Trip on Train to Chicago with Kyoung Ji from South Korea

Kyoung Ji is here for the school year to attend school and learn about American life. She is a very pretty young lady. We were very excited to take her on a day trip. She spent the whole week end with us. It is so interesting to hear her tell about her home in South Korea. In South Korea she lives in an apartment on the 5 th floor. I don't think any of our buildings here go as high as 5 floors. Her city has a large population. The boys and girls are in separate class in South Korea. They stay in there classes at the same desk all day. The Teachers are the ones that move from room to room. Her school days last from 7:40 a.m. in the morning to 10 p.m. in the evening (9 period)(except Sunday!

Kyoung Ji, Brittney and Klint and I took the train to Chicago for the day.... We picked a very cold. snowy, windy day. We love to ride the train. Its always interesting to people watch. We are really out of our box though. From our neck of the woods where our roads are 2 lanes or sometimes dirt and our neighbor live 1/2 mile or drive horse and buggies its fun to go to the big city.. We had never went to Chicago to see the Christmas decorations. They were beautiful. It was also Klint's first time on the train. It is only $9.00 (each way). With the weather the way it was I am glad I did not drive. It was worth the price. We visited Sears Tower to see an over view of the city. Then took a taxi to The Cheese Cake Factory. I love the unusual decor. It reminds me of a mushroom. I think it is suppose to look like the inside of cheese. We went shopping in the shops. Our favorite store is the huge book store. The only thing we bought was a pair of new gloves for Brittney and a few souvenirs. Brittney treated us to a carriage ride that took us on a scenic view of the lake. Then back on the train. All in one day..

The GOOD news of the day!1981 Murder of Son of America's Most Wanted Anchor John Walsh Is Solved

This head line has made me very happy for the Walsh family.. He is a hero in my eyes. He took a terrible tragedy and made it a mission of his life to save others and send criminals to jail. He wrote a book about his life before and after his son Adam life was taken from them. He is inspiring. With all the bad news lately it was refreshing to hear the case is closed.
Tears of Rage - From Grieving Father to Crusader for Justice: The Untold Story of the Adam Walsh Case A story about how a tragedy turn a man into a hero for others.

This is taken from a news today.. I cried with him when he said. Not knowing was torture!!

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The investigation into the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" anchor John Walsh, is finally closed.
Hollywood, Fla., Police Chief Chad Wagner announced Tuesday that the department had concluded that Ottis Toole, a serial killer who died in jail in 1996, was the man who kidnapped The announcement brought to a close a case that had angered the Walsh family for more than two decades, inspired the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and triggered changes in how authorities search for missing children.
"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know."

Bell... Lucky Bell ... The Pot bellied pig (Vietnamese pot bellied pig)

We live just far enough from town that we get stray animals dropped off. We've had puppies, dogs, cats and even a goat one time. We found homes for all of them or kept them. Some of them look like they have been wondering around for days. Starved and scroungy looking. A white boxer dog that showed up was beautiful. He loved to set on the golf cart. I wish we could have kept him. Jenny, our exchange student from Germany wanted to take it back to Germany with her. He was just to big for us. One dog dropped of was so afraid of people he hid under everything. My friend Lori took him. He never did get over that. I think that little guy was abused. Last dog dropped of was a small pitiful looking short haired CHIHUAHUA. At least when they dropped it off they left a loaf of bread for him to eat. It was too little for us. Besides we do not need another dog and I aint' no Paris. We think dumping is a very cruel way to get rid of an animal.

A couple of years ago.... Bell .. Lucky Bell as I call her appeared at our house. This is the story..

I got up late that morning to start work.. I have a hair salon in my house so I don't have far to go. Well .. I over slept this morning.. wow did i over sleep.. My customers were down stairs waiting on me.. The little boys were down there calling my name... Deb, Deb we are here... They are the cuties little 4 year old twins. I was running through the house.. I really needed to let our dogs out before I started work or they would have left me a mess.. So .. I quickly let them out the back door got dressed, brushed my teeth, put my make up on and grabbed my clogs because I didn't want to take the time to put socks on. I opened the door to let the dogs back in..( mean while the twins were still calling me .." Deb we wready to get our hair cut") Scooter (the smaller but older dog) was under the deck.. I thought what the heck are you doing under there.. His feet were dirty now...huuuuhhh.. Cally was just a puppy then and she followed and copied every thing Scooter did... huhhhh... so they both were under the deck... why this morning.. huuhhh.. I don't remember them ever going under there until this morning ..

I worked for several hours. I had a busy schedule but needed to get to the bank between customers . Quickly I drove to town to make a deposit. You know pay check to pay check.. Any who... When I came back home I let the dogs out again. All the sudden Scooter and Cally were raising cane something terrible. Barking like mad hiennas. I looked out and seen they had something cornered in front of the garage. It looked like a raccoon. I just could not see it well. I just wasn't sure. I know they could have been hurt by the animal or they could hurt it. I went running out side. Running in clogs is not easily.. As i got closer i seen that it was a small baby PIG!!!. Were in the world did this baby pig come from. We haven't raised pigs for years. Our neighbors all live at least 1/2 mile from us. That must have been what the dogs were after under the deck. As I ran out side to the rescue.. Not sure who I should rescue first. My daughters boy friend was driving by. I waved him to come help me.. Him and I tried to stop the dogs.. the more we tried the more they barked and carried on. The pig ran out into the freshly pick corn field of short corn stocks. The dogs were barking, the pig was squealing, Matt and I were laughing our heads off. I was stepping high with my clogs over the corn stocks trying my best to keep them on and run as fast as I can. We were zigg'n and zagging all over the corn field. I am not sure how much of the corn field we covered. Finally Matt caught it. The dogs were jumping up at it. He quickly handing it to me and said "I am late for work". We huffed and puffed back to the house and just kept say its a pig... where in the world did it come from..

Once again I had customers waiting on me. With this pig in my arms running to the house I remembered the pet carrier in the garage. I quickly threw the pig in the cage and went back to work.. Oh i did wash my hands first.. I could hardly cut hair telling my customer of the funny story.

I called my husband to tell him I had a surprise when I got done working . He was at the other farm. I put the pig and the dogs in the car. Scooter was still barking and barking... the pig was still oinking and oinking. Cally being the baby she was just looked at us all like she did not know what to do. When i got over there he and his dad were waiting. I opened the hatch back and said look at this. We all stood there laughing and looking in the cage. Kenny reached into the cage to retrieve the little guy... It charged at him and chomped down on his hand. Good thing he had gloves on because I think it would have cut threw his hand. He tossed it back in the cage.. "that's not a pig" A baby pig would not have attracted like that. We looked at each other ... then at the same time the 3 of us leaned over and looked in the cage into the cage at this seemingly small but mighty little pig. "that is a POT BELLIED PIG... where in the ---- did it come from" oh my word ..!!!!! I still can not believe my day.. I really do not now what to do with this.

My son was out in the barn. I drove out to show and tell him about this mystery creature. My sides hurt from laughing at the events. The first thing he said to my surprise was ' I have always wanted a pot bellied pig. I'd like to see how fat I can get it. " I immediately said ... it's yours... happy birthday ,, Merry Christmas... you can have it.. What a relieve that he wanted it..I could not get the cage out of the car fast enough. We went to the barn and proceeded to fix up a pen for it. He got a chicken cage that had sides about 4 feet high made out of chicken wire with a small edge of chicken wire around the top opening. Afraid it would bite again he dumped the little guy into the cage. It ran so fast and hard that i climbed up the sides of the cage. If not for the small edge on the top I think it would have climbed right out the top. My son (Tanner) was so excited about his new pet. I was so thankful I did not have to find this thing a home. He put bedding in, got it water and food. I said "Tanner what is your wife going to say.." Just then his wife came out to see what was going on. She walked in looked in the cage and immediately said.... to my surprise... "awwww look it's it a pig... how cute... " ..... ya i was thinking cute my ass... it almost tore Kenny's hand off, runs and climbs like a badger.... Behind her came Buddy (black Labrador dog). Calmly he strutted over and stuck his nose in the cage... I swear that pig thought buddy was his daddy... She followed Buddy every were and Buddy didn't mind.. The little pig never acted aggressively again. It had transformed into a little princess. They named her BELL.

Bell now lives the life of a queen.. I call her LUCKY BELL. Because she is very very lucky to have a home there. (and not with me..) Bell is not caged. She has free run of where ever she wants to go.. She really doesn't want to go far or move very fast. Her favorite things are sleeping, heading over to the apple tree to eat apples, laying in the barn under her heat lamp and scratching her back on the trees or her butt on truck tires.. She also like to lay out in the sun with the cats.

So .. Dogs... Cats.... Goats..... Now a POT BELLIED PIG... What next... oh I forgot a Homing pigeon once too. Just another funny story..

Draft Horse Fall Sale Day

I like to go to the Draft horse and tack sale. The draft horses are spectacular. Usually we go to the sale to eat supper and watch for a while. The food is typical sale food hot dogs, sloppy joes and chicken. The line was so long this time I didn't bother. Seeing draft horses in the fields or going down the road as a team is an awesome sight. Standing next to them is another thing. They are massive in size. Before my daughter got us into horses I would have just watched from the side lines at the sale barn. She has taught me so much about horses.The Belgian Draft horses are such gentle souls. I think the know they there size. I now can walk through the barn and right beside them. They have the biggest feet. Some of the horses are groomed with pretty ribbons and harnesses. They bring them to the sale looking like show horses. The teams are exciting to watch. They are brought into the sale ring and marched up and down.

The show ring looks so small when they are run through. Both sides of the show area are filled with people. There is hardly a seat to be found. Stuffed together like sardines. Mostly Amish men. The factories call sale day a holiday. Most of the Amish are going to go to the sale so they just let them off and call it a holiday. The Amish use the draft horse to do there field work. The horses are well trained to work as teams. The other day I seen a team of 6 working in the field. The children learn from a young age to drive teams. A Young Amish boy, looked to be 10 years old was driving a team of 4 pulling a double wagon loaded with large round bales today. He was standing up with the reins and look like a pro. We are told people come from all over the world to this sale. Disney has bought horses here. I over heard someone say they were buying more horses for Disney. Budweiser also has bought here for their team. I didn't get good pictures. I feel bad taking pictures there because I know the Amish do not like their pictures taken. They didn't mind me taking pictures of their horses

I got a lot of draft horse butt pictures. I went on a day when young horses were being sold.
I am not the greatest photographer. I took this as I was driving by the sale barn. I think the picture in the review mirror is nice.
The parking lot. Lines and lines of buggies.

This guy kept flirting with me. He has such a handsome face and his eye was sparkling at me. Will maybe it was the sun light.

A lot of fathers bring there little boys too. This little girl was peeking around the corner at me..

Tack. Just one of the vender's items. It was a beautiful day.

Neighbors go Winning

Lorri, Mary and I went to Michigan for a Wine day. The drive to Berrian Springs Michigan was beautiful. The trees were changing into the most magnificent colors of fall. The reds looked like fire the oranges looked like pumpkins and the sky was beautiful blue and white clouds. In no time we felt like we had been transported to somewhere like California's Napa valley..The Land of Wine and Food. Only on a small scale. . We visited 5 wineries. The tasting was fun. We are not big wine drinkers.. .. But... we have found that we have been drinking the wrong wines for our taste. It is fun to get the education about how wine is made, when the grapes are picked and that it can be sweet and spicy. It is hard to believe that Michigan has so many wineries. It is very pretty to see the rows and rows of grape vines. I want to go see it in the spring. I found my favorite at the first stop. (Lemon Creek) This picture was take there. The bottle is the one I have griped in my hand. The young lady serving us was so fun. Right away Lorri said she never new wine could taste sweet. We decide we like sweet wines the best. Our next stop was Tabor Hill. This is where we came back to eat lunch. The menu is full of interesting dishes that we don't find at home. The Round Barn has a nice set up. They also make Vodka.. (my drink of choice) Wow it was expensive. The beer was good too. I really don't like beer. It did taste ok. I just didn't want to mix all that up in my stomach. I held my self back from buying the vodka. All three of us bought more then one bottle of wine at the Round Barn.. We really liked the Cranberry. I think we will be having that for Thanksgiving.. (I already drank one bottle with my friend Grace) woops had to share with her.. Free Run and , Domaine Berrien were nice too. You can see the storage vats at Domaine Berrien.

FABULOUS FALL DECOR AWARD

Given to me by Sue at Oodlekadoodle Primitives I'm so excited! Thank you so much Sue! You've made my day...Isn't it awesome? I'm suppose to pass this along to 6 people......So here are my picks....Drum Roll Please!!!

http://barnhousebh.blogspot.com/2008/10/barn-house-season-finale-part-1.html

http://bittersweetpunkin.blogspot.com/

http://lavenderhillstudio.blogspot.com/

http://lonadawn.blogspot.com/

http://rabbitruncottage.blogspot.com/

http://mirrorlakebb.blogspot.com/

The rules are to grab this award pic and post it on your blog, and nominate 6 of your choice for the same award! Of course, you have to tell the winners that they have been chosen.....

Just and Jots of October

One last trip to the Clear Springs Auction.
This is a beautiful box of Cock Comb. The colors are vibrant.

Indian Corn

Warted Pumpkins.. kind a pretty in an ugly way.. Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
This cute cart of Flower (Mums) sold for $ 3. each. You had to buy the cart load. Brittney and I bought a car load at $2. each.

It is so easy to get carried away when the auctioneer is talking so fast and the excitement of winning the bid is so close.

Above is a bunch of flowers that look like cabbage. Ornamental cabbage . Brittney bought three swan gourds. She hung them in the garage to dry out. I think she has some creative idea to make something out of them when they are dry.

Harvest Day, Dirt Roads and Busy Dogs

Dogs are very important on our farm.Work Dogs and Watch Dogs.

This is Scooter. He is Kenny's right hand man. Scooter goes every where Kenny goes. He is wonderful company and entertainment. Every day he goes to work.

This is Cally. She is a blue healer. Cally takes hand directions very well. She can herd up any animal just by her instincts. She is actually my daughters dog.. But she also goes to work with Kenny every day also. They are very funny to watch. She is only 2 years old but looks like a more mature dog. I am taking them to the other farm where they will be running beans and trucking the beans back home to put in the bins.

Kenny, Scooter and Cally looking over at the field to see how things are going. Cute how Cally has her head turned just like Kenny.

Harvesting Beans on a Sunday.. That really is taboo. This is something that we have found very hard to deal with. My husband was brought up not to work on Sunday.. To keep the day as the day of rest. As the bible says. This comes from his wise and cautious fathers and family tradition. When I came to the family I had a hard time with this. His parents would take naps on Sunday.. They milked cows on Sunday. Like every other day. Twice a day.. That was still working.. Only work that was necessary. I never new that adults took Naps. My parents worked hard all week at there jobs. Sunday was the day that they did chores at home.. Let me tell you this is one thing that I really enjoyed about learning about my in laws. I like taking naps. Yea.. But.. I hate to say that we have had to work some Sundays. My husband, son and daughter-in-law all feel guilty..... but.. now a days we can not farm without having jobs other then farming.. When the crops need to harvest or planted we have to work it in around our other jobs. My husband drives school bus. We need that job so we can get insurance through the school. He has many other jobs also. He cooks whole hogs for wedding and graduations, has and ice cream machine that he rents out, we rent out deep freezers to Amish and does custom work. I do hair and sell grave plots at the cemetery. I am a coordinator for CETUSA exchange student program. Tanner is care taker of the cemetery and sexton. My son the grave digger.. My daughter-in-law works away from home and cooks a lot of the meals for the guys when they are in the fields. She also helps out a lot..!! Kenny loves her cooking.

We have to drive dirt roads to this farm. Right next to the field is a beautiful Amish house. It is a log home with a fabulous grand front porch. While I was waiting for Kenny I watched the children play on the steps of this house. They love to watch the big tractors and combines. While I watched them they watched us. All on a Sunday after noon. The small children were dressed in coats for the cool but sun shinny day.The smallest boy must have be 4 and the youngest girl 5. He had a little dark hat that fit tight to his head and tied around his chin. The little girl had on a white head scarf. Up and down the stairs the went. The little boy could not walk down the stairs he just scooted step by step on his butt.

Soon the rest of the family came out and they loaded up in a little open wagon pulled by a cute pony. Later as I was going back home I seen passed them all walking down the road. Everyone waved at me. and waved and waved and waved.

In front of a friend house is this fun fall decorations.

Harvest Days, Dirt Roads and Busy Dogs. Next Sunday maybe we will take naps.