Spring has sprung!!!

Our lawn is turning green; the days are sunny; and our tulips are popping up out of the ground. :) I hope Spring has come to stay!

"Please, God, help Spring to stay."

I had a busy day away from home, first working at Helen's Daycare (the 10 small children and I all bundled up and headed outside this morning to soak up some sunshine and fresh air, but the cool wind sent us back inside after a few minutes of playtime,) for about 5 hours. Then, when Helen got back from a funeral she was attending, I went to the nursing home and worked my 8 hour shift there. Now I'm tired and I want to go to bed!

Mother was feeling a lot better today, so she headed for Bismarck to see clients and to do some shopping. She picked up the new trampoline my brothers and I had requested (don't worry, we'll pay her back... :) ), as our other one got demolished in a wind storm last Summer. It was getting to be in bad shape even before that, with the springs flinging off occasionally, some of them flying very high and smacking into a grain bin! It will be so enjoyable to be able to get fun exercise again!

Well, that's all I really know about this day. As you can see, I wasn't really here for most of it....

I almost stayed in town tonight...

It is not very nice outside this evening and I debated if I should take up one of the two offers I had from friends to stay with them tonight or go home. I decided to head out to the highway and then, if things looked bleak, I'd turn around and go back to town. When I got out to Hwy. #34 though, the road was fairly good and I could SEE it, so I headed for home---and God saw to it that I was safe. :)

This morning, I worked some more on the family newsletter... I also made lunch (while Mom was doing a session for a client) and pressed the new skirts that recently arrived from New Creations Apparel---my favorite place to shop for long skirts.

Do you have a favorite place to shop for reasonably-priced modest clothing? I'd love to hear about it!

Wait! Is it Spring already?

It was absolutely gorgeous outside today--in the mid 40s! The sun was shining; the birds singing; the snow all melting.....I even got some mud on my shoes when I took a box of rags I'd cut over to the shop. :) Oh, and besides all that, we've had some very early arrivals in the cattle department yesterday and today! Two of Dad's cows had calves and one of mine had TWINS!!! I thanked God several times today for the lovely weather for those little babies. If they can just get dried off and get up and going, they should hopefully be able to make it through the Winter alright..... Unless, of course, we've just skipped Winter altogether this year, which would be fine with me, except I don't have any seeds ordered for the garden yet!


Our 3 guys worked out in the shop almost all day and are about ready to put Andrew's motor in his car. I think Dad was also working on the 1486 tractor.


Mom and I worked in the house most of the day, working on odd projects that needed doing. I cleaned out my top "Miscellaneous" dresser drawer and got that all organized, which took a while! Mom did several sessions and we both worked together on laundry and dishes... I baked some Peanut Blossom cookies and made a pitcher full of eggnog. Yummy!
Several of my coworkers (at the nursing home) and I got to talking about eggnog one day and I was surprised to find out that so many of them did not like it!! So, I thought it would be fun to take a blog poll, just to find out if this is a nation-wide trend (people not liking eggnog as much as I think they would) or if it's just a Napoleon thing? :)


I'd appreciate if you'd please vote on the poll on my side-bar!

Day #6...

Tonight, I just want to thank God for the seasons and the wide variety of weather we have during them. Fall and Winters in North Dakota can be quite cold at times (we had a little dusting of snow today), but I'm glad for that, as we're together more as a family when it's freezing outside and have a lot more time for doing the things we enjoy (reading, writing, playing piano, cooking, fixing things....).

Playing board games is one thing we all enjoy doing together in our spare moments/hours. This evening, we were all together, so we played Jacob's new birthday game:
AUTOMOBILE .
We haven't quite figured out the strategies to this game, but had fun learning all the rules and regulations and Mother was so very happy to win the first game we played! :)

One of Andrew's hobbies is fixing up cars that have engine/transmission problems and then reselling them. He found a good deal on a car this morning (on BisMan); borrowed a friends' car trailer; and he and Jacob drove to Bismarck and picked it up this afternoon. Now he has something to work on again....

