Progress report...

Hi There! Sorry we have done a miserable job of keeping up to date with this. I will try to catch you up quickly though.

We found a camper we liked about mid-November and pulled it onto the farm. We parked it next to the mobile office and are constructing a room to connect them both.

This is a 37 foot Wildwood by BlackForest camper. It has a 16 ft slide out in the living room/kitchen. For a camper, it is quite roomy, at least before we put any of our things in it!

This is the kitchen, and you can see the shower through the open door.This is the corner of the kitchen table and the living room. Through the open door you can see the bedroom at the front of the camper.


This is Cordell & Ryan's space. To say bedroom seems a little too generous, but they do actually have a room with a door. On the other side of the room is a little booth table that also makes into a bed.

This is the front view of the mobile office that faces the lake. If all goes well, Jennifer will have a bedroom of sorts in here. It also has a half bathroom.

Here is how it looked next to the mobile office. Walter took off the ramp, tore down the railings, and got started on the connecting room. The kids and I went to Fort Wayne to visit my family over the Thanksgiving holiday, and left Walter at home working diligently on the construction project, along with a good friend of our family, Scott.

End of Progress Report (part 1 of ???)

Posted by Pam

Time for "Plan B" & in the meantime...

We have been enjoying our respite from the stresses of moving out of our house. Liz & Lewis have been most generous with sharing their guesthouse with us. We were waiting to hear if our Plan A was going to work out or not. We have heard now, and looks like we will be going with Plan B, which is to live in some type of temporary housing at our farm. We are exploring some options we may have with the structures that are already there, or with possibly bringing in something like a mobile home. Hopefully, we will get it figured out fairly quickly so we can ease the stresses of transitional living!

In the meantime, the kids have been rather busy recently. Cordell & Ryan are participating in a First Lego Robotics Challenge and so have been busy with their teams preparing for it. Cordell's team is researching the lungs and respiration, and Ryan's team has narrowed their research down to the use of biomedical engineering helps for macular degeneration. Rather interesting!

Cordell & Jenny are both playing basketball with the homeschool teams through RHAA, and have had practices twice a week.

We had to put up some new fencing for our cows at our new farm. Tomorrow is the big day for turning them out of their temporary round pen.

Well, all for now.
Posted by Pam

Move - Phase 1 is almost complete!

Well, what a crazy week last week! Tuesday some kind friends came and helped us pack up the kitchen and downstairs, and really lots of places in between even. Thursday was the big moving day, and again, with the help of lots of friends we packed the U-Haul full. Friday we moved out the rest of the stuff that didn't fit, and started cleaning. By Saturday at 2:30 we had the house completely finished and clean. Which was good because the buyers were planning to arrive around 4:00 to start moving in!

Also on Saturday, we had an interview with the board at Little Prairie Bible Camp for the caretaker's position at the camp. They are also interviewing another family and decided to take another 2 weeks before they make their decision. So, we still don't really know where we are moving to. In the meantime, we need to finish moving some farm equipment, get the cows moved, and we are looking for a mobile home to park on our land. Oh, and we are staying with my generous sister in the meantime.

We are staying in the guesthouse, which has its own bathroom, fridge, and microwave. The kids take turns staying in the big house with their cousins. It is working just fine and we are most grateful for it.

Well, we will keep you posted... It seems life is never dull!
Posted by Pam

Facts...

Hello everybody. =)

I have decided that since I am short on time and really don't have time to blog, I am just going to share a few facts with you today.

- We are moving out of our current house on Thursday.

- We are busy packing.

- We are busy cleaning.

- We are going to remain calm.

- Moving doesn't have to be stressful.

- I am trying to keep up with school work even though this week is going to be crazy.

- My brothers and I are going to Sullivan tomorrow for band.

- My brothers and I are going to the St. Louis Symphony and the Botanical Gardens on Wednesday. ( =D )

- I am going to an English Country Dance Ball on Saturday. (I am really excited about this! I even have a date! Well.... Jenna is taking me. :)

- Ryan hasn't been feeling well, and has had a slight fever. (Please pray that he will recover quickly!)

