Two more farm additions...

After much prayer and consideration, we decided that the farm by Napoleon was not the place for us.   We'd appreciate continued prayers as we seek for our future home.

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I took this picture a couple weeks ago when the Littles were here. Vonn sure loves the animals. :)

 When at their house, the children and I smashed open a cute cupcake pinata that Zach & Paula had bought and filled with candy and fun things to play with. It was in honor of my birthday. 

I sure work for a wonderful family!!

 My brother, Jacob is pretty excited that he got his pickup up and running now. 

 Here's a current picture of our milk cow, Ivy.  She is getting so very friendly. She loves licking our boots.

Now, about our most recent farm additions:

Last Sunday, Michael and I went to Dickinson to buy 3 llamas.  Long story short, we were only able to catch 1 (which is all we really wanted anyway), so we now have 1 llama to guard our flock.  

His name is Oscar and he is starting to trust us. He's very attentive and will hopefully keep our sheep safe.

While in the area, we stopped to visit Lee & Lauretta!!  We ate lunch with them and visited for as long as we could before needing to head home for chores. It was SOOO good to see my "old" friend again!

On Friday, we rode along with my dad and Jacob over to the Orr Consignment Auction near Jamestown. 

Michael (and I, although it will be mostly him driving it, I'm sure) bought..........

...................a....................

........TRACTOR!  

 ...and this is what it looked like after the long, snowy ride home.

I think my husband is quite excited to have his very own tractor. :)

Yesterday, we had my family (minus Andrew who is down in Texas still) over for home-fellowship (listening to an on-line sermon and singing hymns), a meal and games. 

Today, I've been working on odd jobs around the house. I can hardly wait for it to really feel like Spring so I can plant the garden and such. I've begun a crochet project...

Happy Spring!

Spinning, chickens, and birthday fun....

First, before I share pictures of our life, I'd like to ask you all to pray for Michael and I as we have a big decision to make by this weekend, regarding a farm we're looking at over by Napoleon. Thanks!

Last week, Heather and Rachel C. came and spent a couple days with us. The three of us ladies went to visit a lady I know in Lamoure to learn all about wool and spinning.  MaryEllen was so helpful and even let us attempt to spin with her spinning wheel. :) 

 Heather did quite well as she's been spinning with a drop spindle quite a while and so already had the drafting technique down well.

 Rachel was as inexperienced as I...but enjoyed the experience, I think. :)

 The next day, we went to a tea party; Josephine L. came over and we went to town to go thrift-shopping and then I took everyone to the livestock salesbarn, as the C sisters had never been to an auction before.

 I've always enjoyed watching sales.....for a while anyway.

 Michael and I went to the ND Home School Convention on Saturday, then I decorated this cake and we went to a friend's birthday party on Sunday.

 Does anybody want to buy some hay??  We have tons of it, literally. This is all first cutting alfalfa, and we have a bunch of 2nd cutting alfalfa hay stored in the pole barns.  It's all for sale and it was all last year's crop.

 The chickens have really been enjoying the warm weather, as have we. Sunday was T-shirt weather, so we pruned apple trees and cleaned off the rest of the garden (never did get that done last fall with everything else that was going on).

 Our 5 lambs are really growing. Michael and I weighed them the other night and the heaviest one is now a little over 20lbs. This is what Michael built for feeding the little rascals. I hold one bottle, and have one hand free to supervise the rest.

 My parents/brothers had us over on Saturday for an early birthday party (for me). One of my gifts was:

A drop spindle!!  :)  I'm really enjoying learning how to spin, although it's not as easy as it looks.

 MaryEllen gave us some wool to experiment with. I dyed this yesterday with Kool-aid. 

 This is the very first yarn I've made (also dyed with Kool-aid). It's very uneven and kinky....but one has to start somewhere.

On Monday (my actual birthday), Michael took off of work early and came home to spend most of the day with me. :) :) :)  After lunch (HE did the dishes for me!!) and feeding the lambs, we went for a four-wheeler ride; decided which chickens and turkeys to order; and talked about the farm we're looking at......  Then he took me out to eat at Reuben's in Napoleon. :)  After chores, we watched old home videos of when I was little, as we ate chocolate cake and ice cream. It was a great day, and I don't even mind being 29 years old. 

God has blessed me beyond measure!  I'm so happy!

Sheep....yes, more sheep.

It's been a while again.  

This is me, trying to think of what to all write here this time....

Well, Michael and I went to Minnesota the weekend of Valentines day. One of Michael's distant relatives was getting married that Saturday, so Michael's siblings and their spouses were at Dale & Kathy's for that occasion too. It was a pleasant visit and went by way too quickly.

We went to church with all of Michael's family Sunday morning and then went out to eat with most of the church members, as they were having their "Diner's Delight" that day. After an enjoyable time of visiting and eating, we went to Carla's (a lady Michael knew) to buy 5 ewe bottle lambs from her.

 They're so much fun....to take for a walk...

 ...or a run...

 ...but they can't climb haybales very well, yet.

 Our older and much less-playful sheep:

 On my way to go babysit last week, I saw this snowy owl staring back at me...

Please pray for Michael and I as we keep searching for a farm of our own. We put ads in the local papers and have had a couple of  phone calls, and there is one place we went and looked at even and are considering but are waiting to see if something closer and more ideal becomes available. 

We don't want to just rush into something and regret it later.

Meanwhile, we're attempting to sell our car, as we've decided we really don't need 4 vehicles for 2 people.

Michael had the day off of work on Friday, and it was SO warm and lovely out that we washed our car, by hand, with a garden hose. I've never done that in February before!

