Vacation

Well we just got back on Wednesday from our summer vacation. We went on a tour of South Dakota. We started out from our house and meandered down to De Smet first, it is one of the homesites for Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have been reading her books since I was in second grade, and to this day still read the entire series at least once a year. I told Jeff that she was my imaginary friend and I spent lots of my childhood wishing I were her. We got to tour the origional Ingalls homestead area, her parents home, and see the graves of her family. It was neat. Some day I am going to get to Missouri and see her final farm there.

Next day we took off and headed to Mitchell, there was the corn palace, that was such a disappointment, but we got to spend some time swimming in the pool so that was good.

Next day we went to Rapid City and that is where most of our time was spent, we went and saw Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse memorial, Bear Country USA, The Reptile Gardens...Went on the presidential Alpine slide, basically it is a chair lift to the top of one of the big hills, then you go down a big concrete slide in a scooter....I am terrified of heights so the ride up was pretty nerve racking, but the slide down was a hoot! I loved the beautiful scenery in the black hills, it is a world away from the flat land of our farm. I imagined what it would have like to have been a pioneer there.

We finally meandered to Bismarck North Dakota, and spent a night there in a neat hotel with a 2 story waterslide, that was really fun, and then headed home. So now we are just trying to get back into the swing of things at home. We should start harvest in about 2 weeks so lots of last minute preparations for that and I "think" our new grain dryer will be getting installed this week as well.

Home at Last

Here are some pictures from the lake...many more on FB but these are cute so thought I would share. I have always thought it was a little crazy how both for Jeff and I , going places is so much fun, but it is always just as fun to come home to our own house. We got back mid-afternoon from the lake and it was obvious to everyone that we were all really glad to be home. Big Bro and Big Sis disappeared upstairs to their space, Lil Bro spent most of the evening listening to his favorite movies and playing with his cars and tractors on the floor, and Jeff and I just relaxed.

Crops are looking decent, all jeff's hard work of spraying for weeds has helped clean up our fields nicely, and all of our wheat is headed out and some of the fields are already starting to turn from Green to Gold...that means harvest isn't too far away!

We had a great 4th of July at the lake, lots of swimming, tubing, paddleboating and sun! Lots of Good Food and family, couldn't have asked for nicer weather...well there was the 5 inches of rain on Saturday night, but we were snug in the camper so it didn't really bother us that much.

Got home and I am getting flowers on my tomato plants, and my corn is now knee high, my radishes are the size of big marbles, so that looks promising...oh and my blueberries are starting to turn blue on the tree...Little Bro is VERY excited about that.

Can't wait to see what we actually harvest from it.

Summer=Crazy

In our house nice weather equals craziness!! When the sun is shining that means that Daddy is absent and working hard, which means mommy is working hard as well making sure things are running smooth...not always and easy task with 3 kids, 8 animals, one ramshackle farm house, and a hired man. :) Some days I have time to sit and actually talk to my friends via email, and maybe read a chapter or two of a book, and there are days I am lucky if I get 5 minutes to go to the bathroom myself!

The last week has been action packed. Lots of yard work.. Got our lawn mowed again this week, which is no small accomplishment, it takes about 3 hours to get it all done on the rider, got my flower beds weeded again, and got a few more veggies planted in my garden and got that weeded as well. The garden and I are still in that hate/hate state...It still wants to grow grass and I want it to grow vegetables.

Got to spend some time with just the boys hanging out as Big Sis was gone visiting family. It is always interesting being the only female in a house full of boys!

Tomorrow am we are getting up early, packing up and hopefully going to be on the road by 10am to the lake. My inlaws have a camper across the road from my Aunt in laws cabin at a resort, and the kids and I love spending time there, we never seem to get there as much as we want, but try to make the most of the time we get there. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July and hope you all stay safe!