Its been busy

I have not blogged in awhile, I'll do better, I promise.

We have been very busy lately. We were in a parade with our church group in Liberty. MO.

Our new 4H group has taken off well, with close to 45 kids joining. We were in a very cold parade for the Plattsburg Fall Fest and our group came in 3rd place for organizations. The morning was in the 30's as we created our float. At one point during the parade route as we were downtown the temp jumped to 48 as the buildings created a windbreak. But, as soon as we turned the corner, it went back down to 41. The kids and adults who rode on the float were brave, and well bundled in blankets. As for me, well, I drove, so I had the heater on. A few of the younger kids rode with me, but we were still cold as we had the windows down. We celebrated national 4H week by decorating the windows of 3 local businesses. For a small town, Plattsburg has a very large and nice fall fest. The entire town is involved.

Our homeschool Coop has started a new semester. The kids were really excited to be back into their Friday routine and see all their friends. This semester I am an aide in drivers ed, and am teaching 'Awesome America'. One of my students is currently on vacation, touring the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore. The rest of the class is hoping she will return with lots of pictures. So far in class we have learned about the flag and how to fold it, the history of the pledge, watched a video on the Grand Canyon, Lewis and Clark, history of Uncle Sam, and about Martin Luther King Jr. We also ate some of America's favorite snack foods while watching the GC video. As usual, the class really likes to eat.

On the farming front, we have sold some cattle and are planning on changing over to Angus. In about 2 more months our pigs (hopefully) will be ready for market. All they hay has been cut and the crop farmers have taken in the soybeans, but have not yet started the corn. It has been cold and damp the majority of the time. Our ponds are all full. I am afraid it is going to be a long hard winter though. The horses and cows are already starting to get their winter coats, and normally they aren't this time of the year.

On the home front, we had a family wedding last weekend on the Espey side in St Joseph MO. It was good to visit with family and as my dad pointed out very nice to see family at a happy event rather than at a funeral, which the past 10 years or so seems to be the more often case. After the wedding my parents spent the night here and we had a good visit. My dad grew up on a farm, so he likes to check the status of our farm every now and then.

We also spent a weekend at the Kansas Speedway for the Nascar races. Tysa came home from Chicago for the weekend and Taylor came up from Arkansas for the races on Saturday. However Emily and Rebecca spent Saturday in St Louis, but were able to go to the races on Sunday afternoon. So, all 5 girls were home that weekend, but never at the same time.

I am also posting an old picture that a friend sent me on facebook. It shows my family back in 1970. My kids got a kick out of it and so did I.