Fun times...

We spent a very pleasant afternoon/evening visiting with Jared Hendrix and Karen E. (not quite sure how to spell her last name, so E. it will be for tonight). It was lots of fun showing them around our farm (Jared milked our cow---a few squirts anyway and Karen fed the bottle-calf), and enjoying the cold evening on our swings, merry-go-round, and trampoline. There was lots of politic talk tucked in there as well! We took pictures, but those will have to wait for another evening to get posted here.... It was a fun day, although missed Trevor (he headed home to Virginia a couple days ago).

"Thank you Lord for the gift of friends."

A good overview of what happened at our GOP convention...

Pretty unfair, eh? As things worked out, we'll actually have the young woman quoted here at our place for lunch tomorrow, as she's a friend of our friend, Jared, and they'll be stopping in at our place on their way back from Fargo. I also sat by her at the Ground Round that evening after the convention, so I feel like I know her a little bit anyway....

Mom and I spent the day cooking and cleaning. The boys spent the day hauling and spreading manure (or joy, as we call it). Dad went out grain-cleaning in this windstorm and got peppered with gravel all day long. Yuck!

We figured out that tonight, when we ate our supper together, it was the first meal we all were together for in about 2 weeks!!! Life just gets busier and busier it seems. I'm glad. I do not believe the Lord intended for us to be bored or lazy---but I'm sure glad He told us to rest one day a week. :)

Poultry and politics (or: pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more...)

Actually, the pictures pertaining to politics will be posted first, as that is the way they were loaded. :)

This picture was taken shortly before the ND GOP convention began on Saturday...


After a candidate gave their speech and showed their video (which was designed to promote the person, basically to try and convince the delegates to vote for them), there was a brief set time for them to have a parade.......meaning, anyone who so desired could hold up one of their signs and walk around the room, following the candidate, cheering and waving pom-poms and the like. We learned later that each candidate had a certain set amount of time in which they could do their "Schpeal". If they had someone nominate them; another person second the nomination and give a speech; and then had a third person give a second seconding speech, then the candidate would probably not have time for the parade. Some members of my family participated in a couple of the parades. I walked through Mr. Paul Sorum's parade....

This picture was taken after the convention was going a while and nearly all the delegate seats were filled. Mother and I, along with our friend, Virginia, and 2 more people from our district sat up with other alternates in the blue seats on the North side of the building. We got to be seated as delegates during the last 20 minutes of the convention, so didn't get to vote. :( Hopefully next time things will be a lot different!

We could simply not believe how many signs there were EVERYWHERE (even the bathrooms were plastered, literally, with signs---even in each stall! This is just a tiny sampling of what I'm talking about: Even the parking lot was FULL of signs!

My brother, Andrew, the courageous one, speaking up when things were not fair...

Here is our friend, Virginia... We only first met her at the caucus this year, but like her so very much and are glad she doesn't live too far away! Hopefully we can get together with her husband and children sometime soon.....

I'm not sure whose pickup this was, but i liked it and had to get a picture!

Now on to the turkey pictures...

They arrived in this tiny box and quickly got transported to their new home---a much larger box:

When baby birds first arrive, they need to be shown where their feed and water is. I dipped each of the turkey poults' beaks into the water a couple times until they got some water in their mouths....

Mom thinks they're pretty cute too!

We learned a long time ago that a good preventative of coccidiosis in birds is a mixture of yogurt, honey, brewers yeast, and onion added to the water......

We have not learned yet, though, of a good mixture of grain that has enough of everything a turkey baby needs to keep it alive, so we bought a turkey starter.... Two years ago, I lost all 7 of the turkey poults that our hen hatched out when experimenting with feeds, so we decided to go this way this time.

All 17 turkeys are still alive tonight and looking well. I'm so glad!

The guys just have a couple more days of grain cleaning left it sounds like, unless more people call at the last minute. Mom went to Bismarck today. Jacob stayed home and kept the farm running. I went over and spent the day with "My" little girls. :)

Have a good Friday, everybody! God bless~

The convention is over...

...but the Revolution is just getting going!

It is so encouraging to see more and more people becoming aware of important issues (political in this instance) and then being willing to get active and do something about it all...

