Checking In Again

It's hard to believe that at 11:00 p.m. we are still experiencing twilight outside. I remember making a trip to Fargo (5 hours away) one time with a friend, and at 1:00 a.m. it was twilight just like this. Wonder if it goes on all night, and then dawn begins ... Guess I'm too old to want to check it out!

I had our very first strawberry of the season this afternoon, and it sure was good! That was sort of a fluke, because there are plenty of blossoms on the plants but no other pieces of fruit. I can't wait for the strawberries and raspberries to be ready for harvesting.

We were thrilled to have 2-1/2 inches of rain yesterday. It's amazing how quickly things green up after a bout of moisture. Our friend Steve just got back from his trip out west and toured the gardens with the boys and I this morning; he was just as excited as we are to see how well the gardens and new trees are doing.

Jim and Jonathan got back on Monday after a 6 day trip to Des Moines, IA for the Iowa home educator's conference. Jim had been asked to give 2 workshops concerning the Biblical Concourse , and joining him were Dan Smithwick of the Nehemiah Institute and John Mesko of Lighthouse Farm. Dan and John are mentors through the Concourse to encourage and help students in the areas of Biblical worldview topics and also agriculture. Jim had Zach Engelhart discuss how he is studying constitutional law by doing college at home. In one of the workshops Joe Bailey from Iowa explained how he and his parents compared the different options for becoming a mechanical engineer, and how they ultimately chose home college as the best route for him to obtain his goals. I was able to listen to the CD's of the workshops yesterday as I was working about the kitchen.

I thought the 6 days Jim and Jonathan were going to be gone would be slow moving for the rest of us, but the days just flew by. The only time we were off our property was on Sunday, when we biked about 5 miles to the local drive-in for ice cream cones. I must admit my biking skills need to be worked on a bit, since I was always bringing up the rear of the pack. Andrew wasn't feeling well for a few days and I attributed it to being tired and missing Dad, but then about midnight Sunday night David came down with flu symptoms, so we must have picked up a bug somewhere. I was glad it rained off and on during those days so we could read a book together. We read book 5 of the "Little Britches" series by Ralph Moody, called "Fields of Home." These books have some language that I don't care for, but what's nice about reading them out loud is I can skip those sections. The boys and I also did weeding in the gardens, and worked on various other projects. It was very nice to have Jim and Jonathan arrive home on Monday afternoon.