First day of school!

Wow ... first day of school. Our oldest cowboyed up and is trying to stay cheerful about going to middle school, a source of worry all summer. Our middle one is coasting, looking forward to bigger and better math problems. Our youngest could barely balance his big ol' back pack. Loaded with boxes of Cheezits, Kleenex, gym shoes, crayons, glue, markers and a whole handful of Number 2 pencils, the backpack weighed more than him. Of course DH imagined the first-graders going down like dominoes if one went down under the weight of his or her backpack! What visual!

Praying for rain ...

We've reached a critical time in development of our soybeans, which we hoped would be our big cash crop this year. They are setting pods and filling the pods right now and need water to do so. But we haven't had rain for about a month. Praying for rain ...

I should have been ...

I should have been cleaning house and doing laundry -- but, instead, we went to the blueberry marsh and picked 15 pounds of berries. We're close to the end of the season, so I believe this variety was "Jersey Giant." Some of the branches looked like they carried clusters of grapes.

The farm owner should weigh the boys in and weigh them as they go out. I have no idea how many pounds of free berries the kids ate!

We had to stop at the grocery and the feed mill on the way home.

Interruptions keep coming. Instead of cleaning, I helped unload more hay then went to the butcher's and picked up the rest of a whole hog we got from a neighbor. I raise a bunch of chickens for her and her boys raise hogs in 4-H. Then we trade. Works for us!

Needless to say, no laundry got done today. Maybe tomorrow. Well, maybe not, because I have to go back to the restaurant.

Hay, hay, hay ...

It's been too dry, but, we're getting some good alfalfa made. When DH is in the highly mechanized part of it, mowing, raking and baling, I enjoy the commotion and the scent of new mown hay.

However, the bales must go from the wagons up into the hay mow somehow. So we all help unload wagons, put the bales on the elevator (think of a conveyor belt) and DH and the boys stack it in the mow.

We have a century-old bank barn. The oldest parts are pegged together. The newer areas, such as a granary and the doorway to the cow stable, is done with square-headed nails. The mow is actually the whole top floor of the barn. From floor to roof peak is 30 or 40 feet, stacked to the rafters and beyond with hay and straw.

It sounds and looks overwhelming, but, like a lot of worthwhile projects, we do it a little bit at a time and "keep everlastingly at it."