War

Yesterday was one of the best days of our vacation in my opinion. We just relaxed at my sisters house for the morning since it was raining outside. For lunch we drove to a nearby town called Phoenixville. It was a lovely town with a great old downtown area with little shops and restaurants. I could totally live there. We ate at a little Irish Pub for lunch and the food was amazing. After lunch we drove around a little, this part of the suburbs of Philadelphia is really nice with lots of huge old houses and farms, there is like no bad or ugly houses. It makes for a great drive. Our drive took us to Valley Forge Park which was the winter encampment of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. There was a small welcome center with a museum that had lots of tools, weapons, and other things from that period. They also had a short video about Washington's stay there. Then we went on a driving tour (it is a huge park, approx 3500 acres) of the park and it had stops along the way to show you significant things. It was a really nice park and the leaves are still changing here so it was beautiful. We had a great time and a great day.

My Country Tis of Thee

Yesterday on our trip, we saw historic Philadelphia. Here is a list:

Independence Hall-Place were they signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Liberty Bell Center-where the Liberty Bell is housed.

First Bank of the United States
Carpenters Hall - This is where the First Continental Congress wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances and was a hospital and arsenal for American Forces during the Revolutionary War.

Franklin Court- place where Ben Franklin's House was and there is a museum dedicated to him, an old printing press like he used to use, and the post office he ran when he was postmaster general.
Christ Church- First Anglican church in the U.S. and place where the American Episcopal Church was born. It is where Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, and George Washington among others went to church.
Christ Church Cemetery- lots of signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here including Ben Franklin
Declaration House- Place where Thomas Jefferson lived when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
U.S. Mint - where coins are made
National Constitution Center- Museum about the Constitution and how it affected the U.S. from past to present. There is also a room with life size sculptures of the signers of the Constitution.
Betsy Ross House- Betsy Ross created the first flag and this is where she lived

Overall, it was a fun and interesting day. This part of the city was a little odd because all these major historic places where right in the middle of the city with huge buildings all around. The most interesting thing was learning more about Ben Franklin. He did amazing things and was a genius. I couldn't believe all things he did and invented. I really liked the epitaph he wrote for himself when he was 14-
The Body of B. Franklin. Printer. Like the Cover of an old Book. Its Contents torn out And Stript of its Lettering & Gilding Lies here. Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be lost. For it will as he believ'd appear once more In a new and more elegant Edition Corrected and improved By the Author.

I am not sure what is on the agenda for today, you will just have to wait and see.

Philly

The second and final leg of our trip is in Philadelphia. My sister and her family recently moved here. We have never been here before and I was excited to come because I really like history. We got here yesterday and are flying out on Saturday. Yesterday we just relaxed at the house and played with the kids. We had to get up at like 5:15am to catch our flight so we were kind of tired. One of the good things about visiting my sister is that her husband (Philippe) is French so they make lots of good French food. Last night we had lamb which I love but we also had good wine and a large selection of cheeses. It was very good. Here is a pic of the plate 'o cheese.


Today we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was a very large museum and had lots of good exhibits. They also had a special Renoir exhibit that was extra good.

The best thing about this museum though is this is where Rocky runs up the stairs and pumps his hands in the air. There is also a statue of Rocky outside the museum. I love Rocky.




After the museum we went down to Reading Terminal Market which was started in 1892. It was fun to walk around and see all the vendors and we ate lunch there - Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches of course. After that we walked to a building we had seen while driving. It is actually city hall. It is a really cool old building that looks like it got brought over from Europe and dropped in the middle of the city.

That was all for today, tomorrow will be a big day of sightseeing so stay tuned and don't forget to check out the rest of the pictures.

The First Stop

We are officially on vacation. We are going to be gone for like 10 days. We told people we were going to Nashville, Tennessee and Philadelphia but we actually are in Greece right now, surprise. Here is a picture of us at the Parthenon.

