4-29-10 DadSpeak

(excerpt from a note to a friend)

I had taken today off to work on the garden and lawnmowers which are always broken. 

I purchased a used John Deere which of course has given me nothing but fits ever since I purchased it last Saturday in Canton.  I have been to the shop twice and am approaching a $300 repair bill.  It is one of those deals where I had no sooner got home with it that it conked out in about 20 minutes of mowing.  How does that always happen to me?  So I am working through all the things wrong with it that the guy didn’t tell me about.

Then Jacob did some mowing with my good mower and pretty soon he comes walking around the corner of the buildings and I knew something was wrong.  He said the mower blade is digging into the grass.  I was trying to picture this and he proceeded to tell me that he ran over a man hole grate and then the picture became very clear as I approached the mower.  It looked as though he had ran a tiller through the yard from the man hole grate forward.  He thinks maybe the mower blade got bent down.  I readily agreed that appeared to be what happened.  So I have become pretty proficient at putting on new mower blades in the last week as I have put on 2 new sets. 

The sweet corn was planted and a few stakes delivered and then a trip to 2410 Bigelow to look at a table saw.  The address should have tipped me off.  A good learning experience for the kids anyway as we went home empty handed.

4-29-10 Happy Birthday Dad

*

*
*
Dedicated, Daring, Delightful, Disciplined

Amazing, Awesome, Adventurous, Affectionate, Ambitious, Amiable

Discipling, Disciplining, Dynamite, Diligent

*

*

DOING

ALL

DEEDS! ! !

*

*

“…And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations…” (Isaiah 58:12).

*

*

Yep, Dad is 41 today. Doesn’t seem like he’s 41. . .40 year olds always seemed so. . . well, kind of fuddy duddy, you know? But it’s not, nope not at all. Because since Dad is 41, that means I’m not far behind. And we still feel about…oh, 25 or so. But we’re not, and we’ll just keep getting grayer (me) and balder (Dad) as proof.

Levi and Jesse didn’t milk today, so Levi tackled geometry first…got an 85 on his Chapter 12 test. Good job! Then he worked on fencing.

Jesse shared his breakfast with Joshua. . .

. . . raiding the frig for more food.

Dad took off work today, so after he went to Uncle Jerry’s shop and took Jesse to Uncle Randy’s, he, Jacob, and Ben did some running around taking care of mower business. I can’t remember all they today, but I know at one point they replaced mower blades, took the ‘new’ ‘fixed’ mower back to Fligingers, sprayed fruit trees, did bees, went to Farm & Fleet, delivered stakes to Peoria, and checked out another table saw which they passed on. Plus more that I’m sure I don’t know about. We girls did kitchen work and laundry, and I corrected geometry and worked on my Thursday list. After lunch we planted sweet corn. Initially I had many helpers, but it was so so windy that they tired quickly. Joshua’s job was being adorable, which he did quite well.

Nine weeks to fresh sweet corn.

f

My helpers.

Choretime, and Dad’s favorite supper: Crazy Crust Pizza. Then out to finish the sweet corn; the last half of the patch was Peaches & Cream 78 day. With a bigger crew, it didn’t take long. And oh, it was a beautiful evening. Tori (with Joshua) was the photographer, and Dad was checking on some jobs from the day before he joined us.

L-R Jesse, Ben, Levi, Kate, Jacob, me, Sarah, Jewel.

Jacob got a little tired so had to lay to down to plant for awhile. Go, Jacob.

Sweet corn patch 2010.

Potatoes 2010 (Dad and Levi across the road).

Then time for some fun…Ben wanted the leftover seeds for his garden.

His strawberries are doing good!

View Full Album

The Redneck Go-cart. Ain’t we fine?

View Full Album

Swinging with littles.

To the orchard to check on the baby apples. There are WAY many of them; they’ll need to be thinned if we want any decent apples. They look good though.

Older kids played basketball; after awhile we took the little 3 in for baths, and older ones came in too for Bibletime and Dad’s birthday dessert.

Waiting to start.

Dad read out of a Bible story book; the littles enjoy that more than the Bible, so he does it occasionally. He read about Samuel and we talked about the blessing of children to Hannah, and serving God as a child. It was good.

Dad liked his socks…

…and book.

Yummy strawberry dessert. . .

. . .which we all enjoyed, then beds for all.

4-28-10 Snakey 2

Routine Wednesday, kind of. Levi and Jesse milked, Jacob and Ben unloaded all the wood from the van, and the girls and I finished all the cupboards in the kitchen. Now THAT’S a GOOOOD feeling. Finally. Of course, the windows and lights and ceiling (yep…between fly specks and strawberry puree, the ceiling needs cleaning too) need to be done, but the major cleaning and re-arranging job is DONE. Tori is still doing Algebra I (she finished Pre-Algebra in Nov.(? I think) and we could hardly let her quit then so she started Algebra a little later in the year) and has about 4 weeks left, and Levi has about 3 weeks of geometry left. Other than that everyone is done, so it feels kind of like we’re sliding nicely into a summer schedule. Since we’ve been trying to finish up spring cleaning, we haven’t done a lot of gardening yet, but soon we’ll make that switch too. So…today was kind of routine, but it’s a new routine.

Joshua has discovered a new fun activity…pushing folding chairs over. See, it makes a nice spot to sit, you know? He seems to like the big loud crash too…and all the attention that immediately ensues. What a precious punkin’!

