Ninety!

My grandpa, Leo Harder, turned 90 years old on the 21st of September. What a milestone! Here he is (far right), the day after, with his two remaining brothers, Lawrence and Walter.

I am one of those lucky people who grew up living close to (at least one set of) my grandparents. They have always been so involved in our lives and so extremely generous and loving to us. I realize as I get older and meet more people that this is something unique and obviously very special.

My aunts threw him a party on Sunday afternoon at my grandparents' home in Mountain Lake.

 Here Grandpa visits with his two sisters-in-law: Katherine and Stella.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and a great place to sit outside and eat.

Aunt Mary explains the cosmos to my dad, while Anna entertains Oma and Great Grandma.

Jonathan had great fun with (my) cousin Sophia.

I had come home from women's retreat in South Dakota just a half hour before the party, and was quite happy to see the kiddies (the feeling seemed to be mutual, especially from Anna; surprise, surprise!).

And then after the party, Uncle Charles gave us a bit of a concert on his organ! Wow. And he even let Jonathan and Anna test it out a bit beforehand (which J. had been begging to do for days ahead of time).

So all in all, a very nice way to round out the celebration of Grandpa's remarkable birthday.

Women's retreat

This past weekend our Central Plains conference held its annual women's retreat at our church camp in South Dakota. Ramont agreed to stay home with the kiddies, and so I spent the first night EVER away from Jonathan and Anna in a beautiful, relaxed, and very autumnal setting (no photos, alas).


My neighbor and friend, Charlotte Loewen (in photo above), and I were asked to be the speakers for the event. We did three sessions (one each alone and the final one together) on the general topic(s) of power, differentiation/fusion, anxiety, Old Colony Mennonite women, and II Corinthians 12:9-10.

About 60 women from Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska attended the two-day affair.

There were also some workshops, great eating, singing, and free time. For me it was a good time to be with friends from Mountain Lake, and be roommates with one from Freeman.

 We found the participants to be very engaging, and full of great comments and questions -- the kind of crowd that makes presenting fun!

Here is the group from Mountain Lake.

As I said, the food was delicious. Partly because it just was, and partly because we didn't have to cook it ourselves.

All in all, this first night away from the little ones (who did great home alone with daddy) was well-worth it. And then I was also glad to see all three of them upon coming home.

Late summer's day

We have had some glorious days recently, weatherwise, during which I took copious amounts of photos of our little emporer/ess.  So this post is going to be interesting to pretty much only grandparents - or anyone else interested in the humdrum of our daily life.

For starters, Anna looves to help wash up after breakfast. Mama really does not love this at all.

This yard shot has shown up at least 190 times on this blog already, but I almost never get tired of it. I especially don't get tired of glancing out the kitchen window and seeing both of them hard at play out there from early on.

Here Jonathan explains a complicated system of ramps, levers, and whatnot on his "tractor machine" (always said with an excited little jump).

Anna's been voluntarily doing some potty training these days.

And she loves to arrange flowers in vases and otherwise poke around in the ground.

So far we're almost to morning quiet time (around 9am). Jonathan puffs a few bars on the harmonica before being happily sequestered (with books, tractors, and a sippy cup) in his room for about 45 minutes.

After quiet time and faspa we often spend some time inside before going out again. Anna is often a tolerant (if bemused) listener of Jonathan's many stories.

Anna is one month shy of two years old; Jonathan is about 3.5. Looks rather like the American Gothic painting, come to think of it.

 More excitement.

Now we're in the late afternoon play outside session. Jonathan is a very precise and imaginative driveway specialist.

 Anna is a rock mover.

I try to sneak out to the gardens to harvest yummies. We've had a bumper tomato and pepper crop so far.

Then we go out to the pasture to watch Susie and Sally and play on the hay rack. Here Susie eats some hay from the movable feeder/milking parlor that Ramont made. We are getting 1.5-2 gallons of milk a day.

And that's the view from around here. Good-bye, say the the emperor/ess!

[already in their "proper" driving positions - hmmm.]

Lots of photos waiting to be posted, but until then...

Daddy leaves for work.

The first butter and buttermilk from our cow, Susie.

Grapes!

The grapes on our yard were ready to harvest this week - about five gallons worth of clusters.

Jonathan personally taste-tested each one before I cut it (no).

Pretty good, a little tart...

great for sucking into my mouth (especially while I'm holding onto my tractors)...

and oh-so-perfect for juice and jam. For lack of true know-how, my mom and I boiled them up with a bit of water, then mashed them with a potato masher and pressed them with a spoon through a sieve. The juice was boiled up with a bit of sugar and immediately poured into canning jars - which then self-sealed. We're thinking this will serve well as juice concentrate. Then we cranked the pulpy/seedy stuff through "that thing" and boiled it up with lots of sugar, added a bit of gelatin, and ended up with some really good jam.

And advice from more experienced grape growers?

Our herd doubled overnight

Suzie's heifer calf was born early Saturday morning -- on Ramont's birthday! He went out to feed Suzie as normal that morning and found the two of them doing just fine. The calf, Sally, is healthy, full of energy and spunk.

Needless to say, it's caused a bit of excitement around our place. The mama cow doesn't mind having Ramont around (or milking her), but when our kids show up, she gets quite agitated and starts pawing the ground like she's going to be mad. So, we try to stay on this side of the fence for now.

Ramont turned 37 on Saturday! We had my folks over for a meal of grilled steak and garden veggie kabobs and so on. As usual, the cake -- or rather, the candles -- were the biggest hit. Jonathan assumes that all birthday cakes and candles are for him, and so far we haven't tried to set the matter straight.

Happy birthday, Ramont (and Sally)!

Sunday School picnic

One of the things Ramont and I like best about being "back home" in Mountain Lake is that we belong to a church. Actually, we kind of belong to two: Bethel Mennonite for Sunday School and First Mennonite for the rest. And one of the things we like best about church (and being here generally) is that we have a built-in, (more or less) shared-values social group. Even better, there are a bunch of kids our kids' ages - and these are the ones they'll be growing up with, going to school with, (hopefully) getting baptized with, maybe even marrying (ha ha. Hopefully before seeing the world a bit first :)

Last Sunday we hosted our Sunday School group at our place for a potluck picnic. Not everyone could come, but we had a good time with those who did.

The kids had so much fun tearing around on their bikes, running around, and climbing this poor, dying apple tree (is that why it's dying??).

It seemed a little bit like the last hurrah before school started this week. Not that it makes a difference for us yet, but for their playmates it does. So, happy school year ahead!

Oh, and summer suppers are pretty awesome...here's a fairly typical one of late (plus smoothies). As I've said a thousand times before, what a life!

First canning attempt

The garden has been producing like crazy (even if some of the tomato and other plants look like they're suffering a looong, slow death). This week my mom and I spent one morning making and canning salsa. Embarrassing to admit, but this was my first solo(ish) attempt at canning anything. In fact, my mom didn't can her half -- just put the boiling contents in and turned the jars upside down. All of the lids sealed.

I, on the other hand, ran gallons of hot water into a big cooker, cranked the electric stove and boiled those jars for 15 minutes. All the lids sealed on mine as well (they sure better have!).

There must be some magical safety/chemical process that requires the boiling, otherwise why bother??

Thirty-plus jars of salsa - and one gallon of fridge pickles (that, along with freezing, is much more my/our style) - later.