17 years ago, such a sweet little baby girl.

If I could go back in time and hold you and rock you in my arms and sing lullabies to you again, I would.

... but I know that instead I have to let you go so you can become your own independent person... and I will... but I will also pray for God's guidance for each step you take, and I am confident that you will become the amazing woman I know you are.

I'll love you for always, I'll like you forever.

As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

Duck eggs!

I don't remember when the ducks started laying, but their eggs are coming in steadily now.  Really nice sized and they're good layers too!  Egg is in my DD10's hand, so not as big as it looks in the picture.

Chicks!!!

Towards the end of August we placed a new order for meat chickens (Cornish X).  They were to arrive at the beginning of September.

At the end of August we were very surprised to find one of our Buff Orpingtons had been setting a clutch of eggs under our old horse trailer.  We left her alone and on September 3rd we found the eggs had hatched.  Out of the lot she was sitting on, she hatched out 5 beautiful little fuzzballs.  What luck it was to have our meat chicks arrive the very same day!  We put 10 of those in with her 5 original chicks and moved her and chicks into the chicken hoop house.

What a good mama hen!

Old furniture restoration

We found this old kitchen cabinet (?) in the basement.  It may have been original to the house.  We're planning to restore it and then use it as a kitchen island.  I think it will look really nice once it's done.

Beautiful wood hiding under all that paint

Always willing to help when it comes to power tools!

End result of hard work

The boys worked hard in their watermelon/melon garden this year, they got a lot of watermelons and we froze a lot of melons for eating later.

Team work!

Slicing open that first watermelon

Pure yumminess!

Missouri State Fair!

2nd place in a photo contest!

Such a proud moment for our daughter!

We walked around enjoying all the various exhibits, and then it was time for the rides!

A wonderful end to a wonderful day :)

Happy birthday to a wonderful 15 year old

Do you know how beautiful you are to me?

Do you know the hopes and dreams I have for your life?

Flowers picked by her brother to decorate the table

Not birthday cake.. rather a milk tart :)

Fruit salad at her request.. I fancied it up a little ;)

Happy birthday sweetheart, I love watching you turn into a wonderful Godly young woman.

Macaroni and Cheese Casserole.

Growing up, my mom used to make a macaroni, egg, tomato and cheese casserole.  I have no idea exactly how to make it, only that the cheese went on over the tomatoes and it made a good dinner.

I can't find the exact recipe I used, but it was good and my family all gave it a thumbs up!

Yum!

Silkworms

This year I tracked down a source for silkworms so my kids could experience raising them.  DH and I had them when we were kids, and it was always interesting to watch them grow and then see the cycle of their lives.  If you have an abundance of mulberry trees, you should try some yourself :)  The cocoons from these little guys is where silk comes from.. yes, really.

Munching on mulberry leaves

Spinning his silk cocoon

Everything's growing

 The flowers are growing beautifully....

The corn is growing, thirsty work keeping them weeded....

 Bandit is growing, as are the weeds....

The collection of farm junk is growing... (but this WILL be a nice little trailer someday!)

 and... the piglets are growing!

I love this life.

Blackberry jam

A friend was nice enough to invite us over for a morning of blackberry picking.  We picked.. and picked... and picked.

And made 7 lovely jars of blackberry jam :)

A goat milkstand for a friend

My hubby built this goat milking stand for a friend.  She needed one a little sturdier than ours though, since she wanted it for boer goats, and for doing hooves, worming, etc.  So DH put sides on it, and used 4 x 4 posts for the legs.  That should hold them nicely!

Pig housing revised

After losing some piglets which were possibly squished or otherwise abused by our boar, we decided to give our two sows each their own secure quarters.  The pig shed got split down the middle and we built two pens for them.  Bubbles (the boar) got to free roam in the larger pasture.

Little Miss, down to only one little piglet