One day, just for fun, Aaron and I went out to the state forest and while we were there we couldn't resist taking a bunch of pictures. The fall colors were so beautiful!

I really like the mix of the yellows/oranges, with the dark green.

This was a couple weeks ago though, now almost all of the leaves are gone.

Aaron was out visiting a church family, and he stopped to take these pictures on the way.

If you look close, you can see a deer jumping off into the woods.

Hope you have a great fall!

The Last Garden Pictures

We took a break one day and took this picture out in the church yard - most of the trees are your usual brown and yellow, but there's this one bright red one.

The day Aaron's been waiting for all summer.....Digging sweet potatos! With frost in the forcast, we decided to harvest everything that was left in the garden - in one day. We were pretty sore that evening!

We planted 3 different varieties, and they took definite first, second, and third places. A few of the potatos were huge, and we got enough to last a while - at least in my opinion. (I was of the persuasion that sweet potatos were for Thanksgiving only, but I have a feeling that's going to change.....) Aaron was pretty happy with how they turned out!

The whole pile of stuff! We're slowly getting it processed -the tomatos are the only big thing left and we'll do them a few at a time. I don't think very many gardens have been the object of as many prayers as ours was - and God answers prayers.

We spent one whole day harvesting, and Aaron spent pretty much another whole day pulling up all of the dead or about-to-die plants. I only helped him a little on this project...
Funny how in the spring we look forward to things growing, and this time of year, a bare, empty garden is a beautiful sight! All that's left out there now is the winter squash - so I guess I can't promise this is the end of the garden pictures, but we're at least close :)
Some of the plants we put on our compost pile, and some of them we took to the farm and gave the cows.
Cutting up garlic for jalepeno salsa - we've made about 6 different batches of salsa and each one has been a little different. If we experiment long enough, we'll find what we like the best :) Actually, this salsa is probably at the top of our list now - it has an equal ratio of peppers and tomatos, but it isn't so hot you can't eat it.
Due to our late May planting - or maybe the fact that this is a ways north - this is all the okra we got - but it was enough for one meal for the two of us and so we enjoyed it anyway.

Maze, Garden, and Museum

Hello! I look fat in this picture for some reason....but we need a share in the corn maze pictures too, right? Aaron and I went over one day and helped set things up.

We also took our Sunday school kids (I think it was 8) to the maze one day - they had a great time and we wore them out! They were a little afraid of the calf and they really enjoyed jumping off the tractor tires. We weren't sure about putting pictures of them online, so this was one of the only ones with no faces in it. On top of the bridge -

Aaron and I went fishing at the Northwest Angle with a couple from church. We didn't get many fish (I did get one though - like the first fish I ever remember getting...), but it was a beautiful day to be out on the lake! We saw loons, deer, pelicans, a golden eagle, and a fox, and got to hear a lot of stories from the history of the area.

Aaron and a couple others from church worked hard and made and put on baseboards in the church's hallway/lobby area. They look very nice!
Since we both love salsa, we had fun making some together - we might even try a batch sometime with twice as many peppers...
Aaron cutting peppers...my hair was a mess or something like that, so he got to be the model. I thought when we planted this big garden, I was going to have to harvest it all myself, but Aaron enjoys the garden work and he's the one that decides what needs to be harvested each day.
We used a gift card we got for our wedding to buy this Kitchen Aid attatchment. We canned 8 pints that day and have done 7 more since and hope to get another couple batches ( and maybe some other tomato things.) I know that doesn't sound like much to all you big-family-expert-canners, but we were pretty happy :)
Aaron and our cabbage - we've also been harvesting more peas, corn, beets, and cucumbers. I have a feeling this cool September weather is going to slow things down now though.

On Monday, Aaron surprised me in the morning by telling me we were going to the "Fall on the Farm" day at the Mennonite Village Museum in Stienbach, MB. That's one of my very favorite places to go, and Aaron enjoys it too, so we had a great day! One of the main attractions was the old fashioned threshing machine demonstration.
Aaron enjoyed all of the old machinery - this is a steam powered tractor. Here it was hooked up to a sawmill type operation.
On special days like this one, they have people in the different buildings demonstrating different skills. I took my few-second turn at butter-churning. Although...I had to buy butter yesterday and it makes churning not seem like such a bad option :)
The windmill - we chatted with the "miller" (as well as several other people) and he said the wind in southern MB is too sparodic to keep up a windmill all day.
Aaron on the deck of the windmill. On the drive up, we talked about our memories of the last time we went there together - about a month before I even knew he was interested in me :) My family was suspicious though and paid attention that day, but at the end, they concluded he really didn't like me - it was just the farm! I'm sure glad we were wrong :) !!

