URGENT BUSINESS & NEW NEIGHBORS

Well, I just got off the phone with both of my US Senator's offices and my US Representative's office. I urged them all to support the Parental Rights Amendment. Today is a big day for pushing for this as it is the 222nd birthday of our Constitution.

I urge you to call those who represent you in Washington also. It's not so very hard. You just pick up the phone; dial the number; and say, "I would like my Senator/Representative to support the Parental Rights Amendment." All 3 of the people whom I spoke to were very polite. During the last phone call I added, "I represent 3 other voters who live in my household." He said, "OK." I wish I had thought of saying that with the Senator's offices too but I didn't. GASP--I'm not perfect!!! I guess I'll have to urge Robert, Cora, & Andrew to call in too.

For those of you living in North Dakota you can call these numbers. Senator Conrad's office # is: 202-224-2043. Senator Dorgan's office # is: 202-224-2551. Representative Pomeroy's office # is: 202-225-2611. These people are paid to hear our wishes and we MUST have our wishes be heard on this if we want our country to remain free from UN intervention. I've been writing about this ever since the home school convention so, if you need to read some more to inspire you to call, please see my posts on parental rights. Better yet, go to the Parental Rights website here:parentalrights.org.

The other business that I took care of today was registering us for our shoot. Alex said that he needed us to register to so that he can get an accurate headcount. This is where you can go to learn more about attending our shoot next month:http://www.appleseedinfo.org/ We hope that many people will come and join us for this educational experience which brings history to life.

Well, I have some exciting news. Robert just came home and told me that he met a man out in the flax field while checking to see if the flax straw is ready to bale. This man is a home school father whom we met years ago at a home school graduation. He is now our neighbor's new hired man and they now live about FIVE MILES AWAY FROM US!!! I was so excited when Robert told me that he invited their family to come to our shoot too.

Robert said that Mr. R asked him where we live and Robert gave him directions. Mr. R said, "Oh you mean up by the giant swing set?" We all laughed at that. It would seem that our swing set is the talk of the neighborhood. How I look forward to many swing set parties in the future!!!!!!!! But for now, I suppose I should get to work as I have 2 sessions to do day yet. Cora's been decorating a cake so the lunch dishes aren't even finished yet!

It's not like I haven't gotten any REAL work done today. I spent an hour this morning baiting all 8 of our fly traps. When you live on a dairy, you have LOTS of flies. First I had to find the milk jug traps which are "Hidden" all around the farm as I don't exactly want them to be conspicuous. Then I went to the nearest manure pile, or the garden for those by the house, and emptied the contents of about 2,000 dead flies. You can imagine this smells real lovely. Then I went to the nearest water source; filled the jug 1/2 full with water (while holding my breath); then poured in 2 tablespoons of the most foul smelling fly bait in the world; and then tied the trap back in place. I like to tie the gallon jugs to cattle panels on the east side of railroad ties so there will be shade for the trap in the hot part of the day. That way it doesn't evaporate out the water so quickly.

When I was filling the one by the baby calf pen, I noticed that the goose's water in the swimming pool was terribly dirty. I emptied the water, while I filled fly traps ,and then washed out the pool with the hose. I scrubbed it like mad with the broom from the goat's barn and got it as clean as possible. Have you ever seen geese water that hasn't been changed for a few weeks? If so, then you'll know how gross this job is. I guess I must have been in a "Dealing with the gross stuff" mood this morning. Anyway, it took about 3 hours for the swimming pool to fill, but now the geese are happily swimming in their drinking water. Does that bother them any? Are you kidding? Geese can drink the grossest water and never get sick--I don't know how they do it. The trouble is that the goat bucks are in the pen with them and they HATE messy water. Always troubles when you're dealing with animals and we have LOTS of animals.

Now this afternoon the boys are dealing with another animal problem. They're cleaning out the barns. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow of this delightful process. One thing that I hope to do on my blog is give city people an accurate picture of what farm life is like. It's so terribly romanticized in the movies and books. Actually much of what we do requires getting dirt, milk, mud, spoiled grain, moldy hay, and yes, manure under our fingernails. That's reality folks! Want to come and help? :)

Anyway, Andrew used the Dagley's Bobcat to push the manure out the back door while Jacob scooped it up with the 9030 (don't know which one). Jacob piled it up in the closest pasture for when the time comes to haul it out to the field next week. When the boys came in for supper, Cora gasped and turned away. Now, she's a farm girl so I wondered what the problem was. When he walked by me, I knew. My oh my did his clothes stink. I made both boys put hand towels on their chairs while they ate as if I want my dining room chairs smelling like THAT!!!!

Oh well, I still love that my life is rich and full of hard work and busy, busy, busy!!! Now, if I can figure out how to achieve that without getting stressed, I'll have it made. :)