A Simple Prairie Life

Ruby’s First Haircut (Awake)…

June 8, 2012June 19, 2012 Gretchen

Ruby and I took a trip to a nearby town to a dog groomer. Now we are not used to seeking out groomers…never needed one with our other dogs. So this was foreign to us. We found a girl who was will to try trimmig up our sometimes nippy ewok, gremlin, guinea pig, whatever we refer to her as depending on the day…sometimes, Ruby!

This is our precious little girl before. We decided she looks A LOT like Chewbacca here.

She was already terrified because I put her seatbelt harness on her.

This is her after. Doesn’t even look like the same dog does it? We took in a Brussels Griffon and got back a Chiuaua.

Don’t you think she loves it?

She went from a rough coat Brussels Griffon to a smooth coat in a matter of a few hours.

She even got a stars and stripes bandana after her haircut. She was such a good little girl at the groomer’s while I hit up all the thrift stores in town and had a fun time doing some second-hand shopping by myself.

Around the Homestead

Harvest Time Means Grain Truck Issues…

June 7, 2012June 18, 2012 Gretchen

It wouldn’t be harvest if this ol’ girl didn’t break down at least once.

We told the elevator guy, who happens to be our cousin, we were going to put a sign up to hold our parking place at the elevator entrance.

Randy did all the little tests to determine what he already knew. It was a fuel pump (always is).

I took some photos and read a couple articles in Mary Jane’s Farm magazine and before too long he had her running again. Mom was there with a grain truck borrowed from another cousin. The three of us got the borrowed truck returned, the red truck back to the field, and headed home to finish up our chores.

Did I mention before all of this we had worked all day, commuted, Randy worked a little overtime, mom came down that evening and helped me work the remainder of our lambs that needed worked before we all headed to the elevator and/or the wheat field. Somedays I wonder how we keep going. It is by God’s grace we have the energy to do all that needs to be done and fall into bed truly tired and deserving of sleep.

He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy…

Titus 3:5

Self-Sufficiency

Wood Cook Stove Construction…

June 3, 2012June 15, 2012 Gretchen

Isn’t the wood inside this wall pretty.

We hated to cover it up, but the show must go on.

Insulation board

Bearded Randy applying the thinset between layers.

Randy mixing the thinset in the house before he realized it was coating our entire house with a layer of grey dust.

Concrete board…not-so-fun to haul around.

Our instructor…Craig, my brother, showing us the ropes.

It is amazing what an awesome teacher he is. He is so patient.

Me in my smoking hot construction gear. I was a tiling machine…jogging suit and slippers. Cute, right?

Randy looks dressed a little more appropriate for the assignment.

Wouldn’t be our house if there wasn’t a dog helping…inparticular a cute little blue heeler.

I apparently sprung for the velor black pants, a sweatshirt, and slippers for day 2 of tiling.

At least I’m not in the same clothes as the day before, eh hem.

These decorative tile will hopefully fall right above the top shelf of the stove.

The tile is up and ready for grout. Craig was so good to come do the grout for us. We were left in charge of wiping it down a thousand times until all the grout was off the tile.

Fortunately, we live in a little country neighborhood with the most helpful people you will ever find. One friend drove out from town with a friend of his and our neighbor came over early-ish on a Sunday morning. We thought with the moving straps this would be enough guys, but fortunately our two other neighbors saw the struggle, stopped, and offered to help.

Five guys were able to manuver this beauty into our house and onto the tile after being stored away for over six months in our garage.

We still have to get the chimney installed and eventually we hope to hook it to our hot water system for hot water in the winter, but for now we are just excited to finally have it inside.

Some think it is cool. Some think it is the most ridiculous thing they have ever heard. We just tell them we want to be less dependent. Sometimes it gets their wheels turning. Sometimes they have their minds made up that it is absurd. Either way, we are excited and undeterred.

Self-Sufficiency

Wood Cook Stove Destruction…

June 1, 2012June 14, 2012 Gretchen

Way back in December began a huge undertaking for Randy. We decided against all the naysayers we wanted to install a wood cookstove. So after months of research we finally found the perfect stove for our needs….and the demolition began.

This was our cute little entry way before.

cutting out the floor

Next came the wall with its pretty hidden wallpaper.

and surprise….lath and plaster.

Apparently this is lots of fun to tear out.

Am I a lucky girl or what…he cleaned up after himself as he went, so I came home from work to a clean construction area. He did such a good job and got it all ripped out and ready to reconstruct in one day. He’s awesome!

Around the Homestead

Restoring a Manure Spreader…

May 29, 2012June 13, 2012 Gretchen

This beauty was buried in a tree row with a tree growing up in the middle of it.

