An eventful day!

Before I start telling you about all that happened today, I'll share a picture that Mom took of me a few days ago, right before I headed for work in town. I was wearing one of the new skirts I'd ordered from my favorite modest clothing store, "New Creation Apparel".


And now, let me show you some pictures that tell part of the story of this day.

Mother snapped this one of the monkeys, ooops, I mean boys, "Enjoying" their breakfast this morning. :) The picture where they were all smiling unfortunately turned out too dark to post...

Mother headed for Bismarck this morning to do several sessions for her clients and was gone until late this evening.

After chores were done this morning, the guys headed down to Kintyre to load up the grain cleaner they'd bought. (The elevator is going to be torn down now that it's had so much damage done on it from the wild winds of this Summer.)

The guys pulled the cleaner forward a ways,

then pulled it onto the bed of the white truck... (Thank you, Hristiyan for getting the great pictures!!!!)

Home at last.~ Now they just have to figure out how and where to unload it!

Dad left then to load up a semi-load of sunflowers to take to Enderlin. He loaded again once he had made his delivery, so he wasn't back until after dark.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the 3 boys headed out to the South hayfield, Hrisitiyan riding along with my brothers in one or other of the tractors.

I went out to our green jungle to pick some cucumbers to make relish with. Our garden is being taken over by squash and melon plants currently!

This picture is for my friend, Rachel P. who loves sunflowers. :)

After lunch, the boys went over to the hayfields that are farther away from home and spent the afternoon cutting down alfalfa... I got my relish going and mixed up a batch of bread and had that raising when I got a phone call from my dad. He said that the Fish and Wildlife guy had been up checking on things in our pasture today and had found a little calf away from the rest of the herd. He walked it to the cows, but said it seemed weak and he just wanted us to know about it. Dad asked me to take a bottle of milk/colostrum up to the pasture and to try and feed the calf. So, while the bread was baking, I washed a bottle out and warmed some milk ( I'd added some powdered colostrum to it too), then once the bread and pizza crust was done, I jumped in the Ram and headed North.

My first problem arose when I realized the cows were not in the cell they were supposed to be in and I wasn't sure how to get to where they were with all the abundance of water there is this year. I followed a fence for a while and found a gate which, thankfully, was into the cell the cows were in. After dodging a few lakes, I got to the herd and drove in amongst them, round and round, looking for a small calf that was weak and in need of milk. I found none. There were 3 small calves, but they all looked very healthy.

I thought this mama and baby looked so cute together!

One of my larger calves (and yes, he does have 4 legs : )

I saw a black speck off in the distance and knew it was a cow, but thought maybe it was the mother of the sought after calf, so I skirted some more water puddles and finally got to her, only to find a new brand new baby in front of her. :)

I never did find the calf. I drove all around the herd and a ways out from it, but all to no avail. I'm hoping and praying that it was one of the little calves that was with the herd and that it had gotten its nourishment and was feeling stronger already?

While driving around, I saw all these huge white birds on a bit of dry land in the middle of a lake. I think a most appropriate name for that spot would be "Pelican Island", don't you?

I drove up to the windmill too to see if the cows had broken the gates down there to get into where they are now, but they hadn't. The tank was running over a bit, so I got out and pulled the moss away from the top of the drain pipe so that it could function properly....

Around 6:00, the boys came home as they knew we were expecting company/customers. :) Mrs. Geiger and most of her boys were coming to buy some grain for their chickens. We invited them in for supper and shared the pizza I'd made; Andrew cut up a watermelon; and I mixed up a couple milkshakes. The guys then filled up all the tubs with grain while I showed Mrs. Geiger (and their youngest, Micah) the greenhouse and got some advice from her about planting a garden using black plastic, as that is what they successfully do. It was getting later in the evening already and the boys were not done filling the tubs/barrels yet, so Jacob went and got Sally in and I milked her. Little Isaiah (who is 5, I believe) wanted so badly to milk a cow, so after I was nearly finished, I had him come sit on my lap and try to squirt some milk out, which he did successfully, squirting it onto my shoe. :)

There was a little time for fun too.... (Jacob; Josiah giving Moses an underdog; and Hristiyan)

Jacob and Josiah...

Mrs. Geiger even tried out the swings. :)

Hristiyan, giving Isaiah a nice, slow ride. :)

After they left, (and J & H did the goat chores,) we cleaned up the kitchen quick; had a few more pieces of watermelon out on the deck; and headed downstairs for a couple games of Foosball.

After Dad and Mom arrived home, Dad had his supper and then we had family prayer time and now it's family bed time!

It was a good, busy day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring???