An Update...

Hello all,

Well, once again it is time for an update... I know I should have posted an update some time ago, but I just kept putting it off...

We have been very busy around here, working on many different things, as well as just slowing down a little bit and having fun as a family.

Last Saturday, the 19th, our family went down to Eureka to be with my Dad's family for an early Christmas.

(Next day)

Mom went to Bismarck today, and isn't home yet so I have a couple of minutes to write. I probably won't get this done tonight anymore, so it will sit on my computer another day...

Our family has been enjoying ice skating on a frozen slough up in our pasture. Last Sunday, we decided to take one of the loader tractors up there and push some of the snow off of the ice, so we could have a larger place to skate and play hockey.

All was going well, although the ice was creaking quite a bit... We were having fun skating and pushing off the snow with some shovels, when suddenly something went CRACK! We all looked towards the tractor, and sure enough, this is what we saw:

Thankfully, the water is only about two feet deep in this particular slough, so it wasn't really a big problem. We tried pulling the tractor out with my pickup, but didn't have enough chain to get the pickup on solid ground. We ended up driving the other tractor up there a little later on, and with the aid of a couple more chains, it came right out. Whew! :-)

Mom just got home, so I need to go...

More later,

Andrew B.

Rescheduled...

I am still here! Our little expedition to the hay field got rescheduled due to the below normal temperatures, and the rather heavy falling of snow. Right now, it is -2.7° outside, and still snowing. There for a while we couldn't see half a mile, it was snowing so hard! Thankfully there is very little wind, or it could turn into a regular blizzard!

 Keep posted,

 Andrew B.

Weather

Good Morning!

 I am still in the house waiting for everyone to get up, so I thought I would write a quick post about the weather.  Currently, it is -8° outside, with a light dusting of snow falling from the sky... The weather man says it is supposed to make it all the way up to 1° today! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........  Tomorrow it is only supposed to get up to -3°! That kind of weather sure doesn't make one want to go out to the barn and do chores! O well, I guess it isn't that bad...

 Today, Dad and I are planning on going over to the land we rent about 15 miles away, and bringing a couple loads of hay home for the cows. Maybe I will get a picture later...

 Got to go,

 Andrew B.

I'm "It"

 I'm Tagged! Well, I guess it is about time I got back to blogging... :-)

 Mom (A Ray of Hope) got tagged with this questionare, and now she tagged me, so here goes:



Six names you go by:
 (Six? Wow, I'll have to think...)

Andrew (I go by this most of the time)
Andrew B. (When we are with other Andrews, or I like to sign emails or blog posts...)
Werdna (When I am being silly ;-) )
Andy (Don't call me that!)
ARB (My initials, also as in ARB Productions)
Brother (No explanation)


Three things you are wearing right now:
 A white/cream sweater with Tweety Bird riding a motorcycle on it...
 A pair of blue jeans,
 My Leatherman Kick, I don't go anywhere without it!


Three things you want very badly right now:
  (This is an interesting question. I have read several other people's blogs where they have said things like Grace, Peace, Love, More people to come to Christ, etc. But, being as I am a Christian, and all Christians should want those things, it really doesn't reflect on that individual's personality. Soooooo, I am going to rephrase the question to: Three (Material) things you want very badly right now:

 A professional HD video camera
 A good video editing computer, ie. Really fast, and really BIG hard drive
 A farm of my own, some day... :-)


Three things you did last night/yesterday:

 Chores, twice. :-)
 Did Jacob's science lession with him.
 I took a shower, and went to bed...

Two things you ate today:
 Well, seeing as I haven't had breakfast yet, I will just list 2 things I ate yesterday:

 Fruit salad with pomegranate, pineapple, and grapes. Yumm!
 Fresh home-made unbaked granola. I prefer it baked, but the rest of the family doesn't...


Two people you last talked to on the phone:

 Well, that would be the person who keeps calling my cell phone looking for somebody else. :-)
 And probably Dad, although I don't remember exactly...

Two things you are going to do today/tomorrow:

 Chores, of course!
 I really need to fix the tire on my pickup, seeing as it is totally flat.