Dad spent the afternoon in the cold tractor, hauling hay in from the field. Mother and I worked in the nice warm house. It was a good day.

I really enjoyed reading my friend, Rachel's thankfulness post today and thought I'd point you in her direction if you have time a little extra time for reading. Click HERE. I especially liked this part:

"I love that my God is so BIG He can fill the universe...and so "small" that He can dwell in my heart."

What a wondrous thought!

COLD!

That's it folks. It's just cold!

Boys and noise...

Mom and I stayed home this evening to do the milking so the guys could go have some fun... Once a year, the Monster Trucks come to Mandan and our fellas wanted to go see them run, jump, make noise, and whatever else it is that they do. They are still gone and, when Mother called to see when they'd be home, Dad could hardly hear her as it was so loud there, but he said they'd probably be back around midnight! I'm glad they're able to have this time together to just have fun.

It was so cold all day that it felt like *whispers* Fall. I decided to put a jacket on before hopping on the 4-wheeler to go get Sally in from the farthest corner of the pasture at milking time. What an unusual year this has been. We had almost half an inch of rain last night. August is usually so dry and hot....

Tonight, I'd like to point you in the direction of my friend, Carra's most recent post, as it really blessed me and I hope it will do the same for you. Visit "Life in the Wilderness" HERE.


We sang the lovely hymn, "God will take care of you" during our home fellowship time today and I just realized how perfectly this hymn goes along with the message that we are not to fear, but rather to rely on God, for He will indeed take care of us. :)






1. Be not dismayed whate'er betide,
God will take care of you;
beneath his wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.

Refrain:
God will take care of you,
through every day, o'er all the way;
he will take care of you,
God will take care of you.

2. Through days of toil when heart doth fail,
God will take care of you;
when dangers fierce your path assail,
God will take care of you.
(Refrain)

3. No matter what may be the test,
God will take care of you;
lean, weary one, upon his breast,
God will take care of you.
(Refrain)

Praying for all you who read this to have a wonderful, fearless week ahead of you,
~Cora

Have you seen fire fly?

When I got off of work tonight, I turned onto the Hwy. and headed for home, only to have to slow down for a deer that was along the side of the road. I sped up again, once I was past it, and then had to slow down again a couple miles further, as there was another deer along the same edge of the road. I went along farther down the highway and saw 50, no, 100, well, maybe several hundred glowing eyes in the field next to the road. I slowed down, in case those deer would also come up to the side of the road, but they didn't, and then it was that I realized they were not deer at all! They were fireflies! We don't see fireflies around these parts too often, but they are definitely all over the place tonight. Closer to home, I passed another swampy area that had thousands of blinky bugs flying over and around it. What an amazing example these beetles are of God's wonderful imagination in His creations!!!

It is hot and muggy in my little room tonight. Windows are also a wonderful creation/invention!

Happy (almost) July everybody----and good night!

Sometimes, life is hard!

It was a sad morning on the farm when my dad came in with a nearly dead calf in the loader bucket and the news that there were 2 more dead calves (all newborns) and 1 more that needed help... After trying to revive the 2 extremely cold and weak calves in the kitchen, they passed away, leaving us with a bad taste in our mouth for this cold, wet weather! We realized we need to check the cows more often than we have been during the night, so I'll be heading out at 1:00; Dad at 3 or 4; Andrew takes the next check.... Now that there's 8-9 inches of snow everywhere, with mud underneath, the only thing we can get around with in the pasture/lots is the tractor... I have a few pictures of snow to share, but first, here's a picture of one of the ways we communicated with Andrew while he was away for several days cleaning: I-pods sure are nice, especially when you can use them like this! (We're able to hear and see him, and vice-verse.) This picture was taken yesterday, around supper time.

...And this is what it looked like outside this morning!

