Hay Ride Time. . .mmmmm Sorta

The congregation in Mt. Pleasant invited us to their annual hayride hosted by a great family.  Apparently they do it every year and brothers and sisters from all over come for a hayride, great food, associationg, and a big bonfire.  J.'s buddy was here for the weekend so he tagged along as well.  And of course, the car ride was crazy as ever.

All the teenager-ish girls sat waiting and played the ever fun game of "truth" and "would you rather".  Yes, just truth, they took out the dare because they decided it was more fun just to make people tell the truth about weird and random things.  Silly girls.



And the boys do what boys do best and played football.

I know, tiny little specks that you can't really see, but a girl can only carry so many lenses at once!

The girls were super excited to see each other again.  And there was an awesome tire swing.

At one point the girls stole the camera so it is pretty funny going through them all and seeing the silly faces and poses and seeing random people pop up on my screen and I have no idea who they are.  It was a lot of fun and we met a lot of new brothers and sisters from all over the area.  But as for actually riding on hay - nope.  There were a LOT of people there and they hayrides were going in shifts, by the time it was our turn, we decided we wanted to stay next to the big warm fire instead.  But there really was a tractor pulling a wagon full of hay bales, I swear!  Maybe next year. . .

And lastly, we had a very cute little backyard visitor Monday evening.

She was so cute, not very skittish though.  We banged on the window a little and she didn't budge, but I took the picture through the window anyway because I didn't want to open the door and scare her off.

That is all the newsworthy items from these parts.  Saturday we have a work day at the Kingdom Hall and I am assigned to working in the flower beds again.  So now I will be pulling out the flowers I planted in the spring.  And our family is taking over one of the flower beds so I have to plan what we want it to look like in the spring so I can get some bulbs planted soon.  I will post pics for you all next week.

Love you much and we are sending virtual hugs and kisses to you all.  If you want to feel the real thing turn to the person to your right or left and hug away.  Unless of course it is a stranger. . .then that would just be awkward!

Photo of the Week - Week 33 - Does

This past week we have opened the front door a few days and discovered deer across the road.  They are munching on the fallen apples.  The other day it was a big buck and a lady friend.  This day it was these two sweet little does.

We tried to be as quiet as we could but they hear everything. 

Week 33 of 52

Location:  Mecosta, MI
Subject:  Apple Munching Does

I have a schedule. . .really I do!

Whew!  September is finally over.  What a crazy month.  First month of homeschooling two, on my own, with no K12 to help me out. (insert pitiful, sad face here)  First month on my goal of six months auxiliary this service year.  Last month of canning every little veggie or fruit that shows up in this house.  Crazy, crazy month!

So I sat down and made a schedule for October.  October was IS going to be an awesome month.  I had my service days scheduled.  I had my Grandma days scheduled.  A. finally got her package from her real school so I am off the hook for her schooling.  And then . . . work day at the hall is this month - boom, one planned service day down.  I had to switch a Grandma day - boom, another planned service day down. And yadda, yadda, yadda.  But it is early and so I shall remain positive!

So today I was productive since I was home and not at Grandma's.  So I made some pumpkin butter (yummo!) and some grape jelly from Reuben and Aubrei's grape vine, scheduled out the week of school work for the little guy.  Cleaned up my big ol' mess in the kitchen, then messed it up again by making dinner.  And then I sat my rump on the couch and promptly fell asleep.  Okay, so I was mostly productive today!

Mom and Dad are leaving in less than a month now so we are scrambling to get everything finished.  It seemed like we had forever and now we are wondering if we have time to get it all finished.

So on to positive things my friends.  The weather here has been gorgeous.  Gorgeous for fall anyway.  Crisp cool weather, foggy mornings, chilly nights.  Sunday afternoon/evening was wonderful.  Cameron built a fire in the fireplace and I sat on the couch reading my book (which was excellent by the way . . . "These is My Words" if you ever run across a copy - READ IT!) while Cameron and the kids watched a football game.  It was one of those great afternoons where everythings feels right in the world.

And because a post isn't a post without a picture.  Z. and I caught this lovely lady on the way to the service.  She was along the road with another who was more skittish than she.  She stayed just long enough for this and then took off.

Love you and miss you all.  I can't believe it's been a year already!

Garden Massacre

Every day we drive around this beautiful countryside and more often than not we see deer.  Lately it has been does with their cute little spotted fawns.  We always slow down and watch them.  Dad was commenting the other night that he wondered if we would ever get sick of seeing them.  I personally don't think so.

After last night, however; Cameron's view of them may have changed slightly.  Last night Dad, Mom, Rachel, and I spent up until the wee hours of the morning at the hospital with my Grandma.  So not fun.  Cameron was home with all the kiddos and said the dogs were barking like crazy.  Today we discovered why.  Something, a.k.a. deer, went to town on the garden.  I guess they figured it was an all you care to eat buffet because that's what they did.  Sampled a little bit of everything.



Cameron's poor strawberry plants are never going to get anywhere



Cucumbers - another victim

The deer really had a hay day out there.  Thankfully most everything is doing good and most likely what they did eat will grow back.  It is just so frustrating when things are just getting going and then a setback.

Here is what we pulled out of the garden tonight.  Some of the green beans, the ones that the deer missed anyway, were ready to be pulled off.  Most of Rachel's sugar snap peas were eaten but a few were able to be salvaged.  More radishes of course and Cameron accidentally pulled up one of the red onions and a red potato.  Dad ate the potato but said it would be going too far if he ate the onion raw too.  Silly man.


Cameron inspecting some bell pepper plants

More of the garden and a sneak peak at the almost finished pole barn

And today's "something new we've never done before" moment came right after cleaning the kingdom hall.  After polishing the inside we headed out to water all the flowers.  Our KH sits on 10 acres of land, most of which is wooded.  So after all chores were finished we wandered down to the edge of the woods.  Wild raspberry bushes are growing all along the edge.  Yummy!  So we all ate our fill of super sweet little raspberries.


Pretty little flower growing in the flower beds at the KH