Marmalade Hollow: August 2012

Well, let's see. Jeremiah the kids and I went to a farm auction 2 weekends ago. We always manage to hit these things when the weather is unbearable. The last one, in Oct. we froze to death and while I probably looked a lot less silly than my cousin, Lois, in Paris, I looked a lot stupider than the auctioneer's helper who had a blanket tied 'round her waist to keep warm. I had a quilt draped over my shoulders. Her blanket skirt wrap thingy was a lot cooler, I thought..er, warmer, as it were.

While I don't remember the entire story about my cousin Lois,the short story goes like this (I hope this is somewhat close to the truth as I am sure she'll be reading this =). She became very ill while visiting Africa one year. After seeing a handful of medicine men and still not getting better, on her way back home, the layover was in Paris. She just had to go get some "modern" remedy for her ailments but it was cold in Paris and, after just coming from Africa where it was HOT, the only clothing she had was summer attire. Needing medicine so badly, she braved fashion crazed PARIS wearing summer clothes wrapped in a blanket! I about die of laughter envisioning this and while my quilt draped shoulders do not come close to the comedy of my cousin wandering the streets of Paris, it was still a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, so this time, in July, as I am sure you can imagine, we were not freezing. We were sweltering! I can't even remember the main items we were there fore but I'll tell you what we brought home: a bread machine for $6, in which I am making bread in it for the first time right now. I didn't know I kneaded (ha ha ha, very funny) a bread machine but a machine that does everything start to finish minus putting the ingredients in is pretty nifty (!), a manual meat grinder for a whole $2.50, some crap for the kids that they spent entirely too much for that I am sure will end up going to the Goodwill the next time I we clean up their rooms but it gave them a sense of pride to buy so who am I to say otherwise (?), a badminton set (didn't know we needed one of those either but it home with us anyway) and some hydraulic cylinders. Now, the stuff we usually go for in the first place (bale spears, cattle panels, things of that nature) always end up selling for a mint. Like, cost of new, mint! People are stupid, I guess.

The cylinders were the big buy saving us, yes I'm serious, over $500! Jeremiah is going to build a log splitter. Nifty right? The tractor we bought has rear hydraulics, meaning we can run implements off the back that require hydraulics...like log splitters! And God knows we need a log splitter who goes by another name other than Amanda and Jeremiah. Now, if we could get a log stacker who goes by another name other than Rachel and Drew, that would be the life!

You would not believe the old...er, older, ~~geezers~~ people out there. I am surprised the paramedics only had to come out once for someone with heat exhaustion. I guess those old Kansas farmers are used to that heat! The kids and I mostly hung out in the shade of the trees up near the house. These auctions are a hoot, really.

In other news, the kids start school a week from Friday. Their school day is being extended by half an hour (!)- 10 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon! They will get out of school May 2 and start back up again after Labor day in 2013. There was a new bond issue that passed recently that is putting a lot of money into the school district, the sad part is that the kids' school will be closing. I am heartbroken about this. They have 2 years left and honestly, I am just lost as to where to put them and after all the issues that went on last year with other students, and with the other schools being farther away than I would like, I seriously contemplate homeschooling. Course, I am not sure Jeremiah is all that on board with this, but it's not something we've discussed in depth.

It's been a busy summer and I can hardly believe it's almost over. Jeremiah's was even shorter! He spend a week in Kansas City, a few days in New Orleans and then, thankfully, this year's teacher's conferences were in Wichita so they just drove back and forth daily.

We've got some trips planned for the coming year- Christmas in Ca. and next summer in WV and maybe a spring break trip down to San Antonio to meet up with with my brother and fam. But, in the mean time we're gearing up for winter here on the farm. WINTER? Yep, winter. 'Round about this time we start thinking of all the things that are going to need to take place to get us through. I do like fall, however fall means winter is no more a thing of the past and if you don't already know, I HATE winter! The mere thought of being a season closer makes me hate it that much more. But, if winter meant another chance at a decent summer, I'll take it...I guess.

We're quitting our 4-H group and we're going to attend another in Sept./Oct. I won't go in to too much detail about why other than to say we don't feel the one we're at is the right fit, hopefully this other one will be more suitable.

As I speak, I've got bread doing something in the bread machine. We're having pot roast and mashed potatoes for dinner. It's raining out and looks cold, but it's not. I am sitting at the kitchen table watching the rain fall into the pool and I can see the chickens out in the pen trying to figure out how to get through the fence. When the clouds were threatening to send rain down about 3 hours ago the girls wandered in from the pasture and have not left the barn since. Imagine that!

I had a gentleman stop by yesterday carrying a bunch of "Mother Earth" type magazines trying to sell me dental and life insurance...I think. That was super weird.

The garden is growing well...We almost have a few melons ready. I am planning next year's garden and setting aside seeds from some of my favorites this year to replant. Our potatoes look really good and I can't wait until it's time to dig those babies up!

The piggies are doing well. I thought one of the piggies had a case of pink eye. His eye was all red and goopy but I concluded that since the others didn't have it, he probably did not either being as how it's so contagious and he's had this now for at least a week. I am not about to go and try to pick him up. One squeal is enough to for me to just leave him the heck alone and let him be, he seems to look better today. They are friendly, although, I should share Rachel's sign...

She had gone in to the pen to do something or other and one of the piggies thought they'd see if her feet tasted good. Fortunately the pig was not intent on actually taking a bite but nonetheless, she felt it was important to post a cautionary sign anyway.

They like scratches and the male and female black and white one love to be hosed down. They spend most of the day behind their shelter and don't spend a lot of time in the mud pit at all so I stopped making it muddy and just hose them down when I go out around noon to check water buckets.

Well, I guess that's about all. Same old same old, with a little new stuff mixed in. Bye for now.

Some friends of ours (with 2 kids, a boy and a girl, nearly the same age as ours) told me about this world wide "treasure hunting" phenomenon called "Geocaching". Nowadays you use your cell phone as a GPS or a portable car GPS, put in coordinates, and go find boxes, bobbles, containers, and the like all over. They are literally hidden everywhere.

While Matt, Tonya and the girls (Jeremiah's brother, sister-in-law and their 3 girls for those who don't know) were visting in July, we set out to Carey Park to find such treasures. We found one, the other -despite wading across the Arkansas River, loosing a shoe, and looking for a "camouflaged" container in the trees on the island- eluded us. But it was still fun!

The kids spend nearly the entire week building a fort in a grove of ceder trees. It was hot again this year for their visit...miserable!

Bethany and Rachel reading some of the helpful clues to help us locate the "cache"

Not all of them have goodies inside, sometimes they are just a log to write your name on but my understanding is if you take a treasure out, you put one back in. Not knowing what kind we'd find, we gave each of the children a coin to exchange for stickers.