Applesauce

27th we've made close to 400 quarts of applesauce (it's around 390 or so). We cooked the last apples yesterday morning and early afternoon. (28th went and got more apples not many but we'll get a few quarts from it.) My hands are a little sore from holding a knife for almost all day and pulling out the stems for the past two days. :-) But they'll be fine soon. We had some nice apples and they cooked down really well but one tree that we picked several tubs of was a small, hard and sour apple. They didn't make super good applesauce but we'll be glad to eat it this winter. :-)
Ellie bought some dexter cows... one of which gave several of the family members a merry chase this morning, she left a calf behind so she's a little on the ditzy side right now. Hopefully she'll settle down soon. :-) Lydia wants to get a tarantaise from the same guy so that cow might be coming up here soon as well.
Went and got 40 or so chickens yesterday evening... Dad thought we would be catching them and had 4 of us kids along but the people we were getting them from had them already crated up so we just had to bring them home. It's going to be nice to have chickens around again. We always seem to run out of eggs. :-) Guess that comes from having a large family to feed.
See y'all.
Hannah

Sundays

Sept. 21st Had a great Sunday. The sermon was on glorifying God at all times, in actions and talking. It hit pretty hard, I tend to do a bit of complaining and it was good to be reminded by someone else that since I'm saved I have a lot to glory in. :-)
After church we went to the pastor's house for a hot-dog roast with the rest of the church. After the meal us kids went to the lawn and played a variety of games including, Frisbee, tag, football, soccer, Have You Ever and a 'war' of sorts picking on certain people to be 'bombed' with frisbees and balls. :-) It was fun and plenty of exercise.
Naomi's feeling a bit better, she's been taking black tea baths and that has been taking away a lot of the itchiness and pain. She says that after visiting the natural gal and having her feet rubbed and kind of a massage done it cleared up a lot and she seems to be over her fever for now. Thanks for the prayers for her. :-) Prayer is a blessing, and to be on the receiving end of it..... :-) Thank you very much.
22nd we're in Yorkton, Dad had to pick up some seals for the loader so he can fix it. So we've made it a long shopping day. :-) I need to pick up some banjo stuff, including strings and a capo, I should have gotten them at camp but I forgot. I was a little muddled at camp. :-)
I'll close for now.
Hannah

Chickens

19th Spent all day yesterday over at Covlins with some of the family butchering chickens. We did 255 chickens. That's one batch and there's two others that we'll be doing in the next month or so. They have a good set-up, there are several cones, a dunker and a plucker that will do three chickens at a time. So it goes pretty fast. I ended up being the one washing the chickens after they were gutted. I ended up somehow giving myself two skin scrapes so my fingers are somewhat tender when it comes to being in water or soap. But they will heal fine I'm sure. :-)
Naomi's kind of sick, we're not exactly sure what it is though we're thinking it's chicken pox.... hopefully she will heal quickly. She's pretty miserable right now. Mom is taking her to a natual gal in Preeceville so we'll be able to know how treat her properly. Could you please pray for her? Thanks.
I recently joined www.banjohangout.org so if you play and want to be a friend drop me a request. :-) I'm hoping that I can learn lots and share what I can.
See y'all.
Hannah

Hunting season

Sept. 17th Well it's rifle hunting season, we've had a fair amount of traffic though it's not the week end yet. I'm sure the roads will be pretty full then. :-/ Can't do much about the dust, it's been dry and the wind is blowing toward our house, Dad's been complaining a bit about all the dust and those crazy hunters that have to drive fast... I almost asked him if he had thought of this problem when we bought the farm, after all we were warned by several people that our road would be pretty busy come hunting season. But I suppose it's fun to complain about things you can't change... LOL! I know I do it at times. :-)
I practiced banjo for a bit yesterday, then I had to go set table to lunch.... it's going okay, I'm so thankful when one of my banjo teachers lent me two beginner banjo books. I'm sending them back to him, now that I was able to scan them onto the family computer. Since music stores are so far away from here and they mostly carry guitar things I'm very grateful to have all the help I can get. :-)
Covlins want us to come help butcher chickens tomorrow. That's gonna be a full day. I can't say I'm looking forward to it. As chicken butchering isn't my favorite job, but it has to be done, I think this year we'll be butchering for/with them for 100 chickens or so. I guess we'll see. :-)
I might ride today, we'll see how Millie's foot looks. The other girls have done a couple short rides, wearing red, orange and they once tied a bell to one of the horses necks for safety. ;-) Archery season is a bit safer for riding in but it seems a lot of rifle hunters don't care what they shoot at as long as it's big... :-/ We've heard a few stories about hunters who have shot cows that didn't look anything like a deer, elk or moose. Not all all good and not all are bad either, we just have to take more precautions in rifle season. :-)
That's all for now. ;-)
Hannah

Ordinary

I have Tess over for baby sitting again, played with her Ruth and Sara almost all morning. Fed her early and put her for down for a nap. From which she just woke up. I'll take her over home later on this afternoon.
Doctored Millie's hoof again. It's looking pretty good for how much it bled. Couple of the girls are going riding this afternoon.
Helped Dad pull the pump from the well. I was on the rope and after the water level It was really rusty so I got kind of orange. :-) Hopefully putting the new pump in will go well.
Not very busy, went to town yesterday, got the rest of a friend's birthday gift and also looked at some other stuff.
So I'll sign off for now.
Hannah

Riding

Had a good ride 12th afternoon. Millie stepped on a piece of glass and cut her left front foot. I tried to put a make-shift bandage on it using strips from my over shirt but she lost that soon after. She wasn't limping so I just left it. But when we got home I found that the cut was a lot longer than I had realized and she seemed to have lost more blood than I thought before. So I tried soaking her foot in Epsom salt water, but she dumped that after a few minutes. So I put Iodine on it then smeared it with salve and bandaged it up with vet wrap. Hopefully she'll heal up quickly. :-)
Dad spent all day at the Covlins helping them plumb the meat shop. They helped us lots getting started here so I'm sure Dad is glad to help them out. :-)
Have a great day. :-)
Hannah

More of the same

Sept. 11th Made applesauce morning of the 10th. I also made another zucchini cake for supper, and while it was cooking I changed the banjo strings. After lunch Ellie, Lydia, Martha, Zeke and I headed for the horses. Muckers and Kid led Ellie and Martha for a merry chase around the pasture but Millie was a good girl and let me catch her without to much trouble. :-) We all saddled up and were going to head for a ride but Al was limping so Zeke couldn't go with us. We left for Endeavour and made the 13 miles in 1 ¾ hours. :-) A man from our church asked us to drop by their place on our way out of town so after mailing the letters and picking up some of the mail we went over for a few minutes. I can't remember how long it took us to get home but it wasn't that long. :-) Dropped by Covlins on the way home and saw their new meat shop being built. It was a good ride, and I'm sure we'll end up doing it again in the future. :-)
12th Weeded strawberries yesterday afternoon. Then helped plant new plants. Three of the girls went riding, I stayed home and later made fried potatoes for supper.
Dad went over to help Covlins with the plumbing of the meat shop. Not sure if he'll be home for lunch or not. Mom is trying to figure out who all needs coats for this winter. Several of the kids need either a good or a play, or both and Sears has their coats on sale so we'll probably be putting in an order soon. ;-) There was a coat left here that might do for a town coat for me. Last 2 winters I ended up using one coat for both good and work. It turned out okay but we weren't living on a farm... :-) So after this one is washed I hope it will shape up so Dad and Mom don't have to buy me one. :-)
Talk to y'all later.
Hannah