Around the yard: June

One of the first things we did when we moved here was kill a fourth of the apple trees. Which is to say that one of the four beautiful apple trees died a somewhat slow, painful death under our watch.

This week we finally got our act together. Ramont (and Jonathan) pulled out the dead one and we planted a self-pollinating apricot tree in its place. We also planted another dwarf honeycrisp apple tree at the end of the row, thus almost doubling the orchard :)

The Juneberries are in full swing now, appropriately, since it is June. The other afternoon I came out to see Prairie Girl and her dictatorial brother picking them with gusto.

For those who don't know, Juneberries are tiny with lots of fibrous material, and a little pop of juice. They take a looong time to pick and, to be perfectly honest, the payback is not huge. But its a great activity for the kids.

And the chickens loooove them.

Here's a quick look at the industrial garden. Which is never as big or bountiful or beautiful as I wish it was. I get serious garden-envy when we travel past other farmyards. I'm definitely still in the learning years.

A new thing we're trying this year is growing tomatoes on/through cattle panels. So far it's working very well. This freed up the cages for the peppers (which are not doing as well, but look like they might come through). The raspberry bushes are LOADED, and yesterday I found the first pinkish one, so we'll soon be in berry paradise here.

And finally from around the yard, I'd like to show you what was quite possibly the best "invention" of the week: hooking up the bike wagon (which Anna always wants a ride in) to Jonathan's trike. Excuse me, his tractor (he is tireless in correcting us on this).

Motivational speech for the journey ahead.

Heave, tug, PULL!

And that's a bit of what it looks like around here. I forgot to add the photos of all the trees that blew down a few weeks ago, so I'll do that in a future post (spoiler alert: Ramont has a new chainsaw!).

Our first conference

 Ramont and I both grew up going to church conferences (almost) each summer - he to North Central Mennonite Conference and I to Northern District. Each summer we looked forward to this, the meeting of friends from Freeman, SD and Henderson, NE (for me), the swimming and horrendous sun burns, staying in peoples' homes (and thinking beforehand that maybe, just maybe this year's family would have a swimming pool in their backyard), etc.

So naturally we're both eager to begin that tradition with our family as well. This year was the first time we got to go to the Central Plains Conference (merger 14ish years ago of the formerly Northern District and Iowa-Nebraska conference for you fellow conference nerds).

We really talked it up at home, and so Jonathan and Anna were really eager to go as well. Here they are, fresh as the morning, on the first full day.

It was held at a college in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.We enjoyed being on a small campus in the middle of summer (it even smelled like Bethel!). Here Ramont checks out the displays from various church orgs and schools. This building also housed the delegate sessions, children's activities, and meals.

Here you see how the tables were set up for the delegate sessions.

Nothing controversial on the business agenda this year. We heard from the various committees, welcomed a new Spanish-speaking church from Iowa, were introduced to a new biblical discernment resource (it looks quite amazing) put together by conference members over the last year, discussed potential new mission partnerships and offered responses to the conference's new strategic plan. A photo summary of the whole weekend, set to music, can be found here. You can also find more photos here (again, if you're that rare breed of conference nerd).

We also really appreciated the main speaker, Jewel Gingerich Longenecker (of AMBS) and her presentations on congregations and their leaders who study the Bible and do it well. We were definitely inspired!

Most (if not all!) of the Iglesia El Balsamo showed up to be introduced to and welcomed by the conference.

 Our kids quite enjoyed the all-day children's activities (as did we, ha ha): lots of crafts, games, outdoor play, and who knows what else. Here is Anna with one of her creations.

It was announced that there were more children at this conference than ever before. That sure seems like an encouraging statistic!

Here Jonathan has a ball with his new friend, Fritz. His other favorite person was Gosh, whose (almost) name he yelped in the crowd one evening. A little bit of sleuthing on our part determined that his name was actually Josh.

Ramont and I made some new friends as well, especially folks our age(ish). Seems like a LOT of the pastors in this conference are quite young, which is kind of nice for us :)

We enjoyed abundant and tasty cafeteria food each day. And we ESPECIALLY enjoyed soft serve ice cream at every single meal.

Perhaps the one downside was not getting enough sleep during the night or at nap time. Here Anna struggles with the post-lunch sleepies. They just kept going and going, but it was clear that they were slipping further and further behind on restedness (and so slept quite nicely once home).

We spent many an hour enjoying the hot, sultry weather outside on the campus' beautiful grounds.

One of our favorite events was a variety show the last evening, put on by a variety of folks from the host churches. It was held (as were the worship services) in the chapel of this building.

Part good music and part funny, it was well worth staying up for.

And then back to our host family for night.

You might be able to sense that we're kind of hooked on conference, and will probably want to go once or twice more in the future.

Pow Wow, year 2

Our town's annual summer fair is called (rather inappropriately) Pow Wow. Last year was the first time Ramont and the kids experienced it in all its glory. So this year there were certain expectations: the grand parade (tractors! fire trucks! marching bands! princesses! candies!) and even more so, the "fair wheel" as Anna called the ferris wheel.

So the morning of the big day, they (quite without prompting) lined up all their vehicles and shined them up for a parade.

Very sadly, it stormed the night of the parade and it was canceled. So we went the next day instead.

Here we are searching (in vain) for the fair wheel.

None here, but we got some ride tickets,

 and went on the carousal instead.

We're very lucky in that our kids seem to hold their expectations quite lightly. No parade or ferris wheel at Pow Wow this year? No problem. It's just as fun to go in 19 circles on a plastic horse. Luckily.

Early summer's eve

We have had some major rainfall and storms in the last few days (right over Pow Wow days, alas). But last weekend was absolutely beautiful, and we got to host our church's Fellowship Group for stages two and three of a progressive meal.

We mowed the lawn in our park the night before, and look what popped out at me!

The grapes, raspberries and industrial garden are coming along nicely. After the last rains, even the replanted rows look amazing (as do the weeds).

Jonathan does love his tree.

And we do love our park.

It's quite fun to set up the tables and such outside (Ramont is very patient indeed). Here we are drinking terere and waiting for people.

After delicious (I'm told), garden-fresh hors d'oeuvres at the Bucklin park, the crowd of 20+ folks came our way for Bengali curry with rice and yogurt and green salad.

Anna helped serve drinks, usually more cheerfully than it appears here.

Laura brought a dessert of rhubarb, and then we finished the evening visiting around a campfire.

We really enjoyed it, and as you can see here, Jonathan clearly did too - as he always does when surrounded by people :)

Baby Maria and the prophets come to visit

The day we've long been waiting for finally happened this month: my brother Willmar, Hannah, and their three boys and baby Maria finally came to visit! They recently moved back to Kansas from Bolivia, where our MCC stints overlapped by two years. Since it's been almost two years since we last saw them - and Maria never! - our kids and we were quite excited.

 Anna, in the many days before the big event, went around cupping her hands and saying "my hold baby 'ria" as though she were a newborn kitten rather than a nine-month old who weighs as much as herself.

Here her dreams were finally realized.

The visit came amid one of the busiest planting weeks of the year, so we ate a fair amount of meals beside fields. Here is one of the best spots.

Lots of tractor pictures...

...because that's how we roll.

And look what we found in one of the wheels!

Needless to say, this kind of life suits these two.

Maria tests the boundaries of Ramont's watchfulness.

The boys spent many an hour picking rocks.

Here we are enjoying the quintessential summer supper: crullers and watermelon.

Willmar and Ramont remember the good ole days in Bolivia.

What a good thing to have these cousins back in the States again! And now we wait for a visit from the twin babycakes in June...

[Random pic of Ramont milking Susie]

 

And these two final, out-of-order shots show how our kids entertain baby Maria: bring as many toys and other items to her as possible, sit back, and let her go at it alone [now where did they learn that?].