Notes from the farm

I brought Paul a dry, dead, but mostly intact dragonfly from the library parking lot last week. It was huge, beautiful, amazing, and a little macabre. I'm still trying to figure out what that says about me.

Steve and his dad got beat up by a turkey yesterday. Steve took a wing to his face, and grandpa had to staunch flowing blood. They moved 6 of the biggest birds to a newly made mobile turkey coop. (How many people get to write about stuff like this, I wonder?)

Julia told me yesterday, "Me and my sister are really from Florida. We were flying in an airplane, and I was hanging from the wing. I held on to the wing with one hand and to my baby sister with the other hand. Then they dropped us off and my baby sister, Petra, had a little bitty parachute, and I had a little bit bigger parachute."

A week or two ago Julia told me, "Mommy, do you know who made the pyramids? It was those Egyptian guys. You know, the slaves. They built them for King Saul who became Paul."
hmmmm...

Paul is starting to read. WHEEEEEEE-HEEEE!!!
Last year he was so slow at sounding out words that by the time he got to the end of a word he had forgotten the first half of the word. He just had no interest in reading. Now he is getting fast enough that he can read whole sentences. AND know what he just read. I am doing a little dance of joy. And I think he is enjoying it too. He gets a little proud smile when I praise him after a reading assignment. He may not be as far along as his teacher would like, but I am delighted at the progress he has made.

Petra, is just amazing all around. In addition to being brilliant, she is daring. Going head first over the side of the bed? No problem. Yesterday she was entertaining herself by standing up in the middle of the floor and then belly flopping onto the carpeting. It's a good thing her belly doesn't have far to travel.

Last weekend I got to meet my new niece, Emma. What a cutie! I think it might be love. My sister and her husband look good as parents. The first time I got to hold Emma, I was afraid I had somehow just gotten the blanket and not the baby. She's so tiny. I'm having trouble remembering Petra that small.

Steve and I have been running a little ragged here lately, and there is no sign of things letting up soon. God, be with us in the details. Show us your presence and fill us up with big yummy morsels of your love.

Julia's 23rd Psalm

The other day, Paul and Julia tag teamed on telling me the 23rd Psalm. Paul began the recitation, but Julia has been practicing more, so she would give him prompts when he got stuck. I'm pretty sure that the table was prepared and the cup ran over before they walked through the valley, but I was still pretty pleased with their effort.

Here is a transcription of Julia saying the 23rd Psalm if I don't prompt her at all. (In her defense, she has heard it in a mix of King James English and more modern English.)

He leads me beside green pastures,
He restores my soul.
He keeps me on the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of DEATH
I will fear no evil, for You art with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table for me in the presence of my emenies.
My cup runs over!
Surely, goodness and mercyness will follow me all of the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Oktobeerfest 2010 Invitation

Fall is in the air. The days are getting shorter. A slight chill is on the breeze. The nights are getting cooler. The trees are beginning to turn. The birds are gathering in preparation for their journey. It's almost time for the SIXTH annual...


OKTOBEERFEST
Make plans now. You will not want to miss this beer-tasting event, where there will be:

• Beer
• Bratwurst
• Bonfire
  
• Blues Jam

Oktobeerfest
Mark your calender (and RSVP)

• When: Friday, October 1, 2010
• Where: Kuhlman Farm
  
• Time: 6:30pm - ???
• Details: The party is outdoors and in the barn so dress appropriate - including shoes that can get muddy!
• Suggested Donation: $2
  

Here's how it works:

• WE supply the Barn, Brats, Bonfire, & Blues Band.
  
• YOU bring a 6-pack of a carefully selected beer for the tasting (homebrews & rootbeers welcome!)
• You leave one bottle at the judges' table and put the rest out to share.
• There will be token prizes awarded for the best beer in several categories, but mostly it is an opportunity to sample some beers you might never have tried and to have a good time with friends while doing it.

Hope to see you there!
RSVP )OktobeeRSVP@gmail.com

littlest Kuhlman

Petra is growing up way too fast for me.

