When the World Seems Sooooooo Dark.......................

This was a bedroom, and will soon be the kitchen.

...................cut a hole in the wall and put in a window!!

As part of our construction process, we girls decided that we needed a window in the main part of the house because it is so dark and it needs, NEEDS more light!!  So we took a window that Barrett salvaged from a job up in the Chicago area that at this point, wasn't doing anything but taking up storage space.

Later, when we decide on the final layout of the two walls that meet in the corner, we'll make the windows look similar, but for now, we'll just live with it and let the sunshine in!!!

It can be frustrating to live like this but like I said before, I think a major advantage is that we can put things in order temporarily and live with it for some time while we decide if it works or not.  We've determined the basic design of the kitchen, now it's just a matter of coming up with the finer details.

Shane, Landon, and Cooper are working on the new "window to the world"! 

A window to the beautiful night sky!

Now we can watch as the guys work!!

Don't be distracted by all the "stuff".  This will be the corner of the kitchen and the once again, the windows are just temporary.  But the amount of light that comes in now is amazing.  Next spring, we'll work on the outside and think about adding some flowers and things.

I picked up these feathers as I was walking out to the garden last night.  I thought the black one was unique so I thought I would show you a picture.

So, if you ever need some more light in your life, just cut a hole in the wall 

and put in a window.  But I must to warn you!!  It can become dangerous because you might end up living in a glass house.  

October 2016
Sandy

Layout of the Mud Room

This room is missing the porch.

I thought I would share this part of our project even though the pictures don't look too exciting.  For me, this was one of the most important parts of the job because I was able to stand inside the room and draw the layout on the floor with chalk to see how the room is going to "flow".

 

The bathroom and closet on the left.

It's one thing to plan and draw up the plans on paper and try to imagine how it all fits together.  It's another thing to be able to stand in the room and pretend that it's a functioning room.  This way we could change walls and placements if we needed too.  And we did make quite a few minor, but important changes. 

Corner bathroom.

That's the beauty of doing the work ourselves.  I don't have to answer to a general contractor who I know I would drive crazy!  And he would drive me crazy too because he would tell me that we can't make any changes because the plans have already "been approved".

Then I would cry, and try to fire him so it's best we just do the work ourselves anyway.

Closet next to the bathroom.  The left corner is where we'll cut a doorway into the house.

We're going to put a little door in the wall into the storage closet from the bathroom so we can drop dirty clothes into a bin to carry to the laundry.

 

The panorama of the room makes it look bigger than it really is.  The dimensions are 16' x 18'. 

The back wall.  The window on the left will be over the sink.

Cooper stocked the roof with bundles of shingles.

And the work continues........... 

I quickly wrote a list of the things that need to be done and now I have to put them in order of what happens next.

 

 

 

September 2016

Sandy

Labor Day Weekend 2016

We had a great Labor Day weekend this year with a lot of projects going on at the same time.  Everything wasn't planned to happen all at once, but it did and thankfully we had enough of us to do what we needed to do because it was sort of a "race against the clock".

Ember is NOT liking the noise from the saw on the back side!

And that's just one reason to be thankfully for a big family!!

Oh, but unfortunately, we were missing one of our family members:  Barrett.  

And boy did we miss him!!  Not for the work, although he would have been a great help, but just to have him here with us.  

We've always been a really close family and when one person is missing, it just isn't the same!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Seriously.

Preparing for this weekend was a story in itself, but I won't be able to tell you what happened.  Unfortunately, it takes me too long to write already.  Maybe someday, I'll do a podcast or something like that or learn to write better and faster, whichever comes first.

But trust me when I say, "You can not write a better script", then the way our family life just plays out.  

 We sometimes laugh and talk about having a reality TV show, but then again, who wants to be famous?!?  Sure we might make a lot of money, but being "famous"?  No thanks.

Thankfully we all, for the most part, can just go with whatever happens and keep a positive attitude and laugh about it later.

Hey, and it keeps life interesting too!

Here is just a glimpse into what we did for the extended weekend.   

But first...................................

The foundation of our addition was laid about 3 weeks before we started the building project thanks to our friend Mr. Balmer, the concrete extraordinaire, aka "expert".

I've been dreaming of and designing a new mud room for that spot right there.

Our shirtless friend Mr. Balmer, the concrete expert.

Side view of the house.

Our weekend projects:

Shane was on the excavator digging trenches - about a 1/4 of a mile in total and dealing with wire and water pipes.  It might not sound like a lot, but it is and was.  Lots of hand digging also needed to be done so we wouldn't break any phone, electric, or water pipe lines. 

Road Block!  "Did I hit a phone line?"

A little over whelmed.

Our intersection is the spot where everything branches off in different directions so there are orange flags and spray paint lines everywhere.

Esther stopped by to help too.

Dakota, and Tanner working on their construction skills.

Landon working on lines in trenches and working with Cooper in our hay field and a neighbors field working hay.  Cutting, raking, and baling, loading, and stacking about 600 bales of hay.

In the trenches.

First load of hay.

 
Tim working on the new room and stopping to help solve whatever problems were going on.

The girls preparing and serving food and helping when needed or when they just decided too.

And me: the designer, the one to offer moral support, the go-getter, the photographer, the disciplinarian, the encourage r, etc. 

That was the basic assignment, although the jobs just fell into place and there was no discussion about who was to do what.  And if anyone needed help, then whoever could stop what they were doing, they would go and help somewhere else.

The trenches were dug for new electric wires to get rid of an ugly electrical pole and it's overhead wires that were in the front of the houses.  Also to bury wires that were strung up in and through the trees from the main pole to a few other places around the farm.  Those wires were hung there before we purchased the farm and the electric company strongly recommended that we bury those lines as well, and now was the perfect time to do that.

A long time ago, someone (who shall remain anonymous) said that we could get rid of the ugly pole that was in the front of the house.  When I heard that, I got really excited and was anxious to see what we could do, because let me tell you, that pole is an eye sore!

But my excitement quickly faded when it just seemed to be too overwhelming.

The Ugly Pole

Then months later, the electric company in town started to replace all of the electrical poles in our valley and that's when I started asking questions again.

It worked out, and after a lot of planning and talking, here we are:  digging trenches for new wires!!  But little did I understand what was all involved in moving just one little pole.  $$

While digging the trenches for the electrical wire, we found out that that main water line was only 1/2" water pipe, so we changed that over to a 1" pipe - not something that we had planned on doing.

Water pipe.

Everything ran pretty smooth the whole weekend except for the fact that on Monday afternoon we broke a water pipe.  Fixed that one.  Then we broke another pipe on Monday night, just before we were getting ready to be done for the night.  

Nice face Landon!!  (It's funny at what point the photo is actually captured.)  They're trying to find the water leak so we can fix it to take showers.  I don't know what's worse, no water or no electricity?!

At this point we all needed a shower from sweating all day and being covered in dirt and grime.  And to top it off,  some of the kids had to go to work the next day which meant they had to be up early.  So for the next hour or so the guys worked on fixing the pipe.  And that they finally did.

Unfortunately the extended weekend had to come to an end.  That was a sad time.  The projects aren't finished, but we are still working on them.  We stayed dry for almost a week but we got hit with a lot of rain today.  Thankfully it didn't do any harm although we weren't able to get all the hay into the barn before it rained.

So in a day or two when the rain stops, we'll have to go back into the field and cut the twine on the bales of hay, spread it out to fluff it up so it can dry.  Then we'll have to bale it once again.  It's not something that we would ever plan to do, but it's the only way to save the hay which amounts to almost 300 bales.

First wall and they forgot to put on the vapor barrier.  Oops.

Sorry for the blurry photo.

Lots and lots of wire!!

Feeding electric wire.  It doesn't look heavy, but it surely is!!  Oh, and Tanner's photo bomb - his ball of tape he threw at Dakota.  That kid is in just about every picture:  physically or mentally.

Tanner having to pose for EVERY picture!

Getting closer.

Girls can climb too!

The cat found a place to nap in Dakota's tool belt.

Dakota and Emma finishing the wall.

Preparing the nails for the ones swinging the hammer.

Setting the first wall!!  Yeah, it was HOT outside!!  I wish we could have had six more boys!!  Oh, and a few more girls too!!

We'll keep you posted as we move along with these projects.  One thing that would have made the mud room move along a little faster was if I had drawn my plans for it more specifically on paper.  That way the guys wouldn't have had to stop so much for me to measure and think and change and measure again.  That was a little frustrating to them, but I told them that they're learning great character skills this way.  I don't think they thought that was to funny.

But I have to say that because we are doing this without having to submit plans to anyone, we can change as we see fit.  Sometimes if you draw something on paper and follow it exactly, you don't realize what you did until you're done with it.  And then it could be too late.  

This way, we could stop and talk about something and then go ahead and build it.  

Also, we're making our own windows and doors so we don't have to use standard sizes.  I think that's the most fun about this project.

September 2016

Sandy

Our Boar, Oreo - Part 1

We bought Oreo from our friend Mike at Vesterbrook Farm in Clarksville, MO, when he was about 5 months old and raised him until he was just over 2 1/2 years old.  We never "cut" (castrated) him.  Once he's been cut, he would be forever changed and there is no turning back.  Then instead of being called a boar,  he would be referred to as a *barrow or a *stag.

Oreo at about 5 months of age when he came to our farm.

People say that if you don't take away his "manliness", he will be mean and aggressive.  And that can be a scary thing!

For one, we didn't really think about castrating him when he was young and if we did, we wouldn't be able to have piglets any time soon.  We had two *sows/*gilts that we were looking to breed with him that were the same age and that we also purchased from Mike.

  

And then many months later, when he grew so big, we knew that castrating him was something that we didn't want to put him through. 

Oreo was a very tame boar, although we knew to keep at least one eye on him when we were around him especially when he was out of the electric fence just roaming around.  

His favorite place to relax.

He loved to have his back scratched and when he did, his long body would swing back and forth as he stood still.  It was funny to see him enjoy having so much attention.

Oreo lived out on pasture in an electric fence and we rarely, if ever, had to worry about him getting out on his own.  He was rotated to new pasture on a regular basis during his whole life.  He ate mostly Non-GMO feed, food scraps, grass, weeds, nuts, roots, and toward the end of his life, we started to feed him just a little bit of regular conventional corn - but not because we wanted too.   

"What do you mean, regular conventional corn?"  You ask.

Well........................regular conventional corn is just feed corn that we would purchase at the local feed stores.

There is so much controversy out there about GMO's and Non-GMO's that I can't even begin to touch on it.  But here is an article if you're interested in getting a quick lesson.

We stopped feeding our pigs Non-GMO feed only because we would have to drive about 4 hours one way to pick up feed and bring it back.  On one trip we would haul almost 1500 lbs. back at a time.  

And who was the first person to say that a pig had to eat grain anyway?

When the corn goes in one end and out the other and it doesn't look any different, who are we kidding?  It seems like a big waste of money to me anyway.  

Driving over 8 hours round trip just got to be too much driving for us, so we had to resort to conventional feed that we could pick up locally.

"Did you ask at the local feed stores if you could purchase Non-GMO feed?"  Yes, I did.  They would have been my first choice to support them, but they couldn't get it.  And at first, they didn't even know what it was either.  Neither did the company who they purchased their grain from.

So see, all you farmers and ranchers out there, we still have a lot of educating that we need to do.

  Oreo's ration of daily conventional grain/corn was pretty much just a snack because he had to share it with all the other pigs that were in the same paddock, so in reality, he didn't get that much of it:  thankfully.

About 3 weeks before Oreo went to the butcher, he didn't eat any grain at all, only grass and a few kitchen scraps.  And did he miss the grain/corn feed?  Um, not really.  He never acted like he was missing something.  He seemed happy to just eat whatever vegetation he could find.

Our view of Oreo from the kitchen window.

When it was time to get serious about what we were going to do with Oreo, we started to ask more direct questions.  And the question that got the most heated response from people was whether Oreo was castrated or not.

I think it would be interesting to have a friendly debate over this topic, don't you?  But then again, would it remain, friendly?  I can't say for sure.  That's how passionate this topic seems to be.

"You won't be able to eat him!" 

 "He'll taste so bad that you'll have to just feed him to the dogs!" 

"He'll have Boar taint!" 

"You won't be able to be in the house when he's cooking, he'll stink!"

 And then on the flip side, "Just turn him into sausage and he'll be amazing!" 

"Have you ever had wild boar?  It's amazing!" 

Over and over, the same type of response came from so many different people, so who were we supposed to believe?

Even when I was doing research on the web, I would come across the same type of responses.

Soooooo...................... 

What were we to do?  

We had 2 years into him and now he wasn't going to be any good?!?  

How depressing!!

Well, the only thing that we could do at this time, was to just take the chance:  butcher him, and see what happens.

And that's exactly what we did.

Worse case scenario, we would have dog food for a very long time. 

Even more depressing!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Oreo, on his way to the butcher.

I wanted us to do the whole butchering process ourselves, but we didn't have a hoist that was strong enough to hold Oreo up while we did the beginning steps.  