Your three favorite beverages

Water
Raw Goat's Milk
Hot spiced apple cider!
NOW I TAG EIGHT PEOPLE:

(Eight! I don't know if I know that many bloggers that haven't been tagged already...)

 Hannah K.

 Jonathan P.

 Jonathan B. -- I know Mom tagged you too, but consider it a Double Tag. :-)

 Sorry, can't think of any more... If you were not listed, and you want to do it, TAG! You're IT!


 Andrew B.

Done!

Last night Dad and I finally finished combining the sunflowers! Yipee! Here is a video that Cora took of us combining:



 Enjoy~

My Birthday!

Hi All! 

 Well, I am officially 19 years old! Time sure does fly, doesn't it?  This morning, seeing as around here people always get off of chores on their birthdays, I was delegated to go pick up the Azure order in Dawson while the rest of the family did chores...  So much for time off! :-) I drove my pickup, so it wasn't that bad. ;-)

 Here are a few pictures of my presents:

 Mom gave me a bunch of Rare Earth Magnets from K and J Magnetics, including a 1"x1"x1" cube. That thing has an increadable 95 lbs of pull strength!

 Jacob gave me a really cool BRIGHT YELLOW wireless mouse for my computer. THANKS JACOB!

 At lunch time, Cora gave me "The Andy Griffith Show: The Official 4th Season" on DVD, and "Monopoly: The Card Game".

Thanks Cora! (Still wondering what's in those other 2 packages... ;-)  )

 We played a couple games of Monopoly: The Card Game, and I won them both! Hmmm, must be my birthday...  Soo far, the day has been very happy!

 Andrew B.

Remodeling my room...

I have been waiting for a certain package to arrive via FedEx, and it finally came yesterday! Of course, I had to help dad with spreading manure untill lunch time, so I didn't have a chance to open it till then. (Our FedEx man usually arrives about 10:00 AM) Anyway, here is a picture of my computer room before it got 'Renovated' --

 And here is a picture of the new addition:

 I haven't ever had an LCD monitor before, so it is a big step up from my HUGE old CRT! Now I am writing in style. :-)

 More later,

 Andrew B.

Early Birthday gifts.

Hi all! I am back once again, thought it was about time I let everybody know what is going on around here. :-) 

 It is already the first of November, and my brother's and my birthdays are fast approaching! Where does time fly to?
 This year, for our birthdays, Dad decided he wanted to get us started hunting phesants. But, seeing as we didn't have any shotguns, or any experience, he took us up to Bismarck last Wed. and we all went to Scheels. We came home with 2 new shotguns, 2 cases of shells, and a case of clay targets! :-)  Dad, Jacob and I went out and practiced shooting both Friday afternoon, and yesterday, which was a lot of fun. And we actually hit most of them! :-)

 Last night, Cora decided to give Jacob an early birthday present too. What was it? The DVD "The Widow's Might"




This is an AWESOME video! It was produced by a group of homeschoolers, on a very minimal budget, and with very little previous experience. I can not say enough about the CHRISTIAN morals in the story, the PHENOMENAL amount of effort put into the production of this video, the AMAZING job that these kids did in their acting, and the VIDEOGRAPHY\3D EFFECTS were great! I can not say enough about this video! If it were made in Hollywood, I don't think the video could have been put together better, and I KNOW the morals wouldn't have been there!
 If you are looking for a good, Christian, family friendly video, THIS IS IT! I would even recommend it above the popular "Facing the Giants", or "Fireproof", or even "Come What May."
 There is a reason it took the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival's  Audience Choice award, AND the Best of Festival award, (With the $101,000 prize!)
 Overall, I would reccomend this video to ANYBODY!

 I guess you can probably tell that I enjoyed watching it last night, right? :-)

 Today, we are planning on moving our stock cows home from the summer pasture, so we will probably have pictures of that on our blogs soon...

 Have a good day!

A.N.D.R.E.W.

I once thought of calling my blog A.N.D.R.E.W.  which would have been short for "A North Dakota Review Each Week", but then I thought I would HAVE to write once a week, no more, no less. It turns out that's about all I write anyway! :-) Anybody have a better acronym?

