Shortest post ever?

I'm really tired tonight, so I'll make this my shortest post yet, and just wish you all a good nights rest and leave you with this thought:

Building a back-stop... (Be warned--there are a lot of pictures!)

Before I get into the most interesting part of the day for me, I'll tell you what Mom and Jacob were up to... They went down to Eureka, SD and picked my grandpa's apples (with the help of a good friend and my Bornemann grandma) and then they brought Grandpa Delzers' camper home with them. When they were about 2 miles away from our place, all of a sudden a rock hit the back window of the van and broke the glass!!!!! This is the 3rd time this has happened to us while we were pulling a square-front trailer, so maybe from now on we'll have to use a pickup for pulling such things?

Meanwhile at the farm, we set up the back-drop for our Appleseed Shoot!

First, Dad and Andrew went and loaded up the bales, while I worked on cutting some weeds off and getting ready to mow the lawn. When the guys returned, they were pleased with how well the bales had stacked onto the hay-trailer...

Andrew headed out to the pasture with his lawn-mower...

...and I drove the 9030 out, while Dad took the semi...

While Andrew mowed, I tried directing Dad where to put the bales so that they'd be in a straight row. Ha! Once Andrew was finished mowing, he took over with the directing, and I was so glad, as he has a much better eye for such things!!!

The reason we had to build a back-stop is that we don't have any steep enough hills around here to act as a stop for the bullets...

As I had to stick around (to drive the tractor back when they were done with it), I had a little time to play around with my new camera...

This picture didn't turn out quite right, but is still funny to look at, as it was taken (by Andrew)with the Panorama mode on my camera. All 3 people on top of the bales are me!

Another Panorama picture--where the bales seem to be bulging outwards...

...and yet another one--that actually turned out pretty well...

This is looking down the row from the top-side of the bales:

And here is Millie in the newly-mown shooting area...

Finally--here is our wall!

We heard from the Dagleys today and it sounds like Ben & Amanda will be coming this weekend, so I'm really excited about that!!!

As far as the weather goes, my dad heard on the radio that the rain was taken out of the forecast for Saturday, so that's a praise! It still sounds like it will be cold though, so we're really praying hard for the weathermen to be wrong--although I think we'll dig out some warm clothing---just in case.....................................

A small miracle happened here tonight...

Today was the day I've been looking forward to for a while now--the day when the FedEx website said that my new camera would be delivered to our front door. As the FedEx man usually goes past our place around 11:00AM, I was keeping an eye out for him about that time. But, the morning went by and no FedEx man showed up.

Mother, Jacob & I went about our work of getting garden produce picked and carried into the house (there's a possibility of frost tonight...) and worked all afternoon at it. Still, no delivery man pulled in. By that time, I figured that the tracking information must have been off and that my camera would come tomorrow.

Well..... I had just taken a load of squishy tomatoes and onion tops over to the goat pen, when a bright red pickup pulled in the yard. As my parents headed toward the vehicle, I knew that whoever it was would be taken care of, and headed over to see how Andrew was coming along with getting the electric fence put back up (he and dad had cleaned out another lot this afternoon.) As it was very still out though, the sound of a familiar voice drifted over our way and Andrew & I recognized the voice of some of our "Neighbors". (I say, "Neighbors" because they live about 8 miles away and I don't know if they'd be considered neighbors--being that far away?)

Anyway, my brother and I headed up toward the pickup and it was then that I noticed that Mother was holding a small cardboard box in her hand... As I got closer, I realized that the box must be my camera--and it was!!! The amazing and miraculous part of this story comes in now, when I tell you how our neighbors got to be in possession of the small cardboard box......

There is a small farmstead up the road half a mile from us that is now owned by hunters (who are only here about 2 weeks out of the year.) All during this Summer, these hunters paid someone to mow the yard and all last Winter, they paid us to check on the place once a week to make sure the furnace was working. Other than the lawn-mowing guy; the owners during hunting season; and us, nobody is ever up there.

