Farming Wisconsin

The Past Few Days

2012-01-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

We filled the ice rink a few days ago -- it has finally become cold enough to freeze the water well. Our winter has been a little warmer than usual until recently, as well as having little snow. You can see in the background that the old grass is still not covered in the front pasture. We've only had 2 or 3 inches on the ground so far.
Here is Elijah, working on his snowmobile. The boys spend about as much time working on the snowmobiles as riding them, which is okay with me! They are having a lot of fun, though, and so far, have been safe. They are promising me a ride tomorrow -- we'll see how brave I feel . . .
And these are some of Betsy's beautiful rolls, cooling in a basket. She has been getting more orders recently, so Busy Bee's Bakery has been . . . well, busy!

~posted by Mom/Mrs. C~

Sweet Norah

2012-01-20T06:37:00.001-08:00

Snowmobiles

2012-01-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, finally, the post I promised about the guy's snowmobiles! Didn't want you all to think this blog was becoming a Norah blog. lol We're just pretty crazy about her right now. ;)

We still have almost no snow, which is unbelievable for Wisconsin! Been a funny winter. The guys run up and down the frozen river, and D.J. goes along on the fourwheeler sometimes.
Ben's Jag.
He can get up some pretty good speed on it! Look at that, his helmet even matches his sled.

Here's a short video of Elijah on his snowmobile, the day it bit the dust. The track had already broken once but he repaired it enough to take a few last jumps with it. He got a lot of fun out of that snowmobile for the $50 he spent for it!

And guess what -- he's already bought another one! Looks like the snowmobiling bug has hit the family. Stephen found an older cheap one too and brought it home yesterday. Our poor neighbors. lol

And today Katie, D.J. and I are going to buy our snowmobile! Think we'll have enough around the place?!

--Betsy

The latest picture of Norah

2012-01-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Isn't she just too precious? Yeah. I know...I guess her auntie is going to be a bit prejudice ;)

What a little doll. I can't wait til I get to hold her!

~Aunt Katie

Norah with Nina

2011-12-28T17:55:00.001-08:00

Latest pictures :)

2011-12-28T11:42:00.001-08:00

Jeannie says Norah has been sleeping like a log! Looking forward to seeing a picture of her with her eyes open. :)

~Betsy

Welcome to the world!

2011-12-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

Norah Grace Pederson was born this morning around three aclock. What an exciting phone call to get!

Jeannie is doing fine and did a great job during the birth, and baby Norah is doing well too. Mom says she's a very contented baby, hardly crying and when Evan holds her, just looks up at him the whole time. So sweet!

Once they broke her water things started rolling. I think it was about 3 1/2 hours until Norah was born. Fast birth!

We haven't heard anything from them this morning . . . I know they are all exhausted and hopefully getting some good rest. Here's the one picture I have so far. (a cell phone picture sent to me at 3 this morning -- not the best quality but it's something!)

The details: She weighs 7 lbs 15 ounces, has dark eyes and dark hair, and is 20 1/2 inches long.

I promise to post more pictures as soon as I can! :)
Thank you to everyone for praying!
Betsy

Update! :)

2011-12-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, sorry I didn't post on here all day. There really wasn't much to report for most of the day. Things took forever getting arranged with the doctor and everything, but finally around three aclock this afternoon, Jeannie was admitted into the hospital.

They have given her pitocin to start labor, but so far contractions are weak and far apart. Last I heard they were waiting on the doctor to come and up the level of pitocin. Waiting. That's what they've been doing a lot of today. :)

Jeannie is happy and excited, and isn't nervous at all so that's good! Actually in her last text to me she said it's pretty boring so far. I have a feeling she's not going to be bored long. :)

Hopefully she won't have to go all night, but we'll see. I'll keep you posted with anything new! Might have a birth announcement by morning!!

Thanks so much for the prayers!

~Betsy

Coming soon -- Baby Pederson

2011-12-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

That's right folks, won't be long at all now!

Jeannie went in to the doctor today because she was having some symptoms of pre-eclampsia (also known as toxemia). They did tests and found she was borderline, so recommended they induce her. They'll be going in tomorrow morning for her to be induced. Right now they're trying to get a good night's rest before the big day. :)

I know all of them down there would appreciate your prayers! Please pray for a smooth and easy birth for Jeannie, protection over her and the baby, and for Evan and Mom as they are there, helping her through it.

I'll try and give some updates tomorrow as things progress. Hard to believe this baby is actually about to enter the world!

Got some excited aunts, uncles, and grandparents to be. :D

Thanks for the prayers!

~Betsy

Waiting . . .

2011-12-24T12:41:00.001-08:00

We've been pretty quiet lately here on the blog, but no, it's not because of anything too exciting! Still waiting for baby Pederson to arrive and make grandparents, aunts and uncles of us all. :)

Mom drove down to Jeannie and Evan's for the birth and is waiting with them.

She took the camera with her, so I'm going to have to do this blog post with just cell phone pictures. Sorry for the small size and low quality!

Jeannie, very pregnant and very cute.

Today we had a shipment of books arrive -- the latest book in the farm mystery series!

Doesn't look like that could possibly be 2000 books does it?

Carrying in the boxes to the basement . . .

With mom gone, it was up to Katie and I to plan and make the Christmas dinner for tomorrow. Yikes! We suddenly realized that Thursday and had to make a quick trip to the grocery store. lol

Look mom, we even made sure we included a 'fruit' in the menu! ;)

Katie cutting up potatoes for potato salad. We had fun cooking together.

But the most fun was decorating the table for breakfast tomorrow. We cut down branches and picked up some pine cones. Simple. :)

I hope you and your family have a wonderful day tomorrow as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. What an incredible gift.

~posted by Betsy

p.s. I know I promised a post on the guys snowmobiles but for lack of snow and a camera it will have to wait. :)

It's that time of year . . .

2011-12-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas is coming up soon and our family has a lot of traditions. One is making piles of Christmas cookies. We give a lot of them away to friends, and many to the older people we go caroling to. Years ago our good friends who lived across the fields taught us to make gingerbread men, and we've been doing it ever since!

They came over last Sunday and helped us make and decorate piles of gingerbread men. Katie and I made a huge batch of the dough. Lots of fun!
Being goofy (as usual!) lol
Katie decided to make peppermint taffy. What a sticky mess! The peppermint oil was so strong it made our eyes water!
Trying to pull the taffy. It never did stretch very well. Oh well, it's still good!

And while we were all decorating gingerbread men, Ben and Elijah were off in Ben's truck, buying something . . .

Yup, two snowmobiles! They are pretty old, but they got a great deal on them both and they even run. :) Can you guess what our next blog post will be about?! ;)

So what are your family's Christmas traditions? Comment below! We'd love to hear!

posted by Betsy

Finishing Fall Chores and Bob

2011-12-04T19:33:00.000-08:00

Is that snow on the logs that Ben is cutting? Ummmm, yes, it is. The guys got a bit behind on finishing up the woodpile for the winter, because they were so busy with the pole barn. Thankfully, we only had an inch or so before these pictures were taken.
Steve (Dad) takes some of the logs and runs them through the splitter, to be used for the fireplace in the living room. Most of the logs are left whole, and used in our huge outdoor wood stove, which you can see in the picture behind Steve. The outdoor stove heats water running underground and into the house. Those underground pipes give us in-floor heat, as well as a constant supply of hot water.
A.P. and D.J. help Elijah load the unsplit logs into the bucket on the tractor. Elijah then uses the bucket loader to move the logs closer to the area where they are stacked. We used to use wheelbarrows, but this is faster and easier on the back. Of course, those backs still get plenty of exercise stacking the wood!
The girls are using a small trailer and the four-wheeler to move the smaller split logs to the fireplace stack. I took ELEVEN pictures of Katie and Betsy, and every one of them was blurry. Those girls were moving, and weren't interested in posing! Cait is 18 months old now, and we are assuming this is as big as she will get. She is much smaller than our old English Shepherd, Kes. -- she's more the size of a Border Collie, and looks a lot like one. Everyone has worked with her so much in the past year, and she has settled down to be a good farm dog and companion for the younger boys. She's still learning, though!
And the title of this post told the name of a special winter guest in our home. Bob the Frog was found a couple of weeks ago in a flowerpot in the dining room. Some of the kids had heard a funny noise in the early morning several times, and Betsy was sure there was a frog somewhere. Sure enough, she found him hiding under a leaf. I promised he could stay there as long as he stayed THERE and didn't hop around the house. He must know he's on probation, because he hasn't moved. Or no one has told me if he has, anyway. :)

~posted by Mom/Susie/Mrs. C.

Sorry we are late posting about Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

First, a picture of progress on the pole barn . . . because that really takes up lots of time and energy around here, especially for Elijah and Ben. Several loads of gravel have been delivered today, and Ben will be spending the morning spreading and leveling for the "floor" and drive/parking area in front of the barn.
This pilgrim showed up for Thanksgiving dinner. He was pretty solemn, too. Reminds me of a little girl who was always very creative with costumes years ago -- and loved to relive history every chance she got. Of course, she celebrated Thanksgiving with Evan in Illinois this year. Miss you, honey!
William the Pilgrim was joined by a couple of other creative people -- er -- Indians. Yes, there really WERE blue eyed, blond Indians. Don't you believe us? When your ancestry is Scotch-Irish/German/Danish/English, you do the best you can.
I'm afraid we forgot to take pictures at the table, and I really wish we had, because the boys VOLUNTARILY wore nice clothes. They looked great! All I seem to have is a picture of a coconut cream pie that I made on Thanksgiving afternoon, to boost the declining pie supply. We had made three pies for Thanksgiving dinner, but with six men and boys to feed, there wasn't much left for supper that night. Actually, we had made the pies on Wednesday, and when we pulled them from the refrigerator for dinner on Thursday, significant portions were missing! Hmmmm.
A dusting of snow on the barn roof, bare limbs on trees, and colder temperatures are all helping it feel more like winter.

We are thankful for so very many things, as all of you are. The Lord has poured out His blessings upon us. Our tradition is for each of us to write out many slips of paper with things we are thankful for on them, then put them into a basket to be read by Steve as a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord after dinner. The big basket was full, as usual. How many things we tend to take for granted each day, and yet He gives us the very air we breathe. How wonderful it is to take the time to remind and encourage each other of His goodness.

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all of us.

