More Haying Pictures

HOPE Picnic

Here I have posted all of the pictures I could find that would load of our HOPE (Helping Other Parents Educate) homeschooler picnic.  It was a great time, lots of playing Nukum and eating hot dogs.  These particular pictures, though, are of the Fire Tower in St. Croix Park.

Me and my buddy Lynae

My buddy Lynae again

Lynae's brother, Toby, at the very top of the tower

Mr. Armstrong almost to the top

Me at the top of the tower

Mr. Buzo and Lynae at the very top

Posting these was rather difficult, and a lot of the pictures that I attempted to load did not.  So, here are the few I was able to come up with. 

Haying, I Mean, Mowing the Lawn

The picture quality's not great, but at least you have some idea...

Recently, our lawn mower broke.  Huh.  This means, that, on June 11, we mowed the lawn for the first time all year.  So, naturally, the lawn was up to just below my hip.  We finally did get our lawn mower fixed, and then it couldn't handle the lawn.  So my dad brought in the hay rake.

Linnea (age 4)

So, my dad spent all day yesterday raking hay, and heaping it up into piles with pitchforks, and hauling it out to dry it.  This is sad!

Our yard.....

About a third of our lawn clippings.

Me, Wendy, and Linnea playing in the hay.

The Haybine did not get the grass short enough, so we are going to have to mow over it all again with the regular mower. 

City Girls + Fish Guts = Colossal Fun!

Two years ago, some city girl friends of ours came to our house.  They were so excited, they thought it was so wonderful that we have an actual farm with more animals than a house cat.  They are SO much fun to laugh at after they leave.  Well, on this particular time, they (Ally and Tori) decided that the cow manure and "urine" was too icky, so we should go for a walk.  OK, fine.  So we went down to the crick by our house, only intending to walk.  We got down there, however, and found a nice little treat: the crick was chock-full of 30ish dead fish, some cleaned, some not.  We grabbed our sticks, and set to re-fishing.  Hey, recycling!

The girls working on the fish.

Wendy, Tori

Gills!

We spent almost two hours pulling mangled walleyes out of the crick, then brought them up to our house.  Oh, the mothers we're SO happy!  Especially the city mom!    We dissected them, pulled their eyeballs out and squished the juice out of them, etc.  Don't tell me farm girls don't know how to have fun!

Dryads

Today, as I stood on a large tower surveying the countryside, and I was inspired by it to write here about Dryads.  Dryads, for those of you who don't know, are tree nymphs.  I have been inspired to write about what they look like.  I see them as ladies with brown or dark green dresses, flowy ones, with jagged edges like ripped paper.  They always have long hair, of any color really, with leaves in it.  Now, the leaves are a story in themselves.  If you happen to spot a Dryad, (which you won't unless you're paying attention and really looking for them, with the right intentions), you should know that the leaves of a very young Dryads are yellow, and the leaves of middle-aged Dryads are brown, and only the leaves of very very old Dryads are a fiery red.  If you happen to see one with red leaves, let me know.  They are extremely rare.  There have been only three sightings in the past 1500 years!

I have a question.  Have you made peace with your fairies yet?  I have to do that yet today.  Just take a branch off of a pine tree, set it by your porch, and wait.  If it turns orange, you are welcome on your own property, and the fairies and dryads will defend and protect you from the white-robed elves for the rest of your days.  In case you change and turn to a life of crime, and the fairies henceforth reject you, renew this gesture every ten years.  However, if it stays green for 10,000 years, you must leave the property immediately (permanently) or else they will sic the Centaurs on you, and the Centaurs will kill you.  So keep your fairies happy.

Robin Hood vs Nazis!

When I was about 4 years old, I saw the animated movie, Robin Hood.  That was when I decided that I was going to be Robin Hood when I grew up.  I also decided, that in the mean time, I might as well practice.  So, I donned my loincloth, and set about making a bow and arrow set.  Where I got the idea that Robin Hood wears loincloths I don't know.
I determined that my bow would be a plastic hanger, and my arrows would be colored pencils.  I held onto the hook, and drew back the plastic as far as it could go without breaking it, (OK, I broke some) loaded my pencils, and fired heavily at various domestic animals, parents, small sisters, etc.  I would then run around the house and whoop and holler like an Indian, and bribe people to play with me and be Maid Marian.  We would play this with the Sherveims.  That would lead to about 6 shirtless kids in loincloths whooping and hollering like the dickens.  

The Doorway--the ferns are the camo for the door.  See it?

Years later, when I was probably 12, the Sherveims came over.  We hadn't seen them in a long time, so we decided we were going to reminisce in the way of adding on to games we played years ago.  So, we went out to the woods, where we found a large patch of ferns.  We went back to the haybarn, and built a nice fort, then split into two teams.  Older kids would pick ferns 100 mph, and younger kids would continue on the fort.  We then used the ferns as camouflage, because, you see, we were hiding from the Nazis.  There were 11 kids playing.  We hid there for awhile, and then we decided that the Nazis were gonna  
                                                                                       show up.  So they did, and we performed this beautiful shooting scene, where we all died.  Then they "left" and we decided that that was too short and not romantic enough.  So, we redid it and this time, the Nazis came, and we ran for the woods with the small children.  On the way to our other hiding place, two people got shot, and we had to carry them.  When we finally escaped them, we all bedded down on potato sacks (it was about sunset by then) and proceeded to have an epidemic of Scarlet Fever.  Everyone had their own ideas as to what the symptoms were, so that was interesting.  One by one, they slowly and painfully died, and we had to "bury" them under bushes.  Me and Sadie were elected to be the faithful nurses and to selflessly care for and "bury" the "dead".  Then, in one final episode, we both got sick from a combination of exhaustion and Scarlet Fever exposure and died under the stars.  It was beautiful.                                                                                 

The actual inside, looking over the wall. The carpet is moss and ferns.

The tunnel entrance, with door pulled back.  Carpet is moss.

This is the large area that used to be waist-high in ferns. We cleared it out.

We Had A Baby!

My little sister's horse, Lacy, had a foal yesterday!  She was born during a thunderstorm, and we didn't even know it was happening!  My mom had to drive my dad to the farm, and on the way down, Dad saw a strange object in the pasture.  I have never seen the car drive up the driveway that fast since Dad was mad at some bulls.  (That time, though, he accidentally sideswiped mom's car).  We ran down there and pulled the horses (there are two, Lacy and Glory) up to their stall.  Lacy is Shannah's horse, and Shannah is ecstatic!  We thought we wouldn't be able to catch it, but she is sooo friendly and won't let us alone! 

Awwww.....

Kali is her name!

Proud Mama.