However, these neighbors decided to pull in there this afternoon and see if there were any apples that had fallen off of the trees. (A little strange, I know, but that's what they did...) When they drove past the house, they noticed a box on the cement in front of the door. As they were wondering who had bought the place, they decided to look at the name on the box. It read (yes, you guessed it!): CORA BORNEMANN. (It had our correct address on it and everything!) Hmmmm.... As they knew that I didn't live up there, they were very kind and decided to deliver the package to me. :) What a surprise!!! It makes me wonder what all I would have had to do tomorrow to try to find my package, had not God worked all these things out for good! "Thank you Lord!!!"

So, my brothers and I've been having fun trying to figure out my new camera...
Here's a picture I took with it of the box it came in:


There's this fun feature called "Panorama" where you take a picture, then aim a little more to the right and snap another picture, then move once more and take that picture. You end up with a very wide picture like this: If you don't hold the camera straight though, you come up with some very interesting pictures--where things are all smudged together!

Andrew took this picture (using the Panorama mode) of me in my room, checking my e-mails. :)

Just a few minutes ago, I went out to the entryway and took some pictures of our harvest of the day:

Our little muskmelons~
Northern Arizona melon--a new variety to us~

Sugar Baby watermelon~

A few more Sugar Babies and some Honeydew~

I planted a gourd mix this Spring, but pretty much the only gourds that grew were these Bird-House gourds. It's kind of funny though, because a few years ago, we tried growing these and nothing happened, and now God's blessed us with several. :) Has anyone ever actually made a birdhouse out of one of these and do you have any tips on how to do it?

Jacob & I pulled all of the onions, but I don't have a picture of them yet, as they're in the shop for the night.

We picked one of our tomato patches and got about 30 gallons of tomatoes! Want to come help process them, Kimberly? :)

I took several more pictures, but I don't want to bore you with them, so I'll just wish you all a good nights rest and call it a day... And what a wonderful day it was!

An update on our Appleseed Project--and pictures from yesterday~

We have only 5 days left to prepare for the Appleseed Shoot event that's being held at our farm!!! We're praying a lot for nice weather--especially since today is so cold and windy and overall, not very cheery... We haven't heard if many people are coming or not, although this afternoon my mom talked to one of our friends and she said that some members of their family quite possibly may come for at least one day. As they have a large family, we were encouraged that our family won't be the only ones on the shooting line. :)

For your information, if you would like to join us and haven't registered yet, please sign up right away at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/436168592%20%20%20%20%20%20, as the instructor would like to know how many supplies (targets, T-shirts...) to bring. I know that he brings extra supplies along for people who come without registering, but it's just nicer for him to have an idea of what he'll need...


And now, I'll share the pictures I promised you yesterday!

Here is a group of people visiting in front of the Alfred church. It was a warm, sunny day and was very pleasant outside.

During the morning service, the church choir sang a song together (one I had never heard before) and they did an EXCELLENT job!!! If you look closely, you can see a fellow blogger friend, Kimberly in a green blouse, towards the left side of the picture. :)
There was a special announcement during the service---that there were new members of the church:

This is the guest speaker, Mr. Israel Steinmetz. (All of the pictures of him turned out fuzzy, as he kept on moving around so much. :) He spoke on how many things we really have to be grateful for--and it was such a good reminder!
~ "Thank you, Lord, for your many, many blessings!!!!!!!" ~
This is the fellowship hall...

Here, Pastor Kyner and Curt S. are visiting about the afternoon program (my mom read a poem and our family sang the song, "With My Song").

Pastor Kyner looks a little strict in this picture, but he is really a very kind, loving person and this is just not a very good picture of him! My brother, Andrew and I had a very good talk with him after the noon potluck meal--about marriage, of all things! :) Pastor Kyner has such a servants heart and is a real blessing! His wife is a very special lady too, but she was very busy talking with everyone and I didn't get more than a "Hello" and a smile exchanged with her...

This was taken after the noon meal, when my parents said they were going for a walk, but didn't make it farther than this, as they met up with several friends they wanted to visit with! Here they're visiting with Shirley K. Last year, I rented Shirley (and her late husband, Harris's) pasture for my cows and would, once a week, travel the 50 miles one way to check them and then would visit with Shirley. She is a very special lady and I wish we could see her more. Mother mentioned our Appleseed Shoot to her and she seemed interested! I just love her spunkyness! She lost her dear husband in a farming accident last year, and she misses him very much, but doesn't let that stop her from living life now.