So we took him to the butcher, who, killed him with a .22 LR (which kills him instantly), hoisted him up, bled him out, skinned him, gutted him, split him in half, and then hung him in the cooler where he would hang for just over a week.  After that time, we would go and get him and finish the job ourselves.

Cooper and I were able to watch the whole process, except for the killing (although we heard the shot).  And I have to say that we were both very happy with the whole process, so far.  

Oreo's last steps.

Oreo lived an amazing life and his life ended the say way.

Definitions:

barrow:  a male castrated before puberty

stag:  a male pig castrated later in life

sow:  breeding female, or a female after her first litter 

gilt:  a young female pig not yet mated, or not yet *farrowed

farrowed:  give birth

Part 2:  On the Way to the Butcher 

Coming soon.

August 2016

Sandy

Man Down

Even though the head gate is rusty, it still serves it's purpose, but only if it was installed properly.

   
Two of our heifers have pink eye and we needed to treat it right away so that is wouldn’t get any worse.  And since we were going to have to go through the trouble of bringing those two girls up, we thought we would bring up the rest of girls and do everything we need to do at one time.  The cattle needed to be wormed and they needed some fly spray. 

Our way of worming is a small pinch of tobacco, and the fly spray consists of Scope mouth wash mixed with a little bit of water in a spray bottle; something that we heard about from a friend (now whether the methods work or not, that we can talk about later).

In order for us to get to where we could "treat" the girls, we needed to round them up and put them in the corral.  Once we got them in the corral, we could run them through the shoot and into the *head gate. 

Now, we've used the shoot and the head gate quiet a few times before; once to pull a calf and other times to worm the cattle.  And THANKFULLY, we haven't had any problems with either one because if we did, it could have been devastating, especially since The Rancher and his wife and The Farrier, who has also doubled as the "vet" have been here to show us and teach us what to do while using them.

But this time it was different.

Barrett, Tanner, and Cooper were able to, without any trouble, get the girls into the corral and run the first heifer through the shoot and locked in the head gate without a problem.  She took her tobacco and got her fly spray and she was off.  She didn't have pink eye, so she was off and back to the corral with the other girls in no time. 

After they were done with her, I called Barrett over by me because I needed to ask him a question.  I was standing near the hay barn which is about 10 yards away from the corral where they were working.  I was working with the new Jersey cows that we just brought down to the farm.

So Barrett walked away and left Tanner and Copper to put the next heifer in the shoot and lock her in the head gate.

Once she was locked in, Cooper grabbed the spray bottle with his right hand and put his left hand on one of the posts that was attached to the head gate and started to spray her.  Then, as Tanner started to walk away to grab the LS200 to put in her eye to treat the pink eye, he heard Cooper starting to yell.  So he turned around, and could see that the heifer had just "freaked out" and pushed her head down so hard that the bottom of the head gate had come loose and the top of the gate had caught and pinched Cooper's finger between the gate and the post.

So Tanner quickly ran back to the gate and pushed in the bottom of the gate which let go of Coopers finger and freed him from the post.  And just as Cooper had taken a few steps back while shaking his hand in pain, and as he started to walk around the corral while trying to hold back the tears, the heifer reared up again, but this time, while still locked in the gate, she completely ripped the head gate off the eye bolts. 

You can see how the bolts are just sitting on the eye bolt and not secured.

Barrett and I heard the commotion, and looked over as Tanner was calling for Barrett.  Then both of us went running over there.  As I got closer I could see that the heifer, who is over 700 pounds, and who was still locked in the head gate, had pushed her way forward out of the shoot.  And the force of her trying to get out, along with the weight of the head gate, had caused the gate to slam her head face down into the ground and her front hooves to stand on top of the gate.

I thought for sure we were going to loose her and wow, what a mess we were in!

The bottom right eye bolt that had been bent at some point before we came to the ranch.

Not knowing how or if the guys were going to be able to get the gate off her neck or not, I called to Shane because I thought we were going to need his help.  He had just come home from work and was in the house which is about 100 yards away from the corral.  First I yelled to him, but then I realized that he might not have heard me, so I **whistled as loud as I could.

He was out the ***door in no time, and was headed over to the corral.

Once Cooper realized what was going on with the heifer, the pain that he was having seemed to disappear for the time it took him and Tanner to pick up the head gate and get the heifer to stand up.  All I can say it that there was a lot of adrenaline flowing at this point, in all of us!

As the heifer's head came up off the ground, she turned and was violently trying to walk backwards with the 200 lb. gate around her neck, while Tanner and Cooper tried to hold it up off the ground.  And just before she rammed herself into the back of the corral, Tanner was able to flip the lever that opened the gate and she was free.

