Medieval Feast

In school, we have been studying about the Middle Ages. At the end of each unit of 9-10 weeks, there is a Unit Celebration to show what you have learned and sum it all up.
With our fellow Middle Agers, we dressed up and went to the Great Coronado Hall (aka Coronado Heights) for a Medieval Feast.
Lots of fun was had by all with food (medieval, of course), music, a play, and an interesting "Relic" game.
Although my batteries were low, I was still able to get some photos!


Reciting "King Alfred's War Song"


Our relic table


Miles explained about King Arthur


Miles and L.J. sword fighting/chasing


Princess' Esther and Susanna


Lord Beckman


The chivalrous Miles the Knight with pretty Princess Susanna




The House of Beckman

Chicken Butchering Fall 2010

Two weeks ago, we had our fall butchering day. Eric's 8 week project was completed!
With our friends, the Kroekers, we took our 125 chickens to another friend's butchering cart.
It went very smoothly, no accidents or problems besides a few bile bursts-Yuck!
We had a chicken this week that Mom salt-brined and seasoned, and was it ever tasty!
Now, we can take a chicken break until Spring!!!!

Loading up!




The hard workers.







The gut bucket.


The weighters and baggers

Nebraska Trip-Part 1-The Wedding

Last weekend, our family spent the weekend in Nebraska. This was our "vacation", and we have been eagerly anticipating our exciting trip!
On Saturday, we went to Omaha for a Micah Nelson and Esther Ulmer's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, very God-glorifying and special.
Caroline and I helped in the kitchen during the reception, and had a great time cutting up bananas for Banana Splits!
After the reception, a bunch of families went to the Stangl's house to fellowship.
What a blast! Lots of fun, food, laughter, games, football, Capture the Flag, etc.
We appreciated the Stangl's hospitality and enjoyed our time with the other families who stayed there as well.
On Sunday morning, we worshiped at Millard Alliance Church. Afterwards, a tasty meal, and volleyball!

Coming soon.....part 2 of our great trip!


An excellent prelude was shared by a father and daughter.


Pastor Nelson (Father of the groom)



The lovely mothers-Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Ulmer


Here comes the bride!






Their first Kiss! What a special moment!


The new couple! Mr. and Mrs. Micah Nelson!


Seeing friends! Lizzie Becker and Kelsey Kroeker



The yummy reception-Banana Splits!


Tabitha, Noah, and Elizabeth


The fancy get-away vehicle! It was a total surprise for Esther!


Fun times at the Stangl's! Elizabeth and Micah


What a lovely trio! Caroline, Lydia, and Katy


A group of the girls-All dressed up for church!


Some of the boys! Gotta love some of those expressions!

His Newest Adventure

As some of you might know, Eric likes to be industrious. This past spring, Eric studied and researched honey bees. He got books and instructional DVD's from the library, he talked with people, he wrote a persuasive speech, and every time Mom, Dad, or I got on the computer, he would ask us to look up something or other pertaining to bees.
Dad and Mom were not too sure how it would work out here in town. A friend from church(Mrs. K) , along with her 15 year old son, has been doing bees for about 3 years. Mrs. K offered to let Eric go along with them and see how they took care of the hives and such.
She also told us about a scholarship where you can get all the bee things you need to start a hive.
The deadline for the scholarship application is in December, so Dad decided to wait until next spring to start out.
But the Lord had other plans.......A gentleman (Mr. A) from town also does bees, and whenever there is a swarm, people call him to remove it.
Well, when he got a call recently, all his hives were full, so he recommended they call Eric.
The Lord provided a swarm of 5000 bees for Eric to start out with!
Mr. A's uncle was cleaning out his barn about a week after Eric got his first hive going---What was up in the barn? Some bee hives!
It is amazing how the Lord prompted Eric to get all his research done, so He could provide the equipment.
Miles took all the photos, since I was gone......Enjoy!
(And if you ever want to know anything about bees, just ask Eric!)

















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Cherry Pickin'

A few weeks ago a friend from church, who happens to be our neighbor, invited us over to pick cherries off his laden tree. We took him up on his offer, and went over in the cool of the morning to pick some juicy red cherries. The boys weren't able to come-But, the rest of us enjoyed our time and there weren't even any bugs!
Earlier this week, we had a big storm with lots of wind. Another of our neighbors lost quite a few branches, and there was even a tree that uprooted! They also had a cherry tree with lots of fruit still on it.......They don't even like cherries that much, so we were also able to get some cherries from them! We've frozen 10 bags or so of pitted cherries, made cherry soup (see pic) and cherry limeades! YUMMY! We actually have a cherry tree-5 feet tall and we got a whopping 1 cherry from it this year. It was hard to split 7 ways, but we managed.
When we got all these cherries, we saw how good the Lord was and how He provided for us since we don't have a flourishing tree yet!


The BIG tree!





Each branch had many clusters of cherries!



Yummy!











Look, Elizabeth! It's CUUTE!



Cherry Soup (Maus (spelling?) is the German word for it)
It is basically like cherry pie filling.