Pleasant day!

We had such a nice day with the C. family!!!  We found we have much in common.    :)  It was really nice to see their place.  They were here one time before, although there were many others here at that time, so it was nice to have some time as just we 2 families getting to know each other better.  

 

After worship/Bible time, and sharing a delicious meal together,  I spent a good part of the rest of the day with their 2 daughters and we played with the animals (especially their new colt that we delivered to them); looked at pictures; went for a long walk; and then just talked and talked....   

 

 I took some pictures, but my phone is being silly tonight and isn't sending them to my computer, so hopefully it will be in a more cooperative "mood" tomorrow? 

 

I hope you all had as lovely a day as I had!

 

 

 

 

Major bon-fire (and some RAIN)!!

We woke to a cloudy sky and raindrops falling from it.  PTL!  It drizzled on and off all day, amounting to probably a whole 10 hundredths of an inch.  :)  Every drop helps.   I talked to a friend on the western side of the state today and she said they have so much water that they can't hardly get in the fields.  Farming is quite the adventure sometimes.  Actually, most of the time.

 

Because of the damp weather, the guys didn't do any farming and instead, they did some major outdoor clean-up work!!!!  They used the stack-mover to move the 4 falling down little sheds/chicken coops to the burn-pile.  It didn't take long for that mess to be gone.   

 

 They had quite the bon-fire roaring!  Jacob took these pictures.  He asked if anybody wanted to roast marshmallows?  He said we'd have to bring our own 20' long stick and, seeing as we don't have roasting sticks that long, we didn't eat marshmallows!

My mom and I did some big-time cleaning in the house too and sent some trash out to be burned. 

 

I went across the road and cut some rhubarb for our dessert ("Rhubarb dessert" is what it's called).  I also transplanted some flowers into the pots on the deck and let God water them. 

 

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, as we've been invited to the home of some new friends of ours.  :) 

 

May our Heavenly Father guide us all through the weekend and may we all feel refreshed for a new week of work! 

Little girls...

 

 

 

 After getting up and doing chores, then helping sort off and load cows to take to the meat-locker, I headed over to babysit "my" little girls, and I spent the rest of the day there, just getting home about an hour ago.

 

Those 2 have brought so much joy into my life!! 

   Johanna told me today,

           "Tora, I love you. You're so snuggly, just like my mom!" :)

  As I really like her mom, I'll take that as a huge compliment!

 

I thank God over and over for opening the doors so I can be a part of their lives.  As I was looking through some old pictures, I found these from shortly after I first started babysitting the girls a little over 2 years ago. 

 

This was JOHANNA, way back then...

 

 And this was the happy baby Tracy Jo...  :)

 

And the 2 of them together... ( a not so happy baby this time)

 

 

 

 Here is what they look like today!  Children grow up so fast...

 

 It sprinkled a few drops today.  On the way home, I saw a glimmer of hope---a part of a rainbow...

 

 Speaking of little girls........and rainbows........I thought I'd share this song in closing.  :)  Those 2 are definitely loved by their parents and by many others!!

 

 

 

Project Appleseed "News"... :)

I spent most of the day babysitting "my" sweet little girls---who are forever growing and changing!

 

I'm sure my family was very busy, although I don't know particulars of what they all worked on.

 

I do have some "News" though about the upcoming Appleseed shoot (June 14-15th)!  As of today, there are just 9 of the 30 spots on the range available, and I talked to 2 people today who are seriously considering signing up.  :)  There is also another family we know who has been here before and plan to come if we have any spots available (and some of my family may shoot if there is still room at the end), but would like to leave it open for others to come for now. 

 

 Andrew just informed me that we'll have another shooting instructor coming to the event too.  He's coming from CONNECTICUT!!!  He'll be driving 2 and half days to get here.  He wants to see this part of the Country and loves instructing at Appleseed shoots, apparently, as the teaching is all done by volunteers (they do get some expenses paid).  I'm glad he's coming, as there will be a lot of people to help.  Praise the LORD!!!!  This is so exciting!  :)

 

I typed in "Project Appleseed" on Google Images and thought I'd share a few of the pictures that I really liked there....   

 

 It's a good feeling to see progress---in your own shooting and in your friends' shooting!

