Monday, August 20, 2012

It was a VERY good day!

The morning was spent (for the guys) working in the shop.  We ladies tidied up the kitchen and baked, completely from scratch, Chicken pot-pie.  I also baked a cake and whipped up several batches of icing and made marshmallow fondant. 

The Sheriff pulled in this morning too, shortly after we received a phone call from a neighbor, telling us we'd best pull the keys in our vehicles at night for a while again.  The Sheriff stopped to tell us the same thing pretty much and to see if we'd noticed any loud noises last night anytime, as somebody stole this neighbors' recently-purchased pickup and drove it down section lines, over rock piles, and basically ruined it.  :(  We didn't hear anything, so weren't much help.  It's sad and a little scary to think that there's somebody around these parts that would do such a thing...

Mom and Andrew headed for Bismarck (after we ate the Chicken Pot-Pie), Mom driving Andrew's Rendezvous and Andrew driving one of his pickups, pulling his trailer with one of his Stratus cars on it.  Q.  Why so many vehicles?   A. Andrew sold 2 vehicles today!!!  He's pretty happy!

While Mom did 3 sessions on clients, Andrew drove around town, doing errands again.  He got some more supplies for our Appleseed event (ear plugs and eye protection) AND we had agreed beforehand to all chip in and buy a good volleyball net, so he picked that out too, along with a glow-in-the-dark volleyball!  :)    They were gone all the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, my dad had business to attend to in Napoleon and Linton, so he was gone for a few hours.  Jacob went up and checked the cows (to make sure they were still in the fence after the pickup went up that road last night), and yes, they were in.  Then, he picked up all the apples off the ground again and hauled them inside for me.   Some of the apples are pretty good sized:
 And some are quite small.  They all make good applesauce and applebutter though!
 We also untied some of the knots under the boards on our swings and tried to get them level, now that the ropes have (hopefully) stretched out all the way.  Some of them were pretty lop-sided.

I took a few minutes and uploaded pictures....  :) 

These were taken last night, while shooting with friends:
(left to right:  Sarena, Thaddeaus, Andrew, Jacob, Mother.)

 My dad and Tom M., watching something or other...


 Some people were brave and shot Tom's big, super loud gun...
 It got dark and most of the people pictures below wanted to shoot pistols yet, so Andrew got his former-police-car and shone the spotlight so everyone could see.  :)

I finished the cake around 5:00 and enjoyed spending a little time with Paula and Johanna when they came to pick it up!  It was for a coworker friend of Paulas' who is having, obviously, a boy. 

When my dad got home, he looked through the mail and saw that the hay-sample results were there, and he was so very pleased with the quality of the hay.  We are grateful to have been able to put up CRP hay so as to be able to sell some of our 2nd cutting alfalfa hay.  You would not believe how many people call to buy hay this year, or just stop the guys at the gas stations and ask if they have hay for sale.  Some are going up to Canada to buy hay even...

So then, Dad and Jacob got the combine going and headed out to start picking up the wheat swaths.  They had some troubles to begin with and had to have Andrew pick up a $92 belt in Bismarck, but they switched things around and got some wheat harvested.  I ate supper and did the chores and made supper for the others, then played piano for a bit.

My dad talked to his brother about anniversary plans (for my grandparents) for quite a while this evening too.  That is coming up very soon too. 

As I said, it was a good day! 

3 comments:

The K. Family said...

I love your backstop - very nice! Around here everyone wants us to do their hay and CRP for them because they don't need it. Thankfully, we can use it, if we have the time to get it! Cute cake!

Paula McGrew said...

Good morning, Cora! My name is Paula McGrew, and my grandmother is Gladys Johnson, the lady who sold you the farm. Your family now lives on the farm where my mom, Barb Johnson Jensen, grew up and where I spent every summer and holiday and many weekends while I was growing up in Minot. The farm in Kintyre is my favorite place on Earth, and I'm so glad there is a Christian family living on it and working the land. I've been reading your blog now for about a year and a half and decided it's time to introduce myself.



I remember picking apples from the trees you referenced in your blog, and after visiting grandma and Terry and Bev in the fall, I'd bring bags of them home to Duluth, MN where my family and I live, and then I'd make apple juice and applesauce with them. Reading your farming adventures every day bring back so many wonderful memories.



Thank you for posting all the pictures of the farm, the inside of the farm house and the outbuildings. I remember every nook and cranny of the farm house and used to sleep in the middle bedroom. My cousins, Mark and Mick Johnson (Lavonne Johnson's boys) and I had many adventures there. We used to lie on the roof of one of the barns and shoot gophers in the pasture. We'd help my grandma and Lavonne butcher chickens and we'd ride our horses and our bikes and 3-wheelers all over the countryside. My sister, Wendy and I, decided to keep our goldfish at the farm one summer, and so we put them in the stock tank that is (or used to be) in the front yard. We were amazed that in a few short months they had gotten huge!


Now I live in Duluth, MN. My husband Kevin and I have two boys: Graham is 16 and Soren is 12. We live on ten acres in the country and raise chickens and bees, have a hunting dog, and recently added four pygmy goats to our hobby farm. Kevin is the director of the library at The College of St. Scholastica, and I work at the college as well as the Graduate Nursing program coordinator.


I'd enjoy keeping in touch with you, and if you'd like to correspond with me, I'd be happy to send you my e-mail address. Maybe the next time Kevin and I and the boys get to Kintyre, we could stop by and visit you and your family. I'd love a farm tour -- :)) Kevin goes bird hunting in Kintyre every October-November for a week along with his brother and a couple of their friends, but I haven't been back since the celebration in Napoleon three years ago.


Take care and continue blogging -- it's one of the first things I read each morning.


God Bless you and your family.

Kimberly said...

What a nice comment from the granddaughter of the lady whose farm you now live on. How glad she sounds to be able to get a glimpse into life there and to remember her times spent with her grandparents. Just because you blogged about it!

I loved seeing the pictures and read your every post.

Kimberly