Golden 10...

That's the name of the game we were just playing for nearly 2 hours.... We play it with Rook cards and the object of the game is to not get points (which you get whenever you get a red card in a trick) and also to capture the yellow (or golden) #10 card, as that will deduct 10 points from your score! I thought it was pretty fun, but Mom didn't like it so well and finally went to bed. :) The remaining 4 of us ended the game with pretty close scores. Fun times!

This was a busy day.... Dad went to Napoleon for supplies and he and the boys spent most of the day working on fixing my car! Hooray!!! We also played the literal game of "Who owes who what?" and tried to get squared up again.

Mom and I cleaned the house (and the turkeys' house/box) and also doctored our first kid of the year, although he ended up not making it. :( In a way, we're glad as we will have more milk this way. Also, 2 of my turkeys that were runty and didn't seem to get going died, but the 15 others are looking very well and are now doing their best to discover what is on the other side of the box!

I did quite a bit of cooking/baking today. I made a cherry cheesecake (first mixed up a batch of graham crackers for the crust and also made sweetened condensed milk); a batch of buns; and a double batch of tortillas for the tacos we had for supper. Yummy!

It was so nice to all be on the farm together today. Tomorrow, we invited 2 families to come over for the afternoon/supper, but it sounds like only 1 will be able to make it now.

I will close with a quote we read today:

"Aspire to inspire before you expire!"

"My" child....

Let me tell you a bit about him:


...and here's Dinesh's picture:

I have prayed about sponsoring a child for some time and it is now finally official! :) My family (my parents, really) sponsored a little girl many years ago through Compassion International. Her name was Tabita and we wrote her letters and heard from her for about 10 years time. We were blessed by her prayers and it was such a wonderful feeling to know that, because of our help, a little girl in Indonesia was receiving an education; a good meal every day; clothing; medical care if needed; and most importantly, she was being taught about the Lord and we rejoiced when she talked about her love of Him! We still pray for her when she comes to mind.

I am now very much looking forward to getting to know this young lad in India through the years and praying for him as he grows in the Lord. I plan to write my first letter to him tomorrow. :)

We have sent most of our tithe money to Gospel For Asia for years, and really believe in the work they're doing there. "Bridge Of Hope" is a division of Gospel For Asia, bringing needy children together with sponsors who want to help them... I look forward to the years ahead, knowing that I'm helping a little boy in Chhattisgarh to grow big and strong. Who knows, he may one day be a missionary and we can help support him together? :)


I baked bread today and made mozzarella cheese...
Mother had 2 clients come out this morning and, as their sessions were pretty lengthy, we invited them to join us for lunch too, which they did happily. :)

This next picture is for all the farmers out there: How would you like to have this seat to sit on as you go about your chores?

(Thankfully, it is a lot more drivable now that Dad fixed it!)

Here are our two sleepy heads in their favorite spot in the whole wide world at this time of year----right behind the wood stove in the shop!

Brother Andrew, searching for the perfect diagram...

This is Andrew's most recent project:

Mother likes this car so much, she's talking about buying it from him for summer driving...... :)

Andrew replaced the wiring-harness (I think that's what it was called?) on this car for a customer/friend recently:

OH, and here's one last picture that I found on my camera when I uploaded my pictures:

This is the collage I put together from last years' events.... Enjoy~

PS. Does anyone recognize the man Andrew's standing by in the far left, middle photo?

Let's try this again...

I was just sitting down to start typing on my on-line journal here when I remembered that I was going to start a large batch of bread "Soaking" before heading for bed tonight---using Sarah K's recipe this time....

So, after digging out the measuring cups and spoons and a large bowl and spoon, it is now "Soaking" and I have about a pints worth of energy left to write with this evening! :)

I just returned from a rather busy day/evening at the nursing home. This morning was busy as well, with doing chores; some laundry; dishes; and working on some mending projects (mainly sewing up slits on skirts and repairing a zipper). I'm sure my family was busy today as well, as they always are. I don't think that they watched even an ounce of football either, as that really isn't their thing...

