Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Raindrops on roses...

 
 
 
...and whiskers on kittens...
 
Yes, it rained today, shortly after the guys got going with the combine in the cornfield.
 
And yes, Gingersnap was up in the apple tree this morning, as a certain dog (whose name starts with an "M") apparently frightened her.
 
My dad finished his big grain-cleaning job by noon today, then got the combine ready with Jacob's help. Andrew got home a little bit earlier (around 8 pm) than usual from his combining job, also because of the rain. 
 
My mom and I did some "Deep" cleaning, as we're getting company for the next few days and like things to be in some kind of an orderly fashion when that happens.  :)  We so do enjoy company coming....
 
"These are a few of my favorite things!"
 
 


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

SOOOO precious!


 My mom and I went to Bismarck for the day to run a lot of errands and we did some fun things too (shopping and she took me to the Himalayan salt cave for the first time)---my favorite, of course, being going to see Paula and her THREE children!!! :) Both Grandmas were there too, so it was really good to see everybody again!
 
 
 Baby Vaughn slept the whole time we were there... 
Isn't he just darling?? :)  He felt so light, even though he is a good sized baby.
 My mom rocked the little sleepy boy for a while...
Helping Johanna hold her baby brother...
I praise God that so many prayers were answered for the safe arrival of this little one!!!


Monday, October 27, 2014

He's here!!!

 
Zach and Paula's adorable baby boy safely made his arrival into this world this morning!!! :)
 
Meet Vaughn Gunner Moch!
 
I hope to meet this little guy in person tomorrow.  Can hardly wait!!!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

No more swimming... :(

Mom and I disassembled our pool this afternoon.
We'll have to roll it all up when it's good and dry.
 

Farewell Summer days. It was fun while it lasted.


Saturday, October 25, 2014

What lovely weather we're having for this time of year!!

 
It was so sunny and warm that it seemed a very bad idea to be indoors today! So, some of us went outside... My mom went down to the range too later, but I didn't get pictures of her.
 
Bang, bang....or, more like, boom BOOM!
 Awwwwww.... MUCH quieter!
 After shooting for quite a while, my brother and I went for a bike ride up to his place to make some music (noise?) on his organ and piano...
 
 
"Thank you, Father, for this beautiful October!"

Friday, October 24, 2014

The sun has gone to bed and so must I...

It's been such a busy day of cleaning, cooking, dusting, washing, tomato chopping, baking, (and Dad hauled grain and Andrew combined for farmer Stan) and.......that I feel quite ready for some sleeping.
 
May God bless your weekend---and ours.
                               ~Farewell

Thursday, October 23, 2014

And yet MORE roofing pictures!

Andrew's apple tree is not in the best location when it comes to working on the north side of his house with the telehandler. Consequently, many apples get knocked down (we also picked a lot of them before they fell). Here is what we gathered this morning...
 
 The end is in sight!
 One of my jobs is marking the tin so the screws get put in in an orderly fashion.
Almost done with tinning the north side! Right after getting the tin up,  my dad left to haul another load of sunflowers to Enderlin.
 

 Andrew's big news of the day is that he got his big pickup sold to a young man up by Bottineau! It is a little sad to see it go, but so goes life sometimes.
 
My mom went to Bismarck for most of the day. My brothers got the 4-wheeler all put back together again this morning. I baked a pan of brownies which have almost disappeared already. This evening, I worked on a surprise project which will eventually get shown here....  :)
 
And after all of that busyness, I'm ready for some rest!
 
 
 


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Wet wood...

This morning, we saw rain on the radar and hustled to get the chip-board up on the north side of the house so the water wouldn't go in all those cracks you can see in this picture.
 
 My dad had to leave when we were about half done, as a farmer needed another semi, as my dad's semi that he took over yesterday was almost full. Dad took the full load of sunflowers to Enderlin then and still isn't home, so there must have been a line. It gets busy over there at this time of the year.
 
My mom rode back with dad to the farm to work in the kitchen (where she cooked us up some tasty soup), which left my brothers and I to finish with the wood. It started to sprinkle, so we worked faster and managed to safely get the rest of the pieces up before it really started to pour. Did you know, wet wood gets to be pretty slippery!
This afternoon, Jacob helped me shred cabbage and then I made several quarts of sauerkraut for the winter. We do not can our kraut, but instead, add salt to the cabbage and a little hot water and let it ferment.  Yummy!  :)
 
 
Andrew worked on that 4-wheeler some more for a rancher and Jacob went out and helped him after helping me, and they got it working, so they're pleased. They were also pressure-washing vehicles.
 
 
Please keep my mom in your prayers as she continues to try to figure out all of these health challenges she has. It must be hard to be in pain all of the time...  Thanks so much!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

More shingle removal!

My dad had grain to haul this morning, and the boys worked on fixing a farmer's 4-wheeler, so my mom and I pulled up the beets and cut off the cabbages in the garden and I did some more tilling.
 
