Summer on the farm...

 Summertime on the farm always holds its own special scenes and aromas that set it apart like no other.  Some of my favorite things are looking at the hayfield after it's been cut. We feel especially thankful this year to have been able to use a round baler for most of our hay crop.  We are saving a small field for square bales, which the kids are looking forward to helping with (That is really a true statement!).  If there was a way to include the aroma of a newly cut hayfield I would have.  I personally love that smell.

Field sprinkled with hay bales...

Blackberries ready to pick!

Yum Yum!

Summer would not be complete without blackberries.  We have a great patch next to the barn where some walk-in freezers used to be.  It is great to stand on concrete while picking.  I am especially prone to poison ivy, so I am a very careful picker.  If you look closely at the bushes, I am sure there is some poison ivy amongst the berries.  These are going into the freezer to become a future cobbler.  Next time I am making blackberry freezer jam.

New Faces on the Farm...

This is Max, Ryan's puppy. He actually was born in September, but I liked this picture of him asleep under the Christmas tree.Max is about 4 months old in this picture with Ryan.
Here is our new Angus bull, Brutus. He is about 6 years old, and we are hoping the cows will think he is a good addition to the farm!

This is Darcy, a 20 yr. old Tennessee Walking Horse. Walter's cousin is letting us try him out to see if we like him. So far he seems pretty mellow and doesn't mind our inexperience too much.

Didn't want to overlook this...

These pictures were taken the day we got back from our trip to Indiana in May. May 22, 2011, to be exact. We had just arrived home and were totally taken unaware by the marvelous colors in the sky. It was as though everything was tinted red. The white gravel on the driveway was even tinted pink. A large colorful rainbow was in the sky.

And as though a powerful painter was painting with vibrant colors (and He was!) the sunset was absolutely splendid!

Oh, and if the date rang a bell with you, this was shortly after the E-5 tornado in Joplin, on the other side of Missouri from us. Amazing!

Reminds me of Psalms 19:1 "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands."

Posted by Pam

Our visit to the farm...

KITTENS!

We spent several days at the farm visiting grandparents, and the kids really enjoyed taking these pictures while we were there. I'm glad my kids are making some of their own memories there. I know I (Pam) sure have a lot of fond memories from growing up on this farm.

One night Cathy treated us to a delicious dinner followed by hymn singing, which Mom & Dad really enjoyed.

Metamorphosis survives 2 moves!

At the end of last summer we found a beautiful large green caterpillar at Lions' Club Park. We put it in a jar and it started spinning a cocoon right away. A few days later we found another slightly different caterpillar, put it in the same jar, and it also started spinning a cocoon.

The jar traveled with us last fall when we moved and resided for a couple of weeks in Liz's kitchen, then moved into the guest house. The jar made it safely through the move to the camper, and stayed on a shelf in the very small living room through the winter. This spring I set it out on the porch, and a couple of weeks ago Jennifer happened to notice that a beautiful moth had emerged.

The 4 spots were translucent - just amazing.

See his beady little eyes?

I'm so glad God chose to create such interesting creatures. There are probably some good lessons to learn from them. Things like patience, perseverance, and God's sense of timing.

Nothing like warm weather and a good project!

Last week before the weather turned cold (again!) we started in earnest on our project of tearing down the stable attached to the garage - which is the future site for our house. We sort of forgot to take good "before" pictures , so you will just have imagine how this looked.

Here is a good view of the back side. It had about 6 horse stalls in it.

Walter, Cordell, and Ryan actually started on this last fall by removing the tin roof. We were able to re-use some of the rafters on the roof over our camper. This is pretty much how it looked last week. In progress...

We have started a burn pile in the middle.

It's coming along!

Ryan got quite good at throwing his hammer to make it stick in the grass!

Here is proof that I was helping too. Although, my help was limited. I actually spent a lot of time scooping up really good old manure and putting it on our future garden site.

Salvaging the good boards...

Jennifer was helping too, and provided many of these photos. Here are just a few random ones....

I personally like this one. Do you know what it is?

If you guessed 2 crowbars hanging from each other - then you are right!

Posted by Pam

Little lost puppy finds a new home...

This cute little puppy showed up at our house a few weeks ago, but we are only just now getting around to blogging about it! We are pretty sure it was probably dropped off, but no way of knowing for sure. He was a beagle mix and just looking for some warmth and food. After advertising on the radio and rollanet, we had some calls, but no one claimed him. Jenny posted it on Facebook, and one of her friends ended up adopting him. Happy ending for the puppy!
Posted by Pam

Bald Eagles....

One of the benefits to living next to a lake is being able to see wildlife you don't normally get to see. We have really enjoyed spotting a pair of Bald Eagles who like to perch in a tree just beyond our front yard. They also have a young bird, probably not quite a year old yet, who is all brown and doesn't have the white head and tail yet. They are quite beautiful to watch. When the lake thaws out (which doesn't seem to be any time soon), we are hoping to be able to spot them swooping down and catching a fish out of the lake. Picture taken byJenny.

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

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

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!

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