Cornhole

OK... so I promised in a prior post to upload a pix of the Corn Hole game.... or Cornhole.... however it's written. There are 2 of these boards and 2 sets of 4 bean bags... object is to toss the bean bag into the corn hole.... cornhole.... kornhole..... kornwhole... I guess points are assigned... and the fun of it is to design a fun, colorful board and some whacky bean bags.

More Pig Roast Pix

1st Annual Pig Roast a la Cas Crew

We'll after much excitement and chatter... and perhaps squealing of the pig, we had our 1st Annual Pig Roast. Don was declared a master griller! and is now recovering from smoke inhalation! We call it the "Kirsty Ally voice" w/ that deep husky bravado that she's got going on... well, that's Don for the time being.

We had 82 ppl show up for the event - 1/2 from church and 1/2 from the community! The pond shore line was filled w/ anglers hoping to catch the "Pig of the Pond" as we fondly call our huge porker of a bass! He and his bros have been caught and released many a times!

There was canoeing and eating and fishing and eating and corn hole (ok all you non-southerners... I hope I got a pix to put up, so you can get a visual on it... nope... so, I'll have to google one and put it up), and eating and basketball and eating and socializing and eating and still having 2 huge pans full of pork... and that was only 1/2 a pig.

Anyway - thx to all who made it a blast... and hopefully more of you can make it next year... we plan to do it in June... when it's cooler!

Blogger won't allow me to put up the last few photos... there's 30 below... so, the newest post will have the rest of the Roast!

Charlie's Garden

Not to be outdone by his dad, Charlie also sports a pretty decent sized garden that he gets a bumper crop from! He has tomatos, pole beans, snap peas, new potatos, cukes, squash and a volunteer pumpkin!

He's quite the green thumb too, as evidenced by the photos!

Here he's caught a toad to put in his garden to eat the bad bugs!

tomatos

pumpkin - volunteer!

the pumpkin has overrun the garden and is taking over the walk area!

And what every great farmer does at the end of the long day: fish!

Gardens

For most of you that receive our yearly Christmas letter (minus the one that never got sent last year), you would know that I always ended it by stating "Don needs to be on a farm!" Well, never dreaming it would come true, we now live the farmlife!

He digs in the dirt and does the tilling and planting.... and I'll help w/ the weeding and harvesting and canning. It truly is a family affair!






Don went from 6 raised garden beds in AZ to now a full-fledged 1/2 acre. He's always had a green thumb for growing any seed that he plants. He planted strawberries last year and this year they took off w/ a bang. In just 2 short weeks, I picked enough strawberries to jam/can 5 batches of jam! And froze 5 quarts. And gave away about 5 quarts. And had 3 more gallons that ended up going to the compost pile (they were forgotten in the basement fridge when I was in AZ....) I still have enough pureed and frozen waiting for Tammi to come over to teach her to can jam! exciting!!!





Watch out Philip Morris! Don has his own spread of tobacco plants, courtesy of my great uncle who is a 'bacco farmer! We'll be calling in all favors to harvest the tobacco. We'll need help cutting, sticking, and hanging in the barn. And then when dried, we'll need help w/ the stripping, pressing and packaging off to PM or the local coops... yes, folks, all 11 plants worth! No, really, we're going to do this! dad - grab your ticket now = we'll need the help! LOL

The kids run thru the corn... it's amazing how quickly they disappear and how you can't find them! No wonder ppl hid in cornfields! It's also the cats' fave hang out!

Jode chasing white butterflies in the corn!

Chachie & Don hauling wood for our some-day-to-own Taylor Made Wood Stove.

Kellar exploring 'what lies beneath!'

Kids Say the Darndest Things: Part VIII

So, I'm just uploading the last post that was actually put up today, despite it being started a few weeks ago... so, while skimming thru pix... Charlie comes up and is singing his heart out...

The song should be "Up from the Grave He Arose"... we all know the lyrics... well, we all do, except for CharlieBoy.... his version goes like this:

"up from the gravey stone.... with an awesome God in Rome!"

We're all trying hard not to snort with laughter -but it's just so precious! Now I've heard of the version of "up from the gravy he rose..."

New one to me!

Where Has Time Gone?

Wow, it's been 3 weeks since I've blogged. Here's time in a nutshell:

I ended up going back to AZ to help mom out. She developed some clots and will need continued prayers for this! She's on thinners. She has a great mental outlook. Pray that healing continues and she will fully recover!

Between trips to AZ and back to AZ I got to see the girls at their soccer camp. They had a great time and learned a whole bunch. Hannah was on the winning team! Go Hannah!!!!

The last return trip landed me back home on the 4th of July. Fireworks is a must... and it's so great because you can do them in your own backyard! (which is easy when you've got lots of land available!) NO worries about who's driving on the roads... since you're already home!

Hannah and Grace went to camp for the fish and wildlife conservation camp. This is THE most awesome camp ever! They stay on a lake for a week and are constantly going from one activity to the next. They learn certain skills and if they pass the tests, they earn patches for the skills attained. They have the opportunity for swimming, boating safety, archery, hunting (rifle safety), outdoor survival, nature, and I think there is one more.

Last year neither girl got the archery. This year Hannah got it, and she also got the OutdoorsWoman patch. She received a letter stating her name would go in a drawing for the January camp, all expenses paid. This will be for waterfowl sporting. (she's not too keen at all to do that... but it would look great on the resume for college!)

The letter stated only 16% of all campers get this invitation.... 950 out of 6000 statewide! So, we're very proud of her! Pray she gets picked. They must take one adult on the trip... and let's see.... it will be January.... in the water.... it will be cold..... ummm yep - that means dear ol' dad will go!

Also, we learned that Grace is the poster child for their promotions! Last year she caught a trophy sized small mouth bass that measured in at 21.5 inches! anything over 20" is trophy size! So they snapped her photo... and now she's on the postcards, the posters that travel the schools, the lifesize posters that are at FW facilities! We had no idea! So, I called our contact and left a message requesting a 100 or so postcards so we can mail them out to everyone! She is so photogenic!

We had to canx our Pig Roast. That's been rescheduled for the future. I'll put up pix after the fact! We're looking fwd to that!

Oh... we've had a few mishaps... we have yet another mega snapping turtle in our pond. We know it devoured one baby duck... and believe me,the ducks are about full grown sized! And the other day when we were leaving, momma duck was screaming. Charlie ran up to the pond to see the snapper take hold of a ducklings leg... he wopped the snapper w/ a rake. Needless to say, the duckling didn't survive but a few more days. And then Sunday night our saddest of all, momma duck must have got in a tuffle with a baby racoon. We have the trap set once again.

(I forgot to mention that while I was gone to AZ, Don did catch a coon in our trap.... and a few days later, Shadow finished off a juvenile coon.... Shadow....the KoonKiller! whoddathunkit?)

So - to end this one on an upbeat note! The sky is brilliant blue ~ the pond is clear ~ the fish are biting ~ God is faithful...