Baking and babysitting...

That's what my day consisted of. :)

This morning, after chores and dishes (we always have lots of dishes to do on Sundays, as we don't usually do them on Saturday), I made 2 sour cream raisin pies and 1 apple pie.

In the later part of the morning, I got a call from one of our neighbor ladies, wondering if I would be able to come over to their house this afternoon and watch their 3 youngest children (their oldest was going to be with his dad), as she was going to be away and her husband wanted to go out and work on putting up some hay. I agreed to go over there, whenever her husband called and said the hay was ready. I got there around 1:00 and stayed until 7:00, at which time Mr. S. and Tucker returned from the hay field to take over. The 3 little ones (ages 4, 3 and about 8 months) and I went for a walk/bike ride; the older two had fun "Watering the lawn" and splashing each other in the process!; and we played games in the house until nap time, after which followed supper time. The baby is teething now, but was very good for me, so that was nice. I had fun feeding her and getting her to show her adorable smile. :)

I arrived home just in time for chores. Jacob went and got the goats for me (they can go out in a large, weedy/grassy area now and can get quite lost), so I could milk them.

And guess what? It's thundering again!

“And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.” – Ezekiel 34:26 KJV

Name that thing...

Dear friends,

I had planned to write last night, but then there was a flashing lightning/thunder/rain storm that made our electricity go off for a while and messed up our Internet connection again, so I was not able to do so.

Do you all know what these blossoms are? Here's a hint:

*Tea made from these flowers supplies you with all of the B vitamins*



Yesterday was a very eventful day around our place. I only have pictures of our morning project though....

After Andrew & I had done the morning milking/chores, Dad (on his 4-wheeler), the boys (Andrew on his 4-wheeler and Jacob on his dirt bike) and I went up the road to move the cows to their next cell in the pasture. I used to help with this a lot more before I worked in town and miss it in a way. The pasture up North is very, um, wild. It feels like a whole different world when you get up to this part of the "Road". We rent about a thousand acres of pasture from our hunting friends, who helped us section it off into many different cells that we move the cows to every one to two weeks, depending on the size of the cell.

Here Dad is bringing the solar-powered electric fencer back to me (I had the Ram, so had more room to carry things than he or the boys did.) At this point, I turned the Ram (a very old, bouncy charger sort of thing) around and drove the long way around to the other side of the pasture where I was supposed to open the gates for the cows to move from one pasture to the next.


Once I got the one gate open and the other loosened so it would be ready to open when it was time for the cows to go through (there is a curving road inbetween the gates), I sat down on an old tire that was in the fence-line for some reason and took some pictures and enjoyed the beauty of the Lords' handy work....



(This beautiful lake is officially called "Stink lake", although I don't think it stinks any worse than any other lake does when it's been standing stagnant for a while!)



I zoomed way in to get this picture of the long line of cows coming:

The cattle had to cross this water in order to get to where they needed to be. The guys told me later that they didn't even hesitate, and just plunged in, swimming across, the calves included!

Andrew was able to make it to the other side in another, drier spot, as his 4-wheeler (also known as an ATV---All Terrain Vehicle!) can go through almost anything. Dad and Jacob, however, had to go out and around by way of the gravel road, the way I did, to come in from the front side. By the time they got to where I was...

...Andrew already had the cows up on the North side, ready to go through the gates.

There was one problem though... There were 2 calves together on the wrong side of a fence down South farther, one of them being Andrews and the other belonging to the rancher on the other side of the fence line. Sooooo, the guys spent at least half an hour getting the 2 separated and returning the one calf to the neighbors' herd and then getting Andrew's calf back with ours.

While I waited, I was able to get some fun pictures of our cows and calves, as they were right there by me for a while before they headed East to graze a while.

Here is Jacobs' big steer: He was a bottle calf a couple years ago. His horns grew back for some reason, which is why he didn't get sold with the others, as buyers do NOT like to buy animals with horns and will dock you tremendously. He is nearly large enough to be, well, slaughtered.

How does that saying go? "The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the fence?" In this case, that's true. The cows like grazing in the corner where the gate is, so there is not much grass left there. The alfalfa/grass growing on the other side definitely looks more appetizing, to a cow or calf....

Here is one of my growing boys. :) He's so nice and stocky, isn't he?

