Early November update

After 4 years of wash-outs in the gravel, I am finally fixing the driveway that goes down and around to the back of the house. 

Our friend Brian brought the right tool - his backhoe - and his 20 years of experience to correct this nagging problem. 

He asked me to get the gravel soaking wet while he went for a few loads of road chat. It looked great after he finished, but the real test will come in the Spring when the heavy rains come. Brian said not to worry, he'll come back and make any corrections to the flow.

K8, standing in the front rank, just to the right of the black line, earned a rank promotion.

His Marine JROTC unit holds a company formation once a month - before school starts! 

I had to get up early to attend, and take these pics, but it was worth it.

How do you clean up spills in your kitchen? I have different size dogs to handle any situation, even small ones for the rare milk spill on counter tops.

I spent the 11th, Veteran's Day, moving hay from my neighbor's farm over to our place.  It was pretty cold driving fast into the wind, and I had to add a thicker coat after the first bale.

Only got 12 bales this time. Should last us through New Year's.

A budding young tree surgeon

Early morning, Saturday, 1 November, was beautiful, but chilly. I scheduled some firewood cutting in the southwest corner of the farm - an area I hired cleared with a bull dozer 1 1/2 years ago. We had two large oaks laying on the ground that needed cutting and splitting, plus this giant oak branch that has caused me a few a headaches while bush hogging beneath it. I sent I personal tree surgeon, K8, up to drop it.

K8 has the right combination of liking a tough challenge (I don't want to say totally fearless) and using enough caution (he's definitely not wreck less) to be successful. Could he have used a safety line, and tied one end around his waist and the other around the tree behind him? Yes, and I suggested it to him, but I occasionally trust his judgement. As he gets older, I will have to trust him more and more.

The tree surgeon's tool - a good chainsaw with a sharp and properly adjusted chain.

In the background, you can see our truck, which K6 had just brought up.

K8 successfully accomplished this mission - he dropped the branch safely on the ground where he planned to do it, and did not injure himself, his equipment or anyone or thing. We got a decent amount of firewood from this big oak limb. In the future, I can safely drive the tractor and bush hog this area without having to either avoid it or duck under the big branch. 

With the help of a few good friends, we got quite a bit of firewood cut and stacked this day. Sure beats wasting our Saturday morning watching cartoons on TV.

Taking time to smell the sunsets...

Sunset on 6 September. Living in the country allows me more opportunities of looking at the sky, and fortunately, I always have my iphone with me. 

Moonrise over our pond, on the same evening. K8 also has an eye for beauty.

Sunset on 7 September, from our upper back deck.

Crossing the local rail tracks on 23 September. 

My camera can not do justice to the spectrum of beautiful colors I saw the evening of 14 October. Once the sun goes down, the crystal clear sky is full of bright stars, planets, satellites, and the occasional shooting star - but you have to be looking to catch a glimpse of those fast babies.

October photo catch-up

I did not take many photos in October, but I did get a few starting on the 1st day of the month when we had a visit from Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jess. It was a very short visit as Aunt Nancy has been struggling with Alzheimer's the past few years. She did not recognize any of us, and after 10 minutes, strongly insisted on going home. It is a terrible ailment.

It wouldn't be normal if we weren't building and burning brush piles somewhere on the farm.  This particular area used to be so dense with trees, brush and thorns that I could barely squeeze through the narrow path along the fence. Now look at it! I can drive the tractor or truck to the end, so I can easily check the water gap fencing across the west end of our stream. We also discovered old barbed wire fencing along this end of the stream, so we can now remove it this winter. 

I had to blow this photo up so you could better see the "twins". They were born on the farm in the spring, but lost their mother soon after birth. They stayed all year up on the hill. Hope they stay on the farm during the current hunting season and live a little longer. I told Danny he can't shoot these two.

Heidi gave us the last Dexter calf of the year - a beautiful little Dun colored girl born on 7 Oct.

This car made K7 very happy in mid-October. It is K2's new, used car, an older Honda civic. K2 has been driving our Toyota Echo the past 6 months, so K7 was without wheels during the summer and start of the school year. I am also very happy to see this new car, because I am no longer the duty Taxi driver every single day.

K2 lived in this small trailer next to the KC railroad yards the past 3 years. After graduating Law School and working in KC for a few months, he is finally moving out. I drove up to KC on 18 Oct to help him. It all fit in the bed of my truck. He sold the trailer to a neighbor.

I sold Little Darlin's calf on Thursday morning, 23 October, so the boys began milking that night, which was rough since they had a performance of "Willie Wonka" earlier in the evening. Milking started at 10:30 P.M. The milk machine was broken, so they milked by hand. K2 timed them, and he said they did it much faster than using the machine. I guess we'll fix the milking machine and sell it! It is great having fresh, raw milk again - best tasting and healthy for you, nothing like it! We soon transitioned to milking at 10:30 A.M.

The boys have been watching old episodes of a TV show called "Merlin" on K6's Netflicks. It inspired them to get their wooden swords out one morning and beat on each other. 

K8 wears a uniform to school each Thursday for his Marine Corps Junior ROTC class.  He looks good. The weather has been gorgeous the entire month of October.

K8 showed me how my Canon camera can take panorama photos.

So K2 played with it one night. Pretty cool.

September events - finally catching up!

KT had some professional pics taken of her and new baby Tyler a few weeks after he was born in mid-August.

We had visitors in early September. K6 took his brother-in-law Ryan up on the hill to do a little shooting.

Night time activities included playing board games...

...and late night runs to Wal-Mart for snacks.

Sunday after Church was pretty laid back. Houseful of kids of all ages. You can't see him (because by law, I can't show his photo online), but I am holding our 6-day old foster baby boy.

Mom and K4 - after producing so many children (a total of 13 between them thus far) - were where they belong:
bare foot and in the kitchen, fixing a delicious meal for the men-folk!

K7 (in green tee on right) and K8 (the guy in blue/grey stripes hanging on left) had fun with the older Scouts from their Troop at an indoor rock climbing facility.

They were only there for 1 1/2 hours, but they came out laughing and holding sore arm muscles.

Jacob, K7 and K6 making music.

By the end of September, our pond was still shrinking from the heat and lack of rain.  It is 4 feet below  it's regular shoreline. Now that it is mid-November and winter has arrived, there's not much hope of filling it until the return of heavy rains in the spring.