Circumcision

Why did God have Moses command the children of Israel to circumcise the baby boys on day eight? Why not day two or day twenty-two? Sounds legalistic to me...

Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

Finished spreading manure...
Finished planting corn...
The spring push is over....
You don't know how good this feels...

Daily Grind

I have been grinding dirt into dust for the past month and I was at it again this evening. Hauling manure... I have roughly 20 acres of corn left to plant and I hope to have this finished by tomorrow evening. We have a vacation planned in northern PA starting this weekend. This vacation will include all of the Milo Zehr clan. I look forward to getting away from this grind. It will feel so good to go away knowing the work is finished.

13

As of 1:30 today I have been married 13 years. By the time I am 40 I will have been married 20 years. Amazing....

Home Again

We returned to our home this morning just before lunch. Spent a very lovely afternoon doing nothing except reading and visiting with my in laws. This evening Dad and I took the three older kids down to the creek to play. (Kyle was here for the weekend. He came with Dad and Carla and they are leaving sometime tomorrow for home. Mom is flying home on Wed.) They thoroughly enjoyed this. Which brought to my mind an interesting question. When I was growing up going swimming on Sunday was frowned upon. Is this an inappropriate Sunday activity? If so, why?

Convention

Wow, I have never been to a convention before and I am amazed at the number of stands or vendors present. A room the size of a football field packed with the vendors. Whether you homeschool your children or not I believe you would find it helpful. Used books, new books, music, instruments, curriculum, Rod & Staff, CLE, Saxon, Rosseta Stone, and lots of other things. Not to mention the workshops. I went to two workshops which were science related. The first was on how Science defends the Bible. The second was on Evolution and how the evolutionists are lying to the public. Covering up the facts about creation. Great stuff. Dr. John Wile was the speaker. He has a Phd. in Nuclear Chemistry. I found him very interesting, a great speaker. Not sure what today holds we shall see...

Home School Convention

We have been wanting to attend a home school convention and we discovered their is one in Winston Salem NC this weekend. We are leaving in the morning and will be coming home Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe how nicely the dates fell into place. May 28th is our 13th anniversary. THIRTEEN!!!! My I am getting old. My mother-in-law flew in today to take care of the kids so we will have a nice little vacation all to ourselves. It will be so relaxing...

Manure Pits & Lagoons

We have on our farm two waste management ponds/pits/lagoons. The lagoon holds rain water and waste water from the milking parlor. The pit holds manure from the barn. We try hard to scrape everyday. We seem to have a hard time keeping our lagoon from running over due to the amount of rain water which trickles its way. To keep this from happening we pump water from the lagoon into the pit when we haul manure. To cut fertilizer costs this spring I decided to cover all my crop land with manure. To do this we needed to empty the lagoon. (Some manure always gets in the lagoon from washing down the parlor. The lagoon acts like a big septic tank with the solids digesting on the bottom.) So today I gave the lagoon a good stirring and guess what I found...
Snapping Turtles. So far I have found three. I knew they were living in this lagoon several years ago but I hadn't seen them for awhile. I don't how they manage to stay away from the prop on the manure pump but they seem to manage....
They are nasty little suckers.

Motorcycles

Do you own a motorcycle? Would you allow your child to ride an ATV or a motorcycle? Why or why not? Are they really more dangerous?

White Chocolate

Our company informed us this weekend that white chocolate was invented so black babies could get dirty. I thought this was pretty funny. By the way our company was Gary and Darlene Schwartz from Fort Wayne IN. They have adopted three black babies.

Recital

Tonight at 7:00 Sierra has a recital. She has been taking a music class taught by a lady from church. The whole class will be singing. I think there is 4-5 in the class. We are looking forward to it.

Still At It

I am hoping we can finish chopping today. Time will tell...
If not we will be at it tomorrow. We also have company coming this weekend. People we new back in our SMBI days. Days I have almost forgotten...

Leprosy

What causes leprosy? Also, is it still a problem today? I think it is in Africa and some countries with pour nutrition. Also, why were lepers considered unclean in the Bible? I don't believe they have discovered a cure for leprosy or am I mistaken?