Andrew and I just returned home from a rather late supper/evening visit with fellow Freedom lovers (Ron Paul supporters/some John Birch Society Members/a few homeschoolers) at the Ground Round. It was a great time of fellowship with people of similar values!

Mr. Brian Kalk (who won the Republican convention's endorsement today for a US House position of service) also happened to be there, so Andrew, our friend, Virginia, and I got to visit with him some when he came in while we were waiting for available tables, and he later briefly spoke to our whole group. He ended up standing beside my chair while talking and kept patting me on the shoulder. It was kind of funny! We all kindly let him know we'll be holding him accountable to the things he pledged to stand for today, and he thanked us... Of course, this is something we need to do for all our men/women who are in positions of authority in this land.

May we always remain one nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!

My sittin' bones are weary...

It's been a most interesting (and long and tiring) day at the Republican convention... We were in a "Parade" for Mr. Paul Sorum (for Governor) and everything. :) I got to see a couple unexpected friends there as well, so that was nice!

My parents and I returned home around 8:00 this evening to find Jacob nearly done with chores. Andrew stayed up there again tonight with his Ron Paul friends....

It's not all that late, but we're all tired and are heading for bed so we're ready to face another day of sitting tomorrow.

God bless and good night~

Short post...

This will be short, as I'm heading for bed early so as to be able to wake up early, feeling refreshed. Andrew cleaned grain all day until about 6:00, when he finished the job he was working on; folded up; and came home to shower quick and head for Bismarck to get in on the Ron Paul meeting/planning with other district heads and campaign leaders..... Jacob and I had all his things ironed and packed for him (plus some supper) so he could head out the door as fast as possible.

Dad is still out cleaning....

Mom finished working up a field, but then had a blooper when she was bringing the tractor and disc back into the yard and knocked over the mailbox. Jacob and I set up a temporary box so we can still get our mail while trying to figure out a better plan for how to mount it.

It's been a full day.

Please join us in praying for God's will to be done tomorrow and the following day at the ND GOP (Republican) convention! There are many important decisions that will be made there, decisions that will affect the Country we live in.

We dug out the Bocce balls...

This afternoon was so pleasantly warm and sunny (in the 70s!), it's hard to believe there's a chance of snow on Tuesday! This certainly has been an odd year already, temperature wise.

My brothers and I played several games of Bocce and then just enjoyed swinging on the swings for a while and talking.

We had hoped to have company today, but they weren't able to make it, so we had plenty of food for supper!

It was a very nice, relaxed day. Just what we needed before the "Storm" of the following busy weeks hits.... This coming weekend is the annual homeschool conference, which we plan to attend and help with. Then, the following week is the GOP convention, which we also plan to go to. :) Oh, we had some very good news today! Our district chairman called and talked to Dad and told him that someone decided not to go to the convention, so now Dad can be/will be a delegate!!!!!!! Hooray!

"Thank you, Father in Heaven!"

So, yes, it was a good day.

Birthday and convention pictures...

I spent a little time this afternoon (between folding loads of laundry) uploading some pictures, as promised. :)

Here are a few from my birthday:

Andrew was having fun playing with the settings on his fancy camera...

The pretty cake that Mother bought me (I believe I wrote here how she did not want me to have to make my own cake and didn't have time to do it herself, so we enjoyed this beautiful cake). : We just finished it this evening at supper!

Yours truly, opening the Brad Stine DVD that Jacob gave me, while our faithful (15 year old?) Trevor bear looks on...

Oh dear.... I didn't quite get them all blown out in one breath. There were just so many of them! :)

Some of the very nice gifts I received from my family: (the piano books are not pictured here and neither are the dozen roses.....)

The following pictures are from yesterday at our district convention:

As you can see, it was a very busy place!

Mother at the Ron Paul section of the table...

During the precinct meeting, the delegates to that meeting sat according to what precinct they were from (see all the little signs?).

Here is our state Senator, giving a short speech, asking the precinct delegates to vote for him--which they did...

Those of us who were not able to be precinct delegates (only Andrew got in from our family) sat on the side bleachers and listened/visited. We were so pleased that several of our friends showed up (from quite a distance too) to vote for us to be delegates to the state convention!