After lunch, we all went up to rip shingles off of the north side of Andrew's house.
 
It was a very windy day, so the willow tree looked pretty bare and the ground was covered with a crunchy blanket of orange...
 
 When we weren't taking the 3 layers of shingles off,
 we were picking apples that were in the way...
 My mom must have found my phone, as this picture was on it.
  Jacob, me, and Dad--pulling hundreds of nails out of the wooden shingles...
 The apples are REALLY tasty!
 A little over 2/3rds done...  We did get them all off just as it got dark tonight.
That was a very dirty job! It will be nice to put up nice, clean chip board and tin next time!  :)
 


Monday, October 20, 2014

A day with the littles....

While the guys put tin up on the south side of Andrew's roof,
and while my mom went to Bismarck and then Richardton,
I spent the day with the girls and the latter part of the day with the other neighbor children as well. Here they all are (except James, who didn't want to be in the picture), enjoying the lovely day!
 
 James and/or Michael took this picture of "The girls"... See their shadows?  :)
 The little farmgirl, Johanna....
 
I got home just in time to make supper for the guys (Mom is still gone) and then did the days dishes.
 
It was "a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor"...

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Roofin'...

Yesterday, in the late part of the afternoon, Andrew and I headed East about 60 miles to some friend's house for a bonfire/cook-out/ice cream social...  There were many friends to visit with there, so we ended up staying really late and getting home early in the morning.  Even though we were tired this morning, it was worth the fellowship!  ( I was too busy visiting to think of taking any pictures!)
 
 My parents, brothers and I were all home all day, so we worked on Andrew's house roof during the daylight hours. Over the course of the day, we got all of the old shingles (of which there were 3 layers in most places---2 asphalt and 1 layer of old, dirty wood shingles) off of the south side of the house and then got all of the chipboard screwed on. Hopefully the guys can get the tin on that side tomorrow. My mom was up there with us this morning, helping to pull out all of the little nails that rip through the wooden shingles and stay very stuck in the boards on the roof.
 Screwing on the chip-board...
Measuring for the little piece Andrew had to cut for the top....
 
 One of my friends commented that I should ask one of my brothers to take a picture of me----for proof that I was helping too.....so I did (ask Jacob and I did help on the roof all day too).  :)
 
 ....the basket that we're on belongs to Zach and I can't even IMAGINE what it would be like trying to do this work without it!!! Scary thought!
Getting the East side done...
 
Then, the middle part... That was the easiest part of anything we've done so far, as you could easily stand on it, so it was much easier to work on.
 :)
 My mom cooked us up a regular picnic meal and we enjoyed the beauty of the Autumn day, eating out of doors...
 Isn't this tree just gorgeous??? 
 Yes, it is indeed Fall....
 Little Andrew, way down on the ground (he was cutting the boards we needed and running the telehandler quite a bit, although he was up on the roof a long time too when we were ripping the shingles off).
 
Almost done for the day....
 
 "The sun is sinking in the west,
The cattle go down to the stream,
The redwing settles in her nest,
It's time for a cowboy to dream..."
 
Yes, it was a good days work and God kept us safe, so we have much to be thankful for!
 
 
 

Friday, October 17, 2014

Companions...

 
These are my chore buddies, Lady and Gingersnap... 
 
 The trees are very beautiful right now!
I enjoyed the beauty of Fall while on the road this morning.
 I enjoyed it's lukewarm breezes while digging potatoes this afternoon.
 And I enjoyed the warmth of our stove while baking pumpkin bars for supper!
 


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Baby boy things...

It was fun going over to Zach and Paula's today and seeing lots of baby things setting around the house!! Baby BOY things, that is... 
 
The big day is getting close!  The girls are very excited to be getting a baby brother.  Somebody else is really looking forward to holding a baby again too....  :)
 


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Wood and woods...

What would the world be like without wood?
I suppose we'd see a lot more brick buildings, huh.
 
Here, my dad is trimming the boards along that edge of the house this morning... 
 
 We're now at the part of the house/garage that requires more time, as every angle needs to be measured and the pieces of tin cut to fit...
 The guys say I need to do more roofing so I get comfortable with being up there...  I say I'd rather just be scared and help them, then be done with it! Ha!
 This afternoon, Paula dropped the girls off at our house while she went to a meeting.  Later, I took the girls over to our neighbor's house to meet the 3 kiddos when they were home from school. After Paula picked up her girls again, the remaining 4 of us went outside to explore in their "Woods"...
 
~James~
 
~Amelia~
 
 ~Michael~
We had fun exploring! When we made it back to the house, their grandma had just arrived, so it was neat seeing her again.
And after that, it was the usual supper, chores, dishes, laundry, blogging routine...  :)
 
We're so grateful to the Lord for these warm days!