Mountain Lane Homesteaders

This one is too hard.  All pets I have had have been special to me for one reason or another and as my oldest daughter would say, it wouldn't be "FAIR" to pick just one! 

So I got to thinking about an animal we would like to have "someday".  Our youngest daughter really started it all by being a horse lover from day one.  While I imagine most little girls that like horses dream about getting something small like maybe a shetland pony......our girl dreams BIG.  Somewhere along the line of horse study she determined that it was a draft horse that she wants.  They are beautiful horses, and we also began to imagine how helpful it would be to have a properly trained draft horse to help skid logs out of the woods or even out of the harder to access parts of our property.

We have a lot of learning to do first, not to mention a house to build and fences to put up, but we like to help her keep the dream alive. 

This past weekend was our county fair and we found someone there who was in the parade with their Belgian pulling a buggy.  Before the parade they let Mara sit in the buggy and then towards the end of the parade invited her to ride on the horses back.  She was in horse heaven so I'm posting a few pictures of her big moment.

Can you see that grin?

Isn't that one beautiful horse?

She should have one don't you think?

Wasn't it a beautiful night?  The first two pictures were taken on our way up.  We explored one of the lesser traveled (translate....BUMPIER) roads and discovered the stand of tall thin trees in the 3rd picture.  Then on our way down I took the last two pictures as the sun was setting.  How much "fancier" of a setting did we need?!!!

And yes.......we just couldn't help ourselves........we did pick up a few logs along the way. 

38 years ago today my knight in shining armor was born.  At the time I didn't realize the importance of the day.  I was 3 1/2.  But that's okay I suppose because he got lots of attention. He was the 5th child born into his family so he had his parents and four siblings to dote on him for me. He grew up in his world on the east side of the country while I started my life story in the midwest.

You could say that school really wasn't his "cup of tea" so he spent a lot of time living for his summer vacations, drawing/painting pictures, playing cello, piano, and guitar, studying the word of God, and dreaming about living off in the wilderness somewhere among the mountains. While he was busy with all those things I was going to college and studying early childhood education. One summer I took a job as a nanny in Colorado. I flew on a plane by myself for the first time, lived with people I didn't know, and grew to love the 3 girls I took care of. While I was there a very kind and distinguished pastor came to stay for a few days with the family. He had a wonderful soothing voice which I will always remember. It was the kind of voice that just made you want to sit and listen regardless of what it was he was saying. It actually brings tears to my eyes to remember it now.

After I graduated from college and was now out in the "real" world, I was working a full time job and a part time job to cover my living expenses. Life felt something like a rickety merry-go-round that I wasn't sure was ever going to stop spinning. When the woman I had worked for that summer during college called to tell me that she had moved to Hawaii and wanted to fly me out to live with her again to care for the girls and tutor the youngest who had some learning disabilities, I wasn't too sure about going that far away from my family-but I sure knew it was an opportunity I didn't want to miss. It was November. I was in Iowa. Stop the merry-go-round and let me off.......I'm going to Hawaii!

I celebrated the holidays with my family in Iowa and then when the new year rang I was off. Who knew the ocean was that BLUE?!! Wow. The home I was staying in had a banana tree in the back yard, macadamia nut trees across the street, and papayas right down the road. What a place.

One day I was at the house when a young boy came to the door to visit the family and I was introduced. After he left, the housekeeper (who was a wonderful dear friend to me while I was there) looked straight at me with a smile and said, "Now THERE's someone for YOU!" I thought maybe she had inhaled too many fumes because the boy obviously looked to be no more than 17 years old and I was 24 at the time.

Well, of course the "boy" was indeed my future knight in shining armor and he was NOT 17. He was in Hawaii taking some classes at University of the Nations (a YWAM base). He knew the family I worked for through his grandfather. Two months later on Thanksgiving day, he was invited to the house to share our meal. While we were cleaning up afterwards he asked me lots of questions and actually was interested in my answers. I was hooked.

It was a fairytale courtship. We fell in love sitting on the sea wall listening to the waves crashing. He proposed to me while kneeling in the pacific ocean at sunset. On August 31st of the next year Sam turned 22. He had his birthday cake at our rehearsal dinner and we were married the next night.

There was a poem that was said by the minister at our wedding that has been the guiding light of our choices over the years........

What is it that Satan fears the most?
Besides the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.....
It's not the fiery preacher
Nor the man who far has trod
But a close and loving family
United by God.

I'm sure that even though you can read the poem, you can't see the smiling eyes or hear the Norwegian lilt of the man who married us that night. It was that voice from a few summers before when I was a lonely college girl in Colorado. It seems that the kind, distinguished man with the soothing voice was now to become family......as he is the grandfather of my knight in shining armor. Grandpa Morken was a mighty man of God who has gone on to see his Jesus but will live on forever in our memories and the stories we tell to our children.

Today we will celebrate the birth of my knight and tomorrow we will celebrate 16 years of happiness together. My desire is that each person that reads these words will know the kind of love that I have known these past 16 years.

