9-18-15 Harvest

By Kate

Ben caught a good-sized bull snake a few day ago. Rascal just loves snakes and could have spent hours barking at it. When we catch bull snakes we like to let them go in the yard and watch Rascal bark at them. Most times after awhile the snake will get really mad and start rattling his tail and striking at her.

I have babysat Anya a few time in the last couple weeks.

What a cutie.

A blog post isn’t complete without a picture of the cats.

Our second crop of beans is doing well.

The three littles made a tent by the levee.

Jewel’s photography.

A second snake has been caught. Evidently it was enjoying sitting on the warm road.

And more beans………

Finally. Harvest has begun! They started at our place Wednesday, and by yesterday (Thursday) they had finished the north 80 acre field and a little 6 acre patch across the road.

Semi rides with Levi are always fun!

Grandpa counting off the rows. Logan was driving the tractor that afternoon so Grandpa had plenty of time to get the next pass counted off.

Corn art.

Somebody liked these ears of corn. Mom only deleted ten other pictures of them. They are nice, aren’t they?

Can you count six kittens and one happy boy?

                                                                              THE END.

9-15-15 Musicale

Once again we were blessed with a full house for the annual young group Musicale [musicale (myu zi kal), n. a program of music forming part of a social occasion].

Thankful that Josiah was willing to start the program and Ben was willing to help him on bass.

And thankful for our nice big room so we can enjoy evenings like this!!

Next up, Kaiser Kids sang God On The Mountain.

We enjoyed Psalm 67 in three languages. First, Tabitha read in English; next, Jakob read in Hungarian; and last, Heather read in Creole.

Dale treated us to Grandma’s Feather Bed, accompanied by Ben and Jacob.

Glad Mike & Holly could join us, and glad Mike was willing to share with us Amazing Grace and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

All sisters/friends sang Christian Friendship and Near the Cross. Simply beautiful.

Cleo had a three-part presentation this year. First off, a story of the young Sunday school student who was impressed that Noah (age 950) was “even older than Cleo Koch”!

Second, Strive Aright.

The Spiritual Conflict.

Awesome trio by Tabitha, Mary, and Lydia.

Ruthie agreed to play a couple songs for us if she had a little accompaniment and if we would all sing. Which we did, and so she did. Beautiful.

The Old Rugged Cross.

Stand Up For Jesus.

Ever heard portions of twenty hymns sang in about two and a half minutes? It was an impressive piece, arranged by Lucy and Megan (about five hours before). Katy joined them for singing, and their harmony was just beautiful.

It Is Well With My Soul.

Heather shared about a new outreach of our church, called KAIROS, which seeks to minister to Muslims in America and point them to Jesus Christ as the only true source of peace. The poem she read, which was written by a Muslim, gave us much food for thought; it revealed the heart of the religion of Islam which is that good deeds must outweigh bad deeds in order for one to reach paradise after death. How thankful we are that God’s Holy Word clearly states His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is not of anything we have done, but only through His perfect shed blood, that we have abiding peace, sufficient grace, and the promise of Heaven when we die. The mission of KAIROS is to share this message of salvation to the three million lost Muslim Americans, that they too might have peace in this life and eternity.

All brothers/friends sang Faith of Our Fathers.

TMB, minus Gabe, sang Life’s Railway to Heaven.

To end the program, all young people sang five favorites – Down on my Knees, I Bowed on my Knees and Cried Holy, Just a Little Talk With Jesus, When All of God’s Singers Get Home, and Our God He is Alive.

Thank you, young people, for once again sharing your time & talents with us. May God bless each one of you who participated in this special evening.

 

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:  To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

Psalm 92:1-3

9-11-15 Labor Day Weekend

Apples is a key word around here. We haven’t yet picked any, as it’s still pretty early and they’ll get sweeter, but every day some drop so we pick them up and use them slightly bruised. One of my favorite parts of late summer .

We thoroughly enjoyed Saturday morning with sweet Beau and Lola.

We saw a lot of Lola’s precious smile, and we even got a few smiles from Beau. He wasn’t too sure about us at first but warmed up later on.

Tori taking over here – I think this is all from Monday. Jewel and Josh are very capable little kids. They spent awhile in the orchard picking up drops.

Josh was wondering when we could make oreo balls earlier in the week, so Monday was the day. He & Jewel both had fun rolling, and Josh helped dip them later.

Kate and Ben picked our second crop of green beans, and the three girls snipped and snapped them while Josh and I dipped oreo balls.

Later – trying to drown out a mole. They didn’t get him to come; but, a few minutes after they gave up, Rascal ended up catching it. 

Watching the cat catch fish is always entertaining. Apparently she doesn’t mind getting wet or an audience.

Jacob & Ben went over to Wesley’s to work on a fort, and then Wes came back with them for the afternoon and evening.

We enjoyed having the Nate Koch family, Grandpa and Grandma K., and Cleo over for supper and the evening. We had a kind of impromptu recital, and I think everyone enjoyed singing and watching the other groups sing.

These are out of order – this was from Monday lunch. I believe the kids were observing the phenomenon of surface tension. Obviously, they need more to do!

Other random things that we did over the weekend: Saturday was a young group invite in Fairbury/Forrest, so Jesse, Jake, Kate, and I went up for supper but didn’t stay for Sunday. It was good to meet some people and catch up with others. Sunday we went to Grandpa and Grandma Kaiser’s for the evening (minus Levi and Echo) which we hadn’t done in a while. It was pretty hot all weekend and it rained a little Monday afternoon. Also, Jesse had class on Labor Day, but the rest of us just stayed home and got ready for company. Dad & Levi & some of the other boys worked on Levi’s porch roof. I think that is pretty much all we did and thus wraps up Labor Day weekend.

9-8-15 September

by Kate

September is here and almost half over already! We've kept plenty busy with lots of summer/fall activities.

The garden is pretty much wrapped up for the year. We still have a few tomato plants and Indian corn left. We also planted a second planting of beans so we did our first picking of those yesterday. We got bountiful crops of watermelons, potatoes, and onions. We are done making applesauce finally, but we still have a lot of apples to pick- golden delicious, red delicious, Gala, and Fuji. We still have some Jonathan apples to pick but we’ll just make cider and apple desserts out of them.

It has been averaging about 90-95 degrees every day the last week with heat indexes of 98-100 degrees. It is supposed to cool down today and tomorrow. Rain is also supposed to be coming with the cool front. We could use the rain although farmers are going to be trying to get into the fields to harvest soon. The last week of heat dried everything out really good.

I made pretzel sticks one day this week.

Beautiful sunrise.

I’ve been babysitting Anya. She thought the instruments were pretty cool.

One of the Monarch caterpillars finally hatched.

I think we’re probably going to be a little tired of watermelon by the time these are all gone!

                                                                                    THE END.