We got the grass planted!

There was still wind today, but not as much, so Mother, Jacob & I picked rocks; planted the grass; and raked over the area--and now we're really praying for rain! It sprinkled a little during chores tonight, but not enough to really count as rain.


We also had some visitors to our farm today... The first was our elderly neighbor lady, Gladys. She brought over some useful items she didn't need anymore; had tea with Mom and I; and I trimmed her hair, (which I've been cutting for her occasionally for about a year now). She wanted to see our baby goats, so we went down to the barn for a little while. Then I rode in her pickup with her across the road to our rhubarb patch, as she asked if she could have 2 cups worth for making a fresh rhubarb cake. :) We have lots of rhubarb (about 30 plants), so we were happy to oblige her.


Our second visitor was Benjamin Dagley who came to buy some oats and screenings for his animals. He and Dad filled the totes while the rest of us did chores, then we had a few minutes together to visit before he had to head home.

His sister had sent along some tomato, cabbage, and Black-Eyed-Susan plants for us to enjoy, so that was really nice! (Thanks Amanda!!!)


While Ben was here, he mentioned that some cows were out on the road to the North and it sounded like it was up far enough to be our cows. After Ben left, Dad and Andrew got on their dirt-bikes and drove up a few miles until they found some cows. It turns out that they were our neighbors' cows, so Dad called our neighbor and he came. Our guys helped him get the cows in, seeing as they were up there already. I'm glad that our cows are still satisfied with their grass!


Andrew hauled more manure out to the fields today, this time using the 1486! He said it worked great, so that's a relief. Andrew did hear some bad news on the radio though... A 13-year-old boy that we know (he was a triplet!) died yesterday as a result of a 4-wheeler accident. This boy's name was Jacob and he was my brother, Jacob's friend from the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society conventions. Both boys had similar interests (guitar, animals, hunting...) and last year, Jacob L. even gave Jacob B. one of his guitar picks, as my Jacob had lost his. Now that gift seems even more precious to Jacob... You can visit my brother or mothers' blog to learn more (they're both on my side-bar.) Please, if you would, keep this family in your prayers for a while, as I'm sure they are greatly grieving their kind-hearted son!


Well, it's family prayer time, so I need to end this.

Sweet dreams~

Thought for the day...

Another blow-you-away day...

Well, we didn't get anymore grass seed planted today, as it was still extremely windy. Instead, we ladies got caught up on some inside work and the guys worked on more spreading and tractor fixing. Good news on the 1486--Dad bought new parts down in Kintyre and he and Jacob have the tractor pretty much all put back together already. It's great to have such handy-men around the place!!!


I didn't take any pictures today, (wind is hard to capture in a photo!) so I thought I'd post an old picture from when I was babysitting the neighbors' baby at our house. I think baby Eli looks a little mischievous, don't you? Mama doesn't seem to mind!

Another windy day~~~~~

Quite a few days in North Dakota could be classified as windy, but some are more noticeable than others--like when you're trying to work in the dirt and the wind keeps blowing gravel into your skin! Well, today was one of those days. Mom, Jacob & I decided to try to plant our grass, but after fighting the wind and cleaning dirt out of our faces for about an hour, we gave up and decided to do it tomorrow--Lord willing. It's supposed to rain sometime tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to get it all planted and covered and then let God do the watering for us. :)

Our "Easter" cactus is blooming now and is so pretty! Mother moved it to the middle of the table this afternoon so that we can see it better and enjoy it more.


We took some pictures of the kids in the barn this morning and I thought I'd post my favorite ones here...


This one shows the difference in size of a 1 month old and a 4+ day old kid (although the 4-day-old is pretty small, even for a newborn!)
Here Andrew is enjoying his new kid and it's mother is enjoying him!

These little ones are my babies and were born a day apart. The black one is Edward (he was born on my dad's birthday, so I gave him my dad's middle name) and the brown one is Fay (my mom's middle name.)

I'd better explain this picture... Sometimes, when we have a goat that isn't feeling well or right after she's kidded, we'll give her some milk to help give her strength. Well, some of our goats think this is the customary procedure now and they like to lick out the buckets after we're through with them. Rest at ease though... Mother sanitizes them good before the next milking time!