It kept snowing for a good part of the day, although it was warm enough to melt the snow down to the driveway gravel/mud after Dad pushed a path with the loader.... These robins and sparrows weren't looking too much more fond of the weather than we were/are!

Poor birdie! Maybe it should have waited a couple more weeks before flying so far North?

Dad spent the afternoon cleaning out one of the pole-barns... The calves did find the calf shelter (the white building in the picture below) and stayed in there for part of the day.

For dessert tonight, I decided to try my hand at making my second Angel Food cake from scratch. The first one I mixed up, I tried to make it somewhat healthy, and it flopped, so this time I followed the recipe (you know, sugar and white flour) and this was the result:

It still didn't rise like a mix cake would, but it tasted pretty much the same.

Well, I think I'll try to get a little sleep in before heading out to the tractor to drive around in the dark, looking for cows/calves that need help. We would really appreciate prayer for warm, sunny weather once again! Losing calves is really sad!

Visit my brother Andrew's blog...

...to see the blog statistics he put together for his blogger-versary and also to get a lot of links to free computer-related programs.... And then, if you scroll down to his next post, you can see a really cute video he put together of our first 3 calves of the year, plus he made a video of his grain cleaner running! VISIT ANDREW'S BLOG HERE~ I just got home from working in town again and am glad to be inside tonight as it is very windy outside! It's snowing a bit again too.... As a song (written by a friend of mine) says: "(Chorus) ...It's April fools in Dakota! This morning who'd have known, With all the prairie singing 'cause the Meadowlark is home. That sunny song of Spring can turn to snowflakes on the run. Now those clouds are rollin' in, Windchill's minus 1. I heard a robin yesterday, I wonder where he's gone? I hope he'll find some shelter While the Winter has it's fun! Six weeks ago was balmy, Valentine's day was clear. If Springtime's a prairie's lover I wish he weren't so insincere! (Chorus) Only 40 fence posts left 'til we reach that sheltered draw. I can smell the woodsmoke burnin', Mama keep it fired up hot! There's 10 endangered species On the ends of my 2 feet. It's cold and I ain't funnin', No, I guess the fool is me! (Chorus) It's April fools in Dakota, that's for sure! Stay warm, fellow Dakotans. ~ PS. So sorry about this blog smashery---where blogger smashes all the sentences and paragraphs into one large lump! I wish I knew what I was doing wrong....

Oh deer!

I wish I had had my camera along tonight as I drove home! As I turned onto the road leading to Kintyre, I could see (it's very bright out tonight!) literally 100+ deer grazing and lying in the corn field close to the road. I feel sorry for the wildlife during this season of very cold and very snowy weather! Just to give some of my non-Northern friends a pictures of what it's like out there, I'll tell you a little story....

A couple of afternoons ago, we received a phone call from a passer-by, saying that a few of our cows were out. She said that one had been on the road and, when they got up close to it, it plunged into the ditch which is, quite literally, FULL of snow! The cow sank down in the snow but through her floundering, she did manage to get back out. (Andrew went then with the snowmobile and chased the naughty cows back in where they belonged.) It snowed another half inch or so today and they're talking about more snow in our near future. Such is life in ND~

A blizzard!

Snow + wind = blizzard!

We've been praying for the people who are out on the roads today... We've heard there were quite a few accidents East of us a ways and rescue teams were planning to use snowmobiles to get out to the people in need. I'm hoping to be able to find someone in town to work for me tomorrow, as I do not like to travel when the roads are less than desirable for driving on. Plus, I do not wish to work on the Sabbath (which begins at sunset), but I was scheduled to, as it is my holiday to work. If I must work, I've decided to send the proceeds I get to our favorite mission, Gospel for Asia....

But on to the good news! Mom and I made progress on our letter once again today. I'm working on adding pictures now and am nearly done with June. :)

Dad and I also finished putting together the 1,000 piece puzzle that Grandma gave to Mom for her birthday. It was a very challenging one as there were many, MANY different shades of green in the lovely park....

