News, or, misc.

I preface this post by saying that the sarcastic style of writing occasionally reinforces a point or objective more effectively than alternate methods. Thank you. Proceed.

ITEM NO. 1

A revelatory article in this month’s edition of The Tennessee Magazine has just informed me that, quite contrary to popular opinion, the War Between the States was not fought over slavery, but, shockingly, about states’ rights. And I quote:

Today many students believe the Civil War was fought over slavery. But thats not really true. The main reason the U.S. Army invaded the South was to stop states from leaving the Union. And although slavery was a major cause of strife between Northern states and Southern states, it is important to remember that slavery was still legal in some northern states (Delaware and Maryland, for example) during the Civil War.

ITEM NO. 2

Also, in some equally important but second in shock value news, the Supreme Court has ruled this week that we do in fact have the right to protect ourselves. Wow. I’m at a loss for words. I mean, protect ourselves? We can? Wow. The following is quoted from Iron at 500:

Yesterday, in a narrow 5-4 vote (Scalia, Alito, Roberts, Thomas and Kennedy), the Supreme Court reaffirmed, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that the people’s inherent right to keep and bear arms is plainly enumerated in our Constitution. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment ensures an individual right, that DC could not ban handguns, and that operable guns may be maintained in the homes of law-abiding DC residents.

ITEM NO. 3

This week we processed around sixty-five of our own chickens, succesfully, quickly, and with only one knife incident. Some of our family helped this family process chickens this morning. The garden is progressing nicely, school has been restarted, and, and, an….ok, I lost the last one there. Writer’s block?

Daniel

Well, in this space I have come to write about my brother Daniel, who lately has been pining to earn a space in this here blog. Daniel is a very hard worker who rarely complains about the tasks given him.  We are extremely grateful for Daniel’s work ethic and his integral placement in the family enterprises. You’re pretty much the best brother ever, Daniel!

Fortunately, this is the only picture I have of him at this remote location. It also features his favorite shirt.

Great music, great times…

Saturday evening we were treated to a concert by Nathan Clark George. Mr. George performs acoustic music, based on the Scriptures and his life experiences. His music is entertaining, godly, and uplifting. We all had a great time, of course, and the weather was perfect. Thanks to everyone who helped put this together!

Gardening

Last night we took advantage of the lovely weather and got outside as a family and did some much-needed garden maintenance. As promised, we are working on our blog proficiency.

Dad delivering some tomato stakes

Dad installing the tomato stakes (exciting, eh?)

Randomness…

Squash on steroids…

Recently…

Recent days have been spent collecting and selling gazillions of eggs, processing a few chickens, acclimating a new kitten, restarting school, and just plain ol’ “farm chores”. I’m sorry that we have some pretty lousy pictures, but we all managed to pitch in for Father’s Day and get Dad a new camera, so hopefully our blogging and/or picture taking will increase. Patience as we try to up the blogging ante, so to speak.

Eggs!

A few of today’s bounty…big props to this family for the amazing help!

Preparing school schedules

Caroline’s cat died a few weeks ago, leaving her very upset, needless to say; so while she was traveling we found her another orange kitten, which she has named Rico.

Donations, anyone; and, tagged

If anyone has pictures of the illegal amount of fun that we had with the Davis family, it would be appreciated if you could email them to us. We somehow were having such a great time our camera never made its appearance!

Well, I was avoiding being tagged at all costs but I guess I will adhere to Kyle’s request.

7 things to do before I die:

• I guess “get married” is the token answer here, right?
• Glorify the LORD
• have something published
• stop “tying” Jacob in arm wrestling
• figure out a way for people to stop asking me if I want to dance
• live debt-free
• attend a University of Tennessee football game in Knoxville (shallow, I know, but I’ve wanted to do this forever)

7 things I can’t do well

• Dance; apparently
• avoid sticking my foot in my mouth
• MATH
• please certain people
• find the right tool at the right time
• balance!
• play the piano

7 favorite movies (not in this order, mostly?)