Sarah and Jewel were pretty sweet today too…they played Duane and Jolynn (??). Sarah wanted to be Duane, and her baby was Amy. Jewel was Jolynn, and her baby was Drew. Where were Kevin and Alissa? Why, they were across the road doing chores. Of course. I should have known.

Their house.

Kate cleaning.

A dusty shelf that she found. Pretty disgusting… I think we need to dust high shelves a little more often, don’t you?

Isn’t it so nice to see brothers working together as a team like this? I’m sure they’re getting a lot accomplished…two can do twice as much as one, right? Well, I wonder what they’re doing now. It kind of looks like they’re trying to put something into that bucket, doesn’t it? (!!!!!!!)

(Sigh) Welcome to Snakey 2. And I should be thankful because I heard that #3 escaped. This time.

S#2 is quite a popular fellow just as S#1 was.

And just notice that blue blue sky and green green grass. Wow, it is so beautiful and it was such a beautiful day. Thank you Lord for creating such a beautiful world for us to enjoy…and we can’t even begin to imagine heaven…

Dad came home for lunch and to see the kids. (And me.) Right as he left, Karol and I left to walk. We were about half done when Levi, Jesse, and Jacob left in the dump truck to get the mower from CIT and take it to Fligingers for repair. Levi and Jesse milked when they were done delivering the mower. Choretime here, and supper prep; plenty of time for play too.

Ben worked awhile on the treehouse making a new chair to sit on.

I guess he did ok because I never heard any crying…

Garden 2010. Grandpa’s radishes in front, then spinach, then onions. Grandpa’s tomatoes in the background.

Lettuce – getting very close. A few more days and we’ll be enjoying it… hmm. Why didn’t I see those weeds when I was photographing it?

And a boat that mysteriously appeared in the backyard. How do you like that? For weeks now I’ve been pitching and pitching and pitching junk into the trash or goodwill box; and now junk is taking over the yard as well.

Levi and Jesse got back from milking as we were loading up to go to church; they raced through the shower, grabbed a bite to eat, and landed in the van with us…in various stages of dress, but they were ready by the time we got to church. Tim Hohulin from Roanoke came for Family Night; he spoke on Luke 22:26 “…let him be as the younger…” He talked about various sibling sets (Cain & Abel, Esau & Jacob, Moses & Aaron) and the attributes the younger sibling had for which we should strive. For example, meekness, humility, admitting when you’re wrong, etc. It was kind of a different perspective on always striving to be more like Christ. Lord help us all to do that.

Fellowship, home, beds for all.

4-28-10 Chicks Week 5

by Kaitlyn

The meat chicks are getting very ugly. They grow too fast and the feathers can’t grow fast enough so some of the chicks are very ugly!!!! In the meat chicks coop there is a layer of manure 3 or 4 inches deep!!It is not a very fun job hauling it out. I have hauled it out before. It is NOT fun! The layer chicks don’t grow as fast and they are all feathered out!

The meat chicks.

Comparison picture. The white one is the meat chick and the orange one is the layer chick.

The layers.

4-27-10 Snakey Tuesday

Levi and Jesse milked early but were home by 9:30, right as we were leaving for Restmor. We had Drew too…he was good a little guy like usual. Joshua was pretty delighted to see Drew again…

…and Sarah really enjoyed him too as usual.

Restmor went well. Babies were good, and children sang happily (for the most part). I was glad that Dana and Elizabeth came to sing with us, because none of the regulars were there. Singing was nice, but of course not as nice as when more are there. It was enjoyable as always. Dana and Elizabeth and their children joined us for hamburgers and fellowship afterwards…it was pretty cool so we ate inside, but then children were outside all afternoon. Much time was spent on the trampoline. Look at all the shoes!

There were a lot of children on the trampoline, but everyone cooperated so nicely and we heard of no spats or injuries. What a blessing. Here are Micah, Lexi, Sarah, Laura, and Megan waiting their turns.

These 3 babies had fun in the corn: Julia, Joshua, and Caleb. They were pretty sweet!

View Full Album

And then Snakey joined our happy family. Hmmm. I didn’t even get to vote on that one. He was quite popular with everyone…

View Full Album

…even Drew was impressed.

The swings got plenty of use too…here are Jewel and Joshua.

All the children seemed to really enjoy their time together (I know ours did), and we moms appreciated the time of fellowship also (I know I did). I’m glad it worked out.

Levi and Jesse worked on outside projects and geometry…Precision’s busy season is winding down and thus Levi’s work there is done too, so he was home all day after milking. That was nice!

After all guests left, we did chores, supper prep, and geometry (only 11 more lessons). [smile]

Supper was special, with Levi and Jesse home, and we did Bibletime at the table. Then all of us except Levi went to CIT to try to fix the mower up there. Levi went to Men’s Sing at Chad & LauraLee’s, and got home around 10:00. He really enjoyed it again; I’m so glad for that. While at CIT, we got quite a bit of scrap lumber for stakes and spent a little time cleaning and emptying trash. Kids had fun having rides on the carts. There was quite a bit of hollering and laughing around…but I forgot the camera! Oh well, next time I’ll try to remember. We got home around 9:00 and sent everyone through baths/showers and right to beds…and now my turn.