Happy Thanksgivingl!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to hin and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:4-5

Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God has done, Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings , see what God has done. This weekend as we celebrate Thanksgiving, I just want to encourage all of us to look around and see what God has blessed us with. Not just the obvious things, but look for the little things, the things we take so for granted and often overlook and give God praise and thanks, for the big things AND the little things. Give thanks to the Lord , for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

and More Girls!

Hailey and Jayda-----sisters,

Hailey and Norah-----cousins

Our four grandchildren------God has blessed us richly! Grandparenting is such a special privilege and responsibility---May we be wise, loving, and joyfully partner with our kids to raise up these little ones for Him!

Girls, girls

Spending time with Grandpa at the computer. Hailey often asks for Papa to show her octopusses on the computer. Jayda loves to do what her big sister is doing so she joined her on papa's lap.

Enjoying a book together

We have discovered that buttons are great fun to play with. They can be anything from soup to cake and they are great to scoop and pouring from one container into another one. It is a big job to clean them up later though.

If Hailey does it, Jayda wants to as well, and so she was introduced to the joy of playdough.

Hailey Update

Hailey is getting to be a real friend and lots of fun to have around. We play all kinds of things when we get together. We have weddings, we play 'sleeping beauty' and have to wake each other up with kisses, we have lots of birthday parties complete with decorations and cake, we play doctor, we play with play dough, do puzzles and read stories. Never a dull moment, and plenty of conversation.

She is growing into a beautiful,

fun-loving,

and sometimes teasing, but very loveable little girl and still a real joy to her Grammy Jo and Papa Kerry.

Jayda Update

Jayda is also a real joy! She is growing up so fast and starting to say a few things. The hear her say "papa" and "amma" bring real joy to our hearts and when she leaves our house and blows us kisses and says "bye" we smile. She still has the most wonderful smile.

Breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa's ! She feels like such a big girl to be able to sit in a booster seat like Hailey, instead of having to sit in the highchair.

Jayda LOVES apples! We had some large HoneyCrisp apples the other day and try as she might, she just couldn't get a bite out of this one. She was happy when we cut it up and gave her pieces. One of her first requests when she walks into the kitchen at our place is for an apple. She has been enjoying the trail apples, just her size.

Kids learn about computers early these days. She climbed up on the chair the other day and got right to work . I took the mouse away thinking that I had been very forsighted, but I was wrong. She knows just how to use the mousepad on the computer and let her fingers do the work. See Grandma, I know how this works!

Norah Update

Our little Norah is just growing and getting smarter everyday it seems, a real joy. We decided to try her in the walker the other day and she took to it real well.

She is just pleased as punch at what she can do!

She has also discovered the joys of her toes, and that they are fun to chew on sometimes. Look at those chubby little legs.

Kristy and I were busy yesterday doing some sorting and so we put Norah in this washbasket with some toys and she was happy there for quite a while.

Leaf peeping--Chapter 3

This morning we woke up to cloudy misty and cooler conditions. It had rained overnight but by morning it had stopped. It was time to start heading back in the homeward direction but first we wanted to travel to the tip of the peninsula. We left Houghton on Hwy 41 and headed to Copper Harbor, through more of small town America. We stopped in one town at a roadside stand and bought some fresh, large Honey Crisp apples. If you ever get the chance to try these, do. You won't be disappointed. They are delicious!

After a while we left more of the towns behind and the road became more winding and up and down and very scenic. The colors were gorgeous, even in the cloudy conditions. We drove through long stretches of road where the trees met overtop and formed a canopy and we drove through a tunnel of trees. It was really neat and beautiful.

We got to Copper Harbor just as the cold front arrived with wind and cooler temperatures, so we didn't spend much time there. We turned back and took a mountain road which would have afforded some great sights had the fog not been moving in just at that point, but the trip to the end of the road was well worth it anyway.

On our way back home we stopped at Agate Falls, a place we discovered on our last tour a couple of years ago. We had our picnic lunch there and then took a walk . We found the same bridge over the river and the same tree we took pictures at last time, so we thought we had to have another picture in the same spot. The tree was just as lovely as ever.

We finished our walk just in time, as we got into the car to leave, it started to rain and we drove in rain for a good part of the rest of the day. We made our way west and stopped in Grand Rapids, MN for the night. We had a nice hotel and celebrated our 33rd anniversary with supper out and a quiet evening. A nice ending to our short holiday. The next day we finished the journey home arriving there in the late afternoon. It was a quick trip but we enjoyed the break and came home refreshed and ready to get back to work and the soybean harvest.

Leaf Peeping--Chapter 2 continued

On these holidays, we usually take a barbeque along with us and stock up on some food so that when we see a nice picnic spot we can stop and enjoy. That sounds easy enough, but sometimes finding the right spot isn't that easy. This day however, we did find a nice spot in a campground alongside the road in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. We stopped and set up and had a nice meal , surrounded by lovely trees, and with the smell of woodsmoke from a nearby campsite. It was nice and warm and a nice break from our morning hike.

We spent the rest of our day driving and exploring. We don't always stay on the most travelled routes and as a result see a lot of the country. We found some great scenery and gorgeous colors, we drove through lots of small towns and farmland and feasted our eyes on the red and orange leaves of the maples.

Our stop for this night was at Houghton, MI. We enjoyed a good supper then another walk in the pleasant evening air and spent some time exploring the town before settling in to our room for the night.

Leaf Peeping--Chapter 2

This day we woke up to beautiful sunshine and pleasant temperatures and we ready for more adventure. We were planning to explore the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and our first destination for the day was Little Girls Point, a county park on Lake Superior. We didn't spend much time there but did enjoy a walk on the beach. What impressed us there was the clear water of the lake and the stones on the beach. There was no sand , just stones of various sizes and colors and all tumbled smooth and clean by the action of the water. There were round flat stones that Kerry called cookie stones, and they were great for skipping, stones that were egg shaped, speckled stones, striped stones, brown, rust, grey,and pink stones of all sizes. We met a couple of rock hunters on the beach, they come to look for unique stones as well as for agate rocks, which are of some value. After that brief but enjoyable stop we continued on to Presque Isle Park.

At this park we found more waterfalls, and more trails. The trails are well maintained and this set of stairs was just one of the many we encountered as we walked. We spent a couple of hours here walking and exploring and enjoying nature and what God has created.

We were intrigued by how the water can carve out such nice round niches in the rocks as it flows and tumbles over the rocks and river bed.

We followed a trail to the shore of Lake Superior and also made our way down into what seemed to be a river bed, only now there was not much water flowing there. We are think that the water level was lower than normal because we could see signs that the river sometimes did flow through here. It was neat to see the different layers of rock, sure makes one feel small to see the vastness and awesomeness of what God created.

Leaf Peeping--Chapter 1

Kerry and I really enjoy taking a driving tour in fall in search of fall colors. A couple of years ago we dicovered the beautiful colors of Michigan and so when it started to rain, back at the end of September and put harvest and other farm work on hold, we decided to go for a drive. After checking the internet and finding that the colors in Michigan were already good, we packed up the car and headed out late on Wednesday afternoon. The first night we got to Thief River Falls, MN. Not so much color yet but we also enjoy seeing how the farming is going in different areas. We spent the night at the 7 Clans Casino but avoided the casino. The nest morning we continued on our journey east, through Duluth and on and the colors started to improve. The first glimpse of a beautiful red or orange maple tree is always exciting to us. Our destination for this day was Ironwood , Michigan.

On our drive, we saw the signage directing us to Copper Falls, WI. Kerry had seen something about this during his research at home and so we made a bit of a detour and took in this park. The colors were not so vivid here yet, but we saw enough to satisfy us. What we did find though was a beautiful walking trail along a river, and that allowed us to view different sets of waterfalls. The trail was beautifully maintained and had lovely paved trails and stairs at places. It was a great hike and we really enjoyed our stop.

One set of falls we were able to see.

A different set of falls or rapids along the trail.

We realized as we walked that the river was running in two different directions and after a while we came upon this site, where the waters come together and make their way through the rocks , to flow on together . After we had taken in our fill of the scenery, and hiked far enough, we continued on to Ironwood, where we found a room for the night , enjoyed a gorgeous fall evening, and relaxed, and looked forward to gorgeous scenery and colors for tomorrow.

Update!

HARVEST IS DONE FOR 2008!!!!! Yay! We are finished. The last couple of days we harvested over 500 acres of soybeans and about 2 hours ago the harvest was complete. It feels good to be done even though we are by no means done working, there is still tilling and harrowing and work to be done to get the land ready for next year. God has blessed us richly with a good crop and we give him thanks!

What's been happening?

It has been a long time since I last posted but we have not been sitting still. The harvest continued busy , and with good help and good conditions we managed to get the wheat, oats and canola off. There were some frustrations, some machinery breakdowns, lots of wind that messed up the canola swaths, and enough challenges to keep us humble, but at the same time the bins were filling up at a record pace. God saw fit to bless us with good yields and everything is FULL! even though we have been able to haul quite a lot to the elevator. We had a bit of a break last week when we got some rain but this week's sunshine and drying breezes have allowed us to get back onto the fields again and we are currently harvesting the soybeans.

At the end of August, on the 27th, we said Goodbye to Kerry's Dad. He passed away peacefully in his sleep after many years of dealing with the debilitating effects of 4 different kinds of arthritis. This past year had been particularly tough as he was mostly confined to a wheelchair and lost the use of his hands and legs. He will be rememembered as a hard worker and generous man, and one who loved and cared for others, a good friend. He was a good and loving father, father-in-law, and grandfather, and his 5 great-grandchildren were very special to him even though he could not interact with them like he would have liked. He loved to fish and golf and spent many hours doing both, and he and mom really enjoyed the time they could spend at the cottage, working to keep it in great shape, entertaining friends and enjoying leisure time there. He also really loved their winter holidays in Palm Springs and really missed that these past few winters. After he retired from the farm he and mom enjoyed their garden at the apartments and especially growing tomatoes and being the first to have that special first ripe one of the season. He may have retired but he still enjoyed hearing all about what was happening on the farm, crop reports and crop tours and was always willing to give practical and knowledgeable advice when Kerry came to him with a problem. There are many things that could be said, and we all have our special and fond memories of Dad and Grandpa and we will miss him a lot but know he has gone on to a better place, where he has no more pain, and for that we praise God! The funeral service was held on August 31 at the Rosenort EMC. We thank all of you who thought of us , prayed for us and showed your support and caring in various ways during that time.