Well, I had thought to post some newer pictures of the farm, but I don't particularly care to walk around with a camera. So, instead of a nice post with pictures, I have to do a short, boring :) post.
Claire and Kyle are working on fitting school in the rather hectic schedule we have now. I'm trying to do what's expected of me, and finish Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. For the record, I still don't like it, but I've got to finish it. Mama calls that quality in me "obsessive-compulsive" adding that "that isn't always bad." I'm quite sick of novels at the moment though. I long to read a good history book about something I don't know a lot about (pretty much any part of history except Columbus and Colonial America). Any suggestions? Mama's either got a poetry course for me to take or she's working on it, but that seems almost as bad as a novel right now (probably because it's an assignment).
Anyway, the farm somehow continues to operate, most likely by Kyle and Daddy's most-capable hands. Grammy and Granddaddy worked in the garden with Luke this morning. Clarabelle's not doing as well in the stanchion as she was before. She's figured out how to get her hoof into the milking bucket, so, because of that, we haven't been getting as much milk lately. Chuck is getting bigger and darker. We're still expecting four Angus calves (I think it's four). The bits of rain we've occasionally been getting has done the pastures a world of good. I think we're getting four eggs a day now, but they're still tiny.
Well, I need to go wash the milking stuff now.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Pig Slaughtering: Start to Finish
Okay, here it is. The pictures aren't very good, but I think they are good enough. I'm not going to comment on them much though; I usually wasn't actually in the process.
I don't what we'd do without the mule!
Luke got in there and helped a bit. You can just barely see him in this picture.
Again, the mule! This was way better than using the tractor. However, this made it necessary for them to skin and gut right behind the driveway!
Once Daddy and Kyle had skinned the underside of the pig, they pulled him up and skinned his backside.
Then they cut him open...
and dumped out the insides.
The pulley system.
Product #1. Quite good. Mild, though.
I don't what we'd do without the mule!
Luke got in there and helped a bit. You can just barely see him in this picture.
Again, the mule! This was way better than using the tractor. However, this made it necessary for them to skin and gut right behind the driveway!
Once Daddy and Kyle had skinned the underside of the pig, they pulled him up and skinned his backside.
Then they cut him open...
and dumped out the insides.
The pulley system.
Product #1. Quite good. Mild, though.Monday, September 17, 2007
Pig Slaughtering
Well, I will post about it soon, but we haven't downloaded the pictures yet, and I'd rather do it all in one post. Kyle and Daddy are butchering it this evening, and Mama and Claire are cutting up bits of meat and fat to freeze for sausage. I am trying to keep Luke occupied! :) So far, that's not been too difficult; he's watching Tom and Jerry right now.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
YouTube Fun
Josh Turner is awesome!!!
I love this song! The harmonies are great!
Another group with outstanding harmonies. For some reason, I remember listening to this song for years! We've always had great fun with it as a family.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Yesterday
What a day we had yesterday!!! We took a couple of little steers from our neighbor to the Carpenters, but along the way we had quite the adventure!
Everything went wrong from the beginning (thankfully not all the way to the end!). Daddy didn't hardly sleep the night before, so he went into work around 3:00 am! Then, when he came home to get some sleep before we had to go to the Franklin/Leiper's Fork area, the phone rang more times! I think we got more calls that morning than we have all day today! After lunch Daddy, Kyle, Luke, and I went to load the steers into our neighbor's trailer. That was much harder and way longer than Daddy was expecting, but we did get them loaded! Once we went back to the house to pick up Mama and Claire we were off! Well, after a few more bathroom breaks.
We made it, without any stops, all the way onto the interstate. Luke was finally asleep, Mama and Daddy were conversing, Claire was working on math, and Kyle was reading. Suddenly a truck pulled up along side us and motioned for us to get over (he was quite panicked). He pulled over to tell us what happened. One of those little steers had leaped out of the trailer!!! We quickly scanned the area for something to block the other steer from getting out. We didn't find anything, so we had to use some straps that happened to be in the back of the suburban. Someone else also pulled over to tell us that he had "seen it all, and the cow was back at that T-Rex place."
Once we got the straps on as well as we could quickly we turned around. We made our first stop at the co-op, which happened to be at that exit. We switched trailers to one of the co-op's that happened to have a flat tire, so we switched to a different one. We left the remaining steer in the other trailer, and went to the T-Rex place.