• The Patriot
• Braveheart
• Pirates of the Caribbeans
• Gods and Generals
• Gettysburg
• Napoleon Dynamite
• National Treasures

7 things I say often

• Whats for dinner, lunch, breakfast?
• Yeah right!
• I don’t think so.
• Are you going to finish that?
• Sorry.
• Yes, sir.
• What are we doing today?

7 things I’d like in a wife (I’m not a big fan of the word “spouse”)

• token answer no. 2-loves the LORD.
• token answer no 3-loves me
• patient
• understands my warped sense of humor
• can she move chickens?
• doesn’t mind the country and a little dirt!
• patient

7 favorite books/authors

• token answer no. 4, the Bible
• Jeff Shaara (Gods and Generals, several other spectacular works)
• Shelby Foote (The Civil War)
• C. S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters being my favorite work of his)
• 1776 by David McCullough

Sorry, but I don’t have seven favorite books that are worthy of this list!

I’m not tagging anyone; because I wouldn’t want to be tagged.

 

Goings on, or, space taking

Herein lies random pictures of some things that have happened or something else like that in the last few days. I don’t do well picture blogging, much less picture taking, and we did not get many good pictures of our bodacious weekend. This post also consisting of a few things around the farm.

Playing “Apples to Apples” with a visiting family…(props to the photographer who graciously eliminated my head)

Dancing on the Lord’s Day…

The terrible trio…

Identifying my drink…

Our humble garden…

Our last two kittens…

Today’s kill…

And last, but certainly not least, the always cool JL.

Anyways, hopefully these posts will satisfy your appetite for a little while.

~Chris

Piano Recital

Forgive me, but while I have fast internet access I figured to take advantage and upload enough pictures to keep this blog updated for a while. Last week the First United Methodist Church of Centerville was gracious enough to let us hold a piano recital in their facilities. Here are some pictures.

My lovely sister…

Miss Anna…

The performers!

Cherries here, cherries there, cherries everywhere…

Last week we discovered that we have three fruit bearing trees in the backyard that are currently producing beautiful and tasty pie cherries. We’ve spent some time picking them and they have turned out to be a hit at the local farmer’s market and in cobbler. The color of this fruit is amazing!

Tagged

Well, Reformed TN Girl tagged me, so here it is!

~ Camille

7 things I’d like to do before I die:

1. Get Married
2. Have lots of children
3. Go to Brazil
4. Swim with Dolphins
5. Sew something without help
6. Write a book ( Probably will never happen, though)
7. Play the piano very well

7 things I can’t do well:

1. Play violin
2. Read music
3. Bake cookies without burning a few of them
4. Say no ( especially to adorable little girls;)
5. Do Math
6. Be patient
7. Be entertaining

7 favorite movies:

1. National Treasure ( 1 and 2 )
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. Alvin and the Chipmunks
5. Remember the Titans
6. Amazing Grace
7. Ever After ( needs clearplay)

7 things I say often:

1. Nuh-Uh! ( I have no idea how you would spell that!)
2. Seriously!
3. Are we about to leave???
4. I don’t know
5. Aw…..
6. I didn’t do it
7. So, why do I have to do it?

7 things I’d like in a spouse:

1. Loves the Lord with all of his heart
2. Loves children ( actually, I wouldn’t even marry him if he didn’t like children;)
3. Has a good sense of humor
4. Gets practical jokes
5. Very patient
6. Is a willing dance partner
7. Enjoys reading

7 favorite books:

1. Daughters of Destiny
2. Pearl Maiden
3. The Witch of Blackbird Pond
4. Eight Cousins
5. Rose in Bloom
6. Little Women
7. Raising Maidens of Virtue

7 people I tag are:

7 willing people that want to do it. Since everyone I can think of has either already done it or is tagged to do it, I don’t have anyone to tag;)