Nearly two months!

Yes, my dear readers, I am still alive! Though you may have been wondering from my long absence here...
  The past two months have been busy ones, but I guess that is rather normal... :-) My time has been occupied with my daily chores, ie. milking Sally;

 Various shop projects, like this '07 Honda Rancher:

Playing a lot of Ping Pong on our new (used) table:

And we celebrated my brother, Jacob's and my birthdays!

 My Mother has also been expanding her alternative therapy business, so I have spent a good bit of time helping her rearrange her office space to make room for the new BETAR table...

So now hopefully you'll forgive my lack of posting here, as it might be quite some time before I do so again... :-) I do keep up with my Facebook page a little better than here, so you're welcome to check out my page over there if you want...
  Bye for now,
   Andrew B.

Name-a-calf!

I need some help finding a name for my cute little bull calf! Please leave me a comment with your suggestions, and we'll see if I like them... BTW, the calfs mother is my milk cow, Sally... Thanks!

The once a month blogger...

Wow, I guess that would be me! Sorry for not taking time to update this...

  The past month has been a very busy one for me, and a very productive one too!  Quite a bit of my time was taken up working for a neighbor, helping with the corn harvest. Last year I helped out too, driving the grain cart. This year I got upgraded to driving the (brand new) combine! Here is a picture I took of the combine early one morning:

I will be helping out with the Sunflower harvest at the same place here in the next week or two, depending on if they are dry enough to harvest yet...

 We also hosted another Appleseed shoot here at our farm on October 6th and 7th! We had a record 16 shooters on the line here on Saturday, with three participants scoring at the highest level, Riflemen! It was a great weekend of fun, with Volleyball, Pool, Foosball, and music in the evenings after the shoot ended... Had alot of fun with some good friends, and met some new ones too! Here are a couple of pictures of our weekend:

Cora posted a bunch more over on her blog, and I posted a lot on the FB event page I created: http://www.facebook.com/events/411081702273364/


 I have also been busy with shop projects, whenever I get a little "Spare time"... :-)  Pictures of a couple of my projects: 

This quad needed new valves and cam chains, due to a stretched out chain slipping over and wrecking everything...

My pickup needed something done to the transmission, as it was slipping badly... I found a used transmission locally for an excellent price, so I picked that up and put it in... Now it is working great!

I also picked up a couple more quads in the last couple of days, all in various states of usability... :-)

 This one basically just needed a wire fixed, and a fuse replaced... Although it still is missing the front bumper and rack... 

Both of these have transmission problems, although they can be driven, just not in third or forth gear!

 So you can see I have been busy! Now it's time to go for lunch, and I wouldn't want to miss that! ;-)
   Andrew B.

A long overdue update, part 2

 Last weekend found me over in Braddock helping out with the annual Threshing Bee once again. I really enjoy all of the old equipment, although I am glad I don't have to use it every day! :-)

 

 This year I got to drive the old Rumley Oil Pull through the parade! That was a new experience... :-)



  Starting the old "B" John Deere before the parade:

  ... and then driving it through the parade...

 One of the annual highlights for the youngsters, the miniature steam railway!

I was also helping out with the Corn husker demonstration once again:

  Some of the many antique tractors on display:

 

That brings you pretty much up to date with all of our recent "Activities", the rest of our time has been spent in the usual fall work... Moving bales home, planting some cover crops, working in the shop, etc... It sure seems like we never get bored around here!

  Andrew B.

A long-overdue update!

Hello readers!
  No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. (Although I have done some falling onto the face of it...)  I am afraid I have been neglecting my blog a lot lately, partially because I recently got back on Facebook, but also just because I have been awefully busy.

 Ok, so to bring you all up to date, I will try to cover the main events of the past month.  First off would be our Appleseed shoot:

It was a great time, we had about ten shooters on the line, two of which shot Rifleman scores, which is the highest classification on our targets!   The rest also showed a lot of improvement as well! I passed my test to move up a level in my Instructor training, now I just need to learn all of the history so I can teach that too... :-)  
  We are planning on hosting another Appleseed here at our farm on October 6-7, so if anybody is interested, you can check out the Appleseed website, or go to the event page directly. I also set up a Facebook event page you can check out if you would like...

  Random picture from a foggy morning... You can also see our new volleyball net!

 
 A stormy evening:

We celebrated my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary!

 Cora and I were both a little bit bored while waiting for the guests to arrive, so I took pictures while she sat and listened to the conversation:

Labor Day weekend we went to a family camp at the Crystol Springs camp! This was a private camp hosted by some friends of ours, and attended by lots of friends! We had a great time playing games;

 And getting wet!

I really have to go now, but will try to finish this update soon~
  Andrew B.

Appleseed coming up!

Good news! Our Appleseeds are now listed on the Appleseed website! Here is the link to the Event Information Page: http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=31220.0
Please take the time to pre-register, as it helps our planning and preperation a lot... And it saves you a few dollars too! You can pre-register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4142731020

Busyness, and an upcoming Appleseed!

Dear readers,
 It may seem like I have forgotten all about you, but that is not the case.  Truth is I have been so busy with farming, and my mechanic work, that I have just not had time to post here.

 I have mostly been busy working on the farm, trying to make as much hay as possible, as with the drought this year, hay is rather scarce... We are now putting up our second cut of Alfalfa, which is also very short...   I have also been working on getting the combines ready for the field, as well as fixing the loader tractor when one of the wheels fell off... (!)