When we got to that place we pulled out the camera a got a few shots of the community coming together in an emergency. A policeman and a constable were already there kind of guarding the little fella. The man who originally pulled us over came along and helped us; I don't think they could have done it without him. Anyway, after a while of chasing that steer through the field across the road, that man decided they needed a 4-wheeler! The constable took him to his house, and he brought the tool that quickly finished the job. That man was great!
There were no more problems for the rest of the way to the Carpenters! They were all very excited to get the little guys, although Kyle, Cole, and Logan had to lower a pile of dirt so the steers didn't jump over the fence! Mrs. Carpenter and Peyton fixed an excellent dinner, and we got a tour of their house. They have a lovely place! I believe we left around 9:00 pm.
Here are some pictures of our day:
Then there was today's experience. I don't particularly feel like going over it at the moment, but Mama posted about it fairly accurately and eloquently. Just ignore the "boring" part of it; I haven't said that in quite a while!
Everything went wrong from the beginning (thankfully not all the way to the end!). Daddy didn't hardly sleep the night before, so he went into work around 3:00 am! Then, when he came home to get some sleep before we had to go to the Franklin/Leiper's Fork area, the phone rang more times! I think we got more calls that morning than we have all day today! After lunch Daddy, Kyle, Luke, and I went to load the steers into our neighbor's trailer. That was much harder and way longer than Daddy was expecting, but we did get them loaded! Once we went back to the house to pick up Mama and Claire we were off! Well, after a few more bathroom breaks.
We made it, without any stops, all the way onto the interstate. Luke was finally asleep, Mama and Daddy were conversing, Claire was working on math, and Kyle was reading. Suddenly a truck pulled up along side us and motioned for us to get over (he was quite panicked). He pulled over to tell us what happened. One of those little steers had leaped out of the trailer!!! We quickly scanned the area for something to block the other steer from getting out. We didn't find anything, so we had to use some straps that happened to be in the back of the suburban. Someone else also pulled over to tell us that he had "seen it all, and the cow was back at that T-Rex place."
Once we got the straps on as well as we could quickly we turned around. We made our first stop at the co-op, which happened to be at that exit. We switched trailers to one of the co-op's that happened to have a flat tire, so we switched to a different one. We left the remaining steer in the other trailer, and went to the T-Rex place.
When we got to that place we pulled out the camera a got a few shots of the community coming together in an emergency. A policeman and a constable were already there kind of guarding the little fella. The man who originally pulled us over came along and helped us; I don't think they could have done it without him. Anyway, after a while of chasing that steer through the field across the road, that man decided they needed a 4-wheeler! The constable took him to his house, and he brought the tool that quickly finished the job. That man was great!
There were no more problems for the rest of the way to the Carpenters! They were all very excited to get the little guys, although Kyle, Cole, and Logan had to lower a pile of dirt so the steers didn't jump over the fence! Mrs. Carpenter and Peyton fixed an excellent dinner, and we got a tour of their house. They have a lovely place! I believe we left around 9:00 pm.
Here are some pictures of our day:
Then there was today's experience. I don't particularly feel like going over it at the moment, but Mama posted about it fairly accurately and eloquently. Just ignore the "boring" part of it; I haven't said that in quite a while!
A WEEKEND TO REMEMBER by Claire B.
Saturday Afternoon, September 1st, 2007
Drove to Coble, hauling Daddy's handiwork - the Lovetts' new table.
Saturday Night, September 1st, 2007
Walked to our weekend home - okay, Mr. and Mrs. Stouffer, Sr. were in Florida and kindly let us stay in their house. Thank you, Stouffers! There we enjoyed a bit of Alton Brown and Iron Chef America. After we went to bed (quite late) Laura and I enjoyed the almost forgotten game of hogging covers. I hear I'm good at that.
Note by Laura: She definitely won!
Sunday Morning, September 2nd, 2007
Drove a mere 20 minutes to church. We enjoyed the service, as always. We were also very glad to see the Logan family walk in as well as, with them, a couple of men from the Williams family.
Sunday Afternoon, September 2nd, 2007
Enjoyed some fellowship with our extended community at their meeting place. We had a fun and interesting Psalm/Hymn Sing. I've decided not to sing tenor except at church - there we only have two other tenors.
