July Happenings

     I am so far behind in my blog posts right now that it's nearly depressing but I have full intentions of catching up again someday 😀. It will likely be the middle of winter but better late than never!

     The sun rises around 5:30 during July here in Eastern Montana so in order to catch the sunrise, you have to be up well before that! I often don't go back to sleep once Eldon goes to work at 5 so I've gotten to see plenty of gorgeous mornings.

     On the 4th of July we made sugar cookies and decorated them. The sun doesn't set here until after 9 (well, in July anyhow) and fireworks can't go off in the daylight so we stayed up late to watch. But then it stormed around 9 so they put them off till the next night. 

     Eldon works 3 12 hour days at the hospital and spent his remaining days in July making hay. This year he tried to take a child along every day. It was so fun to hear them talking about how they can hook the mower up or how dry hay should be when you bale it. Emily was especially proud that she made it with NO snacks one day 😂.

"I got this mom. Go drink some iced coffee or something."

     It felt like our garden grew slowly and the weeds fast but eventually we started having to pick produce everyday. Things were really starting to pick up when we had a storm with hail and high winds. It certainly set us back but everything recovered well.

     As soon as we had the official word that the Fallon County Fair was on for 2020 the children kicked all craft making into high gear. They created some amazing items, which I'll show you in a later post.

     Emily's friend was selling her violin so we bought it for her. She has been doing very well with it. Michael and Makayla have fun trying to play songs too.

Our garden in mid June.

Potato blossoms are so pretty!

Emily and Ethan are always happy to ride the ponies.

Enjoying iced coffee after working in the garden

Beautiful rainbow on the way home one day.

     A big July event was Michael turning 9. He was so excited and says that he feels much older now. His friend Nory turned 11 on the same day so we invited a bunch of boys to our place. Several of the older kids spent hours creating an awesome treasure hunt that they had to tramp all over the ranch to complete.

And in the middle of Michael's birthday, a beautiful flower. 

The neighbors (friends/landlords/something like that) trampoline is used very heavily.

Michael requested a Lego cake-and that I make it, not him. The top pieces are marshmallows. 

Nory and Michael, with Tucker peeking through the middle.

Hot dogs for lunch seemed to hit the spot!

After lunch there was a big water fight.

Michael's presents, minus a few books from Grandpa King's.

     And then I had a birthday. I found gifts on Amazon for myself from all the children and Eldon ordered them AND THEN went and bought a whole bunch more. I can't complain though, he really does a fantastic job of buying things I love, even if I had no idea that I needed it. 

He got a work friend to make a mocha cheesecake 😋.

And this! Shocked me because we discussed buying one and I thought had decided not to. But, it cut my weeding time in half (or less). No complaining here!

Makayla and Michael spent a week at Black Hills Baptist Bible Camp. That will have it's own post someday too. 

Emily was ecstatic to be invited to a friend's house for 2 days and a night during that week. It was her first sleepover away from us and I don't think she missed us at all! 

Ethan was quite unhappy about being an only child for 2 days but I let him pick out frozen pizzas and chicken nuggets, plus a small rake so he cheered up.

Barn swallows inside an old grain bin.

Finally a few ripe tomatoes!

One evening we took supper to Eldon and Michael in the field.

Thunderstorms can produce some really cool clouds!

A zucchini plant after the hail. I pruned most of the damaged leaves/vines off the plants but whether that helped them bounce back quicker or not is still a mystery.

Emily was not impressed that her onions were flattened but they stood right up a few days later.

The corn was the worst but only 2 stalks were broken so Makayla and I worked long and hard on hilling it and pulling the first row up with a string so the next three rows could stand up. It's straight and tall now!