Meet Charlie, Maisy, and Grace

Our neighbor has beautiful pasture that he pays someone to cut. 

 Bob kept saying, "Seriously?!"

So together with our neighbor, we bought three dexter cows.

 And yes, they're being raised Joel Salatin style...rotating pastures of grass...nothin' but grass.

Good Bye Summer. Hello School.

Every year we get back from a great week at Black Rock and the following week school begins.  Its a great way to end the summer, but it always ends so abruptly!

It takes a few days to grieve the end of summer, but by the time we get home from school orientation the kids are ready to let go of summer and embrace the school year.

This is a big year for us as Max will start Kindergarten.  I wish I could explain to you what an amazing feat this actually is...you just have to know Max.  That's all I'll say here.

Jack (7th), Emily (5th), Samuel  (3rd) and Max (K)

Max doesn't look too thrilled in this picture, but he was so excited it was hilarious.

Abby is going to miss her siblings, but is excited for some homeschool pre-school and playing with Drew (who we couldn't convince to be part of the picture).

Piglets

Our neighbor was the one who got us into raising pigs.  He actually called one day to ask if we could keep a couple of piglets for us until they got big enough to go with his bigger Tamworth pigs.  Of course we said yes, and they've been with us ever since.  Over time we agreed that we would share the cost of feed and care of the animals, so together we are raising pigs.

Penny, just gave birth to 8 little piglets.  Here they are on day 3.

Now they are a few weeks old

Five of the eight piglets were male.  If you want to eat the meat of a pig, the males need to be castrated.  So Bob watched a youtube video (is there anything you can't find on youtube??) and we went to work.  I will spare you the video, but here's a picture of the little guy before the trama.

Never would have thought I would have helped to castrate a piglet!!!

4th Annual Trip to Black Rock Family Camp

We just LOVE family camp at Black Rock.  The kids start talking about it in January when we register.  It definitely was the highlight of the summer.

I did a terrible job of remembering my camera (do you see a theme beginning to unfold here??), but here is what I got.

The forecast was calling for rain later in the week, but the first day was beautiful so we headed to the lake.

 Brayden and Jack being their normal selves.

 Abby has mastered the floatie ring all by herself...a big step for her!

Drew didn't even need his floaties.  Who needs water when there's all this sand?!?!

Jack spent quite a bit of time trying to catch a fish and he finally got one!

The blob is always fun.

Here's a video of Jer bouncing Emily into the water...

And I have to add in a couple of gaga shots...

And here is some of the crew waiting for the nightly field games to begin...

 ...Josh had better get here quick...they're going crazy!!

Amy, being the supervisor of Safari while carrying Drew around. Love you Amy!

Jack is ready to zip!

 Way to go, Tyler! His first time to climb the rock wall...and he made it the whole way up!

There's always got to be one kid who can't give us a normal smile (usually Max).


And my favorite part of Black Rock...meals that I didn't make and friends all around...Love it!!  With the amount of food our kids all eat, Black Rock has to be losing money on us!

We all may look a bit raggedy on the last morning...

 Doing hair at breakfast is part of the schedule.

The week before Black Rock we always write what we're looking forward to on the chalk board in our kitchen.  Most answers include gaga, the lake, safari, etc.  This year Max said playing chess with Adelyn, so we had to get a picture of that:

Tyler was excellent at being Max's buddy and babysitter this year.  Thanks Tyler!

I love my friends!!

Our group photo from 4 years ago

Until next year everyone!!!

Summer Visitors

This summer we have had quite a few visitors.  Unfortunately I wasn't on the ball all the time and ended up forgetting to take pictures, but here are a few.

 Pappa Paul came out to preach for us and stayed for the weekend.  Both he and Drew are enjoying the tractor:)

 Next, Kara and the kids came out for a few days.  And here's Jenna!!

Peter and Drew just hanging out!

The Shareks came out for the weekend before Black Rock.  The kids enjoyed a quick round of mini golf.

 Nice form, Abby!!

Gotta love the slip n slide!!

Charlie and Petunia

We just uploaded pictures from Bob's phone onto the computer.  There were pictures from years ago!

These were some cute ones of Emily with Charlie and Petunia.