A friend, Mr. M, who was running for the position of state representative, asked Andrew to stand up and nominate him. Andrew is doing just that in the picture below. There were a couple other gentlemen who also got up and seconded the nomination. Sadly, our friend did not make it in, but we were encouraged by how close he was to getting in, as he did get started pretty late in the race, so didn't have a lot of time for campaigning. I hope that he'll have much better success next time!

Random fact: Our (hopefully) future Governor Sorum knows how to text! :)

Adding up the votes...

Rep. Koppelman, addressing the audience:

The 3 men who were hoping to obtain/re-obtain the 2nd seat in our House of Representatives: (The man on the far left won. The man in the middle is our current Representative. The man on the right is our conservative Christian friend, whom we voted for.)

If you look closely, you can see Andrew in this picture:

There was some voting done by people standing as a "Yes" and the others remaining seated for a "No"...

Here, Andrew is reading from "Robert's Rules", as not everyone was sure about the way things were supposed to be run.... We were very proud of him! He got told he should be a parliamentarian. :)

The precinct delegates, again:

After that meeting was over with (it took several HOURS!), everyone was allowed to vote for delegates to go to the state convention. That is when Dad and Andrew got a tie for the 30th spot (the last spot available---doesn't God have a sense of humor--to have those 2 tie?) and Dad said that Andrew should take it. The rest of us can be alternates at the convention.

Most of the people left after casting their vote, but a few did stick around for the next hour while the votes were being counted....

Andrew took this picture of my dad and I, visiting with one of our precinct chairmen and our friend, Mr. M....

It was after 9:00PM when we got home to do our chores and eat our supper. It was a very long but very interesting day! We learned a lot.....

District #28 convention= over!

It was a long day! We were almost an hour early--so we could get Ron Paul signs put up and get a table reserved and set up for displaying/distributing literature. The actual meeting began at 2:00, and it was a little after 8:00 when we left... We are so thankful for the friends that came to support us! We were disappointed that there were not more people wishing to be Ron Paul delegates, but were very thankful that our friends showed up to vote for us!

I'm tired and feel like going into much detail about the day, but I will say that there were 30 state delegate spots available and there were almost 60 people wishing to be delegates. SO, everyone voted on the people they wished to see get elected. Dad and Andrew tied for the 30th place--so Dad said he'd like Andrew to take the spot, as he doesn't know how busy he'll be at the end of this month anyway. Plus, Andrew likes this kind of thing a little more than my dad does too. Mom and I were pretty close to getting to be delegates (only 5 or 6 votes away), but not quite close enough to be elected, so now we can be alternates if so desired (I'm planning to be one). If a delegate is not able to make it to the convention, there will be a chance for the alternates to take their place there.

There is much more that could be said (especially about how proud we were of Andrew, keeping the precinct meeting following Roberts' Rules and all....), but that will have to wait for another day. He did have several people thank him for his input and a couple said he should be a parliamentarian or district head... Perhaps politics will play a part in his future?

We were pleased to have Mr. Sorum bring his pamphlets/brochures/cards over to our table for displaying-----and Rep. Koppelman also! :)

It was a very educational day!!! Sadly, our Ron Paul friends from the Bismarck office were not able to make it down, but thankfully (Praise the Lord!) things went pretty well and, as Andrew had been through this procedure several times already, he knew a lot about what to be looking for........

And now, dear friends, I will say "Good night". Pictures to come in the future, sometime.

I'm so excited...

...for tomorrow to come! Andrew talked with Mr. Sorum (hopefully/prayerfully our future governor) this evening and learned that he will also be attending our district convention! :) Plus, he (Paul Sorum) was able to smooth out a few details with our district chairman, issues that we were concerned about in the way the convention was being held, so we were all rejoicing and praising God this evening in our little living room...

We'll have a busy morning, making calls to friends and all, and hopefully we'll have some company after the meeting, if the Ron Paul campaign men are able to stop for supper, etc.... :)

It is sure to be a very interesting day! Please pray for all to go according to God's plan. My parents, Andrew, and I hope to become delegates to the state convention. ~

Hope we'll be able to sleep tonight!

