6-6-10 WOW - can't believe we have 3 pages now of pictures! Enjoy!

6-5-10 Mike has cleared a new spot for this year's bees... should be a bit more protected in this location.

6-5-10 Mike & Brooks bringing in the new bees.

6-5-10 Here we go - Bees: "take 2"!!!

6-5-10 Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo (black & white ones) meet Snap, Crackle, & Pop (blond ones)!

6-5-10 Best Friends Forever!!! Anyone want a FREE kitten???

6-6-10 Sliced 12 quarts of strawberries & arranged them on dehydrator sheets...

6-6-10 Took a little over 3 hours to slice & fill all 9 trays...

6-7-10 And 12 hours later we have dried strawberries that taste BETTER than any fruit roll-up!! YUM -

6-7-10 Close-up of one tray...

6-7-10 With the boys helping me peel off the dried strawberries, we were done in no time!

6-7-10 Our yield was 6 cups. YEAH!!

6-7-10 I love to re-hydrate some slices of strawberries in our homemade vanilla yogurt & add some of our homemade chocolate chips, MMMmmmm...

6-7-10 Found this snapping turtle this morning on our way to get the cows for milking. So glad he didn't freak them out!

6-9-10 My Dad's in town from Arizona & we have enjoyed a nice visit with him the past couple of days!

6-9-10 I think the last time we took a father-daughter picture together was 13.5 years ago when Mike & I got married!!

6-10-10 Our bull, "Jersey" is in to breed the cows now for about 6 more weeks. He certainly seems pretty content!

6-13-10 The boys with Uncle Ben... So glad he could make the drive from NE to come home for the weekend!

6-13-10 ...and now a picture with Grandma & Grandpa...

6-13-10 ...and now all of us together. (This was right before milking - hence my beautiful attire...)

6-14-10 Michael weeding his hot pepper garden - what a great job he's doing!

6-16-10 Look what the boys found this morning, hiding in the hay bales... We knew 2 of our untamed cats had kittens, but didn't know if we'd ever see them... Michael & Paul have begun praying that He will help tame this batch so we can have more friendly kittens! (as if we don't already have enough...) Not sure how many are in there - at least 7 or so...

6-17-10 No - that's not shredded cheese - it's shredded lye soap!! Bought this American made grater at Lehman's Hardware last week, and I'm experimenting with using this lye soap for all our laundry & dish soap needs. (WE LOVE OUR HOMEMADE LYE SOAP FROM ALANDER'S ACRES!) I take about 1/4 cup shredded soap & add it to about 1 cup warm water & shake to dissolve. Laundry's been turning out great! I'll keep you posted on the dish soap...

6-18-10 Mike likes to save a little milk in the bucket & let his favorite, "Caramel", drink from the bucket!

6-18-10 What a beautiful day!! Aren't these pretty lines of raked hay ?

6-18-10 We're so thankful the rain held off for us - got 300-some square bales and 30-some round bales so far...YEAH!

6-19-10 What a wonderful Father's Day - perfect weather & Michael's team won the Championship!

6-21-10 Can you see the Killdeer eggs we found in our garden?

6-23-10 Well it looks like one of the untamed cats has 6 kittens. We're amazed she brought them out in the open! The other untamed cat still has hers in the hay - looks like she has 6, too!!!

6-26-10 Made chicken broth from 28 meat chicken bones. Took us 3 days & made 6 roasters full of beautiful broth! Mike's mom pressure canned it for us and we got about 60 quarts to put in our pantries - YEAH!

6-26-10 Straining out the carrots, celery, onion, & spices...