June = Making hay + a few other things!

June has been a bit of blur for this crew! Things have been busy here on the farm and in our family.

Busyness + adventures = long blog post  ;)

Making Hay...

The main focus this month has been making hay, (and along with that, fixing equipment.) We've had a bit of a rocky start this year, since the discbine has had way too many breakdowns [more on this later]. Mom has made quite a number of trips for parts. But we are making progress, and getting close to being done with our first crop of hay.

The guys started on the field right across the road from our house. So it was easy to take some pictures for y'all to enjoy.

Cutting the first field

Oh, the smell of fresh cut grass...

Raking

Baling

Hauling hay

When we were making baleage on close fields we just hauled 6 bales at a time. When we started making hay a bit further from home, they were using 2 trucks with trailers, and between the two of them, they could haul 15 bales a trip. 

Resetting the wrapper for another line of bales.

Wrapping baleage

Also, in case you think that I all do here on the farm is take pictures and write blog posts, here is a picture I took while raking hay. :)  I don't drive tractor nearly as much as I used too, but if we are short staffed, I'll help out as needed.

Matt fixing the old discbine for the final time.... 

After having the New Holland discbine break down frequently (at least once a day last week), it was decided that we needed a different one. We were going through parts left and right in the cutter bar and it just wasn't serving it's purpose well at all. So last Tuesday, Mom did research, talked to a few dealerships, got some advice, passed all the info on to the guys, and by Thursday evening we had a new (to us) Kuhn mower conditioner purchased and home. Nate and Matt made the trip to get it, they left at 4:30am and were home by 4:00 pm. They have laid lots of hay down with it over the weekend, and so far it's been working well. 

The other happenings:

Silas got his driver's licence! The rest of us think it's a little unfair that he didn't have to take a in-person road test like we all did. Because DMV's are so backed up after not offering road tests for the past several months, the state decided that if a student had 1)completed driver's training, 2)completed the required "behind the wheel" practice times, and 3) the driving school signed off, a student's parent/guardian can give permission for a student to receive his/her licence. So Silas went online, filled out the paperwork, and printed out his temporary license.  He bought a vehicle about a month ago and is enjoying having his own set of wheels.

Our neighbor (my mom's uncle) passed away early in the month. He lived in the house right next door to us until moving into an assisted living facility almost 2 years ago. Needless to say, we had an emotional few days here. Mom helped plan the memorial gathering for him that was held on the 14th.

Us gals attended a pre-camp training session for the youth camp we've served at for the past few years.  This 24 hr training was held onsite, so was a bit of driving to attend, but was worth the drive. It's really hard to describe the culture of camp and their staff, but it's one of the most warm & welcoming groups of folks I've interacted with. The training sessions were helpful, and we came home with food for thought, as well as things to be acted upon. It was also great to see Aunt Jane (who is the reason we are involved in this camp.) She was planning to come visit us in March, but that was about the time that things went on lock down, and it was decided it would be best to postpone her visit. Getting to be with her during pre-camp was a treat and made it extra special! (We found out over the weekend that camp is cancelled for this year- sad stuff!!)
We were asked to bring our instruments- so we led a sing time the first evening. (Thanks to a fellow staff member for this picture!) 

The strawberries are ripe!! Yum! Fresh juicy berries are just so delicious! We've been enjoying them fresh, freezing, drying, and making jam with them. It's been a long time since we've had this many strawberries. Even though it's a lot of work, we are grateful for them!

Second picking

3rd picking...  

(and then I quit taking pictures... We had a good sized 4th picking as well and have to go pick them again today.)

Desserts!

Making Jam

Baby calves are still arriving with regularity here. Matt has had his hands full in keeping them all fed. We are grateful to have had buyers for our bull calves again this year, and Grace has been able to sell all of them promptly and easily.

The garden is growing slowly, but it's coming. So far we've been able to enjoy a few radishes and some lettuce out of it.

We are excited to be resuming our town hall music nights- after taking 3 months off. It felt SO great to be back with many of our regular attendees. If you missed this one, feel free to join us at one of the other ones this summer.  This music night was extra special since we honored Matt and his accomplishment of graduating high school. In keeping with family tradition, the other 5 of us siblings wrote a song about him that we sang that night... His tassel was attached to a camo Case IH cap. :)

(Once we get his senior pictures back, I'll share a few of them with y'all)

This past week, our church held VBS. Grace, Laura, and I helped. We had a small group of kids this year, but the kids who came enjoyed it and they were fun to work with.  Our theme was "Going Deep with Jesus",  so our decorations were ocean themed.  I worked with the 1st- 3rd graders in small group time, Grace was in charge of craft time, and Laura helped me and helped at recess.

This was the "ocean" on our classroom wall. Each day we would write things we learned on a fish and add it to the ocean. Made for a nice way to review what we learned over the week.  

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying the summer! Enjoy your 4th of July weekend!