Oh, today was busy too... Mom and I cleaned and cooked/baked, etc... The guys went and bought/picked up something for Andrew (but I'm sure he'll post about that another time).

Have faith, Mr. Paul! We're behind you!

Matthew 17:20:
...."for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."


The way things worked out this afternoon, Dad and the boys went over to the Hazelton caucus (Andrew spoke for Ron Paul there and said a prayer too when asked), and Mom and I drove over to the Wishek one to speak for Ron Paul there (Mom did the 4-minute presentation and I helped talk to interested people, smiled, and passed out info....). The whole meeting was run well and we met some very nice people (even ones who I'm pretty sure were not Ron Paul supporters). :) We stayed until the counting of the votes was done and the reporting was finished. All in all, it was a very good experience. I pulled in the driveway 1 minute before Andrew did. (Dad and Jacob had come home earlier to do the chores, after Dad had voted....).

We are disappointed that there weren't even more Paul supporters, (he took 2nd in our state, with Mr. Santorum taking 1st spot) but then we must be glad for the fact that he DID take 2nd! :) Plus, the caucus is not entirely accurate, as lots of people do not even take the time to vote at it, or don't know about it, or have other things going on, or don't think it's important, or...............................................................................................

Anyway, we were encouraged that the two caucuses our family attended were run well and that we met many friendly people!

Next step: Get voted in as delegates on Saturday! Prayers and support would be most highly appreciated!!!

Well friends, this is the last time I shall write to you----


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.....while being at my current age, that is!

Tomorrow, I turn a quarter of a century old! I thank the Lord for every day that he's put breath in my lungs and a beat in my heart! :)

A couple of great quotes worth contemplating:

"Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and prayers, but she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator of her own."
-John Adams


"Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."
- Patrick Henry, 1775.

Come see us in Hazelton tomorrow evening!

If you're wondering why we'll be in that small town, you can visit Andrew's blog HERE to learn more!

Also, if you wish to see Mr. Ron Paul, you now have another chance to, as he'll be speaking at the Fargo caucus tomorrow!!!!!! I hope I'll get to meet him someday in person! So far, the 2 times that members of my family have gone and heard him/talked to him, I've had to work, and now tomorrow, my family and I'll be helping Andrew and Mr. M. with setting up/running the Hazelton caucus point, so won't be able to go again. God knows best though, and so I'll wait some more...........

Jacob did a nice post today as well about all of our vehicle "happenings" of late. : ) You can go and congratulate him (HERE) on his purchase of a pickup of his very own!

Thank you so much for your prayers! My dad's tooth-pulling and replacement session went quite well today and, so far, he's not been in too much pain. Praise the Lord!!! He's even been doing quite a bit of talking----AND his smile looks great! :)

Mother bought a cake for me today while in Bismarck (as she won't have time to make one as we'll be very busy tomorrow, and she refuses to have me make my own!), and she had "Them" write "Happy 25th, Cora" on it. While she was checking out, the man at the counter asked,

"What does that say?"

Mother replied and he said he thought that's what it said but wanted to make sure. He told her then that his oldest daughter is named Cora too and asked her to wish me a happy birthday. :) I still have never met another "Cora", although I hear that they're out there, somewhere......

Well, it is time to get some rest, so I shall go and do that little thing. Good night everyone.~

A post on red, Ron Paul, and buttermilk pancakes...

Mother commented the other day that my brothers and I matched----and she had to get our picture. Here we are, all decked out in red and blue denim (we all had white socks on too, but sadly they don't show in the picture). :) Don't I just look tiny in-between those two giants?




The following pictures are ones that Andrew took with his new, high-quality camera.

I mentioned about a week ago how Mom and Andrew went to see and hear Ron Paul speak (they helped greet people too and passed out stickers and the like) at the Bismarck endorsing convention... Here are a few pictures for those who are interested:

Mr. Paul----one of my heroes! Don't you just love his country look? :)



This gentleman (posing with his wife) is another to whom I give my whole-hearted support:
His name is Mr. Paul Sorum and he is running to be Governor of our great state. As a side note, he and his wife home educate(d) their children! :) He is a man of integrity and believes in many of the same things Ron Paul does, (things like: God; adhering to the constitution of our country; and the like).

