11 Acre Wood Blog

Our Fortress

5:27 am on Thursday, July 30, 2009

July 15, our main walls were poured. They started about 5:30am and were done around 10am. We all enjoyed standing and watching the process.

The pumper truck was an essential piece of equipment.

Securing everything.

The operation.

Are you ready?

Down it comes.

The whole perspective.

Allen starts off.

Hazy morning.

The bracing for the windows.

A monster of a contraption.

Daddy and Mr. Sheldon discussing somethin’.

The backside.

Silhouette.

Sprayin’ off the excess concrete.

Smoothin’ the concrete in the door frames.

Bekah bringing out breakfast for Daddy.

A trampoline view. J

Right after this picture was taken, there was a clog in the line of the pumper truck. Usually the man shuts everything off until it gets fixed. So Travis was just holding lightly to the hose waiting when all of a sudden concrete started shooting out and spraying like a fire hose. Concrete was spewing on the pumper truck and all over the place when Travis finally managed to firmly grasp it and holler to the operator to turn it off. It all happened within a few seconds and I was so enthralled watching the happenings that I didn’t snap any pictures. I even had my camera in my hands! Oh well………….. LOL!

Checkin’ things over.

A little ball of energy.

Vibrating the concrete into every little space.

Daddy.

“Are you wearing my flip-flops?”

“Please no!”

Ethan: “Anyways, so this chicken was squawking……”

Concrete art.

Fillin’ up the last little bit.

Three man team.

Scrapin’ smooth.

Shadows….

That afternoon they came back and took all the bracing and such down and cleaned everything up. It looked really nice! We fed them supper before they pointed their headlights homeward.

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Market In Full Swing

7:42 am on Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Lord has really blessed our market experience thus far this season. For the most part we have had encouraging customers and our profit makes it worth the effort.

We’ve got some repeat customers now. Eggs have been our main staple so far. Some weeks we sold as much as 72 dozen eggs! A great blessing……

Here are some pictures from various weeks at the market:

Fresh as it gets.

View from our booth.

We’ve found that unusual or pretty varieties of produce are popular. People like something different. Almost everyone has yellow squash, green okra, slicing cucumbers, and red tomatoes, so we try to find things to offer that set us apart from the other vendors.

Mr. Frank, our booth neighbor. Noah buys his feed from him.

A shot one week of before……..

…..and after. And also, those egg cartons are empty. We sold out that week.

I love the burgundy sunflowers!

For the most part Noah and I have been going to market each week. A couple weeks ago, though, Grace and Eman came along as well.

The boys have done a great job pickin’ wild blackberries in our woods to sell.

Happy flowers!

Baked goods.

I think the purple bell peppers are so pretty! There was one pepper variety that had lost its label when we were growing it and we had no idea what it was. At the market Noah labeled it, “Mystery Pepper”. LOL! It drew in a lot of people who wanted to know what it was. Since we’re not big raw pepper eaters, Noah told one man that if he tasted it for us, he could have a basket for free. After that we could at least tell people what he said it tasted like. J

India Gerkin cucumber.

Burgundy and green okra mix.

If any little boys come to the market with us, this is their usual stance throughout the morning. J Everyone always commenting on how ‘cute’ he is…..

Most of the morning you can’t get across the street without fighting the crowd.

We’ve been getting contacts for our fall and spring batches of broilers.

Sistas.

A cute kid.

Eggs goin’ fast.

This past Saturday we had so much produce to set out that we didn’t have enough table space. So using two extra tables we brought, we set them up in a U shape. It worked great to display everything, but it was sort of hard to help more than one customer at a time.

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Getting Ready For the Second Pour

4:18 pm on Monday, July 27, 2009

The braces are all up.

Shadow outline of the backside of the house.

Top of the main floor walls.

My first time behind bars. J

The pit.

On Tuesday (7-14-09) Mr. Sheldon…….

….got his help back.

Over lunch we got to hear lots of stories from their mission trip. They went to build a church.

Puttin’ in the vertical rebar.