The boys and I separated milk/cream again today, so ice cream making is on the list for tomorrow. Then this evening, we watched a movie we brought home from the library called "Silas Marner". We had listened to the story on cassette tape a couple years ago and it was neat to see the movie stick pretty close to the book.

Well, I'm getting chilly standing here by my computer, so I think I'll turn it off for the night and find some extra warm blankets to huddle under 'til morning.

Sweet dreams~

Cookin' up a feast...

This was a busy day, spent mostly in the kitchen for me and filled with cleaning; laundering; separating milk/cream; and hauling grain for the others....

I made some whole wheat tortillas for our Chicken Enchiladas:


...butter, for the white sauce, for the enchiladas:

I made 2 Sour Cream Raisin pies:
Finished up the salsa I'd started on yesterday and got it canned:

And I made 1 1/2 batches of ice cream--making it into 3 different flavors: Raspberry, Maple, and Mint Chocolate Chip: (This picture was taken before the mixture was frozen...)

Mother and I also made our favorite Apple Raisin salad, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Here is the finished windmill that the boys worked on together in their spare time a couple days ago:

Oh, and here's a picture I took on Wednesday morning--looking out my bedroom window: (After the sunshine today, there's not much snow left!
My dad had a surprise tonight while driving home from the North! He was a couple miles up the road yet when a large animal ran across the road and out into a field. It was----a female moose!!!!! I wonder what she's doing in this part of the world?

Those are all the pictures I have to share for the day. After our feast was over, we all played a couple games of Foosball downstairs and then played a fun game of Rook...

Now for a good nights rest and a wonderful day spent with loved ones tomorrow. :)

And yet one MORE suprise!

It snowed this evening!!! The snow melted as soon as it touched the ground, but if one looked out the window at the yard light (without looking at the ground), one could imagine it was winter time.

How strange...

SNOW!

It truly is a Winter-wonderland around our place these days! I tucked my camera inside its' case and took it out with me this morning to get some pictures...

Here, my milk cow, Louisa, was peeking in the barn door to see if it was her turn to come in or not. :)


My brothers, milking their cows, Cheerio (left) and Lilac (right)...
My dad had to clear some snow away from the Quonset door in order to get out to feed the cows this morning...

This picture is of our turkeys--cleaning up a little grain that one of my brothers had spilled. Speaking of turkeys, we had a funny experience with our little hen this evening during chores... My dad had gone across the road with the tractor to feed the heifers their grain and then proceeded to the hay-yard to pick up a couple large square bales to feed to the cows. When he came back in the farm-yard with the hay... ...Jacob noticed that there was something on top of the tractor cab and then pointed it out to the rest of us. It was--our little hen--just sitting up there, holding on tightly with her feet! We motioned to Dad to stop and then informed him that there was a turkey on top of the tractor. He got out and was going to lift her off, when she spread out her wings and took to the air, landing in the snow a little ways away. Silly little bird! :) Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera along at the time, so we don't have a picture of our brave turkey.

Here is the snowy alley way that leads out to the stock cows...

...And here is the semi. It looks like Dad will have to push some snow away before he takes off Monday morning!

We had a lovely day at home today, singing; praising the Lord; fellowshipping together; playing a game and working on a thousand-piece puzzle (which we're a little over half done with--the easy half is done though...!)

Before I go, I'd like to inform you that Grace has a mystery picture posted on her blog currently and she would like lots of people to try to guess what it is before she gives the answer on Monday. It's a peculiar picture and it has me puzzled, so if you'd like a challenge, I suggest you visit her blog soon and try to figure out what "It" is.... Have fun! :)

It's Winter in North Dakota!

It's winter in North Dakota--
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below.

Oh, how I love North Dakota--
When the snow's up to your knees...
You take one breath of winter
But then your nose begins to freeze!

Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave North Dakota anyway
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!
~anonymous

Well, maybe it isn't quite that bad yet, but sometimes it does feel pretty cold outside!

I just wanted to wish you all a happy Winter and to share a quote with you... :)

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together!"

Season survey~

It looks like (from the results of my little "Favorite-season-survey" last week,) not too many people are fond of Winter! I personally like Spring the best, because of all the new life everywhere. True, there is a LOT of work to be done on a farm in the Spring, but there are so many things to look forward to and everything is so green...

This picture is of our garden last year. We are hoping to get out in our garden very soon now, but need the guys to have a few moments to bring in some manure and work it in with a piece of heavy equipment... Dad and Andrew are gone from early morning to late evening now though (with grain hauling and cleaning), so I don't know when we'll be able to plant in our garden dirt!

SNOW?

..."The farmer's going

About his sowing

Of many fields of wheat.

When we have shivered

Through one more blizzard,

Then Spring will be complete!"

I awoke this morning to find this view outside my bedroom window:

Yes, it is really snow!

I guess God likes to surprise us! Happy Winter~

Stuck~

Everyone here got up early this morning, as my dad had to haul a load of grain to a farmer before hauling hay home; my mom headed for Bismarck to meet with several BT clients; Andrew went South to Strasburg to finish up a grain-cleaning job and to try to finish 2 other guys' grain before the day is done; and Jacob & I needed to do the milking and other chores by ourselves. It's at times like these that I'm glad we're only milking 8 cows and 5 goats!!!

Chores went well, all except for the end part, that is... See, I was going to water the 2 cows that are locked in a pen behind the barn. The garden hose we use to water them with was still mostly frozen, but a little trickle of water came out the end, so I knew it would open up eventually. I waited for a couple minutes for the water to come, but it didn't, so I decided to leave the hose in the trough and go get oats with Jacob, as he was already driving the tractor over to the grain bin. We returned in about 5 minutes and, after unloading the pails of grain from the loader bucket, I went to check if the hose had opened. Well....there are a bunch of calves (ones we had bottle-fed last year) in the same pen that I had to string the hose through to get to the water trough in the back of the barn. The hose had come open, but the calves had stepped on the hose and managed to pull it out of the trough, so the water splashed all over the already muddy ground, making it REALLY messy! The cows still needed water though, so I jumped through the mud and got the hose back into the trough. After it was full, I started to turn to head for the hydrant (to turn the water off,) but my boots didn't budge! (I should tell you that these are the tall, black kind of boots that you just slip your foot in and out of.) I wasn't expecting this change of plans, so I ended up with one stocking foot in the mud and the other still in my other boot--which was sinking down even farther into the squishy mud. Yuck. Jacob came by about then and thought it was funny that I was stuck, as he had had a similar experience just last week! Oh the joys of Springtime on the farm... I did get out, after a minute, and we both had a good laugh. (My socks are now washed and are hanging up on the wash line, drying in the crisp breeze.)

So, were you ready to get back to work this morning, or were you a "Bear" about it? Here's a movie we found on U-tube a while ago, and I've been saving it for such a time as this. :) Be sure to turn your speakers WAY DOWN in the beginning, while they show the penguin--as the music is crazy! I think the polar bear is SO funny, though, and that's why I decided to share this with you. I hope your Monday has been great!

A Spring Poem~

I thought I'd share a poem I read today that seems to fit this Spring well. It comes from a book called, "Ever and Always--I Shall Love the Land".

Signs of Spring
by Clell G. Gannon~

The robins know it,
The dresses show it,
And shoes are splashed with mud.
It's on the breezes,
It kind of teases
And gets right in your blood.

The blooming flowers
And sudden showers
All say that Spring is here.
The geese are passing,
The green grass massing,
And marble games appear.

The farmer's going
About the sowing
of many fields of wheat.
When we have shivered
Through one more blizzard,
Then Spring will be complete!


Hopefully the blizzards are done with for a good long time now!