August and September 2009

I can't believe I haven't written anything on here for so long. The days have been busy and full. In August, we went up to Seneca for a gospel meeting and brought Daniel and Jessica home with us for a few days. We really enjoyed having them here. We went to Lincoln Log Cabin, had a bonfire with a wienie roast and homemade ice cream, the kids put on a play about Abraham Lincoln, we had a BIG storm - so we set up a tent in the basement and pretended it was a cabin so we could play "olden days" while the electricity was out. We went back up to Seneca on Thursday for the day and left Daniel and Jessica with their mom. I told them I would get pictures put on here, so one of these days I will get that done.

We also enjoyed a day at the Decatur zoo with Laura, Samuel and Adrian.

We enjoyed the workdays at Brownstown getting ready for convention. Likely this will be the last year to use the dining tent there - they are hoping to have the new dining shed and cookhouse ready for convention next year.

We went to Shoals convention for Saturday night and Sunday and then had our convention at Brownstown the following week. Wonderful days! We are looking forward to getting to another out of state convention in a few weeks also.

School started here last Tuesday. Our first week was a good one. I have been tweaking the schedule a little bit and working on lesson plans this afternoon.

We are looking forward to having Todd's mom here in a couple of weeks. We're hoping to get a few field trips in while she is here - to the pumpkin patch, the planetarium, and maybe an apple orchard. She'll get in on a few school days, too.

Yesterday we put up a temporary fence to move the cows on to some fresh grass. It was getting pretty short in the pasture they were in, and we need to build some more fence over on the bigger pasture before we can move them over there. After they harvest the beans, we can use the bigger pasture, but if we move them now, the cows may harvest the beans instead. :) Unfortunately, we lost one of our Herfords this summer - her calf was breech and neither the cow or calf made it through delivery. We were gone when it happened.

Last evening we picked up a batch of 25 laying hens. The kids were excited about getting to gather eggs again - we will see how long that lasts :)

Well, this is just a brief summary of our summer, but I thought I had better get it written down before I forgot completely. I will try to get pictures posted soon.

Summer Days

We have been having a great summer so far. We had been planning to get a few days of school in during July, but haven't hit the books yet - too much other fun stuff to do. The kids have had some great experiences the past couple of weeks that will count towards school as field trips, though. Laura, Abigail & Charlotte got to go with Shelley to Conner Prairie http://www.connerprairie.org/ in Indiana. They had a great time going back in time and learning some about life in the 1800s. Later Laura and Abigail spent the night with some friends and had a history lesson about World War 1. A few days later they spent the night with some other friends and learned some about the Vietnam and Korean wars.

On Thursday, Shelley took Emily, Lincoln and Heidi to Mattoon to the little airport there. Gary gave them a tour of the airport. They got to sit in a real airplane and a fake airplane (I am assuming that was a simulator). They saw the yellow crop duster plane and watched some take offs and landings - watched some construction being done and then finished off with a picnic at the park.

Abigail and Charlotte have spent the last couple of days at B'town with Shelley. Yesterday they made a few batches of cookies for convention - Although it sounds like the cookies didn't all make it into the freezer. :) Today Todd and Laura headed to B'town to help work on the building project. The metal is getting put on, so I am sure it is looking more like a building instead of a skelaton. We were all planning to go, but Lincoln and Garrett both woke up with fevers, so Emily, Heidi, the boys and I stayed home. They don't seem to have any other symptoms, so hopefully it is a short lived virus.

Ouch!

I'm wondering if hitting your baby brother on the head and then gently kissing the owie cancel each other out?

Missing our girls

Today I am remembering what it was like to have 4 kids with no "big" ones to help. Emily was in tears when her big sisters left with Shelley this morning. We had jokingly told her that when they left she would have to fill in for all of them. She tearily told me that she didn't think she would be able to do all of their work and hers too. (I assured her that we had been joking and we didn't expect her to do all of that :) ) Before lunch I asked the kids to pick up toys - I asked Heidi to pick up the play food and she asked if someone could help her (read with a whine). I told her that she was one of the big girls today and Emily had something else that she had to do and that she could do it herself. She disappeared for a few minutes (I heard her talking to Lincoln). Then, here comes Lincoln saying "I'm one of the big gurls". She had been convincing him that he needed to help her because he was a big girl. (rolling eyes). He actually did a great job putting away all of his Matchbox cars! (and I didn't let him get away with being a "gurl" - Heidi somehow conned Emily into helping her along with setting the table)

