Wedding a success!

Daughter #2's Big Day went wonderfully well.  Surrounded by their closest friends and family members, they had a beautiful ceremony in a rustic, converted barn venue.  The reception was held on another floor of the same place, so his out-of-town family wouldn't have to navigate too much of rural NE Indiana.  The venue is in a local Amish community, and navigating around buggies and poultry on the roads was a new experience for many of them.  That being said, his family is close-knit like ours and are amazing, truly wonderful, Christian people.  That makes letting her go so much easier for De and I.

The bride was beautiful (as was her mother) and so was the rest of the wedding party in a somewhat casual camouflage theme.  The granddaughters, aged 4 and 6, did great for their part in the ceremony.  Our minister had a wonderful message and ceremony.  The caterer was excellent.  The cake, made by a family friend who does that professionally, looked and tasted great. The photographer and the DJ, also both family friends, were amazing.  Spending the afternoon and evening with friends and family members, old and new, capped off the day.


The weather was crisp and clear all day long. After the bride and groom left we had so many family and friends helping with cleaning and gathering and packing it was done in about 45 minutes.  A small caravan of friends got everything back at our house in time for a few moments of quiet before bedtime.


The new Mr. and Mrs. spent the night in a local, somewhat upscale inn.  They came back to our place for lunch and to open presents, then packed everything up, shared hugs and kisses all around, and were off to start their new life together.

As for the Father of the Bride, any reports of him tearing up during the Daddy-Daughter dance might be exaggerated. Any stories of him dancing the Macarena, hokey-pokey, and some slide-slide-slide, kick-kick-kick thing might not be accurate.  Any photographic and video evidence of said behavior might be "photo-shopped".  Or it all might be completely accurate.

It was a wonderful day.  We have a wonderful new son who loves our daughter with all his heart, and wonderful new extended family that comes with him.  Once again we were reminded of how wonderful it is to have such a close family.

D & K - God bless you in your new life.  Know that 'Daddy' will be praying for you.

We are sooo blessed!

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark 

Melissa, professional photographer and family friend, was once a baby-sitter for our kids.  She gave us permission to post this pic of the bride and groom.

Not fallen off the edge!

I wanted to make a quick post just to assure anyone who's interested that the Hoosier Country Homestead hasn't fallen off the face of the earth!  We are two days away from Daughter #2's wedding have been consumed with preparation, moving things, and getting ready to host a house full of out-of-town guests tomorrow night.

I did manage to get mostly caught up with posts on your blogs, and have a new pic of the homestead to post on mine, but that will likely have to wait until Sunday evening when things have hopefully settled down a bit.  I'll try to get a couple of wedding pics and such posted up, along with the thoughts of what is like to walk the first one down the aisle.

Time to get to work on getting her car ready to go, I likely won't see it again for awhile and want to be sure it's going to be good for her.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

I'm gonna hafta stop this

Not the blog, of course.  I'm going to have to stop claiming the garden is finally done.  I'll get back to that shortly...

Today De and I decided, since it is chilly and damp outside and we've had a very busy week, we were just going to call it a lazy day.  We failed.  Miserably, I might add.  On this 'lazy day':  I got up early and went into town to have breakfast with some friends and to get my hair cut.  Since I was already in town I went to the local farm supply store and got two bags of chicken feed, two bales of pine chips, 4 bags of softener salt, two cases of clay pigeons, and some 12 gauge shells to break them with.  While I was out, De took care of the morning chicken chores.  And some laundry.  After getting back home and putting all that stuff away, De and I decided to go back into the same town I just left and do some grocery shopping.  Since we already in town we went to the local big box home improvement and construction material store, and picked up a few things there.  After getting back home and putting all that stuff away we fixed a mid-afternoon "lunch".  Then we decided to let the chickens out.  And top off their food and water.  While we were out we walked to the garden.  Yes, the same garden about which I noted only few hours before in a response to comment, that was "done" except for a few potatoes yet to dig.  The very same garden that  I said was "done" before.  Twice.  At least.  Even going in the direction of the garden was a major tactical error in the quest for slothfulness.  By the time we got there, we knew we were defeated.

