Sunflowers

This year we (accidentally) planted a bunch of sunflowers near the gate to our chicken pen. Well, actually, the birds planted them by throwing the seeds off of the feeder nearby. Near mid July they peaked in gorgeousness, and we had a beautiful view!

 

The sunflowers brought our homestead more than just a cheery view- they also brought back the honey bees! Our entire family was so excited to see all of the bees buzzing around our sunflowers. We were a bit discouraged (and nervous) last year when we didn’t see any kind of bee buzzing through our gardens. This year, though, the flowers were teeming with bees! I am so grateful that the Lord blessed us again with bees!

I was also surprised to learn that not only bees pollenate flowers and vegetable gardens. Did you know that hornets (those nasty little buggers) can do the same? I still dislike them, but hey, at least they are good for something!

 

May you be blessed!

jk

Presenting…

This year, my sisters and I have the privilege of being a part of another Grace Farm Theater production!We are beyond thrilled to be a part of another great play with 30  God-honoring and joyful people.

Last year’s production of “The Hiding Place” was phenomenally awesome. We had a lot of fun (as you can probably tell by the picture :) ) and the Lord was glorified through it all, and we were so grateful for how He orchestrated the whole thing.

This year we look forward to seeing God at work again through our production of “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” This play is a bit more difficult, and has lots of scene changes and costumes. We are all looking forward to the challenge of playing people like Charity, Joy, Anger, and Intolerance.

The performances are in mid-July, and we as a cast are so anxious to see how it will all turn out.

We would appreciate your prayers for us this summer as well: prayers for God to be glorified, patience, joy in all weather :) and friendships to grow.

Thank you so much, dear friends! I can’t wait to share the stories of how God worked through the play with you all!

May you be blessed this beautiful day!

jk

Swimming- Mamo Camp Day 3 (pt. 5) :)

After a day kayaking, racing, and enjoying some DQ, we decided that the final touch would be to paddle and pontoon out behind the island and enjoy a while enjoying the lake.

I had decided not to go swimming and spend some time floating in the kayak…

However, I only lasted about 10 minutes when there were suddenly splash bombs and water balloons flying, and in I went.

The dogs weren’t too happy about this whole idea of not being able to touch, so after a while they landed up on the boat. Maggie-tude didn’t want to come out of the water- she is so funny! She doesn’t like not being able to see all of her kids. So for the first time ever, she climbed up onto the back of the pontoon- on guard and her eye on each of us.

Perfect end to a busy day at the lake…

Down on the Farm

Many thank you’s to Granny and Grandpa for taking us to K Farm!

Here’s our day spent farming in the 1890’s…

There is a beautiful farm near us now that is stuck in the 1890’s.

There are threshers, farmers in straw hats, a garden the size of our entire property, and so much to see and chores to be done.

One of the few places where you pay to work. :)

But what fun! To be a pioneer for a day…

and our first stop was to feed the cows.

Like Daisy, the dairy cow.

Arriving there just as it opens has its perks- like seeing the animals in the barn and having a gracious farmer show us around.

Here are three of our pioneers perched on a fence, wowing at the sheep.

R especially loved these guys because they were soft, small, and unintimidating. They even followed him around!

We collected some fallen and shelled acorns and fed them to the pigs. Phew! They were the stinkiest animal there!

After feeding the pigs, we wandered back up to the house to see what we could assist with. They were close to threshing time, and the treadmill and thresher were out, just waiting to get used. While walking back up, a farmer stopped us and asked, or, really, told, us to go let the sheep out- they hadn’t eaten yet.

M, Cousin I , and R all ran down, glad to be of help.

They propped open the gate, and WOW!

Those sheep can RUN! They took off straight for the woods to munch on leaves and whatnot.

The farm also hosted a LARGE chicken coop full of chickens and two roosters, one of which spent the morning strutting around the front yard.

Up on the porch, a lady sat with a large bowl full of mango melons fresh from their extremely large garden.

What is a mango melon, you may ask? And what on earth do you eat it with?

Well….

Mango melons were grown solely for the purpose of pickling. You slice a V shaped slice out of it and dig the seeds out. (they look like cucumbers on the inside) Then you scoop out the seeds and sew the V shaped part on, making a little lid.

then, after letting them soak a while in salt brine (extremely salty water), you fill the inside of them with tomatoes, garlic, onions, anything tasty with flavor, and you pickle the whole thing.

YUM!