~posted by Mom/Mrs. C/Susie

Hunting Season and update on the Pole Barn

2011-11-21T09:59:00.001-08:00

Well, it's hunting season again in Wisconsin, which means that we see guys in blaze orange, pickup trucks with deer in the back, and guns and ammunition frequently. Some of those belong to the Castleberry family, but all of the Lakeside area looks about the same. Elijah is "hunting" for the right ammunition for his gun in this picture. And no, we don't keep ammo in our schoolroom filing cabinet! There is a locked gun cabinet behind the filing cabinet, which you can't see from this angle.
Steve (Dad) takes Andrew along to a big box stand in the field that the boys built for him a couple of summers ago. Andrew is allowed to carry the gun out, but it's unloaded at this point.
And this is D.J.'s first year to hunt. He told me this morning that he wore 10 layers above the waist to keep warm yesterday. It worked!
Then there is lots of work still being done on the pole barn. Here Elijah is moving a truss to the roof of the barn with the help of a tree trunk the boys cut. It saved so much money for the boys to be able to figure out how to do this with our tractor, instead of having to rent a crane. Way to go, guys!
The Lord has blessed Elijah with a lot of skill on the tractor. But it takes concentration!
Ben guides each truss as Elijah picks it up, making sure it goes up to the top straight and safely.
Halfway up . . .
Ben using a rope to hold it there in place for a moment.
Steve (Dad) helping nail a truss in place. Scaffolding is a real blessing, especially for those who are no longer fond of heights!
We have quite the crew to nail the trusses. It's amazing how quickly the trusses went up, in just one morning.
Cait HAS to be near everyone else.
D.J. holding a board in place. Yes, we did buy him some new insulated overalls. The duct tape on the knees held the old ones together while we waited for the new ones to arrive!
Here you can see the roof line. The pole barn still needs the sheet metal put on, to cover the walls and roof.
Remember how we said we got this building free, for taking it down and hauling it away? We may not have told you that the building is about 40 years old, hence the pink faded color. Really ugly! But we do plan to paint it next summer. Too cold for painting now!
I love these silhouette shots of the guys up there. They worked every night until it was too dark to see.
A man and his hammer.

We are grateful that the Lord has provided safety each day, and continue to ask His blessing on this project.

~posted by Mom /Susie

Pole barn is going up!

2011-11-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

Days are shorter now with the time change, but that means it gets light earlier too! The guys have been getting an early start each day to work on the pole barn.

(remember the pole barn they got for free this summer, their's for the taking if they'd tear it down?! Now it's time to put it up!)

Using the auger on the Ford to dig holes

Getting a load of sand for the building site. It's been way too long since we did a big building project like this! It's so cool!

Because the dirt was so crumbly and dry, a lot ended up falling back in. Ben's measuring a hole to make sure it's deep enough. We ended up digging out the rest by hand.

All ready for the concrete!

The side walls are going up really fast. Good thing, cause it's getting cold! We had a few flakes of snow in the air this week.
D.J. and A.P help out too
Those gray skies sure look like snow!
It's going to be a decent sized shed, perfect for storing equipment this winter.

Katie and I had a friend up from Nebraska over the weekend. We had to take her to see Lake Superior, since it's basically in our backyard! It was a really windy day down by the water. We really enjoyed having her here and she pitched right in to help!
We also took her to Duluth to see the ships coming in to harbor. This was a 800 ft Laker coming in. Sometimes it takes out of town company to remind me what a neat place this is. :)

posted by Betsy

Homemade Bread

2011-11-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

We had several people comment and ask how we make our bread, so here's a whole post dedicated to that subject. Anyone totally bored can skip down to the post right below here that I did especially for you non bakers. :)

We've tried several different recipes over the years and this one is our favorite. It works great for anything from sandwiches to toast or whatever you want. It doesn't always turn out beautiful and perfect, but that's what keeps us humble right? :D

Here's the recipe --

Basic Homemade Bread

10-16 cups whole wheat flour

4-8 cups unbleached flour

(these are approximate amounts, you can play around with them depending on how much white/whole wheat you want. Half and half will give you a really nice soft loaf, (that'd be around 10 cups of each) but we tend to go a little heavier on the whole wheat.)

4 cups warm water

2 cups warm milk

1 1/4 cups melted butter

1 cup honey

4 TB yeast

4 eggs (beaten)

1 TB salt

We use a bread mixer, but a bowl works fine too. Mix water and milk, butter and honey. Sprinkle yeast on top, let sit for five minutes.

Add six cups of flour, mix well. The consistency will be like applesauce. Let sit for 30-40 minutes in a warm place. It will rise and get all bubbly.

When it's bubbled up about twice the size, stir it down, and add the eggs and salt. Mix, then start adding the flour. Mix in all your whole wheat flour first, then add in the unbleached until dough 'cleans' the sides of the bowl, or forms a ball. You may need more or less unbleached flour than the recipe calls for -- just go by what the dough looks and feels like.

Knead dough for ten minutes. (using oil not flour) Divide into 6 parts. Shape into loaves, place in oiled pans. Keep in a warm place, let rise for 30-40 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire racks and butter the tops of the loaves.

Okay, here's the extra's. :)

Keeping the yeast warm is very important. I like to get my bread bowl warm before I even start by running hot water in it and letting it sit for a few minutes. Makes a big difference!

Watch the milk when you're warming it. It heats up fast! If it gets too hot, let it cool before adding it. Same with the butter.

Add flour slowly at the end. Add only a cup at a time and let it really mix in before you add more -- it can take a minute to fully absorb. Keep the dough soft!

After I've kneaded the dough I let it 'rest' on the counter while I oil the pans, etc. Give it like 5 minutes. It really helps.

This is probably way too much information, but don't be overwhelmed -- making bread really isn't that hard! And nothing beats warm homemade bread, fresh out of the oven. :)

Any more questions, just ask away!

Still no snow!

2011-11-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well it's November now and we have yet to see snow in the air! Some folks here are glad, others are impatient. (like me). lol It has been nice to have extra time for projects like this.

Elijah hauled two spreader loads of manure in for our garden -- yay! What he did in about an hour would have taken probably a week with our little wheelbarrows and shovels. lol

Good rich manure. Best fertilizer ever.
Got the sand and gravel down and the building site is all ready for the pole barn to be put up.
And . . . it's Katie's Birthday today! Happy 25th Birthday Katie!
Katie and I drove down with some friends to visit Jeannie and Evan. Lots of laughing and lots of fun! Jeannie (or the baby I should say!) is getting a lot bigger. Two months to go!

It was a fun trip. And we never got completely lost. ;)
I think Cait's ready for winter too . . . I know I am! How about you folks?!

~Betsy

What's up?

2011-10-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

We must have some pretty faithful followers out there, because we're anything but faithful about posting these days! I guess we've been too busy living life to blog about it. :) lol

Since our posts are so far apart, we're just gonna make up for it by putting up a lot of pictures at a time.

So here's some pictures of what we've been up to on the farm . . .

#1? Calves. Yup, those cute little heifers have been keeping the guys super busy! You'll see why further down . . .
Elijah took down some summer pasture fencing to get ready for pre-setting the round bales for this winter.
Ben hauled out all the old round bales left over from last winter. We had around 70 hay bales left! The last two years have been great for hay up here.
Our good old milk cow, Sunshine, coming to check things out.

"Littlebit." This little calf gets a lot of babying! She was a birthday gift from the farmer Elijah milks for. She was born premature, so she's pretty small still and loves her warm bottles. :)
One of Ben's dairy heifers.
Another favorite heifer. :)
Between Ben and Elijah, there's 22 dairy heifers on the farm now. Twenty two heifers that are going to need a warm place to sleep this winter, and winter is coming fast! So --
The guys have been working really hard out in the barn, tearing out pens/walls and I don't know what all to get ready for wintering the heifers.
Simple, cheap and temporary solution. (since they'll be tearing this out in 2013 to set up for milking).
D.J. and A.P have been helping out a lot too.

I took at least four pictures of Ben and they were all blurry! He was movin pretty fast. :)
Okay, what.in.the.world. is this?! LOL Yes, that's our hammock brace . . . Stephen's coating all of his traps for his trap line this winter, and he found a great way to dry them!
Our apple trees were loaded this year, so Katie and I have been busy canning apple pie filling, apple butter, apple jelly, applesauce -- you name it.
Mom's busy too, cutting down perennials before the snow flies. And wishing I would stop trying to get a picture of her! "Can't you find other people to take pictures of?!" lol
Fresh batch of bread!
And here's the crazy cook. :D Okay peoples, I'll stop running around snapping pictures of you all. And I'll just go post them on the blog for everyone in the world to see. :)

Alright, that's all for now folks. Give us a week or so and we'll throw a bunch more pictures up here for you to see.

Drop us a comment and tell us what you think! We love hearing from you all.

~Betsy

A New Family Picture

2011-10-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Beautiful fall -- what a great time to take the new family picture. First we'll park Elijah's truck in front of the apple tree . . . but wait, the sun is in our eyes, and we'll all be squinting. Besides, two of us aren't quite done with our hair -- guess which two? Hint: neither are male members of the family. :) And we'll never get this done if you guys keep eating apples.
Ok, so in front of the barn in the shade is much better. Only problem is, we have too much of the gravel showing and not enough of the people. Or the dog. Or Elijah's truck. (Betsy is covering the tail lights, and Stephen is in front of the very cool exhaust pipe.) Can't have that! Try again.
Well, this is better, but wait a second . . . several of the boys are not smiling. Sigh. And how come Elijah's brake lights are on? Who is in the truck pushing them? The kitten? Can't be . . . maybe an idea for a new mystery?
All right, we'll take this one! We don't look perfect, but then, we aren't perfect. And at least Elijah's very cool exhaust pipe is showing, if you'll look carefully. That's important! At least for Elijah . . .

Another year of happiness and blessings from the Lord. We are grateful.

Early Fall At Our House

2011-10-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

I realized recently that we have some lovely pictures of our house and yard, which many of you may not have seen. So I thought I would share these pictures from a few weeks ago with you. Trees and grass are just beginning to fade into fall browns, reds, oranges, and yellows, so I'll try to do another post with our beautiful fall colors in a couple of weeks. This is the front yard, looking down the fence along the driveway.
Our apples were still green a few weeks ago, and are now red and ripe. But the grass is still nearly this green!
We have a new metal roof on the house. Hopefully the snow will just slide off, and the boys won't need to climb up and shovel it down this winter.
The porch steps are one of my favorite places to put pots of flowers. I guess pink was my theme this year!
The porch swing we bought in July quickly became a favorite place for everyone. So relaxing . . . for ten minutes at a time, anyway! Seems we never have long to sit with all the work we come up with to do. Someday . . .
Our back porch is screened, so that we can sit out when the mosquitoes are in full force. The woodpile you see in the background is for the fireplace in the living room. The woodpile for the outdoor wood boiler that heats our house is MUCH bigger!
A.P. and Cait still have time for fun every afternoon. Cait is willing to do almost anything with A.P.
I am told that this is called "slack lining". D.J. is good at it, but it's harder than it looks. The boys had fun trying it for a while. Do you have short-lived crazes at your house? We always have activities that everyone enjoys every spare minute for a couple of weeks, then it seems to die out. Which, perhaps, is best!
This is one activity that A.P. was unable to interest Cait in trying with him!