Here Mother is with a long-time friend of ours, Elsie S. I had to get their picture, as the outfits they were wearing were very similar and they almost looked like mother and daughter!

Some gentleman visiting... (My dad and Andrew are on the right...)

Mother snapped this picture of my dear friend, Amber and myself in the kitchen...

A table full of tasty things to eat:

I'm not sure what Andrew & I were looking at, but it must have been interesting! :)

Harvest of Thanks is over-with for another year, but the good news is that we get to be grateful for the harvest (be that material or spiritual...) every day of the year!!!

Harvest of Thanks~

"Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good... His mercy endureth forever!"



We spent a lovely day in the little town of Alfred, ND, listening to a wonderful sermon on thankfulness and visiting with many friends. (Oh yes, the food was delicious too!)

As I'm very tired now though, and as the pictures aren't loaded onto the computer yet, I'll head for bed and will share about our day (hopefully) tomorrow~

Painted nails!

It's been many years since I've painted my nails, but today I did them up nice and proper--to make up for lost time!

See...? :)

Here's the reason for the grand occasion:

Yes, my afternoon was spent in painting the merry-go-round! :)

While I was busily painting away, (and splattering myself!) there were some other busy beavers working hard...

Jacob started painting colors onto the teeter-totter board:

Andrew was busy spreading again:

Mother painted around the front door...

And my dad hauled grain from 7:00AM to 6:00PM. (Sorry, I don't have a picture of him today...)

Here is our now very colorful merry-go-round. You may notice that it's a bit tippy... It got to be that way after several big people rode on it all at the same time years ago, and we've thought about straightening it out since, but have decided not to! The reason is because it's really fun to be able to lean in and out and "Pump" yourselves as you go--plus, this way, you don't need someone to push you in order to keep going round and round and round and round.......

Want to go for a ride? :)

Jacob & I also repainted the boards on the swing-set, as they were a little dinged up already and we want to varnish them this time, so wanted them to look nice before we do that.

Now I really need to get to bed, as we're getting up early to do our chores, as we're going to the annual "Harvest of Thanks" at the Alfred church. We have several dear friends over there, so it will be wonderful to be able to visit with them!!! Mom and Jacob cut up a bunch of tomatoes to take and share...

Here's a closing thought by Margaret Brownley~

"As a rose fills a room with its fragrance, so will God's love fill our lives."

Our doings--and an amazing video!

First thing, I'd like to share a movie with you that I just found... (I'll put it at the top here so that, if you wish, you can listen to it while you read about our day.) This gentleman is very talented--but as I don't want to spoil it for you, I'll just let you find out about him yourself. :)

(If it cuts half of the movie off the side, just click on the movie and it should come up correctly in a new window... )

(Yes, that's him singing all of the parts!!!)

This day seemed to slip by way too quickly... Where does the time always go? Well, let's see...

When we were about half way through with morning chores, my dad got a phone call from the local elevator. They were wondering if he could help haul some grain from one elevator to another, so he took off and was gone most of the day.

Once chores were finished, the rest of us chased the goats into a different pen and then we took down the panels around the out-door part of their pen. Mom and Jacob went to work on some projects then, while Andrew became a full-time tractor driver (emptying the manure spreaders onto the fields) and I became a manure-spreader-filler--using our nice 9030 loader tractor. We worked together until lunch time and then took a break. After our meal was over, Jacob went out to help Andrew.

Mom and I (later Jacob helped too) made 3 crock-pots worth of salsa. Mother did a little experiment to find out how hot our Jalapeno peppers are this year... She put a pepper--with seeds in tact, into one batch; she put 2 peppers--with the seeds out of them in another; and in the last, she put one un-seeded pepper in. Tonight, when she tried the super spicy batch, she said she thinks we'll think it's too hot! So, I guess those will be her salsa jars. :)

Our Kombucha was once again ready to be started, so that took about an hours worth of time...

I did a little more painting on the merry-go-round and Jacob measured and marked the teeter-totter board for where we should do the different colors...

All in all, it was a busy day once again.

My favorite bread recipe~

This is my favorite recipe for lacto-fermented bread--so far. :) My friend, Dorena, shared it with me 3 years ago and we've made it often since then. Enjoy~


BREAD
The night before you want to bake bread, mix 6 cups of whole wheat flour with 4 cups of buttermilk (whey, yogurt, veggie or potato-water work too...). Cover and let set.

