A Homestead Daughter

• Monday, July 7, 2008 - Rejuvenating One's Soul on the Homestead

I have been musing lately about how each of us children have our own way for rejuvenating our souls on the homestead. For me, it is, without doubt, picking flowers. Nothing lifts my spirits more than combining a small amount of all of God's magnificent colors into a little bundle and bringing it inside our little four walls. Then I have to smile at them every time I walk by. They're just so real! I love how they can single handedly and magically brighten the room! (My flower pot.) I've noticed for Annie, it's her kittens. When she gets worn out, she'll be out on the front porch playing with her cats and kittens, talking to them, giving them little voices and referring to herself as "Mama." She always has to have one under her arm or in her coat pocket. (Annie working with kittens in her apron pockets.) Theresa will, most definitely grab one of her bunnies and go for a walk in the back pasture. Or she may leave her bunnies pouting in their hutch and come back from her walk with her pony between her legs. I can honestly say she's a sweeter person when she gets back. (Theresa taking her bunnies for a walk.) For Lizzy, it's ANIMALS. It will be kittens, bunnies, sheep, or horses. As long as it has four legs and enjoys her attention, she'll shower it on them. I used to wonder if she likes the animals on this farm better than her siblings, as they seemed to be her preferred company. Now, however, she seems to be finding her place in the clique of girls and likes to hang out with us more and more. (Lizzy and Mr. White) Johnny will be on his bike!! No matter what mood he's in or what time of day it is, he will faithfully ride his little two wheeler across the bumpy terrain of the barnyard. He'll groggily clog down the stairs in the morning and head for the door to ride his bike while the older kids do their farm chores, instead of eating his breakfast. We'll call him in at dusk to say night time prayers and he'll still be playing on his bike. He finds it terribly cool to be able to ride a two wheeler at five (thanks to 7 patient siblings willing to teach him). (Johnny riding his trusty little bike.) I don't think the older boys need alone time as much, as they have a lot of it when they're out doing their work. 50 acres and animals provides the perfect setting to get away, whether to look for adventure or just to be alone.

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• Friday, July 4, 2008 - Patriotic on the Fourth

Hail for the Red, White and Blue! We even found our brothers being patriotic! We had to get our youngest sister in too, and later found she was wearing red, white and blue! This is quite a natural setting for little Liz to be found in... (I have to proudly add that that's my horse on the left.) Thank goodness Andrew doesn't goof around in patriotic colors and still gets work done on the Holidays. He's almost done with the shakes on the house. And the guest cabin is coming along smoothly. They started putting up the vertical logs last night. Now, even though we don't do fireworks or barbecues on the fourth, we have several reasons to celebrate. 1. Mom is four months along, and has started feeling the baby! 2. My little doggy Molly, turned 6 this month!  (Pictured with us in 2 of the red, white and blue pics.) 3. Today is the anniversary of the day that Mom and Dad met 22 years ago!

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• Tuesday, July 1, 2008 - Picnic Table

It was decided that an outdoor picnic table would do our large family a lot of good on these warm summer days, for sticky things like watermelon. Stephen, being without a job at the time, excepted the challenge. He went online and looked up some plans and talked them over with Andrew and Dad before starting. They gave him some slabs left over from the house building and helped him in their spare time. In two days, the menfolk were proudly showing off their new outdoor table to us. We love it! We tried it out last night and; yup! It works! Just the right width for arm wrestling too (that's important ).

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• Sunday, June 29, 2008 - Faulty Laundry Machine

We had a problem with the little engines in our new outdoor laundry machine the other day. They seem to go faulty, primarily in the warmer weather... Stomping laundry turned into a full blown water fight. Water was flying everywhere, followed by screams and scramblings for the hose. The dirty laundry sat unattended for awhile, but it was finished with haste when we realized we could refill the tub and swim/bathe in it. Our shower has been undergoing some maintenance lately so it felt good to submerge in the chilly well water. We brought out a bar of soap and laughed at each other as we took turns washing our hair. (As you probably guessed, that last entry was a photoshop job ) We have plans to turn this tub into a hot tub as soon as we can gather our supplies. The plans we have include cobbing around the sides of the tub and building a fire under it. I have read through the plans several times and we can wait to get started on it. Late night, outdoor winter bathing, here we come!! As a closing note, I wanted to inform my readers that I'm creating a list of people who would like to receive automatic updates whenever I make a new post. If you would like to be on the list just let me know and I'll add your email. Thanks for reading!