Time with Shelley

Preps start soon here, and Janine has gone to visit family befor preps, so Shelley is traveling alone these days. She has been taking some of our girls with her for a couple of days at a time. Charlotte and Emily had their turn at the end of last week, tomorrow Shelley and the 3 oldest are going to Indianapolis. Shelley has a doctor's appointment there and she is taking Laura, Abby and Charlotte to Connor's Prairie while she is there. Laura and Abigail will have their turn to go with her at the end of the week. They (we) have really been enjoying time with Shelley. And she (hopefully-at least she acts like it) is enjoying time with the kids :) Although, today might have been a bit iffy in the enjoyment department. Some of the kids were pretty lively... about drove me crazy and I don't have far to go :)

Sunday Afternoon Naps

Travels

We had a great weekend in Michigan visiting Dawn's family. Saw lots of people at Tyler and Katrina's graduation party. The cousins had a great time together - the time always goes too fast.

Nothin' much happening lately

It's been a while since I posted anything. We have been busy, but nothing really exciting - just normal life. We're planning to move some cattle this evening or tomorrow, so I'll probably have something to say then :D The girls are out in the pool cooling off. We finally got it filled over the weekend, so this is the first time they have played in it (except when it only had a few inches of water in it last week). The boys and I are hanging out in the air conditioning. :)

Out of the mouths of babes

Heidi came up to me out of the blue today and said "Grandma Buelah is probably in Heaven today, isn't she?" "She died a long time ago, so she must be there by now." "Do you believe me?" - I thought that was pretty sweet.

Lincoln was really tired tonight. We were having graham crackers and milk for a bedtime snack. He got up from the table and said he was going to bed - headed back there - decided to come back for another cracker. As he was headed for the table he dropped his cracker and then burst into tears - "Now I have to go to bed, I dropped my cracker and it broke." I told him I could get him another one, but he insisted that he had to go to bed cause his cracker broke... So I rocked him for a little while and now he is happily asleep. :)

The past few days have been busy, but uneventful. Tonight we loaded Fred up on the trailer - he has a date with the abattoir in the morning. He wasn't keen on getting up in the trailer, but the bucket of corn was too tempting for him to resist. So we will be down to just the Beltie bull, who we are holding for someone from Indiana, and the bull calves. We will be very glad to only have cows and heifers.

We had some oatmeal left over from breakfast this morning, so I decided to make bread. It had been a while since I had made any. We ate a loaf for snack and a loaf for supper. It doesn't last very long around here - especially when we have fresh strawberry jam to go with it.

Special visits

We had a good meeting this morning. The Brownstown meeting and our meeting were together here. It was nice to have most everyone stay for potluck afterwards. Marco's family was visiting Marylou, so it was extra special to have them here too. The kids really enjoyed being together. We had a huge feast! There was way more food than what we could eat. Everything was delicious!

After meeting, I happened to look out the window and see a sheep on its side kicking its legs. Todd and some of the other men went to check it out, and found that one of the lambs and our yearling, Fern, were stuck in some poultry netting we had out there. They were very tangled up and in pretty bad shape. Unfortunately, the little lamb didn't make it :( Fern seems to be doing ok, but has a limp. The lamb that died was Harriett's little ram lamb.

We went down to Newton to the gospel meeting this afternoon. Then came back home and buried the little lamb and did a few other chores before putting the kids to bed. We moved Garrett out of his cradle into his crib last week, and now we are trying to teach him to go to sleep in it...he is doing pretty well with it, but it is hard on me to listen to him cry himself to sleep.

The kids would like us to put their pool up this week, so maybe I will tackle that job tomorrow if the weather is nice. They are anxious to get swimming. :)

I just realized that it was 22 years ago today that I graduated from High School. Time flies!

Out again!!!

We finally got the fences to keep the animals in. Well...except for the 3 sheep that like to get out under the bottom wire that isn't connected to the charger... But...if the gates aren't closed, it doesn't matter how hot the charger keeps the fence, the animals will get out! And the gate must have opened itself, nobody else seems to know how it got opened... :) My consolation is that I was talking to one of our neighbors the other day after I found one of his cows on the road. He said that in his experience, if you have cows, you can just expect that they will get out.