 We have also been spending a lot of time setting up a rifle range here at our farm, as we are planning on hosting a couple more Appleseed shoots this year, and needed a good place to do it... You can check out the Appleseed website for more information about the program: www.appleseedinfo.org  Check out the FB page I set up for our event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/213108062148105/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_user_joined
  I will also post links to the event pages on the Appleseed website where you can register, as soon as they get post up there...   You are all invited!
  
  Got to go,
    Andrew B.

A couple of videos from Prairie Days!

Sorry i haven't posted in so long... I have been busy with many things, mostly making hay and working in the shop...
  Here are a couple of videos I uploaded from this year's Prairie Days! Enjoy!

Prairie Days 2012 pictures!

~Warning: Long Picture Post!~

I had a very good time at Prairie Days once again, enjoyed getting together with old friends, and meeting new ones! I came home with somewhat over 400 pictures on my camera, so have plenty to share with you all! Lets see:

Of course I have to share a picture of the classic Tug-of-War.  PULL!

 Anybody want a ride?

 During the "Costume Party", everybody was encouraged to dress up as some charactor, either historical or fictional... Can you guess who Cora and her good friend Miranda are supposed to be?



Can you figure out who Charity is impersonating?

 "The Doctors Office" -- a very fun skit performed by some friends of ours:

Thanks Mom for snapping this one of me:

Jacob and I with our new friend, Micah:

 Cora, with her new friends Lauretta and Sarena:

 A good discussion around the campfire:

Vollyball, of course!

A new game, "Capture the Bacon"   (Thanks Lauretta and Sarena for teaching all of us!)

  Who is going to get it?

 Many more pictures to come... Check back again!
  Andrew B.

10th annual Prairie Days!

Hi! Yes, I am back from Sioux Falls... Sorry I haven't taken time to write, but have been quite busy with the farm, and assorted other projects...
 Just wanted to invite you all to join us next weekend at Prairie Days! Would love to see you all there. Be sure to check out the Prairie Days website, http://prairiedays.weebly.com/.     I have also just uploaded a video from the very first Prairie Days, so you can see how much we have all changed in the past ten years! Boy does time fly...

 Best get to bed,
    Andrew B.

Manageing the office...

Twelve people making calls in the office, plus at least three calling online! Plus Jared and I, who are just trying to keep things running smoothly... We are making headway, got a lot of radio adds put up today, and got our tv add aired once this afternoon during the 5:00 news, and it will be aired once more in the morning.  We really do need additional funds, as we are running over budget already... Please donate if you can!
   Andrew B.

Last plea for funds

We really need funds right at the moment, in order to be able to buy as many radio ads and tv ads as we can.  Please, if you possably can, go to our website www.southdakotaforliberty.com and send us a donation...   We litterally need several thousand dollars in the next hour or so, or we won't be able to buy the tv ads we need.
   Thanks!
    Andrew B

Hard at work

I have been keeping quite busy down here in Sioux Falls, yesterday we spent most of the day out canvasing, (which just means going door to door) and most of today was spent in the office making phone calls. Between Tracy and myself, we made over 500 phone calls! Thankfully, tomorrow will be bringing in some more reinforcements, as both Jared and Trevor will be arriving in Sioux Falls to help out... We've got a lot more phone calls to make on the next week!
  Please keep us all in your prayers, that we might have an incredible impact on the election turnout!
 Andrew B.

In Sioux Falls

I had a very uneventful trip down to Sioux Falls, only stopped once for gas... I am getting settled in here with some fellow Ron Paul supporters, who have graciously opened their home and allowed me to stay with them for the next week or so.  I took a little time to drive around town and figure out my way around, at least a little bit. :-)
  Be sure to check out the South Dakota for Liberty website, and Facebook page to keep up with what is going on down here!

 
Andrew B.

Going to SD

Just a quick post to let you all know I will be gone for about a week... I will be in SD helping out with some campaign work leading up to the primary elections.  if you would like to help out too, you can check out the South Dakota for Liberty website,  and consider giving a donation to the cause!
    Andrew B

More videos from the NDHSA Convention

I finally got around to posting a couple more videos from this years Homeschool Convention over on YouTube, so thought I would let you all know about those. You can see them all over at my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ManofCourage18

I also uploaded a video of my Mom and Sister playing one of my favorite songs as a piano duet:



Enjoy!

Andrew B.

Done seeding!

Hello all,
  Once again, I have not posted for many days, and my only excuse is I have been tremendously busy... ;-)  Hope that is good enough...

   We finished our seeding here last Friday! (not yesterday, 8 days ago...) So glad to be done with that, and now we can move on to other projects... The Lord has blessed us with beautiful weather this year, and even sent us a shower this morning. :-) 
 
 I have been keeping busy with shop work mostly, now that we are done seeding.   Going to have to go through the haying equipment and make sure that is all ready to go for the busy haying season...   We also have to check on the fences in our pasture, and move the cows up there soon...  So much to do -- we are sure never bored around here!

A couple of days ago I got a chance to go outside and take some nice pictures, so thought I'd share a couple of them with you.  :-)  Here is a sneak peak at my latest project:

Our apple tree blooming:

"The Lonely Dandelion"

A nice bleeding heart in the greenhouse:

Do you see it?

The Monarch:

Hope you enjoy my pictures!
   Andrew B.