Here is the newest picture of our family standing outside our front porch. It has been a good month and a half. My folks showed up in mid December to hang out for a week. Unfortunately, a sick bug went through the family and everyone got it. That put a few plans on hold until the next visit.

A couple days after my folks left, Brydie's folks came for a couple weeks. They got the sick bug too. We don't know what it was other than miserable.

Just so you know all the photos are in reverse order. That's what I get for thinking they were in the right order. Anyways.....
We planned a visit to Mammoth Cave National Park. It was a lot of fun. You pay by the tour you go on. Because of the little ones, we chose a nice leisurely historic tour that lasted 2 hours and covered two miles. Believe it or not, this picture was taken at a bathroom 1.5 miles from the entrance. I guess to many people couldn't hold it for the whole tour.

Darcee got heavy after a while. She had fallen into a deep slumber. When we took a break I sat down on a pile of rocks that were adjacent to a big rock that looked like an old coffin.
By the end of the tour, Darcee was awake and happy.
Dixie made a hat for Maclain and Bridger while some neighbor boys were over. They asked for one also and she did. Now everyone runs around in these cool hats.
The boys weren't the only ones that got hats. Here are my two happy girls sporting their new hats.
Just before Christmas a neighbor's house burned completely to the ground. The cows in the back still needed some water so we used his backhoe to dig a quick water line. The stairs you see were what went to their back porch.
Here is my Dad turning fifty something. And yes, we gave him a candle for every year.
Here is Bridger turning 6. Instead of buying a cool cake, we made a cool cake.

Chicken Coop

We are building a chicken coop! Sounds exciting doesn't it. The boys were more than willing to help. For some reason I never could find the hammer I wanted when i wanted it.

It is a work in progress. I got shingles put on the roof yesterday and added two walls. I just don't have pictures of that part yet. I hope to complete it in the next few days while my parents are here. And they thought that they were coming on vacation.

The work was hampered a bit when I decided to put a drill through my left thumb. 9 band aides later, the loss of a little blood and 8 more hours of work,I called it a day.

Family Photo

The pictures are out of order but here is a picture of Bridger sporting his awesome glasses. he made them in school a little while back.

The three amigos getting ready for a flight on the tire swing.
This outfit has been worn by a few of our kids and Darcee is proud to be sporting her awesome costume.
"I'm Batman."
This is us dressed up for the ward trunk or treat. Stellar looking group.

Digging Trenches

We decided to bring the water and power from our house down to the bottom of our pasture. The fun part was learning how to operate a backhoe. Though I grew up on a farm and used a lot of different pieces of equipment, I had yet to use the dreaded backhoe. It took some time to get a good control touch but after some time man and machine bonded.

If this picture were in focus, I would be able to tell you who was responsible for refilling about 30 feet of trench while I was away. Since the photo is blurry, I'll never know.

All being said and done, we dug about 700 feet of trench. We now have water and electricity to the garden, orchard, and the area we want to have animals in. It is great to not need fill those two barrels with water every other week to water the fruit trees.

Tomadoe Warning!!!!!!!

This is the day the "Tomadoes" blew into town (Rilynn calls them that). I woke up to a text from the Weather Channel saying there was a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Next came the Tornado Watch. The final text was for a Tornado Warning. We gathered up the girls, the boys were at school, and went around to our crawl space. We had one confirmed tornado in the county.

This picture was taken from the crawl space as the front passed.

This was right before we went into the crawl space.

Darcey had more fun than Mom and Rilynn, for a while anyways. Brydie was smart enough to bring some children's books down to read by flashlight.

Family Day

Last weekend we went to Family Day and had a great time. We ate more food than we should have and enjoyed the scenery. Some of it included Chinook, Blackhawk, and Littlebird helicopters. They had the biggest inflatable playground I've ever seen. They even had HMMWV rides and a mini gun demonstration. Even using blanks, they were pretty dang impressive. Here some of the photos from the day's events.

The Dirty 1/4 Dozen.

The girls trying out the "Bubble" Helicopter.

Darcee trying out her mad skills on the fast rope.

"Did you get that radio call, Rilynn?"

"Negative."

"Enemy 3 O'clock low".

"I'm the man, well, kinda."

Great Uses for Tobacco

Here is our 18 fruit trees down at the bottom of the hill. We have 7 apples, 5 peaches, 2 plum, and 4 pear. We will plant 3 cherry trees this coming spring. On to the tobacco stuff. My neighbor to the north advised me to place tobacco stalks at the base of my fruit trees. He says that these stalks act as a very potent natural fertilizer and the trees would really take off next spring. I didn't believe him until I saw all his trees with tobacco stalks around them.

Tobacco is a cash crop around here. It is harvested by placing them in large shed hanging upside down to dry. To aid in the drying process large smoke fires are lit in the center. It gives it a rich smoked (BBQ) smell to boot. Once the tobacco is dry, a crew comes in and removes all the leaves and the stalk is all that is left of the unusable part of the plant. Normally it is thrown away but they will give it away to anyone that cares.

You will notice the stalks placed in triangular shapes around the trees. Now all we need is some rain to get the process going. I am really excited to see what happens. I was at work today and a buddy of mine confirmed that he does the same thing with his trees.

I collected a few of the remaining leaves and placed them in a zip lock bag, for medicinal purposes. Know what I'm saying. Actually, I have been told that you mix a small amount of leaves with water to make a poultice. You then place the poultice on a bee sting to remove the pain. Any comments Uncle Brian?

Notice the red cups hanging upside down by the trees. That is deer repellent. The deer nearly ate all out pear trees down to the bare trunk because the leaves are full of moisture and things are unseasonably dry this fall. I saw how they were made in the store and because of the price, I decided to make my own. So far it has kept them away and we're going on week three.

Bridger and Rilynn had to see all the goings on. Here are the happy little farmers having a good time.