 

 

 Safety is a HUGE thing at Appleseeds!  It's taught and is watched for.

 It must be strictly enforced and everyone is the better for it.

 Come see if you can make it!  (It took me 3 shoots to finally get my Rifleman patch---and what a good feeling it was to finally make it!!!)

 Uh huh...

 

"Earn your patch..."

 

 

This picture was there too and I just couldn't resist posting it, as it is a picture of the young man who got my brother (then consequently after that, our whole family) started with Project Appleseed several years ago.  :)   (His younger brother was very influential too.)  God bless you both---and may God continue to bless Project Appleseed shoots all across the Country!

 

 

The next few days are going to fly by, I'm sure, as we get the place spruced up a bit for company.  :)

 

 



Cabbage anyone???

 

My mom and I spent most of the day out in the garden, planting and transplanting lots of little things.

 

With all of the cabbages that came up so well in the greenhouse, Lord willing and cabbage-moth permitting, come Fall, we'll have LOTS of cabbage to share or put up for sauerkraut!

 

We also cleaned the basement, as my dad had lit the big burn-pile and we wanted to get rid of some garbage that has been sitting around down there way too long... 

 

Dad was busy with many things today, but one very exciting thing (to me) is that he is working on putting the brand new blades on the large tiller (the one that goes behind the garden tractor).  He has to cut the old ones off and then weld the new ones on.  It's a bigger job than it sounds!

 

Andrew worked on projects around here, then had a GRAIN CLEANING job this afternoon!  I'm not sure that they'll ever be done with the cleaning season, as it may just continue into the Autumn run?  ;)

 

Jacob spent all day (until suppertime) at his new job.  He said he helped move some calf-hutches and did a lot of work on haying equipment.  He's still talking about going back, so I guess he's liking it?  His loyalty remains with this farm though, as I gathered by his comment of his not being sure if he's going over in the morning, as he needs to see if Dad needs his help here first.

 

I have a happy thought to leave you with tonight (thanks for sharing it with me, Emmy!) :

 

Changes ahead???

What a busy and interesting day it's been!  My parents were in Bismarck most of the day and still aren't home as, after all their business was taken care of,  they had a special date night----went out to eat and saw a movie and everything!  :)

 

Andrew should be returning home from his visit east tonight--sometime.

 

Jacob had an interesting, possibly life-changing..........phone call this morning.  A farmer/neighbor (kind of) called to see if Jacob would want a job working for them at their farm---doing all kinds of different things.  He went over there all afternoon and worked and plans to return in the morning.

 

I had the farm to myself for most of the day.  I actually really enjoy when that happens!

  I turned on some of my favorite music and did a mountain of laundry and dishes and letter-writing and a little bit of cooking too.

 

This evening, I played piano for a while, then edited some pictures on my phone which I hadn't ever done before.  Here is what I ended up with: 

 

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

 

Well, I got that far, then got a phone call from a friend who needed to talk, then my family all arrived home at the same time, and we talked, and now it's late, so I'll wish you all a very wonderful nights rest and go get some sleep myself.  :)

 

 

Promised Picture Post!

 We spent most of the day Friday working with our cattle.  Thanks be to God's protection over us once again----we only got stepped on toes by the calves this time and nothing worse.  :)

 

In the morning, we had to get everyone in the corral, then sort some cows off that we are holding back to sell as cull cows as they're either old or open.  We had to run a bunch of calves through the chute too and gave them eartags.  A couple calves needed shots.  Then, we loaded up all the youngest calves that we thought the walk would be hard on and put them in the stock-trailer to haul up later. 

 

After a quick lunch, the guys got the 4-wheelers and a dirt bike going.  They rounded up the cows and calves, then opened a spot in the fence for them to get out and begin the 4-or-so mile trek up the road to the pasture.  My mom drove the pickup and trailer at the rear of the herd, just in case there were more calves that needed picking up (there was 1).  I drove ahead of them all as usual, trying to hold them back a bit, as a few of the cows just want to RUN up to their summer home!

 

 This was my view:

 

 Almost there...  (You can see Andrew on his dirt bike in this picture if you look closely.)

 Jacob almost lost the homemade fender on the red 4-wheeler...

 Dad driving through the gate----then he closed it....