And there she stood, as if nothing had happened. 

After she was free, Tanner and Cooper carried the head gate and set it up against the back of the corral and the pain that Cooper was having in his finger came back in full force.

Then Cooper and I headed for the house.

As we were quickly walking back to the house, I asked him what had happened to his hand and he said that the tip of his finger was smashed in the head gate. 

I knew right away that we had to bleed his finger to relieve the pressure that had built up under his nail.  So while we were trying to get back to the house as quick as we could, I asked Cooper if he knew where a small drill bit was that we could use to bleed his finger.  He said there was one in the barn by the house so he went over and grabbed the drill bit as I went into the house to prepare to drill his finger.

When I got in, I asked Emma if she could do it because I was starting to think about what had just happened and how it could have been worse.  And also, thinking about the pain that Cooper was in, I was starting to get sick so I didn't think I could help him.

Well, Emma gave me a look that I took as, No, I am not doing that!

At that point I told myself that I had to do it and just that fast, I immediately composed myself and got to work.  There was no time for me to have a melt down and feel sorry for myself, I needed to do this because I didn't have time to take him anywhere; it needed to be done now. 

I quickly cleaned the drill bit that Cooper brought to me and then I realized that it didn't have a sharp tip on it and it wasn't going to work.  So I asked him if he knew of another one and he said he did.  So he went back to the barn and brought me another one.  Well, same thing:  no sharp tip!

This kid was in so much pain that I, I mean he, didn't have any time to waste and here I have him running back and forth trying to come up with a drill bit that would work!!

Deep down in my heart, I knew what I really needed to do, but I didn't want to do it.  Why?  I don't know!

No, wait a minute, I do know!  This was something that my husband always did, not me!  But he wasn't here and now I was "the one".  Anyway, all I know is that I was wasting time and putting it off and enough was enough!!

I asked the girls to get me a ****needle and a match so I could heat the head of the needle, but Cooper grabbed the torch instead that just happened to be close by, so I used that instead.

Once Cooper lit the torch, I put the needle into the flame to heat up the tip, then I stuck the nail with the tip of the needle where the blood was pooling and it didn't do anything.  So I did it again, and this time, with more force, the tip of the needle punctured the nail so that some of the blood came oozing out, but he was still in so much pain.  I think I did it 3 or 4 more times and finally, I was able to get almost all of the blood out to relieve most of the pressure.       

When we were done, we had him hold up his hand and put pressure on his finger and try to get him to soak his finger in Epsom salt when he felt he could.  He was starting to get light headed so we just made sure that he was comfortable and that he wasn't going to try and get up anytime soon.  He was down, at least for now.

Unfortunately, Cooper, was right in the middle of raking hay when this happened, so I though that he wasn't going to be able to finish, which is not a good thing, because once you start the process of making hay, you have to keep at it until it's done.  You never know when the weather is going to change, and if it rains on the hay, we could loose the whole crop. 

Thankfully, a couple of hours later into the evening he was feeling better and was up and walking around, but I still thought that he wasn't going to be able to finish the hay and we would have to put one of the other guys on it.  But thankfully, by the next morning, as if nothing had happened, he was right back on the tractor, back to raking the hay.

We've had enough "accidents" happen in our lives that we've been able to learn a few things here and there, just like other people.  And that helps us to be able to do some quick fixes or treatments that we might need to do.

The last time we had a smashed finger, it was Shane that we had to take to the doctors office to relieve his pain.  But this time, when the doctor bled his nail, blood went shooting all over the office.  It was quiet disgusting, but Shane felt so much better and we just laughed at the whole thing once he was done.  Actually it was pretty “cool” and the Doctor wasn’t phased by it at all.   

We live pretty close to a small hospital if we really need to go to one and we also have Air Evac, but there are times, just like what happened to Cooper, that we need to be able to take care of somethings ourselves.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When I was younger I worked as a life guard and along with my "life saving" training, we also had some basic training in first aid, but it's been a long time now, and I think it’s time to take another course.  This time I think our whole family needs to take a course because you never know when we might need it.

One thing that I've realized, and I guess I have known all along, is that when you're hit with an emergency or an accident, don't panic.  It's easy to say and it sounds good in a book, but when real life situations happen, that's when you really need to work at not going into panic mode.  Stay calm and think about what you need to do to help the other person.  And then, do what you need to do as far as calling for help,

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Coopers nail looks really good and only time will tell if he is going to loose his nail or not.  And soon, this too will become just a memory.