The next morning:
Add 2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup oil
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 Tbsp. salt
4 cups w.w. flour
1 more cup buttermilk (or whatever liquid you used the night before)
My mom and I also like to add:
1 Tbsp. unflavored beef gelatin (to help it stick together);
3 Tbsp. vinegar (to help it raise)
1/2 tsp. kelp powder (for health benefits).

Mix this all well. We use a Dimension 2,000 (similar to a Bosch), but you can mix it by hand also.

Then put 2 tsps. yeast into 1/2 cup warm water with a little honey and stir. Let this set a bit until it foams up, then add this to the bread dough, along with 4+ more cups of flour. Mix all this together and knead it well. (We usually let it run about 5 minutes in our Dimension...)

Next shape your loaves, put them in pans, and let them set for most of the day--baking them when they've risen a good deal. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 35 minutes, then take it out of the oven and oil the tops of the loaves. Let the bread set for 10 minutes before removing the loaves from the pans. Then, dig out your cutting board and the butter dish and enjoy!!!

Yields: 7 medium-sized loaves

Some very candid photos from the last couple days~

What a busy day it was once again... It's amazing what can all be done when a family works together--especially when there is incentive to get things done by a certain time!

First, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from yesterdays' projects... Mother snapped this one of me while I was adding spice to the pickles:


These are the Sweet Banana peppers that I picked and froze. There are a LOT more in the garden yet, but they still need to ripen.
This morning, it was so calm out that we decided to burn garbage... Once the guys got the fire started, we all started looking for garbage to burn and it didn't take too long for us to head down to our basement--which was a disaster!!! Boxes of every shape and size were everywhere down there, and some had gotten wet and were getting moldy, so we burned a lot of boxes. Then, Mom got to cleaning off the shelves down there (that have empty jars on them), and making room for more jars that were sitting around in boxes yet from when we moved here! The guys took the old water-heater out so we have even more room and it's SO nice... Not that the room is very nice, as it's basically just a hole in the ground, but it's nice to have more room down there now to store things. :)

After lunch, my brothers and I started digging potatoes in the garden. We got about a third of them dug, before our muscles were sore and we decided to work on other projects...

Jacob primed the new board on the teeter-totter...

...and I worked on painting the handles on the merry-go-round, as we've never painted them in the years that we've had it, and they really needed some help!!! The boys came over and helped me later on, as they wanted to get to supper, but the painting had to be finished first. :) We hope to get the floor of the merry-go-round painted too sometime soon...

Mother painted the trim around the front door and some of our flower-pots, but as she was the one with the camera, we don't have any pictures of her. :(

My dad finished baling the hay around our place once it dried down enough to! YAY! We may be done with haying now, unless the alfalfa has grown enough on our other land to make it worth the time and expense to put it up...

After night chores were finished, we all swung on the swings for a few minutes, as it was still just so lovely out.

So, those were the highlights of our day.

Now I'll leave you with this quote (from my daily flip-calendar) by Fanny Crosby:

"In His arms He carries me all day long."
Isn't that beautiful?

Autumn pickles, a new floor and tons of cameras~

Happy...

To celebrate this grand day, my mom and I made some pickles--using my late grandma's recipe. (Actually, we would have made them anyway.) Fall does seem like such a nice season for good smells and spicy things. (We added a lot of spice to our pickles and, later, to our apple cider and both concoctions smell delicious in their own unique way!) We've never made very many pickles before this, as Grandma always made enough to share with us, but since she passed away in April, we decided that, if we want pickles, it's now up to us to make them.

My dad and the boys finished putting the new floor in the small manure spreader this afternoon, (great job, guys!!!) so now they can get the piles of straw and manure cleaned up and out of the way...

Off and on throughout the day, I looked at digital cameras on E-bay, trying to decide which one was the best quality for the money I want to spend. (I severely broke my other camera this Spring and have been missing it very much!) After asking Andrews' advice several times, I finally decided on a silver-colored General Electric digital camera!!! Now I can hardly wait for it to come... :)

Well, it's very much bed-time once again, so I'd best sign off!
May God bless you with safety, joy, and pleasant aromas throughout this new season.~

The events of our day & an Honest Scrap award~

I'm cold! It's not even Autumn--quite yet.

