Life In Our Quiver: March 2009

March 31, 2009

Black and Gus

Here's a funny one for all of our farmer friends :)

Thanks Chris & Sherri and family for sharing this one!

March 30, 2009

Lots Of New Babies

We started calving the beginning of March.

To date we have 19 little calves.

Even though the calving season makes life a lot busier (that's why the lack of blogging) it's a fun time of year. Little calves are so cute and entertaining.

We've had a lot of cold weather this month and so that brought a few problems and a lot more work. When it is so cold we need to check very regularly as the calves can get too cold within minutes of being born and freeze body parts.

We have chosen to calve later in the year than a lot of farmers around here in hopes of warmer weather :0 Oh well, maybe next year!

So here is a look at what we've been up to around here lately.

If you are squeemish about birth, you may want to skip these photos :)

Meet Big Foot. She is in labor

These could be the first signs of a cow in labor.

- She separates herself from the rest of the herd

-She has a 'water bubble' sticking out

-She looks uncomfortable

-She is doing some serious tail switching

And sometimes you just can't tell until things start coming out :)

Here is Big Foot with the front feet of her calf coming out.

This is usually the longest part of the labor as they can stay at this point for a little while.

The front feet are born first with the nose and head close behind.

In this picture you can't see it, but the nose is just starting to peek out.

The front end is out

Jennifer gives some assistance. Sometimes a calf can get stuck at the hips (we call it hip locked). So if we are around we will often give the cow some help at this point. (Unless she is a moody sort of cow, then we just let her be!)

The calf is out. Usually as it comes out, the birthing sac pulls off, but occasionally it stays around the head in which case it needs to come off right away. If we are there when the calf is born we will take the sac off the head and stick a small piece of straw up it's nostrils to make sure it can breathe. By nature the mother usuallly licks the sac off and it comes off the head but we have lost a couple of calves because the mother failed to do this. Usually by a heifer (first time mama).

Here is one of our fall calves coming to say hi!

Here the calf is partly licked off and looking more spry.

Within an hour it is usually up and we like to try to get it to suck as soon as we can.

Here is the calf about a week after it was born.

So there you have it. A glimpse into our life on the farm.

March 29, 2009

On A Mission

This is our van.

Our van is on a missions trip!

This is the second time our van has been on a missions trip without us.

Someday we would like to go on a missions trip with our van :)

Someday......

For now we are happy for the people that are on a missions trip with our van.

And we pray for them.....

Photo taken by our friends 'the Muncks'

March 27, 2009

Before

We knew it was too good to be true.

Spring came in,

we were teased with some nice warm weather.

But then came an infamous spring snow storm.

After

This is what happened over the last three days.

Now it looks like winter again.

But we know it will all go away.

It always does.

Here is what the forcast is saying.

Maybe, just maybe this will be REAL spring :)

March 23, 2009

Family Visit

My brother Jeremy and sister-in-law Laura and nephew Isaiah are Lord willing leaving in July to work with ELIC in Vietnam. They needed a family photo so they came over on Sunday and Megan did a photo shoot with them. After that we had a great visit. Brooke and Isaiah are almost the same age and they spent most of the evening as each other's shadows :) So here's a peek at the photo shoot. PS Megan named her photo hobby MEGOO Photography. Megoo is a nickname that Mark has used for her since she was little. I thought it was cute :)

March 20, 2009

Do They Grow?

The other day Nathan was so pleased when he picked eggs and found a tiny little one. He announced to me that he was going to have it for breakfast the next day. I was rather surprised when he didn't ask to eat it for breakfast the next day or the next.... Then a couple of days ago he was staring at the tiny egg that was sitting in the bowl with some larger ones. He looked at me with a rather concerned look and said, "My egg isn't growing yet!" Then I understood why he was waiting to eat it. He was looking forward to a bigger meal :)

March 18, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

March 17, 2009

They're Back!

Much to our family's joy, Joshua & Rebecca came home from their honeymoon today.

You could feel the excitement build when we told everyone that they had called and said they were less than 1/2 hour from home! Brooke stood in the entrance and kept saying, "Joshua, Rebecca, where are you?" And when they drove up Jesse gave a play by play of what they were wearing and what they were doing. Nathan stood there ready to take a picture. It is so nice to have brothers and sisters that love one another like this :)

We were able to visit a little with them and see some pictures of their tour to Israel.

It sounds like they had a very memorable time.

Some of the highlights we heard about were:

-Joshua getting baptized in the Jordan River

-Getting to know Phillips, Craig & Dean & their wives(you will hear their music in our home many a day. We love their heart for worship and for the Lord) and worshipping together with them

-Walking where Jesus walked

-Seeing and learning more about the places that they had read about in the Bible so many times

-and of course way too much to list here :)

We hope to hear much more about their time in the days to come.

