Remember when I wrote once a day, EVERY day? Yeah, married life changes things. :)
I still intend to update my blog from time to time, as it has been my journal of sorts for so long. Once I have a year finished, I get it printed into a book, complete with pictures, so as to be able to look back on the years that have passed and remember......well, everything that I took the time to share.
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Our gardens were a tremendous success this year! Michael got to be home all day yesterday, so we spent part of the morning clearing off most of the big garden and burning the vines and old dead plants.
This is the Stevia plant that we bought this spring and planted directly into the garden. It can't overwinter out of doors, so I transplanted it and will try to keep it alive over the winter months. It's currently blooming.
Anybody need some squash?
The popcorn produced well too. So far, we've enjoyed 2 evenings of popcorn while watching movies---
all from 3 cobs of corn.
In the early part of October, Nicholas and Rachael came and visited us for the first time. Sadly, they had a bit of a mishap just south of our farm while flying off of what used to be a road (there were no signs telling them that the road ended), and they hit that rock there with their car.
See that dark streak? That's the oil that used to be in their car.
See that big hole in the oil pan? That's where the oil used to be.
On my parent's anniversary, (October 10th) my dad had to work, so we took my mom, Nicholas and Rachael, and 7 weather Shetland sheep to Bismarck/Mandan. We dropped off the sheep at Kist Livestock (it was the last sheep sale of the year); we took everyone out to eat at Dennys; picked up the band saw that Michael had bought from a guy; and got a used oil pan at a junk yard to replace the broken one. While Michael took the old oil pan off of his sister's car, Rachael and I cleaned up the "New" oil pan, only to find cracks in it. ;( As that was the only used oil pan for that kind of car in all of Bismarck, the next day found Michael and his sister and her husband driving to Valley City to make a 2nd attempt at getting an oil pan that would work. Thankfully, that one was in much better condition and Michael and Nicholas got it put in the car and they were able to make it home in time for Nicholas to get to work the next day. We had a nice visit with them----but agreed that we could have done without the car troubles.
Oh, and Michael also hit a rock with his car (all because of the huge road rebuilding project they're doing on the road by our place) and broke something on his car's exhaust system. His car consequently now sounds like a loud pickup. Also, our Pastor and his wife lightly hit a rock with their vehicle when they came to see us, but thankfully, I don't think there was damage done that time. Consider yourself warned though:
If you come to visit us, please watch out for the rocks and roads that aren't there!
The next weekend brought us a very sad event. I wasn't sure about sharing this here, but it happened and is a part of our life... Saturday (the 15th), I miscarried our first child. It was very hard to go through, but many friends were praying for us and that helped. We'd been praying for a child for months, so to lose our baby was especially hard when it was so wanted, but God knows best and we have to trust Him. Thankfully, I was only 7 weeks along and the actual pain wasn't unbearable. My dear husband took such excellent care of me through it all, and then our friend, Heather came and stayed for a few days and did the cooking and dishes and other garden produce work so Michael could get a break from that, as he still had work to do at Steele and the chores to do by himself.
The next Monday (the 24th) was our very first wedding anniversary. Here is a bouquet of flowers that my parent's had delivered to our door.
While I was down and out for over a week, Michael went pheasant hunting one day and brought this home. He skinned it and cooked it, and I must say, it was very delicious.
On our wedding anniversary, we went to Bismarck and ended up running a lot of errands. We did go out to eat at the Cracker Barrel and bought some music at Pepper. Then I got some blood work done at the clinic. I had packed a picnic supper to eat at our special spot on the way home...
That night, we watched our wedding video and reminisced. :) Can it be that a whole year has gone by?
I'm so happy to be married to Michael!!! God sure knew what He was doing when He brought us together.
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Since then, Michael did the milking and chores twice a day for Carrie (the lady who we bought our milk cow from) for 5 days. Since her chores were at the same time as ours, that meant we were both doing chores at the same time, just not in the same location. For part of Michael's pay, we got a bull calf to raise on Ivy's milk.
My mom and Andrew were gone in Michigan for a week, spending time with Marie and her family and making more wedding plans. Michael and I made our hotel reservations a couple days ago and figured out some more details for the trip to Kentucky in a little over a month from now. When Mom and Andrew returned, we helped them unload Marie's things that they'd brought back (including an upright piano). When I got back to the yard, who should I find but----LAURETTA! :) It was so good to see my old friend again and to show her our home. I really miss that lady. Hopefully I can go visit them when their baby's born in a few months.
Michael has had a few days off of work, so it's been really nice having him around the place, building and fixing things and trying to get ready for winter. We made plans to attend a sheep shearing and wool grading school in November. Michael knows how to shear already, but wants to get better and learn tips and tricks to make it go easier. I'll go to the wool grading class. We're hoping to be able to stay overnight with friends, as the class is over 3 hours away and lasts 3 days.
The animals are a big part of our lives. The turkeys are getting pretty big now and half of them insist on flying out of their pen every day and wandering around the farm, even though we clipped off half of their wing feathers to keep them from flying. The chicks are almost chickens now, and 3 of them have started laying eggs. I'm still milking Peanut (a goat) but just once a day. Little Annie (Buttercup the goat's baby) is getting very big. Michael still is building fences for the sheep and llama and moving them every few days. Ivy (our milk cow) is now bred to calve in about 7 months. The guineas sleep with the chickens at night, but freely roam the farm all day, including flying on top of the barns at times. We've raised 10 calves off of Ivy's milk, going on 11 with the new one Michael brought home on Monday. Oh, and Beretta (Basset hound female youngster) still chases and has killed one chicken. She's learned to leave the turkeys alone, so gets to roam in the morning, but still has to be tied up when I let the chickens out at noon.
It will be interesting to see what November brings.