In between rain showers this afternoon, the boys and I (and then our dad helped later when he got back from cleaning grain) cleaned up around the barns--meaning we picked up all of the things that were where they weren't supposed to be and put them where they belonged! What a great feeling to have that done with...

Then, when it started raining too much to be out of doors, we all headed in to work on inside jobs. I made my very first batch of Mozzarella cheese today!!! Thank you so much, Grace for teaching me how to do it! My cheese didn't look quite as nice as yours did, but it melted very nicely on the freshly made pizza we had for supper, and the guys commented on how much like store-bought cheese it was. :) The best part is that it wasn't even that hard to make!

And now I have an announcement to make:

I've been "Tagged" (for the very first time :) by my blogging friend, Rachel. Thank you very much, Rachel!

The rules are to pass this award on to 7 other bloggers whom I think are honest in their blogging and to list 10 honest things about myself.

So, after working on this in my spare moments for the last few days, here are my answers:

1. I honestly have never liked eating tomatoes raw, although I love them when they're ground up into sauces! It's just something about the texture of them that makes my stomach churn...

2. I love living in the country! (This part may not be a surprise to you though... :) In case you don't know this, I'm a quite, shy type of person (especially around people I don't know,) although when I was young, I was a whole lot more so. The Lord's been helping me, but I still feel much more at home in the quite of the country than in big crowds of people I don't know! Consequently, I love to write and can express myself so much better in letters (and through blogging) than I can in person. Being around people with the Sanguine personality type is always delightful, as they're so easy to talk to and I forget my shyness and feel right at home with them. Do you have any guesses as to whether or not I'll marry a talkative man someday? :)

3. I have 2 violins, an accordion, and a lap-harp--but I play the piano!

4. When I was younger, I had a LOT of pen-pals that I'd write long letters to. I still have a few, but mostly we correspond the modern way these days.

5. Being on time is important to me. It bothers me when the meals aren't ready on time; the chores are put off 'til late in the morning; the garden isn't put in on time; etc.... Does that mean I tend to be a perfectionist? Probably.

6. I honestly don't like baking cakes, but I do really enjoy decorating them, and the two kind of go hand in hand, so... I bake!

7. I love the color green... I used to like wearing pink things until my mom told me that the golden color of my hair didn't look so well against pink, so now I like to wear green a lot... If I have a big, old fashioned barn someday, I think it would look very nice painted hunter green! :)

8. I've journaled since I was 7 years old. My brother, Jacob likes digging out my first journal every once in a while and we have a good laugh together over the things I wrote and at how atrocious my spelling was... For example, my first entry ever was on August 12th, 1994. It reads: "To day i wock up in my bedroom and i soa my wallpaper and my cousns came today and today i put my closs up stars and hun them up on the hanrss." If you figured out what that said--congratulations! :)

9. My family and I rest and worship on the 7th day of the week. You may have guessed this before, as we are usually going places on Saturdays and listening to sermons--and then are working on Sundays... We felt called to the Sabbath 13 years ago, and we have kept it ever since.

10. The last honest thing about me, that you may or may not know, is that I like blogging! :) I especially feel blessed to have met so many new friends in such a short amount of time, and I look forward to getting to know you all better in the days, months and years ahead!

Well, there you have it!

Now, I'm supposed to award 7 other bloggers... This is going to be a hard choice, and I really wish I could chose more, as I've come to enjoy so many of your blogs and I learn so much from them--but the rules say 7 bloggers, so 7 bloggers it will be... (I know my mom will want to award some of her friends with this too, so if you're surprised you're not listed here, it's most likely because I want my mom or brother to be able to award you!)

If you've been awarded here, and if you want to participate, you need to award 7 other people on your blog; tell us 10 honest things about yourself; and put the award on your blog.

Here's who's "It": (in alphabetical order)

1. Andrew (my brother)

2. Anna

3. Grace

4. Hannah

5. Miss Jen

6. Mother

7. Virginia

Congratulations everyone! I look forward to hearing what you have to say. ~

I hope you all enjoyed getting to know me a little better today and that you'll still honestly want to be my friend--even after you know that I don't like eating raw tomatoes! :)