Here is mom and Mrs. Scott greatly enjoying themselves ! ( I think they knew that I was taking the picture.) ;-) 

Of course we had to stop and talk to all the horses... 

...and visit the animals in the barn. This ram was really friendly and seemed to enjoy Heidi scratching him on his head. 

As we were walking along one of the streets I spotted this little guy by a tree and just couldn't resist taking a couple pictures of him!! It sure looks like he's enjoying his meal! 

At the pond we saw 18 ducklings! They were rather friendly and would swim right up to us looking for food! Isn't this one adorable?!!!

Mr. Handsome!! 

This is one of my most favorite pictures. Except for the garbage can on the side, I'd say it looks pretty good! =� 

... And here I am at the end as we are heading back to the entrance of the Village.  

In the Garden ~ by Faith

Last week I stayed up at my Great-Aunt and Uncle's to help them put in their garden. My Aunt starts all her plants inside, from seeds, and then moves them to her glass greenhouse to mature. She starts many more than she could possibly use, and sells the extra plants at the road. Every morning we carted the ( heavy!) flats down the long gravel driveway, and hung out the "Please Honk" sign. We sold tomato, lettuce, pepper, cabbage, and cauliflower plants for 1.50 a dozen. Many of the people who stopped by, are long time customers who know my Aunt's plants are superior and like the fact that she doesn't use any chemicals. She also has a large bed of Rhubarb and sells that by the pound. I LOVE Rhubarb! Usually I ate a couple stalks a day, and had a big spoonful of delicious rhubarb sauce on my oatmeal every morning. :-)

They have a very large garden, (as you can see from the pictures) about 240 feet long and 30-40 feet wide, so there is room for lots of plants! Throughout the week, we planted numerous seeds, including carrots, cucumbers, melons, squash, and lots and lots of corn. We also planted about 100 tomato plants, and pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and onion plants. Everything gets watered with dilluted liquid Seaweed, and the tomatoes and peppers get some extra smelly Fish Imulsion. It smells awful, but it sure does make then grow well! :-)

I think plants are one of God's most wonderful creations. (But aren't all His works wonderful!?) Just think . . .you plant that dry, almost dead looking kernel of corn in the ground, water it, and in a few days a tiny, green, living plant pokes its way through the earth. It will, in time, grow to be taller then you, and provide you with food. All from that little seed! Now that's amazing!

The Garden! In the foreground, you see rows of tomato plants, then back and to the right are the peas, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, (just to name a few :-) and to the left, a bed of early strawberries, and some peppers and onions. Way at the back there are more strawberries, a row of melons, lots of corn, squash, and more tomatoes.  

Here is the Iris bed. Very stunning when they are all in bloom! 

The Strawberry beds! Lots and lots of berries set on this year, yummy!  

My Aunt's beautiful blue Irises! 

Memorial Day with the Shepherd Family

On Monday we had our friends the Shepherd's down to our house for the day, for some delicious food (from the grill) and wonderful fellowship and fun!! After lunch while the grown-ups talked, several of the young people had a fun time in the basement playing dress-up and of course I (Grace) was taking pictures!

Miss Nicholette Shepherd.  

Josiah and his hamburger. =) 

John greatly enjoying himself (or rather the food)!! 

The Lady of the Manor and the Gypsy Isabella!

Miss Danielle and our chinchilla Sage! 

Dan Ford Seminar

Okay quick quiz question here: What is the National Hymn of America? No, not the national anthem, this is a common known hymn, though few know that it was once known as our national hymn. It was originally called simply America but is better known today as My Country 'Tis of Thee. This info that I must admit I didn't know was given by Daniel Ford a History genius and holder of many rare original documents who spoke last Friday, May 27th, at a Seminar hosted by Five Lakes Fellowship and Hunters Creek Church. Now being a history buff and loving to hear of the Godly heritage of our country, this was an extreme treat for me. But everyone else I talked to, history lovers or not, were equally enthusiastic about how much they enjoyed the seminar. Mr. Ford's wealth of knowledge on historical writings and his easy use of the many documents he had (that were written by Puritans and founding Fathers) was awesome. Also, it was most refreshing how he showed the multi-generational faithfulness of our fore fathers and how he emphasized the need to spread the word of our Christian Heritage.
After his 2 hour lesson (which still didn't seem like long enough) wherein he went down his tables of documents covering writings from Puritans in the late 1500's to the Farewell speech of George Washington, Mr. Ford opened things up for Q. &A. Out of the whole evening, including the desserts, I enjoyed nothing more than the Q&A time. One short one sentence question by a member of the audience, brought a ten + minute answer by Mr. Ford, that answered the question in full and also gave fresh information. The only fault with the Q&A time was that there was not enough time and I only got to ask one of my four questions! After the Q&A session, there was a most deserved round of applause for Mr. Ford that lasted over a minute and showed the appreciation of those there for such Godly wisdom. The oohs and ahs were heard to erupt as people began to flock around the tables holding the documents of Mr. Ford. From single pages to whole Bibles, these writings were unique and precious and many were the expressions of admiration. A favorite of many was a Geneva Bible, a copy of the one brought across by William Bradford, and a full three inches thick or more. The Bible had the marginal notes that were the main reason King James I outlawed it and it came complete with little book worm holes.
So in all, the evening was most enjoyable especially as it was topped off with snacks provided by the ladies of the Five Lakes Fellowship and a good time for some to have a one on one conversation with Mr. Ford. I hope and am sure that all who attended came away with as much or more of an increase of knowledge as I did and possibly we could look into doing another seminar on this same subject on a larger scale in the near future.

Quilts Galore!

Friday morning, Faith and Grace met with a group of ladies, and young ladies to make patchwork baby quilts to donate to charities. Everyone brought their sewing machines, irons, a sack lunch, and a lot of creativity! Piles of pre-cut squares, in various shades of blues, reds, yellows, and greens, overflowed from a center table. Everyone was told to fall too, and the quilt making began! Once everyone had layed out their quilt design, they then started to sew it together with a partner along side to iron down the seams. After the top of the quilt was stitched together, we then moved on to finishing with the batting, back piece, and yarn ties. Even though we were not able to stay long enough to finish both our quilts, we did come home with some wonderful tips on quilting, and can't wait to be able to do another quilting bee!

Where all the quilts began . . . . .  

Katie's pretty purple quilt.  

Putting the finishing touches on Faith's quilt.  

Ta da! Here is Grace with her finished quilt top. Ain't it pwitty! :-)