Yes, it was a good day, with sunshine by the quarts!

Here's hoping your day tomorrow is filled with joy--by the gallons.~

We made Ritz cookies!

This morning, after cleaning the kitchen up a bit, Mom, Jacob and I made our favorite holiday cookies---the kind that Grandpa Delzer used to make each year at Christmas. They're really quite easy to make. You just make little Ritz cracker peanut-butter sandwiches and then dip them in melted chocolate or white almond bark, then let them set 'til firm. I took a tin-full of these to work this afternoon and the night nurse said they brought back so many memories for her, as she hadn't had them since she was a little girl! :)

Speaking of work in town, it was a busy day, but fun, as everyone was happy and excited. When we got there, most everyone was up already from their naps, so we got everyone out to the dining room to open presents. We CNAs (and the nurse, ward-clerk, and activity lady) helped open presents for the people who couldn't do it themselves, then wrote down what they'd received and delivered the items safely to the residents' rooms. It was pretty fun....

Mother had a happy birthday, I think, although yesterday was more special as we were all together and not working on anything. We played classical piano duets for a little while before I had to head for town, and that always makes her day! ;) (I like it too, of course.)

I hope you and yours had a delightful day, spent with those you hold dear!~

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

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!

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. :)

So much is going on...

Dad and the boys went to a consignment farm-auction today and bought some treasures: a grain truck (it's a little older than the one we have now, so they tell me); a cultivator for parts; and a stock trailer (that's what I'm most excited about, as the one we have is in pretty sorry shape.)

Mother is now in the middle of the health class she's coordinating for her friend and teacher, Elizabeth. It's in Napoleon and the second half of the class will be tomorrow evening.

I did not get a chance to try any natural leaven things today, as I went to pick up our Azure order this morning in Dawson, and then I was helping my mom get the house cleaned up before Elizabeth came, and then I was off to work in town again. I'm so glad that I'll be staying home most of tomorrow so I can whip up some natural-leaven pancakes/waffles and bread!!!!!! Yummy! (Thank you, F. family for your kind and encouraging comments. :) Isn't it fun to learn together? )

Well, I shall leave you with a quote and then hop into bed, as I'm once again tired tonight. Helping to get 24 people ready for, and then into bed in about 3 hours time leaves you wishing you were soon going to bed too!

~There is no safer place than in the Father's hands.~

I'm making...

...the biggest batch of bread I've ever made in my life!!! :)

Recently, some dear friends of mine sent me a little jar of starter for "Natural Leaven Bread" in exchange for some Kombucha mushrooms. I started my first batch of N.L. bread last Tuesday, and have kept adding rye flour and water to it each day since. This morning, it reached this quantity: (Yes, that's a 5 gallon pail!)

As I don't have the full instructions with what to do with it at this point, (and don't know exactly WHAT I'm doing) and as I had work in town, I just added some more rye flour and water this morning, stirred it well, and put the lid on.

HOWEVER, shortly before I had to leave for Napoleon, I noticed that the lid on the pail was bulging! I thought the fermentation process had just expanded the air inside and that that's what needed to be let out. When I pulled up on one of the tabs of the lid and dough came squirting out at me, I decided that it was more than just air that had expanded!!! I quickly pushed the lid back down and Andrew came to my aid then. We put a large bowl in the sink and he set the pail on its side on the counter so as to be able to dump the mixture into the bowl slowly by lifting up on one side of the lid.

HOWEVER, when he pulled on one of the sides, the whole lid came off and our bowl was filled in no time--as was part of the sink! I poured some of the dough in another pail at this point and proceeded to quickly clean up the mess and then put the lids back on the pails. They were still in tact tonight when I got home. :)

This is all a learning process for me, and I'm sure once I know what I'm doing, things will go smoother!

I thought I'd let you know that I wasn't able to post on my blog last night or this morning because something was wrong with "Blogger". It's working now though, except for the fact that it won't post some of the comments that I received on my last few posts. It says they've already been published, but they don't appear in the comments area. Hmmmm......

