Dearly beloved, we are gathered together to have...a Wedding!

Our large family gathered in south Texas the first week of August (107 degrees F!) for the wedding of our daughter - K5. On the day before the wedding, the families of the bride and groom (more about him later) held a fish fry lunch at the home of Danny's Grand Parents, who are mutual friends of both families, and super gracious hosts!

There were food choices for any tastes - Danny's selection of great fried fish on the left, or K3's supposedly healthier plate of grass and lettuce.

Danny's Grandpa is an avid hunter and outdoors man, as well as being a taxidermist.

K2 is wearing an arctic fox hat - super warm - while holding Wiley.

That evening we decorated for tomorrow night's reception. Take one big empty gym, and add...

....nice decorations, table & chair coverings, all done by the Bride, her Mom, the Groom's Mom, brothers and sisters, and their kids.

Finally! A picture of the Bride, K5, on the right, and her sister, K4, and Mom,  creating table center pieces. In the background is the sound man, Danny, who used his iPhone to provide music. 

And to eat? More healthy choices. Lots of them. As you can see, my wife has had a big influence on our daughters. Yea for the healthy team.

But, all is not lost! I must have had some positive influence on our children growing up, at least in the chocolate and dessert area, because K1 baked a million tiny cup cakes for those of us who needed real food.

K1, on the left, was in charge of the kitchen, ably assisted by sister, K4. Mom popped in occasionally when not busy decorating tables.

Friday, 7 August, the Big Day. We gathered at the Houston Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. All the little ones were parked in the waiting room to be watched by teenagers, while all the adults headed for the Sealing Room.

An hour later, here they are - Mr and Mrs! Jeremiah is an awesome young man of great character and integrity who grew up in the Church in south Texas and served his 2-year Mission in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They are a perfect couple - kind of remind me of Miss Jane Bennet and Mr Bingley from Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice". 

Our beautiful daughters. K3 on far left is due with her 3rd child at Thanksgiving; and K4, next, just had her 6th child last week (her 3rd daughter, Heidi); the lovely Bride, K5, who graduated from Nursing School earlier this summer; and our oldest, K1 who travelled the farthest to be with us for this wonderfully special occassion.

K5 with her four brothers. K6 had to work late last night and had just flown into Houston from Denver and arrived minutes before the photo shoot. K8, the Bride, and K7. K2 was one of the few of us "old school" guys to keep his suit coat on during the 100 degree shoot.

Families are forever, so we have to keep working harder at being more like Christ every day.Thank goodness for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His Plan of Happiness. 

And as Latter Day Saints, we believe in Temple Marriages which last for eternity, and not just "until death do us part". We will be together forever as family in Heaven. If you want to learn more, just contact the LDS Church or Missionaries in your town, or contact me. Or, if you happen to be in Ghana, west Africa, during the next two years, get a hold of K7, the good looking guy second from the right, kneeling on the front row wearing a bow tie and vest - he'll be teaching the Gospel there until October 2017.

July & August Update

Early July, we celebrated K7's 18th birthday with a trip to one of the 3 Mexican restaurants in our little town. He is on Mom's left. Nothing fancy, but a tasty meal and fun evening. Brought along one of his good friends, Taylor. (in yellow) Soon after, both K7 and Taylor received their Calls to serve as Missionaries for The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints - K7 leaves late Oct and flies to Ghana in West Africa! It will be a while (24 months) before he eats Mexican, Italian, American, etc food...Taylor is headed to the Dominican Republic, speaking Spanish.

Turned these girls into a new paddock with lots of fresh grass - happy, happy ewes.

This is what the view has been out our windows since March, all the way through August - Rain! But I shouldn't complain because it's not a typical hot August - the temperatures have been in the 70's during day, and down to 50 at night! Wow, I'm loving it, especially after driving to south Texas for K5's wedding in 107 degree heat (more about wedding in next post).

No shortage of water or green vegetation this year.

My neighbor had to wait for the water to recede before he could cross our bridge.

After 5 years, we sold our registered bull, Red. He usually loads up in the trailer quickly when offered a bucket of sweet grain, but....

....took a little longer this time because there were a few cows in heat on the other side of fence, which kept distracting him. He was reluctant to leave his harem, but there is a new group of girl friends awaiting him in Kansas. We'll be buying a polled, red bull this winter or spring. Keeping our horned girls, but want to add the polled gene to our herd.

We have a small, but beautiful National Cemetery an hour away. It was started during the Civil War due to the many battles and skirmishes fought in southern Missouri. 

There are many head stones that say, "Unknown Soldier", both U.S. and Confederate,

And a few Indian Scouts as well.

K8 turned 16 last Tuesday, and after five fun years of being a Boy Scout and all the many hikes, camp-outs, merit badges, and service projects, he finally finished all requirements for (and filling out the tedious detailed paperwork) the Eagle rank. Congratulations K8! Stay tuned for announcement of his Court of Honor date which is still to be determined. He is the 12th Scout in our Troop to earn this rank in the past 5 years, but only the 2nd to get it so young - K7 got his at 15 1/2. The other 10 Eagles got it the week they turned 18. Quite an accomplishment for K8!

Time lapsed photography...

Not "true" time lapsed... Just my version of it using "real old" pics (guess K6's age in this one), followed by "old" pictures, followed by "sort of old" shots, followed by more "recent" imagines. This was what the NE corner of our yard looked like when we built our house back in August 2010 - thick jungle and... 

...dense brush. Dare I say impenetrable?

Our first two young rams didn't even dare venture into it for fear of the Bogey Man.

We did put the boy's trampoline next to it for a short while, but it was too dangerous (unlike K8 riding on the back of Mom's car, which was OK!).

We waited for winter time to kill off the little under growth, then got serious with chainsaws and machetes, after which, we were down to muscle power. Our full-time Missionaries volunteered, which was greatly appreciated. 

Lots of man hours. Lots of burn piles over many days, weeks, months, and years.

K2 did the high risk jobs (remember, this was long before K8 started climbing trees with a chainsaw). Notice the "big" rocks? There were lots of them.

Fast forward four years. The boys and I took out several small trees, and they had to weed-eat frequently to control the weeds which were home to snakes and ticks. Finally got serious again about finishing "The Park" area, and called a friend in with his backhoe to get rid of all the boulders. 

He taught K8 how to drive his backhoe and the dump truck - way Cool skills! They re-cycled the rocks by using them to re-enforce our eroding stream bank.

Then truckloads of top soil.

My great neighbor came down the hill with his skid loader to spread the dirt.

Ready for grass seed and water! Hopefully, it will look nicer and be easier to mow, especially for me as our boys grow up and leave home.

Spring to Summer update 2015

K8 puts medicine on cattle to de-worm them during the Spring.

K6 is working in a big city making money and gaining experience. He has been offered a pretty cool job opportunity in the TV, video, editing world later this summer...stay tuned.

Summer time means K8 mows our giant yard weekly. He drives a little too fast sometimes without looking at the ground. Result? Look at the yellow mowing deck under his feet - notice the front portion is touching the ground? He hit a rock or stump and broke off the linkage that holds the deck to bottom of engine. He finally noticed it a few minutes after I took this photo. Had to special order the part from John Deere, because it is out of production and hard to find. Hope he doesn't do this again.

One of the bridges near our farm collapsed and had to be replaced. We had to take a detour for over three weeks, but finally fixed and re-opened.

A gorgeous evening. We have had lots of rain throughout the Spring and Summer.  At least the pond is finally full to the top.

K8 and I came home one afternoon and I noticed this small cow, Wendy, was still trying to give birth after three hours of effort - something really wrong, it should have taken less than half an hour. 

We called in the professional midwife because none of the Vets were available.

Everyone of us tried pulling the calf out, but could not get her out. It was a girl, and she was still alive at this point.

But by the time we called our neighbors to bring a come-along to help us pull her out, she died. First time we have ever lost a calf on the farm in 5 years. Wendy is a tiny girl and Red's calf was just too big for her. Wendy laid in the pasture for a week resting before she stood up. The boys took her feed and water. Thankfully, she has recovered and now healthy. I'm waiting until end of July to put her in with our tiny black bull, Black Bart. Hopefully, the two will have lots of little healthy calves over the next many years.

Other critters die on the farm - especially if they come uninvited. Our big dog took care of this trespasser. 

K2 has been very busy in the barn the past few months. He built several shelves and organized this corner of barn for all our feed and garden items. He even put the big heavy feed barrels on wheels so they are easy to roll around. He also made a long board for K8; cut all the trim so we could finish the floor board trim in the basement rooms; and built a new laundry room shelf unit that holds 3 large laundry baskets.