Lots of excitement

As you can see from the title of this post, much has been happening around the farm here lately.  I decided to let the pictures do the telling for you know that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Andrew was with me in Bismarck a few weeks ago.  He decided to give Cora and Jacob semi-automatic 22 rifles in appreciation for their doing chores for him while he was out grain cleaning.  I had never been to Scheels before so I was excited.  I was going around taking pictures of everything in site, when I turned the corner and noticed that this woman was looking at me.  When I gave her my attention, I saw that it was my friend, Sarah K. with all 4 of her little ones.  We were sure surprised to see each other there.  Of course I HAD to get their picture in front of the big, old bear.

 Finally Spring has come with it's big, fluffy clouds.

 Robert's 55th birthday was on the 14th.  His parents were thinking of coming but decided against it when Cora had a fever.  Earl is on dialysis and must not be exposed to such things.  Robert had a great day anyway.

 We did have one guest.  This is his cousin, Jerome, who is like a brother to Robert.

 The children and I pooled our resources and gave Robert an impact wrench that he has been salivating over for years.  Does Andrew look like Robert or what?

 The following Sabbath we had invited the S. family to join us for the day.  They are a home school family with 4 wholesome, sweet children.  Mr. S is involved with the John Birch Society and he had called to ask if he might visit with us about his organization.  We had signed the petition at the JBS booth at the home school convention and that's how they got our name.
It was a wonderful day of fellowship PLUS we learned about a fantastic organization that actually offers hope for our country.  Mr. S. left us a pile of books and DVDs to study so we can get informed about this group who believes in sticking to our constitution. 

 Mrs. S and her daughters helped fold the napkins.  Cora and I remarked later how comfortable we were together.  After all, how many total strangers can you ask to fold the napkins for your meal and they jump in and say, "Sure, we'd love to."

 The S, children loved the baby goats.  In fact, we scheduled their visit at a time when we'd have plenty of baby goats for the children to play with.

 It warmed up a little bit and we all ended up our day together at our playground.

 Here Mr. and Mrs. S. and I are enjoying the swing set.  One side affect of this visit is that we made a sale for 400 pounds of our organic wheat.  Now that we have it cleaned, we have some available so please let me know if your family wants to support SEEDS OF HONOR like this family has chosen to do.

 This is a funny story.  Cora brought in the mail last week and handed me an official looking envelope from the United States Government.  "I'm nervous," I remarked to Cora and then burst out laughing as I saw the contents.
Inside the envelope was my brand new PASSPORT.  I think I've shared that I'll be traveling to Canada twice this year to finish up my BodyTalk training.  Well, they had said that it would take 2 to 3 months for the passport to arrive so I put it out of my mind.  Here I am holding my very own passport.
WOW--this is another realm for me entirely.  Those who know the home body I've been will be just as amazed as I am at the growth in my life.  I wrote to Elizabeth and told her it had come and thanked her for being there for me to help me grow to this point.  She wrote back and said, "Yeah, GROW, GROW, GROW!"  I think I will!  :)

 As we have all been sharing on our blogs, the seeding all around us is VERY much behind.  With the late snows and rains, the seeding got more and more stressful as we pushed to get it finished.  I drove many long days these past few weeks to help and finally we were all rewarded last Friday when Robert drove in the yard after having seeding the last of the crops.  YEAH--just in time for Sabbath which was yesterday.

 The boys celebrated by heading for the RC car races in Mandan.  They both came home a little deflated having had crashes in their third race.  However, they were both glad that they'd gone and plan on going again next month.
This left the house pretty quiet on Sabbath so I took advantage of that and slept almost all day.  I was just exhausted.  Cora, Robert, and I did squeeze into our busy schedule the 2009 version of, "Emma" later in the day, so that was fun.  I just LOVE that story!  I suppose it's because I am such a romance nut but it tickles me every time when Emma has to realize that Mr. Knightly is correct in saying that farmers are quality people too!  She is such a snob in the beginning but, under the guidance of a good and sensible man, she soon sees that her foolish pride is to her detriment. GO, you Mr. Knightly's of the world, GO!  We women need your quiet, sensible leadership!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

radionics machines for the day; registered Jacob and I for the AppleSeed shoot on June 17th at Dagleys; and started in on the boy's mountain of laundry. 
  The weather is so gloomy that I got sleepy and rested.  When I woke up, I looked out and saw 4 boys on the half painted merry go round.  Cora is painting the play ground equipment but only got half done before Sabbath arrived.  Anyway, one of our hunting friends from Georgia had brought over his 2 sons and the boys were working out over in the playground.  You can't call it, "Playing" as these guys were going FAST and exerting a HUGE amount of energy.  Oh, to have that kind of energy.

Well, that's a quick wrap-up to bring you up to date.  Robert said that the flax has just emerged from the soil so that's exciting.  We haven't started planting the garden because the engine for the garden tractor hasn't arrived yet PLUS I was driving tractor in the fields all this time.  In the meantime, our industrious Cora has things growing like mad in the greenhouse--some of our peas are putting out their tendrils and Cora strung a line for them to wrap around.  I've nibbled on the lettuce leaves and thinned out the beat row by eating the entire beat plants.  Now THAT is living high off the earth!
 My main projects for June are preparing for Prairie Days (3rd weekend) with my cousin bringing her family out from Wisconsin.  They had wanted to come to our AppleSeed Shoot a few years ago but weren't able to get away.  This year the Dagleys are hosting a one day shoot on the first day of PD so that is drawing more than one family from out of state.  Then the last week of June is our radionics class with Ed Kelly coming up here from Georgia.  I'm the official coordinator for the class and have been enjoying working with Ed and Cathie (his secretary) who are some of the nicest people I have ever met!
 In the meantime, we need to fix fence and get the cattle moved out to pasture.  We need to get the garden planted which includes putting potatoes, carrots, and onions out in the field.  Many of my clients have asked us for these and, now that I have an office for them to pick them up at, we're going to give it a whirl this year.  It's getting a little late but it would have been to cold to have them out before this anyway. 
It looks as though I need to fix some supper for my menfolk.  It is sooooooooo wonderful to have beef again as I had a terrible reaction to some beef that I bought at Sam's.  My arm is still a bit sore and swollen from the reaction to whatever was in that beef.  I suppose I could put a plug in here that we have a couple of extra quarters of beef to sell.  IT TRULY IS THE BEST BEEF THAT I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!!!!!!
Best go make supper.  You know how I love to write when I finally get started and get over that it doesn't have to be perfect.  Andrew reminded me the other day that we could probably make some money if I'd ever finish my novel, "Yellow Daisies."  Oh, some day I'll finish it when I run out of projects...............
Love to all,
Dawn 
PS.  The most exciting news of all I almost forget.  We have been slowly selling our geese.  We got the geese originally for tick control but now we can do that with the radinoics machines.  The geese wore out their welcome when they refused to stay confined and made a mess all over my yard.  They also are very noisy.  All night long I'd wake up to their loud honking.  The last 5 just left this afternoon so we are now goose-less.  YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!