Yesterday, we spent all day in Eureka again, packing more boxes full of stuff for Grandpa's sale. We made a lot of progress, but there is still so much to do before July 11th!

My parents went to Bismarck today, for many different reasons, but one of the things they did was they delivered 2 quarters of my beef to customers of ours. It took a while to get it all weighed out this morning, but it's worth the hassles to get grass-fed beef into the hands of people who are aware of the things they are eating and who are wanting good food!

My brothers mowed the lawn again and also worked on getting the hay-header fixed up and ready for the busy haying season that's just around the corner. (I don't think I ever answered your question, Cora, about haying... The other day, my dad was getting hay home that we made last year--that was still out in the field, but we will soon be starting to hay here. We often begin cutting down our alfalfa the middle of June here in ND.)

Well, that's a quick overview of our last couple of days. Once again, it's late and is quite time for bed...

Have a good nights rest (unless you happen to work at night, then perhaps you should stay awake for awhile!)

Meal preparation pictures~

*Note* I wanted to post these pictures last night, but then my camera batteries were dead and I couldn't get them transferred to the computer. :)

I always like seeing what my friends are doing in their kitchens, so decided to take these pictures of what I prepared yesterday.

Frozen beets from our garden, being thawed on the stove...

Jacob's favorite kind of pizza--ready to go into the oven. It's a very easy one to make actually, consisting of a thick white-sauce, to which has been added a can of tuna fish and a top layer of cheddar cheese...

Six loaves of bread rising on the counter top...

I tried a new recipe that was on a friends' blog. This is called "Soft Gingerbread Cake"--very tasty!

We topped the gingerbread cake with freshly whipped cream from our dairy...

This afternoon, I was reading another friends' blog and saw a couple of really neat links to sites that show pictures of creative ways to decorate your pie crusts and I wanted to share them with you here--in case you don't read Rachels' blog. :) You can visit this place and this place for some great ideas!

I'll share one last picture with you before diving under my covers to warm up. (It's really windy and cold here in ND again!)

It is of: my guard-dog, Lady, on duty. (I don't think she'd hurt a fly, actually!) ~

Have you watched "No Greater Love?"

Today we received an invitation in the mail to join some friends at the Alfred, ND Church of God 7th Day to watch the movie, "No Greater Love" on Valentines Day. I've heard some good reports about the movie already and am now just wondering if anyone who reads my blog has watched it and what your opinion of the movie was? Also, if any of you (for whom it would be feasible) want to attend the movie viewing, everyone is welcome. The movie starts at 2:00PM, this Sunday. There is no admission fee and there's popcorn being served. I'm hoping we'll be able to go!

My dad is still on the road now (and probably will be for another hour or so), but thankfully the roads are pretty good and it's stopped snowing. :)

Mother went to Bismarck for the whole day, so I got to play the part of substitute teacher (which isn't too difficult, as Jacob can do a lot of his lessons on his own these days.)

Andrew worked on the grain cleaner some more and Jacob helped him some later in the day. A man (a friend of the man Andrew bought the cleaner from) came today to deliver the 3 augers that were promised to Andrew, so that was helpful...

I mixed up a batch of bread and used some of the dough to make a pizza crust; a pan of caramel rolls; fry bread to go with our vegetable soup; plus I had enough dough left over to make 4 loaves of bread.

It was a good day and will be made even better when Dad gets home (Lord willing) in an hour!

On pie crusts and complex puzzles...

A few days ago, I told a friend that I'd share my favorite, whole-grain pie crust recipe with her, so I thought I'd share it with the rest of you at the same time. It is as follows:

BARLEY PIE CRUST
2 cups freshly ground barley flour
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp. salt
4-5 Tbsps. very cold water

Mix together well. Roll out between two pieces of wax paper, then flip gently into pan. Flute the edges and prick the bottom. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes for pies that require a pre-baked crust.

