Before we get to far into June I'll finish up May pictures.
Mark asked me to level off one of our fields while he planted another. I agreed and he kept Anton and Allison and I took Elijah. I figured if I couldn't figure out what I was doing he could help me out. :) I don't run machinery very often, we have lots of good help for that and with me, comes a crew of kids. Anyway, we pulled into the field to a tractor I had never driven with the accelerator which I've never used. I assumed Mark would ride with me a little while until I got things figured out. Well I got a lesson that lasted one SHORT round and was told to call on the two-way if I had problems. Thankfully all went well and I'm happy to say auto-steer is my friend. :)
I was just about finished leveling off when we got rain. It wasn't much but we had to call it quits for a little while. We ended up going mushroom hunting in our timber and actually found mushrooms for the first time in the 15 years we've farmed it! (We have a problem with trespassers stealing them.) We kicked out three groups last year and put up "keep out" signs this spring. So maybe it's helping. It's so frustrating to go out to your own timber just to find people you don't know already out there!
Ethan and Amelia working together frying our mushrooms.
We experimented frying in olive oil and coconut oil. We liked the coconut oil better, it just had a "lighter" flavor we liked better.
Amelia started piano lessons this winter and had her first recital Mid-May. She did a nice job.
We made it to another race in Winterset. This was a Lorretta Lynn Area Qualifier (see here to learn more about this national race). The competition is strong and there were several out-of-state riders here for the weekend. Mark was racing when Eljah needed to head to the starting line. So Ethan did a great job helping him and the kind guy parked next to us also helped him out.
The class Mark likes to ride in (+30 B/C) which was on Sunday so he had to race the 450 B with a bunch of teenagers. He did great keepin up with the young bucks! :)
As soon as Mark was done racing he had to help Elijah. A parent can stand near the track to help their kid if they fall or encourage them.
Elijah did very well he got 4th out of 9 racers. This finish was good enough to qualify for the Regional Race. (We didn't enter him for it, we couldn't make the race in June, so we didn't pay the extra fee.)
Ethan wrecked hard in the second lap of his first moto and hurt his upper leg. Thankfully no major injures but it's still sore a few weeks later. He was out for the rest of the day. :(
Elijah was our big winner for the day. (Amelia thinking she's funny photo bombing)
(A picture from Mark's phone.) This one is Ethan hauling his 1980's 3-wheeler back from the coalmine. He told me he hit a bump.
Another random picture from Mark's phone. The old blue truck smoked like crazy when they started it, not sure why, I just thought it was a funny picture.
Anton, Allison and I joined Eljiah's class at the park the last day of school.
Elijah had a wonderful year at preschool. So blessed to have such great teachers and classmates!
Amelia ran at a local track meet to try to qualify for the state meet. She won the 100 meter and will run this Saturday in Marshalltown.
If your my Facebook friend you may have seen this one. One morning we got up and didn't find Allison in bed. After looking around the house Amelia spotted her in the the living room under the laundry basket. It was pretty scary for a little bit, I'm not sure what she was thinking. :)
I happened to be in Pella the day they were digging tulips, so I borrowed my sister-laws spade a dug a bunch for my yard next year. These were still in full bloom so we enjoyed them all week!
I chaperoned the band trip to Adventure land the last week of school. I was in charge of 5 boys for the day. We had a great time and hit tons of rides! If only we didn't have to run from ride to ride. :)
They loved the log ride rode it several times.
This was another ride they liked.
They played a song while we were up there.
I sat out for this ride, way to high and scary!
Ethan has been going with Mark most days since school has been out. In this picture he is running the skid loader keeping dirt away from Mark as he digs a basement for his parents.
