Hello, dears!
“Day in the life” posts are so fun to read, aren’t they? Since I enjoy reading them, I thought I’d better get on it and make one myself. 🙂 Instead of documenting an actual entire day, I reconstructed what a normal day looks like for me. Well, okay… many days I’ll do errands, go to church-related events, get together with friends, etc. but this is what I usually do on “stay at home days.” 🙂 I hope you guys enjoy!
Hello, dears!
I’m SO excited to post this photoshoot, because I think it’s one of my favorites ever! The evening was certainly wonderful. ❤ Plus, the lighting was so perfect I didn’t have to edit most of these at all! Definitely a bonus. Continue reading
Hello, dears? How goes life? I’ll bet you’re all having so much fun starting school again after Thanksgiving break, am I right? Ha. *sigh*
Anyway, a friend recently brought some of her cows to one of our pastures and they are SO CUTE. So much cuter than the boring ol’ Holstein cows in our barns. XD So the other day Megan and I decided to go do a little photoshoot of them, because how could we not? (Note: I did edit all these pictures (some more than others), which is unusual for me. But the lighting was kind of gray and gross, so they needed touching up. XD)
I shall start with the most adorable of the cows. ♥ We call her Rainbow because that’s the name in her ear tag, but I don’t know what her real name is (or if she has one).
SO ADORABLE! I love her eyes! ♥
Doesn’t she look so sweet?
I was trying to get a picture of her tongue out, and I… sort of did?
This enormous guy is the one bull in the pasture. Don’t worry, we didn’t get trampled on or anything like that; he actually seems pretty calm. But we stayed outside the fence anyway. XD
He is HUGE compared to the cows.
I love all the different variations in color and patterns. 🙂 (AND THE BOKEH in the background.)
Look at the marking on her forehead! ♥
This might be the one my cousin called “Einstein” because of her fuzzy white hair. XD
The spotted sisters. XD (Actually I don’t know that they’re sisters, but it’s, um… prosaic license, heh heh?)
Rainbow again. ♥ Her coloring and big, dark eyes remind me of my rabbit, Lily. XD
And this other random cow who was similar to Rainbow but not as pretty…
“HEY, careful with your words, there, person-with-the-black-clicking-thing. I happen to know my face is beautiful, and that you should really be focusing on ME, not those boring dried weeds.”
“There. Better. Although that fence…”
Sorry, cow, you’ll have to make do with barbed wire in your face. Or you could have just BACKED UP A BIT, ahem?
“*glares* Hmph. All the other cows were crowding around to see what you were doing, so how could I not? Peer pressure is a hard thing, you know. Especially if you’re a cow.”
Mmm, I suppose so. What with stampeding and all that…
“There, finally you’re sounding more reasona- HEY. YOU DID IT AGAIN.”
Well maybe sisters and red plaid shirts are more… shall we say, photogenic than angry cows?
“I AM NOT ANGRY. I mean… On the contrary, I am quite calm. See? NOW GET THAT GREEN STUFF OUT OF MY FACE.”
It’s vetch, my dear bovine. V-E-T-C-H. You know what, I think I’ll just end this conversation right here since you obviously won’t listen to anything I say anyway. Sheesh, cows can be so stubborn…
“WAIT-”
Goodbye.
****************
Heh heh, cow conversations are fun to write. XD I hope you enjoyed reading it and the rest of the post! Which cow or picture was your favorite?
Oh, and before you go, check out the two interviews I did recently! Rebecca did one with me and Buttercup did the other. Both girls’ questions were great and fun to answer, and I think you guys would have fun reading them too. 😉
This Labor Day we did something a different than an ordinary picnic or cook-out. Since Dad and the boys were out harvesting corn, Mom suggested that we girls pack a lunch and just go out and walk around the farm. So we did! It was quite fun.
We packed some sandwiches, mint tea, chips, and a couple other things which I can’t remember (XD), and took along backpacks filled with books and cameras.
This is my cucumber sandwich. Say hello. I didn’t want to waste the bread crusts after I cut out the sandwich, so I flattened them with a rolling pin, spread some cream cheese on, and rolled them up into roses. 😛
First we headed past a place we call “The Sycamores” because… there are a lot of huge sycamore trees by the creek. 
I found some lovely periwinkle morning glories along the path. Aren’t they charming?
We finally settled on a pretty, peaceful corner of the pasture filled with smartweed – a dainty little pink flower. We spread out a blanket, hung the hammock, and relaxed.