This recipe is enough for one single-layer pie crust, so I had to double it today when I made my pumpkin pies. :)

Here's a picture of the crust before I put the filling in...


...And here's a picture of the finished product...


You may recall that I said a while back that we were, in our spare moments, working on doing the puzzle my grandparents' gave us... Well, last night, my dad put the last piece into it, and it looks so nice. It's going to be hard to take it all apart again...

And now, the moment that you've been waiting for has arrived--the moment when I'll tell you what the mystery picture was!

You all had the basic idea correct (Grace, you had it exactly right, and Andrew, I'm sure you knew what it was, even without reading the label on the picture!).

The picture was of: ------------------------

Steamy, warm milk, sloshing into our holding jar out in the barn! In order to save time, and seeing as Grace gave a very good explanation of what this was in her comment, if you'd like to know more, you can read Graces' comment. :)

Here's wishing you a wonderful last day of 2009! May the Lord guide us all through every day of the new year that's just around the bend!!!

Our smart puppy~

If it was cold and snowy almost everywhere you looked, but you didn't want to go in the barn to avoid the white fluffy stuff, (as you like people so well,) where would you park yourself for a rest?

Well, our dog, Millie found one of the plastic chairs on our deck to be an excellent place to stay dry!


Friday is always our house-cleaning day, so we were busy with that, amongst other things... I made some home-made crackers and a couple of cheese-balls for a treat. Delicious!

As I'm sitting here, I'm especially thanking the Lord that we have our crops off already, as I can hear the humming of some combines up the road--the farmers working long hours (in the snow) to get their harvest in...

How cozy warm it is in our little house tonight! We are so blessed~

Old and new news~

A nice trucker came yesterday (his name was Robert, which may have helped us to like him!) and loaded up our last load of oats. I think the oats goes first to a grain-cleaning place in MN and then gets shipped to Iowa for milling. It is so nice to have that out of here so our bins are ready for the sunflowers--come harvest time! Now we just have to wait out the 30 days 'til we get paid...

When we were in Bismarck on Wednesday, Mother bought 3 packages like this of cherries. Yesterday, she asked me to can some of them, so these are the results of my labors: These few jars won't take us through Winter by any means, but it's a start. :)

I decided to try a new recipe for dessert for supper tonight. It's called "Blueberry Crumb Cake" and it's very delicious.

You just add this:

to this:

and you get this:

After "This" has spent a little time in the oven, you end up with a very tasty dessert. If anybody would like the recipe in more detail, just let me know... :)

We got our house put back in order once again and got lots of food prepared, so we're ready for a nice restful day tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing I was going to mention is that the guys went to town and bought some supplies for making our swings, so I'm really getting excited that this idea (that's been in the dreaming stage for a very LONG time) is actually becoming a reality! Hooray!!!

Colorful tulips~

This afternoon, I picked some of our tulips that were blooming across the road. Tulips are so cheerful--I only wish they lasted longer than they do.



The guys were busy this afternoon with spreading manure in the fields and, when they weren't busy helping Dad, the boys helped me get the ground in our play-ground area ready so we can plant grass in it. We've tried getting a nice lawn going there other years, but the grass never took really well. It's been so dry that we think it just didn't get enough moisture to stay alive. This year, we have hopes of rain! PTL~

I push-mowed the grass around the grain bins and around our Juneberries this afternoon too, so hopefully we'll be able to find the berries this year when they're ready to eat!


Mom and Jacob washed windows and put the patio-door screen up, so now we can enjoy the fresh air once more--without the threat of bugs sneaking in, (although some still manage to do that anyway.)


We did other various odd jobs around the place too. Oh, and something on the 1486 died or broke (is there a difference?), so the guys were working on that too.


And, just for your information, I thought I'd share something that I learned today... When you're making chocolate chip cookies, if you melt your honey (we use honey in place of sugar almost all the time) on the stove, be sure to let it cool before adding it to your batter or else it will melt all the chocolate chips and your batter will look very funny! You'll also get comments like, "What kind of cookies are these?" Just thought I'd let you know. :)