Farm news

Nate, Cori and the grandkids have enjoyed their time at the farm. We have gotten into all kinds of activities but the boys seem content to roam about freely outside catching grasshoppers and throwing dirt clods. Victoria took the Florida crew fishing on Monday morning and they caught quite a few bass. The real fun was catching grasshoppers in the field at the pond to put on the hooks as bait. Many of the fish were big enough to keep but all were returned to the pond. I am about the only one that likes to eat them.


We have been back almost daily and have now caught bass, catfish and several kinds of perch. Grant spends almost all of his time trying to catch frogs – which we have in abundance. Although he killed several by exercising too tight a grip on them he was not willing for us to use them as bait. So I bought some worms, which proved far more efficient bait than grasshoppers.

Grandpa has been very busy through this week; cutting and baling hay, grading for the foundation on the shop building, disking the meadow for reseeding and spreading gravel. He has been a part of almost everything farm related we have done. He is pretty worn out. Grandma has gotten involved in as much as she can, but has been most diligent in preaching her interpretation of sin and salvation to Nate and Cori; mostly in quiet conversation to avoid any input from me or Mama.

Yesterday Wes showed up to help us get the horses saddled and ready to ride. Nate had never been on a horse before and was not overly comfortable but Mama, Cori, Victoria and I had fun switching out horses. Cori and Victoria went for a good distance in a quiet ride. Cori had Mykenzie behind her for much of the time. She seemed to enjoy being on a horse more that either of her brothers. Wes even left his saddle and bridle so we could ride again this evening.

Today is the last day of their visit. They will head home in the morning. We are giving them our little van in the hopes it will last a couple of years for them. We do not need it as badly as they do. In preparation for handing it over we had the power steering pump replaced. The replacement pump sounded worse than the old one so Mama scheduled the van for another replacement at a shop in Wichita Falls. She and Cori took the van in on Wednesday and we picked it up yesterday. This shop did a great job on the repair. It is at least one thing Cori and Nate will not have to work on.

All of the grandkids have done well adapting to the dogs whose moist muzzle is right in their faces every morning. Once the initial greeting is over, they all seem to be okay – both kids and dogs. Mykenzie loves dealing with the chickens, one of which is friendly enough to be picked up and carried about. On Tuesday evening the kids even decided they would save Grammy the trouble and collected the eggs. Five of the eight even made it back to the house. It took some effort to get the chickens put back up but, all in all, they cooperate well with us.

It seemed God had His own timing on releasing the guineas. When we got up Wednesday morning they were all roaming about. The donkeys use the coop door that faces the west to scratch themselves (it is a frame covered with chicken wire.) and knocked it loose enough that the guineas were able to get out. The dogs always check them out when they see them, but mostly they are left alone to eat bugs and make noise. We will all get the routine down eventually. They have stayed close by. We were watching them make their way across the meadow last night to roost in their coop.

If they are happy, I am happy.