- The soccer and volleyball seasons are over. (Now for basketball!!)

- My volleyball team received second place in our conference tournament!

- Cordell's soccer team placed 2nd in his league!

- My daddy is amazing.

- My mom is beautiful.

- The weather is getting cooler.
and that is pretty much it for now. =)

God Bless!

~Jenny

Fall is harvest time...

Digging up Sweet Potatoes!

This is the 2nd year we have grown sweet potatoes. They are really quite easy to grow and don't require a lot of care. Late in May I bought 25 sweet potato slips (small plants) and planted them. After mulching, we really just left them alone until this past week. Cordell and Ryan have been a great help in digging them up, and it is nice that they can just take over the task for me now.

We will be eating these soon. Yummy!

Posted by Pam

Contract on House!

Less than 2 months after putting our House For Sale by Owner sign up, we have a contract to sell it. We used Rollanet & Craigslist to advertise it, which are both free classified website listings. We are just amazed at how God is providing for us, and with His perfect timing. We are closing by November 8th, or possibly sooner if our buyer can get everything done on their end. This is right after soccer and volleyball, but before basketball and deer season. Not to mention perfect weather for moving as well.

The surveyors and termite inspectors are here today. We have started packing up our extra stuff. Walter has already moved a lot of the outside farm equipment to the farm as well.

You might be asking where we are moving to? Well, we are not sure ourselves yet. We have a possiblity we like, called Plan A, but won't know more about it for a couple more weeks yet. So, we are also preparing a Plan B option in case the first doesn't work out. So, you will have to be in suspense for a couple of weeks, just like we are!

We have really enjoyed living here these past 9 years. Great location close to our church and to town, beautiful scenery, and I have especially liked watching the squirrels play in the trees through the kitchen windows. The creek has been a great place for the kids to play, at least before the poison ivy gets bad. I am already missing living here before we have even moved!

But, I believe God has other things planned for us, and His plans are even better than what we can think of. So, I will quit reminiscing, and get busy packing!

Posted by Pam

I am in the process of designing a new blog template.
It isn't finished yet.
So, please bear with me as I get all the colors and such worked out. =)

~ Proverbs 3:5-6 ~

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Real men can wear pink!

Wearing pink is nothing new for Walter, but now he is wearing pink for most of October! Check out the following link for the story about his department wearing pink for breast cancer awareness month:

http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=626922196001

Ryan..

Helloooo!

Well, I have not blogged in a loooong time. ooops :)


Since school and other fall activities have started up, I have been rather busy!


So! I have decided to bring you up to date on our recent activities. yay!





... . . . . .





But, since doing that would take a really long time to read and an even longer time to type, I am going to just list and give a one (maybe two) sentence description of SOME our recent activities. =D



1. School.

It has started and is going well.


Ryan is in 4th grade (wow, how is that possible? They just grow up too fast!), Cordell is 6th grade, and I am in 10th grade.




2. Volleyball/Soccer

I am playing volleyball on the RHAA (Rolla Homeschool Athletic Association) varsity team, and having a blast! We have had several games so far and will continue playing until around the end October-when basketball season begins! =D

The boys are playing soccer with RASYL (Rolla Area Youth Soccer League) this fall and are enjoying it. Cordell especially loves soccer and is, with a biased opinion, pretty good. =)



3. Robotics

Cordell and Ryan were invited to be a part of a LEGO robotics team and are learning things about programming, and building robots that are way over my head.



4. House for Sale

We have shown the house twice and are just going to put it in God's hands.




5. As of Monday, I am now 16 years old. =O (No, no licence yet... =)




6. Seussical the Musical -It has been cast, and Cordell and I both have roles! =D I can't wait for rehearsals to start! (more on this later...)




