Please keep us in your prayers

We just got in from the barn, and got 2 very surprising phone calls. The first was from my Uncle Rick, saying that my Grandma Erdie (on my mom's side) had had a heart attack, and that she was being flown to the hospital in Aberdeen, SD. The second call was from my Aunt Sharel, saying that Grandma had already passed away. Needless to say, we are all in shock.

Here is a picture of my Grandma from the last time we were together, which was for my sister's birthday in March.

Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this hard time.

Andrew B.

Graduation Invitations

Hi all,

Yesterday we sent out the invitations to my graduation. We had been working on getting them printed, folded, and had the pictures printed, but we finally got everything together and got them sent out. Here is my "Official" graduation photo:

More later,

Andrew Bornemann

Saturday Again! (Posted Sunday!)

I started writing this post yesterday, but somehow got sidetracked... I don't have much time now, so I will have to keep it short. :-)

Well, I guess things get busy on the farm in the Springtime. I am sorry for not keeping up with my blog, but I have been rather busy. :-)

We finally got started cleaning grain this week. Last year, we started about the middle of March, so we are way behind due to the weather. The next couple of weeks are going to be extremely busy with cleaning grain, so I probably won't have much time to blog. :-) Here is a picture of the first day cleaning grain:

Yesterday, (Saturday) we decided to take my Senior pictures. We had some fun getting dressed up and taking pictures. I honestly can't remember the last time I wore a dress suit, so I felt a little awkward. :-) Here are a couple of the pictures we took:

Got to go,

Andrew B.

My Kid

For all of you who might be wondering, I decided to name my kid Violet. Here is another picture of her.

I am probably not going to be able to post now for a while, as I will be cleaning grain all week, provided the weather is good. :-) You can check out my Mom's blog and my sister's blog for information on what is going on around here.

Saturday Morning

Hi all!

Can it be Saturday already? Time sure does fly!

Let me see... Last time I posted was Tuesday! So much for posting a little every day. :-)

We did go to the auction sale on Wednesday, and came home with some treasures, and some junk. Why does it seam auction sales always do that? We bought a 1977 Dodge PowerWagon pickup (more about that later); a set of 6 business-band 2 way radios for the farm; and a drag auger for cleaning out grain bins; as well as some little stuff.

After the sale we loaded everything up in the pickup, then tried to start it... The battery was dead. We couldn't find anybody with jumper cables, so we ended up pulling it to get it started. It was ran fine then, so we took off for home. I was driving the pickup, and Dad was driving our van, which we had driven to the sale. After driving for about 10 miles we had to stop and turn onto a different road, so as I was slowing down I pushed the clutch in (It is a 4 speed manual), and the engine died! Not a problem, since the pickup was still rolling quite fast, I just let the clutch out again and the engine roared back to life. Whew! I stopped at the corner and told Dad what had happened, and he said to keep on driving home, just keep her running this time. ;-) After driving for another mile or so, I heard a ticking noise which kept getting worse, until it suddenly got very loud. I pushed in the clutch, and the engine immediately quit. Luckily, we were close to a farm, and I had enough momentum to coast into the yard. The farmer was nice enough to let us borrow a tow rope, so we pulled it the rest of the way home with the van. It turns out the motor is shot, so that is disappointing. :-( We didn't need another pickup with a bad motor, as we already have one! O well... Here is a picture of Dad and Me by the pickup:




Got to go, More later. :-)

Tuesday night

I just got in from doing chores, and am waiting for the shower to be available, so I thought I would take a little time and write a post.

Yesterday I took the 12th grade CAT test, so now when the results come back I will know if I can graduate. :-) I'm not at all worried, as I have always tested very high, many thanks to my good teacher! ;-)

Today was a "normal" day around here; get up and do chores, take care of all the animals, do school, check the cows a couple of times, do chores again... We are really noware near the "normal" Amarican lifestile!

Tomorrow some of us are going to an auction sale. If you have read my Moms blog you will probably know about Harris Kinzler, so I won't go into too much detail about him, but it is his farm equipment that is going to be sold. It will be sad to see that farm going to pieces too, as so many others have, and mostly because the parents have failed to keep their children on the farm!

Here is a picture of me with my Legos, and some of my Lego minifigs...

Got to go take my shower....

Home alone

Well, today Dad and Mom went to Bismarck and left us children at home. Mom went up for a BodyTalk meeting that a bunch of the local BodyTalkers were putting on, and Dad went up to help her get set up, as well as to look at some farm equipment.

We have been being lazy, as the old expression so wisely states "When the cat's away, the mice will play." ;-) If you can really call checking the cows every couple hours, while playing a couple of games, and watching a couple of movies in between lazy. :-)

Here is a picture of my one goat kid so far this year.

It is a doeling, and her mothers name is Hannah. I haven't come up with a good name for her yet, but am willing to consider any suggestions. Just leave your suggestion in the comments, and I will update later on the one I choose!

Thats all for now!

Life on the Farm

Here is a little review of what has been going on around here.

The weather has been quite cold for this time of year (it is 26 degrees out as I am writing this), and there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Whenever it does get above freezing, the ground turns to slop. :-(
We are just starting calving, and are having a tough time with the cold and muddy weather. So far, we have about 10 live calves and about 4 that have died. Not a very good percentage... Anyway, I got my first calf of the year last night, so now I have to keep an eye on him. :-) It was born to a heifer, so I am hoping she will take care of him like she should, as sometimes heifers are not very good mothers.
In addition to farming, our family also operates several other businesses. Dad has a grain hauling business, as well as a portable custom grain cleaning unit. Mom has recently gotten started in BodyTalk, and my sister Cora has a cake making business. My brother, Jacob, and I have been using the FSA youth loan program to help us get started in farming, and I must say, it has been quite successful! I will be running our grain cleaning unit this year for the first time, so that is a big step for me. More on that later...
I best get going,
Andrew B.

Another bug video.

Here is another video I made of my Lego bug. Enjoy!

Latest Lego Contraption

Hi!

We have been busy with calving the past few days, and are having a few problems due to the cold wet weather.

I do get time once in a while to do what I want to, and one of my favorite things is to build with my Legos. I know that sounds kind of childish, but most people don't realize that the Lego company makes very sophisticated complex sets that are aimed for the older audience. If you look up Lego Technic, or Lego Mindstorms, you will see that these can be a challenge to even a very experienced builder. The are also a great tool for teaching creativity, as well as patience. Anyway, here is my latest Lego project, a 6 leged pneumatic bug.



Got to go!

Hello all, and welcome to my Blog!

This is my very first blog post, so you will have to bear with me for a little while until I get better. :-)

I have created this blog so that I can share some of my ideas with others, so that my friends can keep up with what is going on on our farm, and so that I will get a little more practice writing. If you don't know what Graphophobia means, it simply means a fear of writing. I used to absolutely HATE writing, but I have come to see that it isn't soo bad. :-)

I intend to update this blog as often as I have time, although that may not be very often, as we are very busy people. Look for more updates in the layout shortly...

Got to go, Bye for now!