Rest~

 

 

 

 

We spent a nice day at home for a change. Now we're ready for another week.  :)

A special anniversary...

 

Today, we're celebrating my parent's 34th wedding anniversary.  :)

 

 

 I'm so glad these 2 fell in love way back when!

 

This afternoon, my parents headed for Bismarck to enjoy the rest of the day together.

 

Meanwhile, I cleaned and cooked and cleaned some more.  My brothers worked on cutting hay until one of the mowers broke down. They came home in time to do the chores and to meet the guy who came for his combine, now that it's fixed.

 

This morning, Andrew and I went around the fence here at home because 3 of our steers were out.

Yes, 3 of these creatures are the guilty party previously mentioned... 

*Yawn* I'm so ready for rest!!

 

Blessings on your weekend~

~God's Been Good~

 

I spent the day with these 2 sweeties again.

One of their favorite things to do is to make cookies ...

(I think they enjoy eating them almost as much as they enjoy patting the dough into different shapes).  

 

 It was beautiful outside again this afternoon, so after naptime, we went out to enjoy the day...

 Johanna picked me a small bouquet...

 I was listening to a mixed playlist of praise songs on Youtube this evening and heard this one for the first time.  It's SO wonderful!!  Indeed, God's been SO good!

"Autumnal sunshine"

 

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as

Autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

[Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842]”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

This quote is so perfect for today! It was a beautiful afternoon and I spent most of it in the garden, pulling off the squishy squash vines; the brown tomato plants; and the wilting pepper plants.

 

I dug a boxful of carrots (and ate a few little ones that were just too tempting).

 

My mom picked several dry dill heads for dill seed. She filled the wheelbarrow with chicken treats.

 

Jacob helped me clear off the tires that we put around our tomato plants each year. I began tilling the bare spots in the garden, until I ran out of gas and found out we have none on the farm at this time.

 

My dad hauled hay home.

 

Andrew worked some more on the combine he's fixing for a farmer.

 

Jacob took some haying equipment over to our hunter friends' place where the guys will be putting up some grass hay soon.

 

Millie and Lady were kept busy digging for things in the garden. Gingersnap (the kitten that just showed up at our place at our last Appleseed event) kept me company in the garden as well.

 

Yes, it was a beautiful day!

 

 

A visit to the Little Elk Organic Dairy in MN....

Friday afternoon found my parents and I packing my little car with luggage and leaving shortly thereafter to head east approximately 320 miles (5 hours) to visit Michael D. (he's been here a couple of times as you may recall) and to meet part of his family. We're grateful that my brothers were willing to do the chores at home so we could go!!

 

Minnesota is filled with beauty at this time of the year!

 

 We knew we had arrived at the right place when we saw these signs at the end of a long driveway...

 ...and we saw several barns and cows the next morning... I did take these pictures the following day, as it was dark when we arrived.

 

Their horse (Wisp) and pony (Oreo)....

 

The house in the woods...

 

 My dad and Mr. D (Dale) seemed to find plenty to talk about,

both being dairymen in the past and/or present...

 

 

Q: What do you see many of on a dairy farm?

A: ____  ....No, not flies. Cows and calves! 

 

Consequently, I have a lot of cow and calf pictures to share

(my mom and I both were taking pictures)....

 It's always interesting to me to see different people's farms and how they do things! This is only half of the barn. There's another row like this on the other side of the alleyway...

 

Here's Michael, feeding the cows a mid-morning snack... 

Mmmm, "Haylage" smells almost good enough to eat!

 

 An oats/radish/peas cover-crop in one of their fields...

The trees are SO beautiful and plentiful around there!

 More beauty... 

I was glad we didn't see any wolves or bears!  Either would have ruined this picture of serenity!

 Michael moves an electric fence around daily (when he's there) to provide the cows with different cells of grass and clover to eat. These are some very happy cows...

 There were cute little calves to pet and watch in these pens...

 Mrs. D (Kathy), bedding down the barn before evening chores, as the cows stay indoors overnight.

Letting the girls in the barn...

It's hard to see it in this picture, but each cow has access to water while she's in her stall.