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• Saturday, June 28, 2008 - Pass the Soap!

Our shower wasn't working so we decided to bathe in Lake Superior... It's a tub-boat!

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• Thursday, June 26, 2008 - True Strength is in Numbers

Every once in awhile, a big strong brother needs to learn that he shouldn't take his strength out on his siblings.... ...or it will backfire on him:

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• Thursday, June 26, 2008 - Bye Jules! :-(

Well, we had to take Jules to the airport yesterday morning. We had a wonderful month together and we're all very much missing her. Visit her blog to see pictures of the month. The day before she was leaving, we finally had a warm enough day to jump in Lake Superior. Well, it wasn't really warm enough, okay, I'll be honest, it was freezing! We all had fun though.

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• Monday, June 23, 2008 - Sunday Hike

Last Sunday we showed Jules one of our favorite hiking spots. And because Mom decided to stay home and take a nap, we got to go all the way to the top! (Too scary for a mother I suppose.) Heading up the hill. This was once a quarry for the county. Now it's as abandoned as the National Forest that surrounds it. Getting higher. This would be your view if you were to cast a sideways glance. Whalla! The world at your feet and the clouds in your face. Little Lizzy experiencing and contemplating the vastness of her world. After a rest, we explored the left side of the 'hill' by walking through the woods. Much to our creeped-out-ness, the ground sounded hollow beneath our feet, as though we were walking on a drum. An old mine bellow us was our only guess (and if that's not it, I'd rather not know). This is the left side. I love the three green 'knuckles' rising out of the right side of the horizon. After more resting, throwing rocks and a suicidal paper airplane, we went back to explore the bottom a little. Andrew shows exactly where we were. We played around a bit, tossing rocks, catching frogs, picking strawberries and finding small wildlife. This is a little freak of nature in itself; two butterflies attached together. At first we thought they were just mating, but looking closer, they were really attached and in fact, the lower one was dead.

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• Saturday, June 21, 2008 - Laundry Fun!

Our once foreboding, mounds of dirty laundry have suddenly become a pleasant summer chore! Recipe for: Clean Clothes, Cooled Off (yet productive) Children and a Healthy Amount of Insanity: - An outdoor tub (indoor works too, just not nearly as much fun!) - Hose - Soap - 2 or 3 Loads of Dirty Laundry - Several willing Children with clean feet! Directions: Combine water, soap, and dirty laundry in tub. Have the cleaned feeted children stomp for 5 to 10 minuets. Drain dirty water. Rinse the clothes (hot water may be used for white loads, but not required). Wring the water out of the clothes (a small amount of muscle recommended for this step). Hang the laundry on the line. The process takes under 30 minutes of laughter per load. Younger children make good laundry hangers if there is another load waiting to go in. Click here to see: Theresa and Annie agitating the laundry with a swing dance!

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• Monday, June 16, 2008 - Fathers Day

I realized something yesterday; Father's Day isn't any different then any other ordinary Sunday for us. Every evening this whole past week, Dad has either played ball with the boys, gone bike ridding with Johnny, or played volley ball with all of us. Two Sundays ago, he took us all fishing and showed us how to properly cast and hook worms and stuff. Dad showing off our only catch. (Really pathetic... it's his plastic bait). Playing volleyball at the net in town. This week he's been working on the cabin foundation with the boys as well as picking up loads of wood, helping Stephen build a garden fence, working with Andrew on the fascia around the house, driving us girls into town to plant flowers at the church and repairing bikes. Working on the cabin's foundation posts. This Sunday (in lieu of Fathers Day and the fact that Jules will be leaving soon) we went hiking in the Porcupine Mountains 15 min. away. (As well as playing more volleyball when we got home.) This is a trail overlooking Lake Superior in the Porkies. Resting on the rocks in the Nonesuch River. A Nonesuch Fall. Our family photo. Now for the most interesting part of our hike: The remains of the old Nonesuch Mining town from the 1800's. These huge foundations are made of rock, expertly fitted together with crumbling mortar between them. As you can see, this one is almost 40ft. tall (compare my 6' brother at the base). These foundations are situated near the river where they got their power. At it's peak, the village had 12 houses, a General Store, Post Office, Stage Coach and their own uniformed Baseball team. Now, it's nothing but crumbling foundations in an overgrown forest. A strange feeling... Anyway, ending Fathers Day with a gorgeous evening sky. HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY!