Yesterday she had her first successful stand-up-in-the-middle-of-the-floor-without-holding-on-to-anything event and then gently lowered herself back down.


I've been trying to teach her a hand waving motion to signal when she is done eating. I wave my hands and ask, "Petra are you ALL DONE?" She waves one hand and imitates the two syllable verbal, "AH OH."

She is getting quicker and more deliberate with where she crawls. Brother's room is a source of endless choking hazard temptations.

Yesterday I accidentally bumped her head on the screen door. I was instantly apologetic. "Poor baby! Are you okay?"

She responded in a subdued voice with what sounded like, "Um Oh-hay."

She is a peek-a-boo addict. She will play peek-a-boo with anybody and anything right now. She has grabbed paper out of my hand so that she can hide her face behind it and then peek out. She giggles as she peeks at people around corners or table legs. She loves it so much that she will turn her head left and right just so that she can be looking and then not looking at someone. I'm afraid she's about to give her self peek-a-boo whiplash.

The turning her head back and forth has also spun off into "no" head shaking. I don't know if she really means no. But it looks like she does. I could be holding her and asking something innocent like, "Would you like to get down?" She responds by wrinkling her nose, sticking her chin up grinning, squinting her eyes and shaking her head, no.

She is still intrigued with other people's bottles and cups. She's pretty fascinated by anything that looks like it could deliver food.

1 Down, 13 To Go

After over 3 months of raising these turkeys up from day-old chicks, and having to nurse one of them back from near death, we finally processed our first turkey yesterday. That's right we spent a decent portion of our Labor Day holiday elbow deep in turkey.

I decided last week that a couple of the larger toms were looking like decent eating size, and especially at the rate they're pounding through the feed right now, I was thinking it'd be wise to start processing them out. Now, I had originally been thinking October at the earliest, and maybe November. But as you can see from the picture, they're getting quite large. So I talked the rest of the family into helping my out in this.

Yesterday morning my folks came over and Dad and I got to work setting things up. A couple hours later the ladies finally declared the work done and the turkey was getting its ice bath. (Incidentally, the ladies weighed the finished bird at just under 16 lbs.) Later that evening we got the fryer going, and, while we were grilling & eating our supper, it was frying away. Less than 12 hours after we started the whole process we had a nice big tub of parted up turkey meat in the fridge, and a pot of turkey bones starting to make stock on the stove. Not bad.

We did make a couple important decisions during that time, though. The biggest is we'll likely never do more than 1 or 2 turkeys in a day. Too much work per bird. But a nice return all the same, and some fine turkey meat to work on over the next week or so.

Roof Complete

Sure enough, they pretty much finished up the roof Thursday afternoon before 3. Its amazing to me to think they completely stripped that roof and replaced it in 2.5 days, but they worked hard those days and were there sun up to sun down.

Unfortunately, they're not familiar with lightning rod stuff, so they reset those improperly. I'll be needing to get that addressed, but everything else about their work appears solid and well done.

We got most of the stuff put back in the attic now, and the yard's mostly cleaned up. They should get the dumpster today, which means things should be pretty much back to normal here soon. Glad to have the new roof on as we're prepping for winter.

Clueless

I try not to be a jerk.

Several years ago, I was at a coffee house and noticed that a few people nearby were acting atypically. I responded by moving away. I didn't feel safe. After observing them for a while, I realized that they were mentally retarded. Special needs adults, if you will. I felt bad for distancing myself from them. They deserved love and acceptance, but my default safety response was to back away until I had figured out what was going on.

Last Friday I went to playgroup at one of the local parks. It was rainy, so there weren't many people there. One man was standing in the shelter house. Just standing there. He was wearing dark pants, a dark ball cap, and a white undershirt, which is a little odd. He kept his arms crossed inside his shirt. Weird. I didn't feel it would be safe to approach him. I wondered if it were safe to have my children playing there.