The smiling lady in the middle of this photo is also a Ron Paul supporter---aka: my mom!

The gentleman in the black hat in this picture is a huge Ron Paul supporter...

...as is this young man in the white hat. :) These are the two friends Andrew went with yesterday and who he may go with again out to the eastern part of the state later this week....

Mother, Andrew and I spent our afternoon calling people from District #28, seeking out Ron Paul supporters. Our endorsing convention is this Tuesday evening in Wishek and we're trying to find people to come along and vote for us to be delegates or to be delegates themselves.....

But, that's enough politic talk for the time being! :)

I'll leave you with the picture Andrew took of me this afternoon as I mixed up a double-batch of buttermilk pancakes (minus the buttermilk, as we're out. I just put a little vinegar in the milk and it turned out fine).

I had decided to try out one of the hairstyles on a website my friend, MaryAnna sent me a link to (for Prairie Days ideas)... What do you think?

And now, I will wish you all a good night!

Taxing work...

Yes, the guys spent most of the afternoon mulling over numbers. It's that time of year again---time to pay the taxes.

Meanwhile, the rest of us cleaned the house; cooked up a big batch of chili---using a new recipe; I made a white cake (from scratch) to go with all the leftover frosting I had from the cake I decorated yesterday; and we worked on the seemingly never-ending laundry.

It was a good, busy day. This evening, Andrew received a call from Jared H. (head of the Ron Paul campaign here in ND), asking him if he'd be willing to ride along to Dickinson tomorrow to help with their district meeting. Andrew agreed to go, but we're not sure what the roads will be like, as "They" are talking snow for this weekend. I guess the Lord will make it clear in the morning whether or not Andrew should go or stay home! God knows best, after all...

A Visitor From the Past~

by Thelen Paulk

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I had a dream the other night, I did not understand--
A figure walking through the mist, with flintlock in his hand.
His clothes were torn and dirty, as he stood there by my bed.
He took off his three-cornered-hat and speaking low, he said,


"We fought a revolution to secure our Liberty,
We wrote the Constitution, as a shield from tyranny.
For future generations this legacy we gave
In this, the land of the free and the home of the brave.


The freedom we secured for you, we hoped you'd always keep,
But tyrants labored endlessly, while your parents were asleep.
Your freedom gone - Your courage lost - You're no more than a slave
In this, the land of the free and the home of the brave.


You buy a permit to travel, and a permit to own a gun,
Permits to start a business or to build a place for one.
On land that you believe you own, you pay a yearly rent,
Although you have no voice in choosing, how the money's spent.


Your children must attend a school that does not educate,
Your Christian values can't be taught, according to the State.
You read about the current news in a regulated press.
You pay a tax you do not owe, to please the I.R.S.


Your money is no longer made of silver or of gold.
You trade your wealth for paper, so your life can be controlled.
You pay for crimes that make your nation turn from God in shame.
You've taken Satan's number, as you traded in your name.


You've given government control to those who do you harm,
So they can padlock churches, and steal the family farm,
And keep our country deep in debt, put men of God in jail,
Harass your fellow countrymen while corrupted courts prevail.


Your public servants don't uphold the solemn oath they've sworn.
Your daughters visit doctors, so their children won't be born.
Your leaders ship artillery and guns to foreign shores,
and send your sons to slaughter, fighting other people's wars.


Can you regain your freedom, for which we fought and died?
Or don't you have the courage or the faith to stand with pride?
Are there no more values for which you would fight to save,
or do you wish your children, to live in fear and be a slave?


Sons of the Republic, arise and take a stand!
Defend the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land!
Preserve our great Republic, and teach each God-given right,
And pray to God, to keep the torch of freedom burning bright!"


As I awoke he vanished, in the mist from whence he came.
His words were true, we are not Free, we have ourselves to blame.
For even now, as tyrants trample each God-given right,
We only watch and tremble, too afraid to stand and fight.


If he stood by your bedside, in a dream, while you're asleep,
And wonders what remains of our Rights he fought to keep,
What would be your answer, if he called out from the grave:
"Is this still the land of the free and the home of the brave???"

