Cookies for Christmas!

Today, thirteen girls and myself were cooking in the farmhouse kitchen. It was our turn to host the homeschool families for "Keepers of the Home" club that we do twice a month. "Keepers of the Home" teaches homemaking skills to our girls so they will be prepared when they grow up and have a home of their own. It also teaches them how to help us moms more around the house. We also enjoy getting together to fellowship. Today we focused on Stained Glass Cookies. You put crushed hard candy in the middle of a cut-out sugar cookie and it gives it that stained glass effect. We also had a cookie exchange where each family brought a dozen cookies for the other families and we traded. That was interesting to see the different kinds of cookies. When the girls were finished in the kitchen, they got to make a cookie cutter gift filled with candy and put it in a gift bag to give away to someone. We ended our fellowship around the piano singing Christmas carols. It was a fun day "on the farm!"

Put the woman back in the kitchen where she belongs,

then everything will be all right. Bro. Branham 57-1006

I'm an Eagle

Today there were two eagles in our fields! They are a rare sight around here. It was really neat to watch them fly around the farm. The pictures are a little fuzzy but I hope you enjoy the slideshow.


                                                    
 If you click on the picture below, it should enlarge to get a better view.

Farm Bell

This old bell has been on the farm for many years. In fact, we guessed it could be approximately 150 years old. It used to hang in the "summer kitchen" that was attached to the house. After different roof repairs here and there over the years it got put away in the attic since it wasn't used anymore. We have it in the barn flower bed now. I imagine at one time it used to ring out to call the farmers in to dinner. Maybe it was even used if there was an emergency and you needed help. With our convenient cell phones today, farm bells are seldom used anymore. It still has a nice ring to it even after all of these years. In the quote below, Bro. Branham compares the molding of a bell to our trials and testimonies in life.

" Did you ever see them when they was fixing to mold a bell, some famous bell for a church chime or something, that had to give a certain ding? You see, if you're ringing a chime, it takes a certain range for each bell. And it takes certain materials to go in there, so much brass, so much steel, and so much of other ores, to go into this bell. If it's just straight brass, it won't ring right. It's got to have all kinds of materials throwed into it, to make it ring the right kind of a tone. And the man who has put the mold up, and set the mold, he knows exactly what it takes to go in that cupola, what it takes to go into that--that metal, to make that bell ring that tone.
God is our great Cupola. God is the... He is the great Refiner's Furnace, that where He has to put these things upon us, and trials, and persecutions and things, to mold it together, to make our testimony ring for a certain time, and a certain note that He wants rang out in a certain day."63-1216 Bro. Branham

Here is what the Farm Bell sounds like:

Deer huntin' with my dear

I can't believe it!  My farmer asked me to go deer hunting with him!  How could I turn him down?  So I heaved a sigh and put on some warm clothes; trying to be camouflaged the best that I could. ( see pic) 
We drove the truck to the back of the farm and hid it.  Then we walked a little ways to the fence line where there were trees and bushes.  I was out of breath by the time we got there (not from excitement mind you, but because I'm so out of shape).  I could feel the excitement building up from my farmer though.  He was walking faster and faster to get there.  We found us a hiding place and settled in to wait.  It was great!  No wonder these guys like hunting so much!  I could hear the birds singing, crickets and frogs joining in, and the smell of the woods was wonderful! Not to mention how awesome the sunset was.  There was a little extra excitement when a mouse suddenly dropped from a tree and scrambled back up a branch right in front of us!  He had such big googly eyes!  Well, when it got too dark to hunt, we came out from our hiding place, and what did our eyes behold?.....you guessed it!  8 or 9 doe were waving their little white flags at us as they loped across the alfalfa field in plain view!
You might ask me, would you go hunting again?....my answer would be ......

"in a heartbeat!"

Karl is much more fashionable than I am.  At least I stayed warm!

Hunting sight

....."you see Him in the wilderness out there! I love to hunt. I do that just to get out,

not to kill the game, but just to be in the woods."

64-0306 Bro. Branham

Silo Repair

Anybody ready to climb straight up for 100 feet?  That's what the silo crew had to do this week.  The silo roof had gotten smashed in by the force of the tornado back in June.  We were waiting for the silo to get filled with silage before having the silo company come and fix it.  They hooked all their supplies on long ropes and pulled up everything. When they took the dented  roof sections off they let it down with the long rope.  It was interesting to watch.  Here are some pictures and a short video of them working. 

Everybody ready for the answer to "how many truckloads of silage it took to fill the silo?"  Well, they didn't get it quite full,(about 10 feet from the top) and it took approximately 100 truckloads to fill it.  That was about 15 hours with 3 trucks going one after the other! 

 Congratulations to my mom for being the nearest answer with 80!

Isn't the sky beautiful?  Blue is my favorite color!

Harvest Time

"Now we're just looking for what day we're living in, the harvest time."Bro. Branham 64-1212

It's harvest time here at the farm and the farmers are working hard to get the corn in before it gets too dry.

Because of the dry weather, the corn was really losing it's moisture fast.  You can see the dust billowing out from behind this truck that was bringing in the silage.

How many truckloads do you think it takes to fill the 100ft. silo?  You can leave your answer in the comments.  I will let you know the answer in a few days.

Of course, no day is complete without something extra happening.  My farmer had to climb the 100 ft. silo because the pipe got jammed .  He was banging the pipe to loosen up the jam.  I might add a note here:  He does not like heights!  So this was not the "high"-light of his day!

We thank the Lord for a bountiful harvest.  Despite the tornado and hail storm, we had a really good crop of corn.  Uncle Eddie measured some of the ears of corn and they were between 9 1/2 to 10 inches long!