7. Book Club - I am involved in a young ladies literature group and we are currently reading/studying 'A Tale Of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens. It is such a great book!(Though, I personally like the musical better. :) We are also learning to knit... yes, knit. heehee. =]




8. Other Random Stuff

This includes things like going to Elephant Rocks and climbing around, to filling out the 4-H secretary's book(talk about tedious and time consuming!), to riding horses with friends, to tearing down the garage at the land, to everything else that I can't think of at this moment.



Anywho! I hope you feel semi updated about some of our recent activities. If not, well, I'm sorry.


God Bless!
-Jenny

Walter's Vacation - Day 9

Day 4 - Tuesday - Went for a very long, long trip for nothing, as it turned out. Have been trying very hard to locate a diesel (preferably Dodge) 4 wheel drive truck, but finding what I want at the price I can afford has been hard. Pam went along on the trip, but does eating at Sam's Club count as a date?

Day 5 - Wednesday - Well, apparently did nothing as we can't seem to remember what we did!

Day 6 - Thursday - up early to drive to House Springs to take Mom to an eye dr. appointment following her cataract surgery yesterday. Everythings seems to be going fine for her eye. Did some truck and lawn mower and mobile home shopping on the way home. Took it easy with the family that evening and listened to the kids practice their audition songs.

Day 7 - Friday - Went to the farm and loaded up more scrap metal and sorted out recyclables from the garage. Met Jeanine to work on organizing a work day. She has most graciously agreed to help us organize a work day later this fall, or as soon as we get some more preliminary work done. Took the scrap metal in - over 500 pounds. Kids had co-op in the afternoon. Helped fry fish at the church for a fellowship dinner. Ate the fried fish, then went to watch Jenny play a volleyball game. (lost both games...)

Day 8 - Started out brush hogging at the Maxwells. Drove the tractor to the Wiles. Went to the farm with the boys and Austin. Worked on salvaging wood and tin from the garage and stables to get it ready for burning. Patriot Day Rally in the evening. Beautiful fall day today! The kids auditioned for Seussical and Pam was quite relieved to have that over...

Day 9 - Church, meeting, church, and the kids cleaned the van today. Sermon title: Holey, Holy & Wholly. Interesting, huh... And it was - good job Wade!

Patriot Day Rally in Rolla!

We interrupt Walter's vacation to bring you a report on the Patriot Day Rally in Rolla. I (Pam) was so surprised at what a wonderful evening it was. I somewhat expected it to be some sort of political event with candidates for election speaking about their platforms. Instead I was most pleasantly surprised to find that it focused on honoring God, our country, our founding fathers and the constitution, our military and the many sacrifices they have made to keep and defend our freedoms, and a tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attack on our country by Muslim extremists.

A retired military colonel who seemed quite the expert on Islam, gave a lengthy, but very informative speech about the history of Islam, their conquests, and defeats. It was especially interesting because our family studied history of the middle ages last year and it was a good review of the history we studied.

A concert was given by a community children's and adult choirs, and various other groups. It was fun to see various people in period costumes. We also got to see an American Bald Eagle. It was beautiful! It was great to see so many of our friends there (and even family!) It was a great evening capped by a great fireworks display.

Walter's vacation - day 3

Walter has 3 days of vacation this month. Counting the 4 days before his rotation, the 4 days after, and the 2 in between, he is off about 13 days in a row. This is one of the things we like about his fireman's schedule.

Day 1 - Saturday. went to yard sales on the way home. Loaded trailer with lawn equipment to cut the grass at our other farm. Arrived to find 70 cows in the yard, road, and by the lake. Rounded them up and put them in our field till the owner came to get them. Put new belt on mower, cut grass which took 4 hours, had trouble with a few mowers such as tire issues on little earl (cub tractor), etc. Then grilled and cooked dinner at our house for my family.

Day 2 - Sunday. Church, nap, weed eat at our house and do some lawn mowing, church again and finish with waffles with black berries, chocolate and strawberry syrup, and cool whip at our house afterwards with church family.

Day 3 - Monday (Labor Day). Meet neighbor at 7 am to bring our cows back home from visiting thier bull. No they didn't get out of our field, we took them to the nieghbors farm for breeding. Work on checking our fences and weed eating/brush clearing around them. Stop to put the chain back on the 4 wheeler. Stop to help get a stuck kite out of a tree. Finish up, shower and to a neighbor's for a cook-out.

Well, it is off to a great start...
Posted by Pam

Masquerade Party!

Jenny recently attended a 16th birthday party/masquerade party for her friend, Shaylynn. Jenny wore the French Revolution time period dress she made last fall. She was in a literature group studying "The Scarlett Pimpernel", and made the dress as part of the study.

This is the front view. Luckily, we found a huge crenoline slip/skirt to wear under the dress that helped to really poof it out. Apparently the goal back then in the late 1700's was to show how small your waist was by expanding the hips!

Just to give the full idea, here Jennifer is showing just how full the dress is! I remember Jenny saying how hard it was to gather all the fabric together. No wonder! The girls had a great time and even went for a stroll about the neighborhood. Well, not to sound biased, but I thought Jennifer did a great job with her costume, and even made a neat mask from paper mache - complete with feathers. Great job, Jenny!

Posted by Pam

House for Sale

Well, it is official now. We have a "For Sale" sign in the yard and we will be glad to show our house to anyone interested in buying it. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 and a half bath ranch home on a full finished basement.

This is the living room. It has a gas fireplace, vaulted ceiling and beautiful car siding. That last thing means it has wooden boards on the wall. There is also a nice deck from the living room.The kitchen features a tray ceiling, ceiling fan, gas stove, lots of oak cabinets, plenty of counter space, and a beautiful view of the tree tops out of the kitchen sink window and the bay windows at the dining table. I personally love watching the squirrels play in the trees, and you can see the brook in the woods at the back of the house.The lower level is bright and sunny with windows all across the back side. It has a concrete patio out the back door, a wood stove, and TWO large storage rooms. I call them "His and Her" storage rooms since I have one and Walter uses the other. You can see the new wood laminate flooring and the new carpeting we did this spring. There is a long family room, a side room for whatever you want, and also 2 bedrooms and a full bath on this level.

Outside there is a small creek in the woods behind the house, just right for exploring, a pond with catfish, peach trees, blackberries, a nice garden spot, and plenty of space for playing. The pasture is about 7 acres, and has electric fencing. Our land is actually three 5 acre lots put together, so we are willing to sell it with 5, 10 or all 15 acres. Oh, and we also have very nice neighbors, and that is worth more than you might think.

So, for more info, let us know! (And help us spread the word. We are trying to sell it without a realtor first.) :) Posted by Pam

A 4-wheeler, Tenor Sax, & a 'For Sale' sign...

Well, I haven't posted in a while. With the Rolla Fair 3 weeks ago, to a youth rally in St. Louis, to Six Flags, to The Pirates of Penzance DVD release, to my best friend, Desi's 17 Birthday (Old, I know =) to a week at LPBC, to volleyball starting up, to cousins from IN coming to visit this week (What a fun bunch! ).... I have been a little swamped. =)
But, you are still probably wondering about the title of this post. So without further ado:


"I had been at camp all week. It was such an awesome week! The lessons were good, the food was good, the fellowship was great, and the heat was ridiculous! The hottest day of the year we spent outdoors. It. Was. Intense.

My mom had just picked Cordell and I up, when we pulled into my uncle's driveway and see a 4-wheeler sitting there. Since, we were on my uncle's driveway, I assumed it was his. Ryan, however, could hardly contain himself and blurted out that we bought a quad while Cordell and I were at camp! This news made me happy. :) This 4-wheeler is alot smaller compared to the one that died last year, and it is a stick shift, but it is a nice camo color and once I learn how to shift it to it's full potential, I know that I am going to enjoy having it. :)
The End Of Part One. "

Here is the second story:

"I had been at camp all week. It was such an awesome week! The lessons were good, the food was good, the fellowship was great, and the heat was ridiculous! The hottest day of the year we spent outdoors. It. Was. Intense.