May the best man win....

I'm so glad that some people still believe in taking a stand for what is right!




On quite a different, more humorous note, this was shared by a friend the other day and I thought it was kind of fun. Can you find the baby in this picture?

It took me a while to see it!

Andrew had quite good success with the car he's been working on for a customer and also on the light blue car he's fixing up (possibly to sell to Mom?). My dad hauled our neighbors' wheat to Harvey, then came back and loaded up another load of hay to sell down South. Hay sales have been such a blessing to our family this year! We are indeed sad for the people down in the southern states who've been suffering such a terrible drought, but we are glad that God sent the moisture here so we can help fulfill a need to those who are hurting.

We serve a wonderful Lord!

We're Republicans---officially. :)

This evening, my parents, Andrew and I attended our districts' (Republican) reorganization meeting in Linton. It was run well and we learned several things, having never participated in such a meeting before.

One of my FaceBook friends shared the following video recently and I thought it was full of good thing to think about for us professing Christians in this critical decision making time:



Let me know what you think!

Was she serving me tea???

That is the question that was running through my head while I was playing piano this evening and saw (out of the corner of my eye) my mom entering my room, mug in hand. Something seemed suspicious! Then, my dad came in too, something clenched in his fist. Mother set the mug on my piano and Dad reached over and---plink, plink, plink, plink----dropped 4 quarters in. They said they really enjoyed my playing and wanted to show how much. How special was that? :)

Mom and I spent a good portion of our day (finally) working on our annual family newsletter. I was trying to pick a few pictures out of the hundreds we have and Mother was trying to write about this very busy year. We're about a third done, I think...

Dad loaded out 3 loads of hay to go down South and then also loaded a load for our own cows and brought that home.

Andrew went to Napoleon this morning, but spent the rest of the day working in the shop with Jacob and catching up on some computer work (looking up how large District #28 is, etc...)
Oh yes, we also put some "Ron Paul for President, 2012" bumper stickers on various vehicles of ours....

If you think of us tomorrow, please pray for safety for all, as we're going to go help some friends work their bull calves. They'd planned to have it done before this, but Mr. K had got banged up while they were separating out the cows/calves to wean them and has sore ribs, so hasn't felt up to working them. We just recently found out about this and offered to help them. Hopefully it will be as lovely outside tomorrow as it was today!!!

I'll try to get a few PICTURES too.

Delegate training...

Mom, Andrew and I had a very interesting time at the "Delegate Training" seminar today! We met up with Mr. Stevens at Steele and gave him a ride the rest of the way to Bismarck, so even our journey to and from the class was very informative and pleasant.

Mom and Andrew had already been through the training once before (in Fargo, a while back), but say that they learned even more this second time through, which I can believe, as I'm a bit lost on a few of the procedures and need to study more if I'm going to be a delegate for Dr. Ron Paul and/or Mr. Paul Sorum! I got to meet Mr. Sorum and have high hopes that I was shaking the hand of the next Governor of our great state! (FYI--he and his wife homeschool{ed} their children.)

The class was from 1:00-6:00PM, although we went over and beyond that by quite a bit while doing a mock session....

Before we left, our teacher handed Mother several of the Paul Family's cookbooks (which also shares the story of Mr. Paul's life---a very interesting and refreshing read), so if any of you would like one, just let me know!

Now.....on to the next step: finding others in our district (#28) who are Ron Paul supporters and who are willing to be delegates to the state convention or, who are at least willing to come to the District meeting and vote for those of us who are willing to be.............................. Got any volunteers? :)

This is such an important time in history...
If we don't stand up for and back up the things/people we believe in now, who knows when the next time may be that we'll have a chance to? Will there be others who are willing to run in this wild race, to stand up for the things that once made this country great? Others who love and want to serve God to the best of their ability? Others who believe in keeping the oath they once swore to, to follow the constitution? People who are not swayed by what everyone else is saying and doing, but who stand on what is right? I hope so, but even more so, I hope and pray that these men of God who are doing this very thing now WILL win this battle! We could use a refreshing change in this Country!!!

Say, by the way, who would you vote for to be president if you had your choice??? I'd really like to hear what you have to say!