Sunday Afternoon, Evening and Night, September 2nd, 2007
We went back to The Holler (or whatever we call the Stouffers' and Lovetts' place), this time with a couple of other families, and enjoyed more fellowship and more great food. The 4-wheelers came out too. Oh, yes, we also enjoyed the privilege of getting to help get a few goats back into their appointed area.
Monday Morning, September 3rd, 2007
Woke up late (Luke kept falling off the couch onto me during the night) and enjoyed a pleasant drive to Cane Creek with Mrs. Stouffer, just the two of us. What a great way to begin the day! Mrs. Stouffer is so nice to be with.
Monday Afternoon, September 3rd, 2007
Enjoyed an interesting ride to Centerville with Mrs. Lovett, Kaliste, Jonathan, Mama and Luke.
Monday Evening and Night, September 3rd, 2007
Logans, Keens, Boyds, and Carpenters all came out to The Holler. That made for a fun evening! We got to drive 4-wheelers (some of us for the first time); we played Bluegrass with a couple of Boyds and a couple of other friends every now and then; Daddy enjoyed conversation with Mr. Keen and Mr. Boyd while I believe Mama was talking to their wives. That made me remember the time, just over 2 years ago when we all laughed at Daddy for saying that he wouldn't be surprised if we ended up dining with families like these and those who are now our church family. And here we are!
So, late Monday night we returned to our home, covered in chert from head to toe.
Drove to Coble, hauling Daddy's handiwork - the Lovetts' new table.
Saturday Night, September 1st, 2007
Walked to our weekend home - okay, Mr. and Mrs. Stouffer, Sr. were in Florida and kindly let us stay in their house. Thank you, Stouffers! There we enjoyed a bit of Alton Brown and Iron Chef America. After we went to bed (quite late) Laura and I enjoyed the almost forgotten game of hogging covers. I hear I'm good at that.
Note by Laura: She definitely won!
Sunday Morning, September 2nd, 2007
Drove a mere 20 minutes to church. We enjoyed the service, as always. We were also very glad to see the Logan family walk in as well as, with them, a couple of men from the Williams family.
Sunday Afternoon, September 2nd, 2007
Enjoyed some fellowship with our extended community at their meeting place. We had a fun and interesting Psalm/Hymn Sing. I've decided not to sing tenor except at church - there we only have two other tenors.
Sunday Afternoon, Evening and Night, September 2nd, 2007
We went back to The Holler (or whatever we call the Stouffers' and Lovetts' place), this time with a couple of other families, and enjoyed more fellowship and more great food. The 4-wheelers came out too. Oh, yes, we also enjoyed the privilege of getting to help get a few goats back into their appointed area.
Monday Morning, September 3rd, 2007
Woke up late (Luke kept falling off the couch onto me during the night) and enjoyed a pleasant drive to Cane Creek with Mrs. Stouffer, just the two of us. What a great way to begin the day! Mrs. Stouffer is so nice to be with.
Monday Afternoon, September 3rd, 2007
Enjoyed an interesting ride to Centerville with Mrs. Lovett, Kaliste, Jonathan, Mama and Luke.
(Details only available through visits)
Picked up tables and chairs from church for that evening. Yes, we would need all of them.Monday Evening and Night, September 3rd, 2007
Logans, Keens, Boyds, and Carpenters all came out to The Holler. That made for a fun evening! We got to drive 4-wheelers (some of us for the first time); we played Bluegrass with a couple of Boyds and a couple of other friends every now and then; Daddy enjoyed conversation with Mr. Keen and Mr. Boyd while I believe Mama was talking to their wives. That made me remember the time, just over 2 years ago when we all laughed at Daddy for saying that he wouldn't be surprised if we ended up dining with families like these and those who are now our church family. And here we are!
So, late Monday night we returned to our home, covered in chert from head to toe.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Just a quick update
One hen started laying this weekend while we were gone. We've got a refrigerator full of milk, but letting Chuck stay on Clarabelle has been very nice. It enables us to go away for a couple of days without having to worry about milking her. Chuck is growing fast, but he's not the nicest calf. He's not mean yet; he's just stubborn and skiddish.
Claire said she'd write about this past weekend and post it here or on Mama and Daddy's blog. If she hasn't done it by the end of this week I'll try to post something about it.
Claire said she'd write about this past weekend and post it here or on Mama and Daddy's blog. If she hasn't done it by the end of this week I'll try to post something about it.
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