Sale day and "YES"

As usual there is so much going on around here that I can't write about it all. I will say that yesterday was a very busy day in Bismarck/Mandan. Right before we left, though, I had Cora take my picture. This is how I look when I'm 30 pounds lighter. The big chunk of it came off during the Master Cleanses that I did in January and May. Mostly every night, though, I drink the lemonade and it all finally amounted up to 30 pounds lost. I know that there are still 50 more to go before I'll reach my goal, but it sure does feel good to be on the right track. :) I even remembered to wear my BodyTalk pin yesterday. WOW!

Cora drove up to the rest area just out of Bismarck so that I could do a session on Jacob and then I took it into town. We were pulling the stock trailer along so it was a slow trip. As soon as we got up to Mandan, we dropped the trailer off at Kist Livestock then Cora took Jacob and I out to eat at Taco Johns as she was tired of making lunches. I had a chicken taco salad and she and Jacob shared a six pack and a pound. I told them that I recall when the 3 children were small I'd buy a six pack of tacos and a pound of Potato Ole's and all 4 of us would be full afterwards. Jacob said, "Those days are over." :) Thanks for the wonderful treat, Cora. I don't mind if you get tired of making lunches more often!

We headed back to Kist to look over the calves right after lunch. We saw these friends there as usual. This is Ron & Eileen Seiler (I think that's how it's spelled) whom we have known since our days in Bismarck Baptist church almost 20 years ago. They come to the sale every week to check for deals and to have their weekly date. They are such a neat couple--both lost their 1st spouses to cancer, as I recall, and then found each other. :) These 2 are just a few of the people that we have gotten to know by our regular attendance of the calf sale on Wednesdays at Kist in search of a good deal on day-old calves.

Here's some more of the group although it's different people every time we go.

These 2 are regulars. The woman is Dianne from the office who writes down the number of each calf sold and the buyer's name. The auctioneer is our friend, Pius Bitz. We've known Pius so long that it seems like we've always known him. Every time that we're at Kist's buying calves he's there and every time we sell our calves in Napoleon he is there auctioning as his dad and brother own the Napoleon Sale's Barn. Yesterday when Pius saw that I had my camera he said, "I see that we have a lady here from CNN." Everybody laughed but I shook my head, "No," not wishing to be affiliated with the mainstream press. "Oh," he said then, "this one's from FOX network." I even laughed then. Pius is one of those people who just makes everybody feel good inside--may the world be full of his kind. :)

Well, Cora and Jacob each bought 3 little cuties. You can see calf pictures on her blog she just informed me. Then we picked up milker inflations from SURGE; herbs for kombucha from TERRY'S; a printer cartridge from STAPLES; then headed for my office.

I prepared myself by doing Access in the van then headed up the steps. I had a wonderful talk with Tone-Lise (who is ahead of me in BodyTalk by a year) about how neat it is to have the office to go to for doing sessions. She rents a room in our office on Fridays, from time to time, so that she doesn't have to do sessions in her home. I felt so grand sitting next to her on our white couch with the red velvet seat protector--both of us ladies in long dresses and smiles of respect for the other. We visited about the future of BodyTalk until my client came up the steps. Then it was off to the back room for her session which went great.

I was so happy to see that this lady is starting to share BodyTalk with her family members. As she shares and gets results, her confidence is growing and my new friend hardly seems timid at all anymore. The BodyTalk sessions I do for her, plus her daily Access are giving her the courage to defend herself and what's more, now her daughter is pondering having sessions with me too so that is exciting. :)

Well, I hurried up to Chuppe's Chiropractic Clinic next for help with this compressed disc in my back. I got Dr. Greg this time and he worked on it deeper. He said that they don't like to go so deep at first, in case it isn't necessary, but it was necessary yesterday as the problem just is not going away. It was VERY painful so I swallowed several clove capsules afterwards. He said to come back in 1 week to keep hitting at it and I made the appointment but, as always, money will be the deciding factor.