It started as a very innocent diversion to "just look", but quickly escalated into something much more.  To paraphrase that grand and grizzled philosopher of the Dark Side (Darth Vader), "Our failure was now complete.".  It started with me just yanking a few 'done' plants out a bed, and finding they were not 100% done - So we got a couple bell peppers and the compost pile got all the plants.  We tried dashing off to the other garden plot but found a half dozen spaghetti squash, and one butternut squash were still good and needed to be brought in tonight.  (We have an overnight freeze warning.)  Oh, and 2 or 3 small melons. We retreated to other garden plot and found a small white pumpkin that I thought was too green before was just fine. And needed to come in tonight.  Making a final retreat to the garden beds we found a few scraggly carrot tops with really nice looking carrots underneath.  And a handful of beets.  And about a half dozen little cabbages.  After gathering up some melons that didn't make the cut and opening them up for the chickens I remembered the horseradish. Had I simply 'remembered the horseradish' (e.g. "Hey, I have horseradish!")  I might have walked away with a tiny shred of "didn't do nothin' all day" dignity left, but I traded it for a trip to the barn to get my shovel.  <sigh>  I'm such a loser at being a loser.  (Don't think on that too hard: It's not worth it.) 

In any case, here is the haul.  I'm not going to claim it's the last: I've finally learned my lesson.

The haul in a tarp on the floor, along with the day's eggs, because my wheelbarrow is still full.

One of the Red Stars took to terrorizing the worms after I got the horseradish up

Our first harvest of horseradish!  Yum!

De is working feverishly feverishly to pawn off spaghetti squash so we can have our living room back. (Not lazy)

 We may not be good at being lazy, but we are blessed!

Col. 1:9-12

Mark

Hard Frost and Buttoning Up the Barn

I think I can safely say the Hoosier Country Home garden is done for the season!  We've had hard frosts two nights in a row, and the plants are showing it.  I do have the last of the potatoes to dig and I'll probably wait for one more frost to harvest the horseradish, but the growing season is done.  We do have some pole beans we hope will dry on the vines

De and I went down to the garden Friday night and brought in the last of what we wanted to save.  It included a handful of small bell peppers, two little zucchini, one yellow zucchini squash, seven little white pumpkins that will become decoration for Daughter #2's wedding in three weeks, and a wheelbarrow load of "stripetti" spaghetti squash, and butternut squash.  It was dark (that happens about 7:30 these days) before we were done, thus the flash pics.

These pumpkins will be part of Daughter #2's wedding decorations.

These will part of a tasty array of warm winter meals!

The other weekend chore was to finish getting the barn buttoned up. Those of you who follow the blog has seen the open loft entrance for a good part of the summer.  This was the weekend to close it up!  The job is done, somewhat complicated by the fact that I struggle to make a straight cut within an 1/8th inch of where it supposed to be with any saw I own or use.  There is plenty of construction cleanup to do, but at least we can close up the barn.   Another pre-winter milestone met!

Finally done, with some decorative white trim!

Next up: (in no particular order) lights and winter watering arrangements in the coop, garden clean-up, finishing up the ham radio tower, one last lawn mowing and removing the deck, putting the compost pile to bed for the winter, and surely a host of thing I've forgotten or don't know about yet.  Ya gotta love life on the homestead!  Always something to do!

I hope everyone's pre-winter preps are going well and that everyone stays safe in the process.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Barn Work, Grandkids, and the Garden that Won't Quit

Another great weekend with the family.  This weekend we had beautiful early fall weather, all three of our own kids for Friday night and Saturday, and the future (33 days from today) son-in-law and granddaughters through Sunday afternoon.  For most of Saturday I had my son working with me and we managed to get the new supports in place, supports and door painted, and the main door back on the barn.

