I think... YES I am still alive and kicking.

First of all I will apologize for not publishing a post for so long, but things have been REALLY crazy around here for a wile now.
Since my last post, Dad has gotten a job working for Pella Window and Door Co. again, and we have bought 3 milk cows. Also we are in the process of building a barn, blacksmith shop, put up fencing, and building a chicken coop, and all of that has to be done before Dad starts his job ( Which will be on July 6th.).
This last week 2 of our cows have mastitis, and one of them also has milk fever. The 1 with both diseases may not live, but we are praying and hoping for the best. If all goes well I will have 3 cows to milk by had twice a day!!! UHH any one want to come over for milking lessons, and don't worry, I won't be disappointed if I don't get to milk all three. LOL
The barn project is going Very slow, but we have hired a crew of Mennonites to set the post's, put on the wall bands, install the loft floor joist's, and put on the roof. They say that they can get all that done in 1 day!!! I will have to see it to believe it.
Got to go for now,
Chase

This is funny.

This video is very funny, I don't know how they do it. It is called the Turkey Rap. Those two guys aren't using any instruments or turkey calls.

Enjoy,

Chase

Surprise!!!!!

2 Week's ago was Dad's birthday, he hit the big 56!!! He didn't know a thing about it until every one showed up, and Mom told him...Surprise!!! So here are some photo's of the big event.

( Left to right) Junebug, Henry, and Dad were told to do this funny shot of hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil. I think every one was laughing at them when they did it. The Food was a big hit of course, here is Aaron filling his plate while every one was taking photos. This one is of Mike Hossom, Dad, and Sam hossom. This is Jojo, Wanda, and Johnette

Here is Dakota ( as usual eating LOL), Me, Richard, and Carla

Mom and Kristy

Also the pool table was a big hit, I think I played 30 games with in 3 hours.Here is Kristy, Shela, Dad, and Ls.

This is some of the Thomas Family, (top, left to right) Miss Wendy, and Rachel. (Bottom, left to right) Phoebe, and Gloria.

By the time it was all over, we were all tired, but it was a good tired.

Chase

Leave it to "Beaver"

Here are some beaver photo's taken yesterday. The photo above is of Mama beaver, and This is baby beaver. The Cherry family had come over for a visit,and we went down to the creek where Logan promptly caught a baby beaver with his bare hands!!!I think Logan's new nickname is Beaver.

Here is me holding it, and he showed me how much he liked it by leaving a mess in my hand! GRRR

OK, When do we start rebuilding Noah's Ark

MAN, What a gully washer of a rain we've had the last two day's, but it was a good test to see if my cabin site will flood, and it passed the test!! Here are some photo's of the flooding around here. The photo above is of our woods right below my cabin site.

This photo was taken on Old mount Lebanon Rd, notice the mail box

This is... or was the new Mount Lebanon Rd bridge.

Great.. Just me and the Beaver.

Last Saturday was the first day of Turkey hunting, so I loaded up my 20 ga shotgun and headed for the woods.

I heard allot of gobbling when I called, but none if the Gobblers would come my way. So wile I sat under a large Oak tree along side of the creek I saw a beaver swim towards the creek bank that I was sitting on. After he got out of the water I figured that he had seen me and swam away, but after a few minutes I heard something to my right. I looked over, and there he was siting on his tail looking at me with wondering eyes, and he wasn't about 16" away from me!!! I had seen a photo of a man that had been bit by a beaver, not wanting to find out how sharp his teeth were I scared him away with a quick jerk of my body. When he saw that he ran into the creek and splashed his tail, getting me all wet.

It is cool to see wild animals in their natural habitat, but that instance was a little to close for my liking.

Chase

What a MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry that I haven't added any new post's, but it has been a long and hard move back to BG.

The BIG move was about two weeks ago. Our friend Aron was able to get us a 24' Penske truck to move all the indoor stuff. With that size truck we thought we would get it all done in one lode, right...WRONG!!! First of all the truck was pretty tall and we didn't consider the height of the covered bridge...OOPS It got wedged inside the bridge, half of the truck was inside and the other half outside. So we wouldn't damage the bridge we had to deflate the tires in order to make the truck shorter so we could back the truck back out. PLAN B... We repaired the ford that went around the bridge so we could try to drive the truck AROUND the bridge. Thankfully it made it with out any problems.

Next was the task of loading the truck, we figured it would take about 4 hours, and that was at 4:00 pm. 6 Hours later (10:00) we FINALLY had the truck loaded and ready to go, and it was only 12:30 am when we go home. It is easy to say that every one agreed that we should wait until Later on in the morning to unload.

There was still allot of stuff left to get, and it took several trailer loads to get it all, and even while I am typing this post, we still have the tractor and grader blade still up there. Hopefully it will be down here by the end of this week.

Also I want to say thanks to all who helped us move, and I am sure all of you will be glad to here that Dad said that the next time we move we will hire it out...

Chase

The closing of Heritage Blacksmith Shop.

After I woke up AGAIN, I started the sad and hard task of closing up my blacksmith shop.
While packing up the tools, I remembered my humble beginnings. Not only with my shop, but my experience. I will always remember the Little log room that I made my first items in, and how hard Dad and I worked to improve it.

Here is a photo of my shop when I first started 2 years ago.
This photo was taken after we put the interior siding up.

The Move Begins!!!

This morning I was awakened at 5:30, by Dad who said that it was time to get up, and that we needed to load the trailer. Being mostly asleep I said " What in the world are you talking about, its not even daylight yet."
I thought about going back to sleep after he left the room, but the last time I did that, he dumped a pitcher of ICE WATER on my head!!!! That woke me up!
It only took about an hour to load, and he was on his way to Bowling Green, and I was on my way back to BED.

CATCH THAT PIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I have come up with a new sport, it is called MUD SKIING. If that sounds crazy, just keep reading.
Dad found out about a butcher shop that had a good reputation, and could take our pigs today. So we figured we could go get the trailer that we rent, make a make shift loading ramp, and load the pigs. We thought all that would be easy.... WRONG!!!
By the time we got the trailer to the house, it was raining a flood. So when we pulled out in the field it was pretty muddy. By the time we had the loading ramp made, I was starting to think that we should start construction on the Ark II.
Now it was time to load the pigs, by now the rain was beginning to let up, and things looked like it might go easy. Well like they say looks are deceiving, when I let the pigs out they made a mad dash AWAY from the trailer. So I walked calmly over to the pigs on mud that was slicker than a greased pig, in a effort to herd them calmly into the trailer. I think the pigs had other ideas, because when they saw the trailer it was their turn to herd me!
So after that failure, Dad went and got a 10' gate so we could keep them from running in between us. That's when the MUD SKIING came into action! I didn't know it but pigs can run.. FAST, not to mention that they were bucking and kicking like a wild bull!! So Dad and I are trying to catch up with them, and finally got them in a smaller holding pen that the trailer was backed into.
The smaller pig went right up into the trailer, but the bigger sow had obviously seen this movie before. So in a wild attempt to escape the large red trailer, the old sow decided to make a mad dash under the corn crib! It took a while to convince her that the trailer wasn't going to hurt her.
The trip to the butcher shop was quite peaceful, and even our GPS didn't try to make us drive into a corn field or have us go down a 1 way street, THE WRONG WAY.
So out of all our trouble we will have pork for a whole year, and I made a new sport. I think we will do this again next year. Does anyone want to join us?