~Snack time!~

"For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." Psalm 50:10

After the cows were moved and the fencer was set on the post, Jacob and I headed for home while Dad and Andrew stayed up a while longer to go around the fence.

Shortly after arriving home, we received a phone call from a friend, Mr. S. who said he was in Napoleon and on his way to Steele, and could he stop and visit us. Of course, the answer was "YES" and so he joined us for lunch. He talked some more to us about the John Birch Society and my parents signed up to be members now.... :)

We visited until 2:00, at which time Mr. S had to get going and we had to get our kitchen cleaned up as Mom was getting a new client (from Grand Forks!) at 3:00. While Mom did the health session, Dad was raking and baling the ditch hay and the boys and I headed out to our potato/carrot/onion patch in the field to do some major weed wacking! Andrew mowed inbetween the rows while Jacob and I weed wacked closer to the plants. Then, Andrew took over Jacobs' job; Jacob took over mine; and I headed in the house to work on some laundry. Later, Mom and I made apple crisp, tater tot casserole, and a delicious fruit salad (which the boys helped with too). Andrew and I separated cream, then he and Jacob did chores while Mom and I cleaned the house---QUICK! We had supper around 9:00, then had family prayer time and settled in for a long nights Summer storm, which resulted in nearly 2 inches of rain!

Well, it is time for family hymn singing time, so I'd best post this and go join the others. Mom's playing in my new Marty Goetz books currently. :)

Have a great Saturday, what's left of it, that is!

A hard night....

One of my very favorite residents (she's been at the nursing home ever since I started there and we've talked about many, many things) is getting very close to passing into glory land... This evening was hard. Although I was working on the other wing, my coworker and I did go visit this lady and helped to try and make her more comfortable. She was in a lot of pain and it was hard to understand what she was saying. She did know that I was there though, so I was glad of that. I don't think I'll ever see her again.

This is one of the times that I don't like working at the nursing home. I get so attached to a resident and then they're gone..... I pray that I am a blessing to them though, in what I do and say, and then I can always pray for them too, to not have so much pain in their passing, and to turn to God in those last few moments if they haven't already accepted Him into their hearts and lives......

Please pray for Judy tonight, if you are still up and reading this. She's one lady I'm going to really miss, as are many of my coworkers!

I found a melon and 2 figs...

When I went inside our greenhouse (which is now open to the elements, so doesn't seem much like a greenhouse anymore) to see how things were coming along, I discovered a rather large cantaloupe on one of my climbing melon vines, and also found 2 very small figs forming under the large, beautiful fig leaves. :) How exciting!

Mother and I spent the day cleaning; baking bread; hanging wash out on the line; pulling weeds out of the garden; researching distilled versus reverse osmosis water; and doing the evening milking. I also spent some time playing in the 2 newly arrived piano books I ordered from Marty Goetz's website!!! We enjoy Mr. Goetz's music so much, most of it being portions of the Psalms put to music.... The music he writes is so soothing and praiseful to our Lord. I highly recommend "Sanctuary" especially.

Here's a sample of his music, plus an interview of Marty, done many years ago:





The guys are nearly done now with the first cutting of alfalfa hay, just in time to start on the 2nd cutting! They needed to rake up this last field, as the wind had scattered all the windrows across the field and it looked as though they had mowed the field instead of cutting it with the mower conditioner and the MacDon header. We're thanking the Lord for lots of hay this year!

Well, the guys got home at dark and I stayed up with them while they had their supper and then we prayed together, so now I guess it's bedtime. Mother went to bed early, as she has a full day of helping people with their health concerns tomorrow.

Off I go. ~

Disheartening news....

Dad just informed us of the disappointing news he heard on the radio today, that being that our government has now allowed Monsanto to plant 100 acres of G.M. (genetically modified) wheat in ND and it is currently growing somewhere in this state at this very minute! My family and I personally battled G.M. wheat for a long time, testifying at the capitol and such. You can click HERE to read an old article about what GM wheat will mean to us North Dakotans. (We had the Mr. Fry quoted in this article in our home for supper once even...) And HERE is another good article... One last article, where my dad is quoted can be read HERE. (We were just getting started with Organic farming at that time...)

We were all so pleased when "They" (Monsanto) gave up their efforts to get their seeds into North Dakota---one of the (if not THEE) biggest wheat growing states in the country. How disappointing it is to learn that "They" have now gone behind people's backs and gotten their product into our state---no matter what we think of it. Arggggh! What is to be done?

I had intended this to be a pleasant post about Mom, Andrew and my trip to Bismarck this afternoon, but I no longer feel like writing about that.

May God save America! May His people stand up and fight for what is right and good, and may the good win in the end.... (just like in Louisa May Alcott's books, right Lane? ;) )

Disheartened,
~Cora

On a tractor pull; parade; ranch rodeo; and my visit to the Keisters...

Many days have passed already since the Robinson Centennial, but as we had a very nice day together there as a family and took LOTS of pictures, I thought I'd shared some of them with you here. :)

Mom took this picture of my brothers and I just after we'd arrived and parked in the "Parking Lot"----a big, bumpy pasture.


These pictures are quite mixed up, but in the interest of saving time, I'll just write about them as they are....

In the afternoon, there was a huge tractor and pickup pull which our guys LOVED watching! Mom and I enjoyed it too, for a while, although it was very, very loud and it was also a very hot day, so we came away with sunburns!

Preparing the track by wetting it a bit and working it up.... (There were actually people out on the track, picking rocks and throwing them out of the way!)
This is the sled that everyone took their turn at pulling. They're adding weights to it in this picture:

This is one of the fancy looking pickups that was in the pull. This one actually was a disappointment and didn't even get going!

At 6:00, Mother and I headed over to watch the Ranch Rodeo, while the guys stayed to finish watching the tractor pull.

The cowboy in this picture (I know he's hard to see behind that bar in the corralling...) was the son of the lady sitting next to me, so we joined her in cheering for his team, as we didn't know anyone else anyway. :)

One of the things each team had to do was to rope a specific calf and then flip it over and tie its legs. The calves legs had to stay tied and it had to stay laying for 10 seconds. Each team tried to do all this faster than the other teams, so it was pretty fun to watch.

Another of the things they had to do was to rope their calf and then get it loaded in the stock trailer as quickly as possible---not as easy as it sounds, as the calves were not exactly small! This calf in particular gave the audience several laughs, as it ended up having 3 cowboys' ropes on it before it was actually caught!

In the morning, there was a very nice parade to watch. I really liked this old car:

See the sheep on this float?

At small town parades in ND, you get thrown LOTS of candy, whether you want it or not!

Mother, watching....

How do you like this "Tractor"?

Mmmmm... Nice cake!

Another neat car!

This father and son wore matching bib overalls. :) The little fella must be very comfortable with tractor rides, as he was sound asleep!

This was a funny entry: a Mexican and a Flinstone, each with their respective, uh, creatures:

Here are the ponies later, after they were through the parade.

A very old fashioned float...

After the parade was over, we had a picnic lunch in the park...

Some relatively new friends, Ron and Diane (she's actually a nurse at the nursing home, which is how I met her, but now she's good friends with Mother too) joined us after a bit. They stayed for part of the tractor pull show too....

There are many more pictures and videos I could share, but I think this gives you a good idea of what our time there was like.

Now, a bit about my time at the Keisters' home.....

Sarah, the children, and I cleaned the toy/music room pretty thoroughly the first afternoon. After all the work was done, the children were allowed to dump out their train set and play with it, thus the smiling faces! (Edmund and Ila below...)

We did many things that I did not take pictures of, like picking the cherries off of Sarahs' bushes and making delicious juice from them; sweeping then waxing the hard wood floor; cooking; going to the childrens' swimming lessons; cleaning upstairs a bit; and preparing for a farewell tea-party for some friends of theirs who are moving. Thursday evening, after the children were in bed and the dishes were done, Lane played piano for me, playing some of the pieces he's written. (He was my music teacher in years gone by.) Then he, Sarah, the baby and I watched "The Inheritance" before going to bed rather late. :)

Here is their precious sleeping baby, Arianwyn (4 months old)... I got to hold her many times while there and played with the children outside some of the time (swinging with all of them in the hammock was great fun!) so Sarah could get some sewing done.

This is Sarah arranging some flowers we picked for the tea party....

Yours truly, with the baby... ( Ila took this picture of me. :) )

...and here's James, and Ila. When we first met the Keister family, Ila was a little baby, so it's been fun to watch their family grow over the years!

It was sad to say "Good bye", but I had a house at home to help clean, plus a buck to pick up first, so I left shortly before people came for the farewell get together. Hopefully I can go again sometime! I love working with Sarah as she has so many good ideas about cooking/preserving foods, sewing, and homemaking in general.

Well, it is quite late now, but I did promise that I'd post pictures tonight, so I am doing so.

I worked at the nursing home again today, which is why this is so very late....

Be blessed~

Cora

PS. I'm curious... Do small towns all over America have parades every year/or at Centennials, or is that just a Northern thing?

Working on a long picture post....

I had planned to post lots of pictures tonight, but for some reason, it's taking a long time to load them right now, so I guess it will have to wait one more day.

I worked in town this afternoon/evening. It was a peaceful day, so that was very nice after the busy time I/we had at the nursing home last time!

Dad worked on mowing ditches around here today and the boys, well, I'm not sure what they or Mom did? So, I guess I can't tell you all that much tonight, and, when there's nothing really to tell, it's best not to say anything, right? Right. So I'll just go to bed. :)

~Good night~

Out of practice!

This afternoon, while Mother took a nap, the rest of us went downstairs and played a couple games (4 rounds a piece) of Foosball. We realized then how out of practice we are! We play a lot during the cold Winter months, but not at all recently.

Dad's cousin, Jerome stopped in this afternoon and stayed for supper, and visited a while after that. He brought back the kennels that he'd used to transport some of our geese to Jamestown for us a while back. Jerome also picked up the cattle rack (the kind that fits in the back of a pickup box) that he had bought the last time he was here. We sent him home with a couple cucumbers too. Oh, and a big round hay bale. :)

It was a lovely, quite day. We made 2 Blueberry Yogurt milkshakes (with the yogurt we made yesterday) which were very refreshing. Sadly, the doughnuts didn't last long and were gone before Jerome got here!

Tonight we watched "The Quite Man" which some friends gave to us. It was a bit on the silly side of things, but it was fun to see John Wayne playing in something other than a western...

I was very thankful this afternoon when Andrew found a way to get my pictures on my computer!!! It is late now though (we just finished our movie and family prayer time a few minutes ago), so the long picture post will have to wait for another time.

May you all have a wonderful new week, doing all that God has for you to do.~

Beware!

There is another storm coming through our area currently. My dad said that there are tornado watches set until 2:00AM. It is pretty windy right now. Andrew and I just went out and put our vehicles in the Quonset, so they are safe from flying debris or anything else hard that might come down out of the sky...

All 3 of our guys worked all day in the hayfield. Before they left this morning, they got Andrew's arcade game thing (that he bought very inexpensively at an auction sale because it was not working, and then he fixed it) loaded in the tractor bucket so when the lady came this afternoon to buy it, we ladies wouldn't have too hard of a time loading it (it's quite heavy)!

It was a good day here at the farm for Mom and I (outside of the big-rock-prying bar getting bent and the big field-mower pulley and belt coming off).

Here's what we did:

• After morning chores, I packed the guys' lunches...




• Dad and Jacob showed me how to get the weed wacker running, and how to keep it running, so I went around all the flower pots; strawberry pyramid; the house; and around some of the garden until I ran out of fuel, which they didn't show me how to mix up, so I quit then....




• Mother changed all the fly traps around outside this morning and scrubbed all the goats' water troughs out, as they start to turn green over time...




• I went out to get the mail and checked our small raspberry patch (they're nearly ready!)




• Mom kept the sprinkler rotating through the garden all afternoon...




• We cleaned the house.


• I washed the Pacifica (my parents' vehicle), which took a good while, as there were a LOT of smushed bugs on the grill that didn't want to wipe off....




• Mom worked on several loads of laundry...




• I tried my hand at doughnut making, and they turned out quite well, if I do say so myself! :)




• Mom washed out a bunch of old, smelly pails that had been sitting in the entry way for a while (scrap buckets and the like). *Praise the Lord for nice smelling essential oils!*




• We spent at least half an hour getting Andrew's big game loaded on the lady's pickup! *That's when the bar got bent---somehow?*




• The UPS man delivered parts for Andrew's car project, and we got to visiting about turkeys----interesting. :)




• A friend from Napoleon came out to pickup something Mom's loaning her...




• Mom used the tractor and big mower to demolish some of the weeds that were down by the barns... *That's when the pulley came off*




• I made meatballs the way Sarah K. did when I was visiting/helping there, plus I made mashed potatoes and Mom and I made our favorite broccoli salad for supper...




• We ordered a couple of indoor-fly trap devices that we've wanted to try for quite some time. When you live on a farm, especially a dairy, you have lots of flies to deal with!




• We did chores somewhere in there, Mom milking the goats and me milking the cow...




• I tried loading my pictures on Dad and Mom's computer with a special card reader, but still received the error message I was getting before...




• We did take a little time to rest too, Mother by napping and me by looking through cookbooks for good ideas. :)

It was a good day!

We are very much ready for a day of sweet rest tomorrow though.~

The beam in our own eye....

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next
morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman
saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't
know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry
soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the
young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice
clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she
has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her
this?"

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned
our windows."

To fix or not to fix, that is the question!

My dad pointed out to me this morning that the plastic on the greenhouse roof had torn again, in 2 places this time. We're trying to decide now whether to try and fix it again, or just take the plastic down. It may be best to just take it down for now, as the temps. inside are quite hot these days the way it is. I had hoped to leave it up to keep the bugs away from our vegetables, but I think the plastic is just getting too brittle in all the warm sunshine and will probably just keep tearing if we try to paste it back together again....

Mother and I spent the morning in the garden (after chores were done, that is). Dad and Andrew cut down and put up hay again, while Jacob worked around the farm here. I worked at the nursing home again this afternoon/evening. I was sad to learn that one of the residents had passed away early this morning. He was not doing well last night when I helped care for him, but I had not expected him to be gone so soon.... This man was the father of Helen, (I help her at her Daycare occasionally), so I was glad to be able to give her a hug last night when all the family was gathered there.... Working at a nursing home has often reminded me that life is precious! We never know when it will be our turn to go, so we must be ready (and help others to be ready).

It was a very busy night at the nursing home and my head is aching still. There was a nice musical program put on by a mens' quartet from Eureka, SD at 7:00 this evening, so we CNAs (and the activity people) had to be sure and have everyone fed; taken to the bathroom; and out at the patio by that time. Then, as the program lasted an hour, there was a huge rush afterwards to get everyone back to their rooms; given their snacks; taken to the bathroom again as needed; and get them to bed by 10:30, which we did with a lot of teamwork and a good portion of God's grace! The residents really enjoyed getting outside and listening to the music, for which we were glad, but it did result in being an extra stressful night for those of us in charge of making sure everyone got to the right place at the right time, safely!

It is lovely out tonight. I decided to wait to open my windows though until I'm done posting here so I don't get invaded by bugs again. :)

Have a good Friday everyone! I keep meaning to try a different way of loading my pictures onto my computer (or onto someone elses' computer), but when I'm busy with other things, I'm not thinking about posting pictures, so forget. I hope to remember soon. ;)

~God be with you~

Cool, crisp air...

It was a moment of rejoicing when the guys got the air conditioner fixed this morning! It had broke last year at the end of the hot season. So far this year, it hasn't been too terribly hot without air conditioning, until these last couple of weeks, of course. Fans are nice, but A.C.s are cool! :)





Dad and Andrew worked on hay again today while Jacob wasn't needed there, so he stayed home and mowed, and mowed, and mowed the lawn. Mother had several sessions to do at home here (her uncle and aunt from SD came this morning...), plus I'm sure she did other things as well. I worked at the nursing home again...





Those were the highlights of the day.



Oh yes, one more thing Andrew and I did this morning was to catch our 3 bucks that had broken into the does' pen and to put them in a different pen. Hopefully we caught them soon enough so we don't have baby goats arriving in December!




Now I will leave you with a quote, (a Dutch proverb actually,) one that made me smile:

I can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses!

Invaded!

HELP! I'm being invaded by tiny black bugs of several varieties, all of them being small enough to fit through the screens on my windows. They are crawling all over my laptop currently and there are a few that try to crawl over me too. Yuck. I think I'll make this a quick post and then turn out the lights!!!

It was a very hot, miserable day here in ND. The guys made hay all day and were miserable. Mother traveled to Bismarck and did sessions most of the day. She did find time to run and get a part Dad had spoken for to fix our air conditioner. PTL!!!! I spent the day doing laundry and (gotta pause for bug flickin' here...) kept the goats watered and got the fan going in the greenhouse. I baked bread too and it rose the fastest it has in a very long time! I also did chores by myself, which was an adventure, to say the least. A cold shower felt wonderful after all of that!

Oh dear! Is that skunk scent that I smell on the breeze? (More bugs....) It most certainly is. Now I need to decide if I want to smell skunk very strongly all night, or close my windows and be terribly hot and sweaty?

I have to go. These bugs are getting to me! Hopefully they'll go back outside once I turn my computer off!

Here's hoping you're having a more pleasant night than I am at the moment! I have to wonder what PollyAnna would find to be glad about at a time like this? Hmmmm.... Be glad that, uh, I have screens on my windows so all the big bugs aren't coming in too? Also, I can be glad that I don't smell billy goat smell along with skunk aroma! :)

(More squished bugs....)

Just like in Bible times...

As I drove home from work in town tonight, the road seemed to be alive and moving----there were frogs EVERYWHERE, hopping and jumping, some going one way and others going in the complete opposite direction. It reminded me of the plague of frogs in Moses' time, although I'm sure that was much worse! I actually like frogs, so had fun seeing all of them and hoped I wasn't driving over too many of the poor little things!

I'm still not able to load my pictures, and Andrew didn't know what the problem was either. Hmmmmm..... It really IS a problem when my brothers and/or Dad don't know what's wrong with something.

I picked our first cucumber this morning. :) What a wonderful treat that was to eat!

I get to be home all day tomorrow and hope to get some work done in the garden, although it sounds like it could be quite hot outside. Perhaps I'll work on laundry instead, as it won't take very long to dry the clothes on the line with all of that sunshine!

So, I'll try to get to sleep now, although it is very hot and muggy in here tonight. I have both my windows open and, thankfully, there is a bit of a breeze blowing through............

May God be with you all until we meet again (and after that too!)

We were gone all day...

The small town of Robinson, ND had their Centennial celebration this weekend and, as several members of my family wanted to get away from the farm work that would otherwise be starring us in the eye if we "Rested" at home, it was decided that we would attend this event. Besides, we'd not been to a parade yet this year, and we usually go to at least one a year. :) I have lots of pictures to share from today and from my time with the Keister family, but just now when I tried to transfer my pictures onto my computer, I got an error that I don't understand, so will have to wait for tomorrow when I can ask our very-local tech support man (namely, Andrew) what I am to do about it.....

We all got rather burnt to a crisp by the end of the day, Mother and I especially. Jacob told me tonight, right before family prayer time, that I am no longer a pale face but am rather now a red skin. I threw a pillow at him, and we had a good laugh.... :)

Summer has definitely, finally arrived here in North Dakota. I wonder if we'll have to uncover our air conditioner pretty soon??????

Hopefully there will be pictures to share tomorrow evening!

May the Lord bless you all in this new week,
~Cora Beth

In your opinion, which smells worse?

A. Skunk spray
or
B. A billy goat (or "Buck", which is its' proper name)

I was debating this question as I drove home from Chuck's with the the bucks' odor filling the air, after passing an area where a skunk had obviously been. I don't care for the smell of male goats, but I think skunks still take the cake when it comes to being the stinkiest. :)


Anyway, onto a more pleasant topic.....

I had a very delightful time at the Keisters' house! I took a few pictures too and I'll try to post them tomorrow when I write more about my visit.

For now, it's late again and, as I woke up very early this morning when the "Garbage Man" came and emptied the Keisters' dumpster at the crack of dawn, and, as I helped clean 2 houses today, I'm tired and am heading for bed.

Until next time,
~Cora

Obstacle course...

As I left Napoleon tonight, I didn't realize that I'd be driving through an obstacle course on the way home! Shortly after turning onto the Hwy., I had to move over for a couple of boxes that were on the road. A little further on, I had to do a little swerve to the left so as not to drive over the 5 or 6 orange kittens that were along the side of the road! Then, around the lake, I had to dodge to the right so as to miss the 4 half-grown raccoons that were in the middle of the road!

