All Things Bright and Beautiful

Some pictures I've been able to capture around our home recently reminded me of an old hymn, "All Things Bright and Beautiful"...

All Things Bright...

(A young cherry tree that blossomed bright blossoms for the first time.)

and Beautiful,

(A young apple tree that blossomed beautiful blossoms for the first time.)

All Creatures Great...

(New calves that came that will grow to a great size.)

and Small,

(A small Bluebird seen on our fence post.)

All Things Wise and Wonderful,

(Pic from Wikipedia, although we did have a wise and wonderfully handsome owl as a 'guest' recently.)

The Lord God Made Them All

In seeing these things, I can't help but stop in awe of the beauty and wonder of God's creation.  A welcome pause in the busyness of life. :-)

The Recent Addition to our Little Farm

Rich and I had been talking recently on how it would be nice to have a few chickens to have some fresh eggs. We've had chickens in the past, but they didn't last long or never produced any eggs, so no luck in the egg department. Then last week Rich's mom mentioned that a local summer camp was looking at getting rid of their poultry. They were free, so why not try again, right? We ended up with 6 chickens and 1 rooster. Here are a few pics of their arrival:

This last picture is of what we were hoping for-EGGS! They started laying on the third day of being here and we got 4 brown eggs and 1 green one that day. As you can see, the kids thought it was pretty neat too. :-)

On a side note-we now think we know what we want to do with our old outhouse. We're hoping to make it into a chicken coop! The pen in the barn is a little on the small side for them and the outhouse is just sitting there uninhabited. We'll just need to put up a fence and they'll have all sorts of room! :-)

The Tractor Ride

Rich had the opportunity to work in the field yesterday. (When I say 'had the opportunity', I mean that he hasn't worked ground in nearly 2 years and the excitement he had was comparable to Morgan on her birthday!) He spent the morning working for his brother's landscaping business, then went straight to working ground for his grandpa's farm. (For having Fridays off, he has been really quite busy!)

The kids and I spent the day babysitting again. After the little guy left, I got dinner together and the kids and I ate without Rich, who was still in the field. He had invited us to come out to ride in the tractor with him, but Blake had a short nap and was whiny and grouchy all afternoon, so I wasn't sure that we would make it. We finished up dinner and the kids got their baths and into their pajamas. Blake continued his grouchiness, so I decided that maybe going for a ride in both the car and the tractor might actually be a good idea. (It was either that or he was going to drive me nuts! LOL!)

I put the kids in their coats and shoes and loaded them into the car (still in their pj's) and we took off for the field Rich was in. When we got there Rich drove over to pick us up and I snapped a few pictures. (It was the first time the kids got to ride in the tractor, so I had to bring the camera!)
It turned out that there was plenty of room for all four of us to ride, so I hopped in and we took off. Here are a couple highlights of the ride:

• Both Morgan and I ended up having to use the outdoor facilities. I haven't had to do that probably since I was five! It was definitely Morgan's first time and you'll understand how it went if I just say that I wouldn't let her ride on my lap afterwards and we changed her clothes as soon as we got home! LOL!
  
• We saw a few deer and a wild turkey up close, which was fun for the kids. We saw one very small fawn a little too close, though. Luckily Rich was watching behind him at the time and stopped quickly (along with saying a few choice words). The fawn had been laying in the weeds and almost got run over with the discs. As far as we could tell, he ran off unharmed.
• After seeing the size of some of the stones in the field, we decided that next year the kids would be old enough to help pick up rocks. We think they would have fun, since it is something that Rich and I enjoyed doing when we were younger.

We all ended up having a great time! I wished we could have stayed longer, but both kids were tired and needed to get home and in bed. Rich stayed out working the field as long as he could, while he had the 'opportunity'. :-)