Slow Going

Yesterday we spent a lot of time running or making noise and didn't have much to show for it. At least that is how I felt. The vet was here in the morning so I was tied up helping him for a couple hours. The we didn't have enough people to keep all the equipment running. The barley has dried enough that we need to chop right behind the mower. The person chopping was also doing the mowing. This makes for very slow progress. Hopefully today will feel more successful.

Small Grain

Even the best plans get delayed. I was planning to chop my barley last week but I decided to wait till this week. Here's why. One, Sonny's left early Friday morning for IN to attend a graduation. Two, it rained last weekend. So this week is suppose to be nice and sunny, except at night when it will be nice and moony, so we should be able to get done.

Mothers

Where would you/we be today if you would not have had your mothers influence in your life? I realize our society is full of mothers who are not God fearing. I am very thankful for the mother God gave me. For those of you who know my mother, I am 90% of the reason her hair is gray/white. Time has a way of easing painful memories. In other words, Mama would tell you I was a good little boy. And I was, occasionally...
Mama, I love you...

A Question For Mothers

What is the most memorable mothers day you have had and why?

CAT Results

We got Sierra's test results back today. She is supposedly ready for 3.5 grade in reading. 2.1 in math and 3.3 in language. We were really pleased. Especially math. Math has been a struggle for her.

Mud Hole

Remember when I posted on Cousins? In that post I mentioned that some of the girls had found rich fulfillment in a mud hole. Here is the proof...

Buffalo Baptist

VOP is scheduled to sing at Buffalo Baptist church tonight. They are having revivals. I also just scheduled a program for our reunion tour in Lancaster PA at Pleasant Valley High School on July the 13th at 7:00 PM. I have one more to schedule. Maybe he will call me or email me some day...

Hobbies

What is your hobby? Sewing, reading, mowing grass, horticulture, scrap booking? The list goes on and on....

30 More

I successfully finished planting 30 more acres of corn today. I am glad these two fields are finished. They are the rockiest ones we farm. I discovered a wheel bearing has gone bad on the planter so I need to fix that before I plant the rest of my corn. I have another 80 acres to plant. Hope to mow hay tomorrow and chop barley next week.

Music

Here are two pages of Good Christians, Now Rejoice which we are hoping to record on our next album. These are pages 10-11 of 15. This is a beautiful song. Another amazing arrangement by Tim Rumsey. This is to be sung Jubilantly with a marked tempo of the quarter note at 96. So this song is just a scooting along. I hope you can see it if you enlarge it.

Yard Sale

Well, we had another yard sale today on Wisecarver Rd. It was a grand success based on several things. One, the %40-%80 chance of rain, depending on what site you checked, never materialized. Two, we sold three-fourths of our junk. The only disappointment was the amount of baked goods we brought home. The good thing about it was the fact that a lot of it was bread and dinner rolls which we will eat. Their was some pies and cookies which I will eat also. I am very weary and worn and happy all at the same time....

Life and Rain

I am amazed at how much my daily activities revolve around rain. What I do depends on the rain. For instance, I have thirty acres of corn to plant but because we were so dry I decided to wait. It started raining in earnest about 2:30 yesterday afternoon and was still raining when I finished milking at 5:30. A beautiful, slow drizzle which allowed many drops to soak into the ground instead of racing in a mad torrent for the streams and rivers. Because of the lack of rain I have been somewhat relaxed at work. I must admit I was beginning to feel somewhat agitated about the lack of water falling from the sky. We tend to live in a very dry spot. In the summer I spend a lot of time thinking things like If only it would rain one more inch it would finish this crop. How does rain effect your daily activities? Or do you have an office job and you don't really care whether it rains or not?

Another Farm Photo

This photograph was taken from the North side of the farm. Amazing how nice everything looks from a distance.

The Farm

My Brother-In-Law took a solo flight the other evening after work. While he was up he took some pictures. (You can read his rarely updated blog at Bool's Blog on my side bar. He may post lots of cool things now.) Anyway, this is how it looks from the air. That is our other house across the road.