Let's Go to the Movies!

I decided that the Pure Water Hollow crew needed a little break from all the mowing, gardening, fencing and farm chores, so last night we enjoyed a rare "night on the town"!  We ventured over to a town we seldom visit in a neighboring county.  We ate at a quaint diner/dairy bar and then found the movie theater located in the community center.

This is the Roy F. Collier Community Center in Inez which houses, among many other things, a movie theater!  It is a nicer and cleaner movie theater than the one in Paintsville.  The place we ate was across the street, so even though it took too long for them to bring our food out we were just minutes away from the movie.

I had originally planned on taking the family all the way over to the Mountain View Drive-In movie theater in Stanton to watch the new movie, "Monsters University", but there was a threat of thunder storms.  I doubt a drive-in movie would be very much fun in the rain!  Two years ago we went to that drive-in and watched the Pixar movie "Cars2".  We took our one-ton with the large 12 foot flat bed so there was room for the whole family.  We set up our chairs and cushions on the truck, ate pizza, and enjoyed the movie.  That was a lot of fun, and I was hoping to do it again this summer.  But, the possibility of rain took my thoughts in a different direction.

Thinking about "Monsters University", I realized that it was being shown in both the 2D or 3D formats.  This may sound odd to those of you who go to the movies all the time, but my family had never seen a movie in the now popular 3D format.  Instead of going to the drive-in, this would be our first movie experience in 3D!

Actually, Christina and Simon had seen Toy Story 3 in 3D when they stayed with Grandma up in Cincinnati during the summer of 2010, but Monsters University would be the first 3D movie that we would see together as a family.

I was pleased with the 3D and everyone had a great time!  I still have many of my old viewmaster reels that we get out and look at every now and then and this movie made me feel like I was watching a viewmaster reel with movement!  How fun! 

Actually I was surprised how quickly I got used to the 3D effects.  I realized this when I noticed that I was no longer being amazed, even though the picture was still in very life-like 3D.  If the 3D trend fizzles out, this would probably be the reason, coupled with the higher cost.  (I can't believe I actually paid $9 for each ticket.  $54 for my family just to see a movie, not counting any refreshments, is rather steep!  But my wonderful family deserves a treat every once in a while, and I thank God for blessing me with the means to make it possible!)

I wanted to get a picture of us in the movie theater with our glasses on. Christina really enjoyed the movie, even though she did not think it was "cool" to have her picture taken in the theater with the glasses on!  I'm glad she still puts up with me! 

The 3D glasses sure have come a long way since I was a teenager!  For the one or two movies in 3D that I saw in the 80s we had white cardboard glasses with one red lens and the other blue, if I remember correctly.  Talk about a "not cool" fashion statement!

In the same building as the movie theater, there was a McDonald's play place, which was pretty neat.  No restaurant, just the play area!  After the movie, Timothy had to try it out some.

  That's Timothy up there in the tube and also flying an airplane.

This is a picture of the seating area next to the play place.  Lisa and Simon are looking up at Timothy.

And here is Timothy at the bottom of one of the tube slides.  He had a great time playing here and I think he may have enjoyed this more than seeing the movie!  (Wouldn't you know he would have more fun with something free than something that cost money?)


But enough of play time!  Let's get back to some more work around the homestead!

Where The Green Grass Grows

I am blessed to have a morning commute of about 8 miles along a curvy country road into the town where I work the job that pays me money.  Sometimes I am frustrated by a car or truck pulling out right in front of me along the way, or often times one of them whizzing up from behind me and keeping close to my bumper, too much in a hurry.  Many times, however, I have driven the entire way without seeing another vehicle at all until I got to town.

Several mornings recently I've been awestruck by the mysterious beauty of low hanging bands of fog in the hills which hide the middle parts of the mountains.  These fog bands are seemingly held down by an invisible hand in order to allow the tops of the mountains to peak above the murky mists. 

Driving home I have been treated to the shows of the Dogwood and Redbud trees in bloom along with a variety of flowers of yellows and blues along the hills near the road.  I enjoy looking across the fields of the several hill farms I pass and seeing a man tending to his cows or horses, and I drive carefully by several homes where I have needed to brake in the past to allow for chickens crossing the road.