 Anybody want to buy a really nice, Kia Rio car?  It served us very well on our honeymoon.

 My dear friend, Lauretta sent me this picture of her and her husband, Lee recently. Michael and I were planning to go visit them a few weeks ago, but something came up and we didn't go.  I LOVE being married, and I love that my best girl-friend is enjoying wedding bliss also, but I sure do miss her!! We now live over 2 hours apart and I haven't seen her since our wedding almost 4 months ago.  At least we can still text...

My dear husband and I listened to a very good message yesterday by Dr. S. M. Davis, called

 "The Sin of Silence". If you are not familiar with Dr. Davis, I'd highly recommend going here to learn more: 

https://www.solvefamilyproblems.org/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1832

Now it's time to go put my homemade pizza in the oven, in anticipation of my husband's soon arrival. :)

Update...

My posts are sure few and far between now that I'm married, aren't they? Oh well. :) 

The baler that Michael and I bought arrived.  

We bought a rake and mower too, so now we just need a tractor!

 It's fun watching Vonn grow up.  He and Tracy Jo come here every Wednesday and then I go to their house on Thursdays. Vonn has great trouble with keeping his mittens on.

Last Friday, Michael, my mom and I butchered the last 5 turkeys. It's good to be done with that.  

Today I made yogurt and butter and this morning, I made kefir pancakes which turned out really well.  It's so nice having a cow...

Time to get back to work!

Our herd/flock is growing!

A week and a half ago, Michael bought 2 calves at Kist Livestock in Mandan.  This one (Rudolph) wasn't doing so well, but after much "doctoring" (herbal tea, kefir, eggs, essential oils, vitamin C, etc...) and keeping him warm in the shop for over a week, he is now learning to drink from a pail and resides in the barn with the other livestock. :) The other calf is now sick, so is getting lots of natural remedies and seems to be improving.  

I babysit Tracy Jo and Vonn here at the farm on Wednesdays and then babysit all 3 of the Littles at their home on Thursdays.  While here, the Littles love playing with the animals! 

 Michael is pretty happy as his pickup is fixed up again. He bought a used pickup box and had it sand-blasted and painted to match. 

 He'll probably take it to Napoleon this week sometime to get the striping/sticker put on. He also bought a black pickup topper from an ad he saw on Bismanonline and that's already come in handy a couple times. He hauled a couch home in it one time and another time, some, uh, livestock which I'll tell you about a little later. I think that having a pickup on a farm is pretty much a necessity...

 Yes, we did attend family camp. That was enjoyable, as always.

 Michael participated in "The Amazing Race". One of the sections of the race, each team member had to blow a mini-marshmallow across the floor (blowing through a straw) to the finish line while keeping their hands behind their back!  Another part of the race was where each team had to assemble a 300 piece puzzle as fast as they could. Then there was the button sewing...

 AND NOW, for the announcement of our newest farm additions:

We are now the very pleased owners of 7 SHEEP!

Yes, the Littles love them too....

 Vonn wanted to kiss them....

 First, on Monday, we drove down to a farm by Zeeland and bought 3 lambs that are half a year old. One is a ram and the other 2 are ewes. They all fit nicely in the trunk of our car. :)

Cute, eh? ;)

 This is Buckwheat......the calf we bought when we got our milk cow, Ivy.  He's spoiled and still gets some milk twice a day 'though he most certainly doesn't need it.

 Our little Amram. We're naming our sheep with Bible names, in alphabetical order, so he gets to be first. Then is Bilha, Chloe, Drusilla, Eva, Faith, and G ?. 

Tuesday, we met a guy in Bismarck (he was from SW of Bismarck and met us halfway) and bought 3 more ewes--two yearlings and one 3 year old. This is Eva.

 Drusilla (who missed a shearing last year and has way too much wool on her.)

 Yesterday, we drove up north a ways to buy a 3 year old ram from my friend, Heather C. The C. family invited Michael & I to stay for lunch and we had a nice visit afterwards. Loading this big guy was interesting, and it took 5 of us to lift him into the pickup box/topper.  His name will start with a G.

 Ivy likes Michael. She likes licking Michael. What a funny cow. :)

 Eva also likes Michael. Of course, Michael is a likable kind of guy, so maybe that's why? ;)

We are really enjoying having animals and the fact that almost all of the them are friendly and enjoy being played with. Life is good. 

Tomorrow will be our 3 month wedding anniversary. :) 

Update~

Life is very good and full!  

When Michael isn't up at Steele working at Mid Dakota Grain, he's home working on projects, making our home so much nicer! 

I helped him with a project yesterday...  His snowmobile needed some reupholstering done.

 It didn't turn out as smooth as we would have liked, 

but it's much better than what was there before (nothing).

 He installed this laundry-room tub/sink so I can wash our milking buckets in there and he can wash up there after being in the shop and such.

 He put a light above my stove, connecting it to wires which were just sticking out of the wall.

 Andrew came over and tuned my piano for me the other day. I gave him a haircut in return. I also gave Michael and Jacob haircuts that day.

Michael also rewired a lightswitch in our bedroom so it's easier to find in the dark. He's so handy!

When I'm not babysitting, I've been keeping busy with odd jobs too. I've been making lots of dairy products lately (cream cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, kefir, cream for whipping, butter, and Mom made cottage cheese). We're still looking for a couple calves to buy...  

This weekend is the Cabin Fever Family Camp at Crystal Springs, so we plan to attend that, in between milkings. My mom has been feeling pretty poorly lately, so please keep her in your prayers.

OH, and Michael shot a coyote a couple mornings ago! :)