9-12-12 Harvest

  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,

and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

                                                                                           Psalm 107:8

9-11-12 Remembering

9-10-12 Busy Weekend

by Kaitlyn

Friday night Dad and Mom went to Lowes to look at stuff for the house and did some other errands too. Us kids stayed home and played. Saturday we did a bunch of kitchen jobs with Mom early. Then Ben, Tori, and I painted the wooden barn doors.We had about 5 open cans of white paint. We mixed them all together and used that. Levi worked at CIT. Jesse and Jacob made us another gate for the horses and did a bunch of other jobs.  Saturday night we went to Grandpa and Grandma Kaiser’s house. Last night Steve and Mary invited us and a bunch of other people to their timber for a wiener roast.There is a great big sand box and lots of trails so all of the little kids had fun. Me and some of the other boys played 500. It was a fun evening.

9-7-12 Catch-up

by Tori

This week has been all catch-up. Labor Day we worked around the house and then had supper with Greggs. We all had fun seeing the place and some of the kids fished. Jacob was the fisherman of the night with about a foot long largemouth bass and a foot and half long catfish. Everyone else just caught big bluegill and sunfish. Tuesday Jacob and Kate both had ortho appointments and Mom did errands. Wednesday was somewhat regular with school and normal stuff, but Thursday Mom had an eye doctor appointment and errands in Morton. Today is just another regular day. We cooked up a big pot of chicken carcasses and are looking forward to chicken noodle soup again. We’ve been digging potatoes every night this week too. Last night we finished them – and it’s a good thing because it rained this morning.

Going to feed the ducks.

The ducks weren’t hungry and didn’t come up to us like they usually do, so we just left the corn on the shore.

Josh really enjoyed his chocolate cupcakes for dessert last night.

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The last of the potatoes which we dug last night.

Sarah, Jewel, and Josh collected grubs and put them in dirt. Josh must be watching one dig down.

“We’re tired of digging potatoes!”

This morning the sky was so cool looking. It was pretty neat watching the white layer come right at us and then go over. It didn’t look like it was moving at first but as it got closer it picked up speed. Within 2 minutes it was over us and behind it was a wall of storm clouds that appeared to be rolling across the sky like tumbleweeds. The storm brought a cold front and some rain with it too.

Have a good weekend everyone!

9-3-12 HOME

Friday morning we left our cabin around 6:30 MT and drove through the Park one more time on our way east. This magnificent buck posed very nicely for us as we drove by.

We saw many pretty views and much wildlife, but you know it’s time to head home when wildlife isn’t worth stopping for anymore and when we get slightly irritated with tourists who stop and block traffic just to see a moose or elk .  We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. We had one detour around a nasty four-truck accident which took about an hour, but we still made it home in eighteen hours, straight through. Mountain Dew and Hank helped pass the time and keep us awake . Our Resident Meteorologist (that would be Jacob) kept us well informed of the rain headed our way (Hurricane Isaac), and we were thankful to have dry driving until we hit Galesburg, about an hour from home; the light rain and empty roads didn’t slow us down much and we were glad to roll into our driveway around 1:30 Saturday morning. And oh how we enjoyed the all-night rain and all day Saturday yet too. We were amazed at how fast everything greened up again!! After a summer of hot dry brown, the green of home is a sight for sore eyes! Saturday found us recovering (that means we slept until pretty late), unpacking, putting away, laundry, and cleaning out the (very trashed) van. The boys mowed in between showers and got most of it done but sometimes got pretty wet in the process!

Diamond and Grey were glad for green grass again.

Kitties needed attention.

And one of those rare days this summer when the kids got to play in the rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love that green!!!

Even though we’ve had a total of around six inches of rain the past week while we were gone, the tile still isn’t running .

We actually had reservations for Friday night too, but everyone was vacationed out and unanimously wanted to come home Friday instead of Saturday. I really don’t know what we were thinking when we made our original plans – getting home at 1:30 Saturday night (Sunday morning) and somehow getting up in time for church? After doing chores for the first time in a week? And leaving the house/van trashed on Sunday?! Or cleaning up Sunday?!  What a disaster that would’ve been; we sure didn’t think that through very well when we were planning…

Actually this whole vacation wasn’t very well thought out – we got to the cabin a night earlier than our contract specified. The cabin owner called us Saturday, wondering when we were planning to leave, as she wasn’t expecting us until Saturday night. ???What????!!! We re-read the contract - - sure enough, we weren’t supposed to be there! She had it rented out to someone else, but that person had to leave early due to a funeral; otherwise we would have had to find another place to stay Friday night! Thankfully it all worked out okay, but the rest of the week I found myself wondering – what else are we mixing up??!!! I guess that’s what happens when you have too many irons in the fire – sometimes you get burnt. As it turned out, we really didn’t get burnt, but we could’ve, and boy we felt pretty dumb.

Anyway, all day Saturday we were so happy to be home. I guess that’s one of the best things about vacations – home is oh so so so sweet when you get back. While we were gone, not one, not two, but THREE of our cows calved!!!!! Jacob especially could hardly stand it that we weren’t there to see them and check on them; but, believe it or not, Lucas and Grandpa took very good care of them, and the calves did just fine without us!!

So we got home safely, with many good memories and nice pictures, glad we went but as always glad to be home. Yesterday was a nice day at church, and last night ASK and G & G Steiner came out awhile, and now today is another lovely day of vacation but we get to enjoy this vacation day at home . My favorite vacation spot, no kidding!!!!  Dad worked a little while at PP this morning, leaving a list for the boys, and the girls & I worked on various kitchen projects together. Simply lovely. Dad was home for lunch, and now I’m hearing hammerings and bangings from the addition but I’m not sure what they’re doing out there. Tim W. came and applied some kind of spray-on insulation while we were gone, so now it’s ready for plasterboard and plaster, which might – just might – be happening tomorrow; after that is painting and trimwork and floorcovering, and THEN - - - well, THEN we are getting close to being done. We’re doing ok without our big room, but we find that we miss having a couch upstairs. There’s only one soft chair upstairs, and no one is real keen on lounging on folding chairs! So we’ve been in the basement some, which is cooler anyways – did I mention that it’s still 90 degrees out?!!!!!! With the water tank completely full and no garden to water, the kids were happy all afternoon sliding down the slide and playing in the sandbox with the hose going. And with 90s forecasted for the next few days, they’ll likely be doing more of it too!!

Have a happy day,

and

STAY COOL!!