Can't blog tonight because we're camping out

See, here's proof. This pic was taken without "flash", and...

...this one with "flash". Most of the boys were still straggling back to the fire after playing Capture the Flag, which ended at 10:30 P.M. K7 gave a short talk on friends, then we sang three songs after which the strawberry cobbler was ready to eat - Yummy! Full moon tonight, but clouds moving in to obscure it. Hope it doesn't rain.

New look across the stream

The first thing you notice is that the stream is full of water after our summer drought and last night's down pour of heavy rain.

Then you look up the road and see how beautifully clear it is under the trees. We kept the majority of the trees, which are mostly White Oaks.

Remember this July 2011 shot of our inherited "family" dump up on our hill side? Pretty ugly, and this photo was taken after we had a bull dozer "clean it up" by pushing the wide spread mess into a pile.

Then we burned it a few times, and pulled lots of metal out of it...

...but still had an ugly pile with assorted trash.

Check it out NOW! All gone and replaced with a very small pond. I love it. Yes, I wish the pond was a lot bigger, but I didn't want to pay a bigger bill. Maybe someday in the future. For now, I am very happy. Speaking of happy, K7 is loading up an ammo magazine for an AK-47 that a friend loaned us. A truck, a chain saw, and a gun - three big tools a guy needs in the woods.

Doesn't he look happy? I think he is adding an AK 47 to his wish list that he's mailing to Santa. Last night's rain gave us a start with a few inches of water. Where did all the nasty trash go? The metal is off to the side so we can haul it to the metal recycling center, and everything else is buried under the back of dam. Sweet! 

Dozing on the hill

This is a view from our southern most boundary line up on the hill behind our house and paddocks, taken Monday afternoon. I am looking downhill toward the stream and our farm - its pretty steep! The county dirt road is just to the right and below the bull dozer. Pretty rugged terrain. As you can see, we have finally begun our long awaited project of clearing out brush, big rocks (boulders!), many small trees, and old dead trees, so we gave build a fence around these 20 acres. Then we put meat goats and cattle in there to eat grass and brush, grow fat, and make money.

While I walked with Paul, our great dozer driver, discussing options, the boys entertained themselves by running around throwing walnuts at each other.

They got some exercise.

Had fun bonding together.

Practiced their throwing skills.

Enjoyed being out in nature and the great outdoors.

Did I mention the brotherly bonding already?

They had a lot of fun running and playing. There are still a lot of rocks and branches laying on the ground, not to mention other things. Paul wasn't finished dozing. That was on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday at noon, we went back. All the rocks and branches were gone, but some of the other things were still there, like...

...this. Can you see the copperhead snake? Glad no one stepped on this guy Monday while running around - might not have had as much fun. Even though keen-eyed K8 spotted it, we let K7 have the first shot with a .45, which he promptly used to blow it's head off. K8 put a 20 gauge shotgun shell into it to make sure it stopped moving.

Fairly big copperhead.

A few minutes later, keen-eyed K8 spotted a second copperhead snake several feet away. Like K7, he also hit it with his first shot with a .45 pistol. I finished it off with two bullets, one through neck and one to the head. Guns are handy tools to own and know how to safely operate. There was also a big black snake passing nearby, but we don't shoot friendly snakes, i.e. non-poisonous snakes. In another month when the fence installing crew arrives, it will be too cold for these critters. 

A day in the pasture

Every day begins with me standing at the window, or on the back porch, looking over our little pastoral domain, and thinking about what chores need to be done.

This particular morning (Tuesday), K7 and I had to go pop the top off the 2-hole water bubbler between paddocks #1 and #2, and tinker with it, because it was constantly over flowing. Not good, since it means I'm paying more in my electric bill to pay for my well pump which is constantly running. Temporarily fixed it, but because it is so old, I bought a new float assembly later in the day, so we'll replace it next time it goes haywire. 

Then we spread more winter rye grass seed on the paddocks.

While spreading seed, we would occasionally stop and pick-up rocks laying on the ground. As you can see, there are lots of rocks. I have this dream of having perfect pastures - that should keep me and the boys busy until I die in 32 more years. 

As if throwing grass seed and picking rocks wasn't enough, the boys like to spend their spare time picking up walnuts. Mainly because they can sell every truckload for about $70. These boys are true American capitalists and very motivated to make money.

Many hands make light work

K7 had a daunting task in the backyard. The monster log pieces he needed to split were way too big for mere mortals to handle, so he recruited some good friends - who also happened to be strong and used to hard work.

Did I say monster size? Each "piece" was so wide that it took a while to get it small enough for stacking on the firewood rack. 

No, he is not carving it into animal face. He is cutting it down so it will fit on the log splitter. 

Animal pics

I am still not convinced our newest heifer is "black". Seems to have a redish tint.

But she is cute, as is her half-brother, "T-bone".

A nice pastoral day, last Saturday afternoon. K7 and I were feeding them grass cube treats because they have pretty much eaten all the grass. Time to move them to a new paddock.

T-bone is licking the ear of one of our ewes.

Our big ram, Mutt.

The flock currently totals 12 sheep with most of the ewes pregnant, so expect our numbers to double after Christmas.

A few extra Nauvoo pics

After watching a great movie about the history of Nauvoo in the Visitor's Center, we had to map out what we wanted to see and do during our short visit.

Nauvoo is such a peaceful, sleepy little town, even the squirrels take naps - this guy right in the road!

Not sure how we all ended up wearing black shirts, but it worked out okay.

We took an hour long, horse-drawn wagon ride filled with lots of interesting and spiritual stories of the early Saints in Nauvoo. This is "Inspiration Point", over-looking the Mississippi River.

Earning money the old-fashioned way!

I received a call from a friend wanting to know if I had any Boy Scouts needing to earn summer camp money. Always! He needed a large tree cut down and hauled away because it developed a large crack and was in danger of falling. So I rounded up a few boys last Saturday morning, including K7 and K8.

I took pictures and did the heavy work.

Filled the back of this one-ton truck with the cut-up tree trunk. 

You can see by the large round stump that it was a big tree, but the boys used teamwork and brains to conquer the job.

Got all the trunk and branches into two trucks and headed for the city dump.

Two boys unloaded my truck while...

...K7 and a few others unloaded the bigger truck. A lot easier coming out than going in.

Raked up the little stuff, and...

...it looked pretty good when we were finished after 2 1/2 hours. The boys each earned a good chunk of money toward next year's camp.

Last stop was to our burn pile to shovel out the sawdust and little bits.

Random shots from last week

Wiley playing in his cool little "spaceship" (while his Mom fixes supper for the rest of us).

Boys loaded up a young ram we sold last week. K8 and I delivered it.

K8 traveling by ox cart at Nauvoo two Fridays ago.