 Finally there!  It started to rain at this point, which felt really nice...

 

One of my cute pairs!

 Look at ALL that grass!!!

 A tiny fawn jumped up right next to a calf in this pasture and the calf took off running away from the herd.  Jacob and I had to go after it with the 4-wheelers, as he was just running and running in the wrong direction.  I had hoped to see the little deer again, but he was lost in the grass by the time we returned with the runaway.

 I LOVE the contrast in colors between sky and grass at this time of the year!!!

The best part about moving the cows up to pasture is that we now have WATER in the house all day long again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   We can wash clothes; take showers; do dishes; water plants.....whenever we want to now.  HOORAY!  My mom went to town and bought pizza and ice cream to celebrate (and also because we were gone all day and didn't have food for the weekend and people like to eat.)

 

Here are a couple random pictures that I found on my phone:

 

The girls love swimming in their pool nowadays!!!  It's fun watching them splash.

 

 I rode along with my dad and Andrew one day to bring vehicles home from the field, then went with them down in the field a ways (to the place where my dad kept getting stuck) to pick up some tractor weights he'd taken off and left...

Friday evening, after we had our supper and finished chores, I went over to Lauretta's place as she and her sister, Josephine invited me to come over for a visit/sleepover.  :)  I'm so grateful to God for putting these friends in my life, as they're about the closest thing I have to real sisters! 

 

After staying up late into the night, we all slept in the next morning.  After eating a tasty breakfast, Josephine had to leave for work, but Lauretta and I went for a walk through the trees to try and find their horses.  Once we found them, Lauretta jumped on this one horse to round up the other one for me to ride.  :)



 

 She enjoys riding bare-back.  I'm not that brave, yet.

 

 The "Old grey mare" is a very nice horse!!!   Her name is "The Grey Mare", but she is pretty old, so I can't help thinking of that song when I see her.   She's the same horse I rode last Summer.   :)

 

I love how she holds her ears!  (She's an Arabian.)

 She's well trained and very considerate of her rider.  Lauretta said that when there is an experienced rider on this horse, she can tell and acts differently from when she has a beginner (like me) on her back.  She walked along and just went faster when I was comfortable enough to press my heels lightly to her sides.

 

What fun!   :)

 

 

Lauretta came with me to my house then and we joined the rest of my family for a quick bite to eat before all heading to Bismarck to enjoy a concert by the Booth Brothers!  I don't like the beat to some of their songs, but then again, I also really enjoyed many of their songs---especially the words!!!  Their sincere love for the Lord shows through their singing...

Here's a sample of their music:

As soon as we got back to the farm (Lauretta bought us ice cream bars on the way home for a treat!), Andrew took off to visit some friends of ours.  He's spending a few days with them.  I slept in a little this morning and when I awoke at 8:00, I had a sinking feeling as I remembered that Andrew wasn't here and somebody needed to milk his cow!  I jumped out of bed and got dressed hurriedly.  When I looked out the window, I saw my mom walking back from the barn with the milking supplies in hand!  Yay!  She and my dad did the morning chores.  :)

I went with Dad up to the pasture this morning to see how the cows are doing.  They seemed very content.  We bounced around the pasture for quite a while.

My dad and Andrew went on a crop-viewing (our own fields) tour for the rest of the morning.  They took my car, and then it got a flat tire, so they put the spare on and fixed the tire when they got home.

 

Mom and I cleaned up the kitchen and then I hauled all my dwarf fruit trees and assorted other houseplants out onto the deck for the summer, as I have faith that we are beyond freezing temps. finally!  We also sold several dozen eggs to a neighbor who came for that purpose.

This afternoon, my dad and Jacob got our garden ready for us!!!!!!  YAY!    They put on some farm-fertilizer (also known as cow manure) and worked it up with a vibra-shank.  Then, they put the big tiller attachment on Andrew's garden tractor and spent over an hour tilling.  While Jacob drove, my dad stood on the actual tiller so it would dig down deeper instead of skimming over the top.  It looks SO nice now. 

                  "Thank you SO VERY MUCH for all your time and hard work, fellas!!!!!!!"

 

Well, now you're all up to date again!  :)

 

 

HAPPY JUNE!

 

May the Lord bless and guide us all through this new month!