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"What on earth are you doing for heaven's sake?"

-Paul Washer

Whew! What a week!

Okay, so a lot has been going on lately! It all started with preparation for the Herb Faire. The Herb Faire is a festival that we sell at twice a year. They have vendors there selling antiques, baked goods, plants, arts and crafts, etc. So we go and sell our soaps, breads, cheese, lotions, lip balms, and other stuff. It usually takes a couple weeks to get ready to go with the last day being the "crunch" day. It was no different this year.


The fair was this past Saturday, so on Thursday we were busy getting our preparations ready and making cheese. Everything seemed to revolve around cheese this last week: make the cheese at 10:00, scoop cheese at 3:00, ball up cheese at 7:00 and so on and so forth. Friday rolled around and it found us again preparing for the Herb Faire, but also working on putting the dry wall up for the dairy ceiling! (Yes, I'm a little behind in my steps for the dairy! We finished siding it and staining it. Poppy put in the electric, and we have now been working on getting the dry wall up. We have also been informed that we will now have to put in a septic system, but that's a long story.)


So on Friday we were down to the "crunch". Half of us were working on the dairy while the other half were working on getting ready for the fair. The dry wall was coming along nicely, and Jordan and I had just gone to get subs for everyone when all of a sudden Poppy cut his hand open. He was cutting the dry wall with a pair of box/carpet cutters. He was holding the cutters in his right hand while he punched out the seam that he had just cut, but when he punched it out, the dry wall started to slip and as he tried to grab it the box cutters came down slicing his palm a good inch and a half. Dad drove him down to his house to change and by then Jordan and I were home with lunch. So he stayed and ate and then Gram took him to Doctor's Care. (Since Jordan and I were gone when the whole thing happened, I really didn't believe them when they told us. You have to understand that Poppy NEVER gets hurt. This just happened to be the ONLY time that he didn't set down the cutters when he punched out the seam. So I asked to see the cut while we were eating (mistake!) and he showed me. It was deep. I have never seen a cut that deep in person! There is no way I could have eaten before going to the doctor, but he did!)


He ended up having to get 4 double stitches (really more like 8). They said that it just missed the tendon. You could see the tendon through the cut, but praise the Lord, it didn't get sliced. His golf had to be postponed for the week, but that is minor compared to what could have happened!

Then on Friday night, Poppy's brother and sister-in-law from Wisconsin came down. We had a nice time visiting with them over the weekend and were thankful for the time that we shared with them.

Saturday arrived! The big day! Everything went well. The weather was just beautiful, not too hot, not too cold and everything worked out just right!

(Jordan's pillowcase dresses)

After the fair we were looking forward to a nice relaxing Sunday. It was not to be so! For the past week, we have had a friend's bee hive at our house waiting to take it to another friend to get some bees for them. Well, on Sunday we looked out our back window at the barn and saw a huge swarm of bugs. Some type of bug. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a swarm of bees! And they were all going right into that bee hive! There must have been two thousand of them swarming around. After about 30 minutes they were all in the hive settling down. Right away we started calling people asking what we were supposed to do. The friend who owned the hive came down and picked it up. What an interesting evening!

So that pretty much covers what we've been doing! What an interesting week!!!

Dad's Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

On April 29th, Dad turned 46!

Our Father:
Fun

Able

True

Honest

Enjoys life

Respected

Dad, what would we do without you? Where would we be without you? You can turn even the most simple things in life into fun and something to laugh about till we could cry. You have led our family through the good and the bad times and have always been strong. You have always stood for what you believe is right even when no one will take the stand with you. Oh, Daddy, we love you so much! Happy Birthday Dad!

First Canning of the Year...

We canned some strawberry jam today! We picked it yesterday and froze some for cakes and things and then we did all our canning today! Hmmm-hmm, delicious!

Henny Penny and Her Brood of Many...

We recently had a Bantam hen set on five eggs for us. For a while we kept taking the eggs away until we realized what she was trying to do. So there she sat...for a long time. Until one day, they hatched, all five! She is such a good mother, always protecting them from the other animals. One day the kittens got too close for comfort and off she went. She got the kitten making all the trouble and then continued on to also get the other kitten about 150 feet away, and also the dog, who was so scared he didn't know what happened. Everything was going along great, until the other day when one of them got too close the horses and got stepped on. Now for those of you who don't have a farm, if a little chick gets stepped on by a horse, the chances are zero to none that it will make it. And it didn't.

The reason behind this whole sad story is this: It reminds me of a verse.

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"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets

and kills those who are sent to her!

How often I wanted to gather your children together,

as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,

BUT YOU WERE NOT WILLING!"

~Matthew 23:37

(emphasis added)

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How often does the Lord try to save us from doing disastrous things, and yet we are unwilling to be saved? All He wants to do is gather us under His protective wings, but we balk and want to do things our own way? That poor chick's life could have been saved had he only stayed under the wings.

Christianity...

"Christianity doesn't domesticate a man.

It makes him wild in all the right ways."

~Paul Washer

Kidding Season Is Finally Over!!!

Dora and Nan just had their babies! We tried holding them over for two extra months before we bred them so that we would have enough milk for winter. It worked great. Dora and Nan each had three which was a first for both of them. They normally have only two each. Nan had three boys: Rio, Baltimore & Troy. Two days later Dora had her three: two boys and A GIRL!!! Their names are Long John, Spot and Elizabeth. (Gram picked out the name Elizabeth from a movie she watched with a cow, so she's kind of "Gram's girl"!) They are all so adorable!

(Elizabeth "Little Lizzie")

Dora had some difficulties one year giving birth. The baby's leg was stuck so Dad had to help and ever since then we watch her very close when she gets close to kidding. We normally take turns going out twice during the night to check on the mamas, so it was very nice that Dora and Nan had theirs within two days of each other!

(Rio and Troy)

(Spot and Baltimore)

Spring Things

We received a new tent for Christmas this year, so as soon as the weather warmed up enough for us to try it out, we did! Our old one tore last year after serving many faithful years of service for us kids. We love to put the tent up in the spring or fall and spend a couple of nights outdoors. Gram and Pop found this one that would accomodate all of us. It works great!

Noah & Ethan "holding" the tent up...

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Dad opened up our pool right before Easter this year and so Noah and Ethan have been having a blast in it. It's still very cold and I don't know how they can stand it, but Noah goes about 2-3 times a day. He's our little fish in the water.

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We planted tulips in our garden last fall and they came up beautifully. This was our first try at tulips...

Happy Easter!

He's alive! Our Savior is alive! Jesus Christ defeated our sins once and for all at Calvary. But the grave could not keep him. He rose again on the third day and is now sitting at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf.

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"But the angel answered and said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead..." ~Matthew 28:5-7a

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Hallelujah! Have a Happy Easter!

Kelsey's Birthday!!!

Kelsey will turn 19 tomorrow!

She is a dear friend and sister and a joy to be with. She is strong in the Lord and very thoughtful of others.

Kelsey is:

Kind

Energetic

Loving

Smiling

Excellent Friend

Yearns to serve God

We love you, dear sister. We thank the Lord for placing you in our lives. We pray that God would continue to use you for His glory. We hope that you have a wonderful birthday, Kels!
With all our love...