We are enjoying a lovely Indian summer here, with temperatures in the 70's this week. We know it is short-lived, and that 60's and even 50's will soon be here. But we thank our Lord for all the seasons He sends.

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

Visit to the Pedersons

2011-09-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

We're back home! Been busy around here canning and catching up on work so I'm just now getting around to posting some pictures from our trip down to Illinois.

It took us about 12 hours to get there, which wasn't bad since we were pulling a heavily loaded stock trailer! We had to stop a lot for Ben to fuel "the beast". That truck ate up the gas!

Here's the barn and part of their backyard. Jeannie and Evan have lots of plans for the yard.
And -- the house! It's in the neatest, old little village, and was built in the 1800's. It was so fun to get to actually see it in person! Ben only had one day there, so we started unloading the truck first thing the next morning. You can see some of the things we had already taken out of the trailer on the porch.

What'da ya know, the truck and trailer match! :) Backing up to their house.
A happy and pregnant Jeannie. :)
Bringing in the boxes. We drove in heavy rain most of the way down, but thankfully not too much got wet.
"Where's all this stuff supposed to go?"
D.J. put the crib together and then realized it couldn't fit up the stairs, so he had to take it apart again. He got it all set up in the nursery. All ready for the baby!
Taking a break to eat supper. I don't think anyone was ready for this picture. lol
Jeannie provided lots of good food for us.
I don't think the previous owners enjoyed cleaning . . . there was thick dust and dog hair everywhere! Katie and I scrubbed the kitchen down. I don't think we're going to mind doing spring and fall housecleaning now! :)
Katie was too short to reach the top of the cabinets, and guess what, so was I! Pillows don't really help by the way.
D.J. found a way to clean the windows! Their house has several window seats. Really neat.

We also got some time to do some fun things while we were down there. Dad and Mom took the two youngest boys to St. Louis and went to the arch and capital.

Ready to head for the top of the arch! It was a pretty foggy morning, so they didn't get too many good pictures from the top.
And that's about all the pictures we have from the trip! We were so busy working we didn't think to snap very many.
We got to spend a couple of days with some good friends on our way back home and had a great time there. But again, sadly, I don't have pictures!

The guys left back at home were sure glad to have us back again. They were pretty tired of frozen pizza and icecream! Ben said, "I think I want broccoli, peas, and carrots for breakfast." lol That's saying a lot.
The day we got home, Elijah turned eighteen years old!! Happy Birthday Elijah! We're so glad the Lord gave you to our family.

~Betsy

The movers

2011-09-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

We're about to leave for a 12 hr trip down to Jeannie and Evan's new home in Illinois! It's going to be quite a caravan, with mom's SUV, the 'beast' (Ben's 1 ton truck) pulling the horse trailer. A packed trailer! We kept buying furniture and things for their home at garage sales. Yesterday we spent several hours boxing up the last stuff and then loading the horse trailer.

This is just some of the things to load. Let's see, there was also a crib, a desk, a hope chest, a diningroom table . . .

Would it all fit? or would it be --

as A.P wrote. :)

boxes were first . . .

And let's hope we don't bust. And yeah, Ben didn't spell Illinois right. Never has liked spelling. lol

I can't wait to get down there and see their new house! We're packin lots of painting and work clothes. Going to be fun!

~Betsy

Such is life!

2011-09-12T12:05:00.001-07:00

We've had a good week or more of Indian summer here in Wisconsin. Upper eighties and sunny every day -- that's perfect haymaking weather! The guys decided to get some second crop made while the sun shone.

First problem -- our old haybine broke down before Ben had even made one round of cutting. Not okay! So, he borrowed a haybine from a farmer he and Elijah had helped this summer when he was on the side of the road with a break down. Farmers help each other out. :)

Second problem -- the borrowed haybine broke a part. Yikes. Ben had to drive 3 hrs to buy a new part. They were still having problems with the haybine, so another farmer let them borrow his haybine. If you're counting, this is three haybines now! lol

Third problem - - the bar on the third haybine broke. Major break down. Poor Ben, it just wasn't his day -- he also smashed his cellphone face and broke his sunglasses. Some days are just like that, aren't they?!

All three haybines up by the shop to be repaired.
I love this picture -- it's Ben's classic goofy/exasperated look! lol
Pretty impressive looking until you realize none of those haybines would cut hay.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't my day either -- I made a batch of apple jelly and not one jar jelled! So I dumped it all back out and started again.

Look at all that orange! At least something went right that day. Katie and I put lots of carrots in the freezer.

There's only so many break downs you can have, and the guys did get the haybines repaired and some really good clover square bales up in the loft yesterday. I think getting a new haybine is top on the list now!

Well I'm off to make some more apple jelly, and this time I think I'm going to dump a whole lot of pectin in. :)

Have a great day, and hope things are going swimmingly for you all out there!

~Betsy

A Few More Pictures from the Lake House

2011-09-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

When we had a family conversation before leaving the lake house about whether or not to come back to the same place next year, A.P. voted "yes" because, "what if another place didn't have the game Payday?" Games were one of the many things we did that week -- I'm afraid we were having such a good time together, though, that we failed to take lots of pictures.

"Ok, guys, something is wrong here. I don't have any idea what this card means . . ." Actually, Betsy was asked to give her most suspicious look here for the camera -- I think she succeeded.
A.P. loves games, and although he is the youngest of the family, he usually does very well. Too well!
We did have a campfire or two, and here is Katie, very serious about getting that marshmallow just right on the stick.
Badminton was another game played many times. We had beautiful weather for almost the entire week.
Ducks were numerous around the dock this year, and were fed many scraps. The favorite duck was nicknamed "Babykins". Hard to tell if he waddled just because he was a duck, or from all the food he received!
Last morning at the dock. It was absolutely beautiful, and hard to think of leaving within a few hours.
Last evening at the dock. I will treasure this picture -- those feet will soon be finished growing, and some day the lake house will no longer hold the same excitement for the young boys who walk on them. Happy memories, undeserved and unearned, but given as a gift by a gracious and loving Heavenly Father. Thank You, Lord.

Family Vacation at the Lake

2011-08-28T19:24:00.001-07:00

So here we are at the table having a quick meal of something frozen, round, and of poor nutritional quality. Yes, we did heat it up in the oven before devouring it. But we wanted to have the most fast and easy meals possible, spending time on each other and having fun together. Last year, we rented a house on a lake in Michigan for a week as a last family vacation for "just the ten of us" . . . and we had so much fun, that we decided to go back -- well, those of us who could, anyway. Stephen had to work the entire week, and both Ben and Elijah had to miss part of it for their jobs. But we were happy to have as many as we did for the days we could. Life changes quickly. Enjoy every moment you have together!
D.J. and A.P. got in a little fishing in between boat rides and swimming and games and well, you'll see what else in a moment . . . D.J. caught a fish three times within a few minutes. A.P. had no catches at all, and became quite disgusted with the whole process. "I can't believe it! You got one AGAIN?????"
But he was quite happy to pose with one of Daniel's catches. Yes, we did release it . . . it was rather small.
OK, here's where Steve and I probably should have had our heads examined. Yes, we really did rent a jet ski for a day. We all had a wonderful time riding around the lake on it, and no one broke anything at all. Here Ben and Elijah seem to be debating on who gets to drive next. Will we rent one again next year? Well, that all depends. Would it be instrumental in getting Jeannie and Evan and the baby to join us at the lake house?
Here's Steve (Dad ) and his youngest passenger. Don't worry, moms, we drove slower with him! The lake was pretty smooth here, and it really wasn't as scary as you might think. Still, Steve and I breathed a sigh of relief when the day was over and the machine was back on the trailer to return in the morning. Don't know if we're brave enough (or whatever that adjective should be) to do it again, though . . .

The Lord gave us lovely weather and lots of fun and good memories. We're thankful for every day He gives us together in these years as our children grow older. Each one is such a wonderful gift from Him . . . we can never thank Him enough for each blessing.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

2011-08-21T15:49:00.001-07:00

Just thought we would show a few pictures of some of the other things we've been doing . . . in addition to butchering chickens, taking down a pole barn, having company . . . This is Elijah, in the mud, trying to get a calf to go ??? somewhere . . .
The calves that the boys bought are eating well. A lot of them that were bought at auctions have died . . . sigh. Six of Elijah's died -- they were all from the same farm, so we wonder what they might have brought along with them. Farming can be tough.
These are the grown beef cows, who, so far at least! -- have always been very healthy. Here they are on lush pasture. We've been thankful that the Lord has sent plenty of rain this summer.
Katie and I found some wonderful bargains at yard sales for Jeannie. The boys took Ben's truck to pick up the bigger things. A baby crib and mattress, kitchen table and chairs, and a rocking chair were the larger items. Of course, you can't see the smaller stuff in the back of my car!
One evening as Ben was trying hard to quickly finish baling a big field, a storm came up. You can see the storm making its way closer. He got out to take this picture.
And it was a pretty severe thunderstorm. This is the hail he picked up after the storm ended and he could safely get back out of the tractor.
Elijah is moving some of the hay bales from that field. The Lord gave the boys the gift of a 70 acre hay field to cut this summer, for free. What a blessing!
And once in a while, the boys get a few minutes to rest. Cait is always ready to leap up and be beside them . . . she dearly loves to be near any of us.

The Pole Barn

2011-08-17T08:24:00.001-07:00

Ben and Elijah are taking down a pole barn near Rice Lake, Wisconsin, which is about 80 miles from here. They were given it free, with the stipulation that the barn had to be gone by September 1.
Taking off the sheet metal on the sides was the first step.
Nothing like sending a cell phone picture to scare your mom . . . of course, if she has old eyes (yes, that's me!) then she can't see it well enough on a tiny cell phone screen to get good and scared . . . besides which, having 5 boys tends to numb you a bit to mere pictures. (I figure, if he lived to send it, he's ok!)
Taking a load on a trailer behind Ben's big truck. Our three older boys have named their trucks now. Stephen's Ford Ranger is Mama, Elijah's Ford F-150 is Big Mama, and Ben's Ford 350 is Really Big Mama . . . . hey, wait a minute . . . wonder which one they associate me with?

Boys and farms and danger and work and fun -- oh my! The Lord has blessed us so far with His protecting Hand, and we pray for continued safety for the boys as they work.

And by the way, how did that picture get taken from that angle????

A Freezer Full of Chicken

2011-08-14T09:55:00.001-07:00

Thursday morning saw us gearing up for butchering 200 meat chickens. We all feel a bit of dread the night before, but in just one day's time, we have a year's worth of chicken in the freezer. All hands on deck!
Our children have all become experts at this -- some of them have been helping almost since they could walk! Laughter and fun help the work go faster.
This year we had a new volunteer . . . thank you to Timothy, a student from UMD who offered to help us. And he was a really big help!
Even A.P. has jobs. After the chickens have been . . . ummmm . . . well, defeathered and other things, they are placed in clean new garbage cans and covered with extremely cold water from our deep well. They chill down quickly, as our water comes out of the ground at about 40 degrees or so.
After the chickens have chilled down, they are cut up and brought into the kitchen in large buckets. The last step is to wrap the chicken in butcher paper and to package it into gallon size freezer bags. Betsy is demonstrating her fast technique. Used to be that no one could keep up with Mom. That's changed for sure! One of the girls is always in the kitchen to help me, and we are usually through with everything by 5 p.m. or so.

We are so blessed by the Lord with healthy food -- and willing hands to do all it takes to get it to our table!

Busy Summer Time

2011-07-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

We have been scrambling to keep up with summertime activities lately! I thought I would give you a sampling of SOME of what we've been doing . . . first, the garden has been doing very well, and the girls have been busy blanching and freezing vegetables.
In addition, they have harvested quite a few things each week for the farmers' market, and Betsy has been busy baking and selling her breads, rolls, and cookies.
The strawberry bed did pretty well, too . . . these are some of the later ones, and as you can see, these are the smaller ones that come at the end. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the bigger and earlier ones!
Then there was still the bathroom tiling project for Dad and his two youngest boys to finish. The grout we chose was black, and it sure looked like a mess at this stage! Here Dad is demonstrating the proper technique with a "floater".
D.J. tried next, and did a great job.
Even A.P. did part of the floor. I forgot to get a good picture of the finished bathroom for this post, but it looks great! Maybe next time . . . sigh. Hard to keep up with all of the activity here!
Then we had several members of a dairy farm family here for four days. There are seven siblings, and three were here. What fun we had with them! They are a great encouragement in our walk with the Lord. The boys helped our boys with haying, and had plenty of time left over for fun. By the way, what is it about heights that boys enjoy and moms don't?
Some of the guys taking a break on the front porch. We have a new addition to the porch -- a swing. It's already a favorite spot.
This sweet girl was such a help to us getting ready for a baby shower we gave while they were here. She must have frosted umpteen cupcakes, helped decorate the fellowship hall at the church, and just generally made herself indispensable. But she and her sisters always do that at our house . . .
We miss these friends so much already! But the good news is, that their siblings hope to come for a visit in the next week or two. (When you live on a dairy farm, everyone can't leave at once! What would the poor cows do?) I didn't have time or space to put in the rest of what we've been doing since the last blog post, but it included picking and freezing blueberries, haying, picking and freezing raspberries, working in the flower beds, helping someone pack up to move and holding a yard sale for them, and working on a book. So please forgive us for being so long in posting! We're trying . . .

May the Lord bless your summer!

Hot weather projects

2011-07-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Yep. Its definitely summer here, but that's not slowing us down from re-tiling our bathroom, hauling hay and picking blueberries. ;) Dad and his two hard-working helpers D.J. and A.P. have been mixing cement, cutting tiles, etc. By the way, the tile isn't that color . . . er, colors. Just the lighting from the camera flash. The tile is actually a natural slate, and while it has a bit of green, brown, black, and gray, it's quite subdued, not anything like what this picture indicates!
Taking a break while Dad gets the cement all smooth . . .
Just so you know, our house doesn't normally look like this! Only when we've had to use all these tools to rip up layers of old flooring and tiles.
Which way do we like it? Like this?
Or is this better? I was gonna have you all vote and tell me which one you liked better, but they are already cementing the tiles in. We went with the look of the second one . . . there's just something about it that looks quite appealing (to us anyway). And you don't have to cut so many tiles at an angle, either . . . .
Once again we made the annual trip to the National Forest for blueberries. :) Why is it that I love picking them more than strawberries? Maybe "cause you can just wander wherever and not worry about having to finish your row. ;)We came home with 5 gallons. . . not bad considering we only picked for a few hours! Guess it helps that we've had plenty of warm weather and lots of rain. There are soo many out there. Looks like we will be trekking back out there for another picking!

Stick around -- we are going to share some pictures of our favorite summer meals :)

What we've been up to

2011-07-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since we've done a new post! Sorry folks! As usual, things have been crazy busy around here.

The guys have been making hay -- over 100 round bales made so far, and lots more to go. We've got 200 meat chickens growing in the barn and Elijah's pigs are getting fatter every day! :)

And then there's everything else -- the garden and yard to keep up with, picking and freezing strawberries . . . all the things that spell out summer on the farm. Love it!

We've found time for fun too though . . . Jeannie, Evan and four other Pedersons came up for the Fourth of July. We had a blast! They are all so much fun.
Here's some pictures of the visit. (lots and lots of pictures actually, to make up for taking so long to blog!) :)

We drove the Pedersons up to Michigan to go hiking in the Porcupine Mountains.

Beautiful!
A fallen tree's root -- huge!
Some of our group. The ones who don't look like Castleberrys are Pedersons. lol
The hidden "Lake of the Clouds" that we saw on our hike.

And then there was the Fourth of July. We always go in the parade with the Fire department the guys are on.
Katie, Evan and Joel carrying bags and bags of candy to throw.
On top of the pumper! It was hot up there!
Well, not hot for long. Elijah sprayed his brother-in-law down. :)
The guys spraying down a crowd of boys. They loved it!
"Now who hasn't gotten wet yet?" In case you can't tell, that's a stick from a sucker in Ben's mouth. We get to enjoy some of the candy, too.
Riding on the back of the truck.

That's about all the pictures we got while the Pedersons were here. We were too busy having fun to remember the camera. :)

So yup, it's been busy and fun around here!

Hopefully we'll keep up with you all a little better now . . .

Hope you're all having a fantastic summer! And hey, feel free to leave us a comment and let us know what you'd enjoy seeing pictures of!

~posted by Betsy

A Beautiful Evening

2011-06-26T18:20:00.001-07:00

Lake Superior on a lovely summer evening. Warm, with a gentle cool breeze, sun, and sparkling water gently rippling into shore.
The girls love to sit on the beach and watch the waves come in, walk, and, well, you'll see what else. Of course, if Mom is trying to take pictures and keeps accidentally moving a bit, you might get sun in your eyes over and over and have to squint . . . sorry Katie!
Elijah loves to build a fire for us. He gathers a lot of small dry twigs and birch bark before adding larger pieces of driftwood.
Steve (Dad) could watch the sky and water for hours, in between walks along the shoreline.
Betsy has to get a little running practice in, just for fun.
And D.J. loves to run ahead of her . . . just because he can!
Then there is always texting a beloved and very missed sister -- yes, we can get enough reception sometimes!
And the sun goes down in a display of the mighty handiwork of our God. Even the winds and waves obey Him. Thank You, Lord, for another day to serve and enjoy You.

2011-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

We promised some more of David and Wendy's lovely photographs, and here they are. This is the front flower bed, just coming into bloom. All the perennials that bloom first in this bed are shades of blue and purple. I'll try to remember to take more pictures later in the summer, as the pinks and whites come out.
Some of our chickens, glad to be out for the summer!
We have a hummingbird feeder in the branches of a spruce outside the window. Katie is faithful to keep it filled.
The dairy cows enjoying summer pasture.
The lilac bushes were out while our guests were here, and there were many butterflies on the blossoms.
A bumblebee on a mountain bluet in the front bed.
The path that leads to the river. So good to see it cool and green . . . the Lord has blessed us with summer again. "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

Summer Fun with Friends

2011-06-14T06:47:00.001-07:00

Our good friends from England came to visit us for five lovely days. We had so much fun! I thought I'd share with you some of the things we did, as we already miss them. This is D.J., showing Wendy and David how easy it is to swing over the river. They decided to just watch him do it.
Our puppy, Cait, was tempted by the river. A.P. had to retrieve her when she went across and was afraid to come back.
The big boys brought home some huge tires -- I'm not sure where they got them, but this one was particularly . . . shall we say, aromatic? What could it be used for?
Boys can always find a fun use for anything! And D.J. was quite entertaining for the company.
Canoeing down our river to Lake Superior is a favorite summer activity. On the way there this time, a cougar was seen swimming in the river. Oooooh. Sorry we didn't get a picture!
An Englishman at Lake Superior. The lake and sky were a beautiful blue.
In the evenings, we often have a campfire. It can get pretty chilly sometimes, and Katie was willing to share her blanket with David and Wendy. They had never had s'mores! So of course, we had to correct that.
We promised you a picture of the completed strawberry bed, and here Katie has just finished watering it. We hope it will produce lots of strawberries, especially after Betsy's trip to Urgent Care . . . she stepped on a rusty barn nail in one of the boards they used to temporarily hold down the landscape cloth. Not flip-flops, Betsy!
Our English friends take very beautiful pictures. We plan to share a few more of their wonderful photographs of the farm in the next post. Here the girls are in front of one of the lilacs in the front yard -- after Betsy's recovery! Wendy and David, we miss you both!

Dairy Calves!

2011-06-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

Isn't she sweet? This is one of a dozen dairy calves that Ben and Elijah bought last week at an auction about an hour away.
The first picture was of a calf that was a cross of two breeds, Jersey and Milking Shorthorn. (I think. If I'm wrong, one of the boys will correct this, I'm sure!) This little girl is a Holstein.
Included in the dozen are three Holsteins, five Jerseys, and four cross breeds. They are all beautiful and healthy.
The sunlight in the barn on this Jersey was so pretty! The boys hope to find another 18 dairy heifer calves this summer, then begin milking two years from now, when these are grown and give birth to their own calves. We pray that the Lord will bless Ben and Elijah's efforts and hard work.

Laughter, Squeals, and Screams -- and yes, the grass is really this green!

2011-06-01T19:06:00.001-07:00

The fun began this evening as Katie and Betsy decided they could get the cedar logs for their new strawberry bed all by themselves. It took them a while . . . takes longer when you keep dropping the logs as you try to balance them. I heard the laughter and squeals behind the house, and when I saw what was going on, ran for the camera. Too good to miss!
Ok, the girls have six more logs loaded (this is the second trip), and Katie tells Betsy she can drive the four-wheeler this time.
"No, not that way! It's not going to fit!" warns Katie, laughing hysterically. "Stop, Betsy!" "Oh, it will be fine . . ." Scream. "OOOPS!"
"You back slow while I hold on . . ."
Let's try this way . . . no, that won't fit either.
The logs wobble back and forth as the girls decide to try going under the volleyball net and through the side yard . . .
Finally! One more trip completed. Katie is worn out, but Betsy had fun driving! The laughter, squeals, and screams were non-stop -- I only wish I could have captured it on video! Hopefully we'll post some pictures soon of the completed strawberry bed.

Lime Spreading on the Fields

2011-05-28T07:55:00.002-07:00

This pile of lime has been standing out in our hayfield, waiting to be spread, since last fall. Due to the very high demand for the guys who spread the lime, we weren't able to get ours done until last week. We were really happy to see the men and equipment pull into the driveway!
It always amazes me to see how big the trucks and equipment really are. This lime actually comes from a company in Superior that makes it into cubes used in water treatment plants. The unusable leftover dust is sold to area farmers to fertilize their fields, and our son Stephen is now one of the truckers who haul it.
A.P. had fun looking at all the trucks and equipment. Life is never dull when you live on a farm!
And here are the trucks spreading the lime dust on the fields. You can see our lovely deep green grass, dandelions, and the trees with new leaves. Spring! Thanks be to God for all His gifts.

More sure signs of Spring

2011-05-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

It wouldn't be a northern Wisconsin spring for us without our annual girls' trip to Hauser's, a place in Bayfield that sells field-grown perennials that are hardy "way up here". Yes, we are a zone 3, sometimes 4. This big barn has bins filled with huge chunks of perennials, dug each morning from their flower fields. For $2.55, you get a "chunk" with roots and dirt that would easily make 4 or 5 containers found in a nursery. The only problem is limiting yourself to what you can afford!

On the way home, the girls and I always stop at the same spot beside the lake for a picnic lunch. The hour drive has some incredible scenery, as the road curves back and forth near Lake Superior. Several times along the way, all conversation will stop with "oohs" and "aahs" heard as we take in the views. Yesterday's picnic conversation seemed to center around Jeannie -- we missed her, but we had lots of fun talking about her, too!
This is the view towards the lake from the picnic table -- is it familiar, Jeannie? Looking at Lake Superior from this spot brings back the words from the famous poem, "Hiawatha's Childhood" . . . . "by the shores of Gitche Gumee, by the shining Big Sea Water . . . " That poem actually refers to Lake Superior.
And there are plenty of wild plum blossoms, as well as other blooming shrubs and trees beginning to leaf out in the woods. The grass is finally a deep, intense green, and we are truly enjoying Spring!

Ham And Pepperoni

2011-05-16T07:42:00.001-07:00

Yep, that's right! I have been hauling hay for a neighbor and in payment he gave me two pigs!

It is so much fun to watch them eat! Once you've seen it you know where the term "being a pig" comes from. Of course I had to name them Ham And Pepperoni!

Also, Ben and I went to an auction and there was this really nice 2001 F350 . . . it sold very cheaply so he bought it! He isn't sure if he'll keep it or try re-selling it.

Other news around here: Me and Ben just ordered 30 Holstein heifer calves as we plan to start a dairy. We'll keep you posted on that.

Posted by Elk

And to all of you who sent a comment on the last post and it disappeared, I'm sorry! The blogger site was down for two days, and when it came back up, all but one comment had disappeared, and I don't know how to get them back . . . thank you so much for the sweet comments, though! Mrs. C

A Very Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-11T12:11:00.001-07:00

I missed Mother's Day at our house this year, because Steve and I were in Florida, visiting my parents. This is on Mother's Day, just after attending church together. Being with them was so wonderful -- no matter how old you are, you still love and need your parents. Mother and Dad gave me a childhood filled with love and security, and I'm so grateful for it. My parents have been married for nearly 66 years now, and are a wonderful example to all of us of a committed and enduring marriage.
When I came home on Tuesday evening, a Mother's Day was waiting for me . . . complete with gifts and cards from all of my children, including Jeannie and Evan. What a joy to be a mother!
And the Lord is blessing the next generation . . . yes, Evan and Jeannie are now expecting their first baby, in late January. We are all so excited! The girls talk at our house is all about babies these days . . . how good God is to all of us. Please pray for the new parents-to-be as the Lord brings them to mind. The Lord is pouring out joy all around!

Busy Bee's Bakery

2011-05-01T11:03:00.001-07:00

I thought I would update you a little on what Betsy's been doing lately. Next, we'll have to do Katie! Betsy began a small home-based bakery a few weeks ago, and already has many customers. She bakes two days a week, and her dad is glad to be her delivery man for the customers at the University. Other customers live in our rural community.
Betsy is really fast at everything she does, and she can make beautiful cookies in a snap. We get to enjoy the benefits of extras! Besides several kinds of cookies, she also bakes breads and rolls. Here she demonstrates her expert technique . . .
Eeeek! Too fast, Betsy? Mistakes usually make her laugh. She doesn't stress out -- baking is definitely her joy.
And she is never too busy to cheerfully serve the family in the kitchen, even on her baking days. Betsy is always ready to make sandwiches or anything else for lunch, and washes the dishes she uses between batches in and out of the oven. This girl never stops!
Here are some of the cloverleaf rolls she makes. The kitchen is filled with a wonderful fragrance as they come out of the oven . . . here I go again, gaining calories by looking (and smelling!).
The packaged products, ready to go out the door. We have been so blessed by Betsy's baking for many years, and now other people are, too! The Lord is good, Who gives the ingredients for bread and the ability to bake it. May each of you know the true Bread of Life.

Signs of Spring at the Castleberrys

2011-04-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, these are for real! I didn't give in to temptation to buy the plastic ones at the store and prop them up . . .
In his "spare time", Ben has been washing the road salt off his truck and Mom and Dad's cars, as well as putting a protective coat on them (the cars, not Mom and Dad!). Thank you, Ben!
Betsy's Easter dessert that "melted" in the refrigerator! The boys and Dad assured her it was delicious anyway. She had let them choose between this Cherry Chocolate Whatever and Viennese Chocolate Torte, which they insisted on calling Vietnamese Chocolate Torture. The girls and I were slightly tortured just by looking at the pictures of both as the boys were voting, because we decided two weeks ago to do a month long sugar fast. If I'm off sugar, how come I'm not losing weight? Must be that women over 50 gain calories just by looking at pictures.
Can you see the green grass in the yard? Yay! The fields are still brown, but no matter -- there is life ahead. And what is everyone doing here?
Well, when you have boys who love hockey, you have to come up with SOMETHING after the ice melts. Grass hockey! And they need more players, so the girls get roped in . . .
. . . and the girls are very good! They can steal a ball and take it right to the goal. Or would that be better stated as "borrowing" the ball?
Yes, they even talked Mom into playing for a few minutes. Perhaps it will counteract some of those calories I gained by looking at pictures of Vietnamese Chocolate Torture. And thank you to our friends who taught us to play grass hockey. They shall remain nameless to protect the innocent . . . if any of them are. I think they ALL contributed to introducing us to our new evening activity!

Calves and Trucks

2011-04-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

The boys seem to be doing the "lift the calf every day until it's a full-grown cow" plan. Wonder how long that will last?
And Stephen missed his old beloved Ranger truck from years ago . . . so he bought another. Only 220,000 miles, too! Hmmmm . . . Well, he'll enjoy it. And it will certainly fit in on the farm!

We are currently praying for wisdom to deal with a real problem we are having with the cattle. In 18 years, we had only lost 3 calves until this year. Now, we have lost 4 this spring so far, out of only 8 born, with more to come. Something is seriously wrong! We'll let you know if we find out what's going on. Meantime, we're a bit worried. But the Lord knows all, and we can trust Him.

"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Habakkuk 3: 17-18

And for those of you who voted in our poll, the answer was 19 dozen UNWASHED eggs in the crate. There had been seven dozen more in cartons when we left home . . . so we kept a couple dozen for ourselves and took 24 dozen to the co-op to sell last week.

I Guess The Guys Still Need Us

2011-04-15T07:54:00.001-07:00

Ben and Stephen were left to hold down the fort -- er, farm -- while we were gone for 10 days to visit friends and family. With full time jobs and lots of animals to care for in addition to laundry, eating, and sleeping, they got a bit behind on a few things. We came home on Wednesday evening to some interesting sights! Can you guess how many eggs this crate holds? Unwashed eggs, by the way. The basement refrigerator smelled, well . . . interesting.
While we were gone, we comforted ourselves with the thought that they were at least eating healthy. We had left frozen fruit cups, organic potatoes to bake, fish and our organic chicken already made into meals in the freezer, homemade cookies, etc. Then I opened the upstairs refrigerator . . . what's this stuff?
Well, they did do some dishes. Putting them away was something they apparently didn't have time for.
And there were a few dishes still waiting for us! We discovered that frozen pizza and take-out chicken had been the main menu while we were gone. This must look like what is called a "bachelor pad". But it's okay, guys. We're home now, and we'll take care of you. And put the house back together . . .

Twin calves!!

2011-03-29T07:28:00.001-07:00

Elijah went out to do chores this morning and saw that one of Ben's cows had just calved. Our calving season has now started!

When he and Ben went out after breakfast to check on the new calf, surprise, surprise, there was another one! It's the first time we've ever had twin calves born on the farm. She had a heifer and a bull.
Ben with his cow and set of twins. Two for the price of one. Pretty good. :)

Calving season is here -- a sure sign of spring!

~posted by Betsy

They're Home!

2011-03-24T07:53:00.002-07:00

We are so blessed to have Steve and the girls back home! We have missed them so much, but we're glad that they had a wonderful and special time together in California. This is the beach at San Diego, which is where they flew in. The first day of a lifetime memory trip!
This is what hangs over Jeannie's sink. I could pick this out as her kitchen anywhere in the world -- it looks just like Jeannie! (Well, as a kitchen decorating theme, I mean . . .) I'm afraid these pictures are a little mixed up, but I have neither the time nor the patience to re-do the post, so please bear with me. More on Jeannie's kitchen later!
A visit to Jeannie and Evan just has to include a picnic on the Santa Monica beach. Two happy newlyweds -- Steve and the girls enjoyed watching these two together. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of a sweet and godly new marriage.
Some people were warm enough to take off jackets! In the background, you can see big buildings and bare mountains -- it is a very different look from northern Wisconsin!
In the background you can see the Santa Monica pier. The Pedersons took us there last May, the first time Jeannie and Steve and I met Evan's family. We had a picnic on the beach, also. Lots of happy memories from that trip, and now the girls have seen the same places.
Here are my three girls together in Jeannie's darling little kitchen. Together again! Just wish I could have seen them there together. Life changes! Hold onto every sweet time . . .
A look over Los Angeles, with a "tour" by Evan.
Katie, Betsy, and Steve in Yosemite National Park. They were invited to visit a sweet and godly family who lives only a few miles from the park, and the family took them to Yosemite for a day. Thank you! After this, it was back to LA for a few more days, then home. A wonderful trip, a beautiful gift from a gracious Heavenly Father.

~posted by Mom~ happy to have everyone together again!

Recipe for Ice Cream Pie

2011-03-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

I was asked for the recipe for ice cream pie, and I'm glad to give it, but I take no responsibility for any adverse health issues from eating it! The boys are all in various stages of a relapse from the flu this week, so I apologize for not keeping up with the blog -- it's just hard to keep up with everything, even though the boys are doing all they can to help. Wonder if the relapse was brought on by too much sugar????

First, you need to make the crust. You can use crushed oreos mixed with a little melted butter, or crispy rice cereal mixed with chocolate syrup. Either one is equally unhealthy, so I guess the choice is yours -- I wonder if Cocoa Pebbles would work? Would you believe when we were first married, I found out that is what Steve had been having for breakfast every morning? Cocoa Pebbles, I mean, not ice cream pie. At least the ice cream pie would have had a little calcium. Instead, he had his chocolate cereal along with a tall glass of sweetened ice tea, made with saccharin tablets, no less. How did he ever survive?

Back to the recipe. Freeze the crust at least 30 minutes. During this time, you should be softening the ice cream -- it can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the hardness of the ice cream and the warmth of your kitchen. We use nearly 1/2 gallon for one pie, but our pie dish is large and very deep. The original recipe calls for just 1 quart of ice cream. While the crust is freezing and the ice cream is softening, mix 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips with 1/4 cup sour cream, warming on medium/low heat and stirring until smooth. Now, just so you know, I absolutely love this mixture, but some of the boys aren't really fond of the mixture of sweet and sour, so last time I made the pies, I used semisweet chips and replaced the sour cream with chocolate syrup, which they liked much better. I missed the sour cream, but I am making this primarily for the boys, right?

So, the ice cream is soft now, and the crust is frozen. Quickly spread half of the ice cream into the crust, then drizzle half of the chocolate mixture (whichever one you have decided on) over the ice cream. Spread the remaining ice cream over this, and drizzle with the remaining chocolate mixture. Freeze at least an hour, longer is better. That's it! Quick, easy, and guaranteed to get those blood sugar levels soaring, followed by a good crash. Our guys love it.

The girls and Steve are STILL having a great time in California. Today they are going to Yosemite National Park. They do promise to come home eventually, perhaps after the boys are fully recovered. Well, you don't want them getting sick, do you????

~posted by Mom, who is still enjoying her guys, even if they are sick~

Just the guys and Mom

2011-03-12T08:38:00.001-08:00

This is a familiar sight at our house the last few days! Since the girls and Steve have gone to visit Jeannie and Evan in sunny California, the guys have taken over dish washing. Mom cooks and does the laundry, but they've been really good about helping fold clothes, too.
This is from an old book we own, and it pretty well sums up what our boys have been doing!
These are D.J.'s dishpan hands! Yesterday, Elijah and A.P. were still coughing and really tired from a bout with the flu, and Ben had a relapse with a fever of 102 (he's much better today), so D. J. heard his mom call his name for help pretty often! Everybody's feeling better this morning, so I think we'll be back to rubber band fights in the basement by this afternoon.
Oh, and did I mention Elijah broke his toe? Between getting Ben to the doctor (I thought he had pneumonia, but he didn't), and picking up 1000 pounds of feed, yesterday was a rather busy day!
Here is the laundry! (Trick photography by D. J.!) It's just the ironing waiting for me, taken from under the side of the basket. The rest of the laundry is caught up. Really, girls, not to worry! Enjoy those restaurants and shopping and sightseeing.
I had left a list of housecleaning tasks for the boys that were to be done while I went to the feed store, and when I came back, there was a sign waiting for me in the entry: WE WILL WORK LIKE SLAVES AND WE WON'T COMPLAIN, BUT WE WANT ICE CREAM PIE! They got it.

~posted by Mom/Susie/Mrs. C ~ having fun with her guys

Stephen's new ride

2011-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Stephen sent us a picture of his new truck. Look familiar? You saw these same two trucks last fall when our lime was delivered!

Cruising along . . .

2011-03-01T18:19:00.000-08:00

I know we haven't done a post on here in awhile now, sorry folks! I guess we're just kinda cruising along, doing the every day stuff so there really hasn't been much to blog about.

I can't believe we're already in March! We had a thaw last week and lost a lot of our snow.

It even got up to fifty degrees! It felt like spring!

It left everything looking pretty bare and dirty, and the driveway, pasture, sidewalk -- everything basically, is a sheet of ice.
Playing hockey while the ice lasts. (can you tell this picture was taken several weeks ago?! We had a lot more snow then!)
A.P. gathering the eggs . . . our layers are laying like crazy right now! We've been taking eggs to the local co-op and selling them.

And last but not least, we've been butchering! We processed a steer last weekend, getting a supply of beef in the freezers before spring arrives. And yes, that's our diningroom table, covered in meat. We clean up well. Don't worry. :)

posted by Betsy

A New Job

2011-02-17T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of anyway! Our trucker brother, Stephen, just got a new job- trucking! He switched to a company in Superior (Dave Evans) and is going to be hauling loads of lime from a foundry there. This job is a huge blessing as he will be home every night, and working with the same company as Ben is! (Ben is a wash technician there) We are all very excited for him.

Homeschool Ski Weekend II

2011-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

The pile of coats on the bench in the entry began really growing by 5 p.m. Time to find another place to stack them!
Here are a few of the guys washing up before supper . . . is it possible to have a group of boys and not have at least a small wrestling match?
The line for chili wasn't too long, even though we had 47 people to feed. No one really minded waiting, with all the good conversation going on!
The tables in the dining room filled up quickly, so we had overflow in the basement, living room, and kitchen.
The bonfire is always fun for everyone . . .
These are most of the girls on Saturday afternoon, just after lunch and before skiing. Some of the local people are missing in the pictures, as they met us at the slopes.
And here are most of the guys . . . we actually are posting two of the guy pictures, because the "normal "ones turned out blurry. So you get to see the "goofy" ones.
This is the one where Mr. Castleberry said, "Ok, everyone slump!"
Everyone on the front porch just before loading up to ski.
And here is our sweet friend -- she and her equally sweet sister spent some extra days with us. And Andrew is always glad for extra sisters!

Just like last year, only better

2011-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

We did another homeschool weekend this year! Only this year there were MORE people! A post with more pictures of the weekend will follow.

A Birthday and A Surprise

2011-02-01T11:30:00.001-08:00

What a fun and blessed weekend we had! D.J. had a birthday on Saturday, and we had a great surprise the afternoon before, which added to the joy . . .
Evan and Jeannie came for the weekend! It was a complete surprise to all of us -- what a great gift to our whole family, to see them again. Evan even learned to ice skate. He had 48 hours of Wisconsin winter, so we crammed in everything we could, including a long hike on the frozen river.
The younger boys got to know their new big brother much better, and Evan was so kind to play lots of games and spend time with them.
Here is Elijah, concentrating hard at a game that all the kids played, called Scotland Yard. Fun for all!
There is supposed to be a Mr. X, so Evan got the part. Of course, he needed to have Mrs. X help!
Hey, whisper a little louder, Mrs. X, so we can figure out where you guys are!
There was even time for some foosball before we had to say goodbye to our newlyweds. What a blessing it was to all of us! Thank You, Lord, for giving us such love and happiness together.

And thank you again, Evan and Jeannie, for the wonderful and sweet surprise. We love you so much.

~posted by Mrs. C/Mom~

Farmboy Fun 6

2011-01-19T06:48:00.001-08:00

Excitement in the Laundry Room

2011-01-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, so maybe excitement isn't typically what you find in a laundry room, but for lack of a better term, here's what happened. D.J. and I were home a few nights ago, enjoying the evening (most everyone else was gone), when we heard a funny sound from the front-loading washer that Steve bought for me a couple of years ago. We looked at each other and quickly checked the laundry room. "Quick! A bucket!"
Time for the two of us became time for the two of us to scoop suds together. How glad I am for a cheerful helper with a sense of humor!
You see, I was washing a load -- a small load at that -- which had numerous old spots and stains. I had been told by a nice older lady in WalMart that Dawn dishwashing liquid (the orange color) gets out stains and spots easily. Which it does. Very well. HOWEVER, I had lots of spots and stains in this load, and I guess I sort of overdid the spot removal deal. Especially for a high efficiency washer. They do warn you about that, don't they? Hmmmm. Mom needs to pay more attention!
Keep scooping! And then we'll need to rinse all these items by hand in the laundry sink before entrusting them back to the washer for yet more rinsing. This is going to take a while!
Ahhhh. We're all done, so let's relax and enjoy the fire on this cold January night, lesson learned.

Last of the wedding pictures

2010-12-13T20:38:00.001-08:00

Jeannie is in our bedroom, dress on, ready to take a few pictures before leaving for the church. It was a beautiful day for early November -- lots of sun coming in the windows.
Here is our beautiful bride on the stairway. Lots of memories of this young woman running up and down these steps to serve her family over the years!
Ready to get in the car and leave for the church. How happy she is!
Jeannie's youngest brothers are done with their ushering job, and waiting for their sister to come down the aisle.
Here comes the bride. Steve is smiling here -- but it was an effort! Not because he didn't want her to marry Evan -- but because the reality of missing her was very real to us.
The bride and groom just before their vows.
The bride and groom soon after their vows!
This is such a beautiful photograph . . . it was a very breezy day, and after the ceremony the great photographer (Jeannie's new brother-in-law David) took pictures at the farm. The dress blowing out behind Jeannie is just lovely, tisn't it, Wendy?
A dream come true, and a lifetime of love ahead. Praise the Lord, who is great in mercy!

~ posted by a thankful Mom~ I love you both!

Farmboy Fun 5

2010-12-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

enjoy! elk

A walk with Cait

2010-12-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

We got a huge snowfall the other day..so Cait and I decided to brave the wind, snow and cold and venture forth. Okay she doesn't look like she's having any fun at all, but honestly she loves the snow!
It was one of those lovely sticky snows that clung to every branch making it a "winter-wonderland."

Sorry I just couldn't stop taking pictures of it! :)
And this is what I saw coming home... a gray sky full of snow. And yes, even though winter isn't my all time favorite season, I'm so thankful for a gracious God who has created this world and allowed me to enjoy it.

Winter Time Sports in Wisconsin

2010-11-28T10:04:00.001-08:00

Ok, so we live in a land of ice and snow for a good 4 or 5 months of the year. What do active boys do for fun when everything is covered for that long? Bike riding is out, fort building is out, tree climbing is out . . . that leaves sledding, skiing, snowshoeing, and ice skating. Most kids up here in northern Wisconsin grow up on ice skates for several months of the year, and that usually leads to --
Hockey! Now don't worry -- A.P. is not thinking of turning pro. We don't encourage our boys to make sports to big of a thing in their lives, in spite of what you might think, looking at this picture! But we do allow them to have friends over occasionally to our home ice rink to skate, and yes, they often play some hockey together, just for fun.
Culver's, a northern chain restaurant, has a new "Kid of the Game" program, and Steve (Dad) entered his youngest son's name in the drawing. A.P. was surprised and delighted to be chosen to skate out with the starting line-up in a UMD Bulldogs home game. (Some of you may not know that Steve (Dad) is a professor at UMD. He has had many students tell him that he is the only Christian professor they have ever had.) UMD is currently the #1 college team in the nation -- no wonder, with all the kids up here learning to skate as soon as they can walk! We also received free tickets to the game, so that we could go and watch him.
Here we have a little guy sitting on the bench just before the game begins. After the game began, Steve brought him up to the stands with the rest of us -- it's a safety rule that no one can sit on the bench except players and coaches during the game itself -- flying pucks are dangerous if they come off the ice and into the area.
During the breaks between periods of the game, the ice has to be re-smoothed, using a machine called a zamboni. A.P. was allowed to ride on it while it was being taken around the rink. He looked so small down there! Everyone, from players to zamboni drivers, was very kind to him and he had lots of fun.
Here is Dad with his youngest son, leaving the players' area. For those of you who are cautious parents (as we are!), don't worry -- Steve was with A.P. throughout the entire evening, and never left him alone for second. He knew that Dad's protective eye was constantly on him. May our close protection always remind our children as they grow older, that God's eye is always on us! He never leaves us or forsakes us.
And here is the family after all the autographs, etc. were done (the players gave A.P. a nice T-shirt and signed it for him). As you can see, the stands are empty! It was late, and we were all tired, but it was a wonderful memory for all of us.

A FEW early pictures -- more to follow!

2010-11-09T21:54:00.001-08:00

Tables in the town hall are ready for the reception!

A corner with some fall decorations -- Jeannie chose to have a simple country fall theme -- she's definitely a Wisconsin farm girl! Well, she used to be, anyway!
The cake table -- before the cake, that is.
Ready for the morning . . .
Jeannie made her own veil. It was so lovely!
Our sweet Jeannie became Mrs. Evan Pederson on November 6, 2010. This is only a cell phone picture, so the quality isn't the best -- but more should be ready next week. Thank you for all of your prayers for our family -- the Lord is so faithful!

Final weeks before the wedding!

2010-10-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

The days are slipping by and before we know it the wedding will be here! Mom and Jeannie are doing a great job staying organized and making out lists of things to get done ahead of time. So far there hasn't been any stress with wedding preparations.

Jeannie has all of her decorations ready and waiting for the day when we finally get to decorate the church! Her colors are green and brown . . .
We're finishing up fall housecleaning this week, so next week we can focus on making food ahead before company begins arriving. It feels so good to get the house cleaned, organized and sparkling clean!
Mom even got out the paint and roller and did touch up work on the walls. Amazing how fast the walls in this house get grimy looking! Lots of dirty hands around here I guess. :)
In the midst of the cleaning whirlwind, mom found time to make caramel apples with the last of the apples from our tree.
They were delicious!
We have an abundance of apples in the fall, so we've been canning applesauce and apple pie filling. I made an apple pie for Jeannie's birthday this week.
Jeannie's last birthday as a Castleberry at home! We put all twenty-nine candles on her pie. Lots of fire and lots of dripping wax. :)

Sorry we aren't doing better at keeping up with posting on here . . . posts are probably going to be a little scarce as we are tying up the last minute details for Jeannie and Evan's wedding.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers as we look forward to the Lord's blessing!

posted by: Betsy

Play time with Cait

2010-10-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

I thought you all might like to see some pictures of what we've been enjoying. :)
Last night D.J. and A.P. along with their side kick Cait, had a blast playing on the round bales. She is just a little sweetie and we are all really enjoying her!

New on the Farm

2010-10-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

Our beautiful Jersey milk cow, Sunshine, had her calf yesterday. That means milk, butter, and cheese again! The little heifer doesn't have a name yet, but we're all happy to see her here, healthy and as pretty as her mother.
Doesn't she almost look like a fawn? Hey, maybe that's an idea for a name . . .
And then yesterday the younger boys and I went to pick up our new puppy! She's an English shepherd, and her breeder had been calling her Cait. We like the name so well, we're thinking of just keeping that name for her.
Cait has a ton of energy, and also a sweet temperament. She loves people, and loves to lean up against us to be petted. The boys are working hard already at training her on manners. We're hoping to train her to help with rounding up the cattle as she gets older. Meanwhile, she's a blessing to us with her loving spirit. (I can't believe I wrote that! I'm not even a "dog person"!)

~posted by Mrs. C/Mom ~

Fall in Wisconsin

2010-09-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

We got a hard frost the other day and everything in the garden is dead now. Yesterday we cleaned out the sad looking dead plants and brought in the pumpkins and squash. D.J. grew huge pumpkins to sell for fall decorations. They almost look like watermelons right now, but they'll be turning orange soon!

Delicata squash . . . us girls love it, but the boys won't even try it! We got a bumper crop this year, so looks like Katie and I will have a lot to eat this winter, unless we send some to California with Jeannie. (free wedding gift! lol)

A.P. had his own little garden out in the corn patch, from seeds we had left over. He grew nice lettuce and radishes.
Now that we've harvested everything, Ben and Elijah will let the cows into the corn patch. They love corn stalks -- they'll have it eaten to the ground in just a few hours!
The last grazing on the hay field. We want to make sure there's several good inches of grass left to winter over. Won't be too long before the snow flies! (okay Katie, I promise not to keep saying that!) I'm always ready for snow way before Katie or just about anyone else in the family!

Right now we're enjoying cool weather and beautiful fall colors. Almost all of the trees have changed and the yellow poplars look so pretty against the evergreens.

Fall is a busy season here. Ben just finished cutting all the firewood. It's a big job to cut and stack enough wood for the winter!

Looks like someone else has been busy too . . .
One string hanging down from the loft + one busy kitten =

Enjoy fall in your part of the country!

~posted by Betsy

White Gold

2010-09-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had some guys from Superior haul in 100 tons of lime for our field. This should up the hay production quite a bit.
We know the guy who drove the truck in the back of the picture. (No it wasn't Stephen)
They waited until both trucks were in the field and lined up before dumping to keep the dust out of the engines.
The lime is so finely powdered that it is almost like water.
And there is 50 tons of lime! The other two loads came the next morning.

What we've been up to. . .

2010-09-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

Our sweet corn was finally ready for us to harvest and freeze. 6 large crates sat on our porch, filled to the top waiting for us to husk them.

I had some wonderful helpers in the kitchen.

The Lord really blessed us with a wonderful crop of tomatoes. We were surprised with how well they did considering all the rain we had.
We picked all the tomatoes last week, and they've been slowly ripening in buckets in the basement.

When the boys aren't busy helping in the kitchen, they're playing with the puppets that A.P. got for his birthday. Which means that we find them doing interesting things around here.

Looks like you'll have to deal with the police if you want a cookie. :) Never a dull moment in our home!

Another fun weekend

2010-09-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, what are all of these engagement pictures for?

For putting into the envelopes containing wedding invitations! Evan was here for the weekend, and he and Jeannie had a fun job to do together.
Katie helped them out, doing calligraphy for the invitations. What a team! Chocolate chip cookies helped sustain the hard workers.
Uh oh. Looks like a major dilemma, or perhaps a forgotten name on the list?
Well, whatever it was must have been resolved. The happy couple didn't let much worry them. Just a little over eight weeks to go! Praise the Lord for such blessed days.

Family Vacation!

2010-08-31T07:14:00.001-07:00

Okay here's why we didn't post for so long! Our family took a week vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Lake Gogebic. The guys got all (yeah. we took three up there) the vehicles ready while we packed up last minute things in the house.

We had been planning this vacation since April, so it felt a little unreal seeing it all. We all fell in love with the house the moment we arrived.
Every room was so spacious and gorgeously furnished. There was plenty of room to spread out with 4 bedrooms, a finished basement, and a wonderful kitchen.
It was so fun eating our meals outdoors. We had cooked a lot of our meals ahead of time and it was so handy!

A.P. loved using the float.
Dad relaxing...something that we all enjoyed doing. :)

Ben was the grill master. Hey, he had to sample, right?
All of us girls loved cooking in the kitchen. What is it about cooking in a different kitchen that's so fun?
A.P.'s list of casualties and the like.

The little gravel path leads to a campfire ring...and of course we just had to try it out! ;)
God really blessed us with a one-last-just-family-vacation before Jeannie gets married. We are hoping that she and Evan will be able to join us next year!

Posted by: Katie

Summertime

2010-08-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

Engaged!!!!! Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow Part 2

2010-08-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

Rejoice with us as we joyfully and gratefully announce the engagement of our daughter Jeannie to Evan Pederson. The wedding is planned for this fall, and we are so blessed to have the privilege of adding a new son to our family! (Wasn't it a short time ago that the phrase "adding a new son" meant we were sending out baby announcements?) Time goes so quickly . . . treasure each day. And we are treasuring the time we have with them now. We would so appreciate your prayers for this happy couple as they prepare to begin a new life serving the Lord together.

A Suprise Visitor!

2010-08-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

We couldn't have guessed who would pay us a surprise visit!
This little bear was in a tree 15 feet from the house!

Herding chickens doesn't work

2010-08-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

Elijah went out to do the chicken chores a couple of weeks ago and found over half of the meat chickens dead! Apparently a weasel had torn into the pen and killed a bunch of them. The pen was pretty old -- we built it when we moved to the farm about eighteen years ago! The old pen...the wire was so old we were patching it together. We didn't realize a weasel would be strong enough to tear into it though! Ben and Elijah got to work building a new pen right away. They did a great job building a new chicken pen, with new strong chicken wire. Then we had to move the remaining 100 meat birds to their new pen!

We decided to put up wire and gates and try herding the chickens across the aisle to their new pen.

Is it going to work?!

Keep those chickens moving!

Push, push, push.... we got them to walk a little ways and then those lazy meat birds just starting sitting down and wouldn't move!
They settled down comfortably and wouldn't budge. We finally had to end up picking them up to carry them to the new pen! Haven't been any more weasel attacks, so that's good. Life on a farm is always interesting!

posted by Betsy

2010-08-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

So...whats going on in the picture?! Repairing the baler apron, which is very time consuming, but kinda fun. (we still aren't done with it :-o)

Now what?

2010-07-30T11:12:00.002-07:00

Anyone think they can figure this out? Now what's going on???? ;)

Cherry jelly

2010-07-26T05:45:00.001-07:00

Our nankin cherry bushes were loaded this year! Katie found a recipe for cherry jelly -- it looked so easy and we started in all excited.
We started off by boiling the cherries like the recipe said to soften them before mashing them to get the juice out. Problem was, all the juice came out while they were boiling so we had a big pot of water with some juice tinting it. Hmm...going to have to try something else.
We pulled out the juicer and started throwing handfuls of cherries in and whirring them up. The cherry pits made a racket! The juicer was groaning so we stopped.
Our faithful old food mill that we use for tomatoes and applesauce...once again, the pits were the problem. Katie could hardly turn the handle! By now we were both getting really giggly, running around the kitchen trying different ways to get the cherry juice out.
Mashing the cooked cherries worked somewhat but took a long time and we had a lot to mash! We finally found the solution -- we put just a little bit of water in with the cherries and simmered them for awhile, so all the juice came out, then drained it off. Perfect and easy!
Of course by now we had used like every pot and appliance we could get our hands on! It took a while to clean up the sticky mess.

Filling jars of cherry jelly for a canner load. (and listening to music - see the earbuds?! lol) We ended up with lots of delicious cherry jelly, and next time we'll know exactly how to do it!

~posted by Betsy

Farmboy Fun Part 4

2010-07-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Redneck Slingshot.

What big boys do with little boys swings. Seriously.

Elk

Blueberries!

2010-07-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Blueberry Cream Pie

Filling: 4 cups sour cream
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs, beaten with a fork
4-5 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
Combine all ingredients except blueberries. Beat well with a mixer on medium speed for several minutes until smooth. Now fold in the blueberries. Pour into prepared crust, bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Pie is done when top is slightly brown and the center is no longer shaky when you jiggle it.
Crust: 3 cups flour, 1 cup butter. Cut butter into flour, mix until crumbly. Add water, tossing with a fork, until dough forms a ball. Roll out crust, place into pie pans.

This is our all time favorite blueberry pie recipe that we have made for years and years! It is absolutely delicious served cold. Enjoy!

~Betsy

Blueberry Picking in a National Forest

2010-07-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

Early Friday morning, several of us headed out to a National Forest to pick wild blueberries. It was just a gorgeous day. . . sunny with blue skies.
Every year we go back to the same spot. . . but after hiking up to the top, we found no blueberries or bushes! Unfortunately the ferns had grown so big, that the plants were no longer there.
But down at the base of the hill the blueberries were everywhere! :D In some places the ground was blue with them.

The wild ones are much smaller, but we love em just the same!

The sandy tire tracks leading to our favorite place. We always take a map with us and leave one at home (there are people who have gotten lost out there).

Cleaning them is so easy! Once we remove any leaves or unripe berries, we bag them for winter use.
We can't wait to make some of our favorite blueberry desserts.
We'll try to post some recipes for you all to enjoy too. :)
Posted by Katie

The Weekend Part 2

2010-07-12T09:19:00.001-07:00

Like last year, our fire department was in a local parade. . . but this time we had someone from California riding along.

Elijah decided to "make Evan feel like a part of the family." End result? Evan was soaked!

Okay it actually felt really good. . . after riding on the truck in the hot sun.
The fireworks were spectacular
Jeannie and Evan having a little fun. . . =)

Jeannie was dry for a while, but not for long! Two very happy people! =D

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Don't we live in such a beautiful world? God is so good.
Posted by Katie

The Weekend Part 1

2010-07-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Evan was here for the weekend, making it special. Saturday afternoon turned out to be quite hot, so we all headed for the river to cool off. It felt so refreshing!
The guys all worked really hard to make a dam, using the some of the biggest rocks they could find.
A.P. trying to catch some fish.
Jeannie and Evan enjoying being together :)
Playing badmitton in the hot sun. It wasn't long before they were in the house drinking water.
Stephen and A.P. were the winners! :)

And Jeannie made two wonderful strawberry pies. . . for someone! ;) Okay the rest of us enjoyed them too. The Lord is good!
Posted by: Katie

Catching Up

2010-07-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

Mom and I got started early this morning cutting up the seed potatoes. Because of all the rain we had to store them a long time. . . and unfortunately we found a few rotten potatoes.

By 10:30 they were all cut up and ready to go. Dad hauled the hoes and potatoes by the four wheeler down to the potato patch.

The sandy soil was quite hot, but no one complained. We got them planted in record time too!

Elijah spent several hours in the hot sun, cutting our first crop of hay. He got it cut with no break downs-Praise the Lord. We are hoping with all this rain we've been getting that we can get more than one crop.
Can anyone guess what A.P. is doing? :)
Posted by Katie

Living life

2010-06-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

That's what we're doing. Just living life on the farm here in Wisconsin, and all that includes! This week we made a quick rush out to the strawberry patch near by to get our years strawberries picked before the rain came. It was a last minute plan, so mom was still in town running errands. A.P. left a note on the door to tell her where we were. :)

All of us went to pick, so we got 225 pounds picked in a couple of hours. They were delicious this year!
The long hulling process...kind of tedious work, but we always end up getting goofy and having a lot of fun!

Dad helped us pick this year. He loves to 'get jobs done' and wow, he was fast! He can fill his box faster than anyone, but he has a reputation of picking everything - leaves, rotten berries, white berries... He signed his boxes as "me" so we could know which ones he had done.

Hmmm....who picked this box? Yup, "me". :) We had a lot of fun laughing and cutting up while we did the strawberries.

Dad bought Rosetta Stone for the family to learn Spanish. The two youngest boys have been doing lots of the lessons -- they are doing great!
Elijah and D.J. washing the baler. Ben and Elijah have been servicing the haying equipment. We're hoping the rain stops soon so the fields can dry out enough to get some hay cut!

Braces. Part of living life for D.J. now. :) He got the braces on today, the seventh Castleberry to have them!

~posted by Betsy

Moving day at last

2010-06-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

. . . for the laying hens that is!

Betsy and I finally got their pen built a few weeks back. The chickens seemed to enjoy the ride. :)
Elijah and D.J. moved the pen for us using the four wheeler.

The happy chickens in their new home. . . so far no critter has bothered them. We did forget one thing-nesting boxes for them to lay their eggs in.

A.P. was a cheerful helper.

Just yesterday Betsy and A.P. planted our corn and green beans. With 5 inches of rain in the last two weeks its not been planting weather.

Notice the sweatshirts? :) Typical June weather for you.
Posted by: Katie

Memorial Day

2010-06-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

For us here in Wisconsin, Memorial day usually marks the beginning of summer for us. Everything is green at last and the cows are out on pasture. It's a beautiful time of year!
Memorial day is also the day we try to get everything into the garden, because the last frost date is finally past... Our porch railing was full of all the plants we started from seed indoors.

Before we planted the tomatoes we put up our fence posts and cages. We've learned the hard way that tomato plants can go wild and just grow all over the place! We had to laugh though, because it looked like we were growing posts in our garden. :)
Jeannie getting them into the ground...
We had a lovely Memorial day, so the whole family was outside getting things done. D.J. was mowing the yard again -- it grows so fast this time of year!
Elijah was hosing out the cattle trailer after hauling a cow for a neighbor.

The chicken pen, finally finished! Can't wait to get those chickens outside on green grass.

Summer is here in Wisconsin . . . it's beautiful!

One of those days . . .

2010-05-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had "one of those days"? One where the Lord is obviously teaching you to be patient and to set aside your list for His? We had one of those today. First, there was the chicken pen. Ben is actually doing one of the last things to it here. He's cutting out the door on the side. Since he was at work today (yes, he got pretty dirty!) he missed all the fun and excitement this morning. You might notice that the pen isn't exactly finished. We had a few problems . . .
Our youngest son had saved his money up for quite a while to buy a new hammer. This was the hammer's first day of use. Betsy used it to pull out a nail, and it broke in her hand. Oops! See the old skis in the background? They are waiting to be used for skids . . . they are still sitting there this evening.
Hmmm. The pen was pretty wobbly after all the work done on it. But our 14 year-old carpenter had a solution -- cross bracing. Just took more time, that's all.
Here is the hammer owner with his hammer, B.B. (Before Broken)
Betsy had a hard time with the screws -- "They keep stripping themselves!" Really.
Good thing the carpenter that was at home knew how to use a chop saw. And the morning wore on . . . when suddenly, the phone rang. I had to run for it, as I was rather unsuccessfully trying to hem a pair of jeans upstairs. More on that later.
"Uh, Mom, this is Elijah. I'm stuck. Like, bad stuck. In deep mud. Can you come right away?" A trip to a neighboring farmer produced a "busy signal" when asked for help. Next, Elijah had me drop him off at a nearby field to drive our second tractor over to the larger, stuck one. "Can you bring Betsy to drive the Ford? Like, fast? I think it's sinking further into the mud every minute."
Guess what? A smaller tractor will not pull a larger one out, once the larger one is up to its axles in mud. Who woulda thunk it? Thankfully, a second neighbor had pity on us, and kindly pulled us out with his equipment. A lemon meringue pie was delivered to him at supper time by a grateful mom.
And, oh, yes, the jeans I was trying to hem when Elijah called were finally finished. The job required two broken needles and some heavy seam ripper use a few times, but they did get finished. Just one of those days! One of those days that I'm thankful for a happy, healthy family with lots of fun, laughter, and time to learn patience together!

`posted by Mom/Susie/Mrs. C