I thought I had some nice in-process pictures.  It turns out I do not have pics I wanted, but I do have a lengthy and oddly amusing video, mostly of the ground, my boots, a bit of the sky, selected tools, a wayward chicken, and moments looking at the in-process work when I think I'm taking still pics, all with a running father-and-son commentary.  I thought seriously about posting it for something like 2 milliseconds, then came to my senses and decided my barn red over-sprayed boots, construction trash, Aurora the Red Star chicken, and 5 seconds of barn work do not make for riveting journalism.  Here is what I do have.

The main door painted and back in place

The front floor support put some doing to work in place.  I added some support under the bad front edge.

I still have the upper door to frame up and install.  I also some gaps to fix above the track, but they will wait until it's cool enough the wasps slow down.

We also did a little work on the coop. We had some water getting in along the back wall into the laying boxes.  I looked for some flexible material to cover the hinge line.  What I ended up with is some indoor-outdoor rubber floor runner.  In the end I ended up with two strips.  One covering the top of the box lid something like roofing, and a second attached to the wall and draping down over the hingeline.

The waterproofing material in place.  We'll see how it weathers.

As I've said before, working with the grandkids as helpers takes twice as long and is 4x the fun.  I got a few pics of my (future) granddaughters and one of my grandnephews.

Miss Harmony talks to the chickens.  They seem to get along pretty well.

Heaven and Harmony 'doing their work' on some scrap lumber.  There is no better use for tool and nails.  They had sooo much fun!

Grand nephew Nathaniel loves the chickens and (with the help of a handful of scratch) they love him!

Finally, we really are getting to the end of garden.  Really!  We still have some of the usually fall items to bring in, but today De got some zucchini (which we thought had been done for awhile), summer squash (ditto), and discovered we have at least one more green bean picking to do in the next few days.

The garden keeps coming!  We are blessed!  Plenty more melons, butternut and potatoes to bring in.

They're starting to slow down,  but aren't done.  "Don't put the canner away yet, De!"

All in all, a wonderful, productive weekend spent with the folks I love most.  We are blessed!

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

Homestead Repairs and More

Today was supposed to be barn repair day.  The door has been off my yard barn most of the summer and with fall coming it was time to get it back on.  It took a good part of the morning to get the rotted stuff off, and I picked up a paper wasp sting in the process.  I'm mildly allergic (and apparently getting a little more sensitive every time I get stung)  so there was a short interruption while my son, who keeps me honest on stuff like that, hauled me up to the house for Benedril and to make sure I had my Epi-pen with me.

I'd painted over some ugliness earlier knowing I would need to fix it all later.

This is where the sliding door track was mounted.

"Helpers" come it all shapes and sizes.  One of this lady's relatives nailed me on the forearm for what they viewed as anti-social behavior.

It took a little doing, and several interruptions for bug juicing, but the we got the old wood off.

I'd feel bad about everyone eyeballing my too-full barn, except I know we all have at least one of these.

There was a similarly rotten board on the front supporting the floor that had to come out.  You can see by the tools in the picture it was not a straightforward process.

We had a little floor droop when we took this board out that is going to make installing the replacement interesting.

We always let the chickens out when we're outside working.  Today was apparently dust bath in Mark's potato patch day.  There were some grungy looking (but happy) birds coming out the dust bath in the black dirt.
 

The birds like the black dirt, too.  Notice the potato in the foreground.

De and I went to get lumber, and then my son and I started on getting it all back together when a summer thunderstorm hit.  We were standing about 100 yards away when this happen.  We didn't hear the tree go down, but did see the lights go out.

Good day to own a generator!

So now the tools are all put away, were listening to hum of the generator, watching the REMC (Rural Electric Member Cooperative or something like that) crew work clear trees, trying to keep the swelling down on my sting, and getting our evening chores done.  A nice evening spent with a great family!

More to come when we get back into getting the work done.