I did a really fun, cute photoshoot with my little sister here, but this post would be insanely long if I included all those photos oh wait it already is, so I’ll save it for later. Anyway, this was a great spot for taking pictures of little things. My favorite! 😀
The scenery was more scrubby here than the rest of our farm, but still pretty.
Trees are nice.
After we ate lunch and read for a while, we decided to move to a different spot. We crossed the barbwire fence (no easy feat in this pasture), walked over the field, up the hill, down a lane, and up another hill to a beautiful hidden spot behind a pasture. We’d never been there before, which is something rare since we’ve walked pretty much everywhere on our farm, and it was delightful to explore it.
Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures with my camera because it ran out of battery, but Megan lent me hers.
HA HA cows are such funny creatures. XD
I had the idea to play mancala while we were there. (Have you ever played that? It’s really fun!) I dug out some holes in the dirt with a stick and used corn kernels for the marbles. It actually worked!
It’s really hard to see on camera, but Carmen and I built a great fort around this perfect square of trees. There were huge logs scattered everywhere (one pile was in a huge sinkhole O.o ). They made great walls but were exhausting to carry. We didn’t finish the fort, but we did make a good start.
Mom and Carmen and I also built this little campfire area in a pretty shaded nook. We stacked stones for a firepit, hauled in some rocks and stumps for chairs, and made benches from logs and rocks. 🙂 It was fun.
Mom also found this really odd-looking spider. O.o (She’s for you, Clara. 😉 )
In the evening our whole family came up and had a picnic with us, and a bonfire too.
So that’s what we did for Labor Day! It was great fun, even though the mosquitoes practically devoured me. I got over 40 mosquito bites (yes, I counted XD). O.o Anyway, the memories will last for much longer than the bites will, so it’s all good.
I hope you enjoyed this loooong post, my dears! Which was your favorite picture? Which was your least favorite? What did you do for Labor Day?
***Allison***
Hello, dearest readers, and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! I hope you let your mom know how much you appreciate her hard work. I certainly do appreciate my mom’s hard work! She’s does so much for us – cooking food for seven people three times a day, cleaning the house, homeschooling five kids… so much work, with so much love and patience. ♥ Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! 😀
After supper today we went on a Green Truck Ride with the whole family for fun and kind of also to celebrate Mother’s Day. (In case you’re wondering, a “Green Truck Ride” is when the kids hop on the back of Dad’s old, restored, mint-green truck and Mom and Dad drive us around the farm. 🙂 It’s always quite fun.)
Of COURSE I brought my camera, and even got some neat pictures to show you guys. What a surprise, huh? XD (Note: I did edit most but not all of these pictures a bit, in case you were wondering.)
Oooooh isn’t this pretty with the mountain in the background? This isn’t the main part of our farm – it’s the back section which has its own barns and silos and such.
This picture is of a neighboring farm:
And now we’re back to ours. I thought the fields looked lovely in the golden sun!
Maggie loves to ride on the truck bed with us. 🙂
Isn’t this picture neat? You can see my Dad through the window and in both of the mirrors.
We stopped to visit the cows and they all came running up to us. XD Hmm, this looks like a good opportunity for another “Rather Puzzled Cows” story… (See the first one here.)
“Lookout to chief, over. It seems we have some strangers on the premises, do you copy?”
“Chief to lookout, over. Visitors you said? Hmm, we haven’t had any in a while. I’ll sound the alert. ALERT, ALERT, EVERYONE. VISITORS ARE APPROACHING. STAMPEDE AT WILL.”
*Pant, pant*
*Snort, snort*
“Eww, they’re only the strange looking two-legged things again.”
“*Gasp* Well! I’m shocked at your language, Bertha. How could you be so cruel? I think they’re kind of cute.”
“Hmph. They look suspicious to me. I shall give them my hard stare and see if that drives them off.”
“Well that didn’t work – look.”
“WHOA STAND BACK! THEY’RE COMING FOR US!”
“What d’ya think, girls? Don’t they look suspicious to you? Especially that one holding out the stick.”
“Hmm, I see what you mean.”
“Yeah… let’s take it slow here, ladies. You never know what could happen with these creatures. Just stand back and watch carefully. Close scrutiny is always the best choice in cases like these.”
“OOH, OOH! Hey Bertha, should I run them through with my great and mighty horns? Huh, huh? Just let me at ’em, and I’ll-”
“Oh puh-leez. You’re horns aren’t big enough to butcher a groundhog.”
“B-but… *Sniff* Okay then.”
“Wait. Guys. They’re moving again. HEEELP!”
“Sheesh. What a bunch of scaredy-cows. Why did I get stuck with this herd? I mean, really!”
XD Hee hee! That was fun.
So anyway, after the cows we went to the grain bins with Mom and Dad. It was so much fun! We took the speaker in to see if it would sound all echo-y like our voices did, but it didn’t echo as much as I thought it would. It just got dusty. 😛 The kids played catch with a sock filled with corn, everyone jumped from the ladder a few times, and we listened to music and sat amidst the corn kernels. 🙂
Here’s a couple of pretty cloud pictures to end on…
So yep, there’s our Mother’s Day adventure of sorts. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my rather rambling commentary. Thanks for reading, my friends!
***Allison***
P. S. The next post will hopefully be the birthday haul post. 😀 Except I thought of a much better title. XD Hee hee!
I hope you guys had an excellent Christmas! And I had a wonderful Christmas – thank you for asking! 😉 I can’t believe it’s already over, but we still have two Christmas parties to go to, so I guess it isn’t really…
Ahem. Onto the post. The other day Megan and Carmen and my cousin and I went sledding, and it was so much fun! But the other detail you need to know is that there was zero snow on the ground.
So, are you puzzled, bewildered, and otherwise confused? Or did the featured image give it away? Oh bother. XD
Well, there’s this pile of fluff a.k.a. cotton seeds in one of our barns, and it turns out its excellent for sledding on! It’s packable like snow, but not nearly as cold. 😉 (If you would like to learn more about the cotton pile, click here.)
There happens to be quite a large, steep pile in the barn at the moment, which is perfect for sledding.
While we were sledding I got several funny pictures and only like two great ones. We made up a bunch of different “moves” like riding backwards with your eyes closed, or going down on your stomach versus sitting up or laying down, etc. It was like a mini roller coaster ride! The one variation that was hardest to master was sitting “sidesaddle.” Everyone who tried it flipped off and crashed except for my little sister Carmen – probably because she was the lightest. XD
Have you gone sledding for real yet? Does sledding in the cotton pile look like a fun substitute?
***Allison***
P. S. I have a bunch of posts I need want to post. XD There’s a Christmas post with the gifts I made and the gifts I received, a post with a collection of some of my recent art, another post about these adorable kittens, and a year-in-review post! 😀 Which one of those are you looking forward to the most?
Have you ever played in grain bins? If not, you are missing out.
Since I’m guessing most of you have in fact never played in grain bins, I have kindly compiled a tutorial to show you how it’s done. 😀 (Even though the pictures are *ahem* not my best – the grain bins don’t have what you’d call perfect lighting.)
First, you must find a grain bin. Fortunately that’s not too hard for us since we have several on our farm. You’ll need to find one that has corn in it, or the fun will be considerably diminished. (Although empty grain bins are good for letting your dog catch mice in.) Make sure the bin isn’t too full so you’ll have plenty of room for your acrobatics.
An example of a good grain bin choice: (Fun fact: did you know this grain bin can hold about 45,000 bushels of corn when it’s full?!)
Next you must enter the grain bin. Depending on how full it is, you will either need to climb in through the door or else climb a ladder/staircase and enter through a trapdoor. We chose the latter. (But not the ladder. Heh heh.) Some advice while climbing: don’t look down and try not to dwell on the seeming frailty of the staircase.
Now comes the hard part: getting in. This takes a good bit of courage the first time, because you’re pretty much looking down into a cavernous black hole. Also the trapdoor is usually rather small. But be brave – adventure awaits!
Climb down the ladder. Once inside, the grain bin looks quite light, and you shouldn’t feel claustrophobic anymore. In fact, you wonder why you were worried. (You remember again when you climb out.)
Time for the fun to begin! One of the best things to do in a grain bin is practice your acrobatic skills: in other words, jump off the ladder a lot. It’s kind of like jumping off of a hay loft into hay, only more… corny. Plus you get an added bonus of sinking up to your knees in corn kernels!
If you tire of acrobatics, you can always bury your friend in the corn or throw handfuls at the metal wall to make a satisfactory ringing sound. It’s also fun to play “Whales.”
Whales Instructions: fill someone’s socks (preferably your sibling’s/friend’s) with corn, and tie off the top. You have made a “whale.” Now divide up into two teams with equal amounts of whales per team, select a battle cry (“FOR NARNIA!”) and throw your corn-filled aquatic mammals at the other team, making sure not to cross the invisible middle line. Each participant is out after being hit three times. If you catch a whale, the person who threw it loses a life. Whichever team has the last person standing wins!
HA HA HA that was so fun to write. XD I hope you enjoyed this helpful how-to, and I trust you will refer to it if the need arises. XD
***Allison***
P. S. You have only day to enter my giveaway! (Thank you soooo much, everyone who entered so far!) I will post the winner on October 29th. I can’t wait to see who wins!
I thought I’d do a little post about what’s been going on around the farm lately. Heh heh, it kind of turned out to be a big post, but anyway…
The main thing that Dad has been doing is harvesting corn. Some of the corn grew almost 15 feet tall this year! That’s really tall, even for corn.
For Nature Study this week we learned about corn. Even though I already knew a lot about how it looked, it was neat to learn the reasons behind corn’s appearance. Here are a few fun facts:
Corn stalks look kind of like bamboo, with little “joints” at intervals. These joints are called “nodes” and they help strengthen the stalk while still keeping it elastic enough to survive strong winds.
Corn has the parts of a flower, even though you can’t see any pretty blossoms. The tassels are the stamen, and the silk is actually the pistil. Pollen falls from the tassels through the silk (yes, each piece of silk is actually a tiny tube!) to pollinate the seeds (corn kernels).
There is one piece of silk for each kernel! If a corncob isn’t fully filled out, it’s because the kernel wasn’t pollinated correctly.
When it’s really dry, the leaves of the corn roll up to preserve moisture.
Here are the two corn pages in my nature notebook:
Wow. How amazing is the attention to detail God has shown in this seemingly simple plant?!
So there’s your mini nature study for today. 😉
Now for BIBPC. This is the poster I made to get extra points. 😉
And this is my entry! The category was “Shiny.”
Story Behind the Photo: I took this picture of Violet, a barn cat, several months ago. She has super pretty green eyes! They’re also shiny (well, obviously), so you can see the reflection of me and my siblings on the other side of the wire.
These are some edits I made just for fun:
The original picture edited:
The cropped picture edited:
I enjoyed BIBPC, Megan! Thanks for hosting it. 🙂
My my, this was quite a long post. XD Thanks for reading!
Did you learn anything new about corn or how we harvest it? Do you do Nature Study in your school/homeschool?
***Allison***
P. S. I’m sure you all know that today is the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11/01. Please take time to remember the heroes of that terrible day and to pray for those who lost loved ones . ♥♥♥
I’m back! 😀 We just got back from our vacation and it feels so good to be home. (And now I can blog again, hehe.) We had many fun times and some rather not so fun times, but I haven’t sorted all my pictures yet, so a vacation post will have to wait.
Until then, this Life on the Farm post should hold you over. 😛
Before our vacation our friends came over and we traipsed around on a big barn roof with them. It was lots of fun! The view was great from up there. There’s also this one shiny part of the roof that’s good for sliding on, so we did that a lot, then for some reason everyone started yodeling at the cows (don’t ask me why!). We played some board games on the roof as the sun set, then made the slightly scary descent down and went back home. *Happy sigh* Fun times.
The view from the roof:
And now for the silhouettes, which I edited with PicMonkey for maximum silhouette-ness.
I love these next two of my sister!
And this next one has to be my absolute favorite. Thank you, friends and siblings for cooperating with me on this one. 😉 I might even enter it in the fair! What do you think?
Which picture was your favorite? Does climbing on barn roofs sound fun to you or not?
***Allison***
P. S. Oh. My. Goodness. I HAVE 626 FOLLOWERS. SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I’m so happpppyyyyyyyy! That is like… impossible. Right? Yes it is… no it isn’t! Oh my goodness I can’t even believe it! I wouldn’t have nearly this many if my fairy house post hadn’t been featured on Discover, but it was, and I am so thankful. I’m SUPER astounded that this even happened! I mean, why choose me out of so many wonderful bloggers? Thank you, Lord, for giving me this wonderful, exciting opportunity, and help me to use it to your glory. ♥
P. P. S. Okay, this may be a little anti-climatic after all that, but Loren, it’s your turn for WordCrafters. I simply cannot wait to read the chapter you cook up – I know it’s gonna be great!
Allison Marie 