Aaron in the "Semlin" - basically a sod house. We figured we could probably make one of those fairly quickly and cheaply....

They butchered a hog that morning and were working on it all day, then concluded by having an auction to sell the different parts. In this picture, I believe the man is making "head cheese". I've never had it, but I've heard it's something like bologna.

Since there's only two of us...we bought a couple treats.

We shared a "waffle with vanilla sauce" - it was very good and a lady gave us the recipe, so I'm going to try it one of these days. Maybe she felt bad - when Aaron gave her American money, she said, "oh, you don't look like Americans." Is that a compliment or an insult? :) We certainly don't look like Canadians, but she must have mistaken us for Mennonites...It actually was kind of nice, there were soooo many ladies in skirts of one kind or another, that I didn't feel like I stood out :)

Aaron in front of an oak tree that came from the acorn of a famous oak tree in Southern Russia where many of the Mennonites came from.

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Hello! I think I say this every post, but we've been very busy the last few weeks...In July we took some of the Sunday school kids fishing off the docks in Warroad - we didn't catch any fish, but I think the ice cream afterwards made up for it :)

Aaron and I went to help out at the Good News Tent at the fair one evening - it was very slow, but we got to help a little. I told the Evangecube, instead of the wordless book, to children who had been there a couple years in a row.

We've had a couple days already of freezing beans and peas - and on Thursday we tried making pickles - we'll find out in a few weeks if we did it right!

Saturday, July 31, we left for Camp JIM, near Baxter, MN - On Sunday the campers arrived (about 78 - including 3rd graders through high school) and we had a great week.

Aaron was the "camp pastor" so he kept very busy - he preached Sunday night and Friday morning to everyone, then the other days, he did children's chapel at 9, went right to preach to the teens after that, and in the afternoon he did a Bible study for the teens and one for the children. Plus he did cabin devotions a couple nights...

The above picture is during children's chapel - Aaron taught for a little bit, and also told a Bible story. I helped with playing piano, teaching a verse, and doing a review game.

This is during children's Bible study - Our theme for the week was the "armor of God" and they had the same emphasis each day during chapel, Bible study, and devotions, so hopefully they'll remember what they learned - I know I learned some things!

This is the chapel building (they have chapel in the morning because it gets very warm in here in the evening...) and below it is the dining hall.

The first few days of camp it seemed like the campers, particularly the teens, were very unresponsive to the preaching and spiritual things, but the Lord worked, and by the end of the week about 18 boys and girls accepted Jesus as their Savior! and many others gave their lives to Christ. It was pretty exciting!

I got to pray with one little boy - he was crying - and in all the years I've worked with children, I've never seen that. Aaron got to lead several children to the Lord and we also were able to talk to half-a-dozen teens or kids that had some questions about eternal security and other things like that.

This was the outside of our cabin -

We were very spoiled - you know how camp normally is, well, they let us stay in a brand new cabin that looked more like a hotel than camp!

The last morning, they had a baptism for a few of the children who had been saved.

We had to pull this big trailer to Badger on Friday afternoon, so we borrowed this big desiel truck for the week - it was kind of fun :)

This past week we helped out with a Vacation Bible School in Badger, MN (about a 40 min. drive) Aaron did rally time at the beginning and end, taught the 8-12 year olds Bible time and led game time. I just played a little piano and sort of helped out wherever. It all went well - there were about 18 kids enrolled.

The hat Aaron is wearing in this picture belonged to the pastor's father - it's from the early teens!
The begining of this week was very warm, so the kids enjoyed this sponge-and-water relay :)
The ladies at the church did a great job with the crafts and snacks.
Just because a post wouldn't be complete without a garden picture....here you are -
On Saturday, Aaron and I walked in a 5K walk/run that our town has - Very good exersize!

In case any of you are wondering about the baby - he/she is doing well - or at least that's what it seems like - and so am I. Only 2 and a half months 'till October 28! - and if it's born early, it'll be even sooner, so pray for us!

We're planning on actually being home for a while now, so hopefully I'll stay in better touch - Have a great week!