Just kidding. This actually a full size replica of the Parthenon that they have in Nashville. We got to Nashville on Friday evening, we are staying with our friends Ben and Erika. On Friday night, we got to go see Ben's band Heypenny play a show. It was really good and fun, I highly recommend checking him out and buying a CD. On Saturday, we watched the Razorbacks suck at a really cool sports bar in town (as a side note, I hope Houston gets fired soon). On Saturday night we went down to the main street in Nashville and walked around and ate dinner. Then we went to one of the many honky tonks. It was a lot of fun and one of the most white places I have ever been.
Here are the honky tonks

This is inside

This is Margo and I honky tonkin like crazy, notice the boots in the background, the is the first place I have seen that uses cowboy boots for decoration.

Today, we went on a hike which was nice because the weather was good and the leaves were still changing. Then Margo and I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I don't really like very much country music except older stuff but it was fun and interesting. We also walked around downtown some and saw the sites (including the Ryman Auditorium).
Tomorrow, we fly out to Philadelphia for the rest of the week. As always, you can check out other pictures from the trip by clicking on the link on the right or click here. I will leave you with one more pic of Margo and I and Nashville in the background.

Attack of the Ganglion

I had surgery today. I had a ganglion cyst removed from the base of my left ring finger. It was not too big of a deal, but my wedding ring irritated it and using tools like shovels, rake, and splitting maul made it swell and hurt also so I decided to have it taken out. Here is how it went down...They gave me some sedation medication to put me to sleep briefly, then made an incision and cut it out, then stitched it up, put a bandage on and woke me up. It was a pretty quick procedure and I was not too loopy afterwards. I have to keep the bandage on for a week and then I get my stitches out, but it takes about a month to totally heal. I will try to put up another picture when I get the stitches out. By the way, it is very difficult to type with one hand.



Be sure and stay tuned to the blog for the next 9 days or so because we are leaving on vacation tomorrow and I will try to do daily updates of what we are doing.

Farm Equipment Designer

Margo was out of town for most of the past week at a conference. It was just me at home doing what I want to do. So, you may ask, what did I do with all my freedom and time to do what I want to do with no one to answer to. Well, I built a hay feeder for our animals. We needed something to put our hay in (we use square bales) to keep the hay covered from rain and also keep the animals from wasting it by laying on it or pooping on it. I found a few feeders online for sale so I used the pictures of those to design and build my own. It turned out pretty good I think. Maybe if this nursing thing doesn't work out, I could be a designer of farm equipment.

It is also on skids so we can pull it around with the truck to move it where we want it.


You put the hay in the V that the wire panels make and the loose stuff falls down into the trough below, so the animals can eat the hay in the V and the loose stuff that falls into the trough.


It has a flip top for easier loading of hay

An Arkansan Folk Getaway

As you can tell from the title, this is going to be an interesting post (it might be kind of long also). So, this weekend Margo and I took a little weekend getaway to Mountain View, Arkansas, also known as the Folk Capital of the world. There are a few reasons why we wanted to go there. First of all we wanted to go check out the Ozark Folk Center. This place is run by the State Parks and basically is a place you can go to see how things were done in the good old days. Things like soap making, blacksmithing, wood carving, etc. I really like to learn about these kinds of things and try to do those types of things as much as I can. Here is a picture of a ride that they used to have at carnivals back in the day, it is a swing ride that is powered by a donkey walking around in circles.









Overall, the Folk Center was alright but I had hoped it was going to be a lot better. One highlight was they had a guy demonstrating tomahawk throwing and he would "teach" you how to throw and let you try it out. This guy was alright at teaching people to throw but he was not very good at throwing himself. As many of you know, I bought a tomahawk a while back and have practiced throwing it a little at home (I did not tell him that though). Anyway, I went up and threw the tomahawks (I think there were 5 or 6) and got all of them to stick in the target. I was pretty proud of myself, and I'm sure the other spectators were amazed.

The next amazing attraction on our trip was the 25th Annual Beanfest and Outhouse Races. Basically, they have a pinto bean cook off, modified outhouse races, lots of people around the square playing bluegrass/folk music, and arts and crafts. We did not realize how big of a deal this whole thing was. By my guesstamation there were at least 10,000 people there and there were like 20-30 teams in the bean cook off. They cooked them in huge iron pots and then all the festival goers got to eat the beans for free. The beans were really good. It was also fun to see the races and listen to bluegrass music. I think the town secretly harnesses all the gas everyone is making from eating beans and use it to power the city for the rest of the year.




Here is J.Lo, I mean Margo enjoying some beans in her martian glasses


Next stop on the folk tour was a celebrity concert. That's right celebrity, at least to me they are celebrities. It was the bluegrass group the Dillard's. For those of you not familiar with them (I doubt any of you are) they are better known as the Darlings (TV name) that were on the Andy Griffith Show. As many of you may know, I love the Andy Griffith show, it is one of my favorite TV shows. I even have a lot of the seasons on DVD. If you are familiar with the show the Dillard's are actually the 4 sons who don't ever say anything. Anyway, the show was really good, they played a really good show. They also told lots of stories about the Andy Griffith show and even answered questions from the audience about it. It was very interesting, if anyone wants to know more, just ask. This was definitely the best part of the trip. My ultimate dream would be to live in the Andy Griffith Show.


Overall, it was a really fun trip. I really enjoy old timey stuff. Margo and I seemed really out of place though because 98% of the people at all these places were over 60 years old. People told us several times during the weekend, "I think it's great when young people are interested in these things".

Great Videos

As many of you know, I love youtube. I love watching videos and seeing all the amazing, crazy, and funny stuff people come up with. Well, I have come across a few particularly great ones that I thought I would share. A couple of these some friends sent to me or had on their blogs.

This one is just amazing. It keeps blowing my mind what people are able to come up with and do.


This video is from SNL from their series of Digital Shorts. This is one thing I love about America, freedom of speech, which means we can make fun of world leaders.


And this one is amazing and one of the funniest things I have seen on youtube. I have not laughed this hard in a long time. I recommend checking out his other songs as well. This one is "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N' Roses. If you don't know this song he does many others that I am sure you would know. And yes it is real, be sure to watch the whole video because it is amazing.

Pan Fried

Tonight we had an amazing meal. I have been wanting to do it for a while and finally got around to it today. First Margo and I took a short walk to our pond and caught some catfish. We used cheese for bait and caught them pretty quickly. The catfish in our pond are pretty good size, one that I had hooked and was reeling in broke my line. Anyway we (I) caught 3 good sized ones. I then filleted them, something I have not done very much, but I got the hang of it after I butchered the first one. They made some really good sized fillets. Then we cooked them, this is why I had been wanting to cook some fresh fish for so long. A doctor I work with had given me a recipe for cooking fish that he uses and it sounded really good so I had really been wanting to try it out. And let me tell you, it was amazing. It was some of the best fish I have ever had. We cooked up some corn and french fries to go with the fish and ate outside around a fire in our fire pit, it was a great evening.

Here is the biggest catfish I caught (almost as big as my huge muscles, do you have your ticket to the gun show)


Here is one of the fillets


Here it is cooking


Here is Margo enjoying


Now that your mouth is watering I guess I will give you the recipe, it is actually pretty easy and we bought all the ingredients at the greatest place on earth: Wal-Mart. We dipped the fish in beer batter and then coated them with blackened seasoning. To cook them we put some olive oil in an iron skillet and put it on the grill, closed the lid, and got it real hot. Then we put the fish in the skillet and cooked it for 3 minutes on each side with the grill lid closed. I highly recommend trying it.

It's Almost Time

As I am sure most of you know, it has been getting pretty chilly at night around here. It won't be long until real cold weather is here. And you know what that means. We get to start having fires in the wood stove. So, tonight Margo and I prepared the wood stove for the winter. Basically this entails detaching the stove pipe from the wood stove and me getting on the roof and shoving a large round wire brush-like thing down the stovepipe to clean all of the creosote out so that it does not build up and then catch the house on fire. While I am doing this, Margo is in the house holding a bag under the pipe to catch all the falling particles. It is not very hard to do. Now we are ready to have a fire whenever it gets cold enough. It is so nice to sit inside and watch the fire crackle while it is cold outside, there is something soothing about it. And we can make smores every night, inside.



I also have an update on the wood for sale. I started with 10 ricks and have sold 9!!! I stacked 4 new ones so I currently have 5 ricks for sale. It looks like the money we make from the wood is going to be enough to pay for our vacation in November.

I've got wood

The wood I have been cutting recently I have been stacking into ricks (which is 8 feet long, by 4 foot tall). I have already cut what we need for this year so what I have been cutting and stacking recently I am going to sale and try to make a little money. I am charging $35 a rick, which is cheaper than anyone else I have seen, but I don't deliver. So, if you know anyone who needs wood, send them my way.