And as far at the heifer goes, she hasn't shown any signs of trauma and so far she is doing great.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*head gate - This head gate was here when we purchased the property so we had nothing to do with it's set up.  But now looking back, we should have checked to make sure that it was in working order and that it was properly secured.  But who would have thought to have done that?  And unfortunately, that's why things are called "accidents" because you don't anticipate things going wrong.

**whistled - My dad taught me to whistle when I was in 4th grade and I practiced and practiced until I could whistle, first with 2 hands and 4 fingers; 2 fingers from each hand (index finger and middle finger), then with 2 hands and 1 finger from each hand (index fingers), and then only one hand, making a "circle" with my thumb and middle finger.  It's not very "lady like," I know,  but it sure has come in handy a lot of times in my life. 

And I don't tell you this because I think I'm something special - not at all.  It's just something that I learned when I was younger and had no idea how important it would become.  Only Shane has learned other than me and he can whistle really loud without any fingers.  My family knows to answer to my whistle and it's soooooooo much louder than I or anyone else could ever yell.

***door - When I asked Shane later if he heard me, he said that he heard me call, but when he heard me whistle, he told Emma that something was wrong and they both jumped up.

****needle - After talking to The Rancher and his wife about what happened, they said that they have done the same thing with a paper clip instead of a needle.  And that makes sense because the tip of a needle is a lot smaller than the tip of a paper clip.


Sandy
August 25, 2015

Barefoot Gardening in the Rain

     I've been trying all day to get myself and some of the kids out into the garden today, but the day was just getting away from me.  And I was kind of ok with it, at least subconsciously I was stalling a little bit because the sun was shinning so bright and I really don't like to work out in the hot sun.

     So, when I finally decided to stop everything that we were doing inside and gather the last minute things that we needed to take to the garden, I walked toward the front door and just before I reached the door, the rain just came pouring down!

     "Noooooooo!"  I said.

Rows of tomato plants.

     It has rained everyday for the past month and a half, and I am not kidding! 

     And I'm really not complaining either, I'm not.  I was just ready to start digging in the dirt and now I have to wait for the rain to stop, again.

     Oh, how I love this gardening thing!  I didn't realize how strong this burning desire has been inside my soul all these years.  It has been bottled up in me for the past 20 years or so and I can't stifle it anymore.  If I do, I will pop!  I want so bad to just get in there and get my hands dirty!

     The boys had work to do on the new fence project that we started and also potato duty.  Esther was going to help me plant, but now we had to wait.  It's a little hard to work in the garden in a downpour, don't you think?

     Oh, how I love the rain!  I love to be cooped up in the house during a rain storm.  But for the first time in my life, I was able to sit outside on my own front porch and watch and listen to the rain as it came just pouring down while the water was making its own little creek on our dirt road near the front of the house.  (Have I told you that the front porch is the best part of this house?)

     So for the next half an hour or so we sat on the front porch and talked while we watched the rain.

A few cabbage plants.

     The baby ducklings that were on the grass in the front of the house, jumped up into their bin and sat there just looking out as if they were afraid of a little water.  The bin was to protect them from the sun not the rain.  Silly little things, water is for ducks!  Shouldn't they know that?

     And then as fast as the rain came, it just stopped.  As the sun quickly came out again, I looked overhead a little to the South and the sky was as clear as could be with little fluffs of white clouds just moving ever so slowly past the incredibly bright sun!

     Well, sun or no sun, it was time to get to work because the day would soon be over.  So we quickly gathered up what we needed and drove to the garden which is about 3/4's of a mile away (thanks to Landon).

     And sure enough, shortly after we started to work, it started to rain, again.  But this time, we didn't care!

     Esther and I took off our flip flops and just worked in the garden barefoot as the rain came steadily down and kept us cool from what could have been a miserable afternoon.  And as for me, life doesn't get much better then this.

I was able to take some pictures between the rain drops.

Esther and a tomato plant.

More cabbage and Esther.

 
   

The sun peaking through the rain clouds.

Tanner adding insulators to the rebar posts.

Esther's garden selfie.

Tanner clearing the fence line.

Where did the potatoes go?

Barrett clearing weeds between the potato plants.

Cleared potato row.

      The Lord has truly blessed us as stewards of this place for this season in time.

Oh, and Cooper, well, he just kept on working, boots and all.  

Sandy

June 16, 2015