We woke up to 5 cows out in the yard. By the time we got out there, they were headed for the road...then across the road...then into the neighbors newly growing corn field. Those tender plants must have been pretty delicious, because the cows wouldn't be enticed even by buckets of corn. We were finally able to persuade them back across the road and into the fence again. Mom, you'll be glad to know that the cows that got out were our more gentle cows and not any of the bulls. In fact, Samson went home this week, so he and Fred won't be fighting anymore.

We have union meeting here tomorrow, so we spent the day getting ready for it. Talisha came over to help me wash windows and clean - thanks Talisha :) - while Todd was at B'town helping with the building. We are having a Mexican Themed potluck for lunch afterwards. We put together some taco fixings and made some refried beans, black beans and fresh salsa for it. Laura and some of the other kids made some snickerdoodle cookies while I was out mowing - they did a great job (I snuck one for my bedtime snack ;) ) It will be interesting to see what everyone else brings.

Our Current Critters

This post won't be very exciting. It is just a list of our current cattle and sheep so we can easily find it without having to go to the file cabinet.

Cattle:

Rosie - Female Hereford -

Blossom - Female Hereford - Born to Rosie in July or August of 2007

Stormy - Female Hereford/Black Angus Cross - Born to Blossom on May 13, 2009

Independence - Female Hereford - Born to Rosie in July or August of 2008

- Female Dexter/Red Polled Cross - Born April 2008

Jenny - Female Miniature Hereford - About 2 Years Old

- Male Miniature Belted Galloway - Not Polled but dehorned - About 4 Years Old

Oreo - Female Miniature Belted Galloway - Polled -About 2 Years Old

- Male Dexter - With Horns - Born about July 2008

- Female Dexter - Not Polled - About 14 Years Old

Jemimah - Female Dexter/Miniature Belted Cross - Polled - About 3 Years Old

Ribeye - Male Dexter/Miniature Belted/? Cross - Born to Jemimah about May 13, 2009

Fred - Dexter Red Polled Cross - Not Polled, but dehorned - About 1 Year Old

- Female Miniature Jersey - Less than a year

Shetland Sheep

Ruby - Female - Born 4/24/2005

Jasper - Male - Born 4/23/2009 to Ruby

Saphire - Female - Born 4/23/2009 to Ruby

Harriett - Female

- Male - Born 4/25/2009 to Harriett- died 6/7/2009 after getting stuck in some netting

Cheerio -Female - Born 4/25/2009 to Harriett

Cupcake - Female - Born 3/27/2007

Sprinkles - Male - Born 4/26/2009 to Cupcake

Frosting - Female - Born 4/26/2009 to Cupcake

Abigail - Female - Born 4/5/08 to Ruby

Gabby - Female - Born 4/25/29 to Abigail

Fern - Female - Born 8/1/08 to Cupcake

Daphne - Female born 4/9/08

Sweet William- Male - Born 4/25/09 to Daphne

If the shoe fits...

This evening we were getting ready to go to Bible Study, and Heidi was complaining that her shoes weren't fitting her right. I went downstairs to look in the boxes to see if we had a pair that would work for her. I asked her what size her shoes were...there was a pause...and then she said "they are about the same size as my feet"

I thought I would write a little bit about the beginning of our farm here. When we first moved down here and were renting a house while we were building this house, some very good friends of ours had a couple of bottle fed lambs. The wondered if our kids would enjoy having them and bottle feeding them - of course we thought they would, so Todd built a little pen and shed for them and the kids and I went down to pick them up in the van. They were so cute and little - they fit in a cardboard box. Anyway, we underestimated the amount of grass the little fellows would eat, and it wasn't long before their little pen didn't have any grass left in it - so...we let them out in the yard during the day when we were over here working on the house. They really enjoyed the shade of the porch - hence the name of our blog - "Critters on the Porch". They were the first of many critters that enjoyed laying on the porch. A couple of times they even made it into the front door of the house - they sure did skid around on the freshly laid and finished hardwood floor!!!