This morning it was not fog that had my attention, but the crystal clarity of the morning sun, shining on the mountains in the near distance.  It was unreal how it brought out such vivid shades of greens from the trees of the distant hills.  I thought to myself that the varied subtlety of the green colors seemed too perfect, like the artist had over exaggerated what the true colors of the trees were.  I realized that God was speaking to me, as He often does during my commutes.  He doesn't usually give me a specific message, He just taps me on the shoulder, reminds me that He is here and that He loves me.  I felt led to immediately thank Him this morning for the beauty of His creation and for blessing me with my wonderful family and home and providing for all our needs through the blessings of the employment God has allowed me to have.

My day at work today was unusually busy, but it was a good day.  As I got into my car to head back to the homestead, the radio started playing with the turning of the ignition key.  The last station that was playing this morning was the local country music station, becasue I was listening to the news at 8:00am.  I try hard not to make a habit of listening to the music on this station due to the offensive messages that so many of today's country songs offer.  However, there are still some songs that come out on the country music stations that are good!  I enjoyed the song that began playing this afternoon because it touched me so close to how I've been feeling lately.  Here's the chorus, which is pretty much the whole song.  You can sing along if you want...

I'm gonna live where the green grass grows

Watchin' my corn pop up in rows

Every night be tucked in close to you (Lisa)

Raise our kids where the good Lord's blessed

Point our rocking chairs towards the west

Plant our dreams where the peaceful river flows

Where the green grass grows

I am very thankful to live in this part of God's creation where there are grass and trees and hills and streams;  a place in the country where we can grow food, raise animals, and where our children can run and play and be loud if they want to.  I'm thankful that God has allowed us to plant our dreams where the peaceful river flows!  And where the green grass grows...

Rosebud Says, "Hello, I'm Ready to Grow!"

Rosebud was 8 days old today, so she has passed that first week danger period!  The vet said that if she did not get enough colostrum her first 12 hours of life then she would likely die during the first week.  We were concerned since she could not get her mouth on Dandelion's teats those first couple of days,  but it appears that we did ok with the bottle!  She was full of bounce and energy today and was excited to get out into the pasture.

Timothy thinks it is really neat to have a "baby cow" around. 

 

These pictures were taken when Rosebud was 4 days old and still in the barn full time.  I think Timothy and Rosebud are adorable together!  That last picture shows that Dandelion was close by and keeping an eye on everything.  I'm glad she is being a good mama!

Since we were concerned about Rosebud nursing, I thought these pictures were really nice.

To celebrate Rosebud passing the one week test, we decided to introduce her to the rest of the current herd of animals sharing the pasture.  Violet and her calves seemed curious about the new calf.

Those calves sure have grown since we got them in September!

Here are some pictures from the pasture this afternoon:

Here are a few pictures that I liked of Christina and Timothy outside the fence on our gravel road:

Simon helped with the chores of feeding and watering, but then he went to explore one of his favorite places: the dump.  Near the pasture (in a secret location) we have a treasure trove of discarded junk from previous owners over the past decades.  Simon was having such fun, after awhile Christina and Timothy joined him.

One of these days we plan on cleaning the junk out and selling most of it for scrap metal.  But for now it is just a place to explore and find all sorts of neat stuff!  (I wasn't going to take pictures of such an eyesore, but I decided that we may appreciate having this record some day.)

It was getting late.  Time to leave the pasture and ride off into the sunset.

We give God thanks for sunny days, loving family, green pastures, newborn calves, and even old junk!

Homestead Happenings

I thought I would share a bit of what has been going on since my last post a couple weeks ago.  This will be a hodgepodge overview of a post.  On one hand it feels like nothing much has been happening around here, but after I think about it I can come up with quite a few small things.  A few small things tend to add up to a rather large post!

Spring and Winter have been battling it out as we've had some freezing nights and snow as well as some sunny days in the 60s. 

Based on these Daffodils, I think that Spring is going to win!

Christina has been enjoying working with her rabbits. 