After that we headed for Sam's Club and loaded up with all kinds of wonderful fruit. We were surprised to notice that the vegetable prices are as high as they are and praised each other that we save sooooooooo much money by growing our own vegetables. (We had our first tomato at lunch today and Robert said that it was REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!) Our preliminary results of the Sonic Bloom test is that not only are the vegetables coming in sooner, they're tasting better too. We'll keep you posted as the garden progresses.

Then we went back to Mandan to load up the little cuties. I was so proud of Cora as she backed the trailer up to the big door all by herself. I've never gotten the neck of backing a trailer and usually my neck and shoulders hurt too much to even try so it's handy that she is so quick to pick things up. :) The first 5 calves all jumped in the trailer which was unusual but the last one made up for it. He had Cora, Jacob, and 2 sale's barn men running around before he went in but go in he did. We slammed the door and headed for home.

We got home at 8:30 with much work to be done as new babies always need to be unloaded and settled down before they drink. It was to bed at 11:00 and Robert made it home from haying at 1:30 so we actually slept together last night. He's been sleeping over in the hayfield 30 miles away for a few nights in order to catch the hay at just the right moisture content.

It was a real treat this morning to wake up next to my husband and find that the children had already gone out to the barn. I got out to the barn just in time to "Change the wash" as Jacob informed me as the milking was all finished. Andrew informed me that the bouquet of wildflowers laying on the bulk tank was for Cora because "Early girls get the flowers." She's such a sweetie, though, and put them in a vase on the island for me to enjoy too. :)

Now to the "YES" part of this post. I was very nervous when I saw in the stack of mail that a letter had come from my brother and his wife. You will recall that I had sent them a box of things of mom's early last week. When I hadn't heard from them I started to wonder if maybe I should have paid for tracking. It was worth the wait, though, as the letter was VERY warm and comforting. You may recall also that I invited them to come to our farm sometime as they now live in North Dakota also. I didn't have to read far into the letter to learn that they are willing to come to our farm to get to know us better. I pray that they will come and we will be able to help each other find the joy that the word "Family" has never meant for either one of us in regards to our family of origin. Russell was very wounded in that home, I know, so perhaps I can help him to come to peace over it all. Please pray for him.

Here is perhaps another meaning to the word, "Yes." Well, our guys LOVE our 9030 tractor. Titan Equipment down in Kintyre called on Tuesday and said that they have another one for sale. Robert said to me right after chores this morning, "Do you want to go down to Wolf's (the former name) with us to look at that 9030?" I said, "Yes" although I was much more interested in reading Russell's letter so I took it along. When they were engrossed in the wonders of tracterdom, I sat in the van and read the second letter that I've ever gotten from my brother in my whole life.

Well, as you may recall, we had a whole bunch of bales across the road to stack so Robert asked Leo if we could bring the other tractor up here to stack with it to sort of "Try it out." Leo said, "Yes" and here is a picture of our guys checking it out when Andrew got it up here. Now Robert is in love with the thing. I can't say for sure if it's a "Yes" on our end but it looks as though it may be soon. We'll have to see if we can work out a deal with Leo or not.

Here are some pictures of Andrew and Robert stacking the bales together. Watch the stack take shape. Although the bales may not look that big, each one weighs about 1,700 pounds. The 9030 we own now has the white top and the one from Wolf's has a blue top. We're trying to figure out how we'll differentiate the two if we do end up buying it. I guess we'll come up with names for them as all of our pickups around here have names for that purpose.

So, to summarize, I LOVE SUMMER. It's crazily full of work but it's good work. We work in the summer to prepare food for the family for winter and we work in the summer to prepare feed for the animals. There's your farming 101 lesson for the day. You put up FOOD for people and FEED for animals. Which reminds me, I have a big bowl of broccoli to cut up for freezing so I'd best get back to work.

Thanks for reading! I hope you were all blessed in some small way!!!

Dawn