March Moments

 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

Jeremiah 29:11-13

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The past couple of months, we've been trying to make a trip out to our land every weekend.  There have been a few missed, but for the most part that has been our "weekly ritual". : )  A lot has been accomplished!  The job at hand is getting those monsters of brush piles sorted and burnt.  Hopefully they will be completely gone by the time it gets too hot!

March 3-5, 2011...

 It takes quite a bit of work to keep the fire from spreading too far out.

Christina brought her kite along on this trip.  March winds, right?  Well....this year is not exactly living up to the stereotype.

 Tweaking it 'til it's just right....

The wind would begin to blow ever so slightly, so one of us would take off with it in hopes that once it got way up in the sky it would stay.

 O.K. ~ if you won't go up on your own, I'll make you! : )

It was going well until the "runway" ran out and she had to turn around.  About that time, a car was coming through the parking lot....right under the kite!  The kite had lost it's gusto and began to land ever so daintily, but to our dismay, it was hovering right over the car.  Boy! were we ever glad when the car got out of there and the kite got tangled in a tree! : )

 The sun shining through it made the colors so vibrant and pretty!

 Each took their turn, but to no avail. : (

 Allison and Keisha decided to stop wasting their time with the kite and engage themselves in a more productive activity like scoopball.  (Ray said it's LaCrosse, but the tag really did say scoopball. : )

 Meanwhile, Dad, Ray, and Sara had really gotten the fire built up.

 The water pump has been a huge blessing and necessity!  The brush and trees around the fire are constantly being doused to prevent a huge forest fire.  But, of course, the water pump couldn't do it's job without the creek.  What a blessing to have a creek running right through our property!

 Got any snacks????

 When we got back to the campground, Christina couldn't help but give the kite one more try.

It didn't work that time either. : (

March 10-12, 2011...

 Cooking while camping is just a tad different than conventional methods, but we're spoiled....campfire cooking is only for fun ~ not necessity. : )

Allison may not be able to get around very fast, but she keeps busy and keeps us entertained. : )

Lunchtime is always a nice reprieve ~ most always spent back at the bonfires.  By this time we have some famished menfolk!

This might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but the pile used to be in the foreground, and now all the big logs are out.  It's ready to burn!

The Lord gives us such intriguing opportunities to observe His creation!  These two lizards were standing each other off apparently fighting for dominance.  They would blow their throats up and go back and forth.

Finally the one attacked.

It was neat to watch them go round and round.

They were so engrossed with one another that they didn't even flinch when we got close to take pictures.

After about five minutes of their battle, this little guy stayed on as the victor while the other ran up a tree.  Doesn't he look rather cocky?!? : )

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While we were away, one of our mama cats had her kittens -- four to be exact.  Then, about three days later, our other mama cat had a litter of five!  We have been reveling in kitties! : )

Bubble's litter of four

If you think toddlers are hard to get good pictures of, try a photoshoot with newborn kittens!  They are constantly squirming!!!  Out of the literally hundreds of pictures taken, a few of them turned out alright.

They finally found a comfortable position they could stay in for two seconds. : )

Sara claimed this little one and named her Camo...before she knew "she" was a "her". : )

Aren't they SO sweet!

Here is Allison's favorite.  She named him Dimples.  Isn't that cute!  If you look closely at his paw, you can see that he has six toes.  He also has five toes on his back paws where a normal cat only has four.

So tiny!

We haven't been spoiling them.....PROMISE! ; )

Ray decided that since we had warmer weather, it was high time to get the grill cranked up.  The burners were turned to the highest they would go, and Ray was scrubbing away all the residue from previous cookouts.  He left for a few moments to let the grill burn off some grease, and that's when we got one of those pictures that explain why curiosity killed the cat!

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March 24-26, 2011...

Everything has been going well.  The Lord provided a wench at a tiny fraction of the cost, and that has sped progress up a good deal.  It's also much easier on the backs!!!

For the past several weeks, the fire danger has been pretty high so we have to take extra precautions to prevent the fire from getting out of control.  The water pump has been a HUGE help in keeping the surroundings drenched, but you never know how much you need something until it acts up or quits working altogether.  Well, the inevitable happened.  And of course the water pump had to start sputtering when the fire was at full strength.  Hearts were beating a little faster for a short while until they got the water pump working well enough to calm the fire down a little.  Then came the fun part...flushing the trash out of the pump.

 

 Looks like we had a geyser!

 Then it would act up again, and Ray would run to fix it....but he was running even faster when he got it cranked up again...but in the opposite direction! : )

 Some things are just ornery!  He finally found the problem...

 And things went back to semi-normal. : )