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• Friday, June 13, 2008 - Bigger Banner

I enlarged my banner today. Whaddya think? I'm not too crazy about it, but since it takes forever and a half to fiddle with it, it's probably going to be sticking that way for awhile now. God Bless you all today!!

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• Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - Fuel Efficient Lawn Mowers

I'm so happy! First, let me explain two (of many) daunting 'problems' that our impending economy collapse is providing. One being rising gas prices (obviously) and the other being rising hay prices for keeping animals. Well, Ontonagon, Michigan, is proving to have these 'problems' at top intensity. We are nearly feeding hay out all year round, with the exception of (maybe) one month in the summer. Pathetic! Well, with no time to put in sheep fencing, these poor beasts were facing a whole summer in their pen this year (with the exception of the hour/day herding that the boys give them). Refusing to waste gas on lawn mowing this year, it was determined that sheep grazing/mowing was the best option. A moveable pen was the top choice since that eliminated fencing in the whole lawn. BUT, four fencing panels, such as we needed, cost nearly $100 dollars, at almost $25 a panel!!! We talked about other possibilities with the menfolk, but they were too busy with the summer building projects to offer any help. Fed up with this obvious need, and the ridiculousness of buying gas for the lawn mower and feeding hay to the sheep, I grabbed Theresa this morning and went to work. I am more then a little pleased with our feminine attempt at carpentry. You can see our overgrown yard in this one: (Miserably overcast today.) They ate for 4-5 hours and we moved it twice, (though we really didn't need too, it was just so fun to see the 'mowed' areas). You can see the two patches where they ate: This is our gate; a portion of the fencing that we didn't tie to the frame. We wove a smaller piece of wood into the fencing and attached it to the corner post with bungey cords. You can see the sad state of our fleeces this year. The bare patches that Paddy (the calf) left on them are just starting to grow back in, leaving them looking rather like french poodles. Anyway, I just have to point out that this pen was 100% free (). The wood was dug out of the scrap piles left over from our house building project. The fencing was found in the dump pile and restored. Then the string that we used to attach the fencing to the frame was pulled out of the garbage can (it initially came off round bales). Even the nails were pulled out of dad's left over bucket of screws and nails! Fuel efficient lawn mowers! Every yard should have one.

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• Monday, June 9, 2008 - Babies

Our baby animals are growing up and their proud parents, (or Grandparents I should say... they insist that when a pet of theirs has babies, they're the Grandparents and Mom and Dad get the title of great Grandparents already). Anyway, they have been supplying me with an abundance of pictures of their precious' to share:

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• Wednesday, June 4, 2008 - Fleeces

This past week, we had the wonderful opportunity to shear two gorgeous fleeces off the backs of two unfortunate sheep. The sheep belonged to some friends of ours and they gave us the fleece for the shearing. Sadly, our sheep have not produced fleece half that long this year, due to an unfortunate encounter with a baby cow sharing their pen.  She quite literally licked their fleeces off! We didn't get any pictures of the shearing, but here's one of us skirting the fleeces. They are now being processed (washed, carded, spun...). Ordinarily, we would just wash the fleeces and stick them in storage until the winter months are upon us, but we wanted Jules to experience the process, hands on, while she's here. Even though it looks like two dead animals in our living room, () the sheep lived. Actually, they fared better then some of ours, since their fleeces were different colors than their skin. (Our black ones are tough to shear, since they have black skin too.) I had the back legs to hold and I also trimmed their toes while I had them down (clipped my own finger pretty good too). Well, I'm nicely sore after today's work, with just enough energy to go join that wild looking volley ball game going on outside, and just enough weariness to put me out when I hit the hay tonight. Looking forward to another long, hard work day tomorrow!