My husband had his heart set on it the moment he saw it.

Dad said it had sat in that tree row for about fifty years and tried to convince Randy it would be froze up and nothing would turn after that man years.

One evening while Randy had his Dad’s help they drug it out of the tree row and to everyone’s surprise everything broke free and turned on the ol’ girl.

They used reclaimed wood that was thrown away from a fence that had blown down at Grandma’s last spring.

The guys worked and worked to get all the boards replaced.

Randy’s Dad oiled the wood.

And within a couple of days it was all but ready to sling manure in our pasture. All Randy has into it is $8 for a couple of springs. It needs new/used tires, but for now they hold air until it is time to use it.

Around the Homestead

A New Deck In Our Backyard…

May 26, 2012June 13, 2012 Gretchen

When Randy’s Dad was here, the two of them and my Dad worked (literally) sun up to sun down on a deck off the back of our house.

A week or so after the deck was done Randy and I sealed it.

We still need steps on it, but hopefully those will get done soon.

Harvest came earlier than usual this year, so we had to sneak this project in right before harvest or not until fall.

The guys did such a great job. It will be so nice to relax out back in the shade with the dogs.

Animals

Dolly & Baby Sidney…

May 25, 2012June 12, 2012 Gretchen

Randy sheared Dolly, Dad’s mama llama. Dolly had baby Sidney not too long ago.

This was the little guys first time being handled. We didn’t have a harness small enough for his little face, so we did the best we could with what we had on hand.

Randy’s Dad, Roger, and Stepmom, Brenda, with little Sidney

Sidney visiting his mama in the chute on a shearing break.

Dolly wanted to lay down rather than be sheared.

Sidney

All sheared and into the trailer to head home. See you next year!

Around the Homestead

Tornadoes…

May 19, 2012June 9, 2012 Gretchen

We came home from a graduation party this evening and as we were getting out of the car noticed this to the south of our house.

I watched it for quite awhie until I could see for sure which direction it was moving.

There really cool to see from afar.

You can see another one to the left trying to get going.

The first one is fizzling out while the second one is gaining momentum. Did you know they can start from the ground up? Yeah, me neither.

We rushed to get chores done while all around us these little water spouts kept popping up.

Kind of a scary night.

I have lived in Kansas all my life and this is the first time I have ever seen a tornado in real life.

We hope everyone was in a safe place when these storms rolled through.

Around the Homestead, Self-Sufficiency

Trenching for our new well…

May 11, 2012June 9, 2012 Gretchen

We have been battling the need for a new well for a couple of years now. We had it airlifted two years ago which bought us some time, but in the end we knew we were going to have to bite the bullet and put in an all new well.

Randy hand dug a good portion of the trenches to locate electrical, water, and sewer lines.

For a week solid he spent his evenings digging.

And digging.

Of course while he was digging I was doing our chores and cooking dinner. Didn’t want you all to think I was parked inside catching up on Dancing with the Stars or something.

Then it was time to pull out the big guns, and we rented a trencher.

Then came guidance, eh hem.

This is what our yard looked like after the trencher had done its thing. Sort of reminds you of Money Pit, huh?

**And honestly one month later our yard still looks a lot like this…I digress.

This little run in the bottom left corner is where we pulled up the landscape timbers that were lining our driveway. They had seen better days and had to go.

We did have a chicken and Ruby fall into the trenches.

Once all the lines were laid, Dad came in with the tractor to cover the majority of the trenches.

There were still some areas he couldn’t get to which we had to fill in by hand, but the tractor helped tremendously.

Now we have high pressure water and two new hydrants in addition to the two we already had. It is so nice to water from a hydrant or a hose and not have to carry 5-gallon buckets here, there, and everywhere.

It does make me think about how readily we can have access to water where so many around the world have none and have to walk mile and miles to access only what they can carry back with them. Even with the ease in which we can access water, we still try to be cautious of its use and not take advantage of it. We also pray for those who struggle everyday to find good, clean water for themselves and their families. Without clean water life cannot carry on so we must take care of this resource we are so blessed to have at our fingertips.

Foraging

Morel Hunting…

April 7, 2012June 9, 2012 Gretchen

And since we can’t do anything without some sort of animal tagging along.

Isn’t he a good lookin’ dude though.

Dusty followed us through the trees like a dog. He was fairly well behaved right up until we got about 100 yards from our pickup at the end of our hunt. Then he literally went berserk charging us and chasing us. We honestly think he didn’t want us to leave. He had just been put in that far away pasture by himself a few weeks earlier. We joke he had gone feral down there all by himself.