Camping on the Buffalo

We had a three day weekend because of Columbus Day (In 1492...). So, we got together with a couple of our friends, Adam and Sarah, and went camping at the Buffalo River. I had not been camping since I was like 12. We drove over there Sunday night and set up our tent at Lost Valley campground. We then went back to where we had seen some elk earlier while driving. When we got there, there were tons of people parked along the rode watching the elk because they were really close to the road. We took a ton of pictures and watched them for a long time. And we were extra lucky because the bull elk were bugling. We then went back to the camp and settled in for the night, I did not get much sleep though because the ground was very hard and uncomfortable (and Adam snored all night). The next morning we drove to Jasper to eat breakfast at the Ozark Cafe which is an amazing restaurant, I highly recommend it. Next, we went down to Steel Creek and walked along the Buffalo a little and then back to camp and back up the tent. Then we hiked the Lost Valley Trail and explored the cave at the end of the trail. When we got to the cave it started to rain and was still raining when we got out so we had to walk all the way back to the car in the rain, we got soaked. Overall, it was a very nice little trip and lots of fun. Here are a few pics, but you should also check all of them out at our Picasa sight by clicking here.

Finally Finished Clearing

I finished a project the other day that I have been working on all summer. Most of our 10 acres is wooded and I want to eventually clear out some of it to get more grass growing so it will support more animals. I am going to leave quite a bit of it wooded but I want the wooded area to be semi clear with just the bigger trees left so it has a "park-like" feel to it. So this summer I have been clearing out all the underbrush, junk trees, and dead trees to make all the property cleaner looking and more "park-like". I finally finished and it looks a lot better. I still have to go back and clear out the bigger trees in the areas I want to grow grass but I am happy to get this first phase of clearing finished for all of the property. Just to give you an idea of how much I cleared, we counted the brush piles that I had stacked up with all the stuff I cut and we counted right around 40 brush piles. I thought that was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

This is after being cleared of the underbrush

New Again

Another one of my favorite things to do is to take old, worn out things and fix them up or make them into something new. And I love antiques, especially if they are sentimental. Anyway, a few months ago my Aunt Diane gave my an old wheeled plow that was my great grandfather's. I was very excited to get it. It was not in the best shape, the handles were mostly rotten but the metal part was still in pretty good shape, just a little rusty. So I finally got around to fixing it up the past couple days. I didn't know if I was going to find any new handles for it since it is old, and thought I might have to make them myself, but I happened across some at the farmers co-op the other day. I don't know that I will use it as a plow but I think it will look really good as decoration in my big flower bed when I get it in. Here are some pics.

Before

After

Recycling

In continuing our effort to waste less and conserve energy, we have started recycling. As you can imagine, we don't have a city sponsored recycling program as far out as we live (we used to have it provided when we lived in town). But Fayetteville has a very large recycling facility and recycling pick-up is included with the trash service. Well, they also have a drop-off site where you can take your recyclables and drop them off. They recycle aluminum cans, steel cans, cardboard, plastic bottles, newspaper, magazines, chipboard, glass, and printer paper. So we have started sorting out our trash that is recyclable and take it to the drop off site. It has drastically reduced our waste. Click here for some fun facts about recycling,they are very interesting. For instance, 75% of our trash can be recycled and recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. Anyway, we encourage all of you to start recycling, it isn't hard.

Throwback Thursday - Basketball

This throwback Thursday won't feature pictures from quite as far back as previous ones. These are from Junior High; Margo and I both played basketball. I was a Bearcat (M-E-N-A, Mena, Mena All the Way) and Margo was a Warrior. I think the Bearcat would have won that battle. I think Margo has changed a lot since her picture but I don't think I have really changed much, I still look the same. Maybe that is why I am told on a daily basis that I look like I am 12. Be sure and notice my huge muscles.

Good Times

This past week and weekend we had some friends come and stay with us. Walt and Annie came on Tuesday and Dylan and Molly came on Thursday and they all left this morning. They were here raising monetary support because both couples are doing missionary work overseas and need money to live on. Walt and Annie are moving to Germany and going to do missions in Greater Europe (which includes northern Africa and western Asia) and Dylan and Molly are moving to India to work in a children's home. Anyway, we had a really good time while they were here, they are some of our favorite people to hang out with and it was nice to get to spend a lot of quality time with them. We got a little crazy at times. Here is a pic.


We made a few videos while they were here, this is one of Annie shooting a couple of my shotguns.



If any of you are looking for missionaries to support and give to, these two couples are amazing and are doing really good things so you should consider supporting them.

Throwback Thursday - Brothers and Sisters

Back by popular demand. I had multiple requests for the return of Throwback Thursday, it is not that I ever quit, sometimes I just don't get a chance to post. I do have a life you know. I also had a suggestion from a good friend (Josh A.) that we should have more themed days. He suggested White Trash Wednesday. I think just about everyday is white trash day for me though. Maybe one of these Wednesday's I will post something. Anyway, here are some pictures of us with our siblings.

Margo and Chris



Me, Christy, and Zack, riding Dad (and he's got hair!)


Be sure and check out the Throwback Thursday video of the day.

If you build it, they will come

I built it, so now you need to come.



The Farm of Hale 9 Hole Disc Golf Course, unofficially named The Chains of Hale Disc Golf Course, unless a better name is suggested.

Goats, Goats, Everywhere Goats

Our herd is growing. My parents are going on vacation for the next month or so and they have goats and no one to take care of them. So, instead of getting rid of them or paying someone to come take care of them, my dad picked out his 10 best and brought them to my house and then sold the rest that he had. That means that I now have 20 goats on our property until they get back from vacation. I am not sure how many goats our property would support on the long term but I think having this many goats will be good for us for a month or so. It will help my goats catch up with all the weeds and underbrush and really get my place cleaned up nice. I feel like I should get a robe and a long staff and just go out there and stand next to them. That sounds like a funny idea, maybe I will go do that.


The only robe I had, was Margo's yellow bathrobe.

Family Reunion

Over the 3 day weekend, we had a family reunion. It was Margo's dad's family and they have a reunion every year at Petit Jean State Park. It was a pretty good time, the best thing was just being able to get away and relax. We stayed in the lodge on top of the mountain. Margo and I got to do a little hiking while we were there. The trails and views are really great at Petit Jean, probably some of the best in Arkansas, I recommend checking it out. There is a really cool water fall, Cedar Falls, that you can hike to, it wasn't as great this year because it hasn't been raining much. Here are a couple pics for you but I highly recommend clicking here to see even more.

More Goats Please

This past weekend we took a couple of our goats to the livestock auction in Centerton. We sold the little billy that was born last (brother to the one I butchered) and a little female that I bought a while back that hadn't grown a whole lot. I got 5 new goats from my dad to bring my herd up to 10 (9 nannies and 1 billy). I am not sure how many I am going to keep permanently. It is kind of an experiment to see how many my land will support along with all our other animals. Here is a pic of the new goats and the cow who always has to be in the middle of everything.

I want to rock and roll all night.

Last night we went down to Dickson Street and went to a show at the Boom Boom Room bar. As we are boring married people, we don't go to shows at bars much anymore, so this was pretty exciting. Our friend Ben's band Heypenny was playing. Ben was my roommate in college for a couple years and one of my best friends. Anyway, he has since moved to Nashville (Tennessee not Arkansas) and is trying to make it big with the band. His band and music is really good. The show last night was awesome, and we had a great time. I highly recommend you check them out if they play a show near you. Or you can check out their myspace account or click here to sample the music and buy a cd. They also have a couple of videos on youtube of them playing live somewhere in Tennessee. Here is one of them.

Throwback Thursday - School Days

Here are some school pics of Margo and I when we were young. School picture day was always a big deal in elementary school. We always had to dress nice and make sure not to get dirty or mess anything up before we got our pictures taken. My favorite thing was that they had those free little black combs you could have to comb your hair. I always thought it was so cool that I got a free comb and I would carry it around with me all day. It is amazing what simple things make you happy when you are young. Also in honor of Throwback Thursday, I put up an older classic youtube video for the the video of the day. I think more of you fellow blogger friends out there need to get in on Throwback Thursday

Take special note of our amazing hairstyles and cool clothes.