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• Thursday, May 29, 2008 - A Visitor

• Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - The Animal Graveyard

The Animal Graveyard In every homestead that we have lived on, there was always an 'animal graveyard'. This is a place where we lay our little animal friends to rest. It's usually remote enough that tears can be shed and prayers said in privet. Mostly kittens, chicks and other baby animals are respectfully laid here,  but sometimes adult animals and old friends are also laid to rest here. Our first cat, Milly, was very sadly laid here. There are nine 'gravestones' between these two left and right pictures of our little cemetery. Can you spy them all?

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• Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - Buddy's Blue Bucket

Our Big, Baby, Bull, Buddy's, Blue Bucket Everyone in this household is used to the familiar slam of the front door followed by "MILK!" every morning and night from our cow and/or goat milkers. Now a new phrase has been added to the list; "Can I have Buddy's Bucket?" This proceeds the "MILK!" one. Whoever is in the kitchen will bend over and pick up the little blue bucket from it's place under the counter and give it to Andrew at the front door. To us, it's a little blue bucket with a rubber nipple on one end. To Buddy, it's; "Momma!"  When he sees Andrew crossing the yard with this little blue bucket, he starts dancing around his pen for joy. Racing from corner to corner, he kicks, jumps and hops until Andrew gets closer to the pen. This is a very dangerous time because he's bound to eat anything that comes through the fence. When Andrew gets tired of teasing poor Buddy, he's hooks the bucket inside his pen and lets him suck the bijeebers out of it, (well the milk anyway). He can usually down a half gallon in ten minutes. Not bad, considering you have to take it suck by suck. He's almost as good as our top hand milkers.   Afterwards, he always stands there and demands that there wasn't enough. It's amazing the excuses he comes up with to convince Andrew that he needs more. Such as; "the cat drank most of it," "I inhaled half of it through my nose, so I didn't get to taste it," "the bucket has a hole in it," "I think I'm getting dehydrated in this 50 degree heat," and; "I have company coming this weekend and need to put some aside for them." (Of course bulls can't talk, you can just tell by his expression. )

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• Monday, May 19, 2008 - The Sunday Sports

"Go Johnny. Run! Run!!" we all cried as he gave his pitiful little kick at the worn soccer ball and headed for first base. The pitcher quickly recovered the ball and headed after the little man. Johnny ran, arms flying and head over shoulder as he watched his approaching sister and ball. Through the running, laughter, and adrenalin, Johnny missed first base by a long shot and made a large U turn outside the field. His pursuer immediately slowed, yet continued to pant and threaten as she made a show of running out of breath. (Yea, we have quite the bunch of actors here.) When Johnny was 'safely' on first, Andrew stepped up to the the plate with his team cheering from the loaded bases. My team immediately dropped back into very deep field. In seconds the ball was whizzing past my ear with force that made me grateful it was out of reach. Laughing, screaming and yelling, we managed to get the ball up to our pitcher by the time the Andrew was heading for home. The ball flew for the home plate ahead of him. Pausing in stride, Andrew effortlessly leaped the passing ball and touched home. His teammates cheered and ours laughed at his fancy homecoming. After that game (we lost), the football was pulled out teams were again divided. Andrew and Stephen verse the six of us. I'm happy to say we won, though humiliated to say it was a close call. They should have won and Andrew still playfully calls my awesome play 'cheating'. Dad came out after that and another round of football was played, with Dad being all time QB and Johnny; all time rusher.  I wish I could have gotten some pictures of Johnny chasing Dad around in circles while Dad was trying to get an open pass to one of his players. They won that game, with us coming just short of the In-zone on our last down. I love it when we our whole family plays together. Though there is different strategies involved to keep it even 5 yr old against 18 yr old, it is still just as fun. There was some yelling as rules were established in the beginning, but once the games would get underway, it was all laughter and screaming. It's fun having enough siblings for our own baseball team!

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• Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - Happy Dad + Work = A Good Day!!

The other day, I was feeling a little down so I stepped outside, hoping some sunshine might help. The youngest kids were playing in the lawn while the sheep grazed around them. That has to be their favorite job, since the sheep don't need much tending and they get to play to their hearts' content. I wondered if all kids play like my siblings do... Their deep laughter was deafening and yet so familiar; it fills my ears every day. The rooster jumped up on a round bale in the barnyard and cockadoodledood his head off. The cows laid in the warm sun chewing their cud and  thinking deep cow-type thoughts. Most of the horses were following suite in the warm sunshine. I was joined on the grass hill that I was sitting on by the two new lambs who are always running around giving life to the property. New laughter and squeals reached my ears from across the creek. Through the woods, I could barely make out the peeling operation where Dad and the kids were working. (I had lunch dishes waiting on me inside, or I would have joined them in a second.) I would hear a strange voice followed by rounds of giggles, and then another voice would take over and more giggling would follow. Feeling happier, I went inside. Later, I asked Annie about all the laughter and she simply said, "Dad was in a good mood. It was a good day." She went on to tell me some of the silly things Dad was saying and doing. When she finished, I was surprised to find myself in a good mood. It spreads like wildfire when it comes from the top of the family. :-) A few days later, I came across these pictures that Michael had gone out and taken that day. You can see by all the big smiles that everyone was quite giddy. Playing a game that dad made up involving logs, racing, wood-chips and balancing. Flattening one side of the rafter beams. Carrying back a few logs that got misplaced. I heard they're really hard to carry when laughing... Then, when they found that out, it became painfully hard to hold the giggles in. They would look at each other and start grinning and before they knew it, it was too late. They would all be in stitches of laughter and the log would be on the ground again... Passing on the good mood! Have fun at your work today!

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• Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - Just Another Morning...

• Monday, May 12, 2008 - NEW Indiana John movie released!

• Saturday, May 10, 2008 - Got Cats?

We do... Our oldest (and very pregnant) mama demanded to be let in the house yesterday and the girls didn't hesitate to oblige her. She knows how to do the whole birthin' thing. Lizzy tried to bring her in a few days ago and she wasn't too happy. It wasn't her time yet. I was in my room and heard Theresa calling Annie: "She's going to have them soon, Annie!!" Annie: "Why?" Theresa: "Cause her water just broke.... on me." Then, I hear Andrew asking Mom how much pizza he can have.  Mom answers, "You can have as much as you want." With that the cat gives a meow/groan (if you've ever heard a cat giving birth you'd know what I'm talking about), and Theresa cried: "I see it!" The next thing I heard was Andrew's groan, and "never mind...". It was visible a moment later. Annie's excitement died in her mouth as she declared that Lizzy's cat gave birth to a lizard. Not really. I guess it was just an ugly baby. Annie pointed out the long tail to Theresa when they were deciding if it was cute or not. "See? It's tail is like two inches long! ...So is it's extension cord." Sigh. After tons of litters of kittens and millions of baby farm animals, she still can't remember what a umbilical cord is! What am I going to do with that girl...? Or all those cats?!    Anyone want one? Or two?? Oh, and we also have a litter of rabbits arriving soon, (due yesterday). Anyone up for long ears?

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• Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Homemade Banner

Since I was feeling a little under the weather today, I decided to put together a banner for my new blog with pictures from around our homestead. Each of us kids appear once (actually, I appear twice) and 15 different animals. Andrew and Stephen are sword fighting in the bottom left corner (a common past time of the boys). Lizzy is holding Whitey next to them. I am hugging Brimi above her. Theresa and I are ridding my mare, Lady, in the center. Johnny and my dog, Molly, are below us. Michael and Whitey are above Buttercup (the cow) on the right, and Annie is above them holding baby Danny, our ram.

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• Thursday, May 8, 2008 - My Dad is Home!

What is it like to have Dad as much a part of your life as Mom is? Well, to be honest, I didn't think he was any less a part of my life then my mom... until he came home. That was about five years ago and now I can't imagine life without having him around. At first it was hard, and to be honest, disrupted things quite a bit. Mom admitted that her house got messier  and there was adjustment in the parenting roles as Dad had to take over the discipline and leadership. Mom had to learn where her new ground was as the heart of the family instead of the head director. It was probably the easiest for the younger boys (9 and 6) to adjust to having him around because they desperately needed a male leader in their lives at that time. Any praise that he gave them for their projects lit up their faces with pride and any suggestions he offered were heeded intently in their young minds. It was probably a little harder for Andrew, (the oldest at 13), to adjust to having another man around the house, taking over household duties. They had to adjust to working smoothly as a team together and that probably took a few years. Now, both knowing their places, they can create, build and finish projects quite quickly. For us girls, it meant more dishes and a harder attempt at making delicious meals.  Suddenly, there was another male in our lives besides our brothers that we wanted to impress. I didn't think it would be that different, but it was. Especially in the beginning, we always wanted to be where dad was... to find out what he was doing, to help where ever we could and just get to know our dad. You know, he can actually get into some pretty silly moods. I learned stuff about his childhood that I never knew. Memories that he has of his boyhood or how he met Mom. And, (I think), we finally have grasped his sense of humor enough that we are no longer the subject of his jokes and can actually spin them on him. All this when I thought I knew all there was to know about my dad! The biggest adjustment that had to be made, (surprisingly), came from my youngest sister. She was just a tot (3 years old) when Dad came home, so who would have thought that she would care? Well, he was a stranger. When Dad still worked and would come home on weekends, she was quite literally afraid of him and would hide behind Mom. It took a long time for her to warm up to Dad and now, she just can't get enough of him. Even though she's 8 now, she still loves to sit on Dad's lap during the family rosary in the evenings. They have their own way of teasing each other now, that's only funny between them, it seems. My youngest brother, Johnny, was born the year that Dad came home. I don't know what we would have done with that child if it weren't for Dad. He would still be an untamed lion if not for Dad's natural taming tactics that (thank goodness!) toddlers can, in fact, comprehend. They have gotten to be close buddies now. My sister commented to me the other day about how we never seemed to notice how unnatural it was that one of our family members was leaving every day, all day, to go to work. How come we didn't realize how badly we needed him then? Now, we could never let him go. God designed families to be raised with both a Mother and a Father for a reason. How sad that the evil one knew that by sticking a wedge in that design, he could break up the natural family life so dramatically. How he has succeeded at it, too!  I had a friend who casually admitted to me one time that she didn't know her Dad at all and, in fact, was rather scared of him. She didn't seem at all concerned about it either, it was just the way it was. Families need their Dads at the head. He needs to know what's going on in the lives of his children so he can direct them as needed, but, how can he know what's going on when he isn't there? Dad, thank you for making the decision to come home to us! We love you!!

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• Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Lund Family Productions Blog Update

• Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - The Morning the Cows turned up Missing...