Later, the rational part of myself said that most child predators are effective because they are frighteningly good at seeming normal and gaining trust. This guy wasn't that. He may or may not have been dangerous, but he was probably just elderly and confused. Being a smallish woman in charge of three small children, I think it was the right decision to stay away, but part of me wishes I might have reached out to him.

Mr. Atypical started walking away when a school van showed up. Out came some adults and teens. They also seemed to be "different". Observing them while supervising my kids, I quickly realized that the teens were special needs teens on a picnic. I seem to remember one of my coworkers talking about his daughter taking similar Friday field trips. These people I didn't fear. One of the young ladies started cooing over Petra, and Petra ate up the attention.

Later, my girls and I went to the grocery store. As we walked in to the store, a woman offered us the cart that she had just finished using. She was a cheerful woman. And I hope I didn't stare too rudely, because half of her face was bluish-black. It was like a reverse Phantom or the Opera mask. She was so friendly and open. If she got a lot of rude stares and comments, she didn't let it bother her. I only saw her a fraction of a minute, but I think she was wonderful.

Later I saw another woman with a bluish black chin. She was coming around the end of an aisle, and when she saw me, she covered her chin with her hand self consciously. Maybe just because I was so charmed by the confidence of the first woman, I thought it was worth my time to go back and tell the second woman that I thought she looked lovely just the way she was. She said thank you and explained that her chin was bruised because of some dental surgery she had the day before. I felt a little silly for making a big deal over a bruise, but that's okay. I felt a little sillier later.

At the end of our shopping, Julia needed to go to the bathroom. While there, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I had elected to wear orange shorts and a brown shirt that day. I was "wearing" Petra in the backpack carrier. Thanks to Julia, I was also wearing a pink flower clip in my hair, a necklace of red star beads, a blue rubber band on my wrist, an "I've been Krogering" sticker, and of course my one eyebrow is always a little funny looking. I must have been quite a sight, trying to reassure someone that they looked nice.

Lord, thank you for making me slightly irregular. Thank you for all the quirky differences that make us different and interesting and beautiful.

Roofing Update

The roofers continue to make excellent progress. As of lunchtime today they had the entire roof tar-papered, and a good bit of the mess cleaned up. And, as you can see from the pics, the shingles were being delivered while I was eating lunch.




Happy Anniversary m'dear! I hope you enjoy your new roof anniversary present. ;-) (Who says I'm not romantic!?)

Nine years

Happy Anniversary, my dear.

My morning bible reading is taking me through Proverbs. Today happened to be Proverbs 5, where a father admonishes his son to rejoice in the wife of his youth and be satisfied with her charms.

So here is my prayer today.
Lord, strengthen my desire to be charming to my husband. Help me to guard him against any temptation to wander. Put a hedge of protection around our marriage.

Thank you, Father, for giving me a man who is easy to be faithful to. Thank you for his committment to me and our children. Thank you for his consistent involvement in the Men's Purity Pursuit study. I know it helps to strengthen and renew him.

As we go though trials, knit our hearts closer together. Cause us to pursue one another like we pursue you. Intentionally, confidently, fervently. Having fun along the way.

Steve, I rejoice in you. I am more than satisfied with your charms. My cup is overflowing.

State of our Roof

After the big hailstorm we got last summer, our roof's been needing replacement. It was already showing its age, and had been patched a couple times since we've been here. So it was really a blessing when the insurance came through to help replace the roof.

Starting yesterday morning around 7:30 our house became a construction zone, as they began tearing off our 2 layers of shingles on top of cedar shakes.




Once they got the old roofing material cleaned off you can see the bones of the house a lot better.








I was able to take advantage of this opportunity to get some insulation in some normally inaccessible portions of the attic, so that was cool. Though I have to say getting on my 2-story roof was a bit harrowing, I did okay.

These guys worked like crazy till after 8:30 last night when it just got too dark to work anymore. When they left they had nearly the whole roof re-covered with boards and about a third of that area covered in tar paper. They were really moving yesterday. Given that rate, and the fact that they showed up this morning at 6:40 to start working again, I expect they'll be done half-way through tomorrow. Wow!