This silly goose decided a while ago that the corner of the goat barn looked like a great place for building her nest... She hisses at us if we get close, but normally she just sits there and watches the world go by.

We also had a goat give birth to triplets this afternoon, but Mom posted pictures on her blog of them, so I'll just let you head over that way if you want to see them.

Andrew was busy most of the afternoon with loading manure and spreading it on the fields. He still has a lot to do, but he's thankful we have a good loader tractor now and a good spreader!

Dad and Jacob worked on the 1486 a lot today and are about ready to "Split" it in two. They're not exactly sure what's wrong with it yet. I think they're really brave to just dig in like that!

I went to Napoleon this afternoon, as I had a meeting at 2:00 with Mr. Hansen for my Farm Business Management training, (this training was a requirement when I got my Beginning Farmer loan and this is my last year in the program...) After I was through with that, I deposited some checks in the bank (always a good feeling); got some Hanks dog food at the local elevator (Millie's hungry again); and I bought some more grass-seed at the hardware store. We should have enough now!

Oh yes, my parents and Jacob took our friends' Ranger back today (after washing all the mud and stuff off) and then Mom brought back some tomato and cabbage plants she bought from some other friends' greenhouse. The plants are in the entryway now, as it still isn't overly warm outside at night.

Well, it's bedtime once again, so I'll say goodnight... "Goodnight!"

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. :)

Heart, be thou like the sunflower....

"Many flowers open to the sun, but only one follows it constantly. Heart, be thou like the sunflower, not only open to receive God's blessing, but constant in looking to Him."

~Jean Paul Richter

"You can't stand on promises...

...If you don't know what they are!"

This is one of my favorite songs (we heard it first on Rejoice radio) and I was so glad to find it on U-tube this morning. Enjoy~

Twins~

When I posted last night, I forgot to mention that I babysit for our neighbors on Thursday too... This family has an 18-month-old girl named Amelia (who is super active and loves to bounce up and down non-stop,) and 2-month-old twin boys, James & Michael. Everything went well, except it got interesting when the twins got hungry at the exact same moment! Does anyone know how to feed 2 babies at the same time? :)

Pictures...

I'm so tired now, but I wanted to post pictures from Dad's birthday yesterday and from moving the cows up to pasture this afternoon, so here they are. First come the birthday pictures:

Jacob--the special delivery man!
Everyone looking at one of the neatest presents... Do you have any guesses of what it is?

...It's a collage we put together of pictures taken within the last year.

Cattle moving went fairly well, with just a few problems here and there, (such as 2 calves who were certain they wanted to go back home instead of staying with the herd, and also the time when Andrew's kick-stand fell off of his dirt-bike and he had to fix it quick...)

Mother was in the lead and had the job of keeping the cows together some-what so that they weren't strung out over a mile.

Jacob drove the Ranger that we borrowed from our good friends. He helped on the sides or wherever needed.

I got this picture of the nursery section of the herd. :)

Dad and Andrew drove their dirt-bikes and zoomed up and down the ditches--trying to keep the cows on the straight and narrow (to them) road.

Here's little Skunky and his mother--seeing how far they could push the limits of being away from the rest of the herd, before the noisy bikes would come after them.

I wasn't feeling too well, so my family gave me the easy job of trailing in the rear, pulling the stock trailer so that we could pick up any little calves who tuckered out on the way. The picture below is where the road starts turning into a sloppy trail, and is where I stopped... The guys were able to make it through with their "Vehicles" though.

Later, Dad used the tractor to pull the stock trailer through the mud so that we could get the calves to their mothers.

We're hoping everyone will stay in the fence up there now and be good girls and boys. (That certain fence isn't the best, as there's a lot of swampy areas in that cell of the pasture.) The cows have plenty of grass for a while, so hopefully they'll be content, and we can have some peace and quite around here. Ahhhhh....

"Happy birthday..."

...to you, Dad!



And once more, Happy birthday!



...And many more~