My last post of many months ago mentioned the passing of my Father at age 91 1/2 in June 2020. Because of the COVID insanity, we were not able to bury his (and my Mother's, which we had been holding several years) ashes together until later in July at the Ft Sill National Cemetery in Oklahoma. It was 103 degrees. I was holding an umbrella over my daughter K3 and her baby Brody,. They are standing in front of my parent's resting place, which is just to the right of Staff Sergeant Rex Schad, their grandson, my nephew. 

My Mother used to sing this song to my sisters and I when we were very young. She then sang it to our children many years later. I wish I had thought to record her singing it.

We came out of the woods and surprised a doe and her fawn. Momma hopped over the fence and the poor fawn got scared and took off running to the east. We turned right and headed west to give Momma a chance to retrieve her baby.

Speaking of babies, I have got to get me one of these some day.  I rent one a few times a year, so I should invest in one full time. I can get a lot of work done around the farm with this machine.

I was sad that these two trees in our front yard died during 2020. They had to be taken down. First the smaller oak...

...and then the big old ash.

This angle gives you an idea of how big around it was.

It took the kids more than a few days to get it split in their spare time after school and before ballet, music, and martial arts.

The bonfire crew after another successful burn. Three of my youngest and three grand kids.

K11 helping a good friend and his son mount this livestock waterer on a...

...concrete foundation, so the cows wouldn't knock it over.

We have so many gorgeous sunsets here in the Missouri Ozarks.

K5 took some of her younger siblings and nieces into town to do a service project for K3.

We visited Sheryl's Uncle Jess and his wife Gloria.

K9 in front of a restored locomotive engine.

The boys loved the model train display.

We also visited my cousin Mike and his wife Sandy, their daughter April and her children.

 Mike Dad's Carl was my Father's younger brother. Carl passed away four days before my Dad. Uncle Carl's funeral was in a very rural area of a different State, so the family was able to gather without COVID restrictions. It was sad to bury our Fathers, but great to reconnect after many years.

April is on the left. 

We travelled to Kentucky to purchase a new ram. His name is Mountain Man and he is the giant standing inside the sheep carrier among all the midgets. What a great looking ram he is! Bought him from Joyce and Gary who have become good friends. Headed back to their farm later this summer to buy 3 registered ewes lambs.

Speaking of registered ewe lambs, K11 and I drove to Kansas in October 2020 to pick up these three young registered girls. My St Croix sheep flock is pure bred, but mostly a commercial flock for the meat market. I do like to keep several registered individuals for the breeding market.

Returned home and set the hills and woods on fire!

Looks worse than it really is.

Burning off the leaves and under brush is healthy for our woods, beats down the scraggly stuff and eliminates shelter for three critters we don't like: copperhead snakes, ticks and chiggers.

Take a close look at the "V" where the two main branches separate at the top. You can see a fairly large crack coming down the "V", and you can even see daylight thru the crack. Not safe, especially since...

...this gigantic oak tree sat at the entrance to the driveway leading to my daughter K4's home. I was very worried about the tree falling in a storm and blocking the driveway and county road, or worse yet - crushing a car! 

Massive trunk. Took 3 hours to top it and fell it. We got the road cleared fairly quick, but...

...it took a long time to get it all cut up, split into firewood and branches burned.

 I needed help from many people. Two boys home from college and other sons...

...younger children and grand children... 

...and finally got it all split and gone. K6 had to come and help K10 and K11 with the last few large chunks. Most of the wood is in racks behind K4's house where it will be seasoned and ready for feeding their furnace next winter.

K8 came by and helped cut down more dead trees.

Some of the giant oak tree helped out a few other families besides K4's.

Somewhere in the Fall we celebrated Halloween. K9 is wearing a wolf's ears and tail. 

And then our Nation held a Presidential election, which went way off the rails when certain States changed their voting rules at the last minute, and things got real insane with the vote counting...yes, it was enough to make some folks become crazy conspiracy theorists.

After a few years of pondering, planning and saving money, we decided to expand our living room and dining room out onto our back deck in the Fall of 2020. I asked our son K6, on the left, to come and assist on the day our excellent contractor was installing the BIG windows. Three windows, each 7 feet long by 5 feet tall.

We wanted plenty of sunlight, and an unobstructed view of our lower paddocks, stream and hillside.

Yeah, great views. And we still have covered outdoor decks on both sides of the extension.

We now have 216 more square feet of space for our large family gatherings every week - 27 feet long by 8 feet wide. And yes, plenty of sunlight!

K8 teaching K11 how to shoot, safely handle and clean airsoft guns. 
This is only half of the photos I have to post, so stay tuned for another update soon.

 

The Summer of Quarantine 2020

We have been needing to re-seal our asphalt driveway for over a year, so we finally did it in June after all the Spring rains ended. 

We were fortunate that neither our State, County or Town issued a mandatory face mask requirement. 

We locked up the dogs and chickens, and parked all our vehicles along the road outside our fence...

...where they stayed for 48 hours while the sealant dried. 

Looks pretty good. 

At the request of a few of our adult kids we switched our weekly family feast from Sunday evening to Saturday's. This particular gathering was held up on the hill at K4's home.

Our herd bull Apollo.

Three of our kids performed in the musical,"Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Coat" at the civic center in a town 45 miles away. There is a cool aquarium shop right across the street from it, so we stopped in for a visit.

K9 was impressed by this python.

We have sold 12 head of cattle since the first of the year, which has cut our herd size almost in half, and should require a lot less hay to be fed this winter.

K9 has discovered marbles!

One of the biggest adjustments during the Chinese virus's impact on America has been Church attendance, as in, no attendance. Our Church halted all meetings and activities the third week in March. We have been holding Church as a family in our living room each Sunday morning. Our daughters and sons in laws hold their own meetings in their own homes, so it is very nice to still gather for a family feast once a week.

We occasionally visit the Big City an hour away. All of the restaurants closed their dining rooms and survived the best they could with drive thru and curb side pick up. Our favorite place is Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

Most camps, farm shows and festivals were cancelled, but we had a few brave souls attend this summer Musical Theater day camp for one week where our kids learned many aspects of putting on a show. This was the Friday afternoon graduation performance.

In August, my daughter K3 and I each put three of our children in swimming lessons at a community center south of the Big City. We would drive an hour each way on four consecutive Saturdays. It was well worth the effort.

My Dad passed away in mid-June four days after his younger brother Carl passed away. Carl was 90 years old and my Dad was 91 1/2 years old. Both were retired career military veterans. Both families received this certificate. I appreciate that President Trump personally signed each one. Due to the Chinese virus, we had to wait until July to intern his ashes at the Fort Sill National Cemetery. Over all the weather has been mild this summer, but on this particular day the temperature hit 103!

We sold several ram lambs in July.

K11 and I loaded up the truck and took them to market. There were several hundred goats and sheep at the sale barn, and they sold at a good price.

Our flock is down to 30 ewes which we will be breeding soon.

Had a rain storm pass through on a sunny day which made for some cool pics and a nice rainbow (on the opposite side of the house).

Meet Sheriff Elect Sonny Byerley. There was a hard fought 3-way race in the August Primary to replace the retiring incumbent Sheriff. This pic was taken later that night at his Watch Party right after we all found out he won! Great man who will do a great job. There is no Democrat candidate on the November ballot, so Sonny is our new County Sheriff beginning January 1st.