Family in February

 

I apologize for the lack of posts and the dead blog, but we're back!

Dana and Lisa and Josh were here for a week and a half and we had a wonderful time! They went to FL for 10 days and then will be back again. :)

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We went sledding on a hill about 15 minutes away because that is pretty much the only hill around here since it is so flat.

 

Dana, Lisa and Mary went down and hit someone's old jump and smashed the front of our sled. Whoops.

 

(And they survived)

Mary came trudging back up the hill saying that her legs felt dizzy. :)

The slope

 

We tried to go down on the broken sled. Ha!

Two Eskimos on the hill

 

 

Dana and I tried to go down on the smashed sled and ended it up smashing it more. It got retired for good. :)

Nathan and Mary having a cozy story time with Mom

 

Snow! That keeps on comin'!

The milkmaid :)

My awesome sister-in-law making the butter for me! (And having fun while she was at it!)

And everyone had to do school including Mary

The snowy trail out to the barn.

Dad, are you petting the pig??!

Sunny Dream trying to give Mom a kiss. Or maybe that's the other way around, hehe.  (She's a show cow, that's why she has a fancy name)

We decided to have a valentines tea party so Lisa made her amazing tuxedo brownies. Yumm!

Mary was only too glad to help!

 

Jo made cake pops. Beautiful. And delicious!

And she made The. BEST. Scones. Ever. Usually they are dry and crumbly--not these!

Lots of sugar and good things to go along with the tropical green tea we bought at the tea shoppe in town.

Someone's happy! :)

 

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More pictures to come later!

Winter in January

This winter has been brutal to say the least. This morning it was 1 degree. Yesterday morning it was 2 below. Everything is frozen except for us and the animals. The skidloader took all day yesterday to warm up enough to start. The hydrants were froze and the water line in the basement was froze. Did I mention the hose was froze too? Even though it was in the basement where it usually stays thawed out. We took it out to do chores but didn't put it on the hydrant soon enough and it froze again. Back to the basement. Dad put the kerosene heater down there and thawed things out. Yay! But at 8:00 last night when we went out to try the hose once more, somewhere near the end it was still frozen. The cows were VERY thirsty so my sister and I bucketed around 30 pails of water to them under a very cold, starry sky. At least we don't have anymore cows than we do! So yeah, farming in the winter can be a nightmare. We're surviving but LONGING for warm, summer days!

 

Here are a few pictures of our usable-but-not-finished barn

 

 

Right now everything is frozen solid and covered in snow. This pic. is from when it thawed up a bit.

The cows on the farm where Dad works

He is the feeder and feeds around 1,400 cows every day so that they make milk, so you can run to the store and buy a jug of it. Don't underestimate what farmers go through to feed 7 billion mouths all over the world. Its a ton of work, esp. in the winter.

 

An icy sunset. Almost looks like mountains back there. :)

Amy's oatmeal bread rising.

More of Amy's handiwork. (Thanks Em!!)

 

Love this picture of the cows huddled around their bale.

My cow. :)

 

Lula helping Amy making meatloaf

and Laurel with her tea

So cute

 

 

"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isaiah 55:10-11