Monday, June 26, 2006

Taking Time Out for Friends

Yesterday we were invited to join 2 other families for fellowship. As we were heading out on our 1-1/2 hour trip to reach our destination, Jim commented that this was our first longer trip together as a family in quite a while. He was right. Having farm animals sure changes the way we do things. The first year we lived here the friends we went to visit yesterday came our way for a couple of days, and actually brought their milking goats with them on a trailer which was lined with hay bales. They just milked them there on the trailer. We're not exactly set up to do that, and it's pretty hard to bring along a little over a hundred chickens and some turkeys as well as our goats! We didn't get home very early, and Mustard Seed our milking goat was not so patiently waiting for the boys when we got back. Our German Shepherd was apparently bored while we were gone; we discovered this morning that he had managed to chew off the cord that is used to connect the station wagon's electrical system with the trailer's lighting system. Guess that now goes onto Jim's "to do list" of repair items.

The day yesterday was great. No one was lacking for friends, as with just the 3 families there were 20 children -- with only 3 of them girls! My boys were thrilled. It was great to catch up on what has been happening with everyone, and the day passed too quickly.

Later in the afternoon, one of the men did a demonstration on making biodiesel. I normally wouldn't pay any attention to something like that, but it sure was interesting. I think a little less than a gallon of biodiesel was made. Andrew told us that as soon as he perfects his technique he will begin making large quantities of fuel.

We had an interesting ride home ... The fastest way means taking a gravel road that stretches for 20 miles. The sun had already set, but up here it seems to stay twilight all night long, until the sun once again begins to rise. Thankfully we didn't run into any deer, and my husband commented that for that entire 1-1/2 hour trip we only met 2 vehicles. I guess that is why we like it up here!

PS: I would like to post more photos, but somehow, somewhere, someone lost whatever it takes to download them from our digital camera. Guess we'll have to spend some time tomorrow looking for whatever it is!

4 comments:

Marci said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful day. I too like being out where there is very few people and litle to no traffic.

Where did you move from again? Was it hard adjusting to the cold in the winter?

Lynn Bartlett said...

Hi Marci,
We just moved about 5 hours northwest, from Fargo to the Turtle Mountains in ND. I have lived in "cold country" (MN,WI and ND) my entire life, and have enjoyed the changing seasons. It seems the winters go so quickly that they don't bother me.

Marci said...

Up where Deanna is there has been some really good deals on farms. My husband says... NO WAY... it would be too cold for him.

Lynn Bartlett said...

The interesting thing is that many people from other states (have heard of a lot of people from the west coast) are buying land here, and paying a lot per acre. We were ridiculed for paying what we did(the buyer held firm), but when friends tried to buy up here this spring -- 2 years later -- the cost had increased an extra $400/acre or more. This is the beautiful part of ND, with hills, lakes and trees -- much like northern MN. Many other areas of ND have farmsteads costing a lot less. When we looked for our piece in the country we found a lot of families wanted to sell only the farmstead but not the land surrounding it, since they wanted to keep the land in the family. We are very thankful to have purchased the land when we did.