Everything is quiet now. I hear only the buzz of the computer, the fridge running, and a small crackle from the woodstove. I savor these peaceful moments yet until approximately 9:00am when the clock will signal the beginning of "SCREEN DAY".

Sometime during last school year I began noticing that it was too hard for my oldest to work on homework while the younger two who didn't have any were free to watch a video, or play on the computer and x-box. Remember, we are in one big open space so I'm sure this was a mixture of not wanting to do the homework as well as the distraction due to the noise. Since this was a daily battle I finally lowered the ax and announced that there would not be any more use of the "screens" during the school week period. Homework or not. Henceforth Friday and Saturday were the only two days screens were allowed.

What a relief this was. There were no more siblings racing down the path to see who could get home FIRST, so they could ask FIRST to use the computer. I got to stop having to figure out who went first on what screen when and how to be "fair" about who went next. Children began playing outside in the afternoons. It allowed for a quieter place for homework.

When summer was approaching I wondered how it was going to work out to stick to screen days. We have made it. Fridays and Saturdays only. The only problem that really came out of this was the misunderstanding that "screen day" meant that absolutely NOTHING else needed to be done and that 100% of the day was dedicated to being buzz heads. No need to get dressed or really even eat anything unless it could be had in front of the screens. Heaven forbid a chore having to be done. We have been working on clearing up that issue with the understanding that all screen day means is that it is at least AVAILABLE as an option. Like I said, we're working on that!

So, since today is Friday, I will sneak in a moment here and there between others to read up on what's happening with all of you. The rest of the time I will be here attending to whatever tasks I do reminding myself that we have made progress. I will remember the fishes that Caleb caught this week and the entire book that Charis read yesterday. I will remember how Mara spent time loving and cuddling the neighbors tiny newborn kittens. I will remember the quiet of Monday through Thursday.

And I will survive. Uh oh, it's 9:00.........

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may remember a while back when I posted a story about my son called "Can I shoot it mom?!" Yesterday offered me a chance to tell a another great Caleb story.

Here are a couple of pictures of the creek that runs through our property.

Caleb has been claiming to see some fish in the creek that he wanted to try and catch. Since fishing isn't high on our list of priorities right now all the fishing equipment is in storage. This morning Caleb set out to see what he could do about finding his own way to catch a fish. Here is what he tried.

First of all he had to get permission to go to the creek by himself since neither of his sisters were interested and the dog seemed to be afraid to go. We had a neighbor tell us that a mountain lion had been seen nearby a while back so had been only letting the kids venture away from the house if they were together. (You know, so that the others could report back should said lion eat one of them for lunch). Anyway, having played it safe for quite a while I told him that if he promised to keep his ears listening for unfamiliar sounds, run if he heard them, and not stay gone too long, he could go. So off he went.

The first attempt at fishing involved his BB gun. Yes, he was trying to spy the little fishes out and shoot them for dinner. This seemed to prove unsuccessful because he came back to the house, enlisted the help of a sister, and set off again. This time the method was to strap a knife to the end of a stick. I believe the plan was for Caleb to scare the fish into action and then Mara was to jump into the water and spear it. Not too long afterwards they came back unsuccessful yet again and Mara had to clean up the cut she managed to get on her leg. As the cut was minor I decided not to ask any questions! By this time we were getting ready to have lunch and then head into town to go to the library, pick up our mail, and stop at the grocery store. A girl can be out of cream for coffee only so long (I really think we need a cow but I must not get sidetracked from my story).

We enjoyed our trip to town, got a bunch of reading materials, and came back home. Caleb spent quite a while outside reading in the hammock but he just couldn't forget about those fish. Pretty soon he was asking me if he could cut up one of his shirts to make a net to catch them in. Since I didn't appear overly enthusiastic about that he decided he would just take the butterfly net. Off he went again.

Minutes later I hear loud shouting from a distance and as he came nearer I could make out the words "I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" Of course the girls and I all came running to see the prize. I admit it wasn't quite as big as I had imagined it would be but he did get it. So we found a container to put water in and he let it go to swim. I got to hear the victory story of how he put his net in the water and captured it. We tried to identify it from a Montana wildlife booklet we have and think it is a small brook trout but aren't sure. Of course NOW the girls were excited so the three of them headed back to the creek to gather bugs or worms or something for this fish to eat. No way was this little thing going to be dinner but he was fun to watch. I'd say about 7 inches long or so. Anyway, to keep this from getting WAY too long.......they came back with another fish, put it in the container, went back again and got a third fish which was the biggest of all, and had the best time "decorating" the tub they were in with rocks and gems and things. I'm sure the girls were the ones inspired to decorate.

As soon as Sam came home he had to check out the great excitement of the day. On my way back inside I heard Caleb say, "I persevered and I got it!" Wow. What more could a mother ask for than a boy who has had the time of his life and learned a great lesson all at the same time?