Mom had picked Cordell and I up a couple of hours earlier and we were at home unpacking, talking about the week, and such. When, randomly, I ask mom if she had been looking for instruments for us kids to learn at Ms. Kay's this fall. ( I wanted a Tenor Sax. Cordell - Alto Sax. Ryan - trumpet. ) She replied, "Actually, we have been. And, actually, we bought a tenor sax for you to use. We found it online and had Uncle Mike look at it since he used to play. He said that it would be a good one to learn on, so we bought it. I took it to Ms. Kay and she was able to get notes out of it and said that some of the pads needed replacing, but that it should be fine. So it is currently at the repair shop." This news made me happy. :) really happy!
Now, since it is still at the repair shop, I haven't seen it yet...I hear that it is not shiney-shiney, but looks better than my trombone, which is pretty tarnished... I don't really care what is looks like though. :)

The End Of Part Two"

And for part three:

"We put up a "For Sale" sign in front of our house! This means that we are ready to start showing our house to potential buyers. We are actually still painting Cordell and Ryan's rooms, but everything else is ready! So, if you know anybody who is looking for a house in Rolla, send them our way! I will probably post more about everything that we have done to get our house "ready to sell" later.

The End Of Part Three"

Till next time!
God Bless y'all!

~Jenny

Fair Time!

Once again, we found ourselves at the Rolla Fair during a very hot week in July. The rides and entertainment were lots of fun, especially the bull riding, tractor pulls, and demolition derby. But let me (Pam) tell you. The real excitement for us was in the livestock barns! This picture doesn't really do justice to the impromptu pig wrangling that often occurred. Here Jenny is helping to push a pig down the isle to be loaded into a waiting trailer. If you have never "wrangled" (for lack of a better word) a pig, you never know if you are going to be stepped on, slobbered on, get your clean pair of pants dirty, or even go for a ride when the pig chooses to go between your legs. Let's just say it can be rather entertaining to watch!
Ok, as you have already guessed, Jenny and Cordell both had market hogs at the fair as part of their 4-H Swine project. This involved raising them since April, and keeping track of their feed costs.

Here is Cordell sitting on his pig, Hippo. Hippo weighed 43 pounds in April, gained 172 pounds in 103 days for a rate of gain of 1.67 pounds per day. To do this, Cordell fed her 425 pounds of food! His pig was purchased by The Butcher Shop for $1.20 per pound, and Intercounty Electric boosted everyone's price up to $1.40/pound. I think Cordell will be rather pleased with his profit margin!

Jenny with her pig, Eugene. Eugene weighed 78 pounds in April, gained 177 pounds in 103 days, for a rate of gain of 1.72 pounds per day. She fed him 425 pounds of food costing $67. Her pig was purchased at the Livestock Auction by Intercounty Electric Co-op. Jenny will also be pleased with her profit margin!

Part of what made the fair extra fun this year was having our cousins showing bucket calves and a market hog as well. Here Jenny is braiding Jessie's hair before the Bucket Calf show.

Here is David with his market hog, Toa.

Brook with Coudy, her Charlais breed calf.

Washing the calves.

David with Jessie's calf, Dolly, a Hereford breed.

I also have to mention that the kids participated in a frozen T-shirt contest, and Brooke won a cool bicycle at the kids games!

Lots of great memories.....

Posted by Pam

4-H Club paints a mural...

Last month the Lucky Ducky 4-H Club worked on a community service project at the Rolla Fairgrounds. It took many days of careful work, but you can see the progression. Jennifer and Desi were the primary painters of the quilt border and the star design. It has a rather patriotic red, white and blue theme. The fairboard staff were very pleased with the club's dedication to the project, and especially that they were being so careful.

