Tuesday

It was COLD this morning, down to 40 degrees. I guess Fall is officially here. Chores as normal, breakfast, clean kitchen, then I worked on pictures for 2 hours. Got Schmiesings done and posted on Flickr. I have to redo Emily's. I don't know what I did wrong, must have had the setting wrong on the flash, but everyone of the ones I took inside did not turn out. Suzanne is bringing her over tomorrow to redo. Thank goodness Emily is a little doll and loves to get her picture taken. Lesson learned, check and recheck all the setting when I move from one place to the next. I had the flash dialed down, just needed a little fill, so I suppose when I moved in I forgot to check it.

I also ordered Julie's pictures from Mpix today. I hope it works.

Also spent some time picking up rotten apples from under the tree. Now I will check everday for windfalls and make applesauce or pies out of them.

Dave cut hay today. He says there isn't much in there, but 200 bales is 200 bales. Course those 200 bales will probably keep us from going to the cities this weekend. His back is out again. We had to dig around and find the strong muscle relaxers that he got the last time his back was out.

I cooked one of our homegrown chickens tonite. Yummy. I swear the breast on one of those birds is like a 3 lb roast. I just made the breasts and wings tonite and got a pan full of meat. I will boil the rest tomorrow and have chicken enchiladas with it.

Well, it is 10:30 already. I swear, these days just are flying by. Night

Tired Monday

The weekend caught up. I am dragging today. We finished filling silo. They pulled in about 10:30 and were finished filling by 12:30, that includes a half hour to fill up their tractors and chopper. I cooked them dinner. We had hamburgers with fresh buns, cheesy potatoes, tomatoes in oil and vinegar, and warm apple crisp. I also baked chocolate chip cookies in the morning, made an extra apple crisp to throw in the freezer, and a small batch of applesauce. I did get 4 pictures uploaded to istock last night. I have to get my portfolio built up. The rest of the day I go zero accomplished........

Sunday

 
 
 

Got chores done, boys up, feed, dressed and then called Ryan and Robyn to come over and let all the kids play together. We went for a walk in the grove and let the kids run till they couldn't any more. Dinner was a frozen pizza, then Carter and I played outside till Jack got up from his nap. We took oodles of pictures. Bex picked the boys up at 3:30. I think they were ready to go home again. I know Jack was. I took a little nap then headed to Schmeisings to do pictures. The outside ones turned out really cool, but I have to redo Em's. I must not have had the flast set right, they were all blurry. I probably had it set to rear sink. Darn, I thought I was getting good, guess I still have a lot to learn! Tired now, off to bed.

 
 
 

Silo Filling

A good day. We got up early (only 10 minutes, but hey, at 5:50, ten minutes is 10 minutes), did chores and got the big silo ready to go in the air. I ran back and forth from the barn to the house 4 times to check on Carter and Jack. Everything worked out perfect. Carter was up the 4th time, I just put his favorite show on (calliou) and told him I would be in the barn. He was good with that. Got our work done and he was still happily sitting on the couch watching his show. After breakfast Carter and I baked an apple cake. I peeled the apples the night before so it was fast and easy. Carter got to go with Dave hauling manure, that helped him with his tractor fix. After dinner we went out and watched the big corn chopper and 3 wagons pull up to fill our silos. Matt, John Deprez, Joe Zueg and Ryan were here. Ry took off work early to help, which was really a huge help to Dave. They worked on filling silo till rain caused them to stop. If it would have given us one more hour we would have been finished.

I made chili for supper with my tomatoes from the garden. Yummy!

Here is a picture of Jack enjoying his first sucker. Carter was having fun dancing for me while I took pictures, Ryan blowing the first load of silage up.

Friday

Another great day. Had to run to Marshall today to get the essentials. I talked to my Mom all the way over and got caught up in her life. I love chatting on the cell phone when I drive. I know, I shouldn't, but that is the beauty of living in a rural area. I probably met 5 cars all the way to Marshall. I spent an hour in Shopko. Got a new sweater for Fall and a pair of cords to go with it. I love Shopko. Then on to HyVee for groceries. Holy Crap, food is getting expensive! I haven't paid that much for food since I had all the boys home. After I got over the shock of my food bill I set out for home. Made a light dinner and then helped Dave get silo up in the air. Silo filling should start tomorrow if all goes well.

I also canned 7 quarts and 4 pints of sauerkraut. I hope it turns out. I have a feeling I should have let it ferment longer.

Becky and the boys came about 5:30. She has to work at 3:00am, so she spends the night and then gets up and leaves at 2:30.

I am tired, has been a big day and the weekend will be even busier.

My picture is of my sunflowers. I cut them down the other day. Dave didn't want them to form seeds. He is afraid of wild sunflowers growing in the fields. These are the last of the blooms. I loved them so much, next year plan on growing even more.

Night

Rob, Rob, Rob, Cory, Cory, Cory

Since I decided to share this with my kids I have had nothing but grief from Rob and Cory. Apparently I don't mention them enough. I can't help it Ryan is my favorite (haha). I have no favorite, I love all my boys equally, yet differently. Oh yeah, Adam, Adam, Adam. Heck, who am I kidding, Adam probably didn't take the time to follow the link in the first place, and Ryan won't give me his email address, so how would he even get to read about himself???

Today was a great day! I canned tomatoes today. Ha, bet you think I'm crazy, why would canning tomatoes make it a great day? Well, you haven't seen the tomatoes. Just kidding. I got to go take pictures of Rob's ERU unit. I was a bit nervous, all those guys, cops on top of it. My high school mentality kicked in for a minute, the even though I have done nothing wrong I still feel guilty feeling. But was all good. I was in my element, getting to take pictures and being in a place that causes adrenaline rushes.

Jason came and shot pigeons for us. It is really getting to be a problem, we are starting to feel like we live in Central Park in New York, pigeons everywhere. About 5:30 I noticed Cookie was missing. Checked everywhere and couldn't find him. I hopped on the 4-wheeler, went over to Bernie's to see if he followed Nel's Gator. Nope. Got home and the phone rang, here he ran over to Robert's. I think the gun shots must have scared him. He is not my favorite animal, but I still didn't want anything to happen to him.

Tomorrow off to Marshall for groceries. Getting ready for silo filling.

Yesterday worked at a funeral at church. Here are a few pictures from today.