10-1-10 Farmviews

Atypical day and very fun. Boys milked twice, with Jesse at Uncle Randy’s and Levi here studying then at Precision in between. They were pretty routine, I guess, but the rest of us weren’t. We left here at 10:00 and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at Endresses in Galva. We had lunch, visited, played games, looked at goats, ate some more, visited some more, rode bikes, and just generally enjoyed being with friends. The weather was about perfect, the hospitality was wonderful, and the fellowship was precious. We are so blessed. We were home again around 3:00; Dad was already here and had the bee equipment almost ready to go. So Jacob changed his clothes and they were off to harvest honey right away. The girls and Ben started on chores, and I grabbed a walk with my camera in hand, something I haven’t done in a while. Home to a bit of school then supper and k.p; boys were home in time to grab a quick piece of pizza (Aldi frozen pizza, to be real) and shower before we 4 (Dad and I, Levi and Jesse) went to a visitation for Paul Koch. We hadn’t known he was really that sick, but how wonderful for him to leave his sickness behind and enter the glory of heaven forever. Home to listen to a Your Story Hour Bible tape, play games, and catch up on everyone’s day before heading to beds.

Picnic at Endresses.

The kids had a great time playing East, West, Central. Simple game and very much fun for all ages.

Jewel wasn’t sure she wanted to play at first, but she had fun with Jacob then.

Sarah’s favorite part of the day was holding Mike’s Timothy.

Back home, I took my camera with me when I walked, which I haven’t done in a while, and got some random shots of our delightful farmstead. Lovey’s 6 kittens are the cutest little things, and so very friendly – when we walk into the wood shed they just come running to meet us. It’s been awhile since we had such a friendly accessible batch of kittens. If anyone (or your 2 and 4 year old children) (heehee - guess who that would be?) would like to come and play (or adopt) one of these adorable fat little balls of fluff, please stop by anytime. Even if we’re not home – come on back to the wood shed. Lovey and her kittens will be happy to see you.

That pudgy little pointer is Joshua’s.

On to my walk: a stop at the cows.

Steers for our freezer.

Pooch is looking poochy again; although she’s very friendly, she doesn’t bring her kittens around very much so they usually grow up pretty wild. Her home is in the cow shed, though, so she and her offspring do a good job keeping the mice out of the corn.

Continuing south, I detoured to where Dad and Jacob were harvesting honey. I stayed well back and used my telephoto as there were many angry bees protesting the ransacking of their hives. Thankfully no one was stung (occasionally someone will get stung when a bee gets inside the suit, which isn’t supposed to happen but sometimes it does anyway).

Dad is blowing bees off the super.

The outside 2 are done; they’re almost done with the third and have one more to go.

No fancy bee equipment – just a plain old leaf blower. The visible bees aren’t actually on Jacob’s suit; they’re flying in the air around him.

Stacking the supers – each one weighs from 20-50 pounds; we should end up with about 10 gallons of honey or so.

Ready to close it up and let them recover from their trauma.

There was no honey in this last hive – all the bees died and the other colonies took the honey. So Dad and Jacob tore it apart – more of the fun of beekeeping.

Continuing on my walk – heading north I swung through the beanfield where Uncle Randy was finishing up.

Back home through the orchard – look at this HUGE Fuji apple! I’m saving it for when I’m REALLY hungry.

Pheasant hens look good.

Cocks are getting kind of beat up – perhaps lack of care? I won’t say a name, but their primary caretaker hasn’t been around much lately; that should change next week though. Hopefully with better care they’ll stop pecking at each other and their tails will grow again.

Last stop was the barn, where Mama Blackie has 3 cute kittens in the haymow. The girls were spending a lot of time taming them until they found Lovey’s kittens; ignored now, these are pretty wild again. Still pretty cute though – they just sit on the edge of the haymow and watch life.

Joshua really likes books; can you tell?

That’s all!