Have a great day! 

When I was out walking the other day, I stopped by the hen house. Although the nesting box could use a little more straw, the hens were faithfully laying--9 eggs from 9 hens! 

Here is a sampling of my daughter's hand-quilted placemats and a hot pad. Her grandmother taught her how to hand-quilt and she is working on a set of six placemats. How fun! 

It's that time of the year--if you come to visit me you will find a pot of simmering soup on top of a crackling fire and kitty cats all gathered 'round to soak in the heat from the warm floor tiles! 

When the woodstove is going, the kitties sleep in the sunporch most of the day. Snowflake is always stretched out in the silliest of ways! 

Fall

Early morning ribbons of fog twist like meandering streams
Amongst the hills.

Shafts of sunlight pierce the mist mingled with smoke
From my just-stoked woodstove.

A cheerful littering of yellow leaves lie beneath the tall maples,
Whose thinning branches stand stark against the sky.

A Wisconsin autumn, in all its quiet beauty, has come.
Jean in Wisconsin


A horse grazes in the distant valley partially
hidden by the ribbons of fog.

Autumn beauty 

A new trio of lawn ornaments... I think we need to do some fencing. I never was into lawn ornaments, myself, but these are kind of cute! I'm not sure I like their calling cards, however. 

And So...

There are times I click on “comments” and I get a message that says I’m forbidden to access the page. Ooooookay. I wonder if this has been happening to any of you? If I hit “back” and try again, I usually can access the comments page. ???

Thanks for all your comments! I’ve been re-reading them and thought I’d try to respond to a few of them. I’m glad you enjoy my photos and little stories. It is fun to share them! It is also fun to read your little stories left as gift packages in my mailbox. Thanks!

Donna, you are going to have to find a time to bring Katie down to see the kitties. Tell her that they have never come to me with a sore paw that has a sliver in it, so I suppose their fur protects them. They all seem to enjoy hiding in the wood box!

Kim, is you kitty getting use to living in his new home? Are you? I suppose I should visit your blog more often and find out on my own, right? I’ve not been blog cruising at all lately. I have cut back on my computer time and it all just does not get done. Sigh.

Shakespeare has not returned and now Aslan is missing, too. It has been a hard year for the kitties! Thanks for all your responses to our little Citrus. When I count the cats to be sure they have all come for a meal, I recall all the ones we are missing and wonder…

Some day I should plan to have a Shades of White reunion and all of you could come to share s’mores around the campfire and time under the stars. I’ve always wanted to build an A-frame cabin overlooking the pond. Now wouldn’t that be a nice place to stay when you come to visit? I don’t think I’ll open a B&B, though, Jill. I’d rather have a little place I could retreat to when I needed some time alone.

Dy, the wonderful tanning process has come to an end. I guess the poor woodchuck remained too long in the frig and rigormortis set in. JM decided not to finish the task, and he buried it. He had planned to brain tan the hide. Sorry—no photos.

O.K. I need to go back to grading papers and learning logic. High school is a lot harder than the elementary years! I’m really enjoying the VP Omnibus. The Teaching Company’s Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition have been very interesting, too. Now if only I could spend another 4 or 5 hours a day reading…

Blessings!

In the dead of the night we will find an outside cat mewing to be let outside. The hiding place? The woodbox! Be sure to check before tossing an arm-load into the box! 

Combining the soybeans 

Emptying the hopper into the gravity box 

At the American Royal in Kansas City

My daughter competed at the American Royal 4-H meats competition last week—this is the most difficult 4-H competition for meats held each year. There were about 70 high school students representing 18 states. The competition was fierce! Six of the students had a perfect score of 300 on Retail ID—Bethany was one of them. They judged beef, pork, and lamb, having to give memorized reasons in front of the judge to explain why they placed different cuts of meat and hanging carcasses as they did. There were about 750 possible points that they could receive when all of the sections of the competition were added up, and many of the students’ placements were determined by a one-point difference in score.

Bethany came in at 7th place—just 5 points behind the 3rd place winner who received a $500 scholarship. The Wisconsin team took 7th place as well. I’m impressed, and she’s thrilled!

Congratulations, Bethany!


