"Am I walking so close to God that people want to walk in my shadow"

Summer End Harvest

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When we first moved here almost a decade ago, we inherited from the previous owners

a relationship with neighbor cattle farmers, Dave and Don.  They cut our alfalfa

field approximately three times a year.  It all depends on the rain if we have much,

or even, if were able to cut.  If it rains to much, the ground is to wet and the equipment

will  get stuck.  We have to wait for dry ground.  Each year, I find myself with a little

bit of apprehension at cutting time. as in, will we have enough hay for our horses this winter? 

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(This picture was taken Tuesday of this week.)

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The first cutting was in July, although it seemed way over-grown by then.  Dave and Don were too busy to come and cut, and the ground conditions never seemed just right.

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(This picture was taken in July - the first cutting.)

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The second cutting came this last weekend.  They told us that we hadn't had much rain, so we were only able to get 190 bales (I need at least 200 more).  If we don't get rain, they told me, there will be no October cutting.  This concerned me because this winter I will have twice the amount of horses that I had last year.

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I told Dave and Don that our God is a great God, and that I would pray for rain, because I need those 200 additional bales.  I will pray for rain, I told them, and when God sends it, and we have our October harvest, their families are inivited to our ranch for a giant picnic celebration.  I've already planned who's on this guest list - I can't wait!

 Other harvests this week:

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Zillions and zillions of tomatoes...

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 (And that's our herb garden growing in the square boxes by the fencing.)

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Raspberries and strawberries.... 

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 What I don't have picture of (yet) is all the apples that are waiting to be picked.  We think

that there might have been an orchard here at one time, because there are dozens of apple trees

and different kinds of varieties.  I'm not much of a baker or a canner (although I aspire to

be some day), so I am thinking about juicing them and then freezing.  Any suggestions?

(Come over and visit Mary at Canadagirl for a whole lot of interesting (and fun) show and tells!

 Oh, and guess what?  It's raining outside.  There's been a down pour the past 24 hours!

Let's see...the guest list:   Dave and Tammy plus their three children; Don and Dawn and their two children; Adam and Becky and their three children; our friends and neighbors, the Vale family............

~Cleaning Out My Homeschool Closet-Giveaway~

Valerie at Christian Printables is hosting a great contest.  She has some great things she is giving away, I recommend checking then out.
I have a few things that  are doubles in our homeschool classroom closet.  So I've decided to join in. 

Here are the rules, leave a comment telling which item you would like to win, you can put your name in for all four. The contest will end at midnight of September 14th.  On the morning of September 15th, I will put everyone's name in a basket for which book they would like to win.  My daughters will choose one winner for each book. Each winner will also receive a bottle of Bath and Body works antibacterial hand soap.  I will only ship within the United States and to Canada.

Here are the four books I'm giving away. 
Finding the Answers, a Rod & Staff Preschool Workbook



Corduroy by Don Freeman

This book is beloved by all of my daughters, it is in great condition.

Little House in the Big Woods

Scholastic~29 Spanish Alphabet Mini-Books

These would be great to make up for a Spanish lapbook! 



Thank you for joining in the fun! 

School has Begun!

  We officially started the school year Tuesday.  It didn't go great in the beginning, but got better as the day went on.  It is part my fault.  I get it in my head on how it's all going to go so perfectly the kids are going to love it and wait with anticipation for their next assignment, the littles are going to be perfect and then SMACK reality.  I really need to lower my expectations LOL   And I also need to make sure there is chocolate in the house on the first day of school.
   Wednesday was much better.  I am trying to be very consistent with what is allowed and not allowed. And Kiley and Carter are learning to keep busy. Kiley does have her work to do and I was able to sit with her one on one for a bit too.  Carter was nice enough to wake me at 5:30AM  and then proceeded to wake everyone else by 6.   So he went down for an earlier nap, which allowed me to stand over the kids more. Bailey is already used to working pretty independently, but the boys need some grooming in that area.  They finished in a timely manner and saw the benefits of getting it done and ALL of us having good attitudes.
   We will be adding a lapbook to our schedule soon. I am waiting until the kids are working more quickly.  At this point adding a lap book would make our day a little too long.  I am also still deciding which one to do.
:>Michelle

Getting A Lot Done

We’ve been getting a lot done around here this week.  This is the week that I try to finish all of my unfinished projects and get the “school” ready.   

My long, narrow, all-purpose closet in the back of the house was my biggest project that I had put off all summer.  I call this closet the back-bone of our house.  It’s where I put a lot of stuff that I don’t have room for anywhere else.  We don’t have a garage, or a basement (well, we have a “cellar”, but it gets wet and it’s icky, so I pretend it doesn’t exist). 

I decided to take a shelf down, and in its place, I bought these big, plastic, Rubbermaid closet kind of storage things.   I ended up buying three and they take up an entire wall.  I think that I’ m very happy with this decision.  One is for dog/pet stuff and gardening tools; another one is for winter coats, hats, mittens, and boots); and the one we just got today is for dishes and kitchen stuff I use only occasionally.

I threw out a lot of stuff, but there are still things I’m undecided about.  I’m hoping that this project will be all done by tomorrow.  I am also working on the room that we used to eat in when we were remodeling our kitchen/dining room.  I had thought that we might still eat in there so I had left the plastic table set up.  That table had become a put-everything-you-don’t-know-what-to-do-with table.  This room is directly across from my guest bathroom, and it was looking positively awful!    Today, I took everything off the table (and gave most of the stuff a new home); folded up the table and sent it to storage. I am going to try to find some cheap book shelves for this room to store books that I just moved out of the back closet.

It's been a good week so far - accomplishing projects I've put off; making appointments for the coming weeks; working on a menu plan for the month of September (still in the making); and harvesting a lot of berries and vegetables.  Now, if I can just find a little time to work on some new pictures I have (for blogging, at course!) I'll be a very happy girl .

Memory Lane: Day Two

More thoughts on Friends