To market, to market

to buy a fat pig, to market, to market to buy a fat hog. If you recall, we started out when they were piglets weighing under 20 pounds. We brought them home in a rubbermaid container. Unfortunately, we lost two, but the other three grew well. Very well. Live weight on two of them was around 340 pounds each, the third weighed 290. Now, our freezer and freezers belonging to two friends are full of ham, ribs, bacon, sausage and pork chops. When we clean up the kitchen we sure do miss those hogs. The pork chops were well worth it though.

Friday is also game and movie night.

Friday night is pizza night.

Big Sister got her new brace

and some new shoes.

Caramel Apples

We made caramel apples with apples from our trees.

Baby found a new way to make noise.

Big Sister got this knotting quilt

for Christmas last year and has enjoyed working on it throughout the year. She is so proud to have finished it!

Good Bye, we miss you already!

More Cousin Pictures

Baby thought Uncle was aok. My sister and I trying not to freeze while we enjoyed our s'mores. The big boys making their hobo dinners and headed out to the tent for a camp out. The low that night was 18 degrees F. Middle Cousin enjoyed feeding the turkeys. We giggled, talked and ate, watched movies and stayed up late. We all enjoyed our visit, thank you so much for coming to our home!

Fun times with the cousins.

We played on the zip line and the rope swing. We brought wood into the house and stacked it. We watched the train and made icecream.

The cousins visit!

The children's maternal boy cousins visited from NC. It was a long awaited(since last year) and highly anticipated visit. All three cousins, Aunt and Uncle got to come this year! We enjoyed making and eating fondue. The bigger boys made hobo meals and cooked them over a campfire. When the coals were just right we made and ate s'mores. Biggest Cousin got to drive the lawn tractor and they brought in our first loads of wood for the season. And just like their visit last year we got the first snow flurries of the year.

More Autumn Scenes

Minneopa State Park

Still meandering home we stopped at a state park with beautiful waterfalls. We last visited it in the spring. Now, in the fall there was no water going over the falls and very little in the stream. In the picture with the ledge the children are walking where the water usually goes over the falls.

Rapidan County Park

After History Fest we stopped at a county park with a huge dam. We walked across the dam, skipped stones, and picked wild grapes.

History Fest

We went with our homeschool group to a nearby farm for History Fest. Several years ago this landowner went to a Renaissance Fair near the cities. He wondered if he could host something similar on his farm. He has for the last couple of years. We enjoyed displays and persons from several different historical time periods. There were Scotts in kilts, Vikings with tents, Medieval cooking and jousting, sheep shearing, wool carding and spinning and cowboys with horses and a buffalo. The girls enjoyed carding the wool, the boys enjoyed trying on armor and rope tricks. The bread from the mud oven was yummy! We enjoyed a picnic with our group as well.