FAIR

 Well, after a day of practicing, she competed at fair. She competed in two divisions horseless-horse and horse. For horseless horse she had to read a two hundred page manual, take a test, make a poster, and complete a forty page booklet. At fair she took Reserved Grand Champion and received a twenty dollar cash prize. For horse, she had to read the manual, take a test, and show at fair in two competing categories, trail and showmanship. She was disqualified from showmanship because she forgot the pattern. She placed second in trail. I was telling her 4H leader how proud I was of her for taking second her first time at fair. She said, only three kids competed. Oops... well still proud of her for working hard and doing it. She was nervous and it wasn't easy. She has one thing left and we are done with 4H for a minute, she has to make her Horse book for State. She revised he Horseless horse book and poster and sent it to state already. I am really happy she has found something that she loves. I am happy that she is dedicated. I don't have to pester her much to get her to do it. She has written essays and shown a horse in front of a crowd all on her own accord. I love her. She is such a great kid and she is mine.

I have to give a shout out to her 4H leader who has encouraged and helped and spent countless hours with her. She is so talented and loves horses. She is bent on getting Sierra her own horse. She almost had me convinced the other day. She sees she is passionate about horses and she wants to help her and I love her for it. I tell Sierra she should thank Heavenly Father for Sister Le Baron ever night because without her horses would have never been apart of her life. Nate or I know nothing about horses and have no desire to own horses but Sierra may convince us yet.

SUMMER 2016 = 4H

 Sierra signed up for 4H in January. I thought it was the coolest thing. She got to go once a week to this sweet older woman's home and learn about horse. She has been able to watch her break a colt and assist. She has learned to bath and care for a horse. She has learned how to approach a horse. She hasn't bee allowed to ride though. She can't until she has had ridding lessons and that won't happen until she is in 4H a year. She has been really dedicated and it has been so fun for her. 

This sweet older woman, her instructor, has been asking me at least monthly has she been reading her horse book. I would confess she has only glanced at it. She would reiterate that she needed to be reading it. It was a two hundred page manual of technical jargon on horses. Sierra hates to read, so I thought we are just having fun, does she really need to read that manual? Apparently, yes. 4H kids have an exam on the manual. When her instructor told me she is scheduled to take her exam in a week, I panicked. We were just having fun. Really? We spent the entire week cramming and reading. It was painful for both of us. Then she took her exam. I don't know how she did. She said that she failed it. 

The minute she was done with that her instructor said, "Did she do her workbook? It is due at fair in a few weeks." Workbook? It was a forty page workbook with several questions about horses on every page. I didn't know they were serious about that either. We worked really hard on that for a week and got it done. Then there was her poster for fair. I was ready to quit 4H but she stuck with it. I was proud of her.  

MY ROOM IS NOW THE FAMILY ROOM

 We have a pretty tiny house. It is big enough to fit all our needs. We love it but we don't have a family room, so we use our bedroom. Nate has put a air conditioning window unit in the window. It is always at 52 degrees. He bought black out curtains and installed a large television on the wall, complete with speakers. It really is like a mini theater. Last week when I had to watch my friends five kids, I turned on Frozen in the bedroom and shut the door. It wasn't my finest babysitting hour but I kept nine kids entertained while I got my house clean and for that day it was a win. 

DEATH, HOPE, and TURKEYS

 We loved our little ducks so much. They tripled in size within a few weeks. I suggested the kids take them out of there cage, in the dark garage, and let them swim on the pond. I knew it would make them so happy. They swam all day long and they loved it. When the night came, Sierra went out to the pond and called them back to her. There are several predators that live near our home and we all knew they would not be safe on the pond at night. The ducklings wouldn't listen. She begged them but they wouldn't listen. She chased them from one end of the pond and then the other. They were too fast. She couldn't catch them. Finally, I suggested that if we couldn't catch them maybe a fox couldn't either. We went to bed and woke up to one duckling. Sierra was desperate. She got out a floaty and went out on the pond and tried to catch it. She wanted to swim after it, but there is a ton of gunk and crawdads in the pond and she couldn't. She chased that duck all day and when the night came the duckies fate was secure. She cried and said I am its mommy and it won't listen. I have raised it and cared for it and it won't listen to me. Why??? She cried some more. It was going to die. The next morning we woke up to no ducklings on the pond. 

There was a chicken that was also very loved. It was different than the rest of our chickens. It was white. We only have one other chicken and it has turned rouge and is living in the bushes out on the property. Because this little chicken was different than the other chickens, they pecked her near to death. You could see her skull. Chickens are like that. They see flaws in other chickens and they don't like it. Although, this chicken was lean and beautiful and perfectly white, to them it was different and so they started pecking. When Sierra found the chicken, it was living on scraps out in the yard, dying slowly. She cried and wrapped it in a blanket. She made a bandage for its head. She put ointment on its head and wrapped it. She carried it around like a baby. She watched television with it and held it. She even made a special bed for it in the corner of the living room. (It wandered off the bed and pooped on my living room floor. I kicked them both out.) She went out in the yard and cried some more. At one point she felt like it would be better if her daddy put the poor thing out of its misery but she couldn't go through with it. She said, "Do you think it will live?" I said, I didn't know. She made it a special home and every night when the other chickens went into the hen house, she would gather this white hen up and carry it to its special home. Slowly the hen's head began to heal. Slowly the hen got strong. You would never know looking at the hen today that it ever suffered such trauma, all because of the love of a little girl. I and Sierra were noticing the other day that our little white hen is the leanest and fastest hen in the yard. I think because of her prayers and love that Heavenly Father gave the little white hen the gift of speed. It has become super fast. You should see it zigzag in and out of the other chickens. We always giggle. 

We now have turkey's we bought them from a friend. The Bishops have bragged to us several times about the turkeys they raised and smoked for Thanksgiving dinner. I thought it would be fun to do the same thing. I have called the turkey's Thanksgiving and Christmas since we brought them home. I don't think they are ever going to make it to the table. The girls have fallen in love with those stupid, ugly turkeys too and they both say I will have to go through them first.

I love the beautiful life lessons my children are learning from living on a farm. I love this beautiful simple life we live.

4th of JULY

We took a week long trip to my parents for the 4th of July. I really didn't want to make the trip. I have really come to dread traveling ever since I settled in this little cottage home. I love my home. However, Nate had to get the HVAC done on our home. It hasn't been done since we moved in. I think we have been fine without it but I guess a home is hardly complete with heating and air conditioning. Chris and Nate worked on it for the week while I played with my family. My parents home has been under construction for a while now. They have been remodeling their kitchen. I thought that I would just take my kids to Lagoon or the local pool all week and just play. Madison got sick with a fever all week until the last day, so we didn't get to go anywhere. Here we are on the last day playing the water and celebrating our country's birthday. I love my country. God bless America!

FATHER'S DAY, SUNDAY!

Today is father's day. I decided instead of focusing on each other on this holiday we needed to focus a bit more on our parents.

We put a package together for Grandpa McKnight. Grandpa Craven got his present when we visited last. We made Dad a dinner fit for a king and a breakfast fit for a king.

He was very happy.

DADDY TIME

They love him.
Especially that little one in the crook of his arm. He is infatuated. He can't get enough of his daddy. He runs to him when he gets home.
They love to pile on the bed around him and wait till he grabs them and tickles them.
A few minutes after he gets home giggle explode from the bedroom.
I am usually cooking but this time I had to grab my camera.

DUCKIES

  Yesterday, Sierra was busy with 4H. We had to take her in and take a test on horses. She read her book for two days straight. She felt like that was a vigilant enough effort. Regardless of my coxing to put more effort into it, she wasn't going to study for one more second. We drove all the way to the fairgrounds. She took the test for five minutes. It was only ten questions long. She thinks she missed half the questions. Sigh. Then we ran home ate with the missionaries and then ran out the door to 4H again. I got pulled over a mile past the stop sign at the end of the road. I got a ticket for $83.00 for failing to come to a complete stop. The cop wasn't behind me. He was driving down the road I was turning onto. He said I didn't even touch my brakes, which was a lie, but he said him and his partner would testify other wise. I kid you not! On a country road. Who does that? Then he said, "Your registration is up by fifteen days, and I could impound your vehicle, but since you have kids with you, I won't." (Nice guy.) I didn't know my registration was expired. Sierra cleaned out my car days earlier and took my proof of insurance out of the car. I have to pay the fine and appear before a judge with proof of insurance. He was unrelenting. I cursed living in a small town. I am still a little upset about it. I came home and sat on the lawn and watched this little girl play with her duckies. I thought, if they have of charged me $83.00 more dollars to live here, would I have paid it. I thought of course. Looking at $83.00 in that light made it not hurt so bad. I still think the cop was being a complete pain but that was his chose and my chose is not to let it completely ruin my day. Look at her beautiful smile.