 Well, This past week has been a full one. I totally rebuilt Mom's "Zapper" (A little electronic device for killing internal parisites, read the book "A Cure for All Cancers" by Dr. Hulda Clark.)
 I had built the original model about 8 years ago, at which time I didn't know how to solder, so I just used little jumper wires to connect everything... Then, every so often, one (or more) of the little wires would fall off, and I had to take time to put it back together... Seeing as that was getting old, and I now know how to solder, I decided I would just fix it once and for all! Here is the outcome:

 Needless to say, Mom was very happy as well!

 I spent most of the week working on machinery around here, trying to get the combines ready for the sunflower harvest. On Friday, Dad and I changed the oil in the van, then changed the oil in my pickup, and rotated the tires... (Ie. Front ones on the back, back ones on the front... It makes your tires last a little longer, and I would like to get as many miles as possable out of the old ones before they have to be replaced...)

 Saturday we all went down to Eureka, SD. to visit my Grandparents, and to pick the rest of the apples from my Grandpa's tree. Now we have more apples to process...

 I guess I should go up to the pasture and check the cows now, so I will have to go.

 Andrew B.

More Appleseed pictures: Sunday -- Persistance Pays Off

We started the Appleseed at 9:00 Sunday, to give us a little more time for chores, as well as to give the weather a chance to warm up a little bit.  Day 2 of an appleseed is more practice of what you have learned on day 1, although they do teach a couple new things as well.

 Here are some more photos for your enjoyment, although I am not completely sure all of these are from Sunday. :-)

Some of us boys standing on the "Backstop;"

"Make sure you get the sling as far up on your arm as possable;"

Kyle helping Mom with, um, something. :-)

One of the main goals of an Appleseed is to help people improve their shooting skills. Improve their skills to the point that they can score Rifleman on the AQT (The AQT is the Army Qualification Test, which is the type of target used most at an Appleseed.) Well, I was shooting very close to Rifleman scores, but just not quite... I still hadn't made "Rifleman" by the end of the Appleseed, but Jonathan was willing to stay a little longer, while I shot some more AQTs. (Thanks Jonathan!)

After two more tries, I finally made it. YIPEE!!!  The Bartletts had to leave shortly after, but they stayed long enough to take a picture of all of us boys (Maybe I should say 'Young Men'):

Then, Jonathan gave me my official Appleseed Rifleman Badge:

 

Here is a close up of the badge:

The Bartlett Boys had to leave for home right away, so here they are getting ready to go:

  Overall, I had a very good time at the Appleseed. I really enjoyed having so many friends here, and the chance to learn alot about shooting well. Maybe we will do it again next year!?!?

 Andrew B.

Review of our Appleseed

Hello again!

 Well, it's all over. Our Appleseed is done...  There has been a good deal of writing about it at my sister's blog, as well as Jonathan Bartlett's blog, so check them out. I will just give a quick review here. :-)

 Our gathering started on Friday, with Jonathan and Peter Bartlett arriving about 4:00. The Appleseed instructors (Alex and Kyle) arrived at about 5:30, and our friends, Ben and Amanda, got here about 9:00. We all had a fun evening doing chores, eating supper, and playing foosball and air hockey:

Saturday morning, after doing the chores, and after everyone was signed up, (There were 4 more people who came in the morning) we all headed out to the range. But, seeing as our range is out in our pasture, and the trail out there is quite muddy from all the rain recently, we had to use my pickup as a sort of taxi:

Anyway, we all got out there, and got the program going. Seeing as the weather was not the nicest, we all came in for lunch, and had our History lesson in the house. Then it was back to the range for a few more hours of instruction.

 Here are the "Orange hatters" showing the proper use of the hasty sling:

"Peter, show us the steady hold factors for the prone position."

Saturday's program ended at 4:30, at which time we all headed back to the farm for a time of fellowship, more games, music, chores, and supper... (Not necessarily in that order)

 To be continued...

Pictures of the Threshing Bee

Have you ever been to a Threshing Bee?

