Sunday stuff

Quincy has joined the band.  She made me extremely happy when she picked the trombone as the instrument she wanted.   We already owned a trombone that used to be Cameron's before he switched to the tuba.  It cleaned up nicely and this week she treated us to practicing for her first playing test.  I strongly believe that music is a worthy

 investment when raising kids.  My ear drums may or may not agree.  

The Friday night fan club's theme this week- Christmas.  I have no idea why or who came up with that idea but Cameron was pleased with the amount of participation they had!  

I had to work for a little while this evening.  I love harvest.  I am also extremely thankful that I live in a place where this is the closest thing to a traffic jam!  Thanks be to God for firmly planting me here!  

Handy tip from Cameron: when working on your car, ways remember to take your toga out of the trunk!  

I love to watch the chickens eat random stuff.  Tonight I had a loaf of bread that went bad.  They make me laugh.  They have a weird little language and it is fun to watch them.  This black rooster is one that Quincy hatched last spring.  He is quite a character!  He likes to make a lot of noise.  Quincy is pleased because her pullets finally started laying. 

Jim and Quincy released the baby guineas today.  They also enjoyed a snack of stale bread!  We had been down to one old guinea, but suddenly this week, another one showed up.  I am guessing they went over to our neighbor's who raise a lot of poultry.  The peahen thinks she is the head guinea!  

The auction babies are getting big!  

I noticed the australops didn't share the bread very well!  

This herd dog of ours does not like for anything to be out of its place. She had only seen the baby guineas in a cage before and was trying desperately to get them back where she thinks they belong.  She is such a smart dog.  

We had a great weekend with all the kids home.  After learning of the loss of a friend's son, we hugged all of the kids a little tighter. 

Kaw Valley Farm Tour

Any time that you can teach a kid about agriculture, you should.  The future depends on it. So today, we went on the Kaw Valley Farm Tour.  It is a 2 day, self guided bunch of fun!  They had 32 farms listed this year.  I don't see how you could ever manage to get to all of them.  We picked out the ones that interested us the most and were so pleased with how much information we were given, how kind everyone was, and how much fun we had!

We started out at Washington Creek Lavendar.  The Lavendar isn't blooming right now, but I can imagine how beautiful the fields would be if it was!  They had a gift store full of stuff that smelled amazing!  

We enjoyed the drying room a lot!  It smelled awesome in there (as long as you like the smell of Lavendar!). 

Our second stop was at the Red Tractor Farm.  They raise goats (mostly boer like the kids are raising), chickens, and are an organic vegetable farm.  We had a good time asking all sorts of goat questions, and learning about growing vegetables.  Quincy had a good time looking at the chickens there too!  

Our next stop was at an old family friend's farm. The Vesecky farm was a big highlight!  John and Sharon raise goats, ducks, chickens and Thanksgiving turkeys!   

The girls also tried their hands at rope climbing, hay rack riding, and they cooked their own lunch!  

Grandma's favorite stop was at one of the wineries.  They had samples!  The girls enjoyed seeing the grape vines, but were disappointed there weren't any grapes left to pick and eat!  

After sampling wine, we headed to Coal Creek alpaca farm.  We are all equally convinced that owning an alpaca is necessary!  

They also had pigs, goats and a lot of activities.  

The pigs apparently had their fill of snacks before we got there!  They were sleeping and the kids kept trying to feed them carrot slices!  

Grinding corn was a favorite activity for Quincy.  

Harper and Saige loved making coasters out of alpaca wool.  

Saige spotted the giant marshmallow treats and was sure to tell grandma she "needed" one.  

Our last stop was at Prairie City mini horse farm.  We are fimiliar with these horses as they have been at a few parties we have attended.  

Polka dot was just as sweet today as he had ever been.  He seems to legitimately love children!  

The girls loved the baby they had named "Playboy."  He really is beautiful!  

Goats are still our favorite though!   I think we all had a great day and highly recommend this tour!