 Here is some of the angora wool she has gotten.

It is softer than kitty cats!

We were told that the tan rabbit and white one in the same cage were both girls, but it turns out that the dark one is a boy!  We were planning on saving any breeding activity for a later time, but since they have already been together we wonder if the female could be pregnant?  If she is it will take only about 21 days for kits to be born! 

Earlier today the rabbits were again enjoying some time in the sun!  Christina has been putting them in our garden spot that has a fence around it.  Pretty soon I will need to till it up, but for now it is a nice safe rabbit run!

This tan one has recently discovered his masculinity! 
Christina has named him Wilely.

Here is Snowflake, the female. 

Her twin brother is named Big Guy, but we did not get a picture of him today.

I think Wiley is the cutest, even though he is a boy!

Augusta was keeping her eyes on them through the fence! 

Speaking of our canine friends, the original owner of that little beagle dog came by and claimed her.  We miss her, but not as much as Gusta misses her.  They were such pals!  Little Dog wandered up back in December with no tags and we had been taking care of her ever since, but her owner acted like he thought we were wrong for keeping her!  He was not nice at all.  Some people are just naturally rude!

Lisa and Christina have started some tomato, egg plant, and jelly melon seeds over the past couple of weeks.  We already have plants coming up!

Matthew has also found a few more days to work on the house at Lawrence County.  There is much that needs to be done with that project and I am amazed at how proficient Matthew's carpentry skills are becoming.  So far he has done everything with only Simon, Christina and Timothy's help.

Timothy liked helping with the flooring removal.

Here is what it looked like soon after Matthew had removed the wall separating the kitchen from the "long room".  It really opened the area up!

Matthew is also going to re-do the ceiling.

Here is a piece of the ceiling removed showing the higher rafters. 

We're toying with the idea of taking out the whole plywood false ceiling and working with the rafters to make sort of a cathedral ceiling effect.  We would loose some attic space with that plan, but it would really look and feel nice!

On another day, Matthew made some advancement on raising the floor in the long room to match the kitchen floor.  He's using 2 x 4s covered with rough cut lumber.  He's going to put smooth ply-wood over the rough lumber sub-floor.

The fireplace could not be moved, but I think that I like the way Matt fixed it.

Since the floor is being raised, the outside doors also need to be raised. Tonight Matthew was working on raising the door going out to the carport.  You can also see the 2x4s for the subfloor.  Before too long, those windows next to the door are going to be replaced with a wall and a regular window.

Meanwhile, we were enjoying the beautiful day.  It was sunny and 65 degrees!

Lisa and Christina were working on cleaning out some of the flower beds around the yard.

The Hyacinaths are pretty.



We're not sure what type of flower these are, but we were happy to see them coming up in the flower bed!

I like the way Christina got the blue sky behind the daffodils in this picture.

The only other things I can think of to note is the other stock:  chickens, pigs, a horse, and cows. 

The chicken flock is doing good even though that little beagle dog probably killed one of my hens when she was playing with it.  Currently we have 16 hens and have been getting between 3 and 8 eggs a day.  When all the young hens start laying regularly we should get plenty of eggs every day! 

Our two hogs have really grown and we think they may have bred.  If so, we really don't know when exactly it happened, so we could be having piglets within the next month. 

Gracie is doing fine, but no one has ridden her in a while.  Maybe the children will get back to riding her some as the weather continues to improve.

The Jersey bull calves are getting bigger and bigger and Violet is doing well.  We still hope she will calve this summer.

And then there is our expectant 2 year old Jersey milk cow, Dandelion.  It's been two weeks now that she has had milk!  We used to think milk was a sure sign of an impending calving at any moment, but now we've read that they can have full milk for up to a month before they calve!  She has been put up in the barn for the past 2 weeks now.  Tonight her udder was so full that her teats were protruding at angles instead of hanging loosly down!  I really think it will be any time now.  Instead of a December calf, we should have a March calf!

Well, that's a glimpse into some of the happenings around Purewater Hollow Homestead as we finished up February and started into March.  We're looking forward to the Spring and Summer that's soon coming up and all the adventures they will bring!