Our next experience with farm animals happened when we decided to get some chickens. We had been talking about getting some sometime. Todd was at a tradeshow for work and met up with one of our friends there. Brad asked if we were interested in their chicken house that they weren't using. Todd said we sure would be. About that time, Rural King - our local farm store - advertised their "Chick Sale". We figured we could get some, put them in the basement for a little while until Brad could get the chicken house up here for us. We had to buy at least 25 - so we did, but then we got to figuring up that if we ate 1 chicken a week they wouldn't last very long - so we headed back to Rural King to get more chickens. I think we finally ended up with about 60. Then, it started to rain - it rained and rained and then rained some more. The days turned into weeks and it was so wet Brad couldn't get his trailer in to get the chicken house out. The chicks grew and grew and grew and started flying out of their box and smelling up the house!!! There was a little falling down shack across the road from us and the farmer there said we could have it if we wanted it and pulled it across the road for us. So, that became our new chicken house - and still is working great a few years later.

Garrett's first "words" and the quiet country life

Our littlest farm boy has started talking - his first "word" was "er-er-er-er-errrrr" - imitating the sound of the rooster that likes to come up on to the porch to wake us up every morning (now that is a dedicated rooster!). His second word was "aaaaauuuuu" - imitating the bellowing cows in the pasture. And his third "word" - "aaaaaaaa" - copying the sheep and lambs calling to each other.

People think of the country as being quiet - I will say that it is not quiet - peaceful, absolutely, but quiet.....no. Last night we had the windows open - we heard geese, coyotes, cows, sheep, dogs, and a bird that sang the entire night. I think it must have been a mockingbird - it would sing about 5 or 6 notes, then change its tune for another 5 or 6 notes and then change again and again... It was beautiful singing, but not exactly appreciated in the middle of the night. And finally, the roosters started crowing - it is amazing - they come up to the porch at almost exactly the same time every morning - park themselves under our window - and let loose with their crowing. I think they must be punishing us for getting rid of all of the hens a couple of months ago!

I guess I should add one of Lincoln's cute sayings from today. He was really tired at lunch time so I was wanting him to sleep during quiet time. I rocked him for quite a while - finally I figured he was sleeping soundly enough for me to lay him down. I put him in his bed and covered him up - he peeked up at me and said "You are not making me happy." Closed his eyes again and slept for about 2 hours. :)

And the bull got out...again!!

Todd went to B'town today to help work on the building there. Our day here was going along pretty well - we were doing a little housework and laundry - until one of the kids looked out the window and shouted...you guessed it...Samson is out!!! This time he was in the yard by the swingset. Of course, Todd was 45 minutes away. I was able to go out and open the gate, and he walked right in - whew. Luckily the other bulls were safely in a pen that so far none of the cattle have escaped from - the sheep have because the bottom wire isn't hot and they are pretty short - they like to get out and wander around the yard for a while until some of the other sheep and their lambs start bleating for them to come back. Anyway, back to Samson... I called Todd and he headed home. We walked around the fence and found the place where it was shorted out - YEAH!!! - Todd put some tighteners on the wire so Samson couldn't walk under it anymore, we went and got our lead cows and led Samson back into the pen with them - walked them right back out again while he was enjoying some treats. By the time he looked up from his beet pulp, he had been tricked again!! Hopefully he will stay put this time!!!

More fun with the cattle!

(Before you read this post, I will answer a couple of the questions you will be sure to have - I know I would have some questions if I was reading about my son, daughter, brother, sister, friend... doing this - Yes, we do know that it is very dangerous to be in the pen with fighting bulls - and yes we are very, very careful while we are working with them - and yes, we are working on getting rid of the bulls - oh, and yeah Rog - maybe we should think about that cattle prod! ) Yesterday morning, just before breakfast, someone looked out the window and shouted - Samson is out!  Samson is a bull (the top picture) that has been staying with us for a few months.  He had been in a pen about 1/8 mile away from the rest of the herd - so he must have really wanted to get together with them.  He and our other bulls just don't really approve of each other, to say the least.  Anyway, Samson and Fred (the bottom picture) (we call him Friendly Fred because he is usually like a puppy dog - someone must have bottle fed him or something - he is very gentle - but we treat him as if he wasn't - because you never know with a bull) were going at it - round and round - banging heads trying to tear each other up...  So, we put away the eggs and sausage we were planning to cook for breakfast, pulled out the cold cereal - told the kids to eat and get ready to go to piano lessons, grabbed our sticks and buckets of grain and headed out into the pasture.  Really NOT my favorite job!

Some of the cows lead pretty well with a bucket of grain, so we got most of them - including Fred and Samson - into a pen.  Then came the job of trying to get one of them out while keeping the other in - not an easy feat with them being so interested in each other.  Finally after about 1/2 hour of going round and round the pen without much luck, I was about fed up with them.  I pointed my stick at Samson then at the pen and yelled "YOU GO"...then pointed my stick at Fred and then pointed out the gate and yelled "YOU GO" ------- and they went - just as gentle and good as could be.  Hmmmm.... I must get lots of practice with that tone of voice or something!?!

Then, this morning after Todd had gone to work, the kids were looking out the window, and again - someone yelled "Samson's out!"  and sure enough - Samson and Fred were at it again.  By now we were figuring out there was a "girl" involved.  So Todd came home from work - We got our sticks and buckets of grain - and headed back out to the pasture.  This time Fred wasn't so hard to get out.  We left a few girls in with Samson to keep him happy - they were still in there this evening.  We got Fred in a far pasture to get him fattened up for the freezer.  We are really hoping all of our bulls will be gone in the next few weeks.  

We also moved Blossom and Stormy into the pen with the rest of the Herefords.  They had been separated from the rest of the cattle since Stormy was born.  Neither one of them are very tame anymore - they have both gotten quite a bit of spunk.  We were able to get Blossom into a corral and squeeze her down so we could get ahold of her lead rope.  She didn't want to go, but we did finally get her over to the other pen.  Stormy has fully recovered from her difficult birth.  We went round and round the pen - she's fast!!!  We were finally able to get her in a corner and grab her lead rope - but then she planted her feet and absolutely refused to move!!! So we ended up carrying her across the pasture - she's no lightweight!!!  Another time that we were glad that we don't have any close neighbors to watch us! 

Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a few days since I last posted.  We had a nice Memorial Day Weekend.  Todd went to B'town to help work on the new building there on Saturday.  The kids and I stayed home and worked around the house a little bit - did some laundry, cleaning, cooking... :)  Sunday we went to meeting in the morning, then to the gospel meeting at Jean's in the afternoon.  We stayed there for a good steak supper with her family and then Leslie came home with us for the night. 

Monday we had a real nice Bible study after breakfast.  We read the first chapter of Ruth about the time that Naomi, her husband, and daughters went down to Moab to "sojourn" because life was too hard in the promised land.  Leslie told us that Moab was a type of serving the Lord in word but not with a whole heart.  

Jeremiah 18:10-11 says "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. "

Malachi 1:17 says this about those that do the work of the LORD deceitfully: "But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."

So Moab is a type of a person who knows about the Lord and may even make vows to Him, but when it comes to really living the life God wants us to live they aren't willing.  Jesus said "if your right hand offends you, cut it off" but Moab "kept back his sword from blood".  When they made wine, they would let the dregs settle to the bottom and then "empty it from vessel to vessel".  When we let God lead us through experiences that cause us to leave behind the dregs of our own wills, we become sweeter and sweeter to him. How sad to get to the end of life and just have our selfish human nature instead of the Spirit of Christ - "his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed"

When Naomi and her family left the promised land they thought they were lacking and in the middle of a famine, but looking back on that time Naomi could see that she had "gone out full".  It would save us from so many poor decisions if we could just understand our current situation from the perspective of eternity.  Through of all of Naomi's experiences, she kept her relationship with God alive so that when she returned to the promised land, Ruth wanted to go with her and said "your God shall be my God".  

After breakfast, we headed back to B'town for more work on the building - only we found out after we got there that the work had been cancelled for the day because of rain.  Todd had his phone turned off and hadn't gotten the message.  We ended up staying for the day - I had a nice time with Talisha, the kids, ours and theirs, played outside in the rain most of the day, and a few others showed up to work after all.  Brad came home with us for the night on his way back up north, so that was another really nice surprise.

Laura & Abigail Playing at the piano recital 2009

Abigail playing Witches Brew

Abigail playing Night Train

Laura playing Solfeggietto

Laura Playing Harmony of Angels