Sweet Corn

After the silking is done Mom cuts all the kernels off the corn into a big tub then we cook it on the stove for a little bit, then take the cooked corn and dump it on pans to cool off. After it is cooled we put it in bags then freeze it. In this picture mom is a little under half way done with cutting the corn off. We did around 75 quarts of corn!! It is always a very good feeling when you are done and you load it all in the freezers.
Silking sweet corn. After you husk the sweet corn you get to go over each cob and take all the "strings" off. And you know it is sweet, sweet corn if you get pretty sticky in this process.

Picking sweet corn. We all helped Grandma do sweet corn after our Michigan trip.

This is the cabin we stayed in. It worked out well it was pretty small so I was very thankful it didn't rain everyday otherwise we would have had some serious cabin fever! The kiddos are ready to head to Michigan and stay again soon.

Michigan Motorcycle Track
BJ and the guys had a great time on the "Big Boy" track!


Michigan 4-wheeler Track
Wow, Gideon, Cody and Ethan had such a great time on their 4- wheelers this week. We went to a track specially made just for little boys and it was full of mud. A dream come true to Gideon!! We only had to warn him a couple times about going to fast over the jumps, otherwise he did a great job and is ready to go back again!

I was so proud of BJ he got up the hill the first time he tried! It was the harder of the 2 hills at this sight. There was another hill down the trail a little ways that they called the "impossible hill" and they didn't even try that one because they didn't want to tear up their bikes! I was just fine with that idea!

Our Newest Addition
This is Leah, our new Border Collie puppy. She is so cute and very busy so she fits right into our family! The only negative is that she loves chasing cars so we are in the process of breaking her of that. If you have any ideas feel free to let us know.

Happy Birthday Rachel
It was only 75 degrees outside but they went swimming on Rachel's birthday just like she wanted. Thank goodness for Grandpa. He made a nice fire to warm up by!

Florida Pictures
I know it was a long time ago but I had to post a couple of our Florida trip we went on. This pic is on the boat on the cruise to the Bahamas. It was a long boat ride 5 hours one way but it was a fun experience!
This is an iguana that was by our pool at the motel. He was the biggest one of the bunch so we took a picture of him. Mo tried to get him to jump into the water that was beside him but he just puffed up and slowly moved to a better hiding spot. There were 5 iguanas and countless little lizards all over the pool area.
This is Mo and Kay playing in the ocean. It was so nice outside and the water was a little cool but not bad at all. There were these little fish that would come up and nibble at our red toe nail polish while we were looking for shells.

BJ got this great idea to make small bales out of the grass that is around the pond. So on this beautiful night Johnathon and him started out. Halfway through he called me and asked if I could come get Johnathon. So I headed out on the ranger and picked him up. But John was missing his brand new very green croc that Grandma Leaverton bought for him. (how he ended up with those on I don't know.) So we went on the lookout for a green croc in a whole bunch of very nice freshly cut green hay. I thought for sure that we would never find it again unless by some off chance the guy we sold the hay to would find it in a bale and give it back. Not very likely. Then all of a sudden Johnathon hollered "there it is!" and he actually had found it. I couldn't believe it. We were pretty excited!








BJ and Rachel worked on putting wire to my chicken shed so that when they start laying we can give them 16 hours of light so that they continue to lay through the winter months. Which is good considering they don't start laying until November. :) I think we only have 1 rooster out of 16 chickens so we should get quite a few eggs everyday. Gideon is our little chicken helper and he goes out every morning and opens the little door for them to come out and every night he puts them away. Sometimes he has to go to bed before they are ready to sleep so then Dad or Mom have to put them in.

Slow computer

I have tried for the last hour to import photos and I cannot get any of them to even come close to importing. Even if I do them one at a time. I don't know if it is my computer or if it is the internet connection. Bummer. I will try again later, maybe it will work better. I have so many good pictures I want to share with you all so I will keep trying. Thanks for your patience!

RACING

RACING

Wow, it has been way to long since I have done anything. Please forgive me! It is amazing how slow our internet gets when all the kids are out of school spending all their free time on the computer.
I will try to get the highlights of the last month put in without boring you or overwhelming you!





One thing that comes with summer is racing. We have had a great few weeks working on and driving the race car. BJ is getting better and better every week and is really doing great! We have had a few rain dates but for the most part he has been at all the races in Osky and they also drive to Bloomfield on Fri nights sometimes. Mike and Kurt have been great crew help and everyone has helped out at the shop. It is really amazing how important the set up of the car is to how well it races or not!




Wow, it has been way to long since I have done anything. Please forgive me! It is amazing how slow our internet gets when all the kids are out of school spending all their free time on the computer.
I will try to get the highlights of the last month put in without boring you or overwhelming you!

Spring Planting and Spraying

This is Dad driving sprayer on one of Uncle Doug's farms. He has been doing most of the spraying again this year but every once in a while Mark and BJ fill in when needed.



This is BJ planting the Edel farm. He is really enjoying having the Cat tractor on the new John Deere planter. They have been able to get all their corn in, but it has been a little rainy so the bean planting is going a little slower. I sure enjoy having him home in the evenings on those rainy days even though it really prolongs the process. It will be nice when it is all done though too.

Happy 7th Birthday Gideon

Gideon wanted a Light Saber cake. Light Sabers are used in Star Wars so thank goodness for the internet we kind of had an idea of what to do. I don't know that anyone else knew what they were but Gideon did and he liked them, so that is all that matters. We had a good Sunday lunch and enjoyed family to celebrate his birthday. It is so hard to believe he is 7 years old. He is reading and spelling very well, he loves to ride his 4-wheeler, go fishing, and climb on the monkey bars at school. He is getting good at being responsible and has jobs that he does everyday for me and for Dad. He is a wonderful big brother that knows he is an example to his sister and brother and he usually takes that very seriously. We are so very proud of him!

Moriah and Alex's Prom

North Mahaska Prom
This is my beautiful little sister and her date Alex. Alex lives in New Sharon and today they went to his prom. She had her hair done, then did her own makeup at my house. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the back of her dress. It was a lace up and it was so pretty!! She also wore a pair of purple converse tennis shoes. It was so cute! She is growing up so much and I am so proud of her!

Mark was great and allowed BJ to borrow his trackhoe for a couple hours the other day. BJ had lots of fun and got all the ditches cleaned out, so now the water won't wash away the field driveway. It looks nice, but the ditch is quite a bit deeper now.

First Grade Chapel

This is Gideon's first grade class. They had to lead chapel for the month. They did a very good job. Gideon even had a speaking part. It was lots of fun and he really did well at memorizing his parts, singing and doing the actions. We were very proud of him.

Chickens

We got new baby chickens last week and they have been so much fun. The kids have cuddled and harassed the birds so much. All 16 are still with us though thank goodness. They are lots of fun to watch and can be quite entertaining.

The other day Rachel came out of her room and said "look mommy." I looked and her and Johnathon had stuck chicks into these little spring buckets. They looked pretty cute but they were not very impressed with the idea.It has been a week since we got them and they have changed so much in just this week! They all have long wing feathers and they are beginning to look more like chickens everyday. I kind of wish they stayed cute a little longer. Oh well, fresh eggs will make up for it I suppose. :)