While we were there, they were also picking their onions and beans. Here are just some of the onions they picked…

After helping out on the porch, we wandered through the GORGEOUS house feeling very Jane Austen-ish :).

The root cellar was very interesting, and I couldn’t help but picture all of the pickles, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, and barrels of other things filling it very soon.

After this, we took a quick break for lunch, then came back, and found, to our delight, that the trolley was running!

They needed to wear out the horses so that they would be gentler that night when they had a bunch of little kids coming out, and we were happy to help them :).

After this, we all split up to go help in various places- the kitchen, the garden, the barn.

L and I pulled weeds in the potatoes, M and Cousin I and Cousin K went down to the pump and the barn.

On our way out, the Big Blacks were out to pasture, and M, who would simply LOVE to be a farm vet or a farmer was able to make a friend-

What a perfect day!

Thank you again Granny and Grandpa!

Kaye

At the Races- Mamo Camp Day 3 (pt.2)

My sisters, cousins, and I spent the last week up north at our grandparents’ cabin on the lake. It is such a blessing to have grandparents that are willing to take all 5 of us, ages ranging from 5 to 17! This was the 11th annual running of what we call “Mamo Camp”.

And what a week we had!

Over the next couple of days or so I hope to let you in on what we did that week through some pictures, stories, and funny happenings over here. Enjoy!

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One more tradition that continues each year is to ‘battle it out’ at the racetrack- go kart style!

Jay and Miss M are almost tall enough to drive the bigger cars, but until then they are granted exclusive access to the cars more that are more their size.

It’s great because they get the track to themselves-

The taller of the cousins (me and L) were at the racetrack with the bigger, slightly faster cars. Papa and T-man were able to join us as well as they cruised around in a two-passenger car.

It is so much fun! You feel as though the car were going 70 miles an hour as you careen around the track.

one thing that we love about the track is that even the smallest can drive a racecar… ;)

(many thank you’s to Mamo and Grandpa for the photos in this post!)

Each of us were given enough tickets for two races. On the second round for me and L, Mamo was able to join us on the track. Man, does she cruise! No brake! The camera could barely capture her as she whizzed around the corner…

and spun out! Apparently someone tried to pass her on the inside right before a hair-pin turn, and she didn’t want to let him through, so she hit the gas and spun. Too funny…

After the races we were off to DQ…

but wait!

That’s a story for another post…

:)

Kaye

Out on the Water- Mamo Camp Day 3 (pt. 1)

My sisters, cousins, and I spent the last week up north at our grandparents’ cabin on the lake. It is such a blessing to have grandparents that are willing to take all 5 of us, ages ranging from 5 to 17! This was the 11th annual running of what we call “Mamo Camp”.

And what a week we had!

Over the next couple of days or so I hope to let you in on what we did that week through some pictures, stories, and funny happenings over here. Enjoy!

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A cool morning provided us with the perfectly wonderful opportunity to spend some time out of the house and onto the lake.

For as long as I can remember, my family has enjoyed canoeing together around the bay where my grandparents live, and up and down the surrounding lake shore. We are very blessed to have grandparents with 2 canoes- enough for our whole crew to be out on the water at once.

The camera got dragged along on this outing as well. Actually, it would be dragged around all week- with over 500 pictures taken with it (I promise not to share all of them here… :) ).

Mamo took our group shots for us throughout the week, and they all turned out so well! She is an up-and-coming photographer, that grandma of mine!

Here is our “We just LOVE canoeing” picture…

And our “We will conquer the great waters of the north because we know what we’re doing!” picture…

or well… maybe not….

We divided up into the two canoes… me, L, and Jay in the green one and Mamo, Miss M, and T-man in the other red one. Both canoes had been “woogied” to rid them of all spiders and hitch-hiking bugs to prevent falling into the lake should a small person see them :).

After docking at the shoreline after our canoe ride, me and L took out the kayaks and hit the lake. It was so much fun to be out with just L on our ride. We took turns passing around the camera (very carefully) between the two kayaks and got some crazy photos of each other… just being sisters…

here’s two of our photos that look like they’re from “Lake Country Magazine” :)…

And then the two that will show up at our graduation open houses and weddings one day…

L and me got laughing so hard I almost tipped my kayak over. WAY too much fun was had…

We could have stayed out there all morning, the sun at our backs and the cool water under our fingers, but then our stomachs grumbled…

and it was a dash to lunch.

Kaye