 The little town of Braddock, which is about 8 miles West of us, annualy turns from a sleepy little village into a big hub of activity. The reason? The South Central Threshing Assn.'s Annual Threshing Bee!

This is a picture of one of the wooden shingles that are made at the Bee, which they then sell.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the old tractors that can be seen there:

Here is the "BIG" one,

This tractor is owned by our neighbor, Allan. I got to drive it through the parade!

Here is a nicely restored threshing machine;

 

~  I started this post a couple of days ago, and never got a chance to finish it. I guess I will just post it now...

An Appleseed shoot.

Hi all,

 Well, it is finally offical, (and I am the last one to announce it...) :-) Our family is hosting an Appleseed shoot here at our farm, on October 3-4! If you are not familiar with the Appleseed program, please check out their website Here. I was at the one held by our friends, the Bartletts, and really enjoyed it!

 Some of the things that you will learn include:

• Some basic rules of gun safety
• Proper positions for holding the gun, standing, siting and prone
• The six steps to firing a shot
• How to properly use a sling to help keep your gun steady
• Lots more!

If you would like to join us for our "Shoot", or for more information on our shoot, check out This website

 Now we have just 15 days to get everything ready around here! Dad just baled up the flax straw bales that we will be using for the backstop yesterday, so now we just have to move them home and stack them up...  We are also trying to clean up around here a little bit, and are working on cleaning out the barns and lots, so we will have a lot of "Fertilizer" to spread...

 Got to go,

 Andrew B.

Busy, busy, busy...

Well, I haven't posted in 18 days! Wow

 I have been busy on the farm, like normal. :-) We have been working on puting up the second cutting of alfalfa, getting ready for the Appleseed shoot that we are hosting, and yesterday Jacob and I started cleaning out the barns. (hold nose...)  Maybe I should post seperate posts on each of these subjects so they don't get so long....

 Ok, more comming shortly,

 Andrew B.

Zoo pictures!

Hello!
 I have a little frustration to vent, so watch out for steam!

 Yesterday, I spent several hours figuring out how to transfer music/ringtones to my new cell phone from my computer. I finally found a free program (BitPim) that allows you to open and edit lots of information on most cell phones. In the process, I found I could upload all of the pictures I had taken with my phone to my computer, and use them as any other pictures. Cool!

 Now, after all that work, I proudly showed the rest of the family MY pictures. They happened to be of the Appleseed that Jacob and I attended up at the Bartletts, and of our trip to the zoo last weekend.

 Now comes the frusterating part. After all of that, Mom and Cora took the best of MY photos and posted them on THEIR blogs, before I have a chance too, because I am out working in the shop all day... HEY, IF YOU WANT SOME PICTURES, TAKE ALONG YOUR OWN CAMERA! At least let me post some of the good ones before you do! Now, I know your camera is broken (again) Cora, and you don't like your camera Mom, but if I took the pictures with MY camera, doesn't that give me some right of ownership?

 I guess that is enough steam for now, so I will continue with the pictures... :-)

 ZOO PICTURES

 A picture of (most of) our group:

Left to right: My Dad, my Sister Cora (Hiding behind Morgan), Morgan G (Green shirt), Miranda G,

Molly G (Other green shirt), Mrs. (Lisa) G, and my Mom

 The rest of the group, ie. the boys. :-)  The only problem with taking all of the pictures is that you don't get any of yourself. :-(  Right to left: (Yellow shirt) my brother, Jacob; (Red shirt) Moses G; (Red striped shirt) Josiah G.

Molly was taking pictures for their friends, who were hosting the free day at the zoo. Smile!

       Oops, another Geiger! This is Jubilee. I am still missing some...

 Here is Morgan, trying to see the ...

  Leopard!

This guy didn't mind being seen:

 More pictures...

Sorry this one is blurry, that little monkey was sooooooo cute!

It would be pretty safe to say that we all enjoyed our time a lot!

 Andrew B.

More pictures from the Appleseed

Hi everybody!

 Here are a couple more pictures from the Appleseed up at the Bartletts. I took them with my cell phone, and just figured out how to get them on my computer yesterday, so that's why they're so late. :-)

 Got to go, mom wants help making her bed...