Cute Mary and the Sortas

Us and the Sortas!!!

After we got done watching Dreamer... :)

Some recent pix of Mary who is 10 months

We still can't find the iron....Kayla did find sandals to wear to church ( and Monday morning we awoke to a FROST!) We are still living with oil lamps. Yes, Pollock family - it is very peaceful and all the family stays together in the kitchen/living room since that is where the light is....I kinda like it. I think when (if?)we get power I will charge the kids rent for a light bulb. Maybe a hefty deposit fee to be returned when they return the light bulb. You know - if they return the bulb, that means it's not on, which means no $ going out to the electric company! Oh we have Niagara Falls not far away, generating mega-gazillion-watts of power ( that's a term from a homeschooling Mom's vocabulary by the way...) so you think electric here would be cheap. NOT.

**Some updates**
<>?All our animals are here now. Horses, milking cows, 20 some head of heifers, calves, hogs and chickens.

<>Our pony cart and harness are here so the kids have gone across the road to a trail that goes over the creek, thru the woods and into some open fileds. They say it's great back there. I haven't seen it yet, but plan to soon. Sunday afternoon they went back and said they saw an Amish fellow back there reading a book. Must be the place for peace and serenity.

<>School has started...I have found almost all the books and things I needed.

<>Joe is working at home cutting lumber for mini barns and 6 people have stopped looking for steel, so that business will be up and running soon we hope.

<> still working on our direct marketing of eggs, chicken, turkey, pork and beef....

<>We are finding out slaughter houses that are inspected for resale meat are very hard to find around here and are having a hard time complying with Gov. red tape. That makes things hard for us. the nearest butcher ( and I can't even get a hold of them ) is 2 hours away!

<>I still do not have internet at home, but hope to soon....Ipromiose I will post pics!

<>We have had 2 Ohio families here to visit already. One family went to Vt for the wedding of their son and stopped by on their way home. (look at a map and chose your route from VT to OH and you will see why we where so happy they "stopped by"!!!)
The other family came to our rescue, whenI stopped by their house in Ohio Fri ( yes - we made another trip to Ohio for stuff ) to return some things and had a moment of...uh....um.....emotion over this whole move. So they picked up their horse trailer at our old place and drove it up here and spent the day on Sunday. We toured the area, and took them to Lake Ontario and toured a light house. It was a great view of the lake and surrounding farm country. At least 2 of the group were real glad to have their feet on solid ground! Being a lighthouse keeper will not be on the list of job prospects for them!

<>God is still in control! He makes no mistakes and He doeth all things well. He definitely goes before us each step of the way, but boy is it hard to walk when you can't see where you are going! My new favorite hymn?? All The Way My Saviour Leads Me.......

Hopefully soon we will be updating at home and will post pictures.

Dawn, I will call soon - I promise!

Shearers - Thank you so much for the pack of letters. It made our day!

Andersons - we miss you and I will mail your videos unless you want to pick them up.

Sortas.....we are glad to see you and be here. WoW!! church is awesome is all we can say. Hope you feel better soon Jen!

Pollocks - we are thinking of you and praying for you all. I need to find your address - I wanted to write you a REAL letter.....

Until later......

We have arrived. We are s-l-o-w-l-y finding the necessities we need to live. Still can't find our iron...Kayla wears sneakers to church, but we are here. The house is beautiful and we love it. The land is cute. Another 33 head of our animals came yesterday and we have been busy getting them settled in.

We had our first overnight guests! Paul & Colleen and family came from VT where their son was married on Sat (9/12/09). They are on their way home to Ohio and stopped by. Today they will go to Niagara Falls and then head home.

Dad stays busy trying to get all the electric to work here. So far we have no lights, but the outlets in the kitchen work and the fridge and stove!! Actuqally we decided we really like the oil lamps in the evening - we may just keep them!

One adjustment we are going to have to make is having neioghbors so nearby. Across the road is a really sweet Amish family we knew before we left, on our east side is an older lady we want to meet today. Past them is a new house (right in FULL view from our barn - ahem!) To our west we heard some rather loud country music today....*sigh**

We miss Ohio and our friends there, the rolling farmland and beautiful countryside, but we know this is where we belong right now.

As soon as we get internet at home ( I am at the library) we will post pics.

to be continued.....

Good Times and Sad Times

~I suppose most of you know we are moving out of state...This past week we have just been CRAZY with packing. The semi came Friday and we have been stuffing it ever since. This morning some great neighbors came and helped us which was a huge blessing!
It's been a tough week but we're making it with the Lord's help!

A visit with the Shearer's a couple weeks ago....thank you for coming and thatnk you for making us dinner this week. It was a big help in the midst of packing!

Jo and her lil friends, Kirsten, Michaela and Brianna

***

Thursday night the Sommer's(wonderful friends!!) brought a terrible amazing :)supper for us! Freida and Emily were able to come to which was fun! We had a great evening!

Kristen, Kayla and Katina eating their messy chicken! Mmm it was good! Kaitlyn is just going to town there on the ground!

Katina, Kaitlyn and Sarah

L to R-Freida, Kristen, Kayla, me, Kaitlyn and Joanna

...a few more join the crowd

Aim and Emily

Kaitlyn lovin' her fudgy chocolate cake!

Mom, Freida and Dotsy

Amy and Freida-I LOVE the sunset

Kayla and Kristen walking and talking

The two Joanna's were sharing the big pink blanket :)

Our last violin lesson with Sarah! She has been the most fun, encouraging, awesome teacher we could have ever asked for! In the years I have taken from her she has brought me through nearly six suzuki books. THANK YOU SARAH!!!!

My last time milking our 56 cows in a double 8 parlor w/ Dad. Sniff, sniff

Sad times. No more milk trucks for us...

Amy and Dad out spreading manure

Josh and Micah loading stuff on the trailer to take to our new home 5 1/2 hrs. away.

Nathan sitting in the shadow of the semi. I don't know how this happened. WHY is the semi sitting in OUR yard????

And guess who we hung out with at the Haiti Benefit Sale? Yup, the Bauman's were there. It was so fun walking around together( TRYING to keep and eye on Joel and Micah who had a serious attraction to the food tables ) and looking at stuff.

This pictures are weird but they are funny too. See that nice, white volleyball? It was a going away gift from Michaela and Gabriella, signed and everything! We always play v-ball when we're together.:)

I didn't realize Joel could be so photogenic! haha! We were parked at opposite ends of the parking lot so 11 of us piled in their poor van to go to our car. I think it survived. :)

The poor boys all samshed in the front

Our last Sunday at church taking a walk with Kyla

***

I don't know when we'll be able to blog again. It might be weeks or months. We still have alot of work left here wrapping up loose ends and everything so just pray for us that all will go smoothly! :) Thank you and God bless to all of you who have helped us out!

Milking Buddies

Chore time!

Alittle warm milk never hurt anyone:)

Hey now

Nice aim Kay!

Milking makes memories


Hmm... messy

We love milking!

Back to work now :)

The Rodeo

~Just some pics. of the rodeo that comes to our fair every year.
They have what they call the rodeo slack in the afternoon so it's the same thing as what they do at the night one, minus the crowds and music.

Barrels

I just realized these two pictures are the same people

I love strawberry roans. It looks like a horse we rode out in Idaho!

Team roping! At least this year a couple people actually ROPED the calf!

Insanity, insanity, all is insanity!

(OK, at least they're wearing helmets!)

Show down!

Our friend Shelly married a bull rider so we went to the night rodeo to watch him ride. One nasty bull ditched his rider and started mauling him with his horns and then he charged after Shelly's brother-in-law(who was a clown)picked him up with his horns and tossed him. I think he was pretty suprised and sore!!

That bull is looking for trouble

Oo, this doesn't look pretty

Can't say this one does either.

This is where this fella lost out. Two hands are a no-no!

Rider?

There he is

Pretty horse- he looks like Buck, a horse I rode in Idaho

Happy girl in the saddle

More team roping

Looks like they got him!