Funny Story. Mr. Nadalski, a Fairboard member, was talking to the club about how pleased he was with how careful the club was being with the paint. Practically in the middle of his sentence,

Desi somehow tripped over the can of brown paint and spilled it on the ground. It was just too funny, and Mr. Nadalski was very cool about it. We just let the paint puddle dry up and peeled it off the ground later.

Here Desi & Jeni are working on it.

Cordell and Mrs. Cureton stretching to reach the high squares.

Will, Markus and Erich Baur, along with Ryan show off their hand print squares.



Getting closer to completion...

I just realized that the final pictures are on Jenny's camera - who is away at camp this week. So, I will have to leave you in suspense as to what was painted on the final 2 squares.

This was a great project for our club and 16 different members and 2 moms worked on it.

Look for it when you visit the Phelps County Fairground - you can hardly miss it!

Posted by Pam

When I grow up, I want to be a....Christian!

Just in case anyone is reading this who might be interested, our church is holding a VBS next week. It is going to be a lot of fun and we are looking forward to it!

Here are the details:

63 South Church of Christ in Rolla

Friday, July 30 from 6-9 (dinner included).

Saturday, July 31 from 9-1 (lunch included).

By the way, does anybody have any refrigerator boxes they want to get rid of? We need a lot of boxes!

Posted by Pam

A Canoe Trip

Yesterday, we went canoeing.

My friends, Kelsey and Victoria, came with me.

My family and some others from our church came too.


It was lots of fun!


First, we drove to Jack's Fork.


On the way, we bought some 25 cent drinks from Mobile on the run.


Once we got there, we unloaded the canoes.


We paddled.


We swam.


We applied sunscreen.


Some of us still got a sun burn.


We ate lunch.


We saw fish, turtles, birds, and people.


Kelsey, Victoria, and I bent our canoe nearly in half.


It was unintentional.


In order to bend it back into shape, Daddy had to jump on it.


Mr. Paul had to bang it with a rock.


Mr. Don fixed the holes with duck tape. Sort of.


On the way home, we listened to Seussical.


Quote of the day:


"Life jackets make me feel buff." -Kelsey

:)

St. Louis Science Center

Last month while Jenny was at Sr. Week at LPBC, we went to the Science Center after my dentist appointment. My neice, Jessica, came with us also. We had a lot of fun looking at all their new exhibits. Our favorite things were watching the science experiment shows, doing all the hands on stuff, and building arches. Here is a small wooden arch, nicely displayed by Cordell and Jessie.

Next it was time to try something bigger - a bigger arch!




Midway... and Success!

This was a "hamster wheel" of sorts which powered a machine to lift balls up to the ceiling, in which they rolled down in all sorts of neat ways like a marble maze in huge proportions. Jessie and I are attempting to spin it here. The boys were able to spin it much faster - look at thier feet go!

Posted by Pam

6 is a serious number.

Fact:

I have had more drinks from Mobile on the Run this summer than I have probably ever had in my life.








:)

The New Flowerbed

A post by Pam:

There is something very satisfying about doing something you have intended on doing (for quite some time, I might add), but hadn't gotten around to doing yet. I have always intended on creating a new flowerbed under the large tree in our front yard because the grass doesn't grow well there anyways. Last week with the help of Cordell and Ryan I was able to complete it. What you can't see is how many loads of dirt we had to shovel and bring over in the lawnmower trailer from a dirt pile!

To those of you who saw my earlier fuzzy picture, my apologies. These are better. Notice the solar lights. Again, another thing I have always wanted to add, but never had. I am so glad God gave us flowers to enjoy! Oh, and mulch is a pretty nice thing too. Walter took the time out of a very busy day in the hay field to bring home a trailer full of mulch for me. That is when you know someone really loves you!

I also finally reclaimed the front flowerbed and converted it from its previous jungle status! I personally love my wagon wheels and the hand cultivator. The red thing is a tractor front axle which I find quite interesting.