Bethany standing outside the
American Royal with her two
ribbons--one for Retail ID, the
other for her 7th place individual
placement

Taking Leave

I’m sorry to have been gone so long. I've been trying to get the household ready for my daughter and me to be away for a few days. Bethany will be meats judging in a 4-H national contest in Kansas on Thursday, and I am going with her. I’ve gotten my mother moved to an apartment and her house is listed for sale. We’ve been very busy.

I want to let you all know that one of the posters a few days ago was my sister! I was so excited to have her drop a note. Thanks, Diane!

I took some pictures of my hubby combining soybeans last week. You’ll have to wait for them to get posted—I don’t think I’ll take my computer with me this week.

I should be back by Saturday. Have a wonderful week!

Blessings.


This was taken a few days ago when our neighbors were
combining. The farmers are in their busy season now!

Grandpa heading out to spray weeds 

Gardening

Today I went outside to weed my flower and herb garden. Blackie came by and sat in the grass by me while I weeded around the sage. I tried not to throw the weeds on top of him. About the time I had made it to the lavender, Mama Kitty walked over and rubbed her fuzzy body against me. She kept on going. I got to the chives and wondered why they were flattened against the ground; chives normally grow tall and upright.

Ruffy walked by and sat a few feet away from me while I weeded around the bleeding heart. I talked to her and she looked at me with her all-knowing stare. Then she walked around the end of the garage and was off for an evening stroll. As I headed down again along the back of the garden, Ears saw me and greeted me with his soft, purring mew. He rubbed against my legs and then curled up comfortably—on my chives.

Now we know!


The culprit

Our old Oliver tractor. Soybean harvest has begun. We hope to defy the weatherman and have a couple of dry days this week! 

Thoughts from my Big Green Chair

I sat down this afternoon to look up a quote in Elisabeth Elliot’s Keep a Quiet Heart because I wanted to share it with you. Now I cannot find it. Even so, I can share with you my thoughts. These are not new thoughts, but I am a slow learner and need to study the lesson once more.

Have you ever felt as though your family expects just a little too much out of you? I do. Some days I get upset at them.

“Why does it appear as though none of you have figured out how to put a role of toilet paper on the dispenser?”

“All right! Who washed lunch dishes? Come right back out here and wipe down the counter and this time do NOT leave a lake around the sink! You’ve left such a big puddle that my recipe file is flooded!”

“It was very nice for you to start a load of laundry. However, when you do not get it out of the washing machine, it begins to mold. I do not enjoy spending half a day trying to get the smell out of a load of clothes.”

My list goes on and on. Those little tasks of wiping splatters off the floor around the toilet, sweeping dirt that came off of boots that were not removed when entering the house, and taking out the compost when it was on someone’s “to do” list is just a small list of those things that I think they should not leave for me to do. I’m willing to do their laundry, clean house, cook and homeschool, but enough is enough. These things show a lack of respect and make extra work for me when I am already working hard just to take care of their needs.

And then Elisabeth tells me that Jesus did the tasks of the humble. He washed feet. We need to do “humble work.”

Humble work. I am called to do what I consider “beneath me.” Those tasks that are assigned to me that are unreasonable are “humble work.” I am to do it in honor of my Lord. Teaching my children to wipe things up and keep things clean is also part of the humble work because it has to be done a ridiculous number of times before anything “sticks.”

The Empty Canvas

An empty canvas waits before the Painter
It waits to be the painting it must be
Unto this end it’s rightfully been created
To reflect the rightful beauty the Painter sees
A beauty that will surely find its life within its dying
So another might be born again
And in this constant death a constant beauty is created
Within a constant love that never ends

Jesus is the Master Painter
The Holy Spirit is the Master’s Brush
To be dipped within the colors
That portray a Father’s love
That the Master’s painting might be born of us
To portray the beauty of the Master’s Brush
That the canvas of our life might know the Master’s touch

An empty canvas waits before the Painter
An empty canvas destined to be hung
Within the gallery once it has been created
Will the canvas bear the beauty of God’s Son?
By John Michael Talbot and Terry Talbot

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John Michael Talbot is one of my favorite composers. I prefer his early albums that have him singing his simple but deep songs accompanied by guitar and orchestra. Someday I will need to buy a record player or new CDs so that I can play those again. They speak to me even today as strains of the songs float through my mind...

Blessings.