Trip tp the Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago the home-education group made a trip to the Hickory Creek Pumpkin Patch.

Along with the actual pumpkin patch, they also have several other attractions. Such as this pretend horse that Liberty enjoyed.

Maddi Jo in the sand box. I think that is a snoozing pig top-right. The girls tell me they also have other animals, a miniature donkey, a pony, a small cow, some chickens, etc. etc.

I think Violet had a fun time.

A large cattle water trough full of corn seed. Miss Ellie on the left.

Kaja and Liberty.
Mom used to have a bin of rice us children could play in, that was fun. But it can't compete with this.

Here is Liberty milking the cow. When she saw this photo, she particularly told that that was her, milking a pretend cow. And apparently it was warm enough that she wanted to remove her shoes........but not her socks.

And just so you know, that's water coming out.


Group Photo. About half are us.

Fort Scott Tragedy Tour

Last saturday Susi, Blu, Quincy (the dog) and I headed up to the Fort, we went to help with some organizing and labeling in the "Magic Room" (where they keep all the re-enacting clothes), and then participated in the new Tragedy Tour.

Susi portrayed Mrs. Terrot, who's husband was an officer and died while dismounting from his horse, his pistol got tangled and went off, shooting him in the chest. She wore the dark colors because Mrs. Terrot had also recently lost her month old son, and would have been in mourning.

And I portrayed Mrs. Mahala Doyle, a poor farmers wife, who's husband and two older sons were killed by John Brown in one of his raids.

Blu and Quincy were in a scene together, where two soldiers were suppose to have been fighting over a dog and one eventually shot the other, Blu was just an innocent bystander, in the wrong place and the wrong time. And unfortunately I didn't get any photos of him.

Puppy Update

They're growing up so fast!

Their eyes have opened up.

And they've been trying to use there legs more, rather then scoot around on their bellies.

But most of all they sleep, and eating follows close behind that.

Susi's autumn garden.

I don't think we've had a actual frost yet, though it does get pretty chilly. But just in case, in the evening, we cover everything with plastic.

A mixture of salad greens.

Turnip greens.

Lettuce.

More lettuce.

There is also spinich and beets. And hopefully carrots and radishs will be sprouting soon.

Blu's little truck, Rosie

Blu has gotten himself a little truck. He saved her from being crushed.

We have a larger white truck that has always been called Smokey (a very descriptive name), that was considered a boy. So the younger children decided this one must be Smokey's girlfriend.

Rosie is her name. Named after Rosie the riveter. We always name our vehicles.

Abi told Blu not to paint her, she likes her just the way she is. And later Blu told me he thought some bullet holes would look cool, but I'm fairly sure he was joking.

Everyday Blu works on her a bit more.

I expect he'll get her up and running before we know it. Plus get a course in car mechanics.

More pictures

Puppies, Puppies!

Abi's little doggy had a litter of puppies last night! 1 girl and 3 Boys. They're very cute and lots of fun to watch. The Mommy has proven to be an excellent Mother and doesn't mind too much when Libby or Violet come to visit. We're using our little pool as a bed, so the pups don't crawl under Abi's!


I want to get more pictures up, but the internet is being really slooow!!

The 2008 Baling

We have finished baling! Ran a bit late this year, our neighbor farmer told us waiting to bale after the first of september wasn't such a great idea, the weather isn't very reliable he said. But never the less, we were blessed with a week of perfect baling weather!
In the past we've done large round bales, but then whenever we wanted to put one out for the animals, we had to get the help of our other neighbor farmer to haul it out there with his tractor. So this year someone had the idea of making square bales (really, they look like rectangles to me) Well, we have this little stream that run through the southern pasture, and that made it impossible to get the large bale wagon thing up there to the north pasture, so instead we hauled all 250 bales in 6 separate loads on a little 5'x10' trailer. Let me remind you that each bale does weigh over 50lbs. That was saturday, and now, on thursday, I think I can finely say my back is no longer aching. I'm just glad that it was decided to quit at 250 and make the rest of the hay into the larger bales, I guess we made about 50 of them, so if we had done it all in the smaller bales, we'd probably still be out there, and I think, I might have dropped dead from exhaustion.
But! It is done, and now they are all tucked inside the loft of our white barn, and we will be able to easily break one open for the animals anytime we need to this winter.
Plus, they're fun to climb on as you might have noticed.

Fort Scott Re-enactment!

Yesterday, a bunch of the family headed up to Fort Scott for a Civil War style baseball game and then a calico dance. Unfortunately I entirely forgot to take any photos of the game or the dance! I'm hoping that the someone at the Fort will burn us a disc of the photos they t00k. So all is not lost.
And I did get some photos of us just hanging about before-hand.

Daddy, looking quite nice in his historical attire.

And me in the my very own dress that I made!

Abi was the one taking these photos of us (she is not used to my camera). And well she kept taking what were to her hilarious photos, we tried to not laugh with her but as you see here we failed.

And here we are again, trying to look like we are having a nice conversation. Though I don't know why Susan is giving me that funny look.

Susan had dressed in an outfit of what would be a lower class woman, maybe a laundress. And here she is I suppose waiting for her husband to come home after a long days work, as you can tell by the smuts on her apron.

And Susan again. That dress looked quite nice on her.

And Blu, also looking quite fine.

Here you can see his whole outfit.

And the three younger girls. They spent their day (when they were not playing ball or dancing) doing some sketching, chatting with the other girls, eating ice cream, wandering around and checking to see if the soldier at the bake house was done with the bread yet.

Strawbale Construction Workshop

Whenever I go camping, I usually wake up at the crack of dawn, this trip was no exception. But I did get to see a wonderful sunrise.

Here is Blu and Abi, slapping mud. I wish I had thought of taking some photos of the rest of the house. It's going to be beautiful.

We have read all kinds of books on doing this stuff, even watched a video about it, but nothing beats actually getting you hands in there and trying it out yourself.

Blu had a very good time.

And Abi, one of the best mudders there.

And here is me and Blu, smoothing out that mud.

And me. They had provided gloves for everyone to use, but Abi and I soon had those off, bare hands seemed to do the best job. I had been afraid the mud would dry my skin out, but after two days, other them my knuckles getting a bit scratched up, it wasn't to bad.