They are waiting for somebody to cut open those haybales sitting there!

 We met Michael's older brother, James on Saturday when he came "Home" for the weekend. He's on the right, telling a story or something... We enjoyed all of them, as they're very down to earth, sensible people.  :)

 Milking time! Dale milks in the evenings, Michael in the mornings, and Kathy helps with the calves and other things at both times, it sounded like.

 These are Michael's sister, Rachael's Fantail pigeons...

I wonder if they ever get a neckache? 

 On the path that leads from the house to the barn...

 My mom and Lily...

 

 

See!!  I told you it was tempting to eat that sweet smelling feed!  ;)

 

 

 Yay!  Hay!

 Barns can be great places to rest and think...

 We helped them (although we didn't have to do much) sort off a heifer and a cow that are getting close to calving and we ran them over to the milking herd. The cow was cooperative, but the heifer, not so much!

My parents and I stayed at a hotel in Little Falls (about 10 miles away from the farm). Sunday morning, we went in search of the D.'s church in the small town of Cushing. We found it pretty quickly, but as we were early, we went back out to the main road and explored Cushing (which took about 5 minutes).  :)

 

Oh, this picture was after church, when we got back to the D's farm and Sam (Michael's dog) greeted my dad warmly!

 

Mrs. D. feeding the doggies some leftovers from the church potluck:

 

 This picture makes me laugh!

It looks like my parents were doing some choreographed dance steps or something...? It was chilly, so that explains the hands in the pockets look, but I'm not sure why they were walking sideways? :)

 

Back to church though...

  

 It was an extra special service that week, as their church was celebrating it's anniversary. The Kingery family came and sang several songs and Mr. Kingery spoke for a while. They are a home schooling family from MN.  Their music was GREAT and just seeing their love for each other and for God was so encouraging too!! I'm planning to get some of their music CDs in the near future.

The Kingery family has a website: http://www.thekingeryfamily.com/

and a You-Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMOyrHaY6aICB1aljJ19WnA ,

for those of you who may be interested.

 

After the concert, we all enjoyed a potluck meal, then after some visiting, we went back to the D's farm to visit for a couple more hours yet before leaving for home that afternoon.

 

 It was a great mini-vacation and we're very grateful to the D. family for their hospitality and to God, for the safety in our travels (especially since we almost were in an accident on the way over)!

Yesterday, I was babysitting almost all day.  My mom was busy with garden produce. The guys moved hay home and worked in the shop.

 

Today, my dad hauled grain and my brothers worked on the farm. My mom and I worked in the kitchen and enjoyed a little break when Josephine and her parents and little sister came over for a bit to get a computer from Andrew.

 

Tonight, I'm counting my friends as one of the Lord's greatest blessings!

 

Please join us in prayer for our friend, Ellen (her husband had the 90th birthday party last weekend), as she woke up mostly blind yesterday or today and the Dr.s aren't sure she'll get her sight back, but God can do anything!!

 

A furnace, a cook stove, and a bountiful garden harvest...

 

Our guys were busy, although that's not really surprising or unusual...  This morning, they unloaded Andrew's tin for his house, then they headed for our old Temvik house to get the furnace out of there, as the F. family's furnace went out and they're buying the one from our house there.  While there with the trailer, the guys loaded up an old wood cook-stove that we were storing there.  Some other friends will be buying it.

 

When Dad and my brothers got home, they cut out the rest of the trees that were growing where they weren't supposed to be across the road (their most recent project).

 

 

My mom and I kept busy with baking (cookies, cake); cooking (applesauce and fresh broccoli-cream-cheese-soup) and picking the things from the garden (lots of tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, squash/zucchini, onions) that we don't want to freeze this weekend when we're gone. I haven't told you all yet, but my parents and I are going to visit friends in MN, so my blog will once again be silent for a while.

 

God be with you 'til we meet again!  May He guide us all.~

Silage---done!

Great work, guys!!!

 

I took this picture of the silage pile this morning when I went to get a few buckets full for Sally, the calves, and chickens.

 

 

I babysat Johanna and Tracy Jo most of the day. We baked cookies and played outside for a while.  :)

 

Happy October to you all!