To finish it off, I even got out the old rusted milk can from the garage (where it has been waiting for years for me to do something with it) and painted it for a planter. The old Maytag washer Walter brought home one day. It has a motor on the bottom of it and came from an older gentleman in Webster Groves who wanted to get rid of it. The wringer swings around from the back. Well, I am trying to brighten some corners!

The Reasons For My Silence

Hello Everybody!

I am sorry that I haven't posted in so long! Our schedule has gotten rather crazy the past month! But, I hope that you will find it in your heart to forgive me and live to see many more posts on this blog. So, as for what we have been busy doing:

Number 1. Camp
Our family, for the past 8 years, has attended or helped out at Little Prairie Bible Camp in St. James. I love that place! Some of the daily activities include: chapel, Bible classes, singing, swimming, crafts, hiking, sports, and 24/7 exposure to outdoor air, that is, no AC. =)
Ryan and I spent the first week in June at primary week (3rd - 5th grade). Ryan as a camper, me as a JC. I went back last week for senior week and had a great time! The theme verse for 2010 is:

Rejoice in the LORD always, and again I say Rejoice! -Phil. 4:4

There were so many great lessons about this verse!
This week, mom, the boys, and I are helping out at day camp (age 5 - 2nd grade ). What a fun age.... lol :)
In August, Cordell and I are going to combined week (5-12 grade), which should be fun. It is one of my favorite sessions. =)

2. 4-H Achievement Day
In 4-H, Achievement Day is, like, the "big shebang". It is where all of your projects are judged and, hopefully, sent on to the state fair. Anyways, my mom, as one of the leaders of our club, was co/in charge of getting people to judge projects, set up, and all of that behind the scenes stuff. She did a good job. =) It went really well and I had a couple items selected for state! (My brown jumper and a picture of a water drain. =) I am also an alternate for state fashion revue.
Cordell and Ryan did well, not having anything for state, but earning lots of blue ribbons!
Now, I know that this event was only one day, but it represents lots of hours of prep work. =)

3. Getting our house ready to sell.
I will let mom elaborate on this in a future (but not too distant) post.

4. Haying/Keeping the yardS mowed.
Ok, I know that the "keeping the yardS mowed" part may sound silly, but we really cut alot of grass! lol.. What with cutting grass out at the Lake farm and our current house, we probably cut 7 acres a week! Thank goodness for Little Earl. =)

5. Random Unexpected Activites.
Ranging from the science center, to repairing the AC, to replacing the brakes on the van, to buying 25cent drinks from Mobile on the Run when we see the Cardinals Flag out, to nursing Senora's cut paw, to painting a mural on bathrooms at the Phelps CO Fairgrounds, to staying up late to finish this blog post when you have to wake up early the next morning because you are helping out at afore mentioned camp! We are busy. (But I really wouldn't have it any other way.=)

Except for maybe posting on the blog a little more often....
God Bless!
Jenny

Need another suitcase?!

This is a rather interesting traveling trunk that Walter acquired some years ago, and we have decided that now is a good time for it to find another owner. It is a 1920 Herckert and Meisel Trunk made in St. Louis.

Here is a link for Herkert & Meisel. They are still in business, since 1888! Currently located in Owensville, Mo, they now specialize in sample cases and bags.

http://herkertmeisel.com/history.htm

Check it out!

It has 6 pull out drawers, and all original fabric and leather linings, wooden hangers, etc.
The little tag states that you should store your 3 lb. traveling iron here.


This is my favorite part. The bottom drawer opens up to reveal two little knobs to store your bonnets on to keep them from getting crushed.

The trunk was guaranteed by the H&M Trunk Co. for 5 years. Looks like it made it for 90!
This trunk weighs a ton empty. I can't imagine what it would weigh full. I suspect whoever traveled with this trunk didn't have to worry about moving it (at least themselves). It seems like the sort of thing that travelers on the Titanic would have used.
Let us know if anyone is interested and we will make you a great deal!

Posted By Pam