Two Buddies in a Basket

We discovered this pair of sillies in Banjo's basket on the deck this afternoon. Tricia Ann wonders what folks without animals do for entertainment!

~Trish

A Gimli Gate

Philip and Jacob constructed a gate at each of our two deck entrances. They very creatively used some leftover wood from our shed construction project. Now, Tricia Ann can let Gimli out on the deck without worrying that he'll run off and stampede the neighbor's cattle! Our dinner bell can also be seen in this photo. It came with the house. By the way, our neighbor's have a new Dinner Bell. That's what they named their newest baby calf!

Our Recent Trip to Tennessee

After an afternoon of putting up fence, we all gather together to sing psalms and read the Scriptures.

Caleb discovers a sneaky snake !

We visit a beautiful spot on the Duck River in Centerville, TN.

The girls sing some bluegrass hymns.

Ted accompanies the beautiful maidens.

Four tired lads.

Jacob and Liddy-Lou-Who

Jacob listens to Ted's wise counsel.

Kaliste sports the new Heritage fashion, a camoskirt, popularized by Laura and Claire.

Dueling Cowboys!

Who is that Caped Crusader? Thanks, Batman, for rescuing Katherine!

Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! It's off to work we go!

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn til l night. We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight!

Dig dig dig dig dig dig dig, it's what we like to do!

Project of the Week: Bathroom Flooring

This week, Philip and Jacob installed new vinyl flooring in our master bath. I helped a little bit, drawing paper patterns for the tricky corner cuts. It's terrific having two such handy men around! Today they finished it up by cutting and nailing all of the molding around the edges. I really appreciate having a finished floor after walking around on sub-flooring for months!

~Trish

Jacob measures the nooks and crannies.

The final product!

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral???

What is this, and how did it get on Grammie's counter? Can anyone guess?

Playin' in the Dirt

Today we dug up all of our sweet potatoes. Daddy and Jacob dug around the mounds to loosen the dirt, and I pulled the potatoes out. We got a nice harvest (two 5-gallon buckets full). The weather has been so nice lately! This morning, when I took Gimli outside, I nearly froze. The leaves on the trees around the pond are beginning to change. This year we won't have to go anywhere to see the autumn leaves! We're already in the mountains!
~Tricia Ann

Campbell Invasion

On the evening of Friday, September the 15th, we had some of our beloved friends over for dinner. After most of our guests left, two of our strange cousins, Marty and Othar Campbell, arrived late, after fixing their pickup truck ('87 Chevy K-10, 36" tires, Flowmaster exhaust, loud & obnoxious...;). They joined our bluegrass jam session; wherewith, we had many a merry laugh. In the midst of our "picking", several of our other Campbell relatives joined our blithe throng. On the whole, it was quite a jolly evening.

~T & J~

Othar & Marty

Pierre Campbell

McGraw Campbell

Master Alan Campbell

Yoder Campbell

A Transformation

We've been cleaning up, giving away, throwing away, and storing stuff in the new shed. Today, we parked both vehicles in their rightful home! Victory!

Before...

After!

Marveling at God's Handiwork

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

Cody's New Calf

Cody's family raises Scottish Highland Cattle, and he blessed us this afternoon by bringing his new baby calf into their barn so that we could pet him. He's so adorable! (And the calf is, too!)
~Trish

Collard Greens, etc.

Today, Banjo helped me plant some collards in the garden. We also planted broccoli, cabbage, onions, and rutabagas ( If you've never eaten rutabagas, you should try some. It is a very southern vegetable.). While Mommy, Banjo and I were gardening, Jacob mowed the grass, and Daddy planted grass seed. The weather has been pleasantly cool all day, and this afternoon we had a nice long rain shower.

~Tricia Ann

Water Skiing

Here are the photos Jacob mentioned in his last post. Before we could ski, Jacob and Granddaddy had to clean up the boat and make sure it was in good working order, as it had not been used since last summer.

~Tricia Ann

Daddy driving and me on the tube

Jacob gets some air.

Today...

I'm sitting at my grandparent's computer after an eventful day. Forthwith is a brief summary of our day:

We arrived last night at 18:00, and ate dinner here with my aunt and uncle. This morning I got up (before everybody else) and read The Hobbit and made up a flatpickin' guitar solo for Uncloudy Day. After a delicious breakfast of biscuits and country ham, Grandaddy and I cleaned up the boat and put 'er in the water. Dad did some computer work, and the gals sat around and did some jawin'.

Gimli was down on the dock trying to figure out what a lake was, when he took one-too-many steps backward. KERPLUNK! Now, he will not go near the water.

After kneeboarding, wakeboarding, and slinging each other off the tube, we went to The Brick for a dinner of my favorite food...hot wangs...mmmm. We took lots of pictures today. Don't know how they turned out yet.

-Jacob

Fly Fishin'?

Our friend, Cody, demonstrates a clever way to fly a kite using his rod and reel!

Wow! Way to fly, Cody!

Oh, no! It's caught in the tree. Philip to the rescue!

Paper Cup Pup

Me? In the trash can? What makes you think I've been in the trash can?
-Gimli

Homemade Chicken 'n Dumplin's

Today we cooked for our Lord's Day Feast as we do most every Saturday. We've been buying our dumplin's in the frozen food section of the grocery store, but Tricia Ann has been wanting to make them from scratch. Here's her first attempt. We used a recipe from a cookbook. They tasted fine, but they disintegrated into tiny pieces in the broth. Undaunted, she tried a second recipe that we got online called "Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings."
These turned out much better.
-Trish

A Lovely Afternoon at the Jerry & Fran's

We spent yesterday afternoon with our very special friends, Jerry and Fran. We had two delicious meals and lots of good fellowship.

A watermelon from Tricia Ann's garden....deeeliscious!