Our cows annually break out once a year during fly season. This is a story I wrote about last year's breakout. (Note: they'll have to swim a moat if they want to this year!!) The Morning the Cows turned up Missing... "I don't know where the cows are, and now I'm not so sure I know where we are." The words are spoken in low, hushed tones as if to not awaken the woods around us. My sister and I gathered closer around the speaker, our brother. The blazing sun brought the temperatures high above one hundred degrees. The insects were the size of dollar coins and in swarms so thick you couldn't see through them. They drew blood mercilessly on everything that breathed. We had to fight animals that had threatened our lives.. with knives. Luckily, we won and walked away with our only prize—our life. We hunted down food in the wilderness, climbed mountains cliffs and fought through raging rivers. For our source of direction, we followed the stars. We made our own clothes with the ferns that blocked our path and blinded us from all sense of direction. We'd been gone thousands of ... well, more then we could keep track of .... seconds. Yes, waking up to reality from a call on the walkie-talkie I realized we'd only been gone an hour or so. Rising the instrument of communication to my mouth, I answered the question: "We're at the back northeast corner of our land, and no—no signs of the cows yet. Andrew says we're heading in." So, in reality, we were dripping sweat, but the temperature was only around 70. We did climb steep ravine edges and had to jump a creek. The bugs were bad so we did make silly looking fern hats to keep the bugs and sun off. I did pluck a few evergreen berries when I was hungry but spat them out because they were so bitter. Andrew was keeping an eye on the sun and where our shadows landed. As far as the life-threatening animals... the ticks were pretty vicious. Andrew had gotten sick of them and started cutting them in half with his knife. Suddenly, I glanced down. "Andrew, cow hoof prints!" I cried. "You both walked right over them," I continued to a doubtful looking Andrew and a surprised Theresa, who still wore her silly fern hat—though it was slipping sadly over her eyes.     "Are you sure?" Andrew asked, kneeling beside the pointed-out prints and pulling back underbrush.     "Yes, see the split hoof?" I answered. Jumping up I pulled my walkie-talkie out of its place at my pocket and rang home. I made contact almost immediately. "We've found prints!" I told Dad.     "But we've been all over around here," Andrew countered. "They're not here."     "We have to follow these," I pointed out.     "They're going this way," Theresa said, pointing south.     "You see," Andrew defended himself. "I didn't miss the prints. I was leading us is the right way all along."  He tossed a smug smile at us and we started walking again, though the prints disappeared shortly after and Andrew insisted on heading home.      I called in and told Dad that we were heading home unsuccessful.     "I thought you had just found their tracks," he answered.     "Yes, but Andrew says we've seen these before and we've been all over in here, so we're coming in for lunch."     "Okay, where are you?"     "Just crossing the fence in back." I jumped the wire and stumbled into the brightness of the closely-eaten 30 acre pasture. Looking up, I could see the house only a half-mile up. Sigh. Fantasy may be more exciting, but it is nice to have a place to go to when you get hungry, I thought.    So, to finish off the tale, we found 3 of the 4 missing cows in the back of someone's pasture. We'd spotted them from the road while driving in the van. I think I gave Theresa, who was sitting in front of me, a near heart-attack at my sudden outcry of "I SEE THEM!!!". We searched the whole area for cow #4 but found nothing. The foliage was so thick you couldn't see more then 3 ft. into the woods. After a while, we brought the other cows home through the back fence again (we should just make it a revolving door at this point!). It was about 5pm and the cows hadn't been milked yet, so Andrew hurried to it. The next day we finally found the fourth cow's remains. Yes, she'd died, probably from the stress of it all. While we were disappointed, we weren't surprised because she had been very skinny and sickly before we bought her, and we really hadn't expected her to live as long as she had. Though, she'd paid herself off in the milk she'd produced in the few months we'd owned her. So ended the two day cow marathon.

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• Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - Home-n-Stead

• Monday, May 5, 2008 - Thank you Guardian Angel...

I am very familiar with the great views that can be had with a horse between my legs. Well, today I got to see a view that was not so great and this one was between their legs. My mare of one year has been CRAZY with (ahem) PMS  this spring. Last Sunday she went through 7 fences!!! We had to keep her separate from the herd (away from the boys) this week and tried putting her back in today... not so good. She is still in heat! As soon as I walked in the pen everybody went crazy and the next thing I knew I was under four legs with my sister screaming. I got knocked around a bit but thankfully never stepped on. I was plastered (disgustingly) in a foot of manure/mud. When I finally caught her again, (amazingly without any broken fences!) and got her back in her confinement pen, my (other) sister commented ever so sweetly that I looked a little less than pleasant. I said I felt and smelled less than pleasant. It wasn't until I got inside though, that I saw what she meant. I had manure/mud splattered on my face and in my hair and my clothes were drenched through with the stuff. Showering never felt so good! On top of this exciting event, the mule that I am training dumped my little sister off today. I was sitting on her for a half hour yesterday and she did perfect but today she was a little 'gooseir' (as we call it). She has always had the problem of feeling goosy when she has a bareback rider on. I and other siblings have been dumped for this reason. I did think she was finally getting over it though. If I used a saddle, she'd probably do fine but, I have a thing against saddles. They've caused more falls then not for me and I plumb don't care for 'em.

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• Monday, May 5, 2008 - Welcome!

Welcome to this new blog of mine! This is my first blog so bear with me as I figure out all this computer tech stuff. I've been thinking of blogging for some time now, as my desktop folder is full of writings of this wonderful lifestyle. Now, I finally have a place to dump all these stories, thoughts, songs, ideas and ponderings of mine. I hope you enjoy reading up and sharing in my latest laugh or smile as I continue to share this different way of life with any interested readers. I must add as a closing though, that this way of life is not possible alone. A human can not sprout a weed or do anything without God. Thank You for shining Your beautiful light on our farm today God! I love You!

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