After that, I slowed down.

It began to sprinkle then and kept on all the rest of the way home. I was thankful when the one vehicle I did meet on the road was driving in the correct lane! :) Of course, I said a prayer of thanks too that I didn't hit anything, (other than the raindrops....)

This is going to be a very short post, as I hope to get a few hours of good sleep and then wake up and get things ready to head to our friends' place.

So, good night, dear friends! I may (or may not) be posting tomorrow night, depending on if I spend the night with the K. family or not.....

New treasures...

We went on a treasure hunt today, meaning that we dug through the bags and boxes that our neighbor lady gave to us. The hard part then was to decide if we were going to keep the things or donate them to a second-hand store..... Gladys gave us several kitchen utensils; Tupperware items; glass bowls and so on, of which many are going up in the attic to add to my hope-chest corner. She also gave us her fabric scraps and sewing supplies (buttons, lace, thread, needles, pins, bias tape......), so now I have to decide which things I want to use in the near future and which can also go up in the attic. Andrew teases that, one of these days, the ceilings' just going to cave in from all the weight we have up there from the things we store! I hope and pray that he's wrong! We still have things spread out all over the living room, but we did make a lot of progress today. Now we just need to figure out a way to express our thanks to Gladys........(She says we're doing her a service, as she just wants to get rid of these things, and we can relate, as it wasn't all that long ago when we were going through the same thing with Grandpas' house, trying to get it all emptied out.) We were hoping to have Gladys for supper while she was here, but she was visiting other neighbors and then had to leave right away again. Hopefully her family will bring her back again when she has more time to visit.

Mother got our Azure order this morning, so we now once again have frozen blueberries to do things with. Blueberry muffins anyone???

Andrew went down to the Linton area today to help farmer Dave again with some haying. It still is pretty wet here, so Dad said he could go. Andrew's not back yet, but should be coming soon. I got to milk his Sally tonight. :)

Later in the day, my dad was able to rake one field of alfalfa (and nearly got stuck!) and then he baled another. He just got in the house about an hour ago for his supper and now we're all heading for bed. It was such a beautiful day!

I work in town again tomorrow, but then hope to go help our friends, the K. family (who live about an hour away) for a day or two. Sarah is so busy with their 4 little ones; a garden to tend; home schooling to do; healthy cooking to keep up with; and with being a pastors' wife, so it will be fun to go and help her again with whatever needs doing.

So, until next time dear friends, I'll wish you a good night and a good day tomorrow, doing the things that God has for you to do---be that: canning green beans; making water keifer; taking the perfect picture; preparing for corn mazes; mowing lawns; fixing cars; or making hay. :)

Going North is an adventure!

Our former neighbor lady, Gladys (who now lives in Fargo) was back in the area yesterday and today and had some more things she wanted to give us, so all of us (except Dad, who had to run to town for some parts) hopped in Andrew's pickup and headed North to her place. When we turned West, we had to go through the couple inches of water that was running over the road, but then came to another place where the water was over the road and our neighbor was pumping it to the other side so it goes down faster. All his equipment was in the way, so we had to turn around and go around the other way. We went South a mile and then West again and, when we turned North, we had to go through 2 more spots where the water was running over the gravel road, in 1 place, it looked several inches deep. What an adventure! We're hoping the water doesn't wash the road away as it sometimes does....

I worked in town yesterday and today. Yesterday was a real adventure there as, shortly after we listened to report and headed out on the floor, the nurse gave the order to have all the residents brought to the TV room, which is in the middle of the building (it has no windows), as there was a bad storm coming and the possibility of tornadoes. We had just finished getting everyone up from their naps and wheeled them out to the TV room when the electricity went out. It stayed off for about 4 hours, which made life interesting, as the generator there does not provide enough electricity for lights in the residents' rooms or any of the bathrooms, so when we had to take someone to the restroom, we had to take a couple flashlights along so we could see what we were doing, and even then, it was a challenge! Praise the Lord though that there were no tornadoes in town. I did hear mention of one being spotted South of town, but never heard if it did any damage. The rain poured then and flooded the street outside of the building. When I looked out a window, I saw several vehicles back tires halfways under water... On the way home that night then, my van was vibrating badly whenever I went faster than 50MPH, and when I told Dad about it, he said it was most likely because all that water had washed the mud/dirt off of half the tire and now the tires were not balanced. So, this morning, according to Dad's advice, I took a garden hose to it and when I drove to town later in the day, the vibrating was all gone. :)

