Last night

Last night was out traditional tree-decorating family night. Mama spent most of the day preparing the finger foods that was to be our dinner. We had thin strips of steak, rosemary cheese croquet things served with marinara sauce, sweet and spicy nuts, pitted dates filled with feta cheese and smoked almonds, calzone pinwheels, mini spinach and feta quiches, Cabot cheese and crackers, roasted garlic, apples and dulce de leche, fudge, peanut brittle, gingerbread lattes, and mulled apple cider!!! Abundance! Elvis, Amy Grant, and Twila Paris were singing Christmas songs. There was a fire in the fire place; the stockings were hung. To top it all off, we had Luke to keep us excited (if a little frustrated occasionally)! The setting was perfect. Luke hung nearly every ornament on the tree, and, for once, we managed to have a tree that doesn't necessarily look overloaded! The size and stability of the tree itself prevented many of the ornaments from being hung up. According to another tradition, and upon Luke's insistence, we four kids slept in the living room with the newly-decorated tree.

Here it is!!!

A very rough slide show of our weekend! I found Brad Paisley doing this song first, but Daddy put the original group doing it. I don't know if we could have found Brad Paisley's version anyway.

I don't think it's too bad for a first try. Sorry about the little bump in the music.

Guess What! Another post titled "Reformation Day/Weekend!"

Where to start?!!! That's always the problem!

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The setting: a few days before the big event.

The men and boys smoothing out last minute problems on the trebuchet.

Inserting a solid metal bar though the arm's axle (it was bending really bad without that).

One of the launches!

Raising the standard.

This is what we girls and ladies left every time the men launched the siege machine!

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Scene 2: The big day.

The gathering crowd.

The Heritage Quintet?

Traveling Germans.

You can just barely see our trolley set-up behind the tables.

The competition.

Changing frenzy. Plaid, plaid, everywhere plaid!

Kilted father and son.

Clan leader.

Everyone trying to find a spot on the trebuchet or in the truck bed for our grand entrance!

"For the Lord is our defense...."

My handsome bro. in his Scottish attire.

My other handsome brother in his Scottish garb.

Our men standing around preparing for the first launch.

Impromptu concert!

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All in all, the day went very well!

A New Face

Clarabelle calved!!! He's a little bull calf, and just as cute as can be. From the looks of her udder, we're going to have lots of milk! Clarabelle is a good mother, as far as I can tell. Her calf is clean and allowed to eat as much as he wants. She lets him stray quite a bit farther from her than our Angus cows let their little ones. Well, the Angus usually have a sort of sitter for their babies. One cow will stay close to the calves, and the others will graze farther off.

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Things

I don't know what to title this post. It's not going to be about anything in particular, so much as things that have been happening lately.

Saturday, we went to our cousins' birthday party. Kyle amused us all by picking out the tune to Psalm 25A on some mounted PVC pipes that you play with the sole of a flip-flop. It was hilarious!

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Dug some of our potatoes the other evening. Well, I didn't, but the others did.

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Sometime last week poor Teddy lost all his "only beauty", but, with that, none of his pride! He looks so funny strutting around with no tail! We, unfortunately, have no idea how this calamity happened, but right now it is the least of our worries!


The dark, wild-turkey-looking turkeys will probably have to be kil... umm, I mean processed soon. We'll probably put them in the freezer until this Thanksgiving.






I wish I had some pictures of the pigs to put up. They are getting huge!!! I don't know why, but just lately they seemed to have gotten much bigger. Perhaps I haven't been out to see them as much.

I was given dinner duties recently. I've been at it for almost a week now, and I am trying to adjust my thinking. I have to get meat out of the freezer in the morning, do any prep work that can be done beforehand, and get started so that dinner will be ready by 5:30 pm. So far I have not done too well. No burned dinners yet; no undercooked meat yet, but my timing isn't great. Still, I think I've had it ready by 6:00 or 6:30 pm; I did a bit better this evening. I have learned a bit already though. I've done fruit and veggie trays or arranged salads with almost every dinner, and they've gone over quite well I believe. It adds a nice touch to simple meals without too much hassle!

I'm being told to "hit the publish button". Better stop now.

Fourth of July

Sometimes I wonder what it is really that we are celebrating on the fourth day in July. In the Revolutionary War we were fighting for representation more than anything at first. Nowadays, the taxes still go up, and we have representation. I can't help but wonder if we have the representation we need. The media has us in its grip. It can control nearly a whole nation just by a thing one person decides to "report"; it is able to sway the thoughts of millions by the way they bias their report! We are not against government, but, man, it sure would be nice to have wholesale reform!!! I'm going to get myself in trouble; I'll move on to yesterday's pictures and light commentary. There won't be too many, don't worry.

Daddy smoked our ribs in the smoke house. He decided that we needed fire bricks and/or another layer of bricks in the firebox.

Kyle getting some green wood for better smoking.

Waiting for lunch/dinner (the ribs took longer than expected).

Bottle rockets. They turned grown men into boys once more.

After lunch (and a little time to allow for digestion) Daddy, Uncle Craig, Kyle, and I played "Pitchin' Warshers". Daddy and I won.

Around 8:30p.m. we shot off a few fireworks. All in all, it was a very pleasant day.