile? 

 If that one didn't, than surely this one will!!!  :)  I love those 2!

Thank you to all of you who are praying for my grandpa.  I have no new news to share.  Today marks the 5 year mark since my grandma's (his wife's) funeral...

Prayer request!

 

 

Dear friends,

 

Please pray for my grandpa Harvey's salvation now in his last moments of life. We just now heard from an uncle that Grandpa doesn't have much longer to live. He's having troubles breathing now and they (at the nursing home) thought he'd died yesterday during his bath when he quit breathing twice. Relationships are very strained in my mom's family, but still, we very much wish for EVERYBODY to be saved when they die!!!!  Grandpa was in church all his life, but I don't know if he ever truly was living for God and has Him in his heart?  Only God and Grandpa know that....  So, if you'd please join us in praying that Grandpa makes things right with God now, if they're not already so,  we'd be so grateful!

Please keep my mom in your prayers too, as this will be a stressful time---dealing with family that would rather not see each other ever again....  Pray for us all.

 

Thank you so much!!!

 

 

More company!

Oh what fun it was to have the B. family here for a visit!  We've enjoyed visiting with their family at family camps, but this is the first time we really got to visit one on one, just as families.  The weather was cold and extremely windy, but some of their young people enjoyed being outside anyway.

 

Some spent time playing indoor games as well....and making music/singing....and just visiting.

 

 Their family arrived last night, just in time to join us for a late supper.  Some of us stayed up talking until 1:30am up at Andrew's place.  This morning, some of the B.s joined Andrew and I for morning chores at 7:00am.  Later, most of the girls and one of their brothers went with me in the pickup to check cows (they thought it was very funny how some of the mama cows chased Millie when she got close to their calves!) and we stopped at the barn afterwards so little Lena could pet the bottle calves...

 We had a house-full and 2 tables-full at mealtimes! 

 It's not often that we set the table for 15.  :)

 It was really a nice visit!!   I just wish I wasn't so tired, as I felt like falling asleep all day. 

 They left around 5:00 to go visit another family...

 This is the blue room up at Andrew's place...

 The other side of the blue room...

 The green room---now complete with bunk-beds and curtains.

 The interesting-wallpaper job in the little upstairs bathroom...  (My mom had to re-paste some of the paper on Friday, as it was coming off.)

 This was late yesterday afternoon, when Andrew got done cleaning and he and I went up to get the beds ready for everyone...

 I put the pictures on my computer from my phone,

so here is one of the cows and calves the other day...

 Jacob feeding the bulls and steers...

 My mom and the girls---making the beds with the new bedding on Friday...

 Johanna and Tracy Jo LOVED Andrew's house and going up and down the stairs!

 Oh, and I took this picture of 2 geese on the water on my way to work on Thursday.  They're a little hard to see when the picture is this small...

 

Well, I pray that you all have a wonderful new week---doing that which God has for you to do.~

Getting homier...

Is homier a word?  Probably not, but at this time of the night,  my grammer goes out the window sometimes.  ;)

So, anyway, Andrew's house is starting to look homey!  I just got back from working up there, as I'd been up there ever since evening chores were done (I milked the cow tonight).  I babysat today, but brought the girls over and they loved Andrew's house and exploring all the rooms...  Paula came and picked them up after work, so she got to see what we're working on too.  After a busy day, the house now has another bunk-bed; curtains on most of the windows; new towels and washcloths in the bathrooms; brand new bedding on the beds; we replaced some outlet and lightswitches that were broken or missing; and other small odds and ends like that.  The most exciting part of that project was the great deal that God blessed Andrew with in Napoleon.  A lady was selling lots of furniture as she's moving, so he now has dressers and end tables and bookshelves and even 2 little lamps (plus the other set of bunk-beds).  As Dad and Andrew were gone cleaning, it was up to us to get all of these goodies home, so between the 3 of us (and the girls) it all got there and hauled in the house safely.  We're working on washing it all off now.  Hopefully we'll have everything ready for our friends when they arrive tomorrow evening!  :)

Cleaning...

 

 

After a busy morning with the cow chores, and an early lunch, my mom and Andrew went to Bismarck for the day (they just returned) as it was too windy for our guys to clean grain.  Andrew bought some bedding/pillows/silverware/etc...  My dad went to Napoleon for banking and then worked on equipment.  Jacob worked on getting invitations ready for his graduation in May. 

I spent the afternoon up at Andrew's house cleaning and sweeping and scrubbing and.....  It looks and smells much better now.  I got to wondering when the last time that place was cleaned by a woman and am guessing it's been about 12 years, as the previous owners were hunters (men) and before that, there were hired-men (bachelors) living there.  Not that men can't clean things well, it's just that they usually tend to be busier with other things.  :) 

Well, there are still things to do this evening, so I'll post this and be on my way. 