So welcome home Joshua & Rebecca.

We love you!

March 16, 2009

Fellowship With Friends

When the Munck family came to visit us a little over a week ago our good friends, the Penner's,(Rebecca's parents) were kind enough (and brave enough :) to invite us all over for a meal. We had a good time together. As we were visiting we counted up the number of boys our 3 families had together and realized there are 16 (although Ryan and Joshua were not there). That's a lot of boys! Between our 3 families we have 28 children. Quite a crew! I find it a lot of fun to get together with other large families. It is fun to share together values, goals and ideas on this journey we are on together. So here's a big thank you to the Penner's for inviting us all and helping us make some great memories :)

March 11, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Like Mother

Like Daughter

March 10, 2009

New Babies on the Farm

This week our calving season officially started.

Here is our first newborn of the season

This will make life a little busier as we check, tag, dehorn and all the other fun things that come with calving season. But I look forward to this time every year, even though it is busy. There is nothing quite like watching a pen full of little calves being licked by momma, eating off momma and kicking up their little heels when they are clean and have a full belly. Another part of God's creation that is so enjoyable!

But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. Malachi 4:2

March 9, 2009

Special Friends

The Munck family and our family (except for Mikaya, she was in bed) the night before they left.

Every once in awhile you meet someone and within a couple of hours of visiting it seems like you have know them forever. That was our experience over the last few days. Through the blog and email we have gotten to know the Munck's. And last week we had the privelage of hosting them for a few days. I really don't even know where to begin. Up until now we had only communicated with the Muncks by email and had never even heard their voices. But as soon as we met we realized that God had brought our two families together and this would be a friendship that would last a lifetime. You would have never known we had 23 people in the house. The Munck family was such a pleasure to be around. They are all very well mannered and considerate and put us to shame in the manners department. Over the last few days we made memories that we will never forget. Sharing, laughing, playing, working.......all a joy to do together. So many similarities. 7 of our children are 4 months or less apart in age. Kerri and Rebekah even share the same birthday and are the same age. As we visited we realized how many of the same values and standards we have. And they are even short like us :) We thought from their pictures that they would be taller and were actually quite surprised that they weren't!!! So here's to the Munck's. Thank you so much for taking the initiative to go out on a limb and drive all this way to Canada and brave the sub artic temperatures to visit the Pauls' family. We are truly honored to have met you and hope that we can have many more visits together in the future. You have been a blessing to us.

March 8, 2009

Click on this Album to see larger view of Joshua & Rebecca's wedding photos

Joshua & Rebecca's Wedding Feb. 28/09

March 4, 2009

Pictures.....Finally

It is hard to believe the wedding is over.

Something that you plan and plan for months and in just a few short hours it is finished.

Thankfully the marriage and memories last a lifetime

Sometimes I think we should do like other cultures and celebrate for days instead of just hours.

Then again that might be really tiring!

Megan and her Aunty Karen (Mark's sister) took the photos and did an amazing job.

There were many, many, many pictures so it took a long time to go through them and pick out some of my favorites to post here. So sorry for the wait:)

Josh & Rebecca's wedding was very non-traditional in many ways.

But it was a reflection of them and their personalities.

As they planned, they came up with ideas that weren't necessarily the norm in todays North American weddings. But that didn't stop them from having it be a part of their celebration. And I am glad they didn't because what resulted was a beautiful picture of their hearts and who they are as a couple.

So I decided to give you a photo journey of the wedding and say a little bit along the way.

It will be very long, so please bear with me!

First the candlelighters came in:

Rita Penner (Rebecca's sister) lighting the candles

Kerri lighting the candles

Then the mom's (Esther & I) came in each carrying in a candle that represented the lives of our children, Joshua and Rebecca. It was from these candles that the unity candle would be lit.

Then the bridesmaids walked in.

It was at this time that Pastor Peter read the text from Revelation 19:7-9

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. "

He then told the congregation that Joshua and Rebecca desired that the rest of the processional would be a reflection and proclamation of the greater marriage when Christ would return for His bride, the Church.

Next Rebecca's dad walked her down the isle.

Teary-eyed sister Raechelle as maid of honor

Teary sister Jennifer as bridesmaid

I must say here that the bridesmaids were so sweet as their tears showed their deep love for their sister and brother :)

Then the congregation sang the song "The King is Coming" to which Joshua and the groomsmen walked in part way through the song.

Joshua admiring his soon to be bride

It was then time for Rebecca's dad to give Joshua the key which symbolized the key to Rebecca's heart. Rebecca had entrusted her heart to her parents until the day in which she would give her heart to her husband. Today was the day. Here is the exchange of the key: