Holiday Camping

We had a full day yesterday without any rain and again today. The fields are drying up enough that while we were walking this morning we decided the camping trip at Middle Grove is back on. Diane picked up the mail at TEMCO while I drove straight to the Unsicker farm to unlock the office door for the volunteers coming today. We had such a great group of people today.

 Above Edie, Roma and Eva Jean are working on the studies on the left side of the room while Diane R and Chuck read letters on the right side of the room. Rhonda brought Gladys in to inspect the place. She decided that yes, she could do this work but not today. Today Rhonda, Gladys and Lukie had a date with Old Chicago.

 In the other room Diane, Rachel, Marie, Tate, Willow, Timmy and Jenny were busy labeling the Bibles then hauling them out to Diane's van for transport to the post office.

 Wayne stopped in and was willing to bring the second pallet over from the machine shed to the office. The kids were able to unload those right into the office for stuffing. Marie brought the lunch today. Below we have finished the work for the day and are enjoying this fantastic tasty chicken casserole along with fresh picked green beans, carrot and zucchini muffins with chocolate chips, and chocolate cake for dessert.

 Below are the cars of the volunteers, when Lukie and Wayne mentioned there was plenty of parking we were pretty thrilled. At Meisters there was very little parking and we had to double and sometimes triple park to try to fit all the cars. Why at the new place we could probably have 10 to 15 more cars without overwhelming the lot.

 Diane took the Bibles and mailing to the Peoria post office. That didn't turn out very well, they were not prepared to handle such a large mailing with so many boxes of Bibles. We will probably need to consider taking them back to the Bartonville post office. I went home to get the farm work done. Emily had just finished mowing all the pastures and around the hay fields. She had taken Valiant over to Diane's pond for a swim and reported Valiant was excellent today. Very well behaved. Killian was also taken over, he was funny, he tried to roll but his head was in the water while his rump was in the sand so he couldn't figure out how to roll without his head going under. He kept going up and down trying to figure out why it wasn't working. Below she is leading him to the outdoor arena so we can use the barn for the mares.

 He had a good gallop while he was out there. He is such an impressive 4 year old.

Marika and Emma were brought into the stalls and grained. Oksana was teased and covered by Evan and Sangria was teased and covered by Valiant. Emily needed to head to Big R's for grain, beet pulp and more fly spray but needed a shower before she went out in the public, she was covered in grass clippings from using the walk behind mower. A blue jay, cardinal and robin were squabbling this evening over something. By the time I got the camera just the blue jay was still around.

Mark, mom and I went to Middle Grove to be with the campers just for the evening. When we arrived the camp site was deserted but it wasn't long before we heard the jeep climbing the hills. The jeep arrived covered in mud but no one fell off and it didn't get stuck so the trip was a success.

 Spark and Rhonda followed on the 4 wheeler. Rhonda was pretty thrilled to make it back.

 The fire was started, dinner was cooked, somemores made, desserts passed around and then the singing started.

 Rhonda went around lighting the lanterns but one wouldn't work. Mark figured out there was water in the base. Once the water was dumped and new oil put in the lamp was trimmed and burning brightly.

 Hannah and Faith were using fire sticks to write on leaves and logs. Below Hannah is drying her leaf.

 Faith showed us the log she wrote on. Just in case you cannot read it she wrote, I like camping.

 We had a long day and decided to head home to sleep in our own beds for the night and will head back out tomorrow for swimming, fishing, riding and laying around in the sun.