Another adventure this morning was when my brothers and I fixed the greenhouse roof. After one of those big windstorms, the plastic had torn a little bit, so I taped it up, but the tape eventually lost its stickiness and the plastic tore some more in these last storms we've had. Dad gave us the idea to put a couple more boards up on the greenhouse ceiling and then to wrap the plastic around the boards and screw the boards down. We did this, and now we just need to pray for no more windstorms!

That's about all the adventures of the day. I did find a new hair style (you can see it HERE) that I liked and wore to work (at the nursing home) today. A couple people said they really liked it, so I may do it more often, as I like having my hair up when I'm running around, getting really warm there.

I'll leave you with a quote now and say "Good night":

"Happiness is like jam. You can't even spread a little bit without getting some on yourself. " :)

We had a peaceful, restful day.

This is one of the hymns Mom played on the piano and that we sang this afternoon as a family. We are blessed to have had Mom teach us to sing parts (and Dad has sung in choirs before too), so, even though we don't sound as grand as this choir, we do hear the harmony of notes blending together as we sing to the Lord above....

Be blessed as you go where He wants you to go!

Pictures of greenness...

These pictures were taken the beginning of last week when I drove over to the land "Up North" to pick my brothers up for supper.

Jacob cut hay with the 9030...

...and Andrew drove the 1486....

And now, for the greenhouse pictures!

This is what it looks like from the East side:

The cabbages and cauliflower are covered to protect them from white cabbage moths, and the hops vine is having fun spreading out and out and out............

Our Chamomile patch (and the big leafy plant by the patch is one of my dwarf fig trees!)

This part of the greenhouse is used for our herb garden (and dwarf fruit trees along the edge)...

Our big leafy medley of broccoli, peas, beets, beans, lettuce and carrots---which are all very tall (see the full-sized barrels in the background?)

A Tomatillo (or Husk Tomato)...

My froggies are almost lost these days, this one amongst the watermelons and sweet potatoes.... The Lord has definitely blessed our greenhousing efforts this year!

...and this is the view from the West side of things:

Ah hah! I found a person in the jungle!

Here is the bouquet that I picked from my round garden for the table this afternoon...

Even if the next few days are very warm, there should be no need of watering the outdoor plants, as God very thoroughly did that job for us this evening. When Dad slipped on his boots and went out to the look at the rain-gauge, it read 3 inches! There was quite a thunder storm that came with the rain also, so much so that my grandpa Earl called to see if we were OK, as did our insurance man! :) As far as we know, we are alright. There weren't tornadoes or anything.... Andrew did say that we'll have to check in the morning to make sure our cows are still in the proper place though!

Outside of all that excitement, the guys worked outside most of the day and Mom and I got the house cleaned; food prepared; laundry done; the chamomile sent out to Uncle Russell; and I cleaned my aquarium (a job I'd fallen quite behind on!) One of our neighbor ladies called me to see if she could use some of my red paste coloring for icing, as she was trying to make an Elmo cake and had run out of coloring and didn't want to make a pink Elmo. :) Of course I said she could, so she and one of her little boys came over and visited for a few minutes. Hopefully the coloring helped her to obtain her goal of a very vibrant red!

While I was out picking the bouquet of flowers for the supper table, my dad joined me in the garden and asked if I'd heard about the dogs being up on the greenhouse roof?

"On the greenhouse ROOF?" I asked in unbelief.

"Yes. They climbed up the stairs of the storage shed and then just walked off the side of the building onto the greenhouse roof!"

I looked then and saw 3 little holes poked in the plastic.

"Lady fell through, but was able to get herself back up and off of the plastic," Dad informed me, "But Millie didn't fall through and walked all the way down to the corner of the greenhouse even without breaking through!"

I wish I'd been there with my camera at that moment (I was in town working at the time)! It would have been a funny sight to have seen them up there, although at the same time, I would have been very frightened for their safety as that's a very high roof and they're not very light dogs, and if they'd fallen through....................... :(

"Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your protection of my family and of those I love!"