God bless and guide you all!

Taking Jacob's Senior pictures...

Today was a full day of babysitting for me.  I got to see Paula at the end of the day.  :) 

One of my back tires on my car went flat---must have hit something on the way over to work?  Anyway, Zach was so nice and fixed it for me!!  I'm so glad to have such nice people in my life! 

My dad and Andrew put in long days of grain-cleaning again.  It was pretty miserable in this wind, but thankfully it was somewhat warm anyway.

Mom and Jacob took care of all the animals (which is no small chore these days). 

As this post implies, I took Jacob's Senior photos yesterday, with my mom being my helper.  :)   It was REALLY hard to chose which our favorites were------and I'm not posting most of those here at this time, as they will probably be sent out with invitations and should be a surprise until that time...

I will share some of the fun though!   Enjoy~

Smile, Millie!

 My assistant (she carried the extra clothes/jacket and tripod)...

 Jacob with his new bike (the one Andrew brought back from MN)...

 He looks so much like Andrew in this photo!

 Sleeping cowboy???

 Getting down from the bales that we took some fun (photo) shots from...

 We were out checking cows somewhere in the middle of all of that...

 One of my calves was cooling off in some water...

 On rock hill...

 This one was completely for fun.  When we looked at all of those rocks, we thought of the Bible story of Jacob sleeping that night on the ground with a rock for his pillow...  Our Jacob said it wasn't even all that uncomfortable!

 In an OLD car, or parts of a car rather!

 In the willow...

 Another rock!

 I should have had the longer-zooming lens for this shot, but I think it still looks neat... 

 Jacob and his favorite teacher...  ;)

 My mom took Jacob to Napoleon for this picture.  He really is "into" tanks and studying WW2, so that is the reason for this photo.  The jacket he's wearing belonged to my uncle when he was at war...

 

That's all for the time being. 

It is amazing to me how "big" my "little" brother is now and all that he can do!  He has quite the way with words too and often makes us all smile with his humor. 

 

May God bless Jacob richly, and may my brother grow in God's ways each day!  Amen~ 

The weekend is over already?

 Time sure flies by...

 

Remember that set of dishes I wrote about last week?  Well, Andrew liked them, so I arranged them in his cabinets in his home on Friday...  We have some more cleaning to do up there this week, as we'll be getting company this weekend again and we'll open the house up for them to stay in.

 

Andrew hung this lovely painting up in his house. 

My grandma, Marly painted it years ago and I think she really enjoyed seeing it hanging on his wall!!

Here's a rather random picture that I found on my phone from a time I was shopping with Lauretta and Josephine at Scheels.  :)  What goofy-lookin' glasses!! (No, we did not buy them).

Our weekend visitor was Matt B..  He was on vacation and decided to come visit again, as he says he greatly misses the country life (he works in the wild oil-fields of ND).  He let us shoot his cowboy gun (a Colt 45) and we all went gopher hunting Saturday afternoon.   

Saturday evening, we had an unplanned volleyball game-night.  A young man that Andrew had sold a pickup to a couple years back had stopped in to see if Andrew could give him some mechanical advice.  He was here at supper time, so we invited him in and then he stayed for chores and volleyball as well.  He grew up in a Hutterite colony, where they obviously play a lot of volleyball, as he was very good at it!   Lauretta and 3 of her siblings came over for volleyball too later in the evening, so we had fun!  When it got too cold out, we headed in for hot chocolate and music/games.

Last night after chores but before Matt left, we did some target shooting down at the range...

I took this picture of the calves thoroughly enjoying the sunshine yesterday!  Many of them were stretched out on their sides, being lazy!

 

If you look closely, you can see me in the loader bucket, holding a calf down, while my dad took us to the barn.  That calf is now a bottle calf, as it was born 3 days ago but we've never seen a cow with it.  She must have abandoned him right away?  We've been feeding him out with the cows, but finally decided to bring him in the barn with Sally's calf. 

 

Andrew went out cleaning grain yesterday and Matt went with him to experience that.  Today, both my dad and Andrew are putting in long days of cleaning again.  Jacob and I had to do a little fencing and hook up the electric-fencer to the wire by the playground area, as some calves kept on crawling through to eat the tiny bits of green grass that are coming now!

 

I'm SO glad that it's spring! 

 

 "Thank you, Lord, for the sunshine after the long, cold winter months!!!"

 

Here's a neat song about spring that our friend, Peter B. wrote/sings: