4-wheeler fun

With a little extra time to enjoy each other over Christmas, the kids were anxious to get on the 4-wheeler with Daddy. This was the day or two before Christmas Eve.
Eliza in the front, then Eden, Daddy, Ephraim and Emmet.

Oops! Looks like someone overestimated the 4-wheeler's power.

PUSH! That's Eliza covering her ears.

Hmmm, not sure if he's having fun or if he's actually trying to get the 4-wheeler dislodged.

Still stuck.

Brought in the truck for assistance.

Playing in the tracks.

Emmet

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this ride with Seth.

My present

I've got a ton of pictures to post with the kids' Christmas presents, but I decided to start with mine. I wasn't sure what I "wanted" this year and then we had Paul take some excellent pictures of our family. So, I decided to get a big collage of all the best photos. Here it is! I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It has a family photo in the middle and then individual photos and then pictures of the boys and the girls and Seth and I. Very nice and it looks wonderful hanging on our wall.

Door Contest

There was a door decorating contest where Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma live. Grandma Donna came up with a great idea that would require participation from all of the extended family. How about a Christmas tree made with everyone's hands? Here's the finished product!
Paul printed the background. The biggest hands at the bottom (the men), ladies in the middle and grandsons in the green toward the top. The red hands are the great-granddaughters. Don't count too closely though, we had to use a couple of hands twice to make the tree look fuller. Oh, and the yellow star at the top is from Elmer & Elizabeth's hands. They've gotten alot of compliments from their door design and the contest judges found it worthy of 3rd place!

And a few photos of hand tracing:

Christmas projects

This is a project I've wanted to do for a long time. A place to hang our stockings for Christmas. I bought the saying from Uppercase Living a year ago, so getting this board done was a priority for this year. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I bought the board and my dad routered the edges. Seth did the pegs and I did the paint and the words.

The gift I made for my niece Alyssa. It's a Barbie bag. I bought the pattern on ebay this fall. I found Barbie fabric at JoAnn's Fabric store. The lace and lining inside the bag are from my Grandma Boat's stash of fabric.

It can hold three Barbies on one side and two on the other. I bought these Barbies from a lady in Pella through Craigslist.

I'll let you know Alyssa's reaction to her Barbie bag when she gets it on the 26th.

Merry Christmas!

We wish your family a very, Merry Christmas! May you have a special time with family and friends, celebrating the true meaning of the season.

What a special time it is, to celebrate Jesus' humble birth to save the world! So, amidst all the hustle and bustle, take time to slow down and savor the Saviour.

Snowmen melt, but memories last

I bought a snowman cake pan last year on clearance so we were excited to make snowmen cakes this winter.
The girls were anxious to help with the frosting. They've never turned the mixer on before today. Eden turned it on . . . just after I added 4 cups of powdered sugar for the frosting. Powdered sugar EVERYWHERE! Eden burst into tears over her dress. And Eliza wasn't fazed by it.

And I let everyone frost their own snowman.

A purple one for Eliza, of course!

And pink for Eden.

Emmet wanted orange.

And all of them were pretty heavy with sprinkles.

Ready to eat their finished cakes!

This snowman may not melt but he'll disappear and the memories will last.

It's the thought that counts

I had this bright idea . . . since the Great-Grandparents can't make it to the kids' Christmas program, let's bring the program to the Great-Grandparents. Sounds like a splendid idea, right? Originally, we were going to sing our songs for them on Sunday, the 12th. The same day as the kids' program. BUT the winter weather kept us home in the morning and it was too late to stop there after the Sunday night program. SO, we went this Sunday. I put the CD in the CD player. . . pushed play . . . . and I was the only one doing the actions and singing. The kids froze up! Well, Ephraim and Eliza were giving it a little effort. Eden refused all together and Emmet stood beside me not doing anything.

Eliza doing "Away in a Manger".

Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Etch-a-Sketch

Our neighbors, John & Lee, brought over presents for the kids a week ago. And the kids were just crazy with anticipation of opening them. So, after church on Sunday, the 19th, we gave them the go-ahead. Here they are on the couch, waiting!


Ripping them open!

Wow!

And THANK YOU!

Snap Shots From the Driver Seat

{ Seth here} I thought I would take a turn posting on the blog. I get asked several times during this time of the year, so what do you farmers do to kill time this part of the year since the ground is froze up? I usually respond with saying we do shop work, paper/book work, feed my five hobby cows, trucking, hibernate. So I thought I would post what we do with our trucks during the winter.

Our main truck hauls beans into Pioneer to be conditioned into seed. Bud Lane, Neal Brown and I see to it that there is someone in the driver seat. Sometimes Pioneer asks for us to drive our second truck to haul also. Bud is our main driver and we greatly appreciate his help. Neal and I drive the second truck or fill in for Bud when he needs time off.



It’s December and the weather is great, 64 degrees, let's go trucking. Well, if the truck is parked in the shop that is. It’s around 4 o'clock in the morning and the temperature is in the teens. To add to it we got a dusting of snow. We like to park the truck in the shop over night so it is warm and all the snow is melted off from the day before.






I am waiting to load over Northeast of Fairfield. We, along with 8 other trucks, pickup beans from the farmers' bins who contract with Pioneer to raise the seed. I have gone as far east as the Mississippi River; farthest west we go is over between Red Oak and Atlantic. We have gone south into Missouri and north of Interstate 80.

This morning the roads aren't the best. The plant needs a steady flow of beans into the plant daily. So we travel in some of the nicest weather all year in the late fall to the worst in the dead of winter. At least I can see some of the pavement. I am loaded so I have traction, now all I have to do is keep it straight and we will make it ok.




We added Garmins to the trucks to help guide us to the bins. They are a lifesaver, but they don't know the difference between a paved road or a level B. So I often check the route before I head out.
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Those verses come to mind when using GPS equipment. I sometimes don't believe that the unit is taking me on the correct path but in the end I got to where I needed to go. There are mornings that God was telling the box where I should go, not some satellite. Stories for another time.



A light dusting of snow changes everything when you rely on the road to get your work done. One minute the road is ok as in the pictures before, now it’s a slick situation. I submitted this photo to WHO 13 and was shown on Thursday night during the weather. Ed Wilson liked the picture but mentioned that I needed to keep both hands on the wheel. Texting and driving is illegal but is taking pictures?

Shot of what I see in the mirrors. To quote Mater from the movie CARS about rear view mirrors, "I don’t need to know where I am going; I just need to know where I’ve been.” That shiny gear box up by the tarp will, with a touch of a button, roll my tarp instead getting out of the truck, walking to the back of the trailer and roll the tarp with a crank. I get harassed about that feature from those who don’t have it. As for Bud, Neal and I, we’ll take the harassing.

Yes, there is a car behind me do you see it…

Picture is of the grain vac mounted on a pickup. It can load me in about 20 minutes which makes for a happy driver.

Loading another load, last pile, I think it’s full enough. Well that’s what I tell the DOT officer when I get pulled over and asked if over weight. I can haul just over 900 bushel of beans. The empty weight of the truck is about 25500 lbs depending on how much fuel I have and how much I packed in my lunch box. That leaves about 54500 lbs of beans I can haul to equal 80000 lbs. Estimate 3000 seeds/lb there are, well, my calculator doesn’t go that far.

Pioneer weighs us in kilograms. This number tells the driver how heavy he is when parked on the scale. So I don’t incriminate anyone, I’m not sure whose truck is sitting on the scale. I have a good idea of who it is and they weigh just under 82000 lbs.

I am waiting to get unloaded at the plant, it is a variety change so they are seed cleaning the dump. Nothing like hot coffee in the middle of the day to pass the time.


Just about done for the day, pictured here is the truck in the dump area. It is later afternoon and I will take the truck back to the shop to fuel and prepare it for tomorrow.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

Gotta love free!

There was a Proctor and Gamble rebate in October and you only had to buy $25 or $30 in Proctor & Gamble products, send in your recipt and get this kitchen set absolutely free! Mine just came in the mail this week. A free pot, three utensils, two scrubbers and a whisk!