I absolutely love fall. The changing leaves, the cool, crisp air, the fun activities we do...I love bringing the cows home, working them, harvesting my garden (which, thankfully, is done), seeing the frost on the ground in the mornings, etc.
We are busy here. Matt especially. He's been doing many last-minute projects around the farm to prepare for winter. He's been hauling a lot of manure, combining beans, fixing the combine, hauling cows home, chasing cows back in the pasture...oh, it goes on and on. He's cut a load of wood...we need to do a few more. :) Hopefully I can help him. I always liked cutting wood with my dad growing up. I like helping Matt do it, but it always seems like it's hard to find the time to get out there and go with him.
Yesterday we took a few hours to run down to the appliance store in Stephen. My microwave quit on Wednesday...or fried itself or whatever. When it was plugged in and the door was shut, it would keep going, no matter what. Probably not real safe. Off we went. We were also in dire need of a fridge. What we were looking for is an old thing someone traded in/something he fixed up and wanted to sell again for all the cow medicine. What we came home with was a nice new fridge for me; Matt can have my old side-by-side for the cow medicine. I think it's a fair trade...well, it's not really a trade. But anyway, I like my new fridge. :)
My title talks about fall flying by fast. Well, speaking of fast, you should see how fast Spiffy Cliff can move around the house these days. He's crawling everywhere; the baby gate goes up, he pulls himself up on it, and pretends he's in jail. He's fun like that. He stands behind the kids' stool and pushes it around the room. (Please stop growing so fast, Clifford! Mommy wants you to be a sweet tiny baby for a while longer!) He goes into the living room and pulls all the movies off the shelf. He's trying to organize, I guess.
He's a fun baby. And he's definitely a momma's boy. But I like him that way.
And he's so good at organizing. He wants my books in alphabetical order.
Adina's adjusting to her new hairstyle. We're finding that it looks best if her hair is pulled up in the back. Otherwise she seems to have a mullet. So, I've been braiding, putting it in a bun, and putting in barettes. So far that seems to help. She's really liking school. She sings songs regularly - ABC's, Zaccheus, Twinkle, Twinkle, I See the Moon, the Itsy, Bitsy Spider, etc. We sing them over and over. She loves it! She can write an "A" (upside down), among other letters. She only wears pretty dresses with tights and sparkly shoes to Wendy's, school and church. I have to really beg her to wear pants of any kind. Oh well...she's sure a cutie!
Cliff was feeling sad and neglected, so I asked Adina to play legos with him. He liked the attention.
She's trying to build a castle.
Don't mind the messy face...Halloween candy will do that to a person. Like her bangs?
She's such a nice big sister.
This guy makes my heart melt. :)
My helpful, handsome husband.
He's taking the doors off my new fridge so we can turn it sideways to get it in the kitchen. He's pretty handy that way.
This guy is my sweetie, too. He was all ready to go help Matt on Tuesday when I left for school. They had a busy day of hauling manure, moving the combine, and who knows what else. He doesn't miss a beat, though.
Last night, Clarence spent the night at Mom and Dad's. He'd been hauling cows home with my dad, Nathan, Mark and Nikki all day. They were having supper at Mom's last night. Clarence and Harley were watching Little House. Mom brought supper in to Clarence and found him asleep on the couch. She couldn't wake him...he was out cold for the night. He spent the night there, and woke up early with my dad this morning. My mom woke up to find them leaving the house. She said, "Aren't you going to stay here with me for a bit, Clarence?" He replied, "Grandma, you know I have work to do. We've got a lot of cows to haul today." Haha...what a cute little worker. He's so full of information and things to talk about. I bet he's given Dad many ideas as to how to run the farm better. I miss him.
At home these past few weeks, he's been trying to round up his bottle calves; that entails finding ropes, finding the calves, putting the ropes around their necks, finding his dad to drag/lead them to the barn, penning the calves up, feeding them, accidentally letting the calves out, and starting the whole process over again. He's also been carving the pumpkins we've had decorating our deck. Not to make pretty faces on them, though. He's trying to get hundreds of seeds that he's washing, drying and saving to plant next spring. He wants to sell pumpkins next year.
He also sets up a store in the living room. I have to pay him if I want toilet paper, paper towels, or jars of any kind. He's always looking for a way to make a buck.
He talks to me about insurance, cow numbers, ideas for the farm, things he's doing on his own (play) farm upstairs, how to write his friends' names, how well he's been writing his own numbers (most of them are backwards), and many other random things I can't even think of right now.
I took the kids trick-or-treating the other night. Most of you have probably seen this picture on facebook, but I thought I'd share again. They were so well-behaved that night! I love when they're so sweet and happy. :) We had a great time together. And I arrived home with three sleeping, worn-out kiddos.
Adios, my friends.
Eat some beef today!
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