On the left is our teddy bear variety we grew.

Naptime.

Close up.

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Down In the Garden

6:32 am on Friday, July 24, 2009

These pictures of our garden, were taken about a month ago. Now we have tons of stuff comin’ in.

The little boys have planted their own plot. They’ve done really well taking care of it!

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Wedding Bells

12:31 pm on Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The beginning of this month our family had the privilege of attending a friend’s wedding. It was a beautiful testimony of the Lord’s goodness. Enjoy a few of the special moments I captured from the day:

The Ceremony

The Reception

A happy couple.

Pastor Paul

A beautiful bride-inside & out.

Watching…..

…..the cutting of the cake.

Our Wonderful Parents

Daddy and His Daughters

Bro & his sisters.

The whole gang.

Bubble Fun

All images copyright: Photos By Abbi

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Regular Routine Around the Farm

7:39 am on Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Friday the guys worked on putting in pipe and covering it with gravel. Mr. Sheldon’s family came over and joined us for lunch. We just did our normal activities around the house and they were so sweet to help pitch in. Momma and Mrs. Sara creamed corn, Loralee helped us girls with lunch preparation, etc….. Everyday is a gift from the Lord.

The following pictures should explain themselves:

After lunch Adeline and Cleveland had to head back home. We girls were sad to depart company, but were glad we got to spend some time with you, Addie!

Silkin’ corn.

Cuties.

The spittin’ image of his Father.

Big sister.

BUBBLES!

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Work Hard, Play Hard

2:03 pm on Monday, July 20, 2009

One night when Cleveland and Adeline were here, we had a game night with homemade milkshakes. Here are some pictures of the fun:

The game of choice.

Noah and Cleveland start the game off.

I believe the word was beak that they were acting out.

Little man peeking from his tent. J

I forget if they were acting out “bed” or “sleep” on this one. LOL! Either way it was creative.

Next up….the sister act.

Grace had my camera most of the evening and captured some funny shots.

“She did it, not me!” No, actually we were acting out “stove”.

“Hangin’ out with friends over a cup of joe….”

Our stage.

Deciding whether to be risky or not….

These were a hilarious pair-two third daughters. LOL!

Boy, were they good though….

We were rolling. J

A little visitor.

Next round we swapped around pairs.

Reviewin’ funny pictures on Addie’s camera.

I don’t know if this was the occasion, but one time Grace acted out “fantasy” and it was hilarious. To the guessers it looked more like rain falling, but at least she gave it a try. I wouldn’t have even known where to begin.

Addie and me. LOL!

Love their facial expressions.

To make things a little more interesting, someone came up with the idea to give the game a little twist. Instead of going up, picking what words you wanted to act out from the four cards you drew, we had the other team do it. Then you and your partner had ten seconds to look over the words chosen before the timer started. So much fun…especially when it’s around midnight. J So in the picture above the guys are picking out words for Bekah and Adeline.

Getting ready to start.

This one was funny because Noah and Eman were acting and their team was so into taking pictures that they forgot to guess. LOL!

Next we all gathered around and did a continuous story in a circle. Each person had one minute before it went to the next person. We had some interesting storylines that evening.

Cheese!

Remnants of a happy night.

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Back to White Walls

6:57 am on Monday, July 20, 2009

Putting up the waterproofing was a task that left no room for mistakes.

Once it stuck to the wall, it was stuck on for good.

They did a great job!

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Our Own Berries

5:42 pm on Sunday, July 19, 2009

After cheering them on, we girls left the guys to their painting and we went over to the orchard and picked a gallon of blueberries off our bushes.

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PINK, the Color Choice of the Day

5:23 am on Sunday, July 19, 2009

The early part of Thursday morning was cool and overcast. That made it pleasant to work outside.

The braces being put up.

More blocks are needed for the walls…..

……so they are lifted over the ditch.

Here’s the back. The window in the basement is gonna be a guest bedroom/Daddy’s office. It will have a pretty view lookin’ down to the pond. The window above on the main floor will look into the music room that is connected to the living room/kitchen area.