Take care all!

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark

The End is Nigh (And where has Mark been, anyway?)

Yes, yes.  I know I've been a bad blogger. And it's not the end of Mark or the blog, just the garden.  I'll get to that in a bit. Since you can't just fall off the face of the electronic earth for awhile and not offer SOME explanation here it is:  Mostly I've been dealing with cars.

1. My car (2010 Chevy Equinox) wore a hole in it's own engine block and is in the shop.  Since its still up in the air as who will pay for the new engine I'll hold off on the details and we'll just count.  (-1 car). 
2.  Daughter #1 was involved in an auto accident. God allowed her to escape without serious injury even though the air bags failed to go off, but the car was totaled.  (-2 cars).  
3. The "spare" car which was waiting some time and cash for another transmission (-3 cars) will now be her car, but that means it needs to be fixed NOW. 
4. And finally Daughter #2's car left her sitting twice (-4 cars), but I think I've got that one figured out and fixed. (hopefully back to -3 cars). 

 I managed to locate a used transmission for the "spare" car and have located a shop to put in it for me, so in a couple of weeks Daughter #1 will be back on the road.  My Son has my old S10 with around 250,000 miles on it that is still working, I have my '92 Dodge Dakota beater truck that still gets around ok most of the time, and De has her RAV4 that, with new front rotors and brake pads is behaving well for the moment.
I've been on vacation (an 'at home' vacation - De is still working) so I've had less need of a vehicle but have still been very busy.

• Monday 9/1 - Rehearsal (I sing with a local Southern Gospel Quartet and we unknowingly got booked for 3 performances over 4 days), 
• Tuesday - Church small group, 
• Wednesday-Final soundtrack arrangements and 1st fix on daughter #2s car, 
• Thursday - Meeting at church, 
• Friday - Performance at a local coffee house (1-1/2 hour program in two sets), 
• Saturday - Amateur Radio  Emergency Service (ARES) support of combined Civil Air Patrol/Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services exercise, 
• Sunday - Church in AM, performance in PM (2 hour program in two sets), 
• Monday 9/8 - Vacation starts, my car goes into the shop, evening performance (1/2 hour program), 
• Tuesday - Daylong paperwork falderal on my car, Church small group, 
• Wednesday - Stormy weather, indoor chores, and transmission hunt, 
• Thursday - More bad weather, transmission and repair shop hunt, lesser paperwork falderal on Daughter #1's car and accident,
• Friday (today) - Final fix (I hope) on Daughter #2's car, I FINALLY get to the garden only to be rained out after about an hour.  

So that's my dreary tale of motor vehicle mayhem, personal over-commitment, and the vacation that wasn't.
 
Now..  Hmmm...  Oh yes!  THE END IS NIGH!! (of the garden).  Before I got rained out I did manage to get the last of the tomatoes out, cucumbers and summer squash harvested, peppers harvested and one of four beet beds harvested.  I didn't get the last of the "total loss" corn crop, Stripetti squash, carrots, green beans (yes - there are still beans to be picked!), the rest of the potatoes dug, the last cabbage, and the other three beds of beets in.  We still have butternut squash, some personal sized melons, some small while pumpkins (that will be used as decorations for Daughter #2's wedding reception in about 6 weeks), more stripetti squash, and some new cabbage heads coming on.  The end may be 'nigh', but we're not done yet.  Here's some pics with apologies to all of you who keep nice, tidy, weed free gardens.

Tomatoes - Done

One more picking  on corn, and potatoes to dig

We usually get more cabbage from the same plants!

Peppers are still producing, but are almost done.

White miniature pumpkins for Daughter #2 decorations

Cucumbers, summer squash, and zucchini pretty much done (thankfully!)

Personal size melons are looking good!

Lots of Stripetti out there

Butternut looks to be getting about done.

Pole beans and more corn to bring in

Still not a bad harvest

All in all, it's still clear that God is so faithful and we are still very blessed.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark