Chopped

No, not the Food Network show, our corn! It got chopped today. Well, one field did at least. We need something to feed the cattle we'll have around here this winter, you know.

 The boys have been asking for days, maybe weeks, when the corn would be chopped and turned out that today was the big day.

 A local crew did the work for us, Russ Chops (although Russ actually prefers to drive truck...) ran one chopper and five trucks to do the job.

 Choppers are mesmerizing....the machine simply eats the corn and spits out little pieces and it's FAST.

 Lots of teeth.

 Ben and the boys road along for a while,

 which gave me a chance to hang out and take pictures. :-)

 It was interesting to listen to the hum of the chopper, the rumbling of the trucks coming and going from the field and the staccato of the chopper honking at the trucks.

 It was a lovely evening, warm and breezy, sunny and the air was full of the scent of corn.

 The ride came to end, just before the crew finished the field.

 Back at the farm, the farmers took a break

 while the little farmers got busy playing in the silage. That's Noah way up at the top of the pile and Levi's that dark blob in the bottom.

 Mmmmmm....silage.

 It was a great evening. It was hard to come inside and put the boys to bed. It felt like a summer evening that we could/should have spent outside until dark. But instead we had to cut the fun short to try and get our boys to bed.

For the birds

There have been times this summer that I've thrown my hands up in the air deflated by my failure to keep the chickens out of my garden. But then I see them eating grasshoppers and weeds and leaving droppings of fertilizer behind in the dirt and I feel like thanking them. 

Our cucumber plants have produced way, way more cucumbers then we could pickle or consume. I've given bags of them away. And this week I decided I would let the chickens have at 'em. The only trouble is I'm not OK with them pecking my tomatoes and cantelope so it's a bit tricky in our tight garden space. I finally just threw some cucumbers out on the driveway for them - they'd already pecked into them, might as well let them finish the job.

Thank goodness Lindsey & Austin's wedding is behind us. The chickens have demolished the little flower patch that was in the center of the reception! I cannot believe how they've pulled the flowers apart. People weren't kidding when they said chickens will destroy flowers and eat your garden produce. Live and learn.

I was feeling really concerned about the chickens and my pumpkins. The chickens can basically disappear in the pumpkin vines, but I don't like how they were starting to peck at the newly forming pumpkins.

However, an unfortunate thing happened last night. We found a pile of feathers in the grass in my parents' backyard. Then another pile of feathers at the bottom of a tree - with our two cats and dog staring up at the branches. My heart sank. I thought we'd lost two chickens in a 20 minute time span. At dark, I carefully counted the birds - over and over and over - and came up with twenty. We lost one....so why were there two piles of feathers? I finally decided it must have been a raccoon. Caught the bird in the grass, then climbed up the tree.

We've collected around fourteen eggs this week from the chickens, but with them being out and about all day we haven't been sure if we're finding all of them. So now to keep them safe - we've had 6 disappear thanks to other animals eating them - we're keeping them in the barn. I took them some more cucumbers this morning partly because I felt so bad for them being locked up. We'll see what happens...it's a wild, wild world out there.

First Day of School

Summer has officially ended and the new school year is here! The boys were both very excited for school to start and had no trouble waking up this morning bright and early at 6:15. Did you know Cheerios and Cornflakes taste way better at grandma and grandpa's house? They do. The boys regularly eat breakfast over at my parents' house. I followed along today because I was waiting for it to get light enough outside to take pictures!

 Finally, they finished their Cheerios and Cornflakes, grabbed their backpacks and out we went. I usually have Noah hold out fingers to show which grade he's in. The "K" for kindergarten had them stumped and here they're working on different ways to make a "K" with their fingers.

 Eventually we decided not to do the finger thing and I had them smile. These boys can be such goofballs sometimes.

 Levi was ready for kindergarten. We had visited his classroom about a week ago just to make sure he remembered where he was going. Lucky for us his teacher already had his name tag out on his desk and the room looked so inviting.

 It also helps that he is the youngest and has seen and heard a lot about school from Noah. I also take great comfort in the fact that my mom teaches in the classroom right next to the kindergarten room and my dad drives their school bus. How much better could it get?

Noah was really looking forward to second grade. His teacher was also my second grade teacher - and I loved having her as my teacher! I hope he does too.

 Levi reported that he had a good day. His favorite part was PE and they played Mud Tag. Nearly every question I asked he responded with the word "good". He's already looking forward to recess tomorrow. :-)

 Noah had a good first day. He gets to ride the bus home this year (an hour long ride) so that's different for him. He said school was good, that it was good to be with his friends again and that his class was quieter this year. Ha! Maybe they did some growing up over the summer. :-) He even read a book on the bus ride home! Who is this kid? I couldn't get him to read all summer!!

The school year brings early mornings and early bedtimes to our family. But it also brings structure and expectations and lots of good interactions with adults and kids for the boys. We're excited to see what this year brings and how we see our kids grow and change.

Last Friday of Summer

This past Friday was our last together before school starts and I wanted to do something fun and different. I had heard about an amazing waterfall near the Chase County Fishing Lake so we decided to go find it. Noah's buddy Klay was with us for the day, too - making it extra fun. Although, in reality, Noah and Levi fought nearly the entire car ride to and from the lake - poor Klay just sat there and shook his head. 

You park at the dam and then walk across it to find the waterfall. It was a beautiful day. It had rained about an inch the night before so we knew the waterfall would be great.

This creek (whatever it's supposed to be called) comes out of the lake. 

See, the lake part is behind Ben and the boys....you can't really tell but it is, promise.

And then it goes on for a little while. The water was moving at a pretty good clip, I wasn't worried about it taking one of the boys, but Levi did purposefully float down stream a little bit.

So back up to the grassy path....we followed it around and down until...

we came to a landing where we could see this:

The water was MOVING fast and I started to feel nervous about these little boys being in it. But they were hungry so we stopped to eat our simple picnic lunch.

After lunch we ventured into that water, found some rocks to stand on and could finally see what we'd been hearing:

I don't know why I thought boots were a good idea, but all three boys quickly had water-filled boots. Oh well.

We kept a hand on Levi and the bigger boys were careful to stay where they felt safe. I was nervous the whole time. That water was powerful.

It was great. Definitely not something we see in Kansas on a regular basis. It was quiet and felt like a tucked away little treasure. Plus, I didn't drop my phone or my camera or my lens cap in the water! We want to go back some time when the waterfall might be less powerful so we can get closer and do more playing in the water.