Here is a really good Bro. Branham message to listen to about harvest time.  It's actually titled "Harvest Time."  Click on the word here to listen. This will take you to The Voice of God website.

This is a picture that Uncle Eddie took of the girls showing the ears of corn.

The picture below is the same field after the hailstorm.

Thanks Uncle Eddie for sharing your pictures.

It's time to chop more corn

Our farmers have chopped the early corn and now it's time to get started on the later corn.  My farmer went out today with the corn knife to chop some by hand to check its moisture content.  He takes an armful of corn and runs it through the harvester to chop it.  He then takes a plateful and cooks it in the barn microwave to dry it out.  He weighs it and that shows the moisture content. If you chop it when it is too green, it will juice out the silo which is not a good thing.  It was at the right level for chopping so they are getting ready for the big day again. Here are some pictures of him checking the corn.

Harvest Season

Harvest season is upon us once again.  The harvester is in the fields chopping the corn and our farmers are bringing in the loads to fill the silo.  Despite the tornado, hail, dry season, and extra hot weather, the Lord has blessed us with a bountiful harvest here "on the farm"!

 "God's got a time for all things. He's got a time that He has... We plant corn. We got a time that we plow corn. Then at the time, we harvest corn. The spring rains come, the drought through the summer, the fall rains, the snows. You just can't say I plant my wheat today and tomorrow and go out and harvest it.
God has times for season. He has seasons for His Word."55-0116A Bro. Branham

Cottonseed

Our cows get fed cottonseed along with their alfalfa, corn, and rye.  The cottonseed is good for protein and energy and helps produce more milk.  We buy the cottonseed about once or twice a year.   It comes in a big truck and they pile it up in the barn loft.  That's a pretty big pile of cottonseed.  Faith is always looking for something fun to do, so she goes sledding down the cottonseed pile!  Here is a video of her having fun.

County Fair video

Here is a short video of the county fair from last week.  Thanks Grandma for helping with some of the pictures!  Enjoy!

Two Escapees in Two Days

The other evening, me and the girls looked up at the barns and seen a young bull wandering around outside of the pens. He's #97 and well-known for escaping through the feed gates at the front of the pens. He is small enough to fit right through the bars. The next day, we looked up at the silos and there was a small heifer walking around looking very out of place on the driveway. She had squeezed herself through the gates also. They wandered around and visited the other animals before being chased back into their pens. Here is a video of them.

A special 4th of July at the Farm

We had a wonderful time this past weekend! We started off with supper Saturday night at Grandma and Grandpa's house with special guests. The Buitenkamp family from Holland was visiting the U.S. and came with the Sangers to fellowship with all of us. Bro. Gerald and Sis. Michele told us many testimonies of taking the Message to different people all over Europe. Sunday morning their sons took turns telling us what they do in their Voice of God office there in Holland. Bro. Gerald told us more testimonies and then ended up with an original recording of Bro. Branham preaching in Germany with an interprepter. We were very blessed. The whole church was then invited to our farm for a picnic and time of fellowship. There were hamburgers, fruit, potato salad, baked beans, chips, and loads of dessert. Then the Buitenkamps led in songs of worship. Some of their songs were African and songs that you probably have heard on young foundations. Sunday night we went back to church and heard more testimonies from Bro. Gerald and the rest of Bro. Branham's tape from Germany. Below the pictures is a video of some of the singing. Be sure to pause the music on the right side of the screen.

Leavin' the saddle in the air

Moovin' heifers

When the calves in the big calf barn get big enough, they are mooved over to the heifer barn which is on the other side of the milking barn. So they open the gate to the big calves and run them through the milking barn, out the side door, and across to the other end of the heifer barn. The heifer barn is divided into sections and as the heifers get older and bigger they are mooved up a section until they are old enough to go over to the freshening barn. These animals have ear tag numbers to keep track of who they are and how old they are so you know who to moove. It's quite a job! Proverbs 27:23 "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds." Here is a video of my farmer "looking well to thy herds." Pause the music on the right.

Kitty in the tree!

This post is for Faith's cousins and friends. Her kitty, named Circus, discovered he could climb a tree. He was very entertaining to watch. Make sure you pause the music on the sidebar before watching this video.

Turkey huntin' on the farm

Farm kids are never bored! There is always something to do on the farm. I looked out my kitchen window this morning and seen my youngest daughter sneaking through the grass with a big stick. That's when I seen the chicken. Except in her eyes it was a big ol' turkey! Well, I grabbed my camera and sneaked around the house and made a great hunting video. This is for all you hunters out there!

It's a girl!

Pause the music on the right side of screen.

Farm Girls

When the baby calves get older, they are moved from the calf pens over to another building to the larger calf group pens. So we put a halter on them and walk them over. These calves are not halter trained so sometimes it's a challenge to get them to walk. Dad asked the girls to do it this time. They had a lot of fun with the calves.
                      
"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."Mal. 4:2

Inverting the alfalfa

When the alfalfa is still wet underneath, they flip it over with this inverter. Here is a video showing my farmer inverting the alfalfa.

Need your toenails trimmed?

Our cows get treated so special. Every once in awhile they get treated to a pedicure. Yes, they get their toenails trimmed! Their toenails are so big that my brother-in-law has to use a grinder on them. If they didn't get trimmed, they would keep growing, of course, and cause all kinds of hoof and leg problems. So they get hoisted up on this table